[103] The first edition of the “Pícara Justina” is that of Medina del Campo, 1605, 4to, since which time it has been often printed; the best edition being probably that of Madrid, 1735, 4to, edited by Mayans y Siscar, who, in a prefatory notice, makes the reproach against its author, as the oldest corrupter of the Spanish prose style, alluded to in the text. There is a good deal of poetry scattered through the volume; all very conceited and poor. Some of it is in that sort of verses from which the final syllable is cut off,--such verses, I mean, as Cervantes has prefixed to the first part of Don Quixote; and as both that part and the “Pícara Justina” were originally published in the same year, 1605, some question has arisen with Pellicer and Clemencin, who is the inventor of these poor, truncated verses. _Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle._ But, as the first part of Don Quixote, according to the _Tassa_ prefixed to it, was struck off as early as the 20th of December, 1604, though the full copyright was not granted till the 9th of February following, there can be little doubt that Cervantes was the earliest. But though the “Pícara Justina” proved a failure, the overwhelming popularity of “Guzman de Alfarache,” when added to that of “Lazarillo,” rendered this form of fiction so generally welcome in Spain, that it made its way into the ductile drama, and into the style of the shorter tales, as we have already seen when treating of Lope de Vega and Cervantes, and as we shall see hereafter when we come to speak of Salas Barbadillo and Francisco de Santos. Meantime, however, the “Escudero Marcos de Obregon” appeared; a work which has, on many accounts, attracted attention, and which deserves to be remembered, as the best of its kind in Spanish literature, except “Lazarillo” and “Guzman.” It was written by Vicente Espinel, who was born about 1540, at Ronda, a romantic town, boldly built in the mountain range that stretches through the southwestern portion of the kingdom of Granada, and picturesquely described by himself in one of the most striking of his poems.[104] He was educated at Salamanca, and, when Lope de Vega appeared as a poet before the public, Espinel was already so far advanced in his own career, that the young aspirant for public favor submitted his verses to the critical skill of his elder friend;[105]--a favor which Lope afterwards returned by praises in “The Laurel of Apollo,” more heart-felt and effective than he has usually given in that indiscriminate eulogium of the poets of his time.[106] [104] See the “Cancion á su Patria,” which is creditable alike to his personal feelings and--with the exception of a few foolish conceits--to his poetical character. Diversas Rimas de V. Espinel, Madrid, 1591, 12mo, f. 23. [105] Espinel’s own Prólogo to “Marcos de Obregon.” [106] End of the first _silva_ to the “Laurel de Apolo,” which was published in 1630.