From out this flood of production--for every dramatist was
in a measure a lyric poet, and dramatists were legion--we
can select for consideration only the men most prominent
as lyrists. First in the impulse which he gave to
literature for more than a century following stands Luis
de ARGOTE Y GÓNGORA (1561-1627), a Cordovan page xxiv
who chose to be known by his mother's name. His life was
mainly that of a disappointed place-hunter. His abrupt
change of literary manner has made some say that there
were in him two poets, Góngora the Good and Góngora the
Bad. He began by writing odes in the manner of Herrera and
_romances_ and _villancicos_ which are among the clearest
and best. They did not bring their author fame, however,
and he seems deliberately to have adopted the involved
metaphoric style to which Marini gave his name in Italy.
Góngora is merely the Spanish representative of the
movement, which also produced Euphuism in England and
_préciosité_ in France. But he surpassed all previous
writers in the extreme to which he carried the method, and
his _Soledades_ and _Polifemo_ are simply unintelligible
for the inversions and strained metaphors with which they
are overloaded.

His influence was enormous. Gongorism, or _culteranismo_,
as it was called at the time, swept the minor poets
with it, and even those who fought the movement most
vigorously, like Lope and Quevedo, were not wholly free
from the contagion. The second generation of dramatists
was strongly affected. Yet there are few lyric poets worth
mentioning among Góngora's disciples for the reason that