The flourish of the drama was perhaps the most distinctive feature of the century and a half or more during which the Golden Age of Spanish letters was in full vigor. The patriarch of the Spanish theatre was Juan del Emilia, who had already begun to write before the end of the 15th century and who, like numerous Spanish authors after him, spent some time in Italy. Service in the Spanish campaigns took these men to the land of the Renaissance, where they imbibed the spirit prevailing there. A nomadic soul, Torres Naharro, published at the Aragonese court of Naples, in 1517, a col lection of plays in which prominence is given already to the punctilio (pundonor), a motive which was to be stressed to an extraordinary degree in the further development of the Spanish drama. Lope de Rueda (d. c. 1565) imitated Italian dramatists very directly in his longer pieces, but attained his real success in the composition of brief comic interludes (pasos) that brought upon the scene popular characters taken from the life of the time. Rueda was an actor and stage-manager as well as a writer; since his time the vogue of the short one-act play of humorous and occasionally farcical tendencies has never died out in Spain; it is Chico of to-day. With the J pieces of de la Cueva (d. c. 1609) the historical drama was introduced and to a cer tain degree he anticipated also the comedia de capa y espada which Lope de Vega was to cultivate with wonderful skill. Cervantes (1547 1616) essayed with no meed of success the role of the playwright, although two of his longer plays, the 'Numancia) and the 'Tram de Argel,' are not negligible. But beyond all odds the dominating personality among all Spanish dramatists of the first half of the Golden Age was Lope de Vega (1562-1635), who, inheriting technical details of dramatic composition from his immediate predecessors, applied them with the unerring skill of a dramatic genius. After Lope and until the end of the Golden Age the pre-eminent playwright was Calderon (1600-81). Lope tried his hand at practically every possible form of the drama and reached the height of his fame with his elaboration of the comedy of character and manners (comedia de capa y espada) ; his fertility was prodigious, as he seems to have written no fewer than 1,500 pieces. Calderon was not so markedly successful with the play of manners, but he charmed his contemporaries as he still pleases posterity with the lyricism that pervades his pieces. He is celebrated most of all for his perfecting of the allegorical and religious drama dealing especially with the virtues of the Eucharist (auto sacramental). Lope, it should not be forgotten, exercised his talents in many directions and left untried hardly any of the genres; he will always be classed among the best of Spanish lyric poets. Other dramatists of the siglo de oro of pro nounced merit were Gabriel Tellez (pseudonym, Tirso de Molina; 1571-1648), Guilien de Castro (1569-1631), Ruiz de Alarcon (d. 1639), Rojas Zorrilla (d. 1660) and Moreto (1618-69).
The dramas of the Golden Age are regularly in verse. In prose the most distinguished achievements took form in the novel and the short story, and a consideration of these at once suggests the name of Cervantes (1547-1616). His 'Don Quijote' (First Part, 1605; Second Part, 1615), the most noted work of Spanish belles lettres and the greatest novel in the history of the world's literature, was begun as a satire upon the methods of the novel of chivalry but remains important as one of the most eminent expositions of the never-ceasing struggle be tween realistic and idealistic impulses in human nature. His 'Exemplary Tales' ('Novelas
Ejemplares') set up a model for the shorter form of prose fiction. Before the middle of the 16th century there had been printed the 'Lazarillo de the earliest of the picaroon stories or novels of roguery, which, if not the work of Hurtado de Mendoza, must remain anonymous. Later novels of the type, recounting the wanderings and exploits of a roguish hero, are the 'Guzman de Alfarache of Mato Aleman (d. 1609), the 'Picara Jus tina' (1605), of Ubeda, the of the publicist and satirist Quevedo, and the 'Marcos de Obreg6n) of Vicente Espinel (1618). After Cervantes the short story was cultivated with some understanding by Salas Barbadillo, Castillo Solorzano and Maria de Zayas. The pastoral romance was attempted by many writers, even Cervantes and Lope de Vega being of the number, but the highest measure of suc cess in the genre was achieved by Jorge de Montemayor in his 'Diana' (c. 1558), and by Gil Polo in his sequel thereto. A. solitary but not infelicitous example of the historical novel in the age is the 'Guerras Civiles de Granada' of Perez de Hita. True history writing takes the place of the earlier chronicles at this time, above all in the 'Historia de Esparta' (written originally in Latin) of the Jesuit Mariana (d. 1623), in the accounts of affairs in eastern Spain by Zurita, and in the records of happen ings in the New World by Antonio de Solis (d. 1688), and many others. History was in tentionally mingled with fiction by Antonio de Guevara (d. 1545) in his 'Marco Aurelio' and his de los Cesares,) and to him is due also the 'Epistolas Familiares,) a work which in translation eventually reached England and is said to have helped to promote an over refined style of composition there. At least a mention should be made of the prose labors of the religious of the period who wrote many documents of a mystical, devotional and purely theological sort. Prominent among the mystics were Saint Theresa (1515-82), Saint John of - — the Cross (d. 1591), Luis de Granada (d. 1588) and Luis de Leon (1527-91). The last named is one of the most attractive of all Spanish lyric poets, and shows his mystical bent in his verse no less than in his prose. Other lyric poets of high rank are Herrera (1534-97) and Rioja (d. 1659). The epic was essayed after the fashion of the Italians Ariosto and Tasso by many authors, including Lope de Vega and Barahona de Soto, but the only truly meritorious per formance of the kind is the 'Araucana) of Alonso de Ercilla (1533-94), dealing with cam paigns against the Indians in South America in which he played a part.
Even at the moment of greatest efflorescence the seeds of ultimate decay were sown in Spanish literature, and chiefly by the poet Luis de G6ngora (1561-1627), who deliberately en gaged in the use of stylistic excesses of many sorts, such as intentional obscurity of expres sion, and the like. He was unfortunately taken as a desirable model by even the most famous writers and hence the spread of the manner called Gongorism (also culteranism or cultism), which, as the 17th century wore on, it was deemed absolutely necessary for writers to em ploy in both prose and verse. While Gongorism played with the external form, of literature, gradually debasing it, there were other manner ists who purposelyjuggled with the philosophic idea of concept, and thus added a sinister influ ence. The methods of the Conceptists may be judged by the works, which are nevertheless of substantial merit in certain regards, of the Jes uit Gracian (1601-58).