The reaction from the rigid propriety of previous reigns led the Court of Philip IV. to assume a licence that quite shocked foreigners. Much of the day was passed in parading up and down the Calle Mayor (High Street) in coaches, and much of the night in summer in promenading in the dry bed of the river. Gallantry became the fashion, and ladies, very far from resenting, welcomed broad compliments and doubtful jests addressed to them by strangers in the streets.[206] The palace itself, especially the new pleasure palace of the Buen Retiro, built in the Prado for Philip by Olivares in 1632, was a notorious focus of intrigue; encouraged by the example of Philip himself, by far the most dissolute king of his line. From his early youth he had delighted in amateur acting, and under a pseudonym (Un Ingenio de esta Corte), wrote comedies himself, and delighted in the society of dramatic people. Isabel was as keen a lover of the stage as her husband, and from the first days after the mourning for Philip III. was over, she began her favourite diversion of private theatricals in her own apartments. From October 1622, every Sunday and Thursday during the winter, as well as on holidays, comedies were performed by regular actors in her private theatre. Some of these comedies may be mentioned to show the taste of the Queen in such matters. ‘_The Scorned Sweetheart_,’ ‘_The Loss of Spain_,’ and ‘_The Jealousy of a Horse_,’ were three plays by Pedro Valdés, for which Isabel paid 300 reals (£6) each, the previous price having been £4. ‘_Gaining Friends_,’ ‘_The Power of Opportunity_,’ and ‘_How our Eyes are Cheated_,’ ‘_The Fortunate Farmer_,’ ‘_The Woman’s Avenger_,’ and ‘_The Husband of His Sister_,’ were others; and the total number of such plays represented in the Queen’s apartments in the palace during the winter of 1622–23, was forty-three, the fees for which reached 13,500 reals (£270).[207] Whilst the Prince of Wales was in Madrid the theatres in the palace, and the two public courtyard theatres in the capital, had a busy season. James Howell, writing from Madrid at the time,[208] says, ‘There are many excellent poems made here since the Prince’s arrival, which are too long to couch in a letter. Yet I will venture to send you this one stanza of Lope de Vega: “Carlos Estuardo soy, Que, siendo amor mi guia, Al cielo de España voy, Por ver mi estrella Maria.” “Charles Stuart here am I Guided by love afar, Into the Spanish sky To see Maria my star.” ‘There are comedians once a week come to the palace, where, under a great canopy, the Queen and the Infanta sit in the middle, our Princeps and Don Carlos on the Queen’s right hand, the King and the little Cardinal (_i.e._ the King’s boy-brother, Ferdinand) on the Infanta’s left hand.’