[Page 49].—l. 10. Don Enrique: Enrique IV., the Impotent († 1474). Unsuccessful in war, degraded and deposed by his subjects (1465), he was finally allowed to end his life on the throne only after consenting to the right of succession of his sister Isabel as opposed to that of his alleged daughter Juana.
l. 33. su hermano el innocente: the Infante Alfonso, to whom the throne was offered after the deposition of Enrique in 1465. Alfonso died, poisoned it is said, in 1468.
[Page 50].—l. 11. Condestable: Álvaro de Luna; cf. [note to p. 28].
l. 13. tan privado, so great a favorite.
[Page 51].—l. 25. Longfellow inserts here the translation of two other stanzas not to be found in the text as published by Menéndez y Pelayo. A legend has it that they were discovered in the pocket of the author after his death on the battlefield.
l. 28. El Maestre don Rodrigo: Rodrigo Manrique, the father of the poet, died in 1476.
[Page 52].—l. 9. para: equivalent to para con.
l. 15. Octaviano: the allusions to events in ancient history conveyed by this and the following names will readily suggest themselves.
l. 24. En ... Archidano: cf. Longfellow: “The arm of Hector.”
l. 28. en ygualdad, etc.: i.e., in placidity of countenance.