Note 154 — BOOK VI.

Lope Félix de Vega Carpio was born at Madrid on November 25, 1562, and died there on August 27, 1635. A soldier, a poet, a novelist, a dramatist, and a priest, he ranks next to Cervantes in the history of Spanish literature. It is impossible to give any notion of his powers within the compass of a note. According to Pérez de Montalbán, Lope was the author of 1800 plays and 400 autos: some 400 plays and some 50 autos survive, apart from innumerable miscellaneous works. Lope's Obras completas are now being issued by the Royal Spanish Academy under the editorship of Sr. D. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, and each succeeding volume—thirteen quarto volumes have already been issued to subscribers—goes to justify his immense reputation. A short summary of his dramatic achievement is given in my lecture on Lope de Vega and the Spanish Drama (Glasgow and London, 1902); for fuller details of this amazing genius and his work see Professor Hugo Albert Rennert's admirable biography (Glasgow, 1903).