"As Greek tragedy," says a Spanish writer, "was composed from the
crumbs that fell from Homer's table, so the Spanish drama owed its
earliest forms to La Celestina (1499)." Fernando de Rojas'
tragi-comedy - which has also been called "a novel in dialogue" -
runs to about three hundred pages in the James Mabbe translation,
here adapted to the stage by Eric Bentley in a five-act, 93-page
version. The central and pervasive situation is a simple one: a
dirty old woman is helping a courtly young gentleman to seduce a
girl. The wonder of the thing lies in the art with which Fernando
do Rojas derives, from such commonplace materials, a towering
tragedy - or rather, tragi-comedy.
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