62f 



Lord. Holland on the Life and Writings 



metre with as much rapidity as in prose, 

 «nd in confirinntion of ii he relates the 

 following story :* 



^'Hi9 pen was unable to keep pace 

 \»ith his mind, as he invented even more 

 than his hand was capable of Irnns- 

 eribing. He wrote a comrdy in two 

 days, which it would not be very easy 

 for the most expeditious amanuensis to 

 copy out in the ticne. At Toledo lie 

 wrote filtecn acts in fifteen days, which 

 make five comedies. These he read at a 

 private house, where Maestro Joseph de 

 Valdibieso was present and was witness 

 of the wh(»le; but, because this is vari- 

 ously related, I will mention what I my- 

 •elf know from my own knowledjie. 

 Jloque de Figueroa, the writer for the 

 theatre at Madrid, was at such a loss for 

 comedies that the doors of the Theatre de 

 la C'uz were shut; but, as it was in the 

 Carnival, lie "as so anxious upon the 

 subject, that Lope and myself agreed to 

 compose a joint comedy as fast as pos- 

 sible. It was the Tercera Orden df San 

 Francisco, and is the very one in which 

 Arias acted the part of the saint more 

 naturally than was ever witnessed on the 

 Stage. The first act fell to Lope's lot, 

 and the second to mine; we dispatched 

 these in two days, and "he third was to be 

 divided into eight leaves each. As it 

 was bad weather, I remained in his house 

 that night, and knowing that I could not 

 equal him in the execution, 1 had a fancy 

 to beat him ni the dispatch of the busi- 

 ness j for tliis purpose [ got up at two 

 o'clock, and at eleven hud completed my 

 share of the work. I immediately went 

 out to louk for him, and lound him very 

 deeply occupied with an o;ange-tree 

 that had bten frostbitten in the night. 

 Upon my asking him how he had gone on 

 with his ta'-k, he answered, 'I set about 

 it at five ; bur I finished the act an hour 

 ago; took a bit of ham for breakfast; 

 wrote an epistle of filty triplets; and 

 have watered the whole of the g;irf)pn: 

 which has not a little fatigued me.' Then 

 taking out the papers, he read me the 

 eight leaves and the triplets; a ciicoin- 

 staiice tliat would hav» astmiished me, 

 bad I not known the fertility of his ge- 

 nius, and the dominion he had over the 

 rhymes of oui language.'' 



Am to the iiumhei of his plays, all con- 

 temporaiy authors concur in representing 

 it as prodigious. "At Irist appeared," 

 says Cervantes in his proh gne, "that 

 prodigy of nature, the great Lope, aiTd 



■«» '- ' 



* Montalvau's Eulogium, 



established his monarchy on the stage. 

 He conquered and reduced under his 

 jurisdiction every actor and author in 

 the kingdom. He filled the world with 

 plays written with purity, and the plot 

 conducted witli skill, in number so many 

 that they exceed eighteen hundred sheets 

 of paper; and what is the most wonderful 

 of all that can be said upon the subject, 

 every one of them have I seen acted, or 

 heard of their being so from those that 

 had seen them; and, though there have 

 been many who have attempted the same 

 career, all their works together would not 

 equal in quantity what this single mal\ 

 has composed." Montalvan asserts that 

 he wrote eighteen hundred plays, and 

 four hundred autos sacrainentales; and 

 as-erts, that if the woiks of his literary 

 idol were placed in one scale, and those 

 ot all antient and modern poets in the 

 other, the weight of the former would de- 

 cide the comparison in point of quantity, 

 and be a fair emblem of the superiority 

 in point of merit of Lope's verses over 

 those of all other poets togetiier. What 

 Lope himself says upon tins subject will 

 be most satisfactorily related in his own 

 words, though the passages are far from 

 poetical. Having given a list in his pro- 

 logue to the Pelegrino, written in 1604„ 

 of three hundred and forty-three plays, in 

 liis .'\ite de hacer Comedias, published 

 five years afterwards, he says: 

 M« ninguno de todos llamarpuedo 

 Mas liarbaro que yo, pues contra el arte 

 Me atrevo 4 dar preceptos, y me dexo 

 Llevar de la vulgar corrientc, a donde 

 Me llametj ignoraiite Itali.i y Francia. 

 Vero que puedo hacer ? si tengo escritas. 

 Con una que he acabado csta semana, 

 Quatrocientas y ochenta y tres comediasj 

 Vm que fuerade seis, las demas todas 

 Pecaron contra el arte gravemente. 



None than myself more barbarous or more 



wrong, 

 Who hurried by the vulgar taste along. 

 Dare give my precepts in despite of rule, 

 Whence France and Italy pronounce me fooL 

 But what am I to do ? who now of plays. 

 With one complete within these seven days. 

 Four hundred eighty-three in all have writ, 

 And all, save six, against the rules of wit. 



Li the eclogue to Claiidio, one of liis 

 last works, are the following curious 

 though prosaic passages: 



Pero si ahora el numcro infinito 

 De las fabulas comicas intento, 

 Dirasque es fingimiento 

 Tanto papel escrito, 

 Tantas iniicacioues, cantas flores 

 Vestidus de ihetoxicos colore^ 1 



m 



