_Sobrinos esos agueros_ Para nos gran bien serian, Porque _nos dan a entender_ Que bien nos sucediera. _Ganaremos grande_ victoria, _Nada no se perdiera_, _Don Nuño lo hizo mal Que convusco non venia_, _Mande Dios que se arrepienta_, etc. [176] Duran, Romances Caballerescos, Madrid, 1832, 12mo, Prólogo, Tom. I. pp. xvi., xvii., with xxxv., note (14). [177] The peculiarities of a metrical form so entirely national can, I suppose, be well understood only by an example; and I will, therefore, give here, in the original Spanish, a few lines from a spirited and well-known ballad of Góngora, which I select, because they have been translated into _English asonantes_, by a writer in the Retrospective Review, whose excellent version follows, and may serve still further to explain and illustrate the measure:-- Aquel rayo de la guerra, Alferez mayor del r_é_yn_o_, Tan galan como valiente, Y tan noble como fi_é_r_o_, De los mozos embidiado, Y admirado de los vi_é_j_o_s, Y de los niños y el vulgo Señalado con el d_é_d_o_, El querido de las damas, Por cortesano y discr_é_t_o_, Hijo hasta alli regalado De la fortuna y el ti_e_mp_o_, etc. Obras, Madrid, 1654, 4to, f. 83. This rhyme is perfectly perceptible to any ear well accustomed to Spanish poetry, and it must be admitted, I think, that, when, as in the ballad cited, it embraces two of the concluding vowels of the line, and is continued through the whole poem, the effect, even upon a foreigner, is that of a graceful ornament, which satisfies without fatiguing. In English, however, where our vowels have such various powers, and where the consonants preponderate, the case is quite different. This is plain in the following translation of the preceding lines, made with spirit and truth, but failing to produce the effect of the Spanish. Indeed, the rhyme can hardly be said to be perceptible except to the eye, though the measure and its cadences are nicely managed. “He the thunderbolt of battle, He the first Alferez t_i_tl_e_d, Who as courteous is as valiant, And the noblest as the f_i_erc_e_st; He who by our youth is envied, Honored by our gravest anc_ie_nts, By our youth in crowds distinguished By a thousand pointed f_i_ng_e_rs; He beloved by fairest damsels, For discretion and pol_i_ten_e_ss, Cherished son of time and fortune, Bearing all their gifts div_i_n_e_st,” etc. Retrospective Review, Vol. IV. p. 35. Another specimen of English _asonantes_ is to be found in Bowring’s “Ancient Poetry of Spain” (London, 1824, 12mo, p. 107); but the result is substantially the same, and always must be, from the difference between the two languages.