ERCILLA Y ZITS/10A, ALCM°, a Spanish poet, was b. at Madrid, Aug. 7, 1533. He was the third son of a Spanish jurist, and at an early period became page to the infanta Don Philip, son of Charles V., accompanying him on his journey through the Netherlands, and some parts of Germany and Italy, and, in 1554, to England, on the occasion of the celebration of Philip's nuptials with queen Mary. Shortly after, E. went with the army dispatched to America to quell the insurrection of the Auracanians ()tithe coast of Chili. The difficulties with which the Spaniards had to contend, the heroism displayed by the natives in the unequal contest, and the multitude of gallant achievements by which this war was distinguished, suggested to E. the idea of making it the subject of an epic poem. He began his poem on the spot, about the year 1558, occasionally committing his verses, in the absence of paper, to pieces of leather. An unfounded suspicion of his having plotted an insurrection involved him in a painful trial, and he had actually ascended the scaffold before his innocence was proved. Deeply wounded, the brave soldier and poet turned to Spain, but Philip treating him with coldness and neglect, E. made a tour through France, Italy, Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary. For some time be held the office of chamberlain to the emperor Rudolf II., but in 1580 returned
to Madrid, where he in vain exerted himself to realize an independence. The latter years of his life were spent in obscurity and poverty at Madrid, where he died, at what period has not been ascertained. His historic epos, written in the octo-syllabic measure, and entitled Araucana, is, with the exception of a few episodes, a faithful description of actual events. Cervantes, in his Don Quixote, compares it with the best Italian epics, and it has undoubtedly not a little of the epic style and spirit. The first part is the freshest in character, having been completed before the author's return to Europe, where it was first published separately (Madrid, 1569). The second part appeared nine years later. In it E., by the introduction of episodes, yielded more to the taste of the time; and this was still more the case in the third part, which was first published, along with the two others, in 1590. In Spain, and likewise in other countries, many reprints of the poem appeared (the most elegant, 2 vols., Madrid, 1776; the most accurate. 2 vols.. Madrid, 1828). A continuation was published by Don Diego Santistevan Osorio, of Leon (Salamanca, 1597). A German translation has been published by Winter]ing vols., Nuremberg, 1831).