Ancient Spanish Ballads¹, Historical and Romantic. Translated, with Notes, by J. G. Lockhart. New York: Wiley & Putnam.

The enterprising publishers, Messrs. Wiley & Putnam, who have reprinted, in a plain but very neat form, Mr. Lockhart’s gorgeously illustrated³ work, have judiciously⁴ prefixed to it, by way of introduction, a critique on the book from the Edinburgh Review, and have added at the end of the volume an analytical⁵ account, with specimens⁶ of the Romance of the Cid, from the Penny Magazine. This is done with the greatest propriety⁷, for the Cid seems to be the proper centre of Spanish legendary⁸ poetry. The Iliad, the Nibelungen, the Cid, the Robin⁹ Hood¹⁰ Ballads, Frithiof’s Saga¹¹, (for the last also depends for its merit on its fidelity¹² to the legend,) are five admirable collections of early popular poetry of so many nations; and with whatever difference of form, they possess strong mutual¹³ resemblances, chiefly apparent in the spirit which they communicate to the reader, of health, vigor¹⁴, cheerfulness, and good hope. In this day of reprinting and of restoration, we hope that Southey’s Chronicle of the Cid, which is a kind of “Harmony of the Gospels” of the Spanish Romance, may be republished in a volume of convenient size. That is a strong book, and makes lovers and admirers of “My Cid, the Perfect one, who was born in a fortunate hour.” Its traits of

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