[315] According to Dr. Theophilo Braga, he was born in 1515; married in 1529 Maria Brandão (aged eleven); was profoundly influenced by Ribeiro’s _Trovas de dous pastores_ (1536) but did not plagiarize it in the _Trovas de Crisfal_ (1536-41), similar passages being due to the _situação quasi similar_ (i.e. _quasi identica_) of the two friends; went to Italy on a diplomatic mission in 1541; spent the year 1543 in Rome and returned to Portugal in the winter of 1543-4; was factor of the fortress of Arguim from 1545 to 1548; and died in 1577. [316] The whole question at issue is whether the _de_ of _Trovas de Crisfal_ = ‘by’ or ‘about’ (cf. _O Livro das Trovas d’ El Rei_ = rather ‘belonging to’ than ‘by’ the king), and protests against _a illusão de pretender identificar em um mesmo poeta o apaixonado de Aonia e o de Maria_ (_Obras_, 1915 ed., p. 10) or _o intuito de converterem Christovam Falcão em um mytho_ (ibid., p. 42) are beside the point. [317] That one of the figures is identical in the woodcuts of these two _folhas volantes_ is not significant: it appears also in an anonymous edition of the _Pranto de Maria Parda_. [318] In the 1559 ed. the words _hũa muy nomeada e agradauel Egloga chamada Crisfal ... que dizem ser de Cristouam Falcam, ho que parece alludir ho nome da mesma Egloga_ may legitimately be held to imply merely that some persons, misled by the anagram, attributed the poem to Falcão. [319] _Decada_ 8, cap. 34 (1786 ed., p. 322). [320] The _licença_ of the 1632 edition says, _Este livrinho ... muitas vezes se imprimio_. [321] Cf. 1885 ed., No. 109: Eu digo os Provençais que inda se sente O som das brandas rimas que entoaram. Cf. Boscán ap. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, tom. xiii (_Juan Boscán_), p. 165: _En tiempo de Dante y un poco antes florecieron los Proenzales, cuyas obras por culpa de los tiempos andan en pocas manos._ Menéndez y Pelayo also (ibid., p. 174) gives a reference by Faria e Sousa to King Dinis: _El rey don Dionis de Portugal nació primero que el Dante tres ó quatro años y escrivió mucho deste propio género endecasílabo, coma consta de los manuscritos._ [322] Cf. 1885 ed., No. 112: ¿Como se perdieron Entre nos el cantar, como el tañer Que tanto nombre a los pasados dieron? [323] Adeus leitor a mais ver, Porque ainda haveis de ver mais (_A Egipciaca_, p. 181). [324] He must often have repeated Nuno Pereira’s lines, which may have influenced him when he read them in the _Cancioneiro Geral: Privar em cas da Rainha Deos vollo deixe fazer, E a mi hũa vinha E regar hũa almoinha Em que tenho mor prazer ... Lavro, cavo quanta posso ... O gingrar de meu caseiro_, &c.