Su amorosa muger, porque él queria
Una Española Helena, entonces Griega.
Hicieron amistades, y aquel dia
Fué piedra en mi primero fundamento
La paz de su zelosa fantasía,
En fin por zelos soy; que nacimiento!
Imaginalde vos que haver nacido
De tan inquieta causa fué portento.
And then he goes on with a pleasant account of his making verses as soon as he could speak; of his early passion for Raymond Lulli, the metaphysical doctor then so much in fashion; of his subsequent studies, his family, etc. Lope loved to refer to his origin in the mountains. He speaks of it in his “Laurel de Apolo,” (Silva VIII.), and in two or three of his plays he makes his heroes boast that they came from that part of Spain to which he traced his own birth. Thus, in “La Venganza Venturosa,” (Comedias, 4to, Madrid, Tom. X., 1620, f. 33. b), Feliciano, a high-spirited old knight, says,—
El noble solar que heredo,