Finally, the history of the _Romancero general_ itself still waits for bibliographic illustration; and in order to throw any light on this subject, it would be necessary to have the opportunity of examining the Spanish libraries and old collections of manuscripts, and to be able to bestow on them the most indefatigable attention. Of all the collections, bearing the common title of _Romancero general_, only two are quoted by authors; one was edited by Miguel de Madrigal, in the year 1604; and the other by Pedro de Flores in 1614.[124] Another publication, however, under the same title, which also appeared in 1604, and which contains upwards of a thousand romances and songs, professes to be a new and augmented collection of this kind.[125] At what time, then, was the first collection made or published? Those, however, who may think it unimportant to enquire how many of these anonymous poems, which have for ages delighted the Spanish public, were produced in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and who may merely wish to see a selection of the best Spanish poems in the old national style, have only to turn to the _Romancero general_. Many of the narrative romances which it contains, vie, in romantic simplicity, with those of apparently older date in other collections, and exceed them in elegance; and still more do a number of the songs in the _Romancero_ surpass those in the _Cancionero general_. Thus the historian of literature has additional cause to lament that through the absence of all chronological and bibliographical notices, he is deprived of even the slight satisfaction of paying a just tribute to the memory of the authors of the best of these romances and songs, which really deserve to be immortal. The poets themselves, it is true, do not seem to have attached much value to fame. If their songs, accompanied by the guitar, interested the hearts and charmed the ears of their auditors, they sought no laurels in addition to that true reward of the poet. Yet, for this very reason, in an age when the lowest degree of poetic merit presumptuously claims literary distinction, the task would be the more pleasing to do honour to those venerable authors, by raising the veil beneath which their names have too long been concealed. FIRST TRACES OF THE ORIGIN OF SPANISH DRAMATIC POETRY IN THE MINGO REBULGO--JUAN DEL ENZINA--CALLISTUS AND MELIBŒA, A DRAMATIC TALE. All that now remains to be stated respecting the poetic literature of the Spaniards during the fifteenth century, must be comprehended in a notice of their first essays in dramatic poetry.