Another aspect of the fénix: Lope as writer of autos

Hispanists have frequently lamented the loss of a large number of the comedias of Lope de Vega while, proportionately, there may be greater cause for regret in the case of his autos. Texts of only forty-odd of these are known today - a number quite different from the four hundred which Juan Pérez de Montalbán claimed that his friend had written.