The next performance shows Cervantes tempting fate as a poet. His _Viaje del Parnaso_ (1614) was suggested by the _Viaggio di Parnaso_ (1582) of the Perugian, Cesare Caporali, and is, in effect, a rhymed review of contemporary poets. Verse is scarcely a lucky medium for Cervantic irony, and Cervantes was the least critical of men. His poem is interesting for its autobiographic touches, but it degenerates into a mere stream of eulogy, and when he ventures on an attack he rarely delivers it with force or point. He thought, perhaps, to put down bad poets as he had put down bad prose-writers. But there was this difference, that, though admirable in prose, he was not admirable in verse. In the use of the first weapon he is an expert; in the practice of the second he is a clever amateur. Cervantes satirising in prose and Cervantes satirising in verse are as distinct as Samson unshorn and Samson with his hair cut. Fortunately he appends a prose postscript, which reveals him in his finest manner. Nor is this surprising. Apollo's letter is dated July 22, 1614; and we know that, two days earlier, Sancho Panza had dictated his famous letter to his wife Teresa. The master had found himself once more. The sequel to _Don Quixote_, promised in the Preface to the _Novelas_, was on the road at last. Meanwhile he had busied himself with a sonnet to be published at Naples in Juan Domingo Roncallolo's _Varias Aplicaciones_, with quatrains for Barrio Ángulo, and stanzas in honour of Santa Teresa. Moreover, the success of the _Novelas_ induced him to try the theatre again. In 1615 he published his _Ocho Comedias, y ocho Entremeses nuevos_. The eight set pieces are failures; and when the writer tries to imitate Lope de Vega, as in the _Laberinto de Amor_, the failure is conspicuous. Nor does the introduction of a Saavedra among the personages of _El Gallardo Español_ save a bad play. But Cervantes believed in his eight _comedias_, as he believed in the eight _entremeses_ which are imitated from Lope de Rueda. These are sprightly, unpretentious farces, witty in intention and effect, interesting in themselves and as realistic pictures of low life seen and rendered at first hand. Of these farcical pieces one, _Pedro de Urdemalas_, is even brilliant.