Note 336 — Chapter XVI

I possess the original MS., entirely in Lope’s handwriting, with many alterations, corrections, and interlineations by himself. It is prepared for the actors, and has the certificate to license it by Pedro de Vargas Machuca, a poet himself, and Lope’s friend, who was much employed to license plays for the theatre. He also figured at the “Justas Poéticas” of San Isidro, published by Lope in 1620 and 1622; and in the “Justa” in honor of the Vírgen del Pilar, published by Caceres in 1629; in neither of which, however, do his poems give proof of much talent, though there is no doubt of his popularity with his contemporaries. (Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. IV. p. 199.) At the top of each page in the MS. of Lope de Vega is a cross with the names or ciphers of “Jesus, Maria, Josephus, Christus”; and at the end, “Laus Deo et Mariæ Virgini,” with the date of its completion and the signature of the author. Whether Lope thought it possible to consecrate the gross immoralities of such a drama by religious symbols, I do not know; but if he did, it would not be inconsistent with his character or the spirit of his time. A cross was commonly put at the top of Spanish letters,—a practice alluded to in Lope’s “Perro del Hortelano,” (Jornada II.), and one that must have led often to similar incongruities.