LUPERCIO LEONARDO DE

ARGENSOLA (1559-1613)  , Spanish dramatist and poet, was baptized at Barbastro on the 14th of December 1559 . He was educated at the universities of Huesca and Saragossa, becoming secretary to the duke de Villahermosa in 1585 . He was appointed historiographer of Aragon in 1599, and in 16ro accompanied the count de Lemos to Naples, where he died in March 1613 . His tragedies—Fills, Isabela and Alejandra—are said by Cervantes to have "filled all who heard them with admiration, delight and interest "; Filis is lost, and Isabela and Alejandra, which were not printed till 1772, are ponderous imitations of Seneca . Argensola's poems were published with those of his brother in 1634; they consist of excellent translations from the Latin poets, and of original satires . His " echoing sonnets "—such as Despues que al mundo el rey divino vino—lend themselves to parody; but his diction is singularly pure . His brother, BARTOLOME LEONARDO DE ARGENSOLA (1562-1631), Spanish poet and historian, was baptized at Barbastro on the 26th of August 1562, studied at Huesca, took orders, and was presented to the rectory of Villahermosa in 1588 . He was attached to the suite of the count de Lemos, viceroy of Naples, in 161o, and succeeded his brother as historiographer of Aragon in 1613 . He died at Saragossa on the 4th of February 1631 . His principal prose works are the Conquista de lets Islas Molucas (1609), and a supplement to Zurita's Anales de Aragon, which was published in 163o . His poems (1634), like those of his elder brother, are admirably finished examples of pungent wit . His commentaries on contemporary events, and his Alteraciones populares, dealing with a Saragossa rising in 1591, are lost .

An interesting

life of this writer by Father Miguel Mir precedes a reprint of the Conquista de'las Islas Molucas, issued at Saragossa in 1891 .