[144] “El Pasagero” (Madrid, 1617, 12mo, ff. 492) is in ten dialogues, carried on in the pauses or rests of two travellers, and thence affectedly called _Alivios_. I have a small volume entitled “Historia de los Siete Sabios de Roma, compuesta por Marcos Perez, Barcelona por Rafael Figuero,” 12mo,--no date; but, I think, printed in the eighteenth century. It contains the story of “The Seven Wise Masters,” which is one of the oldest of modern fictions,--the Emperor, in this version of it, being named Ponciano, and being called the son of Diocletian. The style is somewhat better than that of the “Donzella Teodor,” (_ante_, II. 212,) but seems to be of about the same period. [145] Notices for the life of Barbadillo may be found in Baena (Hijos de Madrid, Tom. I. p. 42); in Antonio (Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 28); and in the Prefaces to his own “Estafeta del Dios Momo,” (Madrid, 1627, 12mo,) and his “Coronas del Parnaso” (Madrid, 1635, 12mo). He was associated with Cervantes in the same religious fraternity, and gave his strong testimony in favor of the tales of his friend in their first edition. (Navarrete, Vida, §§ 121, 132.) He seems to have had an office at court, for he calls himself “Criado de su Magestad.” “The Ingenious Helen, Daughter of Celestina,” which is one of the earliest and most spirited of these fictions, appeared in 1612, and was frequently printed afterwards. It is the story of a courtesan, whose adventures, from the high game she undertakes to play in life, are of the boldest and most desperate kind. She is called the daughter of Celestina, because she is made to deserve that name by her talent and her crimes; but, with instinctive truth, she is at last left to perish by the most disgraceful of all the forms of a Spanish execution, for poisoning an obscure and vulgar lover. One or two minor stories are rather inartificially introduced in the course of the main narrative, and so are a few ballads, which have no value except as they serve to illustrate the ruffian life, as it was called, then to be found in the great cities of Spain. The best parts of the book are those relating to Helen herself and her machinations; and the most striking scenes, and perhaps the most true to the time, are those that occur when she rises to the height of her fortunes by setting up for a saint and imposing on all Seville.[146] [146] “La Ingeniosa Helena, Hija de Celestina,” Lerida, 1612, and often since. The edition I have is of Madrid, 1737, 12mo.