Note 21 — Chapter X
Reading edition
On the day of St. Blas, writes Barrionuevo, the King and Queen go to the Retiro, and on the 8th February (1658) there will be the great comedy there which will cost 50,000 ducats, with unheard of machines. There will be 132 performers, 42 of them musical women brought from all parts of Spain.... One of them, the Bezona, is a very fine lady from Seville, and another one, the Grifona, has escaped from her prison, so that the feast will be brilliant, and will last from Shrove Sunday to Ash Wednesday.