Chapter 5

917. =Que tantas persecuciones=, etc. Supply some introductory interrogative expression like "Can it be" or "Do you believe."

922. =De Amadís, en Beltenebros.= _Amadís de Gaula_ is the title of an old romance of uncertain authorship. The oldest text of which we have record was in Spanish or Portuguese prose, and the most interesting part of it is attributed to the Portuguese, Joham de Lobeira. The incident referred to by Lope occurred in the early years of the career of Amadís, hero of the story. After a youth filled with adventure, he meets and falls in love with Oriana, daughter of Lisuarte, king of Great Britain, who returns his affection. A short time afterwards Amadís is freed from a perilous situation by a young girl named Briolania, who herself is suffering captivity. He then promises to return and deliver her. Having been successful in a number of other adventures, he sets out, with the tearful consent of Oriana, to rescue Briolania. After his departure on this mission, Oriana is erroneously informed that Amadís loves Briolania; mad with anger and despair, she sends him a letter saying that all is ended between them. Amadís, having avenged Briolania's wrongs, receives Oriana's letter and, overcome by grief, retires to a hermitage on a rock in the sea, where he receives the name of Beltenebros, which Southey translates as the "Fair Forlorn." Afterwards Oriana, undeceived, seeks a reconciliation with Amadís, and their happiness is at length realized. Amadís has remained the type of the constant lover who comes into the possession of the object of his affections only after adventures and difficulties without number.

951. =Valencia= is an important seaport town on the Mediterranean with a population of about 160,000. The city is picturesquely situated on the banks of the Guadalaviar in the midst of a luxuriant tropical nature. Valencia was formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name and has played an important rôle in Spanish history since the time when the Romans occupied the peninsula. During the Moorish occupation it was a worthy rival of Seville, with which it is here mentioned. The gardens of Valencia have always been justly celebrated for their beauty, and Lope well knew this, for during his exile in Valencia he himself had a garden in which, as he tells us in several of his works, he passed many pleasant hours.

954. =Vera de Plasencia= is a small town northwest of Zaragoza, situated in the desolate Llano de Plasencia. Lope must have sojourned there at some time or have had more than a passing interest in the place, for in his _Epístola á D. Michael de Solis_ he writes:

Si fuera por la Vera de Plasencia Á buscar primavera al jardín mío, Hallara tu Leonor en competencia.

_Obras Sueltas_, vol. I, p. 268.

960. =Pues lo digo=, etc. In the Valencia edition Martin says:

Quando lo digo lo sé. Tres puntos del que los vé Que no son puntos de vara: Puntos, que puedo decir, Según en su condición, Que tres en un punto son: Ver, desear, y morir.

The sense of the passage seems to turn on the words _punto_ and _cara_. A _punto_ or "point" is one twelfth of the antiquated French line and one one hundred and forty-fourth of an inch. By a comparison of the two editions it is clear that there is a play on this word. _Cara_ is probably a typographical error for _vara_, but it may be used here in a related sense to the archaic _á primera cara_, which was the equivalent of _á primera vista_. Therefore the sense of ll. 961-2 is: "That is the size that one would take of that foot with a measure," or "That is the size that one would take by a glimpse of that foot."

971. =De escarpines presumí=, etc. The consonance of _escarpines_ is with _jazmines_, but the contrast is with _chapines_ above. The _chapín_ was a heavy low shoe or sandal better suited to the use of servants, while the _escarpín_ was an elegant thin-soled, shoe or slipper, and often with cloth top as the following verse seems to indicate. Here the sense is not very apparent and may involve some colloquialism of the time. The passage may be freely translated: "I thought you were speaking of _escarpines_, since the distinction depends only upon (the height of) the cotton (top)."

973. =paragambas.= An obsolete or colloquial word made up of the preposition _para_, or possibly of a form of the verb _parar_, "parry off, protect," and the obsolete substantive _gamba_, the equivalent of _pierna_. It was evidently applied to some covering of the leg, as a gaiter or boot. In the Valencia edition it appears as two words, _para gambas_.

974. =á cierta dama= depends upon _pregunté_.

975. =cañafístolas==_cañafístulas_. The word seems to have the idea of something indicated but not named, and here may have the sense of "ridiculous adornments." It is still used colloquially as the approximate equivalent of the English "thingumajig" or "thingumbob." That the author intends it to have something of its true meaning, "purgative," is indicated by the next few lines of the text.

1009. =fialle=, see v. 95 and note.

1038. =azules enojos=, _dark clouds_. Lit. "blue wrath."

1042. =á cuantos los miran=. _Los_ refers to _ojos_ mentioned above. The period at the end of the line must be a typographical error, for the sense seems to favor a comma. The two subordinate clauses introduced by _si_ and connected by y do not require as much separation as is afforded by a period.

1052. =Como quedó concertado.= Note the repetition of line 1000. Lope is given to repetitions in his works, but this is perhaps the only verse in the play which he has unconsciously repeated.

1062. =inglés á Cádiz.= "Año de 1625." (Note by Hartzenbusch.) The incident referred to is the irrational attack upon Cadiz by the English fleet under Sir Edward Cecil in October, 1625. The English were ignominiously defeated and the Spanish encouraged to continue an unequal struggle.

1066. =tusón dorado.= The name of a celebrated order of knighthood founded in 1429 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and the Netherlands. It originally consisted of thirty-one knights and was self-perpetuating, but Philip II absorbed the nominating power. In 1713 Charles VI moved the order to Vienna, but this action was contested by the Spanish and the dispute was settled by dividing the order between the two countries.

1067. =Con débil caña=, etc. "En la edición antigua de la comedia: _Con débil caña, con freno herrado._" (Note by Hartzenbusch.)

1068. =Marte... Cupido=, _Mars_, the god of war, _Cupid_, the god of love.

1076. =Sembrando.= "En la _Corona trágica_ se lee _sembrando_; en la edición antigua de la comedia, _tendidas_."(Note by Hartzenbusch.) The sonnet is found also in the _Obras Sueltas_, vol. IV, p. 500, under the title, _Á la Venida de los Ingleses á Cádiz_. Hartzenbusch speaks of it as though it appeared in the _Corona trágica_, but his note is misleading, for it really is found in a collection of _Poesías varias_ in the volume stated which begins with the _Corona trágica_.

1086. =Mas qué os=, etc. More exact punctuation would place the initial interrogation after _mas_ and before _qué_.

1089. =Filis.= In Greek mythology Phyllis, disappointed because her lover, Demophon, did not return at the time appointed for their marriage, put an end to her life. According to one account she was changed after death into an almond-tree without leaves. But when Demophon, on his return, embraced the tree, it put forth leaves, so much was it affected by the presence of the lover. To the mythological Phyllis, however, Lope is indebted only for the name. To him "Filis" was a more material being in the person of Elena Osorio, daughter of a theatrical manager and a married woman. During the early part of the period 1585-1590 he dedicated to her some of his most beautiful love-ballads, and in the latter part, when he turned against her and was exiled from Madrid and Castile, he continued to address poems to her, but now filled with bitter complaints. (See Introduction.) The fact that he mentions her name here in a play written in the later years of his life is of interest; either he wrote the sonnet in his earlier years and used it here, or it would seem that the poet's mind reverts to his youthful follies. But in one of the last works written just before his death Lope speaks of his daughter, Antonia Clara, under the name of "Filis," which has given rise to some confusion. "Phyllis," moreover, is a very common name in pastoral poems in the 16th and 17th centuries.

1110. =devantal==_delantal_.

1126. =hubiérades... Dijérades==_hubierais... Dijerais_. Cf. v. 835 and note.

1133. =Si es disfrazar=, etc. In the pastorals the author usually disguised personages of distinction in the garb of shepherds and shepherdesses. These compositions were very popular in Spain during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

1145. =que viene... á pretender=, _who comes to court to make pretensions_. _Pretender_ also means "to sue for place, seek position" and might be here "to seek favor at court."

1153. =En él este amor bebí.= Here as well as in the following line _él_ refers to _cántaro_.

1155. =Sirena.= The Sirens were fabulous mythological monsters, half bird and half woman, which were supposed to inhabit reefs near the island of Capri and lure sailors to their death by the sweetness of their song.

1186. =que tiene razón=, _indeed she is quite right_. Zerolo's edition has _que_ instead of _qué_ of the Hartzenbusch edition, and it is clearly the author's intent.

1231. =Por servicios que me hiciese=, etc., _Whatever services he did me, however many years he put me under obligation._

1237-40. Observe that one of these verses concludes each of the following stanzas or _décimas_. Such a verse is called the _pie de décima_.

1252. =Andalucía= forms one of the most important and romantic of Spain's ancient divisions and still occupies a unique position in the life and character of the Spanish people. Geographically it occupies almost the whole of the south of Spain.

1262. =dorado=, a yellow flower.

1266. =Manutisa= is usually written _minutisa_.

1282. =Adónde bueno==_Qué tal._ There is also a sense of motion as indicated by verse 1284, but it is difficult to give a concise translation. Freely expressed we may offer: "Whither bound, my pretty maid?"

1291. =Pero... admira=, _But on my word I am astonished._

1300. =No tengo por mal acuerdo requebrar=, etc., _I do not consider it ill-advised to enumerate_, etc. _Requebrar_ usually means "to flatter," but it also means "to break in small pieces," hence "to give in detail" or "to enumerate."

1303. =Os costará=, etc. The sense of the verb is plural unless we take it as impersonal and supply an infinitive construction after it.

1305. =Para el río.= This expression is out of its natural order and might well be set off by commas. The sense is: "A hat with its band for going to the river."

1306. =Avantal==_delantal_. Cf. v. 1110 and note.

1307. =virillas.= In addition to its usual meaning, _vira_, or _virilla_, is used to denote the border around the top of the shoe, which is its meaning in the present instance.

1314. =No hay plata... Potosí.= Potosí is a city of Bolivia situated on the Cerro de Potosí at an altitude of thirteen thousand feet. The Cerro de Potosí is said to have produced up to the present time over three billion dollars in silver. The first mine was opened there in 1545, and the year of Lope's birth, 1562, a royal mint was established in the city of Potosí to coin the output of the mines. Small wonder is it then that the Spaniards still refer to the city in proverb as a synonym for great riches. Lope mentions it in several of his other dramas.

1324. Compare this speech of doña María with that of Areusa in the _Celestina_ against the exacting duties of servants. (See _Biblioteca de Autores Españoles_, vol. III, p. 43.)

1341. =de mañana=, _early in the morning_.

1349. =Bien aforrada razón=, etc. In this reply of doña María we see not a little of the _précieux_ spirit which in the same century became so popular in France. A man must not proceed "brutally" to a declaration of love at the very beginning, but by interminable flatteries and conceits lead up to such a declaration, and even then must not expect the object of his devotion to yield at once to his cleverly conceived pleadings.

1404. =cristal deshecho= refers to the running water of the fountain.

1410. =henchirle.= The antecedent of _le_ is _cántaro_.

1417. =Ó asoma por el estribo=, etc., _Or shows through the doorway of the carriage her curls on the hooks of a 'rest.'_ In modern usage when applied to the parts of a carriage _estribo_ means the "step" but in the text it is used apparently as the equivalent of _portezuela_. _Descanso_ seems to have been at the time a device used in women's head-dress, such as was represented some years later by Velázquez in his famous portrait of Mariana de Austria, which now hangs in the Prado Museum at Madrid.

1439. =Conténtese ó quitaréle.= Observe the change from the second person to the third in this verse and the following one.

1455. =¿Qué se hizo tu desdén?= _What has become of your pride?_

1460. =Habrán hecho riza en ti=, _Have probably done you a great injury. Hacer riza_, "to cause disaster or slaughter."

1477. =si no envidaste=, etc., _if you have not staked any money, lay down your hand and remain apart_. Leonor applies here the terms of a game of cards when speaking of the love-affairs of doña María.

1493. =No pone codo en la puente=, etc., a reference to the custom of the idlers and braggarts lounging in public places and seeking trouble or offering defiance to every passer-by.

1495. =los lavaderos.= The banks of the Manzanares immediately in the rear of the Royal Palace have long been the public _lavaderos_ or washing-places of the city of Madrid, and every day acres of network of lines are covered with drying linen. It is here naturally that the gallants of the lower classes go to meet their sweethearts, and scenes such as we have portrayed later in the play are of frequent occurrence. Cf. note on verse 441.

1510. =Prado=, formerly, as its name implies, a meadow on the outskirts of Madrid and later converted into a magnificent _paseo_ between the Buen Retiro palace and the city proper. The house of Lope de Vega still stands in the narrow Calle de Cervantes, a short distance from the Prado, and the poet often mentions this celebrated _paseo_ in his works. The name is frequently used to refer to the famous art-gallery located there.

1520. =quien=, cf. 1. 337 and note.

1527-8. =Aprended... hoy.= Note the repetition of 11. 1237-8.

1543. =Durandartes.= In Spanish ballads Durandarte is the name of one of the twelve peers who fought with Roland at Roncesvalles. In the _Romancero General_ the adventures and death of the knight are narrated. Steadfast to death in his affections for his beloved Belerma, he gives utterance to his lamentations in the famous old ballad beginning with the following lines:

¡O Belerma! ¡O Belerma! Por mi mal fuiste engendrada, Que siete años te serví Sin de ti alcanzar nada; Agora que me querías Muero yo en esta batalla.

Durandarte was the cousin of the knight Montesinos who gave his name to the celebrated cave of la Mancha, visited by don Quijote, whose adventures in this connection are narrated in _Don Quijote_, Part II, Chapters XXII and XXIII. Cervantes calls Durandarte the "flor y espejo de los caballeros enamorados" and probably Lope is indebted to his great contemporary for the word, which he uses in the sense of _lances de amor_.

1552. =Puesto que=, etc. The Valencia edition has here instead of this verse: _Con todo, no he de culpalle._

1608. =de espacio==_despacio_.

1649. =Don Fadrique de Toledo=, son of the Duke of Alba and descendant of the great soldier, Alba, was one of Spain's greatest naval commanders. In 1625 he destroyed the Dutch fleet off Gibraltar. Writing this play, as he may have been, with the acclamations of the great victory ringing in his ears, it was quite natural that Lope should honor the hero in his drama and at the same time add to the popularity of his work. Later in 1634 don Fadrique de Toledo fell into disfavor or incurred the jealousy of the Count-Duke Olivares and was cast into prison.

1668. =rocín gallego.= The _gallegos_, or inhabitants of Galicia, are a sober, industrious people, but have throughout Spain a reputation for ignorance and stupidity; so they have long been made the butt of malicious gibes and jests by their more volatile fellow-countrymen. In the Valencia edition this verse and the preceding one are rendered in a manner to give a clearer meaning:

En la coz y mordiscón Parece rocín gallego.

1681. =Es... vaya=, _Is all that to tease me?_

1696. =diera= is used here in the double sense of "give" and "strike."

1708. =cristal de Venecia.= Early in the middle ages Venice was a center for the manufacture of glass. The industry was at its height in the 15th and 16th centuries, but gradually declined until it ceased in the 18th, only to be revived about the middle of the 19th century. Since then Venice has retaken her position as the European center for artistic creations in glass. Near the close of the 13th century the factories were moved outside the city to the island of Murano, where they are at the present time.

1714. =Si no=, etc., _If not in harm, in the realization._--=Caer en la cuenta=, _to understand, realize_.

1723. =satisfaciones= is now written _satisfacciones_.

1733-4. The language of these two verses is drawn from the popular proverbs: "Tantas veces va el cántaro á la fuente, alguna se quiebra," and "Tantas veces va el cántaro á la fuente, que deja el asa ó la frente." Doña María uses parts of each of these forms.

1737. =volviérades==_volvierais_. See v. 835 and note.

1782. =de canela=, that is, _agua de canela_.

1785. =Don Alvaro de Luna=, a Spanish courtier, born about 1388, was, in his youth, a page at the court of John II, whose favor he later enjoyed to a high degree. He was made Constable of Castile in 1423 and a few years later grand master of the order of Santiago--a double distinction never enjoyed by any other man. He afterwards fell a victim of a conspiracy of the Spanish feudal grandees and was executed at Valladolid in 1453. His life and achievements became a popular theme for Spanish authors, and doubtless much of interest written concerning him has been lost. The _romances_ relating to don Alvaro de Luna which have come down to us concern his fall and execution, and some of them are favorites of beggars who sing in the streets of Spanish cities. It is evidently to a _romancero_ or collection of these poems that reference is made by Lope.

1817. =el Cid.= Rodrigo Ruy Diaz de Bivar (1040-1099), called "el Cid Campeador," is the great national hero of Spain. From the numerous accounts, real and fictitious, of his achievements we learn that he was a great warrior who fought sometimes with the Moors, sometimes with the Spaniards, and that at last as a soldier of fortune he seized Valencia and until his death successfully defied the two great rivals of his time, the Spaniards and the Moors. His life has served as a theme for numerous literary masterpieces, especially the Old Spanish _Cantar de mio Cid_. Lope de Vega treats of his fall in his play entitled el _Milagro por los Celos_.

1818. =gigote==_jigote_.

1824. =Valladolid=, an interesting city of Northern Spain and the seat of an important university. Valladolid has figured prominently in Spanish history for many centuries, for it was long the favorite residence of the Spanish sovereigns. Early in the reign of Philip III the seat of government was again transferred to that city, but was returned to Madrid in 1606.

1836. =si le come=, _if he likes it_. _Comer_, lit. "to eat."