[285] Cervantes attributes to himself the invention of dividing a drama into three jornadas. How happens this? Cervantes was a vain man, but not an empty boaster. He seems to have been totally unacquainted with the dramas of Naharro, but he might have heard of the division of plays into three jornadas, without retaining a distinct recollection of the fact. In this way his memory may have deceived him, when he supposed that the division originated with himself. And yet it is singular enough that in his Galathea, he mentions, among other poets, the artificioso Torres Naharro.
[286] Concerning these collections, see Dieze’s Remarks on Velasquez, p. 316. I am acquainted with only two:—one is entitled, Los Coloquios Pastoriles de muy agraziada y apacible prosa, &c. por el excellente poeta, y gracioso representante Lope de Rueda, sacados a luz por Juan Timoneda; Sevilla 1576, in small octavo, printed in gothic characters. The other is entitled: Las segundas dos Comedias de Rueda, without date, but printed in the same type and form as the first mentioned collection.
[287] The following specimen of the dialogue of these comedies is from a scene in which a clown quarrels with his wife:—
Gine. Aun teneis lengua para hablar, anima de cantaro?
Pablo. Dote al diabro muger, no ternas un poco de miramiento. Si quiera por las barbas de la merced que esta delante.
Gine. He callad anima de campana.
Pab. Que es anima de campana, muger?
Gine. Que? badajo como vos.
Pab. Badajo a vuestro marido? deme essegar rote vuessa merced.
Gine. Assi, garrote para mi, al fin no seriades vos hijo de Guarniço el enxalmador, cura bestias.