FABIO, MORAL EPISTLE TO — A Spanish poetic composition of the 17th century in terza rima of hendecasyllables, attributed to B. L. de Argensola (by Sedano, 1768), to Rioja (by Estela, 1786), to Fernández de Andrada (by A. de Castro, 1875), to Medrano (by Foulché-Delbosc, 1900). It is a noble discourse in which the historical tradition and the Christian vision of Spain during the Catholic Reformation are fused.
The author advises his friend F., a fictional character, to abandon the hopes and corruptions of the world, to take refuge in the countryside, to hate adventure, deceit, and ostentation, and to practice virtue in fervent silence. His ideas derive from Seneca (De tranquillitate animi, X) and, in general, from the Stoics, who were particularly well known in Spain especially through the work of Quevedo; the Horatian *Beatus ille* echoes in the exaltation of rural happiness, as do sentiments analogous to those of the famous sonnet by Plantin C. *Le bonheur de ce monde*. Despite such precedents, the Epistle is one of the most original, elegant, and concrete Spanish poems and one of those most imbued with Christian spirituality.