IV.—Lope de Vega's ‘Comedia,’ Sin Secreto No A Y Amor

Lope de Vega's ‘Comedia,’ Sin secreto no ay amor, is contained in a volume of manuscript Spanish plays marked ‘Egerton. 548,’ in the British Museum. This volume, which is a quarto, bound in brown morocco, contains, besides the above ‘comedia,’ a number of others by Lope; they are as follows: Lo que ha de ser, Ay verdades que en amor, La competencia en los nobles, Argel fingido, and two ‘autos sacramentales:’El yugo de Christo, and El principe de la paz. Of these ‘comedias,’ Lo que ha de ser is an autograph, dated September 2, 1624, and is printed in Tom. XXII, de las comedias del Fenix de España Lope de Vega y de los mejores que hasta ahora han salido, Zaragoza, 1630; and also in Parte veinte cinco perfeta y verdadera, de las comedias del Fenix de España Frey Lope Felix de Vega Carpio, etc., Caragoça, 1647. Ay verdades que en amor is also an autograph, dated Madrid, November 12, 1625, with an approbation by Vargas Machuca, dated Madrid, February 4, 1626, and appeared in Veinte y una parte verdadera de las comedias del Fenix de España, Frei Lope Felix de Vega Carpio, etc., Madrid, 1635; also in Parte XXIX de las comedias de diferentes autores, Valencia, 1636. The rest of the plays are not in Lope's handwriting. La competencia en los nobles, dated November 16th, 1625, with a license to play signed by don Juan de Velasco, Pamplona, November 6, 1628, has, so far as I am aware, never been printed.