a=: this epistle was addressed to Don
Gaspar de Guzman, Conde-Duque de Olivares (d. 1645),
the favorite and prime minister of Philip IV. It is a
remarkably bold protest, for it was published in 1639 when
Olivares was at the height of his power. His disgrace did
not occur till 1643.

8. Note the double meaning of =sentir=,--'to feel' and 'to
regret.'
page 262
9. =libre= modifies =ingenio=. Translate: _its freedom_.

16. =Que es lengua la verdad de Dios severo= = _que la
verdad es lengua de Dios severo_.

=16.=--=Letrilla Satirica= was published in 1640.

14. Genoa was then, as now, an important seaport
and commercial center. As the Spaniards bought many
manufactured articles from Genoa, much of their money was
"buried" there.

=17.=--Esteban Manuel de Villegas (d. 1669) was a lawyer
who wrote poetry only in his extreme youth. His _Eroticas
o Amatorias_ were published in 1617, and he says himself
that they were written at fourteen and polished at twenty.
Later the cares of life prevented him from increasing
the poetical fame that he gained thus early. He had a
reputation for excessive vanity, due partly to the picture
of the rising sun which he placed upon the title-page
of his poems with the motto _Me surgente, quid istae_?
_Istae_ referred to Lope, Quevedo and others. Villegas'
poems may be found in vol. 42 of the _Bibl. de Aut.
Esp._ Cf. Menendez y Pelayo, _Hist. de los heterodoxos
espanoles_, III, 859-875.

There is a parody of this well-known =cantilena= by
Iglesias in the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._, vol. 61, p. 477.

=18.=--Pedro Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y
Riano (1600-1681) was the greatest representative of the
second generation of playwrights in the _Siglo de oro_. He
took some part in the nation's foreign wars, but his life
was spent mostly without event at court as the favorite
dramatist of the aristocracy. He became a priest in 1651
and was made chaplain of honor to Philip IV in 1663.
There are extant over two hundred of his dramatic works,
_comedias, autos, entremeses_, etc. Calderon constructed
his plots more carefully than Lope and was stronger in
exalted lyric and religious passages; but he was more
mannered, more tainted with Gongorism and less skilled in
creating characters.
page 263
His _Comedias_ are contained in vols. 7, 9, 12 and 14 of
the _Bibl. de A