Note 77 — CABINET OF BIOGRAPHY. (continued 5)
Reading edition
Lope often mentions having been a soldier in early youth. These expressions are generally used in reference to his having served on board the Invincible Armada, but there is a stanza in the "Huerto Deshecho," that intimates that he had entered the army at fifteen.
"Ni mi fortuna muda ver en tres lustros de mi edad primera con la espada desnuda al bravo Portugues en la Tercera, ni después en las naves Españolas del mar Ingles los puertos y las olas."
Yet in the following stanza he calls himself "Soldado de una guerra." In these verses, and in many others indeed in which he speaks of himself, his expressions are so obscure, and the whole stanza so ill worded, that it is scarcely possible to guess even at what he means. The translation of these verses seems to be:—"Nor did my fortune change on seeing me in the third lustre of my tender age, with a drawn sword among the brave Portuguese at Tercera, nor afterwards in the English ports and waves on board a Spanish fleet."