The whole work is dedicated with great tenderness, in a few simple words, to Cárlos, the little son that died before he was seven years old, and of whom Lope always speaks so lovingly. But it breaks off abruptly, and was never finished;--why, it is not easy to tell, for it was well received, and was printed four times in as many years. In 1612, the year of the publication of this pastoral, Lope printed a few religious ballads and some “Thoughts in Prose,” which he pretended were translated from the Latin of Gabriel Padecopeo, an imperfect anagram of his own name; and in 1614, there appeared a volume containing, first, a collection of his short sacred poems, to which were afterwards added four solemn and striking poetical Soliloquies, composed while he knelt before a cross on the day he was received into the Society of Penitents; then two contemplative discourses, written at the request of his brethren of the same society; and finally, a short spiritual Romancero, or ballad-book, and a “Via Crucis,” or meditations on the passage of the Saviour from the judgment-seat of Pilate to the hill of Calvary.[250] [250] Obras, Tom. XIII., etc. Many of these poems are full of a deep and solemn devotion;[251] others are strangely coarse and free;[252] and a few are merely whimsical and trifling.[253] Some of the more religious of the ballads are still sung about the streets of Madrid by blind beggars;--a testimony to the devout feelings which, occasionally at least, glowed in their author’s heart, that is not to be mistaken. These poems, however, with an account of the martyrdom of a considerable number of Christians at Japan, in 1614, which was printed four years later,[254] were all the miscellaneous works published by Lope between 1612 and 1620;--the rest of his time during this period having apparently been filled with his brilliant successes in the drama, both secular and sacred. [251] For instance, the sonnet beginning, “Yo dormiré en el polvo.” Obras, Tom. XIII. p. 186. [252] Such as “Gertrudis siendo Dios tan amoroso.” Obras, Tom. XIII. p. 223. [253] Some of them are very flat;--see the sonnet, “Quando en tu alcazar de Sion.” Obras, Tom. XIII. p. 225. [254] Triumfos de la Fé en los Reynos de Japon. Obras, Tom. XVII.