[123] See, for his life, Sanchez, Tom. I. pp. 100-106, and Tom. IV. pp. ii.-vi.;--and for an excellent criticism of his works, one in the Wiener Jahrbücher der Literatur, 1832, Band LVIII. pp. 220-255. It is by Ferdinand Wolf, and he boldly compares the Archpriest to Cervantes. His works consist of nearly seven thousand verses; and although, in general, they are written in the four-line stanza of Berceo, we find occasionally a variety of measure, tone, and spirit, before unknown in Castilian poetry; the number of their metrical forms, some of which are taken from the Provençal, being reckoned not less than sixteen.[124] The poems, as they have come to us, open with a prayer to God, composed apparently at the time of the Archpriest’s imprisonment; when, as one of the manuscripts sets forth, most of his works were written.[125] Next comes a curious prose prologue, explaining the moral purpose of the whole collection, or rather endeavouring to conceal the immoral tendency of the greater part of it. And then, after somewhat more of prefatory matter, follow, in quick succession, the poems themselves, very miscellaneous in their subjects, but ingeniously connected. The entire mass, when taken together, fills a volume of respectable size.[126] [124] Sanchez, Tom. IV. p. x. [125] Ibid., p. 283. [126] The immoral tendency of many of the poems is a point that not only embarrasses the editor of the Archpriest, (see p. xvii. and the notes on pp. 76, 97, 102, etc.,) but somewhat disturbs the Archpriest himself. (See stanzas 7, 866, etc.) The case, however, is too plain to be covered up; and the editor only partly avoids trouble by quietly leaving out long passages, as from st. 441 to 464, etc. It is a series of stories, that seem to be sketches of real events in the Archpriest’s own life; sometimes mingled with fictions and allegories, that may, after all, be only veils for other facts; and sometimes speaking out plainly, and announcing themselves as parts of his personal history.[127] In the foreground of this busy scene figures the very equivocal character of his female messenger, the chief agent in his love affairs, whom he boldly calls _Trota-conventos_, because the messages she carries are so often to or from monasteries and nunneries.[128] The first lady-love to whom the poet sends her is, he says, well taught,--_mucho letrada_,--and her story is illustrated by the fables of the Sick Lion visited by the other Animals, and of the Mountain bringing forth a Mouse. All, however, is unavailing. The lady refuses to favor his suit; and he consoles himself, as well as he can, with the saying of Solomon, that all is vanity and vexation of spirit.[129] [127] St. 61-68.