While  this  fiction  after  its  definite  start  was
more  interesting  than  most,  its  very  complica-
tion in  handling  brought  its  author  into  diffi-
culties that  his  less  ambitious  rivals  had  not  to
encounter.  In  the  introduction  of  Sasredo  a
second  time  a  glaring  inconsistency  emerged,
for,  at  the  commencement  of  Marcos'  relation


THE   EMERGENCE   OF   PERSONALITY        303

to  the  hermit,  the  picaro  has  but  recently  left
the  service  of  Sagredo,  and  practically  his  only
intervening  adventure  has  been  a  discussion
upon  education  with  an  hidalgo,  but  in  the
latter  part  of  this  consecutive  narrative  he  has
met  the  same  Sagredo  in  Andalusia  after  the
doctor  has  spent  between  two  and  three  years
in  travel,  and  when,  according  to  the  opening  of
the  tale,  the  escudero  has  never  left  Madrid  at
all.  Moreover,  the  autobiographical  character
of  the  work  led  Espinel  into  occasional  incon-
sistencies, as  when,  confusing  fact  with  fiction,
he  mentions  being  in  Flanders  at  the  siege  of
Maestricht,  and  yet,  as  far  as  his  story  is
concerned,  has  travelled  only  in  Spain  and
Italy.  The  identity  of  Espinel  with  his  anti-
hero  was,  however,  obvious  throughout.  The
glosa  Obregon  sings  when  retaken  aboard  the
Italian  ship  is  one  of  Espinel's  best-known
songs,  "unas  oetavas  mias,"  Marcos  calls  them,
and,  asked  who  he  is,  he  replies  "  Marcos  de
Obregon,"  but  another  declaring  his  true
name,  the  general  marvels  to  behold  in  these
humble  circumstances  one  of  whom  he  has
heard  so  much.  The  unreal  exploits  of  Sagredo
on  the  Cyclops  island  suggested  by  Homer,  and


304  ROMANCES  OF  ROGUERY

the  incidents  of  the  robbers'  cave  suggested  by
Apuleius,  were  added  to  Espinel's  autobiog-
raphy only  when  his  actual  life  as  adventurer
had  been  exchanged  for  a  quiet  existence
deemed  too  prosaic  to  serve  as  the  theme  for  a
picaresque  novel.  Except  in  its  beginning,  the
narrative  was  no  more  than  anecdotally  discur-
sive and  the  action  rapid,  with  a  sly  if  not
aggressive  satire  maintained  through  most  of  it.
