Tanto que, trepando un dia
Por alcançarlas, caí,
Y me quebré las costillas.
Este es el caso, el por el.
Jorn. I.
[691] Both volumes of the Comedias de Roxas were reprinted, Madrid, 1680, 4to, and both their Licencias are dated on the same day; but the publisher of the first, who dedicates it to a distinguished nobleman, is the same person to whom the second is dedicated by the printer of both. Autos of Roxas may be found in “Autos, Loas, etc.,” 1655, and in “Navidad y Corpus Christi Festejados,” collected by Pedro de Robles, 1664. But they are no better than those of his contemporaries generally.
[692] His “Persiles y Sigismunda” is from Cervantes’s novel of the same name. On the other hand, his “Casarse por vengarse” is plundered, without ceremony, for the story of “Le Mariage de Vengeance,” (Gil Blas, Liv. IV. c. 4), by Le Sage, who never neglected a good opportunity of the sort.
[693] “Del Rey abaxo Ninguno” has been sometimes printed with the name of Calderon, who might well be content to be regarded as its author; but there is no doubt who wrote it. It is, however, among the Comedias Sueltas of Roxas, and not in his collected works.
[694] T. Corneille’s play is “Don Bertrand de Cigarral,” (Œuvres, Paris, 1758, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 209), and his obligations are avowed in the Dedication. Scarron’s “Jodelet” (Œuvres, Paris, 1752, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 73) is a spirited comedy, desperately indebted to Roxas. But Scarron constantly borrowed from the Spanish theatre.
[695] Three persons were frequently employed on one drama, dividing its composition among them, according to its three regular jornadas. In the large collection of Comedias printed in the latter half of the seventeenth century, in forty-eight volumes, there are, I think, about thirty such plays. Two are by six persons each. One, in honor of the Marquis Cañete, is the work of nine different poets, but it is not in any collection; it is printed separately, and better than was usual, Madrid, 1622, 4to.