[685] These few meagre facts, which constitute all we know about Moreto, are due mainly to Ochoa (Teatro Español, Paris, 1838, 8vo, Tom. IV. p. 248); but the suggestion he makes, that Moreto was probably concerned in the violent death of Medinilla, mourned by Lope de Vega in an elegy in the first volume of his Works, seems to rest on no sufficient proof, and to be quite inconsistent with the regard felt for Moreto by Lope, Valdivielso, and other intimate friends of Medinilla. As to Moreto’s works, I possess his Comedias, Tom. I., Madrid, 1677 (of which Antonio notes an edition in 1654); Tom. II., Valencia, 1676; and Tom. III., Madrid, 1681, all in 4to;—besides which I have about a dozen of his plays, found in none of them. Calderon, in his “Astrólogo Fingido,” first printed by his brother in 1637, alludes to Moreto’s “Lindo Don Diego,” so that Moreto must have been known as early as that date; and in the “Comedias Escogidas de los Mejores Ingenios,” Tom. XXXVI., Madrid, 1671, we have the “Santa Rosa del Perú,” the first two acts of which are said to have been his last work, the remaining act being by Lanini, but with no intimation when Moreto wrote his part of it. This old collection of Comedias Escogidas contains forty-six plays attributed in whole or in part to Moreto.

[686] “Los mas Dichosos Hermanos.” It is the first play in the third volume; and though it does not correspond in its story with the beautiful legend as Gibbon gives it, there is a greater attempt at the preservation of the truth of history in its accompaniments than is common in the old Spanish drama.

[687] Comedias de Lope de Vega, Tom. XXIV., Zaragoza, 1641, f. 16.

[688] “The Aunt and the Niece” is from Lope’s “De quando acá nos vino,” and “It cannot be” from his “Mayor imposible.” There are good remarks on these and other of Moreto’s imitations in Martinez de la Rosa, Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 443-446. But the excuses there given for him hardly cover such a plagiarism as his “Valiente Justiciero” is, from Lope’s “Infanzon de Illescas.” As usual, however, in such cases, Moreto improved upon his model. Cancer y Velasco, a contemporary poet, in a little jeu d’esprit, represents Moreto as sitting down with a bundle of old plays to see what he can cunningly steal out of them, spoiling all he steals. (Obras, Madrid, 1761, 4to, p. 113.) But in this, Cancer was unjust to Moreto’s talent, if not to his honesty.

[689] In 1664 Molière imitated the “Desden con el Desden” in his “Princesse d’Élide,” which was represented at Versailles by the command of Louis XIV., with great splendor, before his queen and his mother, both Spanish princesses. The compliment, as far as the king was concerned in it, was a magnificent one;—on Molière’s part, it was a failure, and his play is now no longer acted. The original drama of Moreto, however, is known wherever the Spanish language is spoken, and a good translation of it into German is common on the German stage.

[690]

[691] Both volumes of the Comedias de Roxas were reprinted, Madrid, 1680, 4to, and both their Licencias are dated on the same day; but the publisher of the first, who dedicates it to a distinguished nobleman, is the same person to whom the second is dedicated by the printer of both. Autos of Roxas may be found in “Autos, Loas, etc.,” 1655, and in “Navidad y Corpus Christi Festejados,” collected by Pedro de Robles, 1664. But they are no better than those of his contemporaries generally.

[692] His “Persiles y Sigismunda” is from Cervantes’s novel of the same name. On the other hand, his “Casarse por vengarse” is plundered, without ceremony, for the story of “Le Mariage de Vengeance,” (Gil Blas, Liv. IV. c. 4), by Le Sage, who never neglected a good opportunity of the sort.

[693] “Del Rey abaxo Ninguno” has been sometimes printed with the name of Calderon, who might well be content to be regarded as its author; but there is no doubt who wrote it. It is, however, among the Comedias Sueltas of Roxas, and not in his collected works.

[694] T. Corneille’s play is “Don Bertrand de Cigarral,” (Œuvres, Paris, 1758, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 209), and his obligations are avowed in the Dedication. Scarron’s “Jodelet” (Œuvres, Paris, 1752, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 73) is a spirited comedy, desperately indebted to Roxas. But Scarron constantly borrowed from the Spanish theatre.

[695] Three persons were frequently employed on one drama, dividing its composition among them, according to its three regular jornadas. In the large collection of Comedias printed in the latter half of the seventeenth century, in forty-eight volumes, there are, I think, about thirty such plays. Two are by six persons each. One, in honor of the Marquis Cañete, is the work of nine different poets, but it is not in any collection; it is printed separately, and better than was usual, Madrid, 1622, 4to.

[696] The plays of Cubillo that I have seen are,—ten in his “Enano de las Musas” (Madrid, 1654, 4to); five in the Comedias Escogidas, printed as early as 1660; and perhaps two or three more scattered elsewhere. The “Enano de las Musas” is a collection of his works, containing many ballads, sonnets, etc., and an allegorical poem on “The Court of the Lion,” which, Antonio says, was published as early as 1625, and which seems to have been liked and to have gone through several editions. But none of Cubillo’s poetry is so good as his plays. See Prólogo and Dedication to the Enano, and Montalvan’s list of writers for the stage at the end of his “Para Todos.”

[697] There are a few of Leyba’s plays in Duran’s collection, and in the Comedias Escogidas, and I possess a few of them in pamphlets. But I do not know how many he wrote, and I have no notices of his life. He is sometimes called Francisco de Leyba; unless, indeed, there were two of the same surname.

[698] Obras de Don Gerónimo Cancer y Velasco, Madrid, 1761, 4to. The first edition is of 1651, and Antonio sets his death at 1654. The “Muerte de Baldovinos” is in the Index of the Inquisition, 1790; as is also his “Vandolero de Flandes.” A play, however, which he wrote in conjunction with Pedro Rosete and Antonio Martinez, was evidently intended to conciliate the Church, and well calculated for its purpose. It is called “El Mejor Representante San Gines,” and is found in Tom. XXIX., 1668, of the Comedias Escogidas,—San Gines being a Roman actor, converted to Christianity, and undergoing martyrdom in the presence of the spectators in consequence of being called on to act a play written by Polycarp, which was ingeniously constructed so as to defend the Christians. The tradition is absurd enough certainly, but the drama may be read with interest throughout, and parts of it with pleasure. It has a love-intrigue brought in with skill. Cancer, I believe, wrote plays without assistance only once or twice. Certainly, twelve written in conjunction with Moreto, Matos Fragoso, and others, are all by him that are found in the Comedias Escogidas.

[699] “Academias Morales de las Musas,” Madrid, 4to, 1660; but my copy was printed at Barcelona, 1704, 4to.

[700] Flor de las Mejores Comedias, Madrid, 1652, 4to. Baena, Hijos de Madrid, Tom. III. p. 227. A considerable number of the plays of Zabaleta may be seen in the forty-eight volumes of the Comedias Escogidas, 1652, etc. One of them, “El Hijo de Marco Aurelio,” on the subject of the Emperor Commodus, was acted in 1644, and, as the author tells us, being received with little favor, and complaints being made that it was not founded in truth, he began at once a life of that Emperor, which he calls a translation from Herodian, but which has claims neither to fidelity in its version, nor to purity in its style. It remained long unfinished, until one morning in 1664, waking up and finding himself struck entirely blind, he began, “as on an elevation,” to look round for some occupation suited to his solitude and affliction. His play had been printed in 1658, in the tenth volume of the Comedias Escogidas, and he now completed the work that was to justify it, and published it in 1666, announcing himself on the title-page as a royal chronicler. But it failed, as his drama had failed before it. In the “Vexámen de Ingenios” of Cancer, where the failure of another of Zabaleta’s plays is noticed, (Obras de Cancer, Madrid, 1761, 4to, p. 111), a punning epigram is inserted on his personal ugliness, the amount of which is, that, though his play was dear at the price paid for a ticket, his face would repay the loss to those who should look on it.

[701] The plays of Zarate are, I believe, easiest found in the Comedias Escogidas, where twenty-two of them occur;—the earliest in Tom. XV., 1661; and “La Presumida y la Hermosa,” in Tom. XXIII., 1666. In the Index Expurgatorius of 1792, p. 288, it is intimated that Fernando de Zarate is the same person with Antonio Enriquez Gomez;—a mistake founded, probably, on the circumstance, that a play of Enriquez Gomez, who was a Jew, was printed with the name of Zarate attached to it, as others of his plays were printed with the name of Calderon. Amador de los Rios, Judios de España, Madrid, 1848, 8vo, p. 575.

[702] His “Coro de las Musas,” at the end of which his plays are commonly added separately, was printed at Brussels in 1665, 4to, and in 1672. In my copy, which is of the first edition, and which once belonged to Mr. Southey, is the following characteristic note in his handwriting: “Among the Lansdowne MSS. is a volume of poems by this author, who, being a ‘New Christian,’ was happy enough to get into a country where he could profess himself a Jew.” There is a long notice of him in Barbosa, Biblioteca Lusitana, Tom. III. p. 464, and a still longer one in Amador de los Rios, Judios de España, Madrid, pp. 608, etc.

[703] The “Comedias de Diamante” are in two volumes, 4to, Madrid, 1670 and 1674; but in the first volume eight plays are paged together, and for the four others there is a separate paging; though, as the whole twelve are recognized in the Tassa and in the table of contents, they are no doubt all his.

[704] The “Cid” of Corneille dates from 1636, and Diamante’s “Honrador de su Padre” is found earliest in the eleventh volume of the Comedias Escogidas, licensed 1658. Indeed, it may be well doubted whether Diamante was a writer for the stage so early as 1636; for I find no play of his printed before 1657. Another play on the subject of the Cid, partly imitated from this one of Diamante, and with a similar title,—“Honrador de sus Hijas,”—is found in the Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXIII., 1662. Its author is Francisco Polo, of whom I know only that he wrote this drama, whose merit is very small, and whose subject is the marriage of the daughters of the Cid with the Counts of Carrion, and their subsequent ill-treatment by their husbands, etc.

[705] Huerta, who reprints the “Castigo de la Miseria” in the first volume of his “Teatro Hespañol,” expresses a doubt as to who is the inventor of the story, Hoz or María de Zayas. But there is no question about the matter. The “Novelas” were printed at Zaragoza, 1637, 4to, and their Aprobacion is dated in 1635. See, also, Baena’s “Hijos de Madrid,” Tom. III. p. 271. In the Prólogo to Candamo’s plays, (Madrid, Tom. I., 1722), Hoz is said to have written the third act of Candamo’s “San Bernardo,” left unfinished at its author’s death in 1704. If this were the case, Hoz must have lived to a good old age.

[706] The first of these scenes is taken, in a good degree, from the “Novelas,” ed. 1637, p. 86; but the scene with the astrologer is wholly the poet’s own, and parts of it are worthy of Ben Jonson. It should be added, however, that the third act of the play is technically superfluous, as the action really ends with the second. But we could not afford to part with it, so full is it of spirit and humor.

[707] I have already noticed plays of Lope and Cervantes that set forth the cruel condition of Christian Spaniards in Algiers, and must hereafter notice the great influence this state of things had on Spanish romantic fiction. But it should be remembered here, that many dramas were founded on it, besides those I have had occasion to mention. One of the most striking is by Moreto, which has some points of resemblance to the one spoken of in the text. It is called “El Azote de su Patria,” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXXIV., 1670),—and is filled with the cruelties of a Valencian renegade, who seems to have been an historical personage.

[708] In the Comedias Escogidas, there are, at least, twenty-five plays written wholly or in part by Matos, the earliest of which is in Tom. V., 1653. From the conclusion of his “Pocos bastan si son Buenos,” (Tom. XXXIV., 1670), and, indeed, from the local descriptions in other parts of it, there can be no doubt that Matos Fragoso was at one time in Italy, and very little that this drama was written at Naples, and acted before the Spanish Viceroy there. One volume of the plays of Matos Fragoso, called the first, was printed at Madrid, 1658, 4to. Other separate plays are in Duran’s collection, but not, I think, the best of them. Villaviciosa wrote a part of “Solo el Piadoso es mi Hijo,” of “El Letrado del Cielo,” of “El Redentor Cautivo,” etc. The apologue of the barber, in the second act of the last, is, I think, taken from one of Leyba’s plays, but I have it not now by me to refer to, and such things were too common at the time on a much larger scale to deserve notice, except as incidental illustrations of a well-known state of literary morals in Spain. Fragoso’s life is in Barbosa, Tom. II. pp. 695-697. I have eighteen of his plays in separate pamphlets, besides those in the Comedias Escogidas.

[709] The “Triunfos de Amor y Fortuna” appeared as early as 1660, in Tom. XIII. of the Comedias Escogidas.

[710] The “Varias Poesías” of Solís were edited by Juan de Goyeneche, who prefixed to them an ill-written life of their author, and published them at Madrid, 1692 (4to). His Comedias were first printed in Madrid, 1681, as Tom. XLVII. of the Comedias Escogidas. The “Gitanilla,” of which I have said that it has been occasionally reproduced from Cervantes, is to be found in the “Spanish Gypsy” of Rowley and Middleton; in the “Preciosa,” a pleasant German play by P. A. Wolff; and in Victor Hugo’s “Notre Dame de Paris”; besides which certain resemblances to it in the “Spanish Student” of Professor Longfellow are noticed by the author.

[711] Candamo’s plays, entitled “Poesías Cómicas, Obras Póstumas,” were printed at Madrid, in 1722, in 2 vols., 4to. His miscellaneous poems, “Poesías Lyricas,” were published in Madrid, in 18mo, but without a date on the title-page, while the Dedication is of 1729, the Licencias of 1720, and the Fe de Erratas, which ought to be the latest of all, is of 1710. This, however, is a specimen of the confusion of such matters in Spanish books; a confusion which, in the present instance, is carried into the contents of the volume itself, the whole of which is entitled “Poesías Lyricas,” though it contains idyls, epistles, ballads, and part of three cantos of an epic on the expedition of Charles V. against Tunis; nine cantos having been among the papers left by its author to the Duke of Alva. The life of Candamo, prefixed to the whole, is very poorly written. Huerta (Teatro, Parte III. Tom. II. p. 196) says he himself bought a large mass of Candamo’s poetry, including six cantos of this epic, for two rials; no doubt, a part of the manuscripts left to the Duke.

[712] He boasts of it in the opening of his “Cesar Africano.”

[713] At first, only airs were introduced into the play, but gradually the whole was sung. (Ponz, Viage de España, Madrid, 12mo, Tom. VI., 1782, p 152. Signorelli, Storia dei Teatri, Napoli, 1813, 8vo, Tom. IX. p. 194.) One of these zarzuelas, in which the portions that were sung are distinguished from the rest, is to be found in the “Ocios de Ignacio Alvarez Pellicer de Toledo,” s. l. 1635, 4to, p. 26. Its tendency to approach the Italian opera is apparent in its subject, which is “The Vengeance of Diana,” as well as in the treatment of the story, in the theatrical machinery, etc.; but it has no poetical merit. A small volume, by Andres Dávila y Heredia, (Valencia, 1676, 12mo), called “Comedia sin Música,” seems intended, by its title, to ridicule the beginnings of the opera in Spain; but it is a prose satire, of little consequence in any respect. See ante, pp. 160, 237, 361, 399.

[714] See “Selva sin Amor,” with its Preface, printed by Lope de Vega at the end of his “Laurel de Apolo,” Madrid, 1630, 4to;—Benavente, Joco-Seria, 1645, and Valladolid, 1653, 12mo, where such pieces are called entremeses cantados;—Calderon’s Púrpura de la Rosa;—Luzan, Poética, Lib. III. c. 1;—Diamante’s Labyrinto de Creta, printed as early as 1667, in the Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXVII.;—Parra, El Teatro Español, Poema Lírico, s. l. 1802, 8vo, notas, p. 295;—C. Pellicer, Orígen del Teatro, Tom. I. p. 268;—and Stefano Arteaga, Teatro Musicale Italiano, Bologna, 8vo, Tom. I., 1785, p. 241. The last is an excellent book, written by one of the Jesuits driven from Spain by Charles III., and who died at Paris in 1799. The second edition, 1783-88, is the amplest and best.

[715] Comedias de Antonio de Zamora, Madrid, 1744, 2 tom., 4to. The royal authority to print the plays gives also a right to print the lyrical works, but I think they never appeared. His life is in Baena, Tom. I. p. 177, and notices of him in L. F. Moratin, Obras, ed. Acad., Tom. II., Prólogo, pp. v.-viii.

[716] These and many others, now entirely forgotten, are found in the old collection of Comedias Escogidas, published between 1652 and 1704, where they occur in the later volumes; e. g. of Lanini, nine plays; of Martinez, eighteen; and of Rosete and Villegas, eleven each. I am not aware that any one of them deserves to be rescued from the oblivion in which they are all sunk.

[717] Two volumes of the plays of Cañizares were collected, but more can still be found separate, and many are lost. In Moratin’s list, the titles of above seventy are brought together. Notices of his life are in Baena, Tom. III. p. 69, and in Huerta, Teatro, Parte I. Tom. II. p. 347.

[718] The “Dómine Lucas” of Cañizares has no resemblance to the lively play with the same title by Lope de Vega, in the seventeenth volume of his Comedias, 1621, which, he says in the Dedication, is founded on fact, and which was reprinted in Madrid, 1841, 8vo, with a Preface, attacking, not only Cañizares, but several of the author’s contemporaries, in a most truculent manner. The “Dómine Lucas” of Cañizares, however, is worth reading, particularly in an edition where it is accompanied by its two entremeses, improperly called saynetes;—the whole newly arranged for representation in the Buen Retiro, on occasion of the marriage of the Infanta María Luisa with the Archduke Peter Leopold, in 1765.

[719] The habit of using too freely the works of their predecessors was common on the Spanish stage from an early period. Cervantes says, in 1617, (Persiles, Lib. III. c. 2), that some companies kept poets expressly to new-vamp old plays; and so many had done it before him, that Cañizares seems to have escaped censure, though nobody, certainly, had gone so far.

[720] See Appendix (F).

[721] Mariana, in his treatise “De Spectaculis,” Cap. VII., (Tractatus Septem, Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1609, folio), earnestly insists that actors of the low and gross character he gives to them should not be permitted to perform in the churches, or to represent sacred plays anywhere; and that the theatres should be closed on Sundays. But he produced no effect against the popular passion.

[722] For Hardy and his extraordinary career, which was almost entirely founded on the Spanish theatre, see the “Parfaits,” or any other history of the French stage. Corneille, in his “Remarks on Mélite,” says, that, when he began, he had no guide but a little common sense and the example of Hardy, and a few others no more regular than he was. The example of Hardy led Corneille directly to Spain for materials.

[723] D. Quixote, Parte I. c. 48. The Primera Dama, or the actress of first parts, was sometimes called the Autora. Diablo Cojuelo, Tranco V.

[724] Villegas was one of the last of the authors who were managers. He wrote, we are told, fifty-four plays, and died about 1600. (Roxas, Viage, 1614, f. 21.) After this, the next example of any prominence is Diamante, who was an actor before he wrote for the stage, and died about 1700. The managing autor was sometimes the object of ridicule in the play his own company performed, as he is in the “Tres Edades del Mundo” of Luis Vélez de Guevara, where he is the gracioso. Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXXVIII., 1672.

[725] Pasagero, 1617, ff. 112-116.

[726] “Garduña de Sevilla,” near the end, and the “Bachiller Trapaza,” c. 15. Cervantes, just as he is finishing his “Coloquio de los Perros,” tells a story somewhat similar; so that authors were early ill-treated by the actors.

[727] See the Preface and Dedication of the “Arcadia,” by Lope, as well as other passages, noted in his Life;—the letter of Calderon to the Duke of Veraguas;—his Life by Vera Tassis, etc.

[728] Thus, Mira de Mescua, at the conclusion of “The Death of St. Lazarus,” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. IX., 1657, p. 167), says:—

And Francisco de Leyba finishes his “Amadis y Niquea” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XL., 1675, f. 118) with these words:—

In general, however, as in the “Mayor Venganza” of Alvaro Cubillo, and in the “Caer para levantarse” of Matos, Cancer, and Moreto, the annunciation is simple, and made, apparently, to protect the rights of the author, which, in the seventeenth century, were so little respected.

[729] Don Quixote, ed. Pellicer, 1797, Tom. IV. p. 110, note. One account says there were three hundred companies of actors in Spain about 1636; but this seems incredible, if it means companies of persons who lived by acting. Pantoja, Sobre Comedias, Murcia, 1814, 4to, Tom. I. p. 28.

[730] Pellicer, Orígen de las Comedias, 1804, Tom. I. p. 185.

[731] Ibid., pp. 226-228. When Philip III. visited Lisbon in 1619, the Jesuits performed a play before him, partly in Latin and partly in Portuguese, at their College of San Antonio;—an account of which is given in the “Relacion de la Real Tragicomedia con que los Padres de la Compañía de Jesus recibieron á la Magestad Católica,” etc., por Juan Sardina Mimoso, etc., Lisboa, 1620, 4to,—its author being, I believe, Antonio de Sousa. Add to this that Mariana (De Spectaculis, c. 7) says that the entremeses and other exhibitions between the acts of the plays, performed in the most holy religious houses, were often of a gross and shameless character,—a statement which he repeats, partly in the same words, in his treatise “De Rege,” Lib. III. c. 16.

[732] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. II., passim, and Mad. d’Aulnoy, Voyage en Espagne, ed. 1693, Tom. I. p. 97. One of the best-known actors of the time was Sebastian Prado, mentioned above, the head of a company that went to France after the marriage of Louis XIV. with María Teresa, in 1659, and performed there some time for the pleasure of the new queen;—one of the many proofs of the spread and fashion of Spanish literature at this period. (C. Pellicer, Tom. I. p. 39.) María de Córdoba is mentioned with admiration, not only by the authors I have cited, but by Calderon in the opening of the “Dama Duende,” as Amarilis. For the names of other actors in the seventeenth century, see Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Parte II. c. 11, note.

[733] Alonso, Mozo de Muchos Amos, Parte I., Barcelona, 1625, f. 141. A little earlier, viz. 1618, Bisbe y Vidal speaks of women on the stage frequently taking the parts of men (Tratado de Comedias, f. 50); and from the directions to the players in the “Amadis y Niquea” of Leyba, (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XL., 1675), it appears that the part of Amadis was expected to be played always by a woman.

[734] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 183, Tom. II. p. 29; and Navarro Castellanos, Cartas Apologéticas contra las Comedias, Madrid, 1684, 4to, pp. 256-258. “Take my advice,” says Sancho to his master, after their unlucky encounter with the players of the Auto Sacramental,—“take my advice and never pick a quarrel with play-actors: they are privileged people. I have known one of them sent to prison for two murders, and get off scot-free. For mark, your worship, as they are gay fellows, full of fun, every body favors them; every body defends, helps, and likes them; especially if they belong to the royal and privileged companies, where all or most of them dress as if they were real princes.” Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 11, with the note of Clemencin.

[735] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. II. p. 53, and elsewhere throughout the volume.

[736] In the tale of the “Licenciado Vidriera.”

[737] Roxas, Viage, 1614, f. 138. The necessities of the actors were so pressing, that they were paid their wages every night, as soon as the acting was over.

El Mejor Representante, Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXIX., 1668, p. 199.

[738] “Pondus iners reipublicæ, atque inutile,” said Mariana, De Spectaculis, c. 9.

[739] Hugalde y Parra, Orígen del Teatro, p. 312.

[740] Familiar Letters, London, 1754, 8vo, Book I. Sect. 3, Letter 18.

[741] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. p. 220. Aarsens, Voyage, 1667, p. 29.

[742] Relation du Voyage d’Espagne, par Madame la Contesse d’Aulnoy, La Haye, 1693, 18mo, Tom. III. p. 21,—the same who wrote beautiful fairy tales. She was there in 1679-80; but Aarsens gives a similar account of things fifteen years earlier. Voyage, 1667, p. 59.

[743] Figueroa, Pasagero, and Guevara, Diablo Cojuelo.

[744] C. Pellicer, Orígen, Tom. I. pp. 53, 55, 63, 68.

[745] Mad. d’Aulnoy, Voyage, Tom. III. p. 21. Spectator, No. 235.

[746] Aarsens, Relation, at the end of his Voyage, 1667, p. 60.

[747] Manuel Morchon, at the end of his “Vitoria del Amor,” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. IX., 1657, p. 242), says:—

In the same way, Antonio de Huerta, speaking of his “Cinco Blancas de Juan Espera en Dios,” (Ibid., Tom. XXXII., 1669, p. 179), addresses them:—

Perhaps we should not have expected of such a condescension from Solís, but he stooped to it. At the conclusion of his well-known “Doctor Carlino,” (Comedias, 1716, p. 262), he turns to them, saying:—

Every thing, indeed, that we know about the mosqueteros shows that their influence was great at the theatre in the theatre’s best days. In the eighteenth century we shall find it governing every thing.

[748] Aarsens, Relation, p. 59. Zavaleta, Dia de Fiesta por la Tarde, Madrid, 1660, 12mo, pp. 4, 8, 9. C. Pellicer, Tom. I. Mad. d’Aulnoy, Tom. III. p. 22.

[749] Guillen de Castro, “Mal Casadas de Valencia,” Jorn. II. It may be worth notice, perhaps, that the traditions of the Spanish theatre are still true to its origin;—aposentos, or apartments, being still the name for the boxes; patio, or court-yard, that of the pit; and mosqueteros, or musketeers, that of the persons who fill the pit, and who still claim many privileges, as the successors of those who stood in the heat of the old court-yard. As to the cazuela, Breton de los Herreros, in his spirited “Sátira contra los Abusos en el Arte de la Declamacion Teatral,” (Madrid, 1834, 12mo), says:—

But this part of the theatre is more respectable than it was in the seventeenth century.

[750] Zabaleta, Dia de Fiesta por la Tarde, p. 2.

[751] Cervantes, Viage al Parnaso, 1784, p. 148.

[752] Cervantes, Prólogo á las Comedias. Lope, Prefaces to several of his plays. Figueroa, Pasagero, 1617, p. 105. Benavente, Joco-Seria, Valladolid, 1653, 12mo, f. 81. One of the ways in which the audiences expressed their disapprobation was, as Cervantes intimates, by throwing cucumbers (pepinos) at the actors.

[753] Mad. d’Aulnoy, Voyage, Tom. I. p. 55. Tirso de Molina, Deleytar, Madrid, 1765, 4to, Tom. II. p. 333. At the end of a play the whole audience is not unfrequently appealed to for a “Victor” by the second-rate authors, as we have seen the mosqueteros were sometimes, though rarely. Diego de Figueroa, at the conclusion of his “Hija del Mesonero,” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XIV., 1662, p. 182), asks for it as for an alms, “Dadle un Vitor de limosna”; and Rodrigo Enriquez, in his “Sufrir mas por querer menos,” (Tom. X., 1658, p. 222), asks for it as for the vails given to servants in a gaming-house, “Venga un Vitor de barato.” Sometimes a good deal of ingenuity is used to bring in the word Vitor just at the end of the piece, so that it shall be echoed by the audience without an open demand for it, as it is by Calderon in his “Amado y Aborrecido,” and in the “Difunta Pleyteada” of Francisco de Roxas. But, in general, when it is asked for at all, it is rather claimed as a right. Once, in “Lealtad contra su Rey,” by Juan de Villegas, (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. X., 1658), the two actors who end the piece impertinently ask the applause for themselves, and not for the author; a jest which was, no doubt, well received.

[754] Cervantes, Viage, 1784, p. 138. Novelas, 1783, Tom. I. p. 40.

[755] Roxas, Viage, 1614, f. 51. Benavente, Joco-Seria, 1653, f. 78. Alonso, Mozo de Muchos Amos;—by which (Tom. I. f. 137) it appears that the placards were written as late as 1624, in Seville.

[756] This title he gave to “Como han de ser los Amigos,” “Amor por Razon de Estado,” and some others of his plays. It may be noted that a full-length play was sometimes called Gran Comedia, as twelve such are in Tom. XXXI. of “Las Mejores Comedias que hasta oy han salido,” Barcelona, 1638.

[757] Mad. d’Aulnoy, Voyage, Tom. III. p. 22, and Zabaleta, Fiesta por la Tarde, 1660, pp. 4, 9.

[758] Cigarrales de Toledo, Madrid, 1624, 4to, p. 99. There is a good deal of learning about loas in Pinciano, “Filosofía Antigua,” Madrid, 1596, 4to, p. 413, and Salas, “Tragedia Antigua,” Madrid, 1633, 4to, p. 184.

[759] The loa to the “Vergonzoso en Palacio”: it is in décimas redondillas.