ment--everything which, in his judgment, could add value,
interest, or completeness to the present revised edition. And lastly, in
the period between the publication of the first edition and the present
time much has been done for the illustration of Spanish literature, both
in the Peninsula and out of it. This is due in part to the interest in
the subject which Mr. Ticknor himself awakened; and in Spain it is one
of the consequences of the rapid progress in material development and
vital energy which that country has been making during the last fifteen
years. New lives of some of its principal writers have been published,
and new editions of their works have been prepared. From all these
sources a very ample supply of new materials has been derived, so that,
while the work remains substantially the same in plan, outline, and
spirit, there are hardly three consecutive pages in it which do not
contain additions and improvements. We will briefly mention a few of the
more prominent of these.

In the first volume, pages 446-455, the life of Garcilasso de la Vega is
almost entirely rewritten from materials found in a recent biography by
Don Eustaquio Navarrete, which Mr. Ticknor pronounces "an important
contribution to Spanish literary history." The writer is the son of the
learned Don Martin Navarrete.

In the second volume, pages 75-81, many new and interesting facts are
stated in regard to the life of Luis de Leon, derived from a recently
published report of the entire official record of his trial before the
Inquisition, of which Mr. Ticknor says that it is "by far the most
important authentic statement known to me respecting the treatment of
men of letters who were accused before that formidable tribunal, and
probably the most curious and important one in existence, whether in
manuscript or in print. Its multitudinous documents fill more than nine
hundred pages, everywhere teeming with instruction and warning on the
subject of ecclesiastical usurpations, and the noiseless, cold, subtle
means by which they crush the intellectual freedom and manly culture of
a people."

In the same volume, pages 118-119, some new and interesting facts are
stated which prove beyond a doubt, that Lope de Vega was actuated by
ungenerous feelings towards his great contemporary, Cervantes. The
evidence is found in some autograph letters of Lope, extracts from which
were made by Duran, and are now published by Von Schack, an excellent
Spanish