[535] Pellicer de Tobar, in the “Lágrimas,” etc., _ut supra_, gives this account of his friend Montalvan’s literary theories, pp. 146-152. In the more grave parts of his plays, he says, Montalvan employed _octavas_, _canciones_, and _silvas_; in the tender parts, _décimas_, _glosas_, and other similar forms; and _romances_ everywhere; but that he avoided dactyles and blank verse, as unbecoming and hard. All this, however, is only the system of Lope, in his “Arte Nuevo,” a little amplified. His “Most Constant Wife,” one of his plays which is particularly pleasing, from the firm, yet tender, character of the heroine, was written, he tells us, in four weeks, prepared by the actors in eight days, and represented again and again, until the great religious festival of the spring closed the theatres.[536] His “Double Vengeance,” with all its horrors, was acted twenty-one days successively.[537] His “No Life like Honor”--one of his more sober efforts--appeared many times on both the principal theatres of Madrid at the same moment;--a distinction to which, it is said, no other play had then arrived in Spain, and in which none succeeded it till long afterwards.[538] And, in general, during the period when his dramas were produced, which was the old age of Lope de Vega, no author was heard on the stage with more pleasure than Montalvan, except his great master. [536] Para Todos, 1661, p. 508. [537] Ibid., p. 158. [538] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 202. He had, indeed, his trials and troubles, as all have whose success depends on popular favor. Quevedo, the most unsparing satirist of his time, attacked the less fortunate parts of one of his works of fiction with a spirit and bitterness all his own; and, on another occasion, when one of Montalvan’s plays had been hissed, wrote him a letter which professed to be consolatory, but which is really as little so as can well be imagined.[539] But, notwithstanding such occasional discouragements, his course was, on the whole, fortunate, and he is still to be remembered among the ornaments of the old national drama of his country. [539] Quevedo, Obras, Tom. XI., 1794, pp. 125, 163. An indignant answer was made to Quevedo, in the “Tribunal de la Justa Venganza,” already noticed. CHAPTER XXI. DRAMA, CONTINUED.--TIRSO DE MOLINA.--MIRA DE MESCUA.--VALDIVIELSO.-- ANTONIO DE MENDOZA.--RUIZ DE ALARCON.--LUIS DE BELMONTE, AND OTHERS.-- EL DIABLO PREDICADOR.--OPPOSITION OF LEARNED MEN AND OF THE CHURCH TO THE POPULAR DRAMA.--A LONG STRUGGLE.--TRIUMPH OF THE DRAMA.