published in 1876 a volume of pessimistic and iconoclastic
verses, entitled _Algo_. After his death (1880) his works
were published under the title of _Obras en prosa y verso,
escogidas y coleccionadas por J. Sarda_, Barcelona, 1881.
Cf. Blanco Garcia, II, 349-350.

=148.=--15-19. These lines give expression to the
pessimism that has obtained in Spain for two centuries
past.

=149.=--14. The reference is, of course, to the paintings,
of which there are many, of "The Last Supper" of Jesus.

Manuel Reina (1860-) was born in Puente Genil. Like page 279
Bartrina, Reina is an imitator of Nunez de Arce, in
that he sings of the degeneracy of mankind. He undertook,
with but little success, to revive the eleven-syllable
_romance_ of the neo-classic Spanish tragedy of the
eighteenth century.

Cf. Blanco Garcia, II, 354-355. For his verses, see
_Andantes y allegros_ and _Cromos y acuarelas, cantos
de nuestra epoca, con un prologo de D. Jose Fernandez
Bremon_.

The Valencian Teodoro Llorente (b. 1836) is best known for
his translations of the works of modern poets. He is also
the author of verses (_Amorosas_, _Versos de la juventud_,
_et al._).

=151=.--=Argentina.= The development of letters was slower
in Argentina than in Mexico, Peru and Colombia, since
Argentina was colonized and settled later than the others.
During the colonial period there was little literary
production in the territory now known as Argentina.
Only one work of this period deserves mention. This is
_Argentina y conquista del rio de la Plata_, etc. (Lisbon,
1602), by Martin del Barco Centenera, a long work in poor
verses and of little historical value. During the first
decade of the nineteenth century there was an outpouring
of lyric verses in celebration of the defeat of the
English by the Spaniards at Buenos Aires, but to all of
these Gallego's ode _A la defensa de Buenos Aires_ is
infinitely superior.

During the revolutionary period the best-known writers,
all of whom may be roughly classified as neo-classicists,
were: Vicente Lopez Planes (1784-1856), author of the
Argentine national hymn; Esteban Luca (1786-1824); Juan C.
Lafinur (1797-1824); Juan Antonio Miralla (d. 1825); and,
lastly, the most eminent poet of this period, Juan Cruz
Varela (1794-1839), author of the dramas _Dido_ and
_Argia_, and of the ode _Triunfo de Ituzaingo_ (_Poesias_,
Buenos Aires, 1879).

The first Argentine poet of marked ability, and one of
the gr