The whole of those dramatists, whose works so closely resemble each other, form therefore only one school. Were not the critic assisted by names the most extensive, knowledge of this department of Spanish literature would in most cases be insufficient to enable him to distinguish the labours of different authors. It often happened that several writers formed a co-partnership of their talents for the production of one piece. Hence arose the practice of printing on the titles of some dramas, the words, “by two wits,” or “by three wits,” (_de dos ingenios_, or _de tres ingenios_.) Of the numerous aspirants in this conflict of efforts and of talents, proportionally few succeeded in obtaining a celebrity which entitles them to be placed near Lope de Vega and Calderon. These few, however, whose number, compared with the approved dramatists of other nations, the French comic authors excepted, is still very considerable, vied in ingenuity and delicacy of composition with Calderon, and endeavoured to surpass him in regularity. Several authors have with much labour endeavoured to discover the number of the Spanish dramas, as if the knowledge of their amount even correctly ascertained, could be worth the pains necessary to acquire it. Of the three thousand eight hundred and fifty-two dramatic works which La Huerta has enumerated,[551] the greater part belongs to the age of Calderon. Those which Calderon himself wrote, appear in the list; and it also includes a considerable number of short interludes, some of which, perhaps, did not cost their authors more than a few hours labour. But this list contains only the printed dramas known to literary collectors. That the number of pieces remaining in manuscript is much greater, may from analogy be presumed; for of the dramatic compositions of the idolized Lope de Vega, which are estimated at more than two thousand, not many more than three hundred have been printed. It would not be uninteresting to analyze, for the purpose of comparison with the works of Calderon, some of the best of the other dramas of this age; but such details do not fall within the province of this General History of Spanish Poetry and Eloquence. Some of the contemporaries of Calderon, however, vied with him in so distinguished a manner, that an express but brief notice of their merits becomes indispensable. ANTONIO DE SOLIS--MORETO--JUAN DE HOZ--TIRSO DE MOLINA--FRANCISCO DE ROXAS--AUGUSTIN DE SALAZAR--MIRA DE MESCUA, &c.