ROMANTIC FICTION AND POETRY. 223 Stead of perishing with the breath that made them, chapter like so many of their predecessors. This misfor- '- — tune, which attaches to so much of popular poetry in all nations, is not imputable to any insensibility in the Spaniards to the excellence of their own. Men of more erudition than taste may have held them light, in comparison with more ostentatious and learned productions. This fate has befallen them in other countries than Spain. *^ But persons of finer poetic feeling, and more enlarged spirit of criticism, have estimated them as a most essen- tial and characteristic portion of Castilian literature. Such was the judgment of the great Lope de Vega, who, after expatiating on the extraordinary com- pass and sweetness of the romance, and its adapta- tion to the highest subjects, commends it as worthy of all estimation for its peculiar national charac- ter.^^ The modern Spanish writers have adopted a 15 This mav be still further in- lue es dellos, y que es del Cid? ferred from the tenor of a humor- ^otunfp?umT,fi°L1,r" "' OUS, satirical old romance, in which ninguna Musa las canta? the writer implores the justice of Justicia, Apollo, justicia, Apollo on the heads of the swarm IZtrt^tli^'^LlZll,' of traitor poets, who have deserted tv t i , • • n the ancient themes of song, the , Dr. Johnson s opinions are well Cids, the Laras,the Gonzalez, to known in regard to this department celebrate the Gan^ls and Abder- of English hterature, which, by his rahmans and the fantastical fables ridiculous parodies, he succeeded of the Moors. ^f / ^'"'^. ^ throwmg into the shade, or, in the language oi his 'Tan°ta'Sta^Dar«'a, admiring biographer made "per- tanto Azarque y tanto Adulce, lectly contemptible, tanto Gazui, y Abenamar, Petrarch, with like pedantry, To ^Irr^ryTSa. ^e^ted his hopes of fame on his tantas emprisas y plumas, Latin epic, and gave away his lyr- tantas cifras y medaiias, ics, as alms to ballad-singers. Pos- Til SriUas° y-adargas, terity, deciding on surer principles tanto mote, y tantas motas of taste, has reversed both these rauera yo sino me cansan." decisions. ,,*.,,* ,*„*•* 16 " Algunos quieren que sean la •' Los Alfonsos, 103 Henricos, -n i i t» ^ i los Sanchos, y los de Lara, cartilla de los Poetas ; yo no lo
