Entremés

Entremés, Spanish term, deriving originally from the French entrements, applied to a diversion, dramatic or otherwise, which took place between the courses of a banquet. The name was first applied in Spain to the short dramatic interludes which enlivened the Corpus Christi processions in Catalonia, and was later applied in Castilian to a short comic interlude, often ending in a dance, which was performed, sometimes incongruously, between the acts of a play given in the public theatres. The entremés reached the height of its popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries, and most of the well-known dramatists of the Golden Age wrote them, including Lope de Vega, Cervantes, and Calderón. In modern times the genre was revived by the brothers Álvarez Quintero.