Morel-Fatio notes that the 'Arte Nuevo' was reprinted only three times during Lope's life-time, at Madrid in 1613 and 1621 and at Hueva in 1623; and he finds in the poem itself ample explanation for its lack of popularity. Lope was the superb leader of an astounding development of the Spanish drama; and he himself tells us that when he delivered this address he had already written nearly five hundred plays. Yet he utters no paean of triumph; he blows no bugle-blast of defiance to the defenders of other standards than those under which he himself was fighting; he does not anticipate the ardor and the fervor which were to animate Victor Hugo's preface to 'Cromwell'; he does not stand to his guns and point to what he has accomplished on the stage as his own justification and as a sufficient answer to the caviling of criticasters. His attitude seems to be humble and apologetic; he admits the validity of the Classicist code of rules; and in his own defence he proffers only what the lawyers call a plea of confession and avoidance, declaring that he would have obeyed the behest of the learned theorists if only he had been permitted by the public. He acknowledges the faultiness of all his dramatic works and throws the blame on the depravity of public taste, since We who live to please, must please to live. He supports his acceptance of the Classicist doctrine with a brave show of erudition and with mention of Cicero, Donatus, Robortello, Julius Pollux, Manetti, Plutarch, Athenaeus, Xenophon, Valerus Maximus, Pietro Crinito and Vitruvius; and Morel-Fatio declares that this pedantic parade has no solid foundation of scholarship, being derived entirely from two writers, Donatus, the commentator on Terence, and Robortello, the commentator on Aristotle and on Horace. In this second-hand echoing of the codifiers of critical theory the great Spanish playwright reveals no independence of interpretation, accepting without question whatever he has found in the commentaries and never asking himself whether the commentators had any valid reason for the rules they laid down so authoritatively. In other words, the 'Arte Nuevo' does not disclose Lope's possession of any critical curiosity or of any critical acumen, or even of any real interest in the discussion of critical theories.