The first book-length work devoted exclusively to the entremeses of Cervantes, this study explores Cervantes's short drama as literary-dramtic hybrids whose publication in 1615 represented a confluence of mass culture and literary tradition. The book approaches the interludes as innovative texts written originally for the public stage, but destined for consumption by the private reader because of their departure from established dramtic convention and overt reliance upon literary codes. New insights into the complexity of Cervantine drama are offered as the study investigates why these plays were considered inadequate in their own time, but today are known as literary masterpieces.