But king John was not satisfied with the torrent of praise which was poured upon him by Mena’s Labyrinth. The king, with critical gravity, signified his wish that the poet should add sixty-five stanzas to the three hundred which he had already written, so that by making the number of stanzas correspond with the number of days in the year, the beauty of the composition might be heightened. The sixty-five new stanzas were also to have a political tendency, with the view of recalling the rebellious nobles to their allegiance. Juan de Mena proceeded to the prescribed task; but he could produce no more than twenty-four additional stanzas (_coplas añadidas_.) They are contained in the _Cancionero general_. Another work of Juan de Mena, very celebrated at the period when the poet flourished, is his Ode for the Poetical Coronation of the Marquis of Santillana.[98] That Mecænas sometimes vied with him in the composition of ingenious questions, or enigmas and their answers, which were versified by both in dactylic stanzas.[99] His other poems are, for the most part, love songs, in the style of the age, and according to the perverted taste of the poet, loaded with mythological learning. In the course of this work further notice will be taken of these songs, together with other amatory poems of the same period. During the last year of his life, Juan de Mena was engaged in a moral allegorical poem, which, however, he did not complete. It was entitled a Treatise on Vices and Virtues, (_Tractado de Vicios y Virtudes_.) The author intended in an epic poem to represent the “more than civil war,” which the will, instigated by the passions, maintains with reason.[100] The will and reason are in the end personified. To collect biographical notices of the other poets and writers of verse who enjoyed the favour of king John II. and whose works are partly contained in the _Cancionero general_, or to give an extensive account of their productions, is a task which must be resigned to the author who has made this department of Spanish literature his particular study. As to poetic value, the writings of all those authors are in the main the same; and it may therefore be presumed that it will prove more instructive to consider works so nearly related to each other, under the comprehensive view of general criticism. A few notices, however, of men worthy of more particular remembrance, may precede the critical comparison of their works.[101] PEREZ DE GUZMAN, RODRIGUEZ DEL PADRON, AND OTHER SPANISH LYRIC POETS OF THE AGE OF JOHN II.