Note 741 — Chapter I

Traces of this feeling are found abundantly in Spanish literature, for above a century; but nowhere, perhaps, with more simplicity and good faith than in a sonnet of Hernando de Acuña,—a soldier and a poet greatly favored by Charles V.—in which he announces to the world, for its “great consolation,” as he says, “promised by Heaven,”—

Poesías, Madrid, 1804, 12mo, p. 214.

Christóval de Mesa, however, may be considered more simple-hearted yet; for, fifty years afterwards, he announces this catholic and universal empire as absolutely completed by Philip III. Restauracion de España, Madrid, 1607, 12mo, Canto I. st. 7.