The emperor, Charles V, had a great love for curious and ingenious mechanical toys, and with such encouragement many mechanicians applied themselves to the invention of automatic contrivances. Giovanni Torriani is said to have won favor by constructing a very wonderful clock. When Charles V abdicated his throne and retired to the monastery of Cremona, the loyal Torriani followed him to his retreat, and many an hour this famous mathematician spent distracting the saddened monarch with marionette shows. He constructed marvellous _titeres_, as the Spanish puppets are called, little armed men who blew horns, beat drums, and fought; little horses and even miniature bull-fights. At the marriage festival of Louis XIV and the Infanta Maria Teresa a feature in the procession which welcomed Mazarin’s arrival in Spain was a group of mammoth Moors and their wives, which moved ponderously along by means of very intricate internal mechanisms. There had previously been theatrical puppets in Spain, but these mechanical improvements were soon adopted by the popular _titereros_, showmen, and the marionettes sprung up in all public places, in cities, villages, fairs, even at court. The characters and repertories of the titeres were always strictly national, although the exhibitors were frequently foreigners. Moors, knights, giants, enchanters, conquerors of the Indies, saints, hermits, bull-fighters, characters from the old and new testaments, all were displayed in the puppet castello. The Spanish _Grazioso_, costumed somewhat in the fashion of Pierrot, was never a very prominent puppet; he later acquired the name of Don Christobal Pulichinela. A well-known type of wandering show consisted of a blind man, led by a boy, with a mule and wagon to carry the castello and equipment. The blind man generally recited the text of the play, the boy operated the puppets. Cervantes depicts a Spanish show for us where Don Quixote and Sancho Panza saw performed, “The manner in which Signor Gayferos accomplished the deliverance of his spouse Melisandra,” and he relates with much spirit how Don Quixote’s chivalrous zeal interfered with the performance of Master Peter’s puppets. Since that time, over three hundred years, there has been little change in the titeres of Spain.