ERC1LLA Y ZUNIGA, ALONSO, the author of the 'Araucana,' an epic poem, and better known out of Spain than many other Spanish works of greater merit. Alonso was the third son of a cele brated lawyer, Fortun Oarcia, lord of the castle of Ercilla, and was born at Madrid in 1533. lfis mother, Dohs Leonor do Zuhiga, became a widow the following year, and being appointed 'guards damns' to the wife of Charles Y., soon obtained for her son a place among the pages of the prince of Asturias, afterwards Philip II. At the age of fourteen, Emilia attended that prince through Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, in a pompous progress of which the chronicler of Philip II., Calvete de Estrella, has left a picturesque account. He also accompanied Philip in his subsequent travels, and on the occasion of his marriage with Queen Mary, Ercilla came to England in 1554. While in London, he heard of a revolt of the brave Arancanians (Araucanos) against the Spaniards in Chile, and his military ardour being excited by the news, he volunteered to go to America. It was amidst the incessant toils and dangers of a campaign against barbarians, without shelter and with nothing to write on but email scraps of waste paper, and often only leather, struggling at once against enemies and surrounding circumstance; that, for the first time an iron-clad poet attempted to describe in epic strains the exploits in which he himself participated, and which he often directed. Thus did Ercilla write the first part of his Aran cana,' so named from the war and country of Arauca. After numerous escapes from the dangers of the war, he was ordered to the scaffold (ex. 1558) by a young and hasty commander, who thought he per ceived a premeditated mutiny in a private quarrel which arose in the American city of Imperial, while the people were celebrating the a.ccesaion of Philip II. to the crown. Ercilla, who on that occasion had to draw his sword in defence of his honour and life, was saved by the timely discovery of the injustice of the sentence which had been passed on bim. Much impaired in health, although then only in hia twenty ninth year, the poet-soldier returned to Spain, but only to experience the continued neglect and disdain of Philip whom be had served all his life, whom he had already invoked as his Augustus, and whom he celebrated in the sequel of his poem. To exalt and pro
pitiate his reluctant patron, he introduced into it the episodical battles of St. Quentin and Lepanto. The indignity which he still experienced induced Ercilla to ramble for some time over different parts of Europe, where the only favour he received was from the emperor Rudolph, who appointed him gentleman of his bed-chamber. At last be settled at Madrid, where he lingered in retirement and penury, writing poetry till hia death, the time of which is not clearly ascertained. He was however alive in 1596, for Musquera de Figue roa, in his 'Comentario de Disciplina Militar,'speaka of Ercilla as then engaged in celebrating the victories of Don Alvaro Hazen, marques de Santa Crnz, in a poem which was never published, and was perhaps left incomplete.
The 'Farness) Espalier contains a short erotic poem, written by Ercilla in his youth, and highly commended by Lope de Vega in his '.Laurel de Apolo.' But it is only the Araucana' which has recom mended Ercilla to posterity. He published the first part by itself; then the first and second parts together in 1577 ; and the whole three parts in 1590, many editions of which have appeared successively in different places. The severe censures parsed on this poem by a host of bio graphers or compilers are in fact only a long file of repctitioos, and much of the censure is founded on misconception.
Nothing short of a sketch, however brief, of the Araucana,' could give a just idea of its plan and execution. But it would however be unfair not to remind those who consider Ercilla as a second Lucan, that he undertook a much harder task than the Cordovan poet, who sung a mighty contest for the mastery of the world; while Ercilla had to contend against two features in his subject, the most unfavourable to an epic—a conquest not yet accomplished over a narrow, rocky, and unknown spot, and a brave and injured enemy struggling for their freedom. Still he succeeded in infusing an Homeric spirit into his long narration, which, independently of its other merits, is a real historical record.