as feasted like a
young Marquis.

The curtain being raised for rehearsal, discloses the whole strength of
a very fair company of Spanish actors. None of them bear the
conventional air of strolling players; the men are moustached, and
fashionably attired, and the women, from leading lady to insignificant
super, are elegantly dressed. Apropos of supers, El Marquesito assures
me it is no easy matter to secure the invaluable services of a genuine
white for these purposes. A white lady is not to be had for love or
money; and when fairies are required for a burlesque, the children of
respectable families are sometimes prevailed upon to appear. Male supers
are not so scarce; Spanish soldiers may occasionally be hired; and when
these are otherwise engaged, a dozen stage-struck youths of good family
volunteer their services as chorus, crowd, or army. The important roles
of quadruped and agitated water are filled by negroes, who, in Cuba,
are, of course, plentiful as blackberries; but when a real black face is
required to figure in the performance, it is represented by a painted
mulatto, for Spanish law in Cuba is strict, and prohibits the genuine
article from appearing on the stage. The theatre opens four times a
week, including Sunday, and the entertainment is varied every night.
To-day the company rehearse a local drama, a zarzuela, and a farce
called 'Un Cuarto con dos Camas' being a version of Morton's
'Double-bedded Room.' A famous actor from Spain is the star of the
present season. At rehearsal he is a fallen star, being extremely old
and shaky, but at night his make-up is wonderful, and he draws large
audiences, who witness his great scene of a detected thief in
convulsions. The prompter is seated under a cupola in the centre of the
stage near the footlights, as at the opera, and his duties are arduous.
It devolves upon him to read over the part of each performer in a
suppressed tone, and to direct their manner of exit and their position
on the stage. He is unseen by the audience, but often heard by them, for
the actors have only a faint notion of their parts, and cannot repeat a
line at night without having it first hissed at them by their friend at
the footlights.

El Marquesito del Queso has much to say upon the subject of censorship
of plays in Cuba. A play, he tells me, cannot be acted before it has
been first submitted to the censor, who, empowered by government, is at
liberty to place his red mark of disapproval