"You shall see shortly," he says, "the further exploits of Don Quixote and humours of Sancho Panza." His idea of "shortly" was a somewhat elastic one, for, as we know by the date to Sancho's letter, he had barely one-half of the book completed that time twelvemonth.
But more than poems, or pastorals, or novels, it was his dramatic ambition that engrossed his thoughts.

The same indomitable spirit that kept him from despair in the bagnios of Algiers, and prompted him to attempt the escape of himself and his comrades again and again, made him persevere in spite of failure and discouragement in his efforts to win the ear of the public as a dramatist.

The temperament of Cervantes was essentially sanguine.

The portrait he draws in the preface to the novels, with the aquiline features, chestnut hair, smooth untroubled forehead, and bright cheerful eyes, is the very portrait of a sanguine man.

Nothing that the managers might say could persuade him that the merits of his plays would not be recognised at last if they were only given a fair chance.