Let the Señores Mosqueteros cry a victor
At its burial.
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:—
Tal vez alguna insípida mozuela
De tí se prende; mas si el Patio brama,
Que te vale un rincon de la Cazuela?
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.