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 ninez.  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 tumulo del principe don Carlos must necessarily have been composed after that date; that is, when Luis de Leon was just forty and had left his ninez far behind him.  Besides a general dedication to Portocarrero, the collection includes three individual poems which are dedicated to that personage:  (1) Virtud, hija del Cielo; (2) No siempre es poderosa; (3) La cana y alta cumbre.  In La cana y alta cumbre there is a reference to

        la cruda guerra
    que agora el Marte airado
    despierta en la alta sierra.

These verses can scarcely allude to anything but the Alpujarras rising of 1568-1571, and the conjecture hardens into certainty in view of the mention of Alonso and Poqueira:  this is clearly the Alonso Portocarrero who, as Hurtado de Mendoza records, perished at Poqueira, ‘trabado del veneno usado dende los tiempos antiguos entre cazadores’.  This poem must have been written when Luis de Leon was at least forty-one. Virtud, hija del cielo, in mentioning the Mino, refers to Portocarrero’s appointment in Galicia; and as Portocarrero’s term of office appears to have lasted from 1571 to 1580, the poem cannot be dated earlier than 1571 when Luis de Leon was over forty-three.  If the mention of la morisca armada in the lines A Santiago glances at the battle of Lepanto which was fought on October 7, 1571, then the poem must have been written after that date, when the author was close on forty-four.  The verses dedicated to Juan de Grial, with their closing reference to the writer’s trials: 

      Que yo, de un torbellino
    traidor acometido, y derrocado
    del medio del camino
    al hondo, el plectro amado
    y del vuelo las alas he quebrado;

the fervent entreaty A todos los santos and its unreserved lament: 

No niego, dulce amparo del alma, que mis males son mayores que aqueste desamparo; mas cuanto son peores, tanto resonaran mas tus loores;

the very beautiful and justly renowned Virgen que el sol mas pura, with its heart-rending supplication: 

    los ojos vuelve al suelo
    y mira un miserable en carcel dura
    cercado de tinieblas y tristeza: 

possibly[268] the song Del conocimiento de si mismo, with its significant simile: 

    el gusanillo de la gente hollado
    un rey era, conmigo comparado;