[581] Bernardo de Brito, no lover of Spain, bears witness to _o favor e benevolencia com que trata os homens doutos_. [582] _De Crepusculis_, Preface. Martim Afonso de Miranda later (_Tempo de Agora_, _prologo_ to Pt. 2, 1624) writes of _a pouca curiosidade que hoje ha acerca da lição dos liuros, como tambem o risco a que se expõem os que escreuem_. [583] Menéndez y Pelayo set Mello above all except his friend Quevedo. [584] Mr. Edgar Prestage discovered his baptismal certificate and established the date (1608) beyond doubt, though it is still often given as 1611. On his mother’s side Mello was great-grandson of the historian Duarte Nunez de Leam. [585] Prefatory letter to _Las tres Mvsas del Melodino_ (1649): _el lenguaje estrangero tan poco es favorable al que compone_. [586] He was writing it in January 1650. [587] _Historia de los movimientos y separacion de Cataluña y de la guerra_, &c. Lisboa, 1645. [588] On his release after four months of imprisonment the Count-Duke Olivares said to him: _Ea, caballero, ha sido un erro, pero erro con causa._ [589] The first five years were, in his own words, rigorous. In 1650 he was removed from the _Torre Velha_ to the Lisbon _Castello_, and thenceforth enjoyed greater liberty. He had been transferred from the Torre de Belem to the _Torre Velha_ on the left bank of the Tagus in 1646. [590] The document was discovered by Dr. Braga and published in his _Os Seiscentistas_ (1916), p. 339. [591] _Approbatio of Cartas_, Roma, 1664. [592] A copy of this rare and curious work exists in the Lisbon Biblioteca Nacional (_Res._ 264 v.). It contains 71 ff. divided into four parts. The author, in his apophthegms on the character of women, quotes the classics widely, and refers to the Uthopia [so] of Sir Thomas More and to _Celestina_. [593] _Relaçam_, 1842 ed., p. 233. [594] His digressions are methodical: _por este modo de historiar (que é aquelle que eu desejo ler) pretendo escrever sempre_ (_Epan._ ii). In _Epan._ i he says: _Refiro, pode ser com demasia, todos os accidentes deste negocio._ [595] He re-wrote this _Epanaphora_ twice, the first two versions having been lost. [596] Cf. _Visita das Fontes_ (_Ap. Dial._ 3), 1900 ed., p. 89: _cada qual desde o logar em que está acha uma linha muito junto de si que é o caminho por onde pode ir a Deus_. [597] Cf. _Hospital das Lettras_ (_Ap. Dial._ 4), 1900 ed., p. 114: _por falta de cuidar cada um em se aproveitar deste mundo o que delle lhe toca, o lançam todos a perder todos juntos do modo que vemos_. [598] _Relogios Fallantes_ (_Ap. Dial._ 1). [599] _Escriptorio Avarento_ (_Ap. Dial._ 2). [600] _Visita das Fontes_ (_Ap. Dial._ 3). [601] Cf. the backwoodsman described by Couto as _algum fidalgo criado lá na Beira que nunca vio o Rei_ (_Dialogo do Sold. Prat._, p. 31). [602] Cf. _Aulegrafia_ (1619), f. 85 v.: _emendar a Natureza_. [603] Edgar Prestage, _Esboço_, pp. 128-9.