  We investigate the nature of the optical continuum and stellar population in
the central kpc of the Seyfert 2s Mrk 348, Mrk 573, NGC 1358 and Mrk 1210 using
long-slit spectra obtained along the radio or extended emission axis. These
galaxies are known to have polarized continuum-including polarized broad lines
in Mrk 348 and Mrk 1210--and previous studies indicate featureless continuum
(FC) contributions in the 20-50% range at 5500 A. Nevertheless, our
measurements of the equivalent widths of absorption lines and continuum ratios
as a function of distance from the nuclei show no dilution of the lines nor
bluening of the spectrum, as expected if a blue FC was present at the nucleus
in the above proportions. We investigate one possibility to account for this
effect: that the stellar population at the nucleus is the same as that from the
surrounding bulge and dominates the nuclear light. A spectral analysis confirms
that this hypothesis works for Mrk 348, NGC 1358 and Mrk 1210, for which we
find stellar contributions at the nucleus larger than 90% at all wavelengths.
We find that a larger stellar population contribution to the nuclear spectra
can play the role of the ``second FC'' source inferred from previous studies.
Stellar population synthesis shows that the nuclear regions of Mrk 348 and Mrk
1210 have important contributions of young to intermediate age stars (0--100
Myr), not present in templates of elliptical galaxies. In the case of Mrk 1210,
this is further confirmed by the detection of a ``Wolf-Rayet feature'' in the
nuclear emission-line spectrum.
