Note 603 — Chapter XVIII

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.