Abroad, too, his fame was hardly less remarkable. In Rome, Naples, and Milan, his dramas were performed in their original language; in France and Italy, his name was announced in order to fill the theatres when no play of his was to be performed;[447] and once even, and probably oftener, one of his dramas was represented in the seraglio at Constantinople.[448] But perhaps neither all this popularity, nor yet the crowds that followed him in the streets and gathered in the balconies to watch him as he passed along,[449] nor the name of Lope, that was given to whatever was esteemed singularly good in its kind,[450] is so striking a proof of his dramatic success, as the fact, so often complained of by himself and his friends, that multitudes of his plays were fraudulently noted down as they were acted, and then printed for profit throughout Spain; and that multitudes of other plays appeared under his name, and were represented all over the provinces, that he had never even heard of till they were published and performed.[451] [447] This is stated by the well-known Italian poet, Marini, in his Eulogy on Lope, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XXI. p. 19. [448] Obras Sueltas, Tom. VIII. pp. 94-96, and Pellicer’s note to Don Quixote, Parte I., Tom. III. p. 93. [449] This is said in a discourse preached over his mortal remains in St. Sebastian’s, at his funeral. Obras Sueltas, Tom. XIX. p. 329. [450] “Frey Lope Felix de Vega, whose name has become universally a proverb for whatever is good,” says Quevedo, in his Aprobacion to “Tomé de Burguillos.” (Obras Sueltas de Lope, Tom. XIX. p. xix.) “It became a common proverb to praise a good thing by calling it _a Lope_; so that jewels, diamonds, pictures, etc., were raised into esteem by calling them his,” says Montalvan. (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. p. 53.) Cervantes intimates the same thing in his _entremes_, “La Guarda Cuidadosa.” [451] His complaints on the subject begin as early as 1603, before he had published any of his plays himself, (Obras Sueltas, Tom. V. p. xvii.), and are renewed in the “Egloga á Claudio,” (Ib., Tom. IX. p. 369), printed after his death; besides which, they occur in the Prefaces to his Comedias, (Tom. IX., XI., XV., XXI., and elsewhere), as a matter that seems to have been always troubling him.