Y yo del Duque Antonio dexé el Alva.
Obras Sueltas, Tom. I. p. 289.
He, however, praised the elder Duke abundantly in the second, third, and fifth books of the “Arcadia,” giving in the last an account of his death and of the glories of his grandson, whom he again notices as his patron. Indeed, the case is quite plain, and it is only singular that it should need an explanation; for the idea of making the Duke of Alva, who was minister to Philip II., a shepherd, seems to be a caricature or an absurdity, or both. It is, however, the common impression, and may be found again in the Semanario Pintoresco, 1839, p. 18. The younger Duke, on the contrary, loved letters, and, if I mistake not, there is a Cancion of his in the Cancionero General of 1573, f. 178.
[211] The truth of the stories, or some of the stories, in the Arcadia may be inferred from the mysterious intimations of Lope in the Prólogo to the first edition; in the “Egloga á Claudio”; and in the Preface to the “Rimas,” (1602), put into the shape of a letter to Juan de Arguijo. Quintana, too, in the Dedication to Lope of his “Experiencias de Amor y Fortuna,” (1626), says of the Arcadia, that, “under a rude covering, are hidden souls that are noble and events that really happened.” See, also, Lope, Obras Sueltas, Tom. XIX. p. xxii., and Tom. II. p. 456. That it was believed to be true in France is apparent from the Preface to old Lancelot’s translation, under the title of “Délices de la Vie Pastorale” (1624). It is important to settle the fact; for it must be referred to hereafter.
[212] The Arcadia fills the sixth volume of Lope’s Obras Sueltas. Editions of it were printed in 1599, 1601, 1602, twice, 1603, 1605, 1612, 1615, 1617, and often since, showing a great popularity.
[213] Her father, Diego de Urbina, was a person of some consequence, and figures among the more distinguished natives of Madrid in Baena, “Hijos de Madrid.”
[214] Montalvan, it should be noted, seems willing to slide over these “frowns of fortune, brought on by his youth and aggravated by his enemies.” But Lope attributes to them his exile, which came, he says, from “love in early youth, whose trophies were exile and its results tragedies.” (Epístola Primera á D. Ant. de Mendoza.) But he also attributes it to false friends, in the fine ballad where he represents himself as looking down upon the ruins of Saguntum and moralizing on his own exile:—“Bad friends,” he says, “have brought me here.” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XVII. p. 434, and Romancero General, 1602, f. 108.) But again, in the Second Part of his “Philomena,” 1621, (Obras Sueltas, Tom. II. p. 452), he traces his troubles to his earlier adventures; “love to hatred turned.” “Love-vengeance,” he declares, “disguised as justice, exiled me.”
[215] His relations with Claudio are noticed by himself in the Dedication to that “true friend,” as he justly calls him, of the well-known play, “Courting his own Misfortunes”; “which title,” he adds, “is well suited to those adventures, when, with so much love, you accompanied me to prison, from which we went to Valencia, where we ran into no less dangers than we had incurred at home, and where I repaid you by liberating you from the tower of Serranos [216] Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV. pp. 430-443. Belardo, the name Lope bears in this eclogue, is the one he gave himself in the Arcadia, as may be seen from the sonnet prefixed to that pastoral by Amphryso, or Antonio Duke of Alva; and it is the poetical name Lope bore to the time of his death, as may be seen from the beginning of the third act of the drama in honor of his memory. (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. p. 494.) Even his Peruvian Amaryllis knew it, and under this name addressed to him the poetical epistle already referred to. This fact—that Belardo was his recognized poetical appellation—should be borne in mind when reading the poetry of his time, where it frequently recurs. [217] Belisa is an anagram of Isabela, the first name of his wife, as is plain from a sonnet on the death of her mother, Theodora Urbina, where he speaks of her as “the heavenly image of his Belisa, whose silent words and gentle smiles had been the consolation of his exile.” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV. p. 278.) There are several ballads connected with her in the Romancero General, and a beautiful one in the third of Lope’s Tales, written evidently while he was with the Duke of Alva. Obras, Tom. VIII. p. 148.