Note 382 — Chapter XI

The fate of Palmerin of England has been a very strange one. Until a few years since, the only question was, whether it were originally French or Portuguese; for the oldest forms in which it was then known to exist were, 1. the French by Jacques Vicent, 1553, and the Italian by Mambrino Roseo, 1555, both of which claimed to be translations from the Spanish; and, 2. the Portuguese by Moraes, 1567, which claimed to be translated from the French. In general, it was supposed to be the work of Moraes, who, having long lived in France, was thought to have furnished his manuscript to the French translator, (Barbosa, Bib. Lus., Tom. II. p. 209,) and, under this persuasion, it was published as his, in Portuguese, at Lisbon, in three handsome volumes, small 4to, 1786, and in English, by Southey, London, 1807, 4 vols. 12mo. Even Clemencin, (ed. Don Quixote, Tom. I. pp. 125, 126,) if he did not think it to be the work of Moraes, had no doubt that it was originally Portuguese. At last, however, Salvá found a copy of the lost Spanish original, which settles the question, and places the date of the work in 1547-48, Toledo, 3 tom. folio. (Repertorio Americano, Tom. IV. pp. 42-46.) The little we know of its author, Luis Hurtado, is to be found in Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. II. p. 44, where one of his works, “Cortes del Casto Amor y de la Muerte,” is said to have been printed in 1557. He also translated the “Metamorphoses” of Ovid.