[717] He founded the fortunes of the family of which the Marquis of Pescara was so distinguished a member in the time of Charles V.; his first achievement having been to kill a Portuguese in fair fight, after public challenge, and in presence of both the armies. The poet rose to be Constable of Castile. Historia de D. Hernando Dávalos, Marques de Pescara, Anvers, 1558, 12mo, Lib. I., c. 1.
[718] Besides what are to be found in the Cancioneros Generales,—for example, in that of 1573, at ff. 148-152, 189, etc.,—there is a MS. in possession of the Royal Academy at Madrid, (Codex No. 114,) which contains a large number of poems by Alvarez Gato. Their author was a person of consequence in his time, and served John II., Henry IV., and Ferdinand and Isabella, in affairs of state. With John he was on terms of friendship. One day, when the king missed him from his hunting-party and was told he was indisposed, he replied, “Let us, then, go and see him; he is my friend,”—and returned to make the kindly visit. Gato died after 1495. Gerónimo Quintana, Historia de Madrid, Madrid, 1629, folio, f. 221.
The poetry of Gato is sometimes connected with public affairs; but, in general, like the rest of that which marks the period when it was written, it is in a courtly and affected tone, and devoted to love and gallantry. Some of it is more lively and natural than most of its doubtful class. Thus, when his lady-love told him “he must talk sense,” he replied, that he had lost the little he ever had from the time when he first saw her, ending his poetical answer with these words:—
But if, in good faith, you require
That sense should come back to me,
Show the kindness to which I aspire,
Give the freedom you know I desire,
And pay me my service fee.
Si queres que de verdad
Torné a mi seso y sentido,