It  is  true  that  Gines  de  Pasamonte  in  Bon
Quixote}  lauding  his  own  autobiography,  cries,
"Woe  betide  Lazarillo  de  Tormes  and  all  of
that  kind  that  have  been  or  shall  be  written,"
seeming  to  imply  the  existence  at  that  time
of  at  least  several  works  of  the  picaresque
series.  Yet  this  was  penned  before  1605,
when,  as  far  as  is  known,  only  Q-uzman  was
printed.  The  Picara  Justina  of  the  same  year,
but  licensed  earlier  than  the  Quixote,  had  men-
tioned Cervantes'  masterpiece  along  with  choice
company  in  truncated  sextillas  :

Mas  famw  —  qv£  dcma  Oli  —
Que  don  Quixo  —  y  Lazari  —
Q^l^  Alfarache  y  Celesti  —
1  Pt.  I.,  22.
214  ROMANCES  OF  EOGTJERY

SO  that  the  Pieara  itself  could  scarcely  have
been  included  in  Pasamonte's  reckoning.  If
Guzman,  then,  had  any  immediate  predeces-
sors, they  have  gone  the  way  of  all  things
perishable ;  and  to  Mateo  Aleman  of  Seville
belongs  the  fame  of  being  the  first  openly  to
avow  the  authorship  of  a  romance  of  roguery.
