Juan Rodrlguez del Padron's brief "tratado," the Siervo libre de amor, has experienced in recent years a remarkable increase in scholarly attention, but this interest has been accompanied by a hardening of the two contrary outlooks into which critical opposition has traditionally been divided. On the one hand, the book is declared to be a finished work, whose theme is the glorification of courtly love;' on the other, the book is considered unfinished and its theme is seen to be the condemnation of courtly love.2 The problem of the completeness or incompleteness of the novel is important because it is directly linked to the essential one of the total meaning of