The sixteenth century ushers in the classic age of Spanish letters, that period which extends into the seeond half of the seventeenth century and is generally known as the Golden Age. The influence of Italy and the Renaissance. which had been so strong during the preceding century, persists, hut, contrary to what happened in other European lands, it does not tend to bring about any disco lntion of continuity as between the old and the new. The ancient Church remains unaffected and the humanistic paganism of the Renaissance gets no foothold in Spain. In lyric verse Italian forms prevail, but the subject matter is only par tially affected by influences from without. A realistic movement. marked by a strict applica tion of keen powers of observation, guides the de velopment of the novel, which is perfected by Cer vantes in the reign of Philip II. The ballad con tinues to be a favorite form and it contributes to the rise of the drama. The drama, giving fullest expression to the national and religious ideals of the Spaniard, constitutes the greatest glory of the Golden Age.
Already, in the fifteenth century, Santillana had imitated the structure of the Italian sonnet, but in this innovation he had had no followers; it re mained for the Catalonian BoseAn (c.1493-e.1542) to establish Italian verse methods in Castilian. A better poet than Bosciin is his friend and com panion in the work of innovation. Garcilaso de la Vega (1503-3(3). Petrarch is the chief model of the lyric poet, but so far as content is eon eerned, the love lyric of Petrarch did not differ very materially from that already cultivated by the Spaniard: the real innovation was a formal one. Moreover, the older Castilian measures were not east aside; even those who favored most warmly the use of the imported forms continued to employ the domestic forms. A third leading representative of the movement was Diego Hur tado de Mendoza (1503-75) ; elements of refine ment still lacking in the art of the three poets mentioned were added by writers such as Fer nando de Acura (e.1500-80), Gut ierre de Cetina (e.1520-60), and the Portuguese Gre goria Silvestre (1520-70). In the second half of the sixteenth century the followers of Gardlaso formed two main groups, the school of Seville and the coterie at Salamanca: minor groups were those at Granada and in Valencia and Aragon. The head of the school at Seville was Fernando de Herrera (1534-97), who is noted both for the purity of his style and the rich ness of his diction, best exhibited, perhaps. in his hymns on the battle of Lepanto and on the tragic fate of the Portuguese King, Dom Sebastian. The most important member of the Salamanean group was the charming poet Luis de Leon (1527-91), whose religious and mystic strains have never ceased to please. Allied to him in spirit are the other mystic poets San :limn de la Cruz (1542 91) and MaIon de Chaide. The religions lyric may he seen at its best in the Romancero espiri tual of Valdivielso (died 1(i36) and in the Rimas sacras of Lope de Vega ; its vogue began to de crease when that of the cnneeptism of Ledesma, and his fellows began to grow. An overstressing of the importance of the formal side of things and an undue straining of the means necessary to the attainment of of style led, in the early years of the seventeenth century, to the adoption of the kind of lyric mannerism which is known in Spain as eultrranismo. and
which is paralleled by the Marinism of Italy, by the Euphuism of England. and by the of France. Luis de GOngora (1561 was the founder of this artificial style, which is therefore often called Gongorism. Its characteristics of bombast. obscurity. and general extravagance are fully exhibited in the so-called Solcdades of Gongora. Even con temporaries of so high an order of talent as Lope de Vega and Francisco (:omez de Qnevedo (1580 1645). who at first opposed the Gongoristic move ment, later adopted many of its methods. As a poet. Quevedo was most successful in his satires, which are full of the spirit of Juvenal. The lyric poets of the seventeenth century were legion: Mira de Ameseua, Esteban Manuel de Villegas (1596 lu6p). Jacinto Polo de Medina, Francisco de Bor ja. Principe de Esquilache (1581-1058). and the dramatist Calderon were but a few of them. With the facilities now provided by the printing press, it became possible to make extensive eollec tions of the ballads (romances). which, previous to the end of the fifteenth century, seem to have survived only through oral tradition.
There appeared during the siqlo de urn more than two hundred poems belonging to the category of the artificial epic. Of these the most important deal with subjects appertaining to the national history; many treat religious matters, and many others are of the class of the chivalrous epic. They are mainly written in oetaves, only occa sionally in blank verse (rcrsos sur(tos). Chief among the epics of an historical character is the Arazteana of Alfonso de Ercilla (1533-94), writ ten by a soldier who here gives the results of his experience in the wars of the,Spaniards with the Araucanian Indians. The historical value is still of a high degree in the Elegics dr rarones ilustres (le las Indies (first part printed 1589) of Juan de C'astellanos, and the Argentina of Centenera. The imagination plays a larger part than the historical fact in the .4 us triada of Juan Rufo (1547-c.1000). In the period of greatest dramatic productivity the historical epic gradually wanes in importance; the .Vapo/cs recuprrada of Francisco de Borja (1651) is one of the last. A place apart is oc cupied by the Amantes de Teruel (1010) of Salas, which the author pretended to he an historical account of the tragic fate of the famous lovers. The Vergilian epic was made known to many by the Encida of Herniidez de Velesco (1557) ; after the appearance of Boscan's Fibula de Lean dro y Hero. mythological episodes from classic antiquity were made the theme of poems by Hurtado de Mendoza, Lope de Vega. Montemayor, Gtingora. etc. The Italian epic of the Cinqueeento was transplanted to Spain, and was made the subject, not only of verse translations. but also of amplifications and continuations, some of these latter dealing with Spanish history or legend. A religious epic deserving of note is Azevedo's CreaciOn del inundo (1615). being remarkable in that. imitating the Remaine of Dubartas. it shows a resumption of literary relations with France. The mock heroic of Greece and Italy finds an echo in Juan de la Cueva's Batalla de mats y ratones.Villarieiosa's Mosonea (1015). and Lope de Vega's Gatomaquia.