Still, as far as his verse was concerned,--besides the _silvas_, or masses of irregular lines, the _quintillas_, or five-line stanzas, and the _liras_, or six-line,--he relied, above every thing else, upon the old national ballad-measure;--both the proper _romance_, with _asonantes_, and the _redondilla_, with rhymes between the first and fourth lines and between the second and third. In this he was unquestionably right. The earliest attempts at dramatic representation in Spain had been somewhat lyrical in their tone, and the more artificial forms of verse, therefore, especially those with short lines interposed at regular intervals, had been used by Juan de la Enzina, by Torres Naharro, and by others; though, latterly, in these, as in many respects, much confusion had been introduced into Spanish dramatic poetry. But Lope, making his drama more narrative than it had been before, settled it at once and finally on the true national narrative measure. He went farther. He introduced into it much old ballad-poetry, and many separate ballads of his own composition. Thus, in “The Sun Delayed,” the Master of Santiago, who has lost his way, stops and sings a ballad;[437] and in his “Poverty no Disgrace,” he has inserted a beautiful one, beginning, [437] “El Sol Parado,” Comedias, Tom. XVII., Madrid, 1621, pp. 218, 219. It reminds one of the much more beautiful _serrana_ of the Marquis of Santillana, beginning “Moza tan formosa,” _ante_, Vol. I. p. 372. O noble Spanish cavalier, You hasten to the fight; The trumpet rings upon your ear, And victory claims her right.[438] [438] “Pobreza no es Vileza,” Comedias, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629, f. 61. Probably, however, he produced a still greater effect when he brought in passages, not of his own, but of old and well-known ballads, or allusions to them. Of these his plays are full. For instance, his “Sun Delayed,” and his “Envy of Nobility,” are all-redolent of the Morisco ballads, that were so much admired in his time; the first taking those that relate to the loves of Gazul and Zayda,[439] and the last those from the “Civil Wars of Granada,” about the wild feuds of the Zegris and the Abencerrages.[440] Hardly less marked is the use he makes of the old ballads on Roderic, in his “Last Goth”;[441] of those concerning the Infantes of Lara, in his several plays relating to their tragical story;[442] and of those about Bernardo del Carpio, in “Marriage and Death.”[443] Occasionally, the effect of their introduction must have been very great. Thus, when, in his drama of “Santa Fé,” crowded with the achievements of Hernando del Pulgar, Garcilasso de la Vega, and whatever was most glorious and picturesque in the siege of Granada, one of his personages breaks out with a variation of the familiar and grand old ballad,--