Eminent literary and scientific men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Vol. 3 (of 3)Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
History
Eminent literary and scientific men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Vol. 3 (of 3)
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Authors -- Biography; Scientists -- Biography
The praise of Caro is echoed by others of more note. Cervantes, when he
resided at Seville, frequented the society of Herrera; in his "Voyage to
Parnassus" he calls him the "Divine," and says that the "ivy of his fame
clung to the walls of immortality." Lope de Vega in his "Laurel de
Apollo," calls him the "learned," and speaks of him with respect and
admiration. Sedano tells us that he was a handsome man; tall, of a manly
and dignified aspect, lively eyes, and thick curled hair and beard. In
addition, we learn that the lady of his love, whom he celebrates under
the names of Light, Love, Sun, Star--Eliodora, was the Countess of
Gelves. He loved her, it is said, all his life, to the very height of
platonic passion, which burnt fiery and bright in his own heart, but
revealed itself only by manifestations of reverence and self-struggle.
This sort of attachment, when true, is certainly of an heroic and
sublime nature, and demands our admiration and sympathy; but we must be
convinced of the reality of the sufferings to which it gives rise, and
of the unlimited nature of its devotion, or it becomes a mere picture
wanting warmth and life. Petrarch's letters give a soul to his poetry:
the various accounts they contain of his solitary struggles at Vaucluse,
make us turn with deeper interest to his verses, which, otherwise, might
almost be reasoned away into a mere ideal feeling. Knowing nothing of
Herrera but that he loved "a bright particular star," shining far above,
we are willing to find an accord between this love of the elevated and
unattainable, and the grandeur of the subjects he celebrates in his
poetry, and the dignity of his verse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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