Returned to Spain, Lope composed his pastoral novel, the _Arcadia_, which, however, remained unpublished till 1598. Ticknor believed it "to have been written almost immediately" after Cervantes' _Galatea_: this cannot be, for the _Arcadia_ refers to the death of Santa Cruz, which occurred in 1588, and it discusses in the conventional manner Alba's love-affairs of 1589-90. The _Arcadia_, where Lope figures as Belardo, and Alba as Amfriso, makes no pretence to be a transcript of manners or life, and it is intolerably prolix withal. Yet it goes beyond its fellows by virtue of its vivid landscapes, its graceful, flowing verse, and a certain rich, poetic, Latinized prose, here used by Lope with as much artistry as he showed in his management of the more familiar kind in the _Dorotea_. Its popularity is proved by the publication of fifteen editions in its author's lifetime. About the year 1590 he married Isabel de Urbina, a distant connection of Cervantes' mother, and daughter of Felipe II.'s King-at-Arms. Hereupon followed a duel, wherein Lope wounded his adversary, and, earlier escapades being raked up, he was banished the capital. He spent some time in Valencia, a considerable literary centre; but in 1594 he signed the manuscript of his play, _El Maestro de danzar_, at Tormes, Alba's estate, whence it is inferred that he was once more in the Duke's service. A new love-affair with Antonia Trillo de Armenta brought legal troubles upon him in 1596. His wife apparently died in 1597. The first considerable work printed with Lope's name upon the title-page was his _Dragontea_ (1598), an epic poem in ten cantos on the last cruise and death of Francis Drake. We naturally love to think of the mighty seaman as the patriot, the chiefest of Britannia's bulwarks, as he figures in Mr. Newbolt's spirited ballad:— "_Drake lies in his hammock till the great Armadas come ... Slung atween the round shot, listenin' for the drum ... Call him on the deep sea, call him up the Sound, Call him when ye sail to meet the foe; Where the old trade's plyin' and the old flag flyin', They shall find him 'ware an' waking, as they found him long ago._" Odd to say, though, Lope has been censured for not viewing Drake through English Protestant spectacles. Seeing that he was a good Catholic Spaniard whom Drake had drummed up the Channel, it had been curious if the _Dragontea_ were other than it is: a savage denunciation of that Babylonian Dragon, that son of the devil whose piracies had tormented Spain during thirty years. The _Dragontea_ fails not because of its national spirit, which is wholly admirable, but because of its excessive emphasis and its abuse of allegory. Its author scarcely intended it for great poetry; but, as a patriotic screed, it fulfilled its purpose, and, when reprinted, it drew an approving sonnet from Cervantes.