[823] “Poema Heróico de la Invencion de la Cruz, por Fr. Lopez de Zarate,” Madrid, 1648, 4to; twenty-two cantos and four hundred pages of octave stanzas. The infernal councils and many other parts show it to be an imitation of Tasso. The notice of his life by Sedano (Parnaso, Tom. VIII. p. xxiv.) is sufficient; but that by Antonio is more touching, and reads like a tribute of personal regard. Zarate died in 1658, above seventy years old. Semanario Pintoresco, 1845, p. 82.
[824] The continual parody of the gracioso on the hero shows what was the tendency of the Spanish stage in this particular. But there are also plays that are entirely burlesque, such as “The Death of Baldovinos,” at the end of Cancer’s Works, 1651, which is a parody on the old ballads and traditions respecting that paladin; and the “Cavallero de Olmedo,” a favorite play, by Francisco Felix de Monteser, which is in the volume entitled “Mejor Libro de las Mejores Comedias,” Madrid, 1653, and which is a parody of a play with the same title in the Comedias de Lope de Vega, Vol. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641.
[825] Cosmé was editor of the poems of his brother, Francisco de Aldana, in 1593. (Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 256.) He wrote in Italian and printed at Florence as early as 1578; but Velasco did not go as governor to Milan till after 1586. (Salazar, Dignidades, f. 131.) The only account I have seen of the “Asneida” is in Figueroa’s “Pasagero,” 1617, f. 127.
En la concavidad del tejadillo,
Hazia los paredones del gallego,
Junto adonde morava antaño el grillo,
En un rincon secreto, oscuro y ciego,
Escondidos debaxo de un ladrillo,
Estan cinco sardinas, lo que os ruego