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That Lope did not approve entirely of the higher social life of his time is brought out all through the play and revealed in the hero, for the contemporaries and friends of the latter considered him an original. But in him we find more nearly the common Spanish conception of chivalry and honor.
Breathing his love in poetic musings, eating out his own heart in sleepless nights and in anxious waitings for his lady-love by the fountain in the Prado or at the lavaderos along the banks of the Manzanares, refusing wealth and spurning position gained at the price of his love, preserving an unrivaled fidelity to his friend and kinsman, but finally consenting to sacrifice his love for the honor of his name and family, Don Juan is the embodiment of Spanish chivalry of all ages.
Thus we find that in 1585 Spain had a divided drama, represented on the one side by the drama of reason and proportion fashioned after Greek and Roman models, and on the other a loosely joined, irregular, romantic drama of adventure and intrigue, such as was demanded by the Spanish temperament.
However, the Spanish critics usually narrow the class to include only the dramas of Lope which deal with the lower strata of social life and make the error of classing the Moza de Cántaro among them.
For almost half a century after the publication of the Propaladia the Spanish theater advanced but little, for this was the period when Carlos Quinto ruled Spain and kept the national interest fixed on his military achievements, which were for the most part outside of the peninsula.
It is upon the Novelas that his wider literary reputation rests, for in the narration of contemporary Spanish life, in the reflection of the ideas and the sentiments of the people, he has no rival.
Those teachers who prefer that the students in the elementary classes should not translate English into Spanish may postpone or omit altogether this part of the exercises if they wish to do so. The language of Fortuna is so clear and simple that the story may be read to advantage in elementary classes.
The French literature, for instance, is more universal and less national than the Spanish, perhaps by the very force of geographical position. Spain is nearly surrounded by water, and on land it is separated from the rest of Europe, excepting only Portugal, by an almost insurmountable barrier of lofty mountains.
Lefranc, págs. 80 y siguientes. Heldenbuche ó Libro de los héroes, publicado hacia la mitad del siglo XV, por Gaspard de Roen, en donde se compilan muchas canciones heróicas alemanas, aunque casi todas considerablemente alteradas. V. á Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature, página 31, t. I. London, 1863.
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