So may the Gods, so may the calm blue sky, For the fair time that thou, in gentle mirth, Sport'st in the air, with love benign deny Snows to the earth! So never may the grey cloud's cumbrous sail, When from on high the rosy daybreak springs, Beat on thy shoulders, nor its evil hail Wound thy fine wings!"] [Footnote M: "Spanish Anacreon! none your Highness meets, But says most courteously, that though your lines Move elegiacally sad, your sweets Have all the tasty syrup of new wines! They say that they should like to see each song With scrupulous exactness, for a freak, Translated well into Anacreon's tongue, Your honest eyes not having seen the Greek." GÓNGORA. "Although he said that all would hide from shame, When the fine splendours of his genius came." LOPE.] [Footnote N: The eclogue of Tirsi of Figueroa, and the translation of the Aminta by Jauregui, are the only exceptions to this general decision, and the only examples that can be quoted among the ancient Spanish poets, of blank verse well constructed.] [Footnote O: The Asonante is a sort of imperfect rhyme peculiar to the Spaniards; it consists in the uniformity of the two last vowels, counting from the accent, as for example: Tras una mariposa Qual zagalejo _símple_ Corriendo por el valle La senda á perder _víne_. Their perfect rhymes are termed _Consonantes_.] [Footnote P: Until the surety comes whom I oblige With my _Jerusalem_, which I indite, Prune, polish, and correct from morn till night. _Epistle to Gaspar de Barrionuevo._ What ideas of taste, correctness, elegance, and order, must the writer have had, who with such diligence and study, produced so wild a work!] [Footnote Q: If my free neck had not been broke To strict necessity's hard yoke, I should have seen around my head Some honour due to merit shed, That would have given, as honour goes, Green lustre to its hoary snows. I ever have invoked the laugh Of the vile vulgar on behalf Of love-intrigues, meet or unmeet, Oft dashed off at a single heat; So--but far less impolitic, Great painters daub their canvass quick. LOPE; _Eclogue to Claudio_.] [Footnote R: Achilles' pictured wrath to Greece, In gold-illumined palaces Decorum kept, vile flatterers shamed, The headstrong youth with love inflamed, The beauteous lady under ban Of some stern sire, the rich old man Shrewd and sententious as a Jew, To whom are these creations due?]