Becquer
[Illustration: After an etching by B. Maura]

LEGENDS, TALES AND POEMS

BY

GUSTAVO ADOLFO BECQUER

EDITED

WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND VOCABULARY

BY

EVERETT WARD OLMSTED, PH.D.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES IN

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

TO

MY MOTHER

PREFACE

In preparing this collection of Becquer's legends, tales, andshort poems, which is the only annotated edition of this author'sworks that has been published as yet for English-speaking students,the editor has aimed to give to our schools and collegesa book that may serve, not only as a reader for first or secondyear classes, but also as an introduction to Spanish literature,through the works of one of the most original and charmingauthors of the Spanish Romantic school.

Fondness for good literature should be stimulated from thevery first, and the quaint tales and legends of old Spain containedin this edition, told, as they are, in a most fascinatingstyle, are well adapted to captivate the student's interest andto lead him to investigate further the rich mine of Spanish literature.Becquer's poetry is no less pleasing than his prose,and not much more difficult to read. With the aid of the ampletreatise on Spanish versification contained in the introduction,the student will be enabled to appreciate the harmony andrhythm of Becquer's verse, and in all subsequent reading ofSpanish poetry he will find this treatise a convenient and valuablework of reference.

The Life of Becquer, though concise, is perhaps the mostcomplete that has yet been published, for it embodies all thedata given by previous biographers and a certain number offacts gathered by the writer at the time of his last visit to Spain(in 1905–1906), from friends of Becquer who were then living.

The vocabulary has been made sufficiently complete to freethe notes from that too frequent translation of words or phraseswhich often encumbers them.

The notes have been printed in the only convenient placefor them, at the bottom of each page, and will be found to beas complete and definite as possible on geographical, biographical,historical, or other points that may not be familiar to thestudent or the teacher. All grammatical or syntactical matter,unless of a difficult or peculiar character, has been omitted,while the literary citations that abound will, it is hoped, stimulatethe student to do further reading and to make literarycomparisons of his own.

It remains for the editor to express his profound gratitudeto the following gentlemen for their aid in collecting facts regardingBecquer and for their encouragement of this work:the Exc^mo Sr. Conde de las Navas, the Exc^mo Sr. LicenciadoD. Jose Gestoso y Perez, and the Exc^mo Sr. D. Francisco deLaiglesia. It is his pleasure also to convey his thanks to ProfessorGeorge L. Burr of Cornell University for aid in certain ofthe historical notes, and most especially to gratefully acknowledgehis indebtedness to the aid, or rather collaboration, ofMr. Arthur Gordon of Cornell University, and Mr. W. R. Priceof the High School of Commerce, New York City.

EVERETT WARD OLMSTED
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Ithaca, N.Y.

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