he _comedias_ or set plays are unsuccessful experiments
in Lope de Vega's manner, while the _entremeses_ or _interludes_,
particularly those in prose, are models of spontaneous gaiety and
ingenious wit.

In the preface to the _Novelas exemplares_ Cervantes had announced the
speedy appearance of the sequel to _Don Quixote_ which he had vaguely
promised at the end of the first part. He was at work on the fifty-ninth
chapter of his continuation when he learned that he had been anticipated
by Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda of Tordesillas, whose _Segunde tamo
del ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha_ was published at
Tarragona in 1614. On the assumption that Fernandez de Avellaneda is a
pseudonym, this spurious sequel has been ascribed to the king's
confessor, Luis de Aliaga, to Cervantes' old enemy, Blanco de Paz, to
his old friend, Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola, to the three great
dramatists, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Ruiz de Alarcon, to Alonso
Fernandez, to Juan Jose Marti, to Alfonso Lamberto, to Luis de Granada,
and probably to others. Some of these attributions are manifestly
absurd--for example, Luis de Granada died seventeen years before the
first part of _Don Quixote_ was published--and all of them are
improbable conjectures; if Avellaneda be not the real name of the
author, his identity is still undiscovered. His book is not devoid of
literary talent and robust humour, and possibly he began it under the
impression that Cervantes was no more likely to finish _Don Quixote_
than to finish the _Galatea_. He should, however, have abandoned his
project on reading the announcement in the preface to the _Novelas
exemplares_; what he actually did was to disgrace himself by writing an
insolent preface taunting Cervantes with his physical defects, his moral
infirmities, his age, loneliness and experiences in jail. He was too
intelligent to imagine that his continuation could hold its own against
the authentic sequel, and malignantly avowed his intention of being
first in the field and so spoiling Cervantes' market. It is quite
possible that _Don Quixote_ might have been left incomplete but for this
insulting intrusion; Cervantes was a leisurely writer and was, as he
states, engaged on _El Engano a los ojos, Las Semanas del Jardin_ and
_El Famoso Bernardo_, none of which have been preserved. Avellaneda
forced him to concentrate his attention on his masterpiece, and the
authentic second part of _Don Quixote_ app