Chapter 9

=13=, 19. =golilla=, _f._, a diminutive of _gola_, _throat_, is a high, stiff collar of cardboard, covered with black silk, over or on which is worn a stiffstarched [p. 138] ruff of white gauze or tulle. The _golilla_ was a very characteristic part of the dress of Spanish officers of the civil government, and is, as here, used by metonymy, with change of gender, to stand for their persons. It is still to be seen in a very few ceremonial official costumes. A few hints of its place and significance may be found in A. Morel-Fatio, _Etudes sur l'Espagne_, III, Paris, 1904, pp. 229-278: "La golille et l'habit militaire."

=14=, 1. The Royal Academy of History was founded under Philip V in 1738. It has in its building in the Calle de León at Madrid a museum of antiquities and a valuable library. Since 1865 it has been in charge of the national monuments of Spain.

=14=, 2. =Franciscanos=: the Franciscans, Gray Friars, Minorite Friars, a mendicant order of preaching friars founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1210.

=14=, 14. =Niobe=, Queen of Thebes, it will be remembered, had seven sons and seven daughters.

=14=, 16. =de las que.= The force of the preposition goes with the _que_, although _las_ precedes; that is the present state of the matter; the construction in reality goes a little deeper, being equivalent to "de las (aquellas) de que hay"; i. e. _one of those Roman matrons of which we still find_, or _a Roman matron, one of those of which_, etc., the stress being on the characteristics, and their implied disappearance except in the Trastevere; not merely a _Roman matron, whereof, etc._

=14=, 17. =Trastévere= (from _trans Tiberim_): the quarter of Rome lying on the north bank of the Tiber west and southwest of St. Peter's, at the foot of the Janiculum hill. It is of all the districts of Rome the one least invaded by the stranger, and has preserved more than other parts of the city a certain pure-blooded Roman individuality. It has a dialect of its own.

=15=, 8. =congrua= here is the temporal income that must be possessed by candidates for holy orders. The amount varies, and is fixed by the synods of the respective dioceses.

=15=, 10. =menores.= The minor orders are those below the subdiaconate: _ostiariatus_, _lectoratus_, _acolythatus_; the major orders are _subdiaconatus_, _diaconatus_, _presbyteratus_. On the functions and privileges of each, see S. B. Smith, _Compendium Juris Canonici_, New York, etc., 1890. [p. 139]

=15=, 15. =Don Ventura Caro=, born about 1742, died 1808. Commanded Spanish army of the West Pyrenees in 1793-94. In 1801 became Captain General of Valencia, and did valuable service in restoring and maintaining order in the province. In 1808 he repulsed an attack of Marshal Moncey on the city of Valencia, forcing a French retreat.

=Castillo Piñón=, in French, _Château Pignon_, a strongly fortified position in the French Pyrenees at the northern end of the valley of Roncesvaux. It was stormed by the Spaniards under Caro, June 6, 1793. See Jomini, _Histoire Critique et militaire des guerres de la Révolution_, Paris, 1819, etc., vol. III. pp. 331 sqq.

=15=, 18. =Estella=, town of Navarre, about 25 miles southwest of Pamplona.

=16=, 1. =Goya.= Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Spanish painter, the greatest name in Spanish art after Velázquez, Ribera, and Murillo. He was born near Saragossa in 1746, and died at Bordeaux in 1828. He is best known for his portraits, his cartoons of popular life and customs and of the events of the Peninsular war, and for his etchings. His work may be seen to advantage at the Prado and the Academy, in Madrid, and at the Escorial. Among his paintings at the Prado is a large portrait of the family of King Charles IV, including the king himself and Queen Maria Louisa, and illustrating admirably the costume of the time--and, it may be said, writing clear in the faces the causes of the decay of Spain.

=María Luisa=. Maria Louisa Theresa, daughter of Philip of Bourbon, Duke of Parma, wife of King Charles IV of Spain, born 1754, married 1767, died 1819. She is notorious in history for her evil part in the downfall of Spain, and especially for her relations with Manuel Godoy, Prince of the Peace. See M. A. S. Hume, _Modern Spain_, New York, 1900; chapters 1-3.

=16=, 2. =falda de medio paso=, a very scant skirt, fashionable at about the time of the story, and for some years later. The name came from the fact that the wearer, in dancing especially, was confined to the taking of a very short step--a half-step. _Falda de un paso solo_ explains itself in view of the foregoing.

=16=, 14. =Sábado de Gloria.= Holy Saturday, the day before Easter, [p. 140] when music reappears in the Mass after its omission during Holy Week, and bells are rung at the singing of the _Gloria in Excelsis_, resumed after its suspension during Lent.

=17=, 1. =Más feo que Picio= is the most common Spanish colloquialism for extreme absence of personal beauty in men. The origin of the phrase I have not been able to find. There is a story of a cobbler of the name, who was more than ugly, and so lives; but the obvious resemblance of Picio to _pez_, pitch, and to the adjective _píceo_, suggest that the man was invented after the fact, and named from his wax. For other expressions of the same kind, see Ramón Caballero, _Diccionario de modismos, frases y metáforas_, Madrid, 1898-1900.

=18=, 20. =Quevedo.= Francisco Gómez de Quevedo Villegas, born 1580, died 1645; one of the greatest names of Spanish Literature--essayist, satirist, poet, wit, politician. His life and personality are not less interesting than his very varied literary work. Consult E. Mérimée, _Essai sur la vie et les oeuvres de Francisco de Quevedo_, Paris, 1886.

=19=, 9. =broma.= For a similar use, recall Hamlet's speech: "a fellow of infinite jest," etc. (Act V, Scene I).

=20=, 4. =palillos=, originally _drum-sticks_, here and familiarly in Andalusia, _castagnets_ (_castañuelas_, _postizas_). =Brisca= and =tute= are two-handed games of cards popular in Spain; in _brisca_ three cards are dealt to each player, a trump is turned, and as the play goes on the hands are kept full by drawing from the pack; _tute_ is a rather more developed game of the same kind, similar in essentials to sixty-six.

=20=, 6. =el que=; _sc. resultado_ in its secondary meaning, _fact_.

=20=, 16. =tenía algo de ingeniero=: _had some of the qualities of an engineer, was something of an engineer_.

=21=, 4. =jaraiz, lagar.= _jaraiz_ is primarily the wine-press, _lagar_ the wine-pit, where the must is preserved before the drawing off into the skin or cask.

=21=, 8. =reales.= The _real_ at par was worth about five cents. It is no longer coined, but is still a favorite unit for reckoning in many parts of Spain, as the _sou_ is here and there in France. The coinage at the time of our story was the system renewed and simplified by King Charles III, about 1770. It comprised copper coins: _maravedi_ [p. 141] (34 to the _real_); _ochavo_, _cuarto_, _dos cuartos_, worth respectively two, four, and eight _maravedis_; silver coins: _real_, _dos reales_, _peseta_ (four _reales_); _medio duro_ (ten _reales_); _duro_ (twenty _reales_); and gold coins: _duro_, _dos duros_, _doblón_ (four _duros_); _media onza_ and _onza_, (eight and sixteen _duros_ respectively). The present decimal system, with the unit one _peseta_ = 100 _centimos_ was introduced in 1868. It is modeled on the system of the Latin union.

=22=, 24. The reference throughout this passage is to Othello, though there is no one passage in the play where the qualities here suggested are enumerated or directly ascribed to the Moor; see, however, specially, Act II, Scene 3, Act III, Scenes 3 and 4, and the Acts IV and V. It has been suggested, in view especially of line 25, that Alarcón may have had in mind Hamlet's characterization of his father (_Hamlet_, Act I, Scene 2): "He was a man, take him for all in all," etc. This seems to me to come of erroneous reading both of the lines of the play and the passage here in the text.

=23=, 6. =alpargatas= are rough shoes or slippers of canvas, with hempen soles; the =montera= is a woolen peasant's cap used in many provinces of Spain, and varying in form and color with the locality.

=24=, 16. =grana= is the English _grain_, familiar in English literature as late as Milton; e. g. Moryson, _Itinerary_, III, 1, IV, 96 (1617): "The Spaniards and Portugals bought _Graine_ for Scarlet Dye." Cf. the present English _ingrain_ and _ingrained_.

=24=, 18. _Cf._ note to =8=, 2.

=24=, 22. =Fernando VII=, King of Spain, son of Charles IV and Maria Louisa of Parma. He was born in 1784, became king on the abdication of his father in 1808, was prisoner in France until 1813, was restored to the throne on the expulsion from Spain of Joseph Bonaparte, and reigned until his death in 1833. He was succeeded by his daughter, Isabella II.

=25=, 8. =Constitucionales de la de 1837.= Constitutions were decreed in Spain in 1812, 1834, 1837, 1854 and 1869. The Constitution of 1837 was accepted by Queen Isabel on June 17th of that year; on its provisions, and on the events that led to its promulgation, see M. A. S. Hume, op. cit., pp. 338-340. It was an essentially radical programme, though much less broad than the Cadiz Constitution [p. 142] of 1812, and thus while it appeared reactionary and insufficient to the older Radicals, it pleased the younger Liberals with whom Alarcón cast in his lot when he first went into politics.

=25=, 9. =la=, sc. _constitución_.

=25=, 14. =deshollinador=, a long-handled scraper used by chimney sweeps to dislodge the soot.

=25=, 16, 17. The reference in these lines is to Alarcón's own public career, and to his changes of political faith. He began as a revolutionary, and with growing years and discretion found himself in the ranks of the moderate conservatives, and a devoted royalist.

=25=, 30. =las Castillas=: the Castiles, Old and New Castile. Madrid is in New Castile, the central part of Spain, reconquered from the Moors after the formation of the kingdoms of Castile, Leon and Navarre.

=26=, 9. =D. Eugenio de Zúñiga y Ponce de León.= Spanish proper names when written in full regularly include the family name on both father's and mother's side. Thus D. Eugenio's father was a Zúñiga, his mother a Ponce de León. Women, when they marry, usually retain their own family name, adding the husband's with the copulative _de_; widows sign their own names, usually with the addition _viuda de_.... Thus Juana Suárez on her marriage to a Fernández becomes Suárez de Fernández; as a widow, she is Juana Suárez viuda de Fernández.

=26=, 19. =desembozarse.= The Spaniard usually wears his _capa_ (cape or cloak) wrapped closely about the neck and the lower part of the face; this is _embozarse_ (=59=, 13). _Desembozarse_ is to throw back the cloak and leave the face exposed. Compare _embozo_, =46=, 28.

=26=, 19. =vídose=; from _ver_. "Han escrito buenos autores, y aun suele decir el vulgo, en el pretérito perfecto, yo vide, él vido, formas desterradas ya del buen lenguaje" (_Gramática de la Lengua Castellana_, por La Real Academia Española, ed. 1890, p. 139, note).

=26=, 25. =quirotecas.= The word _quiroteca_--etymologically _hand-case_,--[Greek: cheir thêkê]--is a jocular, almost a slang term, for misshapen gloves or gauntlets. Similar but more ephemeral expressions for gloves and especially for shoes and stockings are not uncommon in English. [p. 143]

=28=, 2. =se descubrían hasta los pies=: _bowed to the ground, hat in hand; uncovered and bowed to the ground._

=30=, 6. =estaba subido=. _Subido_ is here an adjective in connection with _estar_,--the nearest approach possible in Spanish to the common Romance construction of verbs of motion with the substantive auxiliary. The idea is that Uncle Lucas has climbed up and is still up. We have the same construction in =30=, 14, _estoy agarrado_, and =32=, =26=, _estoy subido_.

=31=, 3. Note the pun on _mono_ "monkey," and _mono_ "pretty."

=32=, 9. =puede [ser] que=: Cf. French _peut-être que_, _il se peut que_.

=32=, 15. =pedazo de bárbaro=: _you wild man_. Compare with this use of _pedazo_ the French use of _espèce_: _espèce de vaurien_, _espèce de barbare_, etc., and _espèce de type_.

=33=, 5. =ramblilla=, diminutive of _rambla_, originally the washed-out, sandy bed of a stream, left dry after freshets. The secondary meaning, "hollow way," "low path," comes from the use frequently made of the beds of streams in the dry season.

=33=, 10. =fandango.= An Andalusian dance, very old and very lively. Compare Ford, op. cit., ed. 1845, p. 187; Pellicer, op. cit. I, beginning p. 121.

=34=, 4. =tanto bueno=, sc. _por aquí_, i. e., _so much honor done us_, lit., "so great a good thing here."

=35=, 8. =donde primero le coge=: _wherever it catches him_; _primero_ is an adverb.

=35=, 25. =Pamplona= or Pampeluna, the old capital of Navarre, señá Frasquita's country, and a prominent border fortress, has been besieged frequently in the course of its long history. It was taken from the Romans by Euric in 466, sacked by the Franks under Childebert in 542, destroyed by Charlemagne in 778; in 907 it beat off the Moors, and in 1138 the Castilians, in the war between Alfonso VII and García Ramón II, after the dissolution of the union with Aragon; and it has been occupied not infrequently by the French, who gained possession of it by stratagem in 1808, and held it until October 21, 1813, General Cassan making a fine defence against the English and Spaniards; and it has suffered since then in the civil wars. Ignatius Loyola was one of the city's defenders [p. 144] in its siege by the French in 1521, and it is said that it was during convalescence from wounds in the hospital of the citadel that he planned the Order of Jesus. The special appositeness of Pamplona as an illustration here lay doubtless in the fact that señá Frasquita was of Navarre.

=36=, 2. =Rubens.= Peter Paul Rubens, celebrated Flemish painter, born 1577, died 1640.

=36=, 19. =bestia=, really a feminine noun, appears as masculine here, in =50=, 6, and elsewhere; so also _calavera_, =45=, 25, =111=, 11, and _espía_, =86=, 15. The three words are grouped in this note as being good illustrations of three stages of the same tendency: a disposition constantly more evident in Spanish to recognize association of real and grammatical gender in nouns that are of very common use. _Espía_, whose masculine signification is as old as the word itself, appears in Tolhausen's Dictionary (1891), and the thirteenth edition of the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy (1899), as both masculine and feminine. _Calavera_ is given as masculine in the transferred sense by the Academy dictionary, but not by Tolhausen; _bestia_ is exclusively feminine in both. The conclusion is clear, though it may be tempered by the consideration that _bestia_ in the figurative sense is coarser and of lower use than the other words, and so slower in achieving recognition, in spite of its appearance in the more colloquial pages of such standard authors even as Alarcón.--_un maula_, =82=, 10, is to be accounted for as _bestia_, or perhaps better, as a careless use of _un_ by the unlettered Garduña; _un ave_, p. 60, is analogical to _el ave_, a regular form; so also _un agua_, =40=, 16.

=38=, 20. =Ave María Purísima.= (Cf. p. 97, title to Chapter XXVIII). By proclamation of 22d October, 1617, the Spanish Dominions in Europe and America were declared to be under the protection of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin; hence the addition of the word _Purísima_ to the _Ave Maria gratia plena_ of the prayer. Hence also, doubtless, the frequent expletive use of the words, as here, and their crystallization into formulæ of daily life, as in the other passage cited above. Hence also the frequency of the appearance of the Conception in Spanish Art. For notes of Spanish customs and rites connected with this doctrine see Ford, op. cit., ed. [p. 145] 1845, pp. 265 sqq. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was made part of the faith of the whole church by an apostolic Letter of Pius IX, dated December 8, 1854; it had been a matter of theological controversy since the thirteenth century.

=38=, 29. =San Miguel=. St. Michael the archangel, the first and mightiest of created spirits, mentioned in the Bible in the books of Jude and Revelations. In churchly tradition he is the chief, and sometimes the sole archangel, and the one to whom was assigned the expulsion from Heaven of Satan and the other disobedient angels. His present office is two-fold: he is patron saint of the Church on earth, and lord of the souls of the dead. His feast, Michaelmas, is September 29. In art he is always young and handsome. His attributes vary with the function symbolized: as conqueror of Satan he stands with his foot upon his foe, who is always a monster, sometimes a dragon, sometimes part human, part dragon.

=39=, 4. =¡Jesús, María y José!= trans.: _Mercy on us!_

=40=, 24. =derritiéndosele la gacha=. Gacha is a sort of gruel made by boiling broken rice in a large quantity of milk. When it is about to boil over, a very few drops of cold water stop the boiling and bring the mass down again. This is called _derretir la gacha_. So here, _his anger fell suddenly_.

=41=, 10. =Ticiano=, _Titian_. Tiziano Vecelli, born at Cadore in Venetia, 1477, died at Venice 1576; the greatest of Venetian painters.

=41=, 19. =Pomona=, the Italian divinity of the fruits of trees, especially of apple-orchards. She is usually represented as a Hamadryad, young, and beloved of many rustic gods. Her worship was very important in Rome. Cf. Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, XIV, 623; Varro, _De Lingua Latina_, VII, 45.

=42=, 5. =quinto=, the fifth of the six commandments or precepts of the Church, "to contribute to the support of our pastors." See _Butler's Catechism_, lessons XX and XXI.

=42=, 7. The =diezmo= (_tithe_) was at this time paid to the civil authority, and by it made over to the Church.

=43=, 4. =Licenciado=: _licentiate_. Primarily the title given to the holders of the second academic degree; at the present time generally used in Spain, as here, to designate a lawyer. [p. 146]

=43=, 12, sqq. _"Thou hast said it," replied the latter, with the kindly severity of a saint, which they say he was indeed. "An excuse unasked (is) a manifest accusation. As is the man, so are his words. But enough has been said, let there be no further speech."_

=44=, 6. =cordonazo de San Francisco=, _the autumn equinox_, _the autumn equinoctial_; in the narrower sense, the four days preceding and the four days following St. Francis' day (October 4). It is originally a maritime expression.

=44=, 16. =torta sobada=, a cake, perfectly solid, made of dough that has been very much kneaded.

=44=, 17. =pan de aceite= is bread made of dough to which olive oil has been added, giving a peculiar and much esteemed taste, when the bread is fried. Or it may be used as here, of the dough.

=45=, _tit_. XIII. =Le dijo el grajo al cuervo=: _The pot said to the kettle._ The full form of the proverb is: _le dijo el grajo al cuervo: quítate allá que tiznas_; and the Spanish has also the other sayings, nearer our own in form: _dijo la sartén a la caldera, tírate allá, culinegra_, and _dijo la sartén al cazo, quítate allá, que me tiznas_.

=45=, 24. =pelar la pava=, _to pluck the turkey-hen_, is to stand at night under the window of the beloved, and so to make love. In Andalusia it is often called also _comer hierro_, from the bars that protect almost all windows there. Cf. R. Ford, op. cit., ed. 1845, pp. 153-154, for admirably witty remarks.

=46=, 12, 15. =penitenciario, magistral=. The Canon Penitentiary, or diocesan confessor, has general charge of confessions and public penance; he is, with the Dean, the Secretary, the Treasurer, the Sacristan, and the Canon Theologian, a necessary officer of the minimum organization of the cathedral chapter; (a _collegiate chapter_ may consist simply of Dean, Secretary, Treasurer and Sacristan). Cf. Rev. S. B. Smith, _Compendium Juris Canonici_, New York, etc., 1890, Caput V, _De Adjutoribus Episcopi_, Art. VII. The Magistral, in the capitular organization, is the Canon whose special duty is preaching. Other Canons frequent in Spanish Chapters are the _Canónigo Doctoral_, the advocate and man of affairs, who must always be a doctor of canon law, and the _Canónigo lectoral_, a doctor or licentiate in theology, who expounds the Scriptures. The [p. 147] word _magistral_ has other special meanings which do not concern us here.

=46=, 29. =Predicador de Oficio=, the _Magistral_; =Confesor de la Catedral=; the _Penitenciario_.

=48=, 6 sqq. Compare with this chapter the conversations of Mr. Nupkins in chapters XXIV and XXV of _Pickwick Papers_.

=48=, 11. =velón de Lucena=. Lucena, a town of Andalusia, in the Cabra Valley, about forty miles southeast of Cordova, is still noted for its lamps. The old-fashioned _velón de Lucena_ was a tall brass affair, with a number of wicks fitted into projecting beak-like receptacles for the oil.

=48=, 22. =a lo que=. =Lo que= here = _what_; the prepositional force falls on the _que_, though _lo_ precedes. _That is what I was coming to, what I was getting at._ In form the construction is attracted from _es lo a que iba_.

=48=, 25. I have not been able to find the origin or the details of the story of the "Sargento Utrera" or "Sargento de Utrera que reventó de feo." He belongs to Andalusia, as the town name Utrera would suggest; and he shares his distinction with "El Sargento Cruz, a quién por feo tuvieron que dar los Santos Oleos con una caña." For information on the whole subject I am much indebted to Sr. Bonilla y San Martín, and to Sr. D. Joaquín Hazañas y la Rua, of Seville. Cf. reference in note to =17, 1=.

=49=, 27. =me las compondré=: _I will fix things up._

=49=, 28. =la [batalla] de San Quintín=. St. Quentin, an important French town, eighty-two miles north-north-east of Paris, was the scene of several battles; the one referred to here was fought in 1557, on August 10, St. Lawrence's day, and was a great victory for the Spaniards, who, under the command of the Duke of Savoy, and with the aid of English, Flemish, and German auxiliaries, beat the French under Coligny and the Constable Montmorency. The Escorial was founded as a monument of the gratitude of Philip II for this victory, and dedicated to St. Lawrence.

=50=, 6. =cuando te tuvo=: _When he took you_, i. e., _that he took you_, _in that he took you_. So also =84=, 18, =cuando ha ido=, _when she has gone_ = _since she has gone_. [p. 148]

=50=, 27. =Pósito Real=, =Pósito Pío=. The _pósito_ was the public granary, whether national or municipal, to which regular contributions were due by law. The _pósito real_ was storehouse of forage for the army, the royal stables, etc.; the _pósito pío_ a charitable institution from which grain was lent without interest in kind (_creces_) or other charges (_recargo_), or given to widows, poor farmers, hospitals, asylums, etc. So, in the one case, the alcalde was simply behind in his taxes; in the other he had actually taken property to which under no circumstances had he any right.

=54=, 12. =mañana será otro día=. A very favorite Spanish expression, used sometimes as a gently pessimistic reflection on the transitoriness of mundane things, and more often, as here, to suggest that there is no hurry about anything, and that to-morrow will take care of itself. Cf. the German: _Morgen ist auch wieder ein Tag._

=56=, 5, 6. =trabuco=, =bocacha=. It is rather difficult to make a distinction in translation; blunderbuss is the word most often used in either case; _bocacha_ is really a bell-muzzled _trabuco_.