mposition, the
style and form of the national drama had been definitively settled by a
large number of writers, the brilliant success of whose acknowledged
chief may previously have diverted Cervantes from his labours for the
theatre. His influence upon the general progress of dramatic literature
is, however, to be sought, not only in his plays, but also in those
_novelas exemplares_--incomparable alike in their clearness and their
terseness of narrative--to which more than one drama is indebted for its
plot, and for much of its dialogue to boot.

Lope de Vega.

Lope de Vega, one of the most astonishing geniuses the world has known,
permanently established the national forms of the Spanish drama. Some of
these were in their beginnings taken over by him from ruder
predecessors; some were cultivated with equal or even superior success
by subsequent authors; but in variety, as in fertility of dramatic
production, he has no rivals. His fertility, which was such that he
wrote about 1500 plays, besides 300 dramatic works classed as _autos
sacramentales_ and _entremeses_, and a vast series of other literary
compositions, has indisputably prejudiced his reputation with those to
whom he is but a name and a number. Yet as a dramatist Lope more fully
exemplifies the capabilities of the Spanish theatre than any of his
successors, though as a poet Calderon may deserve the palm. Nor would it
be possible to imagine a truer representative of the Spain of his age
than a poet who, after suffering the hardships of poverty and exile, and
the pangs of passion, sailed against the foes of the faith in the
Invincible Armada, subsequently became a member of the Holy Inquisition
and of the order of St Francis, and after having been decorated by the
pope with the cross of Malta and a theological doctorate, honoured by
the nobility, and idolized by the nation, ended with the names of Jesus
and Mary on his lips. From the plays of such a writer we may best learn
the manners and the sentiments, the ideas of religion and honour, of the
Spain of the Philippine age, the age when she was most prominent in the
eyes of Europe and most glorious in her own. For, with all its
inventiveness and vigour, the genius of Lope primarily set itself the
task of pleasing his public,--the very spirit of whose inner as well as
outer life is accordingly mirrored in his dramatic works. In them we
have, in the words of Lope's French translator Baret, "the movement, the