i
HISTORY
OF
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE
LITERATURE.
ii
iii
HISTORY
OF
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE
LITERATURE.
BY
FREDERICK BOUTERWEK.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
Translated from the Original German,
BY THOMASINA ROSS.
VOL. I.
SPANISH LITERATURE.
LONDON:
BOOSEY AND SONS, BROAD STREET.
1823.
iv
F. Justins, Printer, 41, Brick Lane, Spitalfields.v
PREFACE.
The growing interest of Spanish and PortugueseLiterature would, perhaps, be thoughta sufficient reason for laying the followingtranslation before the public, were the meritsof the original work even less conspicuous,and the deficiency it appears fitted tosupply in our language less sensibly felt. Itis, indeed, extraordinary, that no similar workhas hitherto appeared in a country, where thesubject of which this history treats, has, in theinstances in which it has been partially explored,always been found a rich source ofpleasure and instruction. But the informationthus collected from the literary stores of Spainand Portugal, however satisfactory on particularpoints, is, from its nature, detached andincomplete, and seems calculated to increasevirather than to diminish the desire for such aconnected and comprehensive view of thewhole subject as M. Bouterwek has exhibitedin his General History of Modern Literature.
The following volumes on the literature ofSpain and Portugal are extracted from a work,entitled, Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeitseit dem Ende der dreizehnten Jahrhunderts,(History of Poetry and Eloquence fromthe close of the thirteenth Century,) in whichM. Bouterwek has taken an historical andcritical survey of the literature of the principalnations of Europe. The work consists of twelvevolumes, published at different periods at Göttingen;the first volume having appeared in1805, and the last, which contains an index tothe whole, in 1819.1 The two volumes nowtranslated are the third and fourth of theGerman original.vii
If it be admitted that there remains inEnglish literature a vacant place which oughtto be occupied by a work of this kind, it isnot apprehended that the means now resortedto for filling up the chasm will be disapproved;at least the translator is not aware that anybetter source could have been found for supplyingthe deficiency. In vain, she is persuaded,would any substitute be sought for inFrench, much as that language abounds inworks of criticism. Sismondi in his Litteraturedu Midi de l’Europe, implicitly adoptsthe judgments passed by Bouterwek on Spanishand Portuguese literature; and indeedwith