[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.
[760] It gives an account of the reception of the news at the palace, (Obras de Mendoza, Lisboa, 1690, 4to, p. 78), and may have been spoken before Calderon’s well-known play, “El Sitio de Breda.”