Note 117 — Front matter (continued 2)

The Araucana is the best of a score of epics written in the reign of Philip II. of Spain in imitation of the Italian poets Ariosto and Tasso. Its author, Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga (1533-1595), writes of the Spanish campaigns against the Indians of Arauco, in which he himself took part. The early part of the poem was written in the field, in the manner that Carlyle describes. The Araucana is now little read; and its author is no way comparable to the great epic poets of Italy and England.