Celestina

Synopsis

Or, the tragi-comedy of Calisto and Melibea

(Applause Books).

"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.