A concept of the masses, or populace, conveyed a positive connotation in both Biblical and Renaissance literature. During Spain's Golden Age (seventeenth century) writers, especially didactic dramatists, tended to register negative and prejudiced attitudes toward the common folk and to regard them as "masa inculta" or uncultured masses. Primarily, this attitude followed a literary tradition inherited from Latin writings and was a result of the influence of Vulgar Latin on Spanish. Such terms as "plebs", "turba", and "massa" were used to describe mobs, whereas literary Latin referred to these groups as "populus" and "gens," more positive terms. Other reasons for this air of superiority were that dramatists preferred to maintain a distance from their spectators, and playwrights claimed a deterioration in the quality of their audiences. Each author varied slightly in his interpretation of "vulgo", but almost all of them referred to the populace frequently in their works. Among the writers cited are Cervantes, Calderon, Lope de Vega, and Juan de la Cueva. Later writers such as Tirso de Molina, Ricardo de Turia, and Guillen de Castro reversed the tendency and respected and identified with the masses in their dramas. (DS)