Note 788 — Chapter II

I notice that the allusions to Garcilasso by Cervantes are chiefly in the latter part of his life; namely, in the second part of his Don Quixote, in his Comedias, his Novelas, and his “Persiles y Sigismunda,” as if his admiration were the result of his matured judgment. More than once he calls him “the prince of Spanish poets”; but this title, which can be traced back to Herrera, and has been continued down to our own times, has, perhaps, rarely been taken literally.