Note 914 — Chapter XXX

There is an interesting notice of Villegas and his works by the kindred spirit of Wieland, in the Deutsche Merkur, 1774, Tom. V. pp. 237, etc.; the first time, I suspect, that his name had been mentioned with the praise it deserves, out of Spain, for a century. It should be remembered, however, that Villegas, though he generally wrote with very great simplicity, and, in his Elegy to Bartolomé de Argensola (Eróticas, 1617, Tom. II. f. 28) and elsewhere, censures the obscure and affected writers of his time, yet sometimes himself writes in the bad style he condemns, and devotes his sixth Elegy to praise of the absurd “Phaeton” of the Count Villamediana.