Máiquez and the theatre before 1820

Since the reign of King Felipe IV in the seventeenth century, those who controlled the theatres in Madrid possessed the right to conscript actors from theatrical companies in the provinces. The capital's theatres were run, depending on political and economic circumstance, alternately by private individuals, the municipal government, or the acting companies themselves. Even though to act in Madrid represented the highest achievement in that profession, the conscription (called an “embargo”) was not universally applauded by those men and women forced to abandon friends and family in order to perform on the stages in the capital. In the actors' minds, “that privilege enjoyed by the theatres in Madrid was, and is, excessive.” In addition, the cost of living in Madrid was significantly higher than elsewhere and wages, surprisingly, were significantly lower, so that the move represented at times a real economic hardship for the actors, who already were locked into a low-paying profession. In recompense for this disruption in their lives (and the threat of never working again if they refused), the actors were guaranteed – but not, as we shall see, always paid – retirement benefits.

In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, actors struggled for respectability and for stability in a city beset by war, censorship, turmoil, and general indifference to their offerings.