Note 732 — Chapter XXIII

There is a short poem by the Constable in the Commentary of Fernan Nuñez to the 265th Copla of Juan de Mena; and in the fine old Chronicle of the Constable’s life, we are told of him, (Título LXVIII.,) “Fue muy inventivo e mucho dado a fallar invenciones y sacar entremeses, o en justas o en guerra; en las quales invenciones muy agudamente significaba lo que queria.” He is also the author of an unpublished prose work, dated 1446, “On Virtuous and Famous Women,” to which Juan de Mena wrote a Preface; the Constable, at that time, being at the height of his power. It is not, as its title might seem to indicate, translated from a work by Boccaccio, with nearly the same name; but an original production of the great Castilian minister of state. Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., Tom. VI. p. 464, note.