[42] Valdivielso’s name occurs very often in the _Aprobacion_ of books in the sixteenth century. His “Romancero Espiritual,” Valencia, 1689, 12mo, first printed 1612, was several times reprinted, and fills above three hundred and fifty pages. It is not quite all in the ballad measure or in a grave tone. [43] In Lope’s Obras Sueltas, Tom. XIII. and XVII. [44] “Ramillete de Divinas Flores para el Desengaño de la Vida Humana,” Amberes, 1629, 18mo, pp. 262. “Avisos para la Muerte, por L. de Arellano,” Zaragoza, 1634, 1648, etc., 18mo, 90 leaves. See, _ante_, p. 341, note. Others, like Roca y Serna, wrote large numbers of ballads, but did not print them separately.[45] Those of the Prince Esquilache, some of which are excellent, amount to nearly three hundred. Antonio de Mendoza wrote about two hundred; and perhaps as many, in every possible variety of character, are scattered through the works of Quevedo; so that, by the middle of the seventeenth century, there can be no doubt that large and successful efforts had been made by the known authors of the period to continue the old ballad spirit by free contributions, both in separate volumes and in masses of ballads inserted among their other published works. [45] The ballads of Roca y Serna, often disfigured by his Gongorism, are found in his “Luz del Alma,” Madrid, 1726, 12mo, first printed in 1634, and frequently since. Meantime the old spirit itself had not been lost. The ballad-book known originally under the name of “Flor de Romances,” which we have already traced in its individual parts to five small volumes,--published between 1593 and 1597, in such widely different portions of Spain, that its materials were gathered from the soil of nearly the whole country,--continued to be valued, and was reprinted and enlarged, under the name of “El Romancero General,” four times; till, with the Ballad-book of 1550-1555, it comprehended nearly all the old ballads that had been preserved by tradition, together with not a few by Lope de Vega, Góngora, and other living authors. Out of these two vast storehouses, and from such other sources as could still yield suitable materials, smaller and more popular ballad-books were now selected and published. One appeared at Barcelona in 1582, and was reprinted there in 1602 and 1696, taken in a considerable degree from the collection of 1550, but containing, besides, ballads not found elsewhere, and among the rest, several on the history of the triple league and on the death of Philip the Second.[46] A ballad-book for “The Twelve Peers,” and their marvellous achievements, published for the first time in 1608, has continued to be a favorite ever since;[47] and four years afterwards appeared “The Ballad-Book of the Cid,” which has been printed and reprinted again and again, at home and abroad, down to our own times.[48] These were followed, in 1623, by the “Primavera,” or Spring of Ballads, by Perez, of which a second part was collected