The eclogues of Lope de Vega, of which we have already spoken, drew after them a train of imitations, like his other popular poetry. But neither Balvas, nor Villegas, nor Carrillo, nor the Prince of Esquilache equalled him. Quevedo alone among his compeers, and he only if he is the author of the poems of the Bachiller de la Torre, proved himself a rival of the great master, unless we must give an equal place to Pedro de Espinosa, whose story of “The Genil,” half elegiac and half pastoral, is the happiest and most original specimen of that peculiar form of which Boscan in his “Hero and Leander” gave the first imperfect example.[17] Pedro Soto de Roxas,--who wrote short lyric poems with spirit, as well as eclogues,--Zarate, and Ulloa, belong to the same school, which was continued, by Texada Gomes de los Reyes, Barrios the Jew, and Inez de la Cruz the Mexican nun, down to the end of the century. But in all its forms, whether tending to become too lyrical, as it does in Figueroa, or too narrative, as in Espinosa, Spanish pastoral poetry shows fewer of the defects that accompany such poetry everywhere, and more of the merits that render it a gentle and idealized representation of nature and country life, than can perhaps be found in any other literature of modern times. The reason is, that there was more of a true pastoral character in Spain on which to build it.[18] [17] Espinosa includes it in his “Flores,” f. 107. [18] The authors mentioned in this paragraph are, I believe, all more amply noticed elsewhere, except Pedro Soto de Roxas. He was a friend of Lope de Vega, and published in Madrid, 1623, 4to, his “Desengaño de Amor,”--a volume of poems in the Italian manner, the best of which are the madrigals and eclogues. * * * * * Quite as characteristic of the Spanish national genius as its pastorals were short poems in different forms, but in an epigrammatic spirit, which appeared through the whole of the best age of its literature. They are of two kinds. The first are generally amorous, and always sentimental. Of these, not a few are very short and pointed. They are found in the old Cancioneros and Romanceros, among the works of Maldonado, Silvestre, Villegas, Góngora, and others of less merit, to the end of the century. They are generally in the truest tone of popular verse. One, which was set to music, was in these few simple words:-- To what ear shall I tell my griefs, Gentle love mine? To what ear shall I tell my griefs, If not to thine?[19] [19] Á quien contaré yo mis quejas, Mi lindo amor; Á quien contaré mis quejas, Si á vos no? Faber found this and a few more in Salina’s treatise on Music, 1577, and placed it, with a considerable number of similar short compositions, in the first volume of his collection, pp. 303, etc.