Note 240 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
Mariana, Historia, ad an. 1596, calls him simply “Francis Drake, an English corsair”;—and in a graceful little anonymous ballad, imitated from a more graceful one by Góngora, we have again a true expression of the popular feeling. The ballad in question, beginning “Hermano Perico,” is in the Romancero General, 1602, (f. 34), and contains the following significant passage:—
And Bartolo, my brother, To England forth is gone, Where the Drake he means to kill;— And the Lutherans every one, Excommunicate from God, Their queen among the first, He will capture and bring back, Like heretics accurst. And he promises, moreover, Among his spoils and gains, A heretic young serving-boy To give me, bound in chains; And for my lady grandmamma, Whose years such waiting crave, A little handy Lutheran, To be her maiden slave.
Mi hermano Bartolo Se va á Ingalaterra, A matar al Draque, Y á prender la Reyna, Y á los Luteranos De la Bandomessa. Tiene de traerme A mí de la guerra Un Luteranico Con una cadena, Y una Luterana A señora agüela.
Romancero General, Madrid, 1602, 4to, f. 35.