CRUZ, RAMON DE LA, Spanish dramatist, was born at Madrid in 1731. Nothing is known of his life, save that he was an employe in the ministry of finance, that he was a member of the Academy of Seville and of the Roman " Arcadians," and that between 1786 and 1791 he published some ten volumes of plays. Among his 300 pieces he is remembered only by his sainetes, little farcical sketches of city life, written to be played between the acts of a greater play, or as afterpieces.

Specimens are to be found in Onlioa, Tesoro del Teatro Espagol, vol. v.; and seventeen of the best of them have been translated into French, and published, with an introduction, by Antoine do Latour, in his Salutes de I neon the la Cruz, Paris, 1865. A complete edition, comprising upwards of 110, was issued by Don Agostino Damn in 1848. See Tieknor's Spanish Literature, iii. 249-251.