[94] Ibid., c. 46 and 48.
[95] Crónica de Alfonso XI., c. 49.
[96] Mariana, Hist., Lib. XV. c. 19.
[97] Ibid., Lib. XVI. c. 4. Crónica de Alfonso XI., c. 178. Argote de Molina, Sucesion de los Manueles.
[98] Mariana, in one of those happy hits of character which are not rare in his History, says of Don John Manuel, that he was “de condicion inquieta y mudable, tanto que a muchos parecia nació solamente para revolver el reyno.” Hist., Lib. XV. c. 12.
[99] Argote de Molina, Life of Don John, in the ed. of the Conde Lucanor, 1575. The accounts of Argote de Molina, and of the manuscript in the National Library, are not precisely the same; but the last is imperfect, and evidently omits one work. Both contain the four following, viz.:—1. Chronicle of Spain; 2. Book of Hunting; 3. Book of Poetry; and 4. Book of Counsels to his Son. Argote de Molina gives besides these,—1. Libro de los Sabios; 2. Libro del Caballero; 3. Libro del Escudero; 4. Libro del Infante; 5. Libro de Caballeros; 6. Libro de los Engaños; and 7. Libro de los Exemplos. The manuscript gives, besides the four that are clearly in common, the following:—1. Letter to his brother, containing an account of the family arms, etc.; 2. Book of Conditions, or Libro de los Estados, which may be Argote de Molina’s Libro de los Sabios; 3. Libro del Caballero y del Escudero, of which Argote de Molina seems to make two separate works; 4. Libro de la Caballería, probably Argote de Molina’s Libro de Caballeros; 5. La Cumplida; 6. Libro de los Engeños, a treatise on Military Engines, misspelt by Argote de Molina, Engaños, so as to make it a treatise on Frauds; and 7. Reglas como se deve trovar. But, as has been said, the manuscript has a hiatus, and, though it says there were twelve works, gives the titles of only eleven, and omits the Conde Lucanor, which is the Libro de los Exemplos of Argote’s list.
[100] Mem. de Alfonso el Sabio, p. 464.
[101] Note to Don Quixote, ed. Pellicer, Parte II. Tom. I. p. 284.
[102] Poesías Anteriores, Tom. IV. p. xi.
[103] I am aware there are poems in the Cancioneros Generales, by a Don John Manuel, which have been generally attributed to Don John Manuel, the Regent of Castile in the time of Alfonso XI., as, for instance, those in the Cancionero of Antwerp (1573, 8vo, ff. 175, 207, 227, 267). But they are not his. Their language and thoughts are quite too modern. Probably they are the work of Don John Manuel who was Camareiro Mòr of King Emanuel of Portugal, († 1524,) and whose poems, both in Portuguese and in Spanish, figure largely in the Cancioneiro Gerale of Garcia Rresende, (Lisboa, 1516, fol.,) where they are found at ff. 48-57, 148, 169, 212, 230, and I believe in some other places. He is the author of the Spanish “Coplas sobre los Siete Pecados Mortales,” dedicated to John II. of Portugal, († 1495,) which are in Bohl de Faber’s “Floresta,” (Hamburgo, 1821-25, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 10-15,) taken from Rresende, f. 55, in one of the three copies of whose Cancioneiro then existing (that at the Convent of the Necessidades in Lisbon) I read them many years ago. Rresende’s Cancioneiro is now no longer so rare, being in course of publication by the Stuttgard Verein. The Portuguese Don John Manuel was a person of much consideration in his time; and in 1497 concluded a treaty for the marriage of King Emanuel of Portugal with Isabella, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. (Barbosa, Biblioteca Lusitana, Lisboa, 1747, fol., Tom. II. p. 688.) But he appears very little to his honor in Lope de Vega’s play entitled “El Príncipe Perfeto,” under the name of Don Juan de Sosa. Comedias, Tom. XI., Barcelona, 1618, 4to, p. 121.