Note 144 — San Agustin’s Letter on the Filipinos

65. They are especially fond of comedies and farces, and therefore, there is no feast of consequence, unless there is a comedy.144 If possible they will lose no rehearsal, and in all they pay attention only to the witty fellow who does innumerable foolish and uncouth things, and at each of his actions they burst into hearty laughter. He who plays this part acceptably receives his diploma as an ingenious fellow, and has permission to go and come anywhere, and even to cajole the women before their husbands; and the latter must laugh, even though they have no wish to do so. It is very necessary that these representations be not harmful, for many of them are printed. Accordingly, they receive considerable benefit from these functions and external acts, such as the descent from the cross, and other representations, which are patterned after those called escuitales145 in Nueba España—in which is verified the truth of the sentence in the Ars Poetica of Horace, verses 18[0–181].146