The “Rimado de Palacio,” which may be translated “Court Rhymes,” was the production of different periods of Ayala’s life. Twice he marks the year in which he was writing, and from these dates we know that parts of it were certainly composed in 1398 and 1404, while yet another part seems to have been written during his imprisonment in England, which followed the defeat of Henry of Trastamara by the Duke of Lancaster, in 1367. On the whole, therefore, the Rimado de Palacio is to be placed near the conclusion of the fourteenth century, and, by its author’s sufferings in an English prison, reminds us both of the Duke of Orleans and of James the First of Scotland, who, at the same time and under similar circumstances, showed a poetical spirit not unlike that of the great Chancellor of Castile. In some of its subdivisions, particularly in those that have a lyrical tendency, the Rimado resembles some of the lighter poems of the Archpriest of Hita. Others are composed with care and gravity, and express the solemn thoughts that filled him during his captivity. But, in general, it has a quiet, didactic tone, such as beseems its subject and its age; one, however, in which we occasionally find a satirical spirit that could not be suppressed, when the old statesman discusses the manners that offended him. Thus, speaking of the _Letrados_, or lawyers, he says:[161]-- [161] _Letrado_ has continued to be used to mean a _lawyer_ in Spanish down to our day, as _clerk_ has to mean a _writer_ in English, though the original signification of both was different. When Sancho goes to his island, he is said to be “parte de letrado, parte de Capitan”; and Guillen de Castro, in his “Mal Casados de Valencia,” Act. III., says of a great rogue, “engaño como letrado.” A description of Letrados, worthy of Tacitus for its deep satire, is to be found in the first book of Mendoza’s “Guerra de Granada.” When entering on a lawsuit, · if you ask for their advice, They sit down very solemnly, · their brows fall in a trice. “A question grave is this,” they say, · “and asks for labor nice; To the Council it must go, · and much management implies. “I think, perhaps, in time, · I can help you in the thing, By dint of labor long · and grievous studying; But other duties I must leave, · away all business fling, Your case alone must study, · and to you alone must cling.”[162] [162] The passage is in Cortina’s notes to Bouterwek, and begins:-- Si quisiers sobre un pleyto · d’ ellos aver consejo, Pónense solemnmente, · luego abaxan el cejo: Dis: “Grant question es esta, · grant trabajo sobejo: El pleyto sera luengo, · ca atañe a to el consejo. “Yo pienso que podria · aquí algo ayudar, Tomando grant trabajo · mis libros estudiar; Mas todos mis negoçios · me conviene á dexar, E solamente en aqueste · vuestro pleyto estudiar.”