has nearly developed clean away. The
Spaniards were the first to confess that dramatic art bored them to
death; and their habits rendered impossible the long play which took an
evening to produce. Eating late, they did not wish to go to the theatre
till past nine; being somewhat frivolous, they could not sit for more
than an hour without going outside and talking to their friends; and
they were poor. To satisfy their needs the _genero chico_, or little
style, sprang into existence; and quickly every theatre in Spain was
given over to the system of four houses a night. Each function is
different, and the stall costs little more than sixpence.

We English are idealists; and on the stage especially reality stinks in
our nostrils. The poor are vulgar, and in our franker moments we confess
our wish to have nothing to do with them. The middle classes are sordid;
we have enough of them in real life, and no desire to observe their
doings at the theatre, particularly when we wear our evening clothes.
But when a dramatist presents duchesses to our admiring eyes, we feel
at last in our element; we watch the acts of persons whom we would
willingly meet at dinner, and our craving for the ideal is satisfied.

But in Spain nobles are common and excite no overwhelming awe. The
Spaniard, most democratic of Europeans, clamours for realism, and
nothing pleases him more than a literal transcript of the life about
him. The manners and customs of good society do not entertain him, and
the _genero chico_ concerns itself almost exclusively with the lower
classes. The bull-fighter is, of course, one of the most usual figures;
and round him are gathered the lovers of the ring, inn-keepers, cobblers
and carpenters, policemen, workmen, flower-sellers, street-singers,
cigarette girls, country maidens. The little pieces are innumerable, and
together form a compend of low life in Spain; the best are full of
gaiety and high spirits, with a delicate feeling for character, and
often enough are touched by a breath of poetry. Songs and dances are
introduced, and these come in the more naturally since the action
generally takes place on a holiday. The result is a musical comedy in
one act; but with nothing in it of the entertainment which is a joy to
the British public: an Andalusian audience would never stand that
representation of an impossible and vulgar world in which the women are
all trollops and the men, rips, nincompoops and bounders; they would