His name closes the most brilliant era of Spanish letters.
The decline of literature followed close upon that of the
political power of Spain. The splendid empire of Charles
V had sunk, from causes inherent in the policies of that
over-ambitious monarch, through the somber bigotry of
Philip II, the ineptitude of Philip III, the frivolity of
Philip IV, to the imbecility of Charles II; and the death
of the last of the Hapsburg rulers in 1700 left Spain in
a deplorably enfeebled condition physically and
intellectually. The War of the Succession (1701-1714)
exhausted her internal strength still more, and the final
acknowledgment of Philip V (reigned 1701-1746) brought
hardly any blessing but that of peace. Under these
circumstances poetry could not thrive; and in truth the
eighteenth century in Spain is an age devoted more to the
discussion of the principles of literature than to the
production of it. At first the decadent remnants of page xxvii
the _siglo de oro_ still survived, but later the
French taste, following the principles formulated by
Boileau, prevailed almost entirely. The history of Spanish
poetry in the eighteenth century is a history of the
struggle between these two forces and ends in the triumph
of the latter.

The effects of Gongorism lasted long in Spain, which, with
its innate propensity to bombast, was more fertile soil
for it than other nations. Innumerable poetasters of the
early eighteenth century enjoyed fame in their day and
some possessed talent; but the obscure and trivial style