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If Arbolanche (or Arbolanches) really died in 1563, it is almost impossible that Cervantes can have had—as has been insinuated—any personal grudge against him. Perhaps he had read the Habidas when he was a lad, was bored, and in his old age exaggerated his impression, without remembering very clearly the contents of the book. Or, it may be, as Dr. Apráiz suggests (op. cit., pp. 273-274), that Cervantes mistook Arbolanche (or Arbolanches) for the author of some dull pastoral whose name escaped him. If this be so, it is exceedingly regrettable that he should twice have made the same blunder: for the consequence has been that the name of Arbolanche (or Arbolanches), a poet of distinct merit, has become—among those who have not read him and who follow Cervantes blindly—a synonym for a ridiculous prose writer. Cp. the lines in the celebrated Sátira contra los malos escritores de su tiempo by Jorge Pitillas (i.e. José Gerardo de Hervás y Cobo de la Torre):—

De Arbolanches descubre el genio tonto,