Note 117 — BOOK VI.

As the Canto de Calíope professes to deal solely with living poets—algunos señalados varones que en esta vuestra España viven, y algunos en las apartadas Indias á ella sujetas—the Diego Mendoza mentioned in the twentyfifth stanza cannot refer to the celebrated historian who died ten years before the Galatea was published. But the above lament for Meliso is unquestionably dedicated to his memory. The phrase el aprisco veneciano is an allusion to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's embassy in Venice (1539-1547). It is not generally known that Mendoza visited England as special Plenipotentiary in 1537-1538 with the object of arranging two marriages: one between Mary Tudor and Prince Luiz of Portugal, and one between Henry VIII. and Charles V.'s handsome, witty niece, Dorothea of Denmark (afterwards Duchess of Milan), who declined the honour on the ground that she had only one head. Mendoza's mission was a diplomatic failure: nor does he seem to have enjoyed his stay here. He was made much of, was banqueted at Hampton Court, and confessed that life in England was pleasant enough; but he sighed for Barcelona, and was glad to pass on to the Low Countries and thence to Venice. See the Calendar of State Papers (Spain), vol. v. J. F.-K.