The other circumstance that should be noted in relation to them, as proof that they constitute the commencement of the Spanish secular drama, is, that they were really acted. Nearly all of them speak in their titles of this fact, mentioning sometimes the personages who were present, and in more than one instance alluding to Enzina himself, as if he had performed some of the parts in person. Rojas, a great authority in whatever relates to the theatre, declares the same thing expressly, coupling the fall of Granada and the achievements of Columbus with the establishment of the theatre in Spain by Enzina; events which, in the true spirit of his profession as an actor, he seems to consider of nearly equal importance.[438] The precise year when this happened is given by a learned antiquary of the time of Philip the Fourth, who says, “In 1492, companies began to represent publicly in Castile plays by Juan de la Enzina.”[439] From this year, then, the great year of the discovery of America, we may safely date the foundation of the Spanish secular theatre. [438] Agustin de Rojas, Viage Entretenido, Madrid, 1614, 12mo, ff. 46, 47. Speaking of the bucolic dramas of Enzina, represented before the Dukes of Alva, Infantado, etc., he says expressly, “These were the first.” Rojas was not born till 1577, but he was devoted to the theatre his whole life, and seems to have been more familiar with its history than anybody else of his time. [439] Rodrigo Mendez de Silva, Catálogo Real Genealógico de España, at the end of his “Poblacion de España” (Madrid, 1675, folio, f. 250. b). Mendez de Silva was a learned and voluminous author. See his Life, Barbosa, Bib. Lusitana, Tom. III. p. 649, where is a sonnet of Lope de Vega in praise of the learning of this very Catálogo Real. The word “publicly,” however, seems only to refer to the representations in the houses of Enzina’s patrons, etc., as we shall see hereafter.