| Summary: | In this work, I try to reconsider two very important questions in Garcilaso’s life and works: on the one hand, the date of Isabel Freyre’s death (the Elisa whom the Toledan cries over in his Eclogues I and III); on the other hand, the date when he fell in love with the Portuguese lady, who Garcilaso met and frequented with, and who was mentioned in several sonnets and especially in the elegy II. Taking into account only Garcilaso’s verses, not only do I come to the conclusion that the Portuguese lady died at the end of 1534 or at the beginning of 1535, but I also think that our poet could feel this love during those days, that is to say, after October 1534 and before May 1535. With regard to the identity of this new love, I suggest that she could be Isabella Villamarina, the princess of Salerno, because Garcilaso could be alluding to the lady’s name at the end of sonnet XIX («y a sabella de vos del alma mía»), and the surname in the sea nymph name, Galatea, who was chosen in order to reproach her betrayal in Eclogue I.
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