Después de hacerse un nuevo saludo de despedida.
DOÑA LAURA. (¡Santo Dios! ¿y éste es aquél?…)
DON GONZALO. (¡Dios mío! ¿y ésta es aquélla?…)
Se van, apoyado cada uno en el brazo de su servidor y volviendo la carasonrientes, como si él pasara por la veredilla de los rosales y ellaestuviera en la ventana de las campanillas azules.
NOTES
[Footnote 1: #A quien … comedia.# In spite of the apparentmeaning of these words, the character of doña Clarines was notdrawn from any one person, to whom the authors were introducedby their boyhood friend, Fr. Bravo Ruiz. What he contributedwas the name, taken from a certain shrine consecrated to
La Virgen delos Clarines
. The authors appropriated to their own ends this hithertounknown attribute of the Virgin. The combination of bluntness and nobilitywhich they have represented in their heroine is their own creation.]
[Footnote 2: #Guadalema# is an imaginary town of Castile,in which the brothers Quintero have laid the scene of otherplays, such as
El niño prodigio, La dicha ajena, El amor a oscuras
,and
Los leales
.]
[Footnote 3: #Pos, señó, güeno está#, =
pues, señor, buenoestá.
Escopeta uses the pronunciation of southern Spain, wherehe was born. A similar manner of speaking is also generalamong the lower classes in many parts of Spanish America.Many of the comedies of the Quinteros are written entirely inthe Andalusian speech, but in this play Escopeta is the onlycharacter who employs it. The equivalent Castilian forms willall be found in the Vocabulary.]
[Footnote 4: #¿Qué hay con Tata?#
What do you want of Tata?
]
[Footnote 5: #era# =
sería
; the imperfect indicative oftenreplaces the conditional in the main clause of a condition. It conveysgreater vividness.]
[Footnote 6: #¿No he de saberlo?# As so often in Spanishconversation, the negative question is equivalent to a positiveaffirmation. Translate:
How could I help knowing it?
or
Ofcourse I know it
.]
[Footnote 7: #¿Qué se le va a hasé?#
There's no help for it.
]
[Footnote 8: #También son ganas de preguntar …#,
you askonly for the sake of asking
.]
[Footnote 9: #como quien dice#,
so to speak
.]
[Footnote 10: #que te agradezco#; supply
quiero decir
beforeque.]
[Footnote 11: #Todo está en todo#,
one can find anythinganywhere
.]
[Footnote 12: #¿Te quedan gajes, además de la titular?#
Do you getany fees, beside your salary as town physician?
It is customary forSpanish municipalities to pay a doctor a certain sum by theyear, in return for which he is bound to treat gratis residentswho desire it.]
[Footnote 13: #dime con quien andas, te diré quién eres.# Awell-known proverb: A man is known by the company he keeps
. DoñaClarines means that Basilio's friend is not likely to prove of bettercalibre than himself.]
[Footnote 14: #seguro está … salir#,
it is certain that she willinsult him and send him flying. "Seguro está que
, vale tantocomo
es seguro que no
," says Bello (
Gramática
, 14th ed.,§ 1141). In the present case, the expressed negative and the oneunderstood cancel each other, giving an affirmative. The constructionis based on irony, like so many Castilian idioms. See alsoHanssen,
Gramática histórica
, § 644.]
[Footnote 15: #quedarse con el día y la noche#,
to give away allshe has
; lit., "to retain (only) night and day".]
[Footnote 16: #¡Si yo no hago un sueño de dos horas!#
I can'tsleep two hours at a time!
]
[Footnote 17: #hay para no dormir#,
there's cause for losingsleep
.]
[Footnote 18: #¿Que ha muerto Juan?# Supply
¿Me dice usted
before the phrase.]
[Footnote 19: #¿Yo qué he de pensar?#
Of course I don't.
Cf. page 5, note 1. (Transcriber's note: Footnote 6)]
[Footnote 20: #Dios lo tenga en su gloria#. It is a Spanish custom tointerject some phrase of this kind when the name of a deceasedfriend is mentioned. In writing these may be abbreviated; thus,E.P.D. =
en paz descanse
; Q.D.E.P. =
que descanse en paz
;Q.E.G.E. =
que en gloria esté
.]
[Footnote 21: #me lo dice a mí#; the present is used withthe sense of a future, and the latter, in turn, for an imperative.]
[Footnote 22: #¿Tú ya no vuelves#,
you will not go again?
]
[Footnote 23: #Y no se diga a las de usted#,
and, needless to say,at yours
.]
[Footnote 24: #Poco se necesita#,
not much is required forthat
.]
[Footnote 25: #Daría# and #Crispín# are types of the uneducatedbut racy Spanish peasant, such as the Quinteros take especial delight indepicting.
Encarna
of
La zagala
,
Quintica
of
Mundo,mundillo …
and
Lucío
of
El genio alegre
are the mostimportant of the spirited figures of country youths and maidens whichappear in their comedies.]
[Footnote 26: #No entra#,
he won't come in
.]
[Footnote 27: #que entres#; supply
dice
before #que#.]
[Footnote 28: #¡Que bien trabajo yo#,
for I work myself
.]
[Footnote 29: #el segundo intento#,
the second attempt (to makehim enter)
.]
[Footnote 30: #En no distrayéndola#,
provided he does not distractyou
.]
[Footnote 31: #No es porque sea mi prima#,
I don't say itbecause she is my cousin
.]
[Footnote 32: #que lo balda#; the subject of
balda
is
ella
, and there is an ellipsis of
tales
before
que
.]
[Footnote 33: #Como si lo yevara impreso#,
just as if I had itwith me printed
.]
[Footnote 34: #¿No había e contestá?#
Of course he answered
.]
[Footnote 35: #el que tiene por qué callar#,
he who had best besilent
.]
[Footnote 36: #¡To será que no duerma en mi cama!#
Inever shall get to bed after all!
]
[Footnote 37: #lo que aquí se guisa#,
what we are going todiscuss here
; cf. the English slang, "what we are cooking up".]
[Footnote 38: #Pues usted dirá#,
go on, I am listening
.]
[Footnote 39: #La niña … con ella.#
One gets tired of thegirl opposite, after seeing her three days.
]
[Footnote 40: #que elogiaba mucho don Quijote#; it is in theAdventure of the Galley-slaves (Part I, chapter 22) that Don Quijotedelivers a eulogy of one who acts as intermediary between lovers. Ithas been called the only passage in which the words of thegentle-hearted knight sound out of character.]
[Footnote 41: #cuando seguramente … nada más#,
when onehas a lover
(lo) _one certainly holds that opinion. Women never
defend men in general, they defend a particular man_.]
[Footnote 42: #La rabieta … palabra#,
the fit of temper thatcame on you, of the silent kind, such that you would not speak …
]
[Footnote 43: #un dedo manchado de tinta#; there appears to be in this scene a reminiscence of Beaumarchais'
Barbier de Séville
,
Act II, sc. II, where Bartholo discovers the secret letter-writing of Rosine by means of an ink-stained finger and a missing sheet of paper.]
[Footnote 44: #Si es más bueno#,
why, he's the kindest man.
]
[Footnote 45: #por# (
su
) #mal genio#.]
[Footnote 46: #para seguir la vida tan sola#;
sola
agrees, notwith
vida
, but with
yo
, the implied subject of
seguir
.]
[Footnote 47: #ningún# is used on account of the negative ideacontained in #eres muy niña para juzgar#, =
no puedes juzgar
.]
[Footnote 48: #acaso venga#; the subjunctive is used here in whatappears to be an independent clause; but in reality
acaso
=
esposible que
, and the subjunctive is due to the governing idea ofdoubt.]
[Footnote 49: #Cualquiera fía en tus negativas#,
who can trustyour denials?
The use of
cualquiera
with negative force aroseno doubt from the ironical sense so often present in Spanish exclamations.It does not appear to be treated adequately in the grammars, but isfrequent in conversational language; e.g.: "
A cualquier hora
ledigo yo a doña Lorenza todo eso" (=
nunca
; Quinteros,
La casa deGarcía
, I, 10) "
Cualquiera
sabe quién fue su padre"(=
nadie
; Santiago Rusiñol,
La alegría que pasa
, translationof Vital Aza, scene 7).]
[Footnote 50: #haya venido o no#,
whether he has already come ornot
.]
[Footnote 51: #lo diseco# =
lo disecaré
. The present tense isoften used for the future, in order to present the idea of futurity withgreater force.
The substitution is likely to occur in the principalclause of a future condition.]
[Footnote 52: #Muy cerca ha de andarle#,
must come very close toit
.]
[Footnote 53: #se tratará#, the future of probability.]
[Footnote 54: #perdía# =
perdería
. See page 4, note 3.
(Transcriber's note: Footnote 5)]
[Footnote 55: #todos los médicos les parecen pocos#,
they can'tget doctors enough
.]
[Footnote 56: #eso allá usted … Si la tiene#,
that is for you tosettle with your conscience. If you have one
.]
[Footnote 57: #se me sale siempre sin pensarlo#,
it always escapeswithout my thinking it over
.]
[Footnote 58: #Esta noche tiene para todos#,
everyone is beinghit tonight
.]
[Footnote 59: #Que si#,
whether or not
.]
[Footnote 60: #que, …, la encuentro muy bien#; according to Bello,a relative pronoun in the accusative case should not be repeatedin a pleonastic object pronoun, unless the two are some distanceapart. Such is the case here. See Bello-Cuervo, § 925.]
[Footnote 61: #ésta# is Marcela.]
[Footnote 62: Para no apurarse … en medio#,
there's nocause for worry, I suppose! And I shall have to take the straightestcourse (lit. 'the middle road').]
[Footnote 63: #Si como nació con faldas nace con pantalones#, if she had been born a man instead of a woman
. For vividness,
nace
is used instead of
hubiera nacido
.]
[Footnote 64: #habrás hecho#,
you must have done
.]
[Footnote 65: #¡Sópleme … ha entrado aire!# Freely,
fan me or Ishall faint
;
lit.
, 'blow on my eye, for I have caught cold froma draught'.]
[Footnote 66: #que me quiere más# (
de lo que puedo decir
).]
[Footnote 67: #Paso que daba … inspirado por él#,
every stepthat I took seemed to be by his will
.]
[Footnote 68: #¡El Señor nos coja confesados!# freely,
I hopewe are all prepared to die
.]
[Footnote 69: #el don Guillermo#; the use of the definite articlewith a Christian name is either playful and familiar, or, as here,depreciative.]
[Footnote 70: #De calle se llevaba a la gente#,
people flockedafter him in the street
.]
[Footnote 71: #no los descubriera#,
lest it should betraythem
.]
[Footnote 72: #de cada vez más largas#,
each one longer thanbefore
.]
[Footnote 73: #séalo ahora#, the neuter form (
lo
), because itrefers to the idea of goodness, not to the feminine noun subject.]
[Footnote 74: The second act takes place two days after thefirst.]
[Footnote 75: #no me importa que usted lo sepa#,
I don'tmind if you know it
.]
[Footnote 76: #tal día como hoy#,
on the day corresponding tothis
.]
[Footnote 77: #Tiene el pudor de su desgracia#,
their misfortuneshave not made them brazen
.]
[Footnote 78: #Y ellos conmigo#,
and they would do the sameto me
.]
[Footnote 79: #¿qué tal lleva usted …#,
how are you gettingalong with …?
]
[Footnote 80: #me está usted poniendo bueno#,
you are givingme a fine character
.]
[Footnote 81: #no por ello#,
not on that account
; note that
ello
does not refer to either noun just used, but is neuter andgeneral in meaning.]
[Footnote 82: #me pasó#,
what happened was
.]
[Footnote 83: #la ropa … secar#; the poet is Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer(1836-70), one of the best-known lyric writers of the 19th century,and the favorite author of the Quintero brothers. This line is the last of Rima LXXII
. In it the poet represents himself as listening to thesongs of three boatmen, one extolling Love, another Glory, and the thirdLiberty. They invite him to embark with them, but he replies: "I did solong ago; and my clothes are not yet dry" (from the experience).]
[Footnote 84: #que va para largo#,
which may take a long time
.]
[Footnote 85: #el árbol# is the tree of personal comfort andhappiness, which contributes nothing to the welfare of society in general,and is not concerned with the good or evil motives of others.]
[Footnote 86: #usted no pasa por movimiento mal hecho#, you willnot tolerate evil impulses (in others)
.]
[Footnote 87: #¿Por qué vino el hablar de estas cosas?#
how did wecome to speak of such things?
]
[Footnote 88: #habrá#, future of probability.]
[Footnote 89: #eso#, a very depreciative neuter,
thatcreature
.]
[Footnote 90: #ya ve usted … loca#,
you see what form my madnesstakes
.]
[Footnote 91: #Juegos Florales#. The
Floral Games
are literarycontests; the authors of the poems which have been awardedhonors receive at the hands of the Queen of the Games prizes,consisting of flowers, both natural and of precious metals.
Theceremony of the awards is made the occasion of an imposingfestival, whence the allusion in the text. The Floral Gamesoriginated in Toulouse in the days of the Troubadours, in 1324.They have been revived with brilliance of late years in Barcelonaand Valencia, and have spread thence to many other Spanishcities.]
[Footnote 92: #esperaba#, the subject is
yo
.]
[Footnote 93: #Que tires para arriba que tires para abajo#, nomatter what I do
.]
[Footnote 94: #Como que pensará usted#,
I suppose you think
.]
[Footnote 95: #dos#
criados
, not #gustos#.]
[Footnote 96: #es … servido#,
will make me forget myself someday
.]
[Footnote 97: #Pues más … tanto#,
we of this country have morewit, and don't brag so much about it
.]
[Footnote 98: #a todo ha de estar Tata#,
Tata must look aftereverything.
]
[Footnote 99: #¡Ya le daré yo a ese paisanaje!#
I'll settle thathabit of saying I'm from his part of the country
!]
[Footnote 100: #En mi vida# is an expression always understood asnegative, even when no negative word appears in the sentence. There areseveral other such expressions introduced by en
or
por
.]
[Footnote 101: #Lo que#,
how
.]
[Footnote 102: #se me va la cabeza#,
I am losing my mind
.]
[Footnote 103: #Casa con dos puertas, mala# (
es
) #deguardar#, an old Spanish proverb, used by Calderón as the title of anintrigue play.]
[Footnote 104: #a no contar con usted#,
unless we had hadyour assistance
.]
[Footnote 105: #En el moral, ni entro ni salgo#,
the ethical sideis no affair of mine
.]
[Footnote 106: #harán … nieblas de las montañas#,
difficultieswill melt away before you
; lit. 'you will make mists of mountains'.]
[Footnote 107:
Vox populi, vox Dei, universal report must be true
;lit. 'The voice of the people is the voice of God'.]
[Footnote 108: #Mientras más amigos, más claros#,
the betterfriends we are, the more frank we should be
.]
[Footnote 109: #Ahí se le fué la burra a su futuro suegro de usted.#
Compare the Uncle Remus idiom, "There's where he dropped his moneypus".]
[Footnote 110: #Lo de Clarines no es de ahora#,
Clarines'trouble is nothing new
.]
[Footnote 111: #No me gasten la pólvora en salvas#,
don't wastetime in greetings
;
me
is a dative of disadvantage, which canhardly be translated.]
[Footnote 112: #¿Qué tienes?—¡El contento de verte aquí!#
How areyou?—Happy at seeing you here!
]
[Footnote 113: #¡Si vieras!#
if you had seen
! "It is verycommon to use simple forms instead of compound, when speaking,with implied negation, of a past event." Bello-Cuervo, § 696.]
[Footnote 114: #ponen una valla entre la sociedad y yo#, that is,"prevent me from taking the place I wish in society." Note the nominativecase of
yo
, although it is the object of a preposition. Therule is that "if the form of one of two pronouns, or a noun anda pronoun, governed by
entre
is identical with that of thenominative and must precede the other, the second assumes thenominative form". Ramsey.]
[Footnote 115: #¿Y qué?#
and what of that?
]
[Footnote 116: #pasaron#,
are done with
.]
[Footnote 117: Yo haré … a la vez#,
I will soon try to haveyou believing and laughing at the same time
.]
[Footnote 118: #Hoy# is an adverb modifying #acaba#, not itssubject, as might be the case in English.]
[Footnote 119: #¡Dónde va a parar! ¡A saber …#,
What canshe be driving at? I should like to know …
]
[Footnote 120: #Como los dos … habláis mal#,
as both of youhave every reason to speak well of me, I feel sure that you are speakingill.
]
[Footnote 121: #Cosas … piedras#,
you have whims, O Cid, thatwould rouse a stone
. These lines are taken from a ballad(
romance
), no. 818 in Durán's large
Romancero general
. Theballad is not a very old one (it was first printed in Escobar's Romancero del Cid
, 1612); the language is an imitation, and a poorone, of medieval forms. The restoration of the Latin initial
f
forits Spanish develop