NOTE.
The subject of the following Poem was first suggested to me by Calderon’s noble drama, “El Principe Constante,” accessible not only to the Spanish, but, through Schlegel’s admirable translation, to the German scholar also: from it also I have derived the name. I am, however, much more indebted to a Life of the Prince, published at Berlin, 1827, which gives many original documents connected with the unfortunate expedition to Africa, and actual details of the captivity, and sufferings, and death of the Prince;—a little volume which strikingly exemplifies how far richer and deeper will oftentimes be the simple truth than any fiction, since all that even so great a poet as Calderon has imagined for the casting a glory round his Christian hero is weak and poor compared with the simple reality;—which, however, I may add, I have not so strictly followed but that I have felt myself at liberty to alter and modify the details as best suited my purpose.
It may be of interest to the English reader to know how much of English blood was in the veins of the Prince:—his mother, Philippa, who married John the First of Portugal, was sister to our fourth Henry.