<em>«…fuese y no hubo nada»</em>. Cervantes frente a la manipulación y la dilapidación simbólica

Cervantes’ sonnet «¡Voto a Dios que me espanta esta grandeza» portrays, first and foremost, a set of reactions upon confronting a symbolic artifact which was constructed with the evident purpose of exalting monarchic power in the Spain of the late 16th Century. It therefore constitutes a very interesting object of analysis in order to fathom Cervantes’ dialogue with the manipulative practices which were inherent to the symbolic culture of his time