Note 119 — BOOK VI.

Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga was born at Madrid in 1533. He was page to Philip II at the latter's marriage with Mary Tudor in Winchester Cathedral. He sailed for South America in 1555, served against the Araucanos under García Hurtado de Mendoza, Marqués de Cañete, quarrelled with a brother officer named Juan de Pineda, was sentenced to death, reprieved at the last moment, and is said to have been exiled to Callao. Ercilla returned to Spain in 1562, bringing with him the First Part of his epic poem, La Araucana, which he had composed during his campaigns. The original draft was scribbled on stray pieces of paper and scraps of leather: "que no me costó después poco trabajo juntarlos." This First Part was published at Madrid in 1569: the Second Part appeared in 1578, and the Third in 1590. The author died, a disappointed man, in 1594. For a sound appreciation of his talent see L'Araucana, poème épique por D. Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga. Morceaux choisis précedés d'une étude biographique et littéraire, suivis de notes grammaticales, et de versification et de deux lexiques (Paris, 1900) by M. Jean Ducamin. A critical edition of La Araucana by the eminent Chilean scholar, Sr. D. José Toribio Medina, is in preparation.

Cervantes expresses the highest opinion of La Araucana in Don Quixote (Part I., chap. vi.) where he brackets it with Rufo's Austriada and Virués's Monserrate:—"These three books," said the curate, "are the best that have been written in Castilian in heroic verse, and they may compare with the most famous of Italy; let them be preserved as the richest treasures of poetry that Spain possesses."