The theatre in Spain, as in most other countries of modern Europe, was early called to contend with formidable difficulties. Dramatic representations there, perhaps more than elsewhere, had been for centuries in the hands of the Church; and the Church was not willing to give them up, especially for such secular and irreligious purposes as we have seen were apparent in the plays of Naharro. The Inquisition, therefore, already arrogating to itself powers not granted by the state, but yielded by a sort of general consent, interfered betimes. After the publication of the Seville edition of the “Propaladia” in 1520,--but how soon afterward we do not know,--the representation of its dramas was forbidden, and the interdict was continued till 1573.[1] Of the few pieces written in the early part of the reign of Charles the Fifth, nearly all, except those on strictly religious subjects, were laid under the ban of the Church; several, like the “Orfea,” 1534, and the “Custodia,” 1541, being now known to have existed only because their names appear in the Index Expurgatorius;[2] and others, like the “Amadis de Gaula” of Gil Vicente, though printed and published, being subsequently forbidden to be represented.[3] [1] In the edition of Madrid, 1573, 18mo, we are told, “La Propaladia estava prohibida en estos reynos, años avia”; and Martinez de la Rosa (Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. II. p. 382) says that this prohibition was laid soon after 1520, and not removed till August, 1573. The period is important; but I suspect the authority of Martinez de la Rosa for its termination is merely the permission to print an edition, which is dated 21 Aug., 1573; an edition, too, which is, after all, expurgated severely. [2] These are in the “Catálogo” of L. F. Moratin, Nos. 57 and 63, Obras, Madrid, 1830, 8vo, Tom. I. Parte I. [3] The fate of this long heroic and romantic drama of Gil Vicente, in Spanish, is somewhat singular. It was forbidden by the Inquisition, we are told, as early as the Index Expurgatorius of 1549 [1559?]; but it was not printed at all till 1562, and not separately till 1586. By the Index of Lisbon, 1624, it is permitted, if expurgated, and there is an edition of it of that year at Lisbon. As it was never printed in Spain, the prohibition there must have related chiefly to its representation. Barbosa, Bib. Lusitana, Tom. II. p. 384.