This work, drawn from a symposium held at the University of Texas, El Paso, in March, 1992, brings together scholars from all over North America, as well as other parts of the world, to study diverse aspects of the comedia from an intellectual, academic perspective. Seven different aspects of the comedia are examined in detail: Spain and the New World; Staging the Comedia: Then and Now; Feminist and Gender Studies; Critical Approaches: From Philosophy to Psychology; Themes, Myths and Archetypes; The Comedia in History; The Text; and Authenticating and Editing. The variety and depth of these attests to the dynamic state of comedia studies at the end of the twentieth century, and shows that Golden Age theatre still delights us aesthetically and stimulates us intellectually. Contributors: Thomas Benedetti, Thomas E. Case, Viviana Diaz Balsera, Maria E. Moux, R. Shannon, Margaret R. Hicks, Barbara Simerka, Dawn L. Smith, Brenda Krebs, Anita K. Stoll, Sara A. Taddeo, Sharon D. Voros, Robert Hershberger, Ted E. McVay, Jr., Barbara Mujica, Matthew D. Stroud, Isaac Benabu, Shelly Chitwood, F. William Forbes, Jesus Garcia-Varela, L. Carl Johnson, Gordon Summer, Santiago Garcia-Castanon, Jose Luis Suarez Garcia, Jame W. Albrecht, and Sandra L. Nielsen. Co-published with the Golden Age Spanish Drama Symposium.