art, the poet turns to love. This passion reaches its culminating point in the twenty-ninth selection, and with the thirtieth misunderstanding, dissatisfaction, and sadness begin. Despair assails him, interrupted with occasional notes of melancholy resignation, such as are so exquisitely expressed in the fifty-third poem, the best-known of all the poet's verse. With this poem the love-story proper comes to a close, and "the melancholy, no doubt more than half imaginary and poetical, of his love poems seems to broaden out into a deeper sadness embracing life as a whole, and in which disappointed passion is but one of the many elements."[1] "And, lastly, regret and passion are alike hushed in the presence of that voiceless love which shines on the face of the dead and before the eternal and tranquil slumber of the grave."[2] [Footnote 1: Mrs. Ward, loc. cit., p.319.] [Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 316.] Whatever Becquer may have owed to Heine, in form or substance, he was no servile imitator. In fact, with the exception of the thirtieth, no one of his Rimas seems to be inspired directly by Heine's Intermezzo. The distinguishing note in Heine's verse is sarcasm, while that of Becquer's is pathos. Heine is the greater poet, Becquer, the profounder artist. As Blanco Garcia well points out,[1] the moral inclinations of the two poets were distinct and different also. Becquer's instinct for the supernatural freed him from Heine's skepticism and irreligion; and, though he had suffered much, he never doubted Providence. [Footnote 1: op. cit., p.86.] The influence of Alfred de Musset may be felt also in Becquer's Rimas, particularly in the forty-second and forty-third; but in general, the Spanish poet is "less worldly and less ardent"[1] than the French. [Footnote 1: Corm, op. cit., p. xl.] The Rimas are written for the most part in assonanced verse. A harmonious rhythm seems to be substituted for the music of the rhyme. The meter, too, is very freely handled. Notwithstanding all this, the melody of Becquer's verse is very sweet, and soon catches and charms even the foreign ear. His Rimas created a school like that inspired by the Doloras of Campoamor. But the extreme simplicity and naturalness of Becquer's expression was difficult to reproduce without falling into the commonplace, and his imitators have for the most part failed. AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF THE POET BECQUER, ONE OF THE FEW THAT HAVE SURVIVED HIM, ADDRESSED TO SOR. C. FRANCO DE LA IGLESIAS, MINISTERIO DE ULTRAMAR, MADRID. DATED IN TOLEDO, JULY 18TH, 1869.[1] [Footnote 1: The accentuation and punctuation of the original are preserved. This letter is of particular interest, showing, as it does, the tender solicitude of Becquer for his children, his dire financial straits when a loan of three or four dollars is a godsend, and his hesitation to call upon friends for aid even when in such difficulties. The letter was presented to the writer of this sketch by Don 12 Francisco de Laiglesia, a distinguished Spanish writer and man of public life and an intimate friend of Becquer. Senor de Laiglesia is the owner of the magnificent portrait of Gustavo by Valeriano Becquer, of the beauty of which but a faint idea can be had from the copy of the etching by Maura, which serves as a frontispiece to the present volume. ] Mi muy querido amigo: Me volvi de esa con el cuidado de los chicos y en efecto parecia anunciarmelo apenas llegue cayo en cama el mas pequeno. Esto se prolonga mas de lo que pensamos y he escrito a Gaspar y a Valera que solo pago la mitad del importe del cuadro Gaspar he sabido que salio ayer para Aguas Buenas y tardara en recibir mi carta Valera espero enviara ese pico pero suele gastar una calma desesperante en este apuro recurro una vez mas a vd. y aunque me duele abusar tanto de su amistad le ruego que si es posible me envie tres o cuatro duros para esperar el envio del dinero que aguardamos el cual es seguro pero no sabemos que dia vendra y aqui tenemos al medico en casa y atenciones que no esperan un momento. Adios estoy aburrido de ver que esto nunca cesa. Adios mande vd. a su amigo que le quiere Gustavo Becquer Espresiones a Pepe Marco S/c Calle de San Ildefonso Toledo. Si le es a vd. posible enviar eso hagalo si puede en el mismo dia que reciba esta carta por que el apuro es de momento. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE A list of the works consulted in the preparation of the sketch of Becquer's life. WORKS BY BECQUER Obras de Gustavo A. Becquer. Quinta edicion aumentada con varias poesias y leyendas. Madrid, Libreria de Fernando Fe, 1898. Three volumes. Historia de los Temples de Espana, publicada bajo la proteccion de SS. MM. AA. y muy reverendos senores arzobispos y obispos-- dirigida por D. Juan de la Puerto Vizcaino y D. Gustavo Adolfo Becquer. Tomo I, Madrid, 1857. Imprenta y Estereotipia Espanola de los Senores Nieto y Campania. Becquer is the author of only a portion of this work--see Introduction, p. xx. La Ilustracion de Madrid, January 12-October 12, 1870, contains a large number of articles by Becquer that have never been published in book form. The same can be said of other periodicals for which Becquer collaborated. TRANSLATIONS Gustave Becquer--Legendes espagnoles. Traduction de Achille Fouquier, dessins de S. Arcos. Paris, Librairie de Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1885. French. Terrible Tales--Spanish. W. W. Gibbings, London, W. C. In this collection the following seven out of the twelve tales that it contains are by Becquer,--"The Golden Bracelet," "The Green Eyes," "The Passion Flower," "The White Doe," "Maese Perez, the Organist," "The Moonbeam," and "The Mountain of Spirits." The translation is often inaccurate. WORKS OR ARTICLES ON BECQUER P. Francisco Blanco Garcia. La Literatura Espanola en el Siglo XIX, parte segunda, Madrid, 1891, contains a good criticism of the literary work of Becquer, pp. 79-91, and pp. 274-277. Narciso Campillo. Gustavo Adolfo Becquer is the title of an excellent article on the Seville poet, by one who knew him well, in La Ilustracion Artistica, Barcelona, December 27, 1886, pp. 358-360. This number (261--Ano V) is dedicated to Becquer, and contains many prose articles and much verse relative to him. Achille Fouquier. Gustave Becquer, Legendes Espagnoles. Traduction de Achille Fouquier, dessins de S. Arcos. Paris, Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1885,--Avant-Propos, pp. 1-19. An interesting sketch of Becquer's life and an excellent appreciation of his style. Jose Gestoso y Perez. Carta a Mr. Achille Fouquier is the title of a valuable article in La Ilustracion Artistica, Barcelona, December 27, 1886, pp. 363-366. This article contains important genealogical matter regarding Becquer, which had not until that time been 13 published. Eduardo de Lustono. Becquer is the titie of a sketch by this writer, published in Alrededor del Mundo, No. 109, July 4, 1901, pp. 11-13, and No. 110, July 11, 1901, pp. 22-23. It is largely a copy of the article by Narciso Campillo, mentioned above, and of the following by Rodriguez Correa. Ramon Rodriguez Correa. Prologo de las Obras de Gustavo A. Becquer. Quinta edicion, Madrid, Fernando Fe, 1898. Vol. I, pp. IX- XLV. This is the principal biography of Becquer and the source of all the others. Its author was Becquer's most intimate friend. Juan Valera. In Florilegio de Poesias Castellanas del Siglo XIX, Tomo I, Madrid, Fernando Fe, 1902, pp. 182-191, may be found an excellent appreciation of the poet by one of the most capable of Spanish critics and a personal friend of Becquer. P. Restituto del Valle Ruiz, Agustino. In his Estudios Literarios, pp. 104-116, there is a chapter devoted to Gustavo A. Becquer, which contains an interesting critique of his poetry. Mrs. (Mary A.) Humphrey Ward, in Macmillan's Magazine, No. 280, February, 1883, pp. 305-320, has an article entitled "A Spanish Romanticist: Gustavo Becquer." This is one of the best articles on Becquer that have been published. SPANISH PROSODY The basis for the following remarks on Spanish prosody is, for the most part, E. Benot's Prosodia Castellana y Versification, 3 vols., Madrid, 1892. Other works which have been consulted are the Ortologia y Arte Metrica of A. Bello, published in his Obras Completas, vol. 4, Madrid, 1890; Rengifo's Arte Poetica Espanola, Barcelona, 1759; J. D. M. Ford's "Notes on Spanish Prosody," in A Spanish Anthology, published by Silver, Burdett & Co., 1901; and a Tratado de Literatura Preceptiva, by D. Saturnino Milego e Inglada, published at Toledo in 1887. Spanish versification has nothing to do with the quantity of vowels (whether long or short), which was the basis of Latin prosody. There are four important elements in Spanish versification. Of these four elements two are essential, and the other two are usually present. The essential elements, without which Spanish verse cannot exist, are-- I. A determined number of syllables per line. II. A rhythmic distribution of the accents in the line. The additional elements usually present in Spanish poetical compositions are-- III. Caesural pauses. IV. Rhyme. I. SYLLABIFICATION Consonants.--In verse the same rules hold as in prose for the distribution of consonants in syllables. Vowels.--If there were but one vowel in a syllable, Spanish syllabification would be easy; but sometimes two or more vowels are found either between consonants, or at the beginning or at the end of a word. When such is the case, intricacies arise, for sometimes the contiguous vowels are pronounced in a single syllable and sometimes they are divided into separate syllables. The contiguous vowels may belong to a single word (see A); or they may be the final vowel or vowels of one word and the initial vowel or vowels of a following word or words (see B). A. Diphthongization,--If two contiguous vowels of a single word are pronounced in but one syllable they form a diphthong,
e.g. hu^esped. B. Synalepha.--If two or more contiguous vowels belonging
