hese authors had lived in France and had there made
acquaintance with the works of Chateaubriand, Byron, and Walter Scott.
Spain came in time to have her own Byron and her own Scott, the former in
Jose de Espronceda, author of "The Student of Salamanca," who resided for
a time in London; the latter in Jose Zorrilla, whose "Granada," "Legends
of the Cid," etc., "were popular for the same reason that 'Marmion' and
'The Lady of the Lake' were popular; for their revival of national
legends in a form both simple and picturesque." [11] Scott himself is
reported to have said that if he had come across in his younger days
Perez de Hita's old historical romance, "The Civil Wars of Granada"
(1595), "he would have chosen Spain as the scene of a Waverley
novel." [12]

But when Lockhart, in 1824, set himself to

"--relate
In high-born words the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate"--

her ballad poetry had fallen into disfavour at home, and "no Spanish
Percy, or Ellis, or Ritson," he complains, "has arisen to perform what no
one but a Spaniard can entertain the smallest hope of achieving." [13]
Meanwhile, however, the German romantic school had laid eager hands upon
the old romantic literature of Spain. A. W. Schlegel (1803) and Gries
had made translations from Calderon in assonant verse; and Friedrich
Schlegel--who exalted the Spanish dramatist above Shakspere, much to
Heine's disgust--had written, also in _asonante_, his dramatic poem
"Conde Alarcos" (1802), founded on the well-known ballad. Brentano and
others of the romantics went so far as to practise assonance in their
original as well as translated work. Jacob Grimm (1815) and Depping
(1817) edited selections from the "Romancero" which Lockhart made use of
in his "Ancient Spanish Ballads." With equal delight the French
romanticists--Hugo and Musset in particular--seized upon the treasures of
the "Romancero"; but this was somewhat later.

Lockhart's "Spanish Ballads," which were bold and spirited paraphrases
rather than close versions of the originals, enjoyed a great success, and
have been repeatedly reprinted. Ticknor pronounced them undoubtedly a
work of genius, as much so as any book of the sort in any literature with
which he was acquainted.[14] In the very same year Sir John Bowring
published his "Ancient Poetry and Romance of Spain." Hookham Frere, that
most accomplished of translators, also gave specimens from th