The palm has great significance in the Roman Catholic Church. On Palm Sunday,—the last Sunday of Lent,—branches of the palm-tree are blessed and are carried in a solemn procession, in commemoration of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (cf. John, xii).
[14.] Ticknor translates these lines as follows:
Holy angels and blest,
Through these palms as you sweep,
Hold their branches at rest,
For my babe is asleep.
The literal meaning is: Since you are moving among the palms, holy angels, hold the branches, for my child sleeps. When the wind blows through the palm-trees their leaves rustle loudly.
[14.—Mañana:] translated by Longfellow (Riverside ed., 1886, VI, 204).
[15.]—Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645), the greatest satirist in Spanish literature, was one of the very few men of his time who dared criticize the powers that were. He was born in the province of Santander and was a precocious student at Alcalá. His brilliant mind and his honesty led him to Sicily and Naples, as a high official under the viceroy, and to Venice and elsewhere on private missions; his plain-speaking tongue and ready sword procured him numerous enemies and therefore banishments. He was confined in a dungeon from 1639 to 1643 at the instance of Olivares, at whom some of his sharpest verses were directed.