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During the sixteenth century, the Spanish theater began to indicate the tendencies that the drama was to follow in the Golden Age, although there remained numerous vestiges of medieval drama, consisting principally of religious works called autos or misterios and secular works called farsas or juegos de escarnio. Juan del Encina (1468?-1529?), who is often referred to as the "Father of Spanish Drama," continued the medieval tradition in his works (called eglogas because shepherds usually figure in them), which are mainly religious in subject-matter. However, several are festive in nature and contain the first manifestations of the comic genre, which was known later in the sixteenth century as the paso. Juan de la Cueva (1543-1610) and Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) followed these dramatists chronologically, and gave impetus to the development of the Spanish theater during its era of transition from the sixteenth century to the Golden Age. They wrote comedies and tragedies, helping to mold the path for the dramatic giants of Spanish literature of the seventeenth century. Hence this study will attempt to disclose the actual extent of Juan de la Cueva's influence on Cervantes' subject-matter, style, characterization, ideology and versification. In view of the fact that many critics have limited themselves to making general statements about Cervantes' indebtedness to Cueva, without comparing in detail the essential features of their respective plays, this analysis will seek to reveal whether these critics' suspicions are well-founded.

This thesis describes the how Miguel de Cervantes used proverbs and popular sayings to help compose his work, Don Quijote.

This book is being edited at the suggestion of colleagues who feel a great need for a Spanish reader with the the following qualifications: A good connected story from Spanish Literature Subject matter suitable for adolescents Sufficiently simple for use in Beginning Spanish This is an edited version of Part One, and consequently is simplified and cut. Many authorities prefer to wait until students get to college so that they may be introduced to the great masterpiece in its original. In as much as the average high school student does not take more than two years of Spanish, this system removes the greatest Spanish classic from the education of the masses of American people. Furthermore the study of Don Quixote offers excellent character training and basic education for the adolescent. To the student: This book is arranged to help English-speaking students of thirteen years of age or over to learn to read their second language. You must remember that unless you can make use of your English vocabulary and ability, you will learn to read Spanish at somewhat the same rate of speed with which you learned English. In other words, at the end of one year, you will know about as much as you did in English at the end of the First Grade, and at the end of ten years, you may expect to have somewhat the same ability that is usual for a Junior in High School, furthermore, you must remember that it is impossible to Iearn all the common or useful words in a foreign language, and it is not always possible to consult a dictionary at every turn when traveling around Mexico or South America.