historian of the war in Flanders, “busied himself, in the solitude of the cloisters of St Just, with the construction of clocks. He had for his master in that art Gianello Torriani, the Archimedes of that time, who daily invented new mechanisms to occupy the mind of Charles, eager and curious of all those things. Often, after dinner, Gianello displayed upon the prince’s table little figures of horses and armed men. There were some that beat the drum, others that sounded the trumpet; some were seen advancing against each other at a gallop, like enemies, and assailing each other with lances. Sometimes the ingenious mechanician let loose in the room small wooden birds, which flew in all directions, and which were constructed with such marvellous artifice that one day the superior of the convent, chancing to be present, appeared to fear that there was magic in the matter.” The attention of Charles V., even in the decline of his genius, was not, however, wholly engrossed by such toys as these. He and Torriani discussed and solved more useful and more serious problems—one, amongst others, which Gianello realised after the prince’s death, and which consisted in raising the waters of the Tagus to the heights of Toledo. The improvements introduced by the skilful mechanician of Cremona into the construction of marionettes were soon adopted by the _titereros_. Puppets were already a common amusement in Spain, and had right of station on all public places, and at all fairs, and entrance into most churches. It is to be observed, that Italian influence can be traced in the Peninsula only in the material and mechanical departments of the marionette theatres. The characters and the subjects of the plays have always been strictly national, notwithstanding that, from the beginning of the seventeenth century down to the commencement of the nineteenth—and probably even at the present day—the exhibitors of these shows were principally foreigners, including many gypsies. Punchinello succeeded in getting naturalised under the name of Don Cristoval Pulichinela; but he does not appear ever to have played a prominent part, and probably was rather a sort of supernumerary to the show, like Master Peter’s ape. Occupation was perhaps hard to find for him in the class of pieces preferred by Spanish taste. The nature of these it is not difficult to conjecture. Spain, superstitious, chivalrous, and semi-Moorish, hastened to equip its puppets in knightly harness and priestly robes. “Moors, knights, giants, enchanters, the conquerors of the Indies, the characters of the Old and the New Testament, and especially saints and hermits, are,” says M. Magnin, “the usual actors in these shows. The _titeres_ so frequently wear monkish garb, especially in Portugal, that the circumstance has had an influence on their name in this country, where they are more often called _bonifrates_ than _titeres_. The composition of _bonifrate_ (although