Note 790 — Chapter II

Eleven years after the publication of the works of Boscan and Garcilasso, Hernando de Hozes, in the Preface to his “Triumfos de Petrarca,” (Medina del Campo, 1554, 4to,) says, with much truth: “Since Garcilasso de la Vega and Juan Boscan introduced Tuscan measures into our Spanish language, every thing earlier, written or translated, in the forms of verse then used in Spain, has so much lost reputation, that few now care to read it, though, as we all know, some of it is of great value.” If this opinion had continued to prevail, Spanish literature would not have become what it now is.