Excerpt from Letters From an English Traveller in Spain, in 1778: On the Origin and Progress of Poetry in That Kingdom It has been faid by a great and learned french writer that the Spaniards have but one book, and that one, ihews the ridicule of all the How far fuch a general reflection appears firain cd and tinctured with national prejudice, I ihall leave to others to confider withing to reverfe fo fevere a fentence, I now {land before the court of Apollo, and petition for a hearing. Can we avoid doing that juf't1ce to the furprifing ge nius of Lope de Vega, the contemporary, arid in a manner rival, of our immortal Shakefpeare; or can we refufe encomiums to the learned and unfortunate Qievedo? To whom we may fairly' apply the lines of Pope in favour of one 'of our own poets. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.