FOURTH CLASS.--DRAMA.--EXTINCTION OF THE GREEK AND ROMAN THEATRES.--RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE MODERN DRAMA.--EARLIEST NOTICE OF IT IN SPAIN.--HINTS OF IT IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.--MARQUIS OF VILLENA.--CONSTABLE DE LUNA.--MINGO REVULGO.--RODRIGO COTA.--THE CELESTINA.--FIRST ACT.--THE REMAINDER.--ITS STORY, CHARACTER, AND EFFECTS ON SPANISH LITERATURE. THE DRAMA.--The ancient theatre of the Greeks and Romans was continued under some of its grosser and more popular forms at Constantinople, in Italy, and in many other parts of the falling and fallen empire, far into the Middle Ages. But, under whatever disguise it appeared, it was essentially heathenish; for, from first to last, it was mythological, both in tone and in substance. As such, of course, it was rebuked and opposed by the Christian Church, which, favored by the confusion and ignorance of the times, succeeded in overthrowing it, though not without a long contest, and not until its degradation and impurity had rendered it worthy of its fate and of the anathemas pronounced against it by Tertullian and Saint Augustin.[405] [405] A Spanish Bishop of Barcelona, in the seventh century, was deposed for merely permitting plays with allusions to heathen mythology to be acted in his diocese. Mariana, Hist., Lib. VI. c. 3. A love for theatrical exhibitions, however, survived the extinction of these poor remains of the classical drama; and the priesthood, careful neither to make itself needlessly odious, nor to neglect any suitable method of increasing its own influence, seems early to have been willing to provide a substitute for the popular amusement it had destroyed. At any rate, a substitute soon appeared; and, coming as it did out of the ceremonies and commemorations of the religion of the times, its appearance was natural and easy. The greater festivals of the Church had for centuries been celebrated with whatever of pomp the rude luxury of ages so troubled could afford, and they now everywhere, from London to Rome, added a dramatic element to their former attractions. Thus, the manger at Bethlehem, with the worship of the shepherds and Magi, was, at a very early period, solemnly exhibited every year by a visible show before the altars of the churches at Christmas, as were the tragical events of the last days of the Saviour’s life during Lent and at the approach of Easter.