Bibliography.—J. Perez de Guzmán’s edition of Marcos de Obregón (Barcelona, 1881) includes a valuable introduction; Léo Claretie, Le Sage romancier (Paris, 1890), discusses exhaustively the question of Le Sage’s indebtedness to Espinel. For some previously unpublished poems see Pedro Salvá y Mallén, Catálogo de la biblioteca de Salvá (Valencia, 1872).
ESPIRITO SANTO, a maritime state of Brazil, bounded N.
by Bahia, E. by the Atlantic Ocean, S. by Rio de Janeiro, and
W. by Minas Geraes. Pop. (1890) 135,997; (1900) 209,783;
area, 17,316 sq. m. With the exception of Sergipe it is the
smallest of the Brazilian states. The western border of the state
is traversed by low ranges of mountains forming a northward
continuation of the Serra do Mar. The longest and most
prominent of these ranges, which are for the most part the eastern
escarpments of the great Brazilian plateau, is the Serra dos
Aymores, which extends along fully two-thirds of the western
frontier. Farther S. the ranges are much broken and extend
partly across the state toward the seaboard; the more prominent
are known as the Serra do Espigão, Serra da Chibata, Serra dos
Pilões and Serra dos Purys. The eastern and larger part of
the state belongs to the coastal plain, in great part low and
swampy, with large areas of sand barrens, and broken by isolated
groups and ranges of hills. With the exception of these sandy
plains the country is heavily forested, even the mountain sides
being covered with vegetation to their summits. The northern
and southern parts are fertile, but the central districts are
comparatively poor. The coastal plain comprises a sandy,
unproductive belt immediately on the coast, back of which
is a more fertile tertiary plain, well suited, near the higher
country, to the production of sugar and cotton. The inland
valleys and slopes are very fertile and heavily forested, and
much of the Brazilian export of rosewood and other cabinet
woods is drawn from this state. There is only one good bay on
the coast, that of Espirito Santo, on which the port of Victoria
is situated. The river-mouths are obstructed by sand bars and
admit small vessels only. The principal rivers of the state are
the Mucury, which rises in Minas Geraes and forms the boundary
line with Bahia, the Itaunas, São Domingos, São Matheus, Doce,
Timbuhy, Santa Maria, Jucú, Benevente, Itapemirim, and
Itabapoana, the last forming the boundary line with Rio de
Janeiro. The Doce, São Matheus, and Itapemirim rise in
Minas Geraes and flow entirely across the state. The lower
courses of these rivers are generally navigable, that of the Rio
Doce for a distance of 90 m. The climate of the coastal zone
and deeper valleys is hot, humid and unhealthy, malarial
fevers being prevalent. In the higher country the temperature
is lower and the climate is healthy. Espirito Santo is almost
exclusively agricultural, sugar-cane, coffee, rice, cotton, tobacco,
mandioca and tropical fruits being the principal products.
Agriculture is in a very backward condition, however, and the
state is classed as one of the poorest and most unprogressive
in the republic. The rivers and shallow coast waters are well
stocked with fish, but there are no fishing industries worthy of
mention. There are three railway lines in operation in the state—one
running from Victoria to Cachoeira do Itapemirim (50 m.),
and thence, by another line, to Santo Eduardo in Rio de Janeiro
(58 m.), where connexion is made with the Leopoldina system
running into the national capital, and a third running north-westerly
from Victoria to Diamantina, Minas Geraes, about 450 m.
The chief cities and towns of the state, with their populations
in 1890, are Victoria, São Matheus (municipality, 7761)
on a river of the same name 16 m. from the sea, Serra (municipality,
6274), Guarapary (municipality, 5310), a small port S.
by W. of the capital, Conceicão da Barra (municipality, 5628),
the port of São Matheus and Cachoeira do Itapemirim (4049), an
important commercial centre in the south.
Espirito Santo formed part of one of the original captaincies which were given to Vasco Fernandes Coutinho by the Portuguese crown. The first settlement (1535) was at the entrance to the bay of Espirito Santo, and its name was afterwards given to the bay and captaincy. It once included the municipality of Campos, now belonging to the state of Rio de Janeiro.
The islands of Trinidade and Martim Vaz, which lie about 715 m. E. of Victoria, belong politically to this state. They are uninhabited, but considerable importance is attached to the former because Great Britain has twice attempted to take possession of it. It rises 1200 ft. above sea-level and is about 6 m. in circumference, but it has no value other than that of an ocean cable station. An excellent description of this singular island is to be found in E. F. Knight’s Cruise of the “Alerte” (London, 1895).
ESPRONCEDA, JOSÉ IGNACIO JAVIER ORIOL ENCARNACIÓN DE
(1808–1842), Spanish poet, son of an officer in the
Bourbon regiment, was born at or near Almendralejo de los
Barros on the 25th of March 1808. On the close of the war he
was sent to the preparatory school of artillery at Segovia, and
later became a pupil of the poet Lista, then professor of literature
at St Matthew’s College in Madrid. In his fourteenth year
he had attracted his master’s attention by his verses, and had
joined a secret society. Sentenced to five years’ seclusion in the
Franciscan convent at Guadalajara, he began an epic poem
entitled Pelayo, of which fragments survive. He escaped to
Portugal and thence to England, where he found the famous
Teresa whom he had met at Lisbon; here, too, he became a
student of Shakespeare, Milton and Byron. In 1830 he eloped
with Teresa to Paris, took part in the July revolution, and soon
after joined the raid of Chapalangarra on Navarre. In 1833 he
returned to Spain and obtained a commission in the queen’s
guards. This, however, he soon forfeited by a political song,
and he was banished to Cuéllar, where he wrote a poor novel
entitled Sancho Saldaña ó el Castellano de Cuéllar (1834). He
took an active part in the revolutionary risings of 1835 and
1836, and, on the accession to power of the Liberal party in
1840, was appointed secretary of legation at the Hague; in
1842 he was elected deputy for Almería, and seemed likely to
play a great part in parliamentary life. But his constitution was
undermined, and, after a short illness, he died at Madrid on the
23rd of May 1842. His poems, first published in 1840, at once
gained for him a reputation which still continues undiminished.
The influence of Byron pervades Espronceda’s life and work.
It is present in an ambitious variant on the Don Juan legend,
El Estudiante de Salamanca, Elvira’s letter being obviously
modelled on Julia’s letter in Don Juan; the Canción del Pirata
is suggested by The Corsair; and the Byronic inspiration is not
wanting even in the noble fragment entitled El Diablo Mundo,
based on the story of Faust. But in El Mendigo, in El Reo de
Muerte, in El Verdugo, and in the sombre vehement lines, A
Jarifa en una orgía, Espronceda approves himself the most
potent and original lyrical poet produced by Spain during the
19th century.
Bibliography.—Obras poéticas y escritos en prosa (Madrid, 1884), edited by Blanca Espronceda de Escosura, the poet’s daughter (the second volume has not been published); E. Rodriguez Solís, Espronceda; su tiempo, su vida, y sus obras (Madrid, 1883); E. Piñeyro, El Romanticismo en España (Paris, 1904).
ESQUIRE (O. Fr. escuyer, Mod. Fr. écuyer, derived through
the form escudier from Med. Lat. scutarius, “shield-bearer”),
originally the attendant on a knight, whose helm, shield and
lance he carried at the tournament or in the field of battle.
The esquire ranked immediately below the knight bachelor,
and his office was regarded as the apprentice stage of knighthood.
The title was regarded as one of function, not of birth, and was
not hereditary. In time, however, its original significance was
lost sight of, and it came to be a title of honour, implying a rank
between that of knight and valet or gentleman, as it technically
still remains. Thus in the later middle ages esquire (armiger)
was the customary description of holders of knight’s fees who
had not taken up their knighthood, whence the surviving
custom of entitling the principal landowner in a parish “the
squire” (see Squire). Camden, at the close of the 16th century,
distinguished four classes entitled to bear the style: (1) The
eldest sons of knights, and their eldest sons, in perpetual succession;
(2) the eldest sons of the younger sons of peers, and
their eldest sons, in like perpetual succession; (3) esquires created
by royal letters patent or other investiture, and their eldest sons;
(4) esquires by office, e.g. justices of the peace and others who
