Cristo_ Luis de Leon dedicated to Portocarrero _In Abdiam prophetam Explanatio_ (1589) and the manuscript collection of his poems. For some reason not very obvious this collection of verses was not published till 1631 when it was issued by Quevedo, who hoped that it would help to stem the current of Gongorism in Spain. The poems, printed forty years after the author's death, appeared too late to affect the public taste. Góngora himself had died in 1627, but his influence was undiminished. Quevedo, who had obtained his copies of Luis de Leon's verses from Manuel Sarmiento de Mendoza, a canon of Seville cathedral, did his share as editor by writing two prefaces, one addressed to Sarmiento de Mendoza, and the other to Olivares who was manifestly expected to pronounce against Gongorism. Olivares, however, had no reason to love Quevedo, and was resolved to take no active part in what he doubtless regarded as a scribblers' quarrel. Gongorism pursued its way unchecked. Quevedo's edition, though incomplete and disfigured by certain errors, was reprinted at Milan during the same year (1631), and then all interest in Luis de Leon flickered out for a while. In the prefatory note of the 1631 Madrid edition--entitled _Obras propias, y traduciones latinas, griegas y italianas_--Luis de Leon speaks of his poems slightingly as mere playthings of his youth, now brought together at the request of an anonymous friend--perhaps Benito Arias Montano--to whom they had been ascribed. Luis de Leon arranges the material in three books, containing respectively his original compositions, his translations from authors profane, and his versions of certain psalms, a hymn, and chapters from the Book of Job. But, beyond the general statement as to the early date of composition, Luis de Leon gives no precise information as to when individual poems were written. The assertion that the poems date back almost to the author's childhood is contradicted by concrete facts. Take, for instance, the celebrated _Noche serena_ dedicated to Oloarte. If, as I conjecture, the dedicatee of the _Noche serena_ is identical with the Diego de Loarte, archdeacon of Ledesma, who gave evidence at Salamanca on January 27, 1573, and who on that date had known Luis de Leon for fourteen years, the _Noche serena_ cannot have been composed earlier than 1559 when Luis de Leon was thirty-one--youthful, indeed, but long past his _niñez_. On January 17, 1573, Francisco Salinas testified at Salamanca to having known Luis de Leon for six years: whence it follows that _El aire se serena_ cannot have been written before 1567, when Luis de Leon was bordering on his fortieth year. As Don Carlos died on July 24, 1568, the _Cancion a la muerte de don Carlos_ and the _Epitafio al túmulo del príncipe don Carlos_ must necessarily have been composed after that date; that is, when Luis de Leon was just forty and had left his _niñez_ far behind him. Besides a general