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 SPAIN (LANGUAGE AND LITERATUKE) 221 thor of idyls, and Jorge de Montemayor (died 1562), the author of the celebrated pastoral novel Diana. The two greatest lyric poets that Spain has ever produced were Fernan- do de Herrera (died 1597) and Fray Luis de Leon (died 1591). Herrera wrote some excel- lent elegies, and the first classic odes in mod- ern literature. The poetry of Luis de Leon is chiefly religious and deeply imbued with mysticism. The best of his poetical compo- sitions are odes in the old Oastilian measures, with a classical purity and vigorous finish be- fore unknown in Spanish poetry. He ranks also among the greatest masters of Spanish eloquence for his prose, which is richer and no less idiomatic than his poetry. Less original, and at present less known, are Hernando de Acuila (died 1580), a lyric poet and skilful translator, and Gil Polo (died 1572), who ably continued and completed the Diana of Monte- mayor. Epic poetry was cultivated with but little success, and the attempts to sing the ex- ploits of Charles V. made by Zapata (Carlos famoso), Urrea, the translator of Ariosto (Car- los mctorioso), and Samper (Carolea), were failures. Cristoval de Castillejo (died about 1556), the most efficient among the early op- ponents of the Italian school, wrote novels and erotic songs, which are masterpieces ; but the satire with which he inveighed against the in- novators was generally too exaggerated to have any effect. Attempts made by Villalobos, Pe- rez de Oliva, and others, to give a new impulse to dramatic poetry by the translation of old clas- sics, were failures ; but the epic elements of the old national novels led at the beginning of this period to the development of a truly national drama, of which Naharro (about 1517) must be regarded as the father. He was followed by Lope de Rueda, who, being both a dramatic writer and an actor, was the first to establish and regulate the Spanish stage ; and by Juan de la Oueva (died about 1608), whose plays, mostly on historical subjects, are divided into four jornadas and written in various measures, including terza rima, blank verse, and sonnets, but chiefly in redondillas and octave stanzas. The two tragic plays of Geronimo Bermudez, which treat of the sad history of Ines de Cas- tro, are happy imitations of the old classic tragedy. In this period arose also the eccle- siastical plays (autos sacrament ales) and the burlesque interludes (entremeses y sainetes) and preludes (loas), though their full develop- ment belongs to the following period. Prose literature consisted mostly of chivalric novels, formed after Italian originals, and without any intrinsic value or importance for the history of literature. Foremost among the prose writers were Mendoza and Luis de Leon, both of whom have already been named among the poets. Geronimo Zurita, the author of a history of Aragon (Anales de la corona de Aragon), was the first of the Spanish his- torians as distinguished from the chroniclers, who in particular emancipated the historical literature of Spain from the monkish credulity of the old chronicles. Among the best speci- mens of didactic prose belong the dialogue of Oliva on the dignity of man (Didlogo de la dig- nidad del hombre) and the essays (Discursos) of Morales on subjects of practical philosophy and literature. The golden era of Spanish liter- ature begins in the second half of the 16th cen- tury with Cervantes (1547-1616), whose name and masterpiece are better known in foreign countries than those of any other Spanish au- thor. His " Don Quixote," an ironical parody of the trashy literature of chivalric novels then in vogue, is the never equalled model of Spanish prose, the oldest classical specimen of romantic fiction, and one of the most remarkable monu- ments of modern genius. His Novelas ejem- plares and his Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismun- da inaugurated in Spain the literature of serious romantic fiction, in which he found many imi- tators, but none who equalled him. His Gala- tea is one of the best pastoral novels of Spain. The Spanish drama was raised to the elevated position which it occupies in the modern litera- ture of Europe by the prolific Lope de Vega (1562-1635). He fixed its several modifications, and from his times we meet with the division into ecclesiastical and secular dramas (come- dias dimnas y humanas). The principal kinds of the secular drama were comedias heroicas, historical and mythological plays, and come- dias de capa y espada, dramas with cloak and sword, the principal personages of which be- long to the genteel portion of society, accus- tomed in Lope's time to the picturesque na- tional dress of cloaks and swords. The eccle- siastical dramas were divided into vidas de santos, lives of saints, and cantos or autos sa- eramentales^ plays at the Corpus Christi festi- val. In point of composition nearly all the dramas of Lope de Vega are alike ; the unity of action, time, and place is little or not at all observed ; acts and scenes barely connect the whole ; language and representation are sometimes vigorous, sometimes weak, now no- ble, now common and coarse. The number of his dramas is almost fabulous, and is put by Perez de Montalvan, his intimate friend and executor, at 1,800 plays and 400 autos. He wrote also several epic poems, as Jerusalen conquistada, Corona trdgica, &c., which were far inferior to his dramas, and were soon for- gotten. His minor poems, among which are some of great merit, are almost innumerable. The number of poets at this time- increased amazingly, though but few of them showed any originality. Among the lyric poets, the first, as far as their general influence was concerned, were the two brothers Argensola. Many of this class of writers belonged to the school of the conceptistas, who expressed them- selves in metaphors and puns, alike in the pulpit and in poetry, or to that of the cul- tos^ imitators of Gongora (1561-1627), who claimed for themselves a peculiarly elegant and cultivated style of composition, and who,