In the prefatory note of the 1631 Madrid edition--entitled _Obras propias, y traduciones latinas, griegas y italianas_--Luis de Leon speaks of his poems slightingly as mere playthings of his youth, now brought together at the request of an anonymous friend--perhaps Benito Arias Montano--to whom they had been ascribed. Luis de Leon arranges the material in three books, containing respectively his original compositions, his translations from authors profane, and his versions of certain psalms, a hymn, and chapters from the Book of Job. But, beyond the general statement as to the early date of composition, Luis de Leon gives no precise information as to when individual poems were written. The assertion that the poems date back almost to the author's childhood is contradicted by concrete facts. Take, for instance, the celebrated _Noche serena_ dedicated to Oloarte. If, as I conjecture, the dedicatee of the _Noche serena_ is identical with the Diego de Loarte, archdeacon of Ledesma, who gave evidence at Salamanca on January 27, 1573, and who on that 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 _niñez_. 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 túmulo del príncipe don Carlos_ must necessarily have been composed after that date; that is, when Luis de Leon was just forty and had left his _niñez_ 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 _Miño_, 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: