Note 171 — BOOK VI.

The dates of the birth and death of the Cordoban poet, Juan Rufo Gutiérrez, are given conjecturally as 1530 and 1600. Cervantes esteemed Rufo's Austriada inordinately: see note 2. In truth the Austriada is a tedious performance, being merely a poor rhythmical arrangement of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's Guerra de Granada. Mendoza's history was not published till 1627, long after the author's death (1575). It was issued at Lisbon by Luis Tribaldos de Toledo who, in the previous year, had brought out a posthumous edition of the poems of Francisco de Figueroa—the Tirsi of the Galatea. Evidently, then, Rufo read the Guerra de Granada in manuscript: see M. Foulché-Delbosc's article in the Revue hispanique (Paris, 1894), vol. i., pp. 137-138, n.