LOPE. 



539 



his parents, but was enabled, by the assistance of 

 A vila, bishop of Alcala, to complete his studies. 

 He afterwards found a patron in the duke of Alva, 

 at Madrid. Encouraged by this Maecenas, whose 

 secretary he became, he composed his Arcadia, a 

 heroic pastoral in prose and verse, of which Monte- 

 mayor had given an example in his Diana. The 

 Arcadia is an idyl, in five acts, in which the shep- 

 herds, with their Dulcineas, speak the language of 

 A madis, and discuss questions of theology, grammar, 

 rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, anr! poetry. 

 Inscriptions are also introduced upon the pedestals 

 of the statues of distinguished men in a saloon, in 

 which a part of the action takes place. This work 

 proved the various acquisitions of the author. Con- 

 ceits and quibbles are frequent in this, as in Lope's 

 other writings. In general, he is one of those writers 

 who set a dangerous example of that false wit, a 

 aste for which extended almost all over Europe. 

 Marino particularly introduced it into Italy, and 

 acknowledged, with lively expressions of admira- 

 tion, that Lope had been his pattern. After the 

 publication of his Arcadia, Lope married. He ap- 

 pears, however, to have cultivated the poetic art 

 with increasing zeal. A nobleman of rank having 

 made himself merry at Lope's expense, the poet 

 revenged himself upon this critic, and exposed him 

 to the laughter of the whole city. His opponent 

 challenged him, and was dangerously wounded in 

 the encounter, and Lope was obliged to flee to 

 Valencia. After his return to Madrid, the loss of 

 his wife rendered a residence in that place insup- 

 portable to him. In 1588, therefore, he served in 

 the invincible armada, the fate of which is well 

 known. During this expedition he wrote La Her- 

 mosura de Angelica (the Beauty of Angelica), a 

 poem in twenty cantos, which continues the history 

 of this princess from the time in which Ariosto left 

 it. By this work he hoped to do honour to his 

 country, in which, as he learned in Turpin, the suc- 

 ceeding adventures of the heroine occurred. In 

 addition to the peril of rivalry with Ariosto, the 

 difficulty of success was increased by the appearance 

 of a poem upon the same subject, by Luis Borhono 

 de Soto, under the title Las Lagrymas de Angelica, 

 which passed for one of the best poems in the Span- 

 ish language, and was honourably mentioned in Don 

 Quixote. In 1590, Lope returned to Madrid, and 

 again entered the married state. In 1598, he ob- 

 tained one of the poetical prizes, offered on the occa- 

 sion of the canonization of St Isidore. This prize 

 poem he published with many other poems, under 

 the name of Tome de Burguillos. About this time, 

 he also composed a great number of pieces for the 

 theatre. His literary fame increased, and his domes- 

 tic situation made this the happiest period of his life. 

 But he lost his son, and soon after his wife, and had 

 only a daughter left. He now sought consolation 

 from religion, and became a priest and secretary 

 of the inquisition. His devotion, however, did not 

 interfere with his poetical studies, and he still endea- 

 voured to maintain the distinguished rank which he 

 had taken upon the Spanish Parnassus, and to repel 

 the attacks of his foes and his rivals, among whom 

 Luis de Gongora y Argote was the most distinguished. 

 Lope, who had been attacked in his satires, and who 

 was indignant at the corruption of taste produced by 

 him, allowed himself to ridicule his obscure and 

 affected style, and that of his pupils, although, in his 

 poem Laurel de Apollo, he acknowledges the talents 

 of Gongora. But Gongora's corrupt taste infected 

 even his opponents, and it must be confessed that 

 Lope's last works are not entirely exempt from it. 

 Another yet more distinguished assailant was Cer- 

 vantes, who publicly advised him, in a sonnet, to 



leave the epic poem, upon which he was then 

 engaged Jerusalem conquistada unfinished. Lope 

 parodied this sonnet, and published his poem, the 

 weakest of his performances. He accompanied it 

 with many remarks, which are all found in the last 

 edition of 1777. Cervantes acknowledged his merits, 

 however, in the following verses : 



" Poeta insigne, rt cuyo verso o prosa 

 Ninguno le avantaje ni aun le hega." 



(A distinguished poet, whom no one, in verse or 

 prose, surpasses or equals.) Cervantes died soon 

 after (1616), in poverty, in the very city in which 

 his rival lived in splendour and luxury, and in the 

 possession of the public admiration. How differently 

 has posterity judged of these two poets ! For 200 

 years, the fame of Cervantes has been increasing, 

 while Lope is neglected in his own country. About 

 the time of Cervantes' death, the enthusiasm of the 

 Spaniards for Lope approached to idolatry, 'and he 

 himself was not wise enough to reject it. The 

 number of his poetical productions is extraordinary. 

 Scarcely a year passed in which he did not print a 

 poem, and, in general, scarcely a month, nay, 

 scarcely a week, in which he did not produce a 

 piece for the theatre. A pastoral, in prose and 

 verse, in which he celebrates the birth of Christ, 

 established his supremacy in this branch ; and many 

 verses and hymns on sacred subjects bore testimony 

 to his zeal for the new calling to which he had 

 devoted himself. Philip IV., who greatly favoured 

 the Spanish theatre, when he ascended the throne, 

 in 1621, found Lope in possession of the stage, and 

 of an unlimited authority over poets, actors, and the 

 public. He immediately loaded him with new marks 

 of honour and favour. At this time Lope published 

 Los Triitmphos de la Fe; Las Fortunas de Diana, 

 novels in prose, imitations of those of- Cervantes; 

 Circe, an epic poem, and Philomela, an allegory, in 

 which, under the character of the nightingale, he 

 seeks to revenge himself upon certain critics, whom 

 he represents under that of the thrush. His cele- 

 brity increased so much that, suspicious with respect 

 to the enthusiasm which had been shown for him, 

 he printed the work Soliloquies d Dios, under the 

 assumed name, N. P. Gabriel de Padecopeo (an 

 anagram of Lope de Vega de Carpio), which like- 

 wise obtained great applause. He afterwards pub- 

 lished a poem on the subject of Mary Stuart, viz. 

 Corona tragica (the Tragic Crown), and dedicated 

 it to pope Urban VIII., who had also commemorated 

 the death of this queen. The pope wrote an answer 

 to the poet with his own hand, and conferred on him 

 the title of doctor of theology ; he also sent him the 

 cross of the order of Malta marks of honour which, 

 at the same time, rewarded his zeal for strict Catho- 

 licism, on which account he was also made a familiar 

 of the inquisition. All this contributed to support 

 the enthusiasm of the Spaniards for this " wonder of 

 literature." The people for whom he wrote, with- 

 out regard to criticism (for he says in his strange 

 poem, Arte de hazer Comedias, that the people pay 

 for the comedies, and, consequently, he who serves 

 them should consult their pleasure), ran after him 

 whenever he made his appearance in the street, 

 to gaze upon this prodigy of nature (monstruo de 

 naturaleza), as Cervantes called him. The direc- 

 tors of the theatre paid him so liberally, that at 

 one time he is said to have possessed property to 

 the amount of more than 100,000 ducats ; but he was 

 himself so generous and charitable, that he left but 

 little. The spiritual college in Madrid, into which 

 he had been admitted, chose him president (capellan 

 mayor). In common conversation, any thing perfect 

 in its kind, was called Lopean. Until 1635, he con- 

 tinued without interruption to produce poems and 



