During the life of the second great master of the Spanish drama there was little apparent abatement in the productivity of its literature; while the _autos_ continued to flourish in Madrid and elsewhere, till in 1765 (shortly before the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain) their public representation was prohibited by royal decree. In the world of fashion, the opera had reached Spain already during Calderon's lifetime, together with other French influences, and the great dramatist had himself written one or two of his plays for performance with music. But the regular national drama continued to command popular favour, and with A. Moreto may be said to have actually taken a step in advance. While he wrote in all the forms established by Lope and cultivated by Calderon, his manner seems most nearly to approach the masterpieces of French and later English comedy of character; he was the earliest writer of the _comedias de figuron_, in which the most prominent personage is (in Congreve's phrase) "a character of affectation," in other words, the Spanish fop of real life.[65] His masterpiece, a favourite of many stages, is one of the most graceful and pleasing of modern comedies--simple but interesting in plot, and true to nature, with something like Shakespearian truth.[66] Other writers trod more closely in the footsteps of the masters without effecting any noticeable changes in the form of the Spanish drama; even the _saynete_ (tit-bit), which owes its name to Benavente (fl. 1645), was only a kind of _entremes_. The Spanish drama in all its forms retained its command over the nation, because they were alike popular in origin and character; nor is there any other example of so complete an adaptation of a national art to the national taste and sentiment in its ethics and aesthetics, in the nature of the plots of the plays (whatever their origin), in the motives of their actions, in the conduct and tone and in the very costume of their characters. Decay of the national Spanish drama. The French school of the 18th century. Other later dramatists.