admire,
Pues
cuantos
viven
confiesan
Que
es
amor
una
pasión
Incapaz
de
resistencia.
Yo
no
soy
mármol,
si
bien
No
soy
yo
quien
me
gobierna;
Que
obedecen
á
Isabel
Mis
sentidos
y
potencias.
Cuando
esto
en
público
digo,
No
quiero
que
nadie
pueda
Contradecirme
el
casarme,
Pues
hoy
me
caso
con
ella.
Sed
testigos
que
le
doy
La mano.
CONDE
¿Qué furia es ésta?
DOÑA ANA
Loco se ha vuelto don Juan.2640
CONDE
¡Vive
Dios,
que
si
es
de
veras,
Que
antes
os
quite
la
vida
Que
permitir
tal
bajeza!
¡Hola!
Criados,
echad
Esta
mujer
hechicera
Por un corredor, matadla.
DON JUAN
Ninguno,
infames,
se
atreva;
Que le daré de estocadas.
CONDE
Un
hombre
de
vuestras
prendas
¡Quiere infamar su linaje! 2650
DON JUAN
¡Ay
Dios!
Su
bajeza
es
cierta,
Pues
calla
en
esta
ocasión.
Ya
no
es
posible
que
pueda
Ser más de lo que parece.
CONDE
¿Con
cien
mil
ducados
deja
Un
hombre
loco
mujer,
Que
me
casara
con
ella,
Si amor me hubiera tenido?
DOÑA MARÍA
Quedo,
Conde;
que
me
pesa
De
que
me
deis
ocasión
De hablar.
DON JUAN ( ap. )
¡Ay
Dios!
¡Si
ya
llega
Algún desengaño mío!
DOÑA MARÍA
No
está
la
boda
tan
hecha
Como
os
parece,
Señor;
Porque
falta
que
yo
quiera.
Para
igualar
a
don
Juan,
¿Bastaba
ser
vuestra
deuda
Y del duque de Medina?
CONDE
Bastaba, si verdad fuera.
DOÑA MARÍA
¿Quién
fué
la
dama
de
Ronda
Que
mató,
por
la
defensa
De
su
padre,
un
caballero,
Cuyo
perdón
se
concierta
Por vos, y que vos buscáis?
CONDE
Doña
María,
á
quien
deban
Respeto
cuantas
historias
Y hechos de mujeres cuentan.
DOÑA MARÍA
Pues
yo
soy
doña
María,
Que por andar encubierta...
DON JUAN
No
prosigas
relaciones,
Porque
son
personas
necias,
Que
en
noche
de
desposados
Hasta
las
doce
se
quedan.
Dame tu mano y tus brazos.
MARTÍN
Leonor,
á
escuras
nos
dejan.
Los padrinos son los novios.
DOÑA ANA
Justo
será
que
lo
sean
El Conde y doña Ana.
CONDE
Aquí
Puso
fin
á
la
comedia
Quien,
si
perdiere
este
pleito,
Apela
á
Mil
y
Quinientas.
Mil
y
quinientas
ha
escrito:
Bien es que perdón merezca.
NOTES
ACT I
a. Ronda. A city of about 20,000 in Southern Spain, founded by the Romansand occupied for many centuries by the Moors.
On account of its historyand its natural beauty it is one of the most interesting cities inSpain.
1. Es cosa... de risa, It is enough to make one die of laughter.
3. Lüisa, spelled with the dieresis for metrical reasons.
4. Narcisos. Now a common noun and written with a small letter. Inorigin the word is derived from the mythological character, Narcissus,the son of the river Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was insensibleto the charms of all the nymphs, who at last appealed to Nemesis forrevenge. She made him fall in love with his own image reflected in afountain; because he could not grasp it he longed for death and,according to Ovid, was metamorphosed into the flower which bears hisname. A century before Lope it had evidently not yet passed into suchcommon usage, for in the Celestina we read: "Por fe tengo que no eratan hermoso aquel gentil Narciso, que se enamoró de su propia figuracuando se vido en las aguas de la fuente." ( Novelistas Anteriores áCervantes, p. 25.)
8. consultas are reports or advice submitted to a ruler, hence the useof alteza.
10. entre otras partes. The Parisian edition of 1886, for no evidentreason, reads, entre otros partes.
12. el duque de Medina. Gaspar Alonzo de Guzmán, duque deMedina-Sidonia, was a relative of Olivares and head of the great houseof Guzmán of which the prime minister was a descendant through a youngerbranch. He was immensely wealthy and enjoyed high favor at court duringthe first years of the reign of Philip IV. Later, as governor ofAndalusia, he conceived the idea of establishing a separate kingdom, ashis brother-in-law, Juan de Braganza, had done in Portugal in 1640.
Hisplans were discovered and as punishment and humiliation he was compelledto challenge the king of Portugal to a duel for the aid the latter wasto give to the projected uprising in Andalusia.
He made the journey tothe Portuguese border only to find that Braganza had ignored hischallenge. Covered with ridicule by the affair he passed the rest of hislife in obscurity and disgrace.
At the time Lope de Vega was writing LaMoza de Cántaro he seems to have been seeking the favor of Olivares andtherefore made the leading character of the play a relative of thefavorite and the Duque de Medina-Sidonia.
16. Señora is now regularly written in such cases with a small letter,as well as similar titles hereafter encountered in the play.
17. Lindamente... vanidad, You know my weakness! You are trying toflatter me.
21. Sevilla, the metropolis of Andalusia and a city always noted for thebeauty of its women.
29. Éste. Supply papel as suggested by line 3.
35. quiere en la memoria de la muerte, etc., that is, after he has diedfor her.
After 40. Con hermoso, etc. The author evidently intends to make thesuitor write a wordy letter void of clear meaning, and that he isstriking a blow at the then popular literary affectation known as culteranismo is indicated beyond a doubt by the word culto in line43. A comparison of the passage with Cervantes'
celebrated quotationfrom Feliciano de Silva, "La razón de la sinrazón" is interesting. (See Don Quijote, Part I, Chap. I.) A possible translation of the letter isas follows: "With fair though stern, not sweet, yet placid countenance,lady mine, appearances deceiving you, there gazed at me last week yourdisdain, imbued with all benevolence and yet rigid, and withal itsbrilliancy not solicitous, (benevolence) which with celestial candorillumines your face."
44. ¿Habla de aciértame aquí? The imperative is used here as a nounafter the preposition and the verse is approximately equivalent to theexpression "Habla de alguna adivinanza aquí?"
54. ¿Qué nada te ha de agradar? Can nothing please you?
58. Yo no tengo de querer. Tener de is used here where we should nowexpect haber de or tener que.
62. Flandes. In the time of Lope de Vega Spain held the Netherlands andconstantly maintained a large force there.
64. Zerolo's edition has a comma instead of a period at the end of thisline. Either punctuation makes good sense.
66. que yo... aquí, for of all those who appear here I do not see oneto whom I should direct my favor.
70. si va á decir verdad, if the truth be told.
79. ansí, middle Spanish and archaic form of así. Cf. the French ainsi.
92. La primera necedad, etc., They say that the greatest folly is notthe one to be feared, but those which follow it seeking to undo it.
95. deshacella= deshacerla. In earlier Spanish verse the assimilationof the r of the infinitive is quite common.
107. Muchas se casan aprisa, etc. Compare the English proverb of similarpurport, "Marry in haste and repent at leisure."
121. dél= de él. A contraction no longer approved by the SpanishAcademy.
124. Pedro el Cruel (1334-1369) was proclaimed king of Castile atSeville in 1350 after the death of his father, Alphonso XI. He earlybecame infatuated with María de Padilla, but was made to marry againsthis will Blanche de Bourbon whom he immediately put aside. Pedro thenplunged into a career of crime seldom equaled in Spanish history.Several times he was dethroned but always succeeded in regaining thescepter. He was finally killed by his own brother, Henry of Trastamare,at Montiel. Pedro's meritorious works were his successful efforts tobreak down the feudal aristocracy and his encouragement of arts,commerce and industry.
133. Don Diego de noche y coche. The implication is that don Diego isone who would woo his lady love at night and under the cover of acarriage rather than in the more open and approved manner of a gentlemanof his rank. In spite of the brilliant example of the king, horsemanshipwas becoming a lost art and in a complaint of a member of the Cortes,addressed to the king, the subject is treated as follows: "The art ofhorsemanship is dying out, and those who ought to be mounted crowd, sixor eight of them together, in a coach, talking to wenches rather thanlearning how to ride. Very different gentlemen, indeed, will they growup who have all their youth been lolling about in coaches instead ofriding." (Martin Hume, The Court of Philip IV, p. 130.) There is alsoa flower called dondiego de noche, and the author may have intended tomake also a subtle play on words between this and the more suggestivemeaning.
138. De noche visiones. "Thoughts of him at night give me thenightmare!"
Stage directions: hábito de Santiago: The order of Santiago is one ofthe oldest and most distinguished of all the Spanish military orders. Itis said to have been approved by the Pope in 1175 and had during themiddle ages great military power. The right to confer it is now vestedin the crown of Spain. The badge is a red enamel cross, in the form of asword with a scallop-shell at the junction of the arms.
174. agora, archaic and poetic word, synonym of ahora which is ofsimilar origin. Hac hora > agora and ad horam > ahora.
180. primer licencia. The apocapation of the feminine of the adjective primero is not admissible in modern Spanish.
181. Duque, that is, the Duque de Medina. See v. 12 and note.
188. Lugar... deba, A place which is certainly its due.
192. la Plaza mentioned here is evidently the Plaza de la Ciudad, whichis the center of the ancient part of the city.
197. Sanlúcar (de Barrameda) is an important and interesting seaporttown at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. It was taken from the Moors in1264 and occupied a prominent position during the 15th and 16thcenturies. Columbus sailed from this point in 1498
on his third voyageto the New World. Lope makes Sanlúcar the scene of part of his NuevoMundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón and mentions it in a number ofhis other plays.
198. Le respondí, etc. Don Bernardo's reply was intended to revealdelicately to the lover that his suit was not favored by the Duke.
228. Aquí su mano soberbia... For an analogous situation compare Guillende Castro's las Mocedades del Cid and its French counterpart,Corneille's le Cid.
231. que tantas veces, etc., because an insult is renewed as many timesas he who receives it tells it to him who ignores it.
236. con cinco letras, that is, the five fingers of the hand which hadleft its imprint on his face.
245. á el afrentado. Not a little laxity in the observance of the rulefor the contraction of the preposition and the definite article is to benoted throughout the play.
252. It is to be observed in a number of instances in the text that theinitial exclamation and interrogation marks are often omitted beforeexclamations and interrogations if they follow other similarconstructions.
301. si sois servido, if you please.
310. La decid. Modern usage generally requires the object after theimperative in such a case as this, but the license may occur in poetry.
324. Desta= De esta.
337. quien. Translate in the plural. Concerning this doubtful usage wehave the following from one of the best known modern authorities: "En elsiglo XIV caía ya en desuso qui, por inútil duplicado de quien; ésteen el siglo XVI se creó un plural: quienes, que aunque calificado deinelegante por Ambrosio de Salazar en 1622, se generalizó, si bien aunhoy día se dice alguna vez 'los pocos ó muchos de quien ha tenido quevalerse.'"
(Menéndez
Pidal,
Manual
elemental
de
gramática
históricaespañola, p. 176.)
354. Y sobre seguro, fácil, And besides sure, easy. The assonance offinal unaccented i with final unaccented e is permissible.
362. Quien supo, etc., If anyone could determine to be yours there canbe nothing to put off your pleasure.
409. ¿Hay tal gracia de monjil? Is there anything so graceful inwidow's weeds? monjil, "mourning garments."
413. sugeto= sujeto.
441. el río. The Manzanares, a stream which rises in the Sierra deGuadarrama and flows by Madrid, emptying into the Jarama, which in turnflows into the Tajo a short distance east of Toledo.
In the eyes of the madrileños this stream assumes importance which its size scarcelymerits. Its banks have been the scene of festivities from the early daysof the city to the present time. In the time of Lope de Vega the banksof the Manzanares and its dry bed were, as a place for promenading, inthe same class as the Prado, the Plaza Mayor and the Calle Mayor, andduring the great heat of summer the populace of all classes soughtrefuge here. Lope makes frequent reference to the stream in many of hisworks.
477. Muriósele á una casada, A woman's husband died.
482. Y sin que, etc., And without fulfilling the obsequies ( asrequested). Manda, lit., "legacy, bequest"; but cumplir la manda,"to observe the religious rites (according to the will of thedeceased)."
484. vertiendo poleo, putting on airs. Poleo, "strutting gait,pompous style."
485. reverendo coche, elegant carriage. Reverendo, lit.,
"worthy ofreverence," but here fam., "worthy of a prelate."
Many of the higherclergy formerly lived in princely style.
499. Porque no vuelva el marido, Lest the husband might return.
519. variar, in Zerolo's edition, is varïar, as it should be in orderto fill out the verse.
521. De mi condición, etc. An interesting parallel to the idea of thispassage is found in the following from Voltaire: "Il m'a toujours paruévident que le violent Achille, l'épée nue, et ne se battant point,vingt héros dans la même attitude comme des personnages de tapisserie,Agamemnon, roi des rois, n'imposant à personnes, immobile dans letumulte, formeraient un spectacle assez semblable au cercle de la reineen cire colorée par Benoît."
("Art dramatique" in the DictionnairePhilosophique.)
522. Que me pudren, etc., That paintings vex me. Note peculiar senseof pudrir.
529. Susana. In the thirteenth chapter of Daniel is narrated the storyof Susanna, the beautiful wife of Joachim, of whom two old men, judgesduring the Babylonian captivity, were enamored.
They surprised her oneday in her bath in the garden and, because she repelled their advances,testified that they had found her with a young man. She was condemned todeath, but on the way to her execution Daniel intervened and by a cleverruse succeeded in convicting the two old men of bearing false witness.They were put to death and the innocence of Susanna proclaimed. Thestory has furnished a theme for many painters and from it many notableworks have been produced, of which several existed in the time of Lopede Vega. In the Obras Sueltas, vol. IV, p. 450, there is a sonnet, Áuna Tabla de Susana, which begins:
Tu
que
la
tabla
de
Susana
miras,
Si
del
retrato
la
verdad