following. See Ticknor, II,pp. 449-450, and on the auto
sacramental, II, pp. 348 sqq.; CasianoPellicer, Tratado
histórico sobre el origen y progresos delhistrionismo en
España, Madrid, 1804, pp. 18 sqq., 189 sqq., and for agood
account of the performance of the auto, 257 sqq. 136
9, 10. volver a las andadas, going back over our traces.
10, tit. III. Do ut des: One good turn deserves another, or Turnabout is fair play.
10, 15. parral has two meanings, either one of which would be in placehere. It is (1) a very large untrimmed
grape-vine, or (2) a number of parras, i. e. of grape-vines, trained over trellises to form an arbor.
10, 24. macarros, macaroon, differing from those we know by not beingnecessarily of almond meal, being rather
larger and rather darker incolor.
11, 3. rosetas, a Spanish popcorn, so called from the shapes taken bythe kernels at bursting. "Son granos de
maíz, tostados al fuego. Suelencolocarse, para ello, sobre
una plancha cualquiera de metal, y, así quese calientan,
saltan, adoptando la forma de masas blancas, con
estríasalgo semejantes a las de la rosa" ( Bonilla).
11, 6. vino de pulso, home-made wine, i. e. wine pressed by hand.
11, 7. al amor de la lumbre, taken exactly, means just near enough tothe fire to be well warmed, but not scorched;
trans., in the glow ofthe fire.
por Pascuas, on feast-days, on special occasions. The word Pascuaprimarily is the name of four greater feasts of
the church: Easter(Pascua de Resurrección, de Flores, or
Florida); Pentecost (Pascua deEspíritu Santo); Christmas
(Pascua de Navidad); and Epiphany (Pascua deReyes). The
plural stands first for the days between Christmas
andEpiphany. Secondarily, Pascua has come to mean any
three-day feast ofthe church; and in the plural, as here, any
season of more than usualrejoicing.
11, 9. rosco: pretzel: the more usual form is rosca.
11, 19. personas de campanillas. The usual positive form
of
theexpression
is
"personas
de
muchas
campanillas."
11, 23 sqq. Vuestra Merced, here Your Honor, is the courteous form ofaddress to one who has no special title, or
whose title is unknown tothe speaker; Vuestra Señoría,
here Your Worship: these two titles inthis book belong
exclusively
to
the
laity.
Vuestra
Reverencia,
YourReverence, is addressed indiscriminately to the more
distinguishedclergy; Vuestra Ilustrísima, Your Lordship,
belongs specially tobishops; Vuestra Paternidad was
originally the address 137 of thehumbler members of
religious orders to their priors and abbots and
othersuperiors. Translate, Your Reverence.
11, 26. subsidio, alcabala, frutos-civiles. Three of the very numeroustaxes exacted in Spain at the time: cf. note to
6, 28.—The subsidio was a tax on commerce or manufactures, here on the output of the mill;the alcabala
was a tax on sales, fixed at the time of the story at 14per
cent. of the amount involved; the frutos-civiles were the
taxlevied on income from real estate, royal grants, and
privileges ofjurisdiction.
11, 28 sqq. una poca hoja, una poca leña, una poca madera: this use of poco is not literary. The meaning is perfectly clear.
13, 8. Ser Supremo, the Supreme Being, the usual denomination of Godin the philosophic writing of the time
of the French Revolution.
Jovellanos. Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos or Jove-
Llanos, was born in1744, and died in 1811. He has been
called the most eminent Spaniard ofhis time; was
distinguished as a writer in economics and politics, andon
education; and as a poet. He took prominent part in public
life, wastwice exiled for his political views and his mode of
expressing them;and was minister of Justice, 1797. For a
good appreciation of his valuein literature, see E. Mérimée,
Etudes sur la Littérature Espagnole auXIXe Siècle—
Jovellanos. Revue Hispanique, vol. I, 1894, pp. 34-67.
13, 10. la señá Frasquita. Señá is a popular corruption of the word señora, used as in the present case to qualify one
rather above thelevel of the common, yet unable to claim
the conventional doña of thegentlewoman. Compare the
use of señor in the case of Juan López inChapters XVII and
XXIV, and the note on tío, 2, 16 above. Frasquita is one of several diminutives of Francisca ( Paca, Paquita, Frascuela, Francisquita); so la señá Frasquita is about equivalentto
"Mrs. Fanny" or "Mistress Fanny," the discounting quality of the señá being in English in the use of the given name. It
may besuggested, however, that it is rarely profitable to
force thetranslation of ordinary proper names.
13, 19. golilla, f. , a diminutive of gola, throat, is a high,stiff collar of cardboard, covered with black silk, over
or on which isworn a stiffstarched 138 ruff of white gauze
or tulle. The golilla was a very characteristic part of the
dress of Spanishofficers of the civil government, and is, as
here, used by metonymy,with change of gender, to stand
for their persons. It is still to beseen in a very few
ceremonial official costumes. A few hints of itsplace and
significance may be found in A. Morel-Fatio, Etudes
surl'Espagne, III, Paris, 1904, pp. 229-278: "La golille et l'habitmilitaire."
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 ofantiquities and a valuable library.
Since 1865 it has been in charge ofthe national monuments
of Spain.
14, 2. Franciscanos: the Franciscans, Gray Friars, Minorite Friars, amendicant order of preaching friars
founded by St. Francis of Assisi in1210.
14, 14. Niobe, Queen of Thebes, it will be remembered, had seven sonsand 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; theconstruction in reality goes a little deeper,
being equivalent to "delas (aquellas) de que hay"; i. e. one
of those Roman matrons of whichwe still find, or a Roman
matron, one of those of which, etc., thestress being on the characteristics, and their implied disappearanceexcept in
the Trastevere; not merely a Roman matron, whereof, etc.
14, 17. Trastévere (from trans Tiberim): the quarter of Rome lying onthe north bank of the Tiber west and
southwest of St. Peter's, at thefoot of the Janiculum hill. It
is of all the districts of Rome the oneleast invaded by the
stranger, and has preserved more than other partsof the city
a certain pure-blooded Roman individuality. It has a
dialectof its own.
15, 8. congrua here is the temporal income that must be possessed bycandidates for holy orders. The amount varies,
and is fixed by thesynods 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 andprivileges of each, see S. B. Smith,
Compendium Juris Canonici, NewYork, etc., 1890. 139
15, 15. Don Ventura Caro, born about 1742, died 1808.
Commanded Spanisharmy of the West Pyrenees in 1793-
94. In 1801 became Captain General ofValencia, and did
valuable service in restoring and maintaining order inthe
province. In 1808 he repulsed an attack of Marshal Moncey
on thecity of Valencia, forcing a French retreat.
Castillo Piñón, in French, Château Pignon, a strongly
fortifiedposition in the French Pyrenees at the northern end
of the valley ofRoncesvaux. It was stormed by the
Spaniards under Caro, June 6, 1793.See Jomini, Histoire
Critique et militaire des guerres de laRévolution, 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 greatestname in Spanish art after Velázquez,
Ribera, and Murillo. He was bornnear Saragossa in 1746,
and died at Bordeaux in 1828. He is best knownfor his
portraits, his cartoons of popular life and customs and of
theevents of the Peninsular war, and for his etchings. His
work may be seento advantage at the Prado and the
Academy, in Madrid, and at theEscorial. Among his
paintings at the Prado is a large portrait of thefamily of
King Charles IV, including the king himself and Queen
MariaLouisa, and illustrating admirably the costume of the
time—and, it maybe said, writing clear in the faces the
causes of the decay of Spain.
María Luisa. Maria Louisa Theresa, daughter of Philip
of Bourbon, Dukeof 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 downfallof Spain, and
especially for her relations with Manuel Godoy, Prince
ofthe Peace. See M. A. S. Hume, Modern Spain, New
York, 1900; chapters1-3.
16, 2. falda de medio paso, a very scant skirt, fashionable at about thetime of the story, and for some
years later. The name came from the factthat the wearer, in
dancing especially, was confined to the taking of avery
short step—a half-step. Falda de un paso solo explains
itself inview 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 HolyWeek, 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 forextreme absence of personal beauty in
men. The origin of the phrase Ihave 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
ofPicio to pez, pitch, and to the adjective píceo, suggest that theman was invented after the fact, and named from
his wax. For otherexpressions of the same kind, see Ramón
Caballero, Diccionario demodismos, frases y metáforas,
Madrid, 1898-1900.
18, 20. Quevedo. Francisco Gómez de Quevedo Villegas, born 1580, died1645; one of the greatest names of Spanish
Literature—essayist,satirist, poet, wit, politician. His life
and personality are not lessinteresting than his very varied
literary work. Consult E. Mérimée, Essai sur la vie et les
œuvres de Francisco de Quevedo, Paris,1886.
19, 9. broma. For a similar use, recall Hamlet's speech:
"a fellow ofinfinite jest," etc. (Act V, Scene I).
20, 4. palillos, originally drum-sticks, here and familiarly inAndalusia, castagnets ( castañuelas, postizas). Brisca and tute aretwo-handed games of cards popular in Spain; in
brisca three cards aredealt to each player, a trump is turned,
and as the play goes on thehands are kept full by drawing
from the pack; tute is a rather moredeveloped 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 anengineer, was something of an engineer.
21, 4. jaraiz, lagar. jaraiz is primarily the wine-press, lagar thewine-pit, where the must is preserved before the
drawing off into theskin or cask.
21, 8. reales. The real at par was worth about five cents.
It is nolonger coined, but is still a favorite unit for
reckoning in many partsof Spain, as the sou is here and
there in France. The coinage at thetime of our story was the
system renewed and simplified by King CharlesIII, about
1770. It comprised copper coins: maravedi 141 (34 tothe
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). Thepresent decimal system, with the unit one
peseta = 100 centimos wasintroduced in 1868. It is
modeled on the system of the Latin union.
22, 24. The reference throughout this passage is to Othello, thoughthere is no one passage in the play where
the qualities here suggestedare enumerated or directly
ascribed to the Moor; see, however,specially, Act II, Scene
3, Act III, Scenes 3 and 4, and the Acts IV andV. It has
been suggested, in view especially of line 25, that
Alarcónmay 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. Thisseems to me to come of
erroneous reading both of the lines of the playand the
passage here in the text.
23, 6. alpargatas are rough shoes or slippers of canvas, with hempensoles; the montera is a woolen peasant's cap
used in many provinces ofSpain, and varying in form and
color with the locality.
24, 16. grana is the English grain, familiar in English literature aslate as Milton; e. g. Moryson, Itinerary, III, 1, IV, 96 (1617): "TheSpaniards and Portugals bought Graine
for Scarlet Dye." Cf. thepresent English ingrain and
ingrained.
24, 22. Fernando VII, King of Spain, son of Charles IV
and Maria Louisaof Parma. He was born in 1784, became
king on the abdication of hisfather in 1808, was prisoner in
France until 1813, was restored to thethrone on the
expulsion from Spain of Joseph Bonaparte, and
reigneduntil his death in 1833. He was succeeded by his
daughter, Isabella II.
25, 8. Constitucionales de la de 1837. Constitutions were decreed inSpain in 1812, 1834, 1837, 1854 and 1869.
The Constitution of 1837 wasaccepted 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
muchless broad than the Cadiz Constitution 142 of 1812,
and thus whileit appeared reactionary and insufficient to
the older Radicals, itpleased the younger Liberals with
whom Alarcón cast in his lot when hefirst went into
politics.
25, 9. la, sc. constitución.
25, 14. deshollinador, a long-handled scraper used by chimney sweeps todislodge the soot.
25, 16, 17. The reference in these lines is to Alarcón's own publiccareer, and to his changes of political faith. He
began as arevolutionary, and with growing years and
discretion found himself inthe ranks of the moderate
conservatives, and a devoted royalist.
25, 30. las Castillas: the Castiles, Old and New Castile.
Madrid is inNew Castile, the central part of Spain,
reconquered from the Moors afterthe formation of the
kingdoms of Castile, Leon and Navarre.
26, 9. D. Eugenio de Zúñiga y Ponce de León. Spanish proper names whenwritten in full regularly include the
family name on both father's andmother's side. Thus D.
Eugenio's father was a Zúñiga, his mother a Poncede León.
Women, when they marry, usually retain their own family
name,adding the husband's with the copulative de; widows
sign their ownnames, usually with the addition viuda de....
Thus Juana Suárez on hermarriage to a Fernández becomes
Suárez de Fernández; as a widow, she isJuana Suárez viuda
de Fernández.
26, 19. desembozarse. The Spaniard usually wears his capa (cape orcloak) wrapped closely about the neck and
the lower part of the face;this is embozarse (59, 13).
Desembozarse is to throw back the cloakand leave the face
exposed. Compare embozo, 46, 28.
26, 19. vídose; from ver. "Han escrito buenos autores, y aun sueledecir el vulgo, en el pretérito perfecto, yo vide, él
vido, formasdesterradas ya del buen lenguaje" ( Gramática
de la Lengua Castellana,por La Real Academia Española,
ed. 1890, p. 139, note).
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 ephemeralexpressions for
gloves and especially for shoes and stockings are
notuncommon in English. 143
28, 2. se descubrían hasta los pies: bowed to the ground, hat in hand;uncovered and bowed to the ground.