est sense. _Lazarillo de
Tormes_ is counted as the first of these. It is attributed to Diego
Hurtado de Mendoza and is thought to have been produced about 1500. The
best known of the class is _Gil Blas_. The hero lives by his wits, has
many vicissitudes, and plays and suffers many cruel practical jokes.
The Spanish stories of Quevedo and Perez are coarse but never obscene.
The view of women, however, is low. They are fickle, shallow, vain, and
cunning. The church is "gingerly handled," but the clergy are derided
for immorality, hypocrisy, and trickiness.

+661. Books of beggars.+ A variety of the picaresque species was the
"books of beggars." An English specimen of this variety is Audley's
_Fraternity of Vagabonds_ (1561). Mediaeval social ways produced armies
of vagabonds, beggars, and outcasts, who practiced vice and evil ways
and cultivated criminal cleverness. The picaresque stories illustrate
their ways.

+662. At the beginning of the sixteenth century.+ Isabella d'Este
describes a play at Ferrara, in 1503, in which the Annunciation was
represented, angels descending from heaven by concealed machinery, etc.
There was also a _moresca_, a ballet or pantomime dance, with clowns and
beasts, and blows and other clown tricks. Another very noteworthy
incident is the enactment, at Urbino in 1504, of a "comedy," in which
the recent history of that city was represented, including the marriage
of Lucrezia Borgia, the conquest of Urbino by Cesar Borgia, the death of
Alexander VI, and the return of the Duke of Urbino. This application of
the dramatic method to their own recent history, which had been indeed
dramatic, shows the high development of graphic and artistic power,
which is also shown by the other arts of the time. Ladies did not then
abdicate their prerogative to judge and condemn the propriety of
artistic products offered to them. Isabella declared the _Cassaria_
"lascivious and immoral beyond words," and forbade her ladies to attend
the performance of it at the marriage of Lucrezia Borgia to her
(Isabella's) brother.[2120] In France, in the sixteenth century,
imitations of classical dramas held the stage. The Protestants sought to
use the drama for effect on the populace.[2121] St. Charles Borromeo
(1538-1584), as Archbishop of Milan, carried on a war against
exhibitions of all kinds. He maintained that they were indecent.[2122]

+663. The theater at Venice.+ The first tragedy produced in Italy was
written by Alb