[[17]] The original pretext for the establishment of the public theatres was to provide funds for the charitable fraternities who partly owned them, and always received a considerable share of the takings.
[[18]] Frequent attempts were made by the authorities to suppress the scandals and abuses in the theatres, which, although the performances always took place by daylight, were inevitable in such a state of society as that we are now describing. It was forbidden, for instance, for men in the courtyard or pit to converse with women in the cazuela or on the stage; the actresses were not allowed to dress in masculine garb, and an alguacil was always to be on duty in the auditorium during the performance. See Schack's Historia del arte dramatica en España; Pellicer's Tratado Historico sobre el origen ... de la Comedia en España (1804); El Corral de la Pacheca, by Juan Comba; Origen Epocas y Progresos del Teatro Español, by Hugalde (1802), and the valuable MS. Memorias Cronologicas sobre el origen ... de Comedias en España, by Antonio de Armona, in the Royal Academy of History, Madrid.
[[19]] Philip's passion for the theatre was so well understood, that a comedy formed part of the entertainment at every place he visited. In the spring of 1624 he made a short but very splendid progress in Andalucia, and every great noble and city that received him gave him a new play. On the 18th March the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the great Andalucian magnate and kinsman of Olivares, entertained the King in his country house near St. Lucar, and presented a new comedy before him every day of his stay. On the 7th April we learn that, during his visit to Granada the King witnessed a comedy in the Alhambra! The King himself wrote some plays, now lost.
[[20]] Leon Pinelo's Anales Manuscritos de Madrid and other contemporary writings describe many such.
[[21]] Now the Senate.
[[22]] The site is now converted into a pretty public garden, called the Plaza de Bilbao.
[[23]] The auto is described by Leon Pinelo (Anales Manuscritos), by Montero de los Rios (Historia de Madrid), and others.
[[24]] A full account of this little known inglorious episode is given from the Elliot papers in the Camden Society, 1883.
[[25]] British Museum, Egerton MSS. 338, 136.
[[26]] Memorias de Matias de Novoa; Ayuda de Camara de Felipe IV. These invaluable memoirs, written by a bitter enemy of Olivares, were formerly supposed to have been written by another favourite courtier of Philip, called Vivanco. Though vivid, they are unfair to Olivares.