VEGA-CARPIO, LOPE FELIX DE, a celebrated Spanish poet, was born at Madrid on the 25th November, 1562. From his very infancy, he is said to have given promise of ex traordinary talent. Like Pope, he "lisped in numbers." On the death of his father, the family, originally a good one, fell into great difficulties, and was broken up. The young Lope fell to the charge of his uncle, the inquisitor, Miguel del Carpio, who spared no pains to give him a good education. He was sent to the imperial college at Madrid, and seemed to be progressing quietly toward the holy state, to which, by hisuncle, he was destined, when an odd whim struck the lad, and, being then fourteen, he went off on a roving expetition with a comrade. But he and his companion were speedily arrested as thieves on their trying to effect the sale of a chain of gold (probably stolen from Lope's uncle), and sent back to Madrid. The returning prodigal was but coolly received by his reverend relative, who declined to further concern himself with a nephew of such distinctly lay propensities. He in consequence became a soldier; and in 1577 served at Terceira against the Portuguese. After this we find him taken in hand by Geronimo Manrique, bishop of Avila, ,who sent him to finish his studies at the university at Alcala. Here lie was again ripening for holy orders, and was nearly in fact ripe, when again the passion of the vagabond drove him out upon the world a pervert. For some time, at this period of his life, Lope disappears from public view; and probably his adventures were of the kind which a discreet biographer will always permit his hero to prosecute as far as possible in private. It is understood that in his dramatic romance, Dorothea, he afterward favored the world with a sketch of himself and of these his early experi ences; and if this is in detail to be taken as history, Lope, on his own sheaving, must have been no more a model of propriety than certain other great poets who might be named. Toward 1585 we find him again at Madrid, attached to the person of a young duke of Alva, for whom he composed the piece entitled Arcadia, a tedious pastoral, with verses interspersed, which only in detached passages displays his brilliant ability. About this time he married a lady of condition,by the name of Isabella de Urbino; but his domestic felicity was speedily cut short by a misadventure. Having had some dif ference with a gentleman of court, he satirized him in a filthy ; Allad; and on finding that he took it amiss, gave him satisfaction by running him through the body. For this he was thrown into prison, and afterward exiled to 'Valencia. He returned to Madrid as soon as he could with safety, and soon after lost his wife, whom he is said to have tenderly loved. Grief for her death, complicated with want of success in another of his little love-affairs, drove him to join the famous Armada, then being fitted out for the conquest of England. Through the perils of this disastrous expedition Lope came
with a whole skin, and in 1590 was again safe in Madrid. A brother to whom he was much attached, and who sailed as an officer in the same vessel, had not the same luck, but died during the voyage. It is a characteristic trait, that Lope—who, whatever else he may be doing, must always be conceived as flooding out continuous torrents of verse —composed, amid the distractions of tempest and battle, a long poem, the Ilermosura de Angelica, which, as a continuation of the Orlando Furioso of ..tk riosto, has found favor even with express admirers of that poet. Shortly after his return he became secretary to the marquis of Malpice and subsequently to the count of Lemos,whose service he quitted soon after his marriage, in 1597 to Donna Juana de Guardio, resolving thenceforward to trust solely to literature for his livelihood. This he could well do with every confidence, as already one of the most admired authors of the clay, and by far time most popular dramatist. The years immediately succeeding, lie himself frequently afterward refers to as the hap piety period of his life; but it was not of very long duration. At the age of seven, his son Carlos died; and soon after, in giving birth to a daughter, his wife also died. The double blow wa severe. A mistress, indeed, remained to console him, Donna Maria de Luxan, by whom he had a boy and girl, the latter of whom, Marcela, was the most beloved of all his children. But he had no doubt got a little tired of Donna Maria; and about this time he began to turn his thoughts seriously to religion. Having had as much vice as he cared for, he considered he had reached the point in his career at which piety might begin to be prosecuted with advantage. Accordingly, after an interval of devout preparation, he became, in 1609, a priest of the order of St. Francis. Of his zeal in his new functions, there is evidence in the fact, that in Jan. 1623, he took prominent part in the ceremony of burning a heretical brother of his order. As to his performance of priestly duty otherwise, strictly thus much is known, that, with his old unremitting assiduity he continued to pour forth poems and dramas, not always of a clerical or decent kind. During his last years, he fell into a profound religious melancholy. Des pite the decay of his strength, he was rigorous in keeping himself up to the severest mark of discipline; in particular, he scourged himself terribly. Finally, in the begin ning of Aug. 1635, he gave himself a scourging so terrible, that the walls of the chamber were found bespattered with his blood; and some days after he died of it, at the ripe age of 73. If the poet in his later days thus exercised a little severity with himself, we may allow him to have been the best judge as to how far the peccadillos of his earlier ones might deserve it.