Tony Frazer

Spanish Poetry of the Golden Age, in Contemporary English Translations Tony Frazer

Publisher Marketing: The Renaissance in England was a time when translations of contemporary European literature became more common, beginning with contemporary Italian works, and the importation of the Petrarchan sonnet, and then Montemayor's Spanish version of arcadian pastoral. While Spanish literature was not the main focus of English translators during this period - no doubt affected by the strained political relations bnetween the two countries - it did attract some particularly fine writers to try their hand. This selection is driven by what is available, but it also manages to cover some of the greatest Spanish writers of the Renaissance and the Siglo de Oro: Juan Boscan, Garcilaso de la Vega, Jorge de Montemayor, Miguel Cervantes (some poems from 'Don Quixote'), Bartolome & his brother Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, Luis de Gongora, Francsico de Quevedo, Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza and Juan Peerez de Montalban. The translators are Herbert Aston, Philip Ayres, William Drummond of Hawthornden, Sir Richard Fanshawe, Thomas Shelton, Sir Philip Sidney, Thomas Stanley and Bartholomew Yong. The translations are never less than effective and, especially in the case of Fanshawe's Gongora, often show rare genius at work.