[90] Comedias, Parte VI., Madrid, 1615, 4to, f. 102. El Cuerdo en su Casa, Act. I. Still, neither Cervantes, nor Lope, nor any body else in their time, thought seriously of discountenancing pastoral fictions. On the contrary, there was in their very style--which was generally an imitation of the Italian, that gave birth to them all--something attractive to a cultivated Castilian ear, at a time when the school of Garcilasso was at the height of its popularity and favor. Besides this, the real events they recorded, and the love-stories of persons in high life that they were known to conceal, made them sometimes riddles and sometimes masquerades, which engaged the curiosity of those who moved in the circles either of their authors or of their heroes and heroines.[91] But more than all, the glimpses they afforded of nature and truth--such genuine and deep tenderness as is shown by Montemayor, and such graceful descriptions of natural scenery as abound in Balbuena--were, no doubt, refreshing in a state of society stiff and formal as was that at the Spanish court in the times of Philip the Second and Philip the Third, and in the midst of a culture more founded on military virtues and the spirit of knighthood than any other of modern times. As long, therefore, as this state of things continued, pastoral fictions and fancies, filled with the dreams of a poetical Arcadia, enjoyed a degree of favor in Spain which they never enjoyed anywhere else. But when this disappeared, they disappeared with it. [91] “The Diana of Montemayor,” says Lope de Vega, in the passage from his “Dorotea” already cited, (n. [64],) “was a lady of Valencia de Don Juan, near Leon, and he has made both her and the river Ezla immortal. So the Fílida of Montalvo, the Galatea of Cervantes, and the Filis of Figueroa, were real personages.” Others might be added, on the authority of their authors, such as “Los Diez Libros de Fortuna y Amor,” “La Cintia de Aranjuez,” etc. See a note of Clemencin, Don Quixote, Tom. VI. p. 440. CHAPTER XXXIV. ROMANCES IN THE STYLE OF ROGUES.--STATE OF MANNERS THAT PRODUCED THEM.--MENDOZA’S LAZARILLO DE TORMES.--ALEMAN’S GUZMAN DE ALFARACHE, WITH THE SPURIOUS CONTINUATION OF IT BY SAYAVEDRA AND THE TRUE ONE BY ALEMAN.--PEREZ.--ESPINEL AND HIS MARCOS DE OBREGON.--YAÑEZ.--QUEVEDO.--SOLORZANO.--ENRIQUEZ GOMEZ.--ESTEVANILLO GONZALEZ. The next form of prose fiction produced in Spain, and the one which, from its greater truth, has enjoyed a more permanent regard than the last, is found in those stories that have commonly gone under the name of “tales in the _gusto picaresco_,” or tales in the style of rogues. Taken as a class, they constitute a singular exhibition of character, and are, in fact, as separate and national in their air as any thing in the whole body of modern literature.