488 Schevill — Studies in Cervantes. 



play, the results, however, are of a purely historical interest to a 

 student of the Spanish stage, and, with the possible exception of 

 Virues's Elisa Dido,^ an attempt to imitate the ancient style, and 

 Oastro's Los Amores de Dido y Eneas ^- an excellent specimen of 

 that poet's power of dramatic expression, they are now dull reading. 

 As is natural, the prolific Lope de Yega is our most important 

 criterion in this matter. His plays are throughout a mine of infor- 

 mation for those who are searching for classical reminiscences in 

 that popular form of literature, the drama. Since Lope must 

 have introduced all his learning in the heat of composition and 

 frequently without deliberation, the copious classical material which 

 he controlled is certainly astounding. However much we may believe 



lias been treated frequently, there being a play by Alessandro de' Pazzi 

 (1524), Didone, one by Giovanni Geraldi (Cinthio), (1543), of the same 

 title, and one by Lodovico Dolce (1547) ; cf. Klein, Geschichte des Dramas, 

 Vol. V, pp. 350 flf., 399 ff. (Leipzig, 1867) ; and Creizenach, op. cit., Vol. II, 

 pp. 391 fif., 397, 412; there is also a Didone ahliandonata by Metastasio; 

 in France, Jodelle wrote Didon se sacrifiant, Creizenach, op. cit., Vol. II, 

 p. 446, and Petit de JullevillCj Histoire de la Langue et de la Litteratttre 

 frangaises, Vol. Ill, seizi&me si&cle (Paris, 1897), p. 269. 



^ Cf. Ticknor, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 65-6 and note. 



- "Wlien Lojie de Vega dedicated Las Almcnas de Tore to D. Guillen de 

 Castro he took the occasion to praise the excellent tragic style of the hitter's 

 Dido: "Entre las tragedias que vuestra merced tan ingeniosamente ha 

 escrito, para lo que tiene genio particular (como estilo superior y digno de 

 mayo res sentencias y pensamientos), es la Dido celebradisima, & quien el 

 dia que yo la ol en esa ilustrisima ciudad hice este epigrama : 



Fenisa Dido, que en el mar Sidonio 

 Las rocas excediste conquistada, 

 Y en limpia castidad, jamas violada, 

 Conservaste la fe del matrimonio: 

 Perdona el atrevido testimonio, 

 No por ser de Virgilio celebrada, 

 Mas porque ya de don Guillen honrada, 

 Rompe su enojo, y su epigrama Ausonio. 

 La diosa que en la mar nacio de espuma 

 Adore por sus versos tu belleza, 

 Pues te levantan A grandeza suma; 

 Rinde a su dulce ingenio tu aspereza : 

 Que mSs gana tu fama con su pluma. 

 Que pierde en sor Ijurlada tu firmeza." 



Cf. Obras de Lope de Vega publicadas por la Real Academia espaiiola, 

 Tomo VIII, p. 79; and Schack, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 445. 



