meters (stanzas of short, chiefly octosyllabic, lines, for
the _arte mayor_ had sunk by its own weight).

The first and greatest of Boscán's disciples was his close
friend GARCILASO DE LA VEGA (1503-1536) who far surpassed
his master. He was a scion of a most noble family, a
favorite of the emperor, and his adventurous career,
passed mostly in Italy, ended in a soldier's death. His
poems, however (_églogas, canciones_, sonnets, etc.),
take us from real life into the sentimental world of the
Arcadian pastoral. Shepherds discourse of their unrequited
loves and mourn amid surroundings of an idealized Nature.
page xx
The pure diction, the Vergilian flavor, the classic finish
of these poems made them favorites in Spain from the
first, and their author has always been regarded as a
master.

With Garcilaso begins the golden age of Spanish poetry and
of Spanish literature in general, which may be said to
close in 1681 with the death of Calderón. It was a period
of external greatness, of conquest both in Europe and
beyond the Atlantic, but it contained the germs of future
decay. The strength of the nation was exhausted in
futile warfare, and virile thought was stifled by the
Inquisition, supported by the monarchs. Hence the
luxuriant literature of the time runs in the channels
farthest from underlying social problems; philosophy and
political satire are absent, and the romantic drama, novel
and lyric flourish. But in all external qualities the