an
a novel. I wonder at the confidence with which these two children, so
ignorant in all respects, launched forth upon the two literary lines
that require most knowledge of man, society, and life. The time was
yet to come when by dint of painful struggles and hard trials they
should possess that knowledge, as difficult to gain as it is
bitter!"[1]

[Footnote 1: Article on Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, by Narciso Campillo,
in La Ilustracion Artistica, pp. 358-360]

Shortly after the matriculation of young Becquer, the College of San
Telmo was suppressed by royal orders, and the lad found himself in the
streets. He was then received into the home of his godmother, Dona
Manuela Monchay, who was a woman of kind heart and much intelligence.
She possessed a fair library, which was put at the disposal of the
boy; and here he gratified his love for reading, and perfected his
literary taste. Two works that had considerable influence upon him at
this time were the Odes of Horace, translated by P. Urbano Campos, and
the poems of Zorrilla. He began to write verses of his own, but these
he later burned.

"In 1849," says Senor Campillo, "there were two noteworthy painters in
Seville, whose studios were open to and frequented by numerous
students, future rivals, each in his own imagination, of the glories
of Velasquez and Murillo. One of these studios, situated in the same
building as the Museo de Pinturas, was that of D. Antonio Cabral
Bejarano, a man not to be forgotten for his talent, and perhaps also
for his wit, the delight of those who knew him. The other, situated in
an upper room of the Moorish _alcazar de Abdelasis_, near the patio
_de Banderas_, was directed by D. Joaquin Dominguez Becquer, a brother
and disciple of D. Jose, Gustavo's father."[1]

[Footnote 1: Narciso Campillo, _loc_. cit.]

In spite of this relationship, Gustavo Adolfo, at the age of fourteen,
entered the studio of Bejarano. There he remained for two years,
practicing the art of drawing, for which he had a natural talent. He
then came under the instruction of his uncle, who, judging that his
nephew was even better qualified for a literary than for an artistic
career, advised him to follow the former, and procured for him a few
Latin lessons. Meanwhile Gustavo continued to enlarge his poetical
horizon by reading from the great poets and by the contemplation of
the beauties of nature. With his friend Campillo he composed the first
three cantos of a poe