The astonishing number of authors which the Bibliotheca Hispanica of Don Nicolás Antonio displays, is a sufficient proof of the great intellect that Spain would be capable of putting forth, if her mind had a play proportioned to its activity. No nation has given to the light so many and such weighty volumes upon Aristotle, so many eminent writers in scholastic theology, so many and such subtle moral casuists, or so many profound commentators on the Codices and Pandects. And if she has produced these works in ages when the withering influence of political and religious despotism, like the plant which kills the sylvan it embraces, searched into every coigne of her literary fabric, what may not be expected from her, when the present distractions, fomented by the accursed gold of France, are composed into tranquillity, and the inquiries of her talented men embrace under free institutions a wider range of science than they have yet dared to follow, except by stealth! There is not one lettered Englishman but will rejoice with his whole heart when the winged Genius that is seen in Quintana's poems, chained to the gloomy threshold of a Gothic building, looking up with despondency to the Temple of the Muses, may be represented soaring away for ever from the irons that have eaten into its soul.-- The present work will be shortly followed by a Spanish Anthology, containing translations of the choicest Specimens of the Castilian Poets, with short biographical notices, and a selection of the Morisco ballads. WOBURN ABBEY, _4th Month 8th, 1823_. CONTENTS. PAGE ESSAY ON SPANISH POETRY 1 LIFE OF GARCILASSO 93 VERSES ON THE DEATH OF GARCILASSO 169 ECLOGUES. I. TO DON PEDRO DE TOLEDO, VICEROY OF NAPLES 181 II. 196 III. TO THE LADY MARIA DE LA CUEVA, COUNTESS OF UREÑA 266 ELEGIES. I. TO THE DUKE OF ALVA 283 II. TO BOSCA'N 293 EPISTLE TO BOSCA'N 300 ODES, &c. I. TO THE FLOWER OF GNIDO 305 II. TO HIS LADY 309 III. TO THE SAME 312 IV. WRITTEN IN EXILE 315 V. THE PROGRESS OF PASSION FOR HIS LADY 319 SONNETS. I. "WHEN I SIT DOWN TO CONTEMPLATE MY CASE." 327 II. "AT LENGTH INTO THY HANDS I COME--TO DIE." 328 III. "AWHILE MY HOPES WILL TOWER ALOFT IN AIR." 329