the Golden Age of Spanish letters several Peruvian
poets were known to Spaniards. Cervantes, in the _Canto de
Caliope_ and Lope de Vega in the _Laurel del Apolo_
make mention of several Peruvians who had distinguished
themselves by their verses.

An unknown poetess of Huanuco, Peru, who signed herself
"Amarilis," wrote a clever _silva_ in praise of Lope,
which the latter answered in the epistle _Belardo a
Amarilis_. This _silva_ of "Amarilis" is the best poetic
composition of the early colonial period. Another poetess
of the period, also anonymous, wrote in _terza rima_ a
_Discurso en loor de la poesia_, which mentions by name
most of the Peruvian poets then living.

Toward the close of the sixteenth century and in the
early decades of the seventeenth century, several Spanish
scholars, mostly Andalusians of the Sevillan school, went
to Peru, and there continued literary work. Among these
were Diego Mexia, who made the happiest of Spanish
translations of Ovid's _Heroides_; Diego de Ojeda,
the best of Spanish sacred-epic poets, author of the
_Cristiada_; Juan Galvez; Luis de Belmonte, author of _La
Hispalica_; Diego de Avalos y Figueroa whose page 303
_Miscelanea austral_ (Lima, 1603) contains a long poem in
_ottava rima_ entitled _Defensa de damas_; and others.
These men exerted great influence, and to them was largely
due the peculiarly Andalusian flavor of Peruvian poetry.

The best Gongoristic _Poetics_ came from Peru. This is the
_Apologetico en favor de D. Luis de Gongora_ (Lima, 1694),
by Dr. Juan de Espinosa Medrano.

In the eighteenth century the poetic compositions of Peru
were chiefly "_versos de circunstancias_" by "_poetas de
ocasion_." Many volumes of these were published, but no
one reads them to-day. Their greatest fault is excessive
culteranism, which survived in the colonies a half-century
after it had passed away from the mother country. The most
learned man of the eighteenth century in Peru was Pedro de
Peralta Barnuevo, the erudite author of some fifty volumes
of history, science and letters. His best known poem is
the epic _Lima fundada_ (Lima, 1732). He wrote several
dramas, one of which, _Rodoguna_, is Corneille's play
adapted to the Spanish stage, and has the distinction of
being one of the first imitations of the French stage in
Spanish letters. All in all, the literary output of
Peru during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is
disappointingly small in quantity