Very different was the _Celestina_, first printed in Burgos in 1499, and now generally believed to be the work of a lawyer, Fernando de Rojas. Here are no shadowy Knights condemned to struggle through endless pages with imaginary beasts; but men and women at war with sin and moved by passions that are as eternal as human life itself. The author describes it as a “Tragicomedia,” since it begins in comedy and ends in tragedy. It is the tale of a certain youth, Calisto, who, rejected by the heroine, Melibea, bribes an old woman, Celestina, to act as go-between; until at length through her evil persuasions virtue yields to his advances. The rest of the book works out the Nemesis; Calisto being surprised and slain at a secret meeting with his mistress, Celestina murdered for her ill-gotten money by her associates, while Melibea herself commits suicide. The whole is related in dialogue, often witty and even brilliant; but marred for the taste of a later age by gross and indecent passages. The _Celestina_ has been classed both as novel and play, and might indeed be claimed as the forerunner of both these more modern Spanish developments. It is cast in the form of acts; but their number (twenty-one) and the extreme length of many of the speeches make it improbable that it was ever acted. Nevertheless its popularity, besides raising a host of imitations more or less worthless, insured it a lasting influence on Castilian literature; and the seventeenth century witnessed its adaptation to the stage. Other dialogues, with less plot but considerable dramatic spirit, are the _Coplas de Mingo Revulgo_, and the _Dialogue between Love and an Old Man_ by Rodrigo Cota. The former of these represents a conversation between two shepherds, satirizing the reign of Henry IV.; the latter the disillusionment of an old man who, having allowed himself to be tricked by Love whom he believed he had cast out of his life for ever, finds that Love is mocking him and that he has lost the power to charm. Whether these pieces were acted or no is not certain; but they bear enough resemblance to the _Representaciones_ of Juan del Enzina, which certainly were produced, to make it probable that they were. Juan de Enzina was born about the year 1468, and under the patronage of the Duke of Alva appeared at Ferdinand and Isabel’s Court, where he became famous as poet and musician. Amongst his works are twelve “Églogas,” or pastoral poems, six secular in their tone and six religious, the latter being intended to celebrate the great church festivals.