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Alexander Green and Miss Ellen E. Aldrich of D.C. Heath and Company for their valuable assistance in the preparation of this book. ENRIQUE P

The comparison of the three is interesting, for all three had suffered the same insult; but before we judge Don Bernardo too hastily, we should consider that both the other two are making their appeals to valiant men, while he is appealing to a woman, and not appealing for vengeance as they, but rather lamenting his hard lot.

To these various classes must be added the Autos sacramentales, which were written to be represented on occasions of religious festivals. Their theme is usually popular, even grotesque, and the representation took place in the streets. Lope de Vega took the Spanish drama as he found it, and from its better qualities he built the national drama.

Like Shakespeare, he brings upon the stage illiterate servants to mix their rude speech and often questionable jests with the grave and lofty or poetic utterances of their noble or royal masters. His characters, too, were not limited to any fixed line of conduct, as long as honor was upheld.

When the Spanish people, though deserted by many of those to whom they looked for leadership, had worn out the French by their stubborn resistance, a new disaster fell to their lot. Their American colonies, extending from California to the straits of Magellan, fell away from the mother country one by one, until only a few islands were left.

In the domain of letters the Spanish-speaking peoples of America have been slower than their Peninsular cousins to throw off the yoke of French imitation. Most young men of wealth in Spanish America are educated in Paris, and their Castilian shows unmistakably the effect of their long residence in France.

That live to weep, and sing their fall. Grey, oda X. Yertos están sus labios generosos Sellados por la muerte y la quietud; Mudos están sus ecos dolorosos. Mudo tambien su armónico laud. Mústios están los ojos que abatia Al contemplar un libro amarillento, Buscando en él como en la fuente fria Saciar su sed el viajador sediento.

Encouraged by the king's love of art and letters, the great painters like Velázquez and Ribera vied with each other in creating masterpieces for princely patrons, and great authors like Lope, Quevedo, and Calderón sharpened their wits to please a literary public.

They are the beatification, in 1620, of San Isidro and his canonization, two years later, with their accompanying poet "jousts," at both of which Lope presided and assumed a leading rôle.

Though a conservative and a monarchist, he loved the common people, and he delighted in describing their customs and in collecting their traditions. In his tales of manners and customs he idealized the simple life of the country folk almost beyond recognition, and he worked over and embellished their traditions to suit his taste.