Entre perros y lobos. Un chaparrón de inútiles consejos para el rey D. Sebastián

Abstract

A critical edition, with introductory study and historico-philologic annotation, of three anonimous poems in Spanish that discuss the political environment of the Portuguese court in the 1570s. The author of the first and third poems could be a Portuguese nobleman, participant in the widespread literary castilianization of that court, or one of the many Spanish members of Queen Catarina’s entourage. The second poem of the series was probably written in 1577 and could be attributed to Francisco de Aldana. Written in pastoral key, they critizice the true kidnapping of King Sebastian by his confessor and his secretary, who kept the king isolated from his subjects, who are thrown in the hands of greedy ministers. They boicotted the king’s marriage plans as well and, in order to keep him distracted from good governement, cultivated his dreams of a crusade expedition to Africa, which would have such desastrous results in 1578.