[600] The “Trabajos de Hercules” is one of the rarest books in the world, though there are editions of it of 1483 and 1499, and perhaps one of 1502. The copy which I use is of the first edition, and belongs to Don Pascual de Gayangos. It was printed at Çamora, by Centenera, having been completed, as the colophon tells us, on the 15th of January, 1483. It fills thirty leaves in folio, double columns, and is illustrated by eleven curious woodcuts, well done for the period and country. The mistakes made about it are remarkable, and render the details I have given of some consequence. Antonio, (Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 222,) Velasquez, (Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana, 4to, Málaga, 1754, p. 49,) L. F. Moratin, (Obras, ed. de la Academia, Madrid, 1830, 8vo, Tom. I. Parte I. p. 114,) and even Torres Amat, in his “Memorias,” (Barcelona, 1836, 8vo, p. 669,) all speak of it as a poem. Of the edition printed at Burgos, in 1499, and mentioned in Mendez, Typog. Esp., (p. 289,) I have never seen a copy, and, except the above-mentioned copy of the first edition and an imperfect one in the Royal Library at Paris, I know of none of any edition;—so rare is it become.
[601] See Heeren, Geschichte der Class. Litteratur im Mittelalter, Göttingen, 8vo, Tom. II., 1801, pp. 126-131. From the Advertencia to the Marquis of Villena’s translation of Virgil, it would seem that even Virgil was hardly known in Spain in the beginning of the fifteenth century.
[602] Another work of the Marquis of Villena is mentioned in Sempere y Guarinos, “Historia del Luxo de España,” (Madrid, 1788, 8vo, Tom. I. pp. 176-179,) called “El Triunfo de las Donas,” and is said to have been found by him in a manuscript of the fifteenth century, “with other works of the same wise author.” The extract given by Sempere is on the fops of the time, and is written with spirit.
[603] The best account of Macias and of his verses is in Bellermann’s “Alte Liederbücher der Portuguiesen” (Berlin, 1840, 4to, pp. 24-26); to which may well be added, Argote de Molina, “Nobleza del Andaluzia,” (Sevilla, 1588, folio, Lib. II. c. 148, f. 272,) Castro, “Biblioteca Española,” (Tom. I. p. 312,) and Cortina’s notes to Bouterwek (p. 195). But the proofs of his early and wide-spread fame are to be sought in Sanchez, “Poesías Anteriores” (Tom. I. p. 138); in the “Cancionero General,” 1535 (ff. 67, 91); in Juan de Mena, Copla 105, with the notes on it in the edition of Mena’s Works, 1566; in “Celestina,” Act II.; in several plays of Calderon, such as “Para vencer Amor querer vencerlo,” and “Qual es mayor Perfeccion”; in Góngora’s ballads; and in many passages of Lope de Vega and Cervantes. There are notices of Macias also in Ochoa, “Manuscritos Españoles,” Paris, 1844, 4to, p. 505. In Vol. XLVIII. of “Comedias Escogidas,” (1704, 4to,) is an anonymous play on his adventures and death, entitled “El Español mas Amante,” in which the unhappy Macias is killed at the moment the Marquis of Villena arrives to release him from prison;—and in our own times, Larra has made him the hero of his “Doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente,” already referred to, and of a tragedy that bears his name, “Macias,” neither of them true to the facts of history.
[604] Perez de Guzman, Generaciones y Semblanzas, Cap. 9.
[605] This great family is early connected with the poetry of Spain. The grandfather of Iñigo sacrificed his own life voluntarily to save the life of John I. at the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, and became in consequence the subject of that stirring and glorious ballad,—
Si el cavallo vos han muerto,
Subid, Rey, en mi cavallo.
It is found at the end of the Eighth Part of the Romancero, 1597, and is translated with much spirit by Lockhart, who, however, evidently did not seek exactness in his version.
[606] Crónica de D. Juan el Segundo, Año 1414, Cap. 2.