[318] Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, who wrote and edited a great many books in Latin and Spanish, was born in 1699, and died in 1782. His life and a list of his works may be made out from the united accounts of Ximeno, Tom. II. p. 324, and Fuster, Tom. II. p. 98.
To these works of Mayans, Velazquez, and Luzan should be added the Preface by Nasarre to the plays of Cervantes, in 1749, where an attempt is made to take the authority of his great name from the school that prevailed in his time, by showing that these unsuccessful efforts of the author of “Don Quixote” were only caricatures ridiculing Lope de Vega; not dramatic compositions intended for serious success in the extravagant career which Lope’s versatile genius had opened to his contemporaries. But this attempt was a failure, and was only one of a long series of efforts made to discountenance the old theatre, that must be noticed hereafter.[319]
[319] There was a severe answer made at once to Blas Nasarre, by Don Joseph Carrillo, entitled “Sin Razon impugnada,” 4to, 1750, pp. 25; besides which, his Preface was attacked by Don T. Zabaleta, in his “Discurso Crítico,” etc., (4to, 1750, pp. 258,) which is a general, loose defence of Lope and his school. But neither was needed. The theory of Nasarre was too absurd to win adherents.
SLOW PROGRESS OF CULTURE.--CHARLES THE THIRD AND HIS POLICY.--ISLA.--HIS FRIAR GERUND.--HIS CICERO.--HIS GIL BLAS.--EFFORTS TO RESTORE THE OLD SCHOOL OF POETRY.--HUERTA.--SEDANO.--SANCHEZ.--SARMIENTO.--EFFORTS TO INTRODUCE THE FRENCH SCHOOL.--MORATIN THE ELDER AND HIS CLUB.--CADAHALSO, YRIARTE, SAMANIEGO, ARROYAL, MONTENGON, SALAS, MERAS, NOROÑA.
The reign of Ferdinand the Sixth, which had been marked with little political energy during its continuance, was saddened, at its close, by the death of the monarch from grief at the loss of his queen. But it had not been without beneficial influences on the country. A wise economy had been introduced, for the first time since the discovery of America, into the administration of the state; the abused powers of the Church had been diminished by a _concordat_ with the Pope; the progress of knowledge had been furthered; and Father Feyjoó, vigorous, though old, was still permitted, if not encouraged, to go on with his great task, and create a school that should rest on the broad principles of philosophy recognized in England and in France.