Note 838 — Chapter XXVIII

“Hespaña Libertada, Parte Primera, por Doña Bernarda Ferreira de Lacerda, dirigida al Rey Católico de las Hespañas, Don Felipe Tercero deste Nombre, nuestro Señor,” (Lisboa, 1618, 4to), was evidently intended as a compliment to the Spanish usurpers, and, in this point of view, is as little creditable to its author as it is in its poetical aspect. Parte Segunda was published by her daughter, Lisboa, 1673, 4to. Bernarda de Lacerda was a lady variously accomplished. Lope de Vega, who dedicated to her his eclogue entitled “Phylis,” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. X. p. 193), compliments her on her writing Latin with purity. She published a volume of poetry, in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, in 1634, and died in 1644.

“El Fernando, ó Sevilla Restaurada, Poema Heróico, escrito con los Versos de la Gerusalemme Liberata, etc., por Don Juan Ant. de Vera y Figueroa, Conde de la Roca,” etc., Milan, 1632, 4to, pp. 654. He died 1658. Antonio, ad verb.

“Nápoles Recuperada por el Rey Don Alonso, Poema Heróico de D. Francisco de Borja, Príncipe de Esquilache,” etc. Zaragoza, 1651, Amberes, 1658, 4to. A notice of his honorable and adventurous life will be given, when we speak of Spanish lyrical poetry, where he was more successful than he was in epic.

There were two or three other poems called heroic that appeared after these; but they do not need to be recalled. One of the most absurd of them is the “Orfeo Militar,” in two parts, by Joan de la Victoria Ovando; the first being on the siege of Vienna by the Turks, and the second on that of Buda, both printed in 1688, 4to, at Malaga, where their author enjoyed a military office; but neither, I think, was much read beyond the limits of the city that produced them.