MANRIQUE

manrique, jorge (1440?-1478), spanish poet and soldier, was born probably at paredes de nava. the fourth son of rodrigo manrique, count de paredes, he became like the rest of his family a fervent partisan of queen isabel, served with great distinction in many engagements, and was made _comendador_ of montizon in the order of santiago. he was killed in a skirmish near the fortress of garci-munoz in 1478, and was buried in the church attached to the convent of ucles. his love-songs, satires, and acrostic verses are merely ingenious compositions in the taste of his age; he owes his imperishable renown to a single poem, the _coplas por la muerte de su padre_, an elegy of forty stanzas on the death of his father, which was apparently first printed in the _cancionero llamado de fray inigo de mendoza_ about the year 1482. there is no foundation for the theory that manrique drew his inspiration from an arabic poem by abu 'l-baka salih ar-rundi; the form of the _coplas_ is influenced by the _consejos_ of his uncle, gomez manrique, and the matter derives from the bible, from boethius and from other sources readily accessible. the great sonorous commonplaces on death are vitalized by the intensely personal grief of the poet, who lent a new solemnity and significance to thoughts which had been for centuries the common property of mankind. it was given to jorge manrique to have one single moment of sublime expression, and this isolated achievement has won him a fame undimmed by any change of taste during four centuries. the best edition of the _coplas_ is that issued by r. foulche-delbosc in the _bibliotheca hispanica_; the poem has been admirably translated by longfellow. manrique's other verses were mostly printed in hernando del castillo's _cancionero general_ (1511). manse (med. lat. _mansa_, _mansus_ or _mansum_, from _manere_, to dwell, remain), originally a dwelling-house together with a portion of land sufficient for the support of a family. it is defined by du cange (_glossarium, s.v. mansus_) as _... certam agri portionem quae coleretur et in qua coloni aedes esset_. the term was particularly applied, in ecclesiastical law, to the house and glebe to which every church was entitled by common right, the rule of canon law being _sancitum est ut unicuique ecclesiae unus mansus integer absque ullo servitio tribuatur_ (phillimore, _eccles. law_, 1895, ii. 1125). the word is now chiefly used for the residence of a minister of the established church of scotland; to this every minister of a rural parish is entitled, and the landed proprietors must build and keep it up. "manse" is also loosely used for the residence of a minister of various free church denominations (see glebe).