[377] “Desengaño al Teatro Español,” three tracts, s. l. 12mo., pp. 80. Huerta, Escena Española Defendida, Madrid, 1786, 12mo, p. xliii. How long _autos_ maintained their place in Spain may be seen from the fact, that very few are forbidden in the amplest Index Expurgatorius,--that of 1667, (p. 84,)--and that those few are, I believe, all Portuguese. But this was as far as Moratin could prevail. In the public secular theatre, generally, his poetry and wit produced no effect. There, two riotous parties in the two audiences of Madrid--distinguishing themselves by favors worn in their hats and led on by vulgar friars and rude mechanics, making up in spirit what they wanted in decency, and readily uniting to urge an open war against all further innovations--effectually prevented any of the regular dramas that were written from being represented in their presence, until 1770. The old masters they partly tolerated; especially Calderon, Moreto, and the dramatists of the latter part of the seventeenth century; but the popular favorites were Ibañez, Lobera, Vicente Guerrero, a play-actor, Julian de Castro, who wrote ballads for the street beggars and died in a hospital, and others of the same class; all as vulgar as the populace they delighted. After Aranda ceased to be minister, in 1773, this state of things was somewhat modified, without being materially improved. Under his administration, the theatres in the royal residences had been opened for tragedy and comedy; and translations from the French had been acted before the court in a manner suited to their subjects. The two popular theatres of the capital, too, had not escaped his regard, and under his influence had been provided with better scenery; and, from 1768, gave representations in the evening.[378] [378] Ramon de la Cruz y Cano, Teatro, Madrid, 1786-91, 10 tom. 12mo, Tom. IX. p. 3. Still, every thing was in a very low state. A blacksmith was the reigning critic to be consulted by those who sought a hearing on either stage, and the more regular plays, whether translations that had been acted with success at court, or tragedies and comedies of the poets already noticed, made a strange confusion with those of the old masters, which were still sometimes heard, and those of the favorites of the mob, whose works prevailed over all others in the theatrical repertories and in the general regard. But, whatever might be produced and performed, the intervals between the acts, and much time before and after the principal piece, were filled up with _tonadillas_, _seguidillas_, ballads, and all the forms of _entremeses_, _saynetes_, and dances, that had been common in the last century or invented in the present one,--an act in a serious and poetical play being sometimes divided, in order to give place to one or another of them, and gratify an audience that seemed to grow more and more impatient of every thing except popular farce.[379]