His four longer dramas have some resemblance to portions of the earlier English comedy, which, at precisely the same period, was beginning to show itself in pieces such as “Ralph Royster Doyster,” and “Gammer Gurton’s Needle.” They are divided into what are called scenes,--the shortest of them consisting of six, and the longest of ten; but in these scenes the place sometimes changes, and the persons often,--a circumstance of little consequence, where the whole arrangements implied no real attempt at scenic illusion.[30] Much of the success of all depended on the part played by the fools, or _simples_, who, in most of his dramas, are important personages, almost constantly on the stage;[31] while something is done by mistakes in language, arising from vulgar ignorance or from foreign dialects, like those of negroes and Moors. Each piece opens with a brief explanatory prologue, and ends with a word of jest and apology to the audience. Naturalness of thought, the most easy, idiomatic Castilian turns of expression, a good-humored, free gayety, a strong sense of the ridiculous, and a happy imitation of the manners and tone of common life, are the prominent characteristics of these, as they are of all the rest of his shorter efforts. He was, therefore, on the right road, and was, in consequence, afterwards justly reckoned, both by Cervantes and Lope de Vega, to be the true founder of the popular national theatre.[32] [30] In the fifth _escena_ of the “Eufemia,” the place changes, when Valiano comes in. Indeed, it is evident that Lope de Rueda did not know the meaning of the word _scene_, or did not employ it aright. [31] The first traces of these _simples_, who were afterwards expanded into the _graciosos_, is to be found in the _parvos_ of Gil Vicente. [32] Cervantes, in the Prólogo already cited, calls him “_el gran_ Lope de Rueda,” and, when speaking of the Spanish Comedias, treats him as “el primero que en España las sacó de mantillas y las puso en toldo y vistió de gala y apariencia.” This was in 1615; and Cervantes spoke from his own knowledge and memory. In 1620, in the Prólogo to the thirteenth volume of his Comedias, (Madrid, 4to), Lope de Vega says, “Las comedias no eran mas antiguas que Rueda, á quien oyeron muchos, que hoy viven.”