Ercilla y Zuñiga

Ercilla y Zuñiga, ALONSO, a Spanish poet, was born at Madrid, August 7, 1553. He became page to the Infante Don Philip, son of Charles V., and accompanied him on his early travels, and in 1554 to England, on the occasion of Philip’s marriage to Queen Mary. Shortly after he joined the expedition against the Araucanians on the coast of Chili. The arduous difficulties that had to be overcome, and the heroism of the natives, suggested to Ercilla 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 poet-soldier turned to Spain, but Philip treating him with great coldness and neglect, he made a tour through France, Italy, Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary. For some time he held the office of chamberlain to the Emperor Rudolf II., but in 1580 returned to Madrid, where he struggled with poverty till his death, about 1595. Cervantes in Don Quixote compares the Araucana 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, and was published in 1569; the second part followed in 1578, the third in 1597. The most elegant reprint is that published at Madrid in 1776; the most accurate, that issued there in 1828. There is a French translation by Nicolas (1870). See Royer’s Etude (Dijon, 1880).