As Robert ter Horst noted, Spanish Golden Age drama, the apogee of Spanish theater, began at court with Encina’s writing (qtd. in Greer 5). Although Encina has traditionally been labeled as the “patriarch of the Spanish drama,” his dramatic works have been largely overlooked in favor of Spain’s early-modern comedias (Crawford 18). Far from simplistic, static pieces, however, Encina’s theater is replete with characteristics that later would become hallmarks of the comedia in the following century – with one of the notable characteristics being that of metatheater.