Hurta al tiempo, y redime del oluido.
Pluma, pues, que claueros celestiales
Eterniza en los bronces du su historia,
Llaue es ya de los siglos, y no pluma.
Ella á sus nombres puertas immortales
Abre, no de caduca no memoria,
Que sombras sella en tumulos de espuma.
Góngora, Obras, 1654, f. 5.
The commentary is in Coronel, Obras de Góngora Comentadas, Tom. II. Parte I., Madrid, 1645, pp. 148-159; but it should be noted, that the concluding lines are so obscure, that Luzan (Poética, Lib. II. c. 15) gives them a different interpretation, and understands the phrase, “stamping shadows on masses of foam,” to refer to the art of printing, which so often praises those who do not deserve it. The whole sonnet is cited with admiration by Gracian, “Agudeza y Arte de Ingenio,” Discurso XXXII.; a work which we must mention hereafter as the art of poetry for the culto school; and the editors of the “Diario de los Literatos de España”—men of better taste than was common in their times—reproached Luzan, when they reviewed his “Poética” in 1738, with being too severe on this extraordinary nonsense. Lanuza, Discurso Apologético de Luzan, Pamplona, 1740, 12mo, pp. 46-78.
[876] Obras, f. 32.