At the end he has added a humorous prose dialogue, called the “Adjunta,” defending his dramas, and attacking the actors who refused to represent them. He says that he had prepared six full-length plays, and six Entremeses or farces; but that the theatre had its pensioned poets, and so took no note of him. The next year, however, when their number had become eight plays and eight Entremeses, he found a publisher, though not without difficulty; for the bookseller, as he says in the Preface, had been warned by a noble author, that from his prose much might be hoped, but from his poetry nothing. And truly his position in relation to the theatre was not one to be desired. Thirty years had passed since he had himself been a successful writer for it; and the twenty or more pieces he had then produced, some of which he mentions anew with great complacency,[142] were, no doubt, long since forgotten. In the interval, as he tells us, “that great prodigy of nature, Lope de Vega, has raised himself to the monarchy of the theatre, subjected it to his control, and placed all its actors under his jurisdiction; filled the world with becoming plays, happily and well written; ... and if any persons (and in truth there are not a few such) have desired to enter into competition with him and share the glory of his labors, all they have done, when put together, would not equal the half of what has been done by him alone.”[143] [142] The “Confusa” was evidently his favorite among these earlier pieces. In the Viage he says of it,-- Soy por quien La Confusa nada fea Pareció en los teatros admirable; and in the “Adjunta” he says, “De la que mas me precio fué _y es_, de una llamada La Confusa, la qual, con paz sea dicho, de quantas comedias de capa y espada hasta hoy se han representado, bien puede tener lugar señalado por buena entre las mejores.” This boast, it should be remembered, was made in 1614, when Cervantes had printed the First Part of the Don Quixote, and when Lope and his school were at the height of their glory. It is probable, however, that we, at the present day should be more curious to see the “Batalla Naval,” which, from its name, contained, I think, his personal experiences at the fight of Lepanto, as the “Trato de Argel” contained those at Algiers.