Celestina

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). ÞFernando de Rojas' tragi-comedy ä which has also been called a novel in dialogue ä 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.ÞThe 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 ä or rather tragi-comedy.