The references are to page and line of the text.
1, 9.pícaros. This word, as a substantive here, and as an adjective elsewhere, may fairly be said to defy translation into English. In this place it has reference to the heroes of the so-called picaresque novels, a singularly Spanish manifestation of the best times of letters in Spain, whereof a belated type or imitation occasionally shows itself even to-day. Thepícarois an adventurer, a rogue, a clown; oftentimes a thief, almost always a swindler; regularly a good fellow of his kind, always telling his own story, and usually coming to some rather respectable end; and all this is suggested in the word. On the picaresque novel, see F. De Haan,An Outline of the History of the Picaresque Novel in Spain, The Hague and New York, 1903, and F. W. Chandler,Romances of Roguery, Part I, New York, 1899; also, David Hannay,The Later Renaissance, Edinburgh, 1898.
As an adjective, the word may mean variously: low, sly, immoral, naughty, mischievous, perverse, shameless; it may be a term of the harshest reprobation, or of the most affectionate reproof.
2, 16.tío. The Spanish uses of the word are not unlike those of our worduncle; hence some explanation is needed for its application to the miller, in whose case there can be no question of old age, neither of any pejorative adumbration, the two usual suggestions. I think it may be said Tío Lucas was Tío Lucas because he needed some appelation, and was not up toSeñor; also because of his friendly disposition. In29, 10 tía Josefa is evidently pejorative.
3, 12.las licencias necesarias. The censoring and licensing of books in Spain antedates printing by quite two hundred years. Provision was made for it by Alfonso el Sabio in theSiete Partidas(1256-1263). The function was gradually assumed by the Inquisition, after its establishment in 1480, first tacitly, and with the coöperationof the civil authorities, later, after 1640, independently. From 1550 on no book could be published or circulated in Spain without theaprobaciónand the other formalities whose sum constituted thelicencias necesarias. The general practice went out with the Inquisition, though the Church maintains its Index in Spain as elsewhere. It may be not out of place to remark that thelicencias, though doubtless irksome oftentimes to the author and publisher, are at present as useful to the student of literature in the matter of determining dates as is the baptismal certificate to the writer of biography. For various data, see Ticknor,History of Spanish Literature, vol. I, pp. 420 sqq.
3, 15.gracioso. Thegracioso, the "droll servant," is the essentially comic character of the Spanish classic drama, as the Clown and the Fool of the English. The first examples of thegraciosoare in two plays of Bartolomé Torres Naharro, and the type is constant from Lope de Vega on.
3, 18.romances de ciego: songs and ballads printed coarsely on loose sheets of paper, and sold about the streets of the larger Spanish towns by the blind beggars.
3, 21.D. Agustín Durán. A prominent Spanish man of letters, author, editor, and critic, of lasting influence and importance. Son of a court physician, he was born at Madrid in 1793, died 1862. HisRomancero General, here referred to, the standard collection of old Spanish songs and ballads, was published in two volumes of theBiblioteca de Autores Españoles(Madrid, Rivadeneyra), in 1849 and 1851, and has been kept in print ever since.
4, 21.Estebanillo González. The reference is to the closing words of theprólogoto the picaresque novelVida y Hechos de Estebanillo González, where the author addresses his reader: "Donde, después de haberla leído y héchote más cruces que si hubieras visto al demonio, la tendrás por digna y merecedora de haber salido a luz." Estebanillo González is published in the second volume ofNovelistas Posteriores a Cervantes, of theBiblioteca de Autores Españoles; the passage quoted is on page 286. Compare also De Haan, op. cit. p. 49; Chandler,op. cit., p. 243 sqq.
5, 3.después del de (180)4 y antes del de (180)8. Compare 7, 5: [p. 131]supongamos que el de 1805. As a matter of fact, no one of the years suggested (1804-1808) quite meets all the specifications, as the depositions referred to in5, 8 took place in 1806 and 1807; see the table in note to that line.
5, 4.Don Carlos IV de Borbón.Charles IV, King of Spain, born at Naples, 1748, succeeded his father, Charles III, in 1788, abdicated March 18th, 1808, died at Rome, 1819.
5, 8-9.
5, 13 sqq.Rívoli, village of Italy, near Verona, where Bonaparte defeated the Austrians, January 14, 1797.—Marengo, village 3 miles south-east of Alessandria in Piedmont. The battle of Marengo, fought June 14, 1800, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories and narrowest escapes.—las Pirámides; the battle of the Pyramids was fought July 21st, 1798.—Corona de Carlo Magno; Napoleon I was crowned emperor December 2d, 1804.
6, 2. The Spaniard is specially fond of parenthetical interjection of a votive kind, and rarely omits it in speaking of the dead. The phrase used here is frequent, though rather of the elaborate:¡Que santa gloria haya!often abbreviated in writing to¡q. s. g. h!is one of the frequent simpler forms. Parentheses of another, though analogoussort, areC. m. b.orC. p. b.—cuyas manos, cuyos pies beso—often inserted in letters after the name of some person; and there are others. The Latinabsit omen!may be called to mind in this connection.
6, 12.Gaceta.The Gazette, the official newspaper of Spain, was established in 1661. By decree of 12 April, 1791, all newspapers except this one were suppressed; and as it was not until after 1811 that the Cortes of Cadiz restored in some measure the liberty of the press, theGacetawas at the time of the story the only source of information accessible to Spaniards, except perhaps in one or two of the largest cities. Alarcón pokes a bit of fun at theGaceta, in the present passage; and Richard Ford, in the 1845 edition of hisHandbook for Travellers in Spain, vol. II, page 728, says of it: "Its pages for the last fifty years, the FrenchMoniteuronly excepted, are the greatest satire ever deliberately published by any people on itself."
6, 21.Inquisición.The Inquisition in Spain was suspended by a decree of Napoleon, December 4th, 1808. Ferdinand VII made various efforts to restore it, and it did not disappear finally until 1834. It had been established by a decree promulgated at Toledo in December, 1480, to commissioners appointed in September of that year, and its first court was held at Seville in 1481. See H. C. Lea,A History of the Inquisition in Spain, Vol. I, New York, 1906, pp. 160 sqq.; Ch. V. Langlois,L'inquisition d'après des travaux récents.
6, 23.fueros.Thefuerowas a special privilege or concession granted by the king to any particular province, town, or individual. Celebrated examples in Spanish national history are those granted to Aragon and to the Basque provinces. On thefuerosee Rafael Altamira y Crevea,Historia de España y de la Civilización Española, Barcelona, 1900 and 1902, vol. I, pp. 502 sqq. The wordfuerois also used to denote the body of municipal law, and as title of a collection of statutes, as in Fuero Juzgo, Fuero Real, etc.
6, 26.Corregidor.In the cities of Spain in which there was neither royal governor nor court, thecorregidorwas, under the old régime, the most important personage, filling at once the offices of judge, financial administrator, head of the council, and prosecutor. His authority, especially in the remote towns, was practically unlimited.
He was appointed directly by the king. With constitutional government, he has lost importance, and when found is simply analcalde, or mayor.
6, 28. The unabridged text here is: "y pagando diezmos, primicias, alcabalas, subsidios, mandas, y limosnas forzosas, rentas, rentillas, capitaciones, tercias reales, gabelas, frutos-civiles, y hasta cincuenta tributos más, cuya nomenclatura no viene a cuento ahora." The best account of all these taxes is to be found under the appropriate headings in Marcelino Martínez Alcubilla,Diccionario de la Administración española, fifth edition, Madrid, 1892. They were nearly all abolished by the reforms introduced by Mon in 1846.
7, 2.la;sc. historia.
8, 2.ciudad.On the subject of the locality, Alarcón tells us in the omitted portions of the preface already referred to, that the different ballads assign different places to the action; the one published in Durán'sRomancerobears the titleEl Molinero de Arcos, and the scene is laid at Arcos de la Frontera; another, aromance de ciegothis, puts it at Jerez de la Frontera, as does also a third, repeated to Alarcón by Hartzenbusch; and he says that the peasant folk of Estremadura, among whom also the story is current, locate the action at Plasencia, Cáceres, and other towns of that province. He concludes, after having told us that Repela's version mentions no names: "En tal situación, y considerando que Repela nació, vivió y murió en la provincia de Granada; que su versión parece la auténtica y fidedigna, y que aquella es la tierra que mejor conocemos nosotros, nos hemos tomado la licencia de figurar que sucedió el caso en una ciudad, que no nombremos, del antiguo reino granadino."
Bonilla, in the article referred to in the introduction to this book, publishes still another ballad which begins "En cierto lugar de España," and makes no nearer reference to the place.
Enough has been said to make it clear that the story is widely known in various parts of Spain, as part of local rhyme; and, indeed, we have Alarcón's word in his preface, that this is so; we may properly make an effort towards a nearer identification of the place he had in his mind when he wrote. To this end, compare with what has just been said the paragraph beginning with line 18 of page 24,remembering that Alarcón was born in Guadix; and, read in connection with this last-named passage, the following, taken from page 273 ofDe Madrid a Nápoles: "Guadix fue una de las más importantes colonias de los romanos; después, en poder de los moros, llegó a ser hasta capital de un reino; verificada su reconquista por los Reyes Católicos, aún conservó durante tres siglos sus aires señoriles, y allá por el año de 8, cuando la invasión francesa, los graves señores que eran regidores perpetuos vestían sendas capas de grana, ceñían espadín y se cubrían con sombrero de tres picos.—¡Yo he alcanzado a conocer esta vestimenta de mi abuelo, que se conservaba en mi casa como una reliquia, y que nosotros, los hijos de 1833, irreverentes a fuer de despreocupados, dedicamos a mil profanaciones en nuestros juegos infantiles!" Wherefrom we may safely conclude, without pushing matters at all to extremes, that it was Guadix that surely furnished most of the local coloring for our story.
8, 5.día de precepto.Holy days of obligation are certain days independent of Sundays and feasts that may fall on them, on which it is required to hear mass, and to abstain from servile work. Those universally observed are: The Circumcision of Our Lord (January 1st); Ascension Day (forty days after Easter); the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (15th August); All Saints' Day (1st November); the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas Day); and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (8th December); in Spain there are numerous others.
8, 5. The meals of the Spanish household order as indicated here are thealmuerzo, breakfast;comida, dinner;cena, supper. Thechocolateof line 11 is the irregular luncheon more generally calledmerienda. The more usual arrangement in the household economy of the larger cities of Spain to-day includes thedesayunoat rising, usually simply a cup of chocolate;almuerzo, the second breakfast, or luncheon, at from ten o'clock to one; themerienda, if taken, after the siesta, at four or five o'clock; and thecomidaat eight or after in the evening. This latecomidais also sometimes calledcena; though often the realcenais served, a very late supper. In view of this rather formidable list, it should be said that the Spaniard generally is not a heavy eater, and that he is usually more than common sober in the matter of drinking.
8, 10.Rosario.The saying of the prayers of the Rosary is an entirely private devotion, and as such may be done at any hour (compare117, 14); the present passage would indicate that twilight was the usual season chosen to this use by the people of the Ciudad.
8, 12.tertulia.This word is almost as difficult to translate aspícaro, though quite in another way. Atertuliais a social gathering, of regular recurrence, for conversation or other amusement, very informal in its character, and laying the very smallest amount of social responsibility on the host. There is usually also a large measure of uniformity in the personnel of the attendance. In short, the word covers the ground from the afternoon meeting of friends for gossip in a Madrid bookshop, to the reception day of an embassador. Party, reception, gathering, club, conversazione, levee, are some of the words used frequently in translation; but no one of them quite covers the whole ground, which is perhaps not surprising, as the thing in itself is peculiarly Spanish.
8, 14.Ánimas.Seven o'clock in the evening, when theDe profundisis recited for the souls of the dead.
8, 16.guisado, "cooked,"pp.ofguisar, used as substantive, and by antonomasia for stew, fricassee.
9, 4.entremés, sainete, auto sacramental.Theentremésis a very short dramatic interlude of very light character, rarely more than a few minutes in the acting, which was performed between the acts of the heavier plays: thesainete(dim.of saín: the tit-bit—bit of brain or flesh from the quarry, given the hawk by the falconer) was a similar postlude. The latter name has been generalized in Spanish and French literature (Frenchla saynète), to mean a very short comedy or farce, with two or at most three or four characters. Theauto sacramentalwas a religious play often of allegorical or mystical character, written for the feast of Corpus Christi, and performed under the auspices of the church on that day or the days immediately following. See Ticknor, II, pp. 449-450, and on theauto sacramental, II, pp. 348 sqq.; Casiano Pellicer,Tratado histórico sobre el origen y progresos del histrionismo en España, Madrid, 1804, pp. 18 sqq., 189 sqq., and for a good account of the performance of theauto, 257 sqq.
9, 10.volver á las andadas,going back over our traces.
10,tit.III.Do ut des:One good turn deserves another, orTurn about is fair play.
10, 15.parralhas two meanings, either one of which would be in place here. It is (1) a very large untrimmed grape-vine, or (2) a number ofparras, i. e. of grape-vines, trained over trellises to form an arbor.
10, 24.macarros,macaroon, differing from those we know by not being necessarily of almond meal, being rather larger and rather darker in color.
11, 3.rosetas, a Spanish popcorn, so called from the shapes taken by the kernels at bursting. "Son granos de maíz, tostados al fuego. Suelen colocarse, para ello, sobre una plancha cualquiera de metal, y, así que se calientan, saltan, adoptando la forma de masas blancas, con estrías algo 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 to the fire to be well warmed, but not scorched; trans.,in the glow of the fire.
por Pascuas,on feast-days,on special occasions. The word Pascua primarily is the name of four greater feasts of the church: Easter (Pascua de Resurrección, de Flores, or Florida); Pentecost (Pascua de Espíritu Santo); Christmas (Pascua de Navidad); and Epiphany (Pascua de Reyes). The plural stands first for the days between Christmas and Epiphany. Secondarily,Pascuahas come to mean any three-day feast of the church; and in the plural, as here, any season of more than usual rejoicing.
11, 9.rosco:pretzel: the more usual form isrosca.
11, 19.personas de campanillas. The usual positive form of the expression is "personas de muchas campanillas."
11, 23 sqq.Vuestra Merced, hereYour Honor, is the courteous form of address to one who has no special title, or whose title is unknown to the speaker;Vuestra Señoría, hereYour Worship: these two titles in this book belong exclusively to the laity.Vuestra Reverencia,Your Reverence, is addressed indiscriminately to the more distinguished clergy;Vuestra Ilustrísima,Your Lordship, belongs specially to bishops;Vuestra Paternidadwas originally the addressof the humbler members of religious orders to their priors and abbots and other superiors. Translate,Your Reverence.
11, 26.subsidio, alcabala, frutos-civiles.Three of the very numerous taxes exacted in Spain at the time:cf.note to6, 28.—Thesubsidiowas a tax on commerce or manufactures, here on the output of the mill; thealcabalawas a tax on sales, fixed at the time of the story at 14 per cent. of the amount involved; thefrutos-civileswere the tax levied on income from real estate, royal grants, and privileges of jurisdiction.
11, 28 sqq.una poca hoja, una poca leña, una poca madera: this use ofpocois not literary. The meaning is perfectly clear.
13, 8.Ser Supremo, theSupreme Being, the usual denomination of God in the philosophic writing of the time of the French Revolution.
Jovellanos.Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos or Jove-Llanos, was born in 1744, and died in 1811. He has been called the most eminent Spaniard of his time; was distinguished as a writer in economics and politics, and on education; and as a poet. He took prominent part in public life, was twice exiled for his political views and his mode of expressing them; and was minister of Justice, 1797. For a good appreciation of his value in literature, see E. Mérimée,Etudes sur la Littérature Espagnole au XIXeSiècle—Jovellanos. Revue Hispanique, vol. I, 1894, pp. 34-67.
13, 10.la señá Frasquita.Señáis a popular corruption of the wordseñora, used as in the present case to qualify one rather above the level of the common, yet unable to claim the conventionaldoñaof the gentlewoman. Compare the use ofseñorin the case of Juan López in Chapters XVII and XXIV, and the note ontío,2, 16 above.Frasquitais one of several diminutives of Francisca (Paca,Paquita,Frascuela,Francisquita); sola señá Frasquitais about equivalent to "Mrs. Fanny" or "Mistress Fanny," the discounting quality of theseñábeing in English in the use of the given name. It may be suggested, however, that it is rarely profitable to force the translation of ordinary proper names.
13, 19.golilla,f., a diminutive ofgola,throat, is a high, stiff collar of cardboard, covered with black silk, over or on which is worn a stiffstarchedruff of white gauze or tulle. Thegolillawas 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 theque, althoughlasprecedes; 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, ora Roman matron, one of those of which, etc., the stress being on the characteristics, and their implied disappearance except in the Trastevere; not merely aRoman matron, whereof, etc.
14, 17.Trastévere(fromtrans 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.congruahere 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 aresubdiaconatus,diaconatus,presbyteratus. On the functions and privileges of each, see S. B. Smith,Compendium Juris Canonici, New York, etc., 1890.
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 soloexplains 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 theGloria in Excelsis, resumed after its suspension during Lent.
17, 1.Más feo que Piciois 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 topez, pitch, and to the adjectivepíceo, 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 œuvres 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, originallydrum-sticks, here and familiarly in Andalusia,castagnets(castañuelas,postizas).Briscaandtuteare two-handed games of cards popular in Spain; inbriscathree 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;tuteis a rather more developed game of the same kind, similar in essentials to sixty-six.
20, 6.el que;sc. resultadoin 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.jaraizis primarily the wine-press,lagarthe wine-pit, where the must is preserved before the drawing off into the skin or cask.
21, 8.reales.Therealat 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 thesouis 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(34 to thereal);ochavo,cuarto,dos cuartos, worth respectively two, four, and eightmaravedis; silver coins:real,dos reales,peseta(fourreales);medio duro(tenreales);duro(twentyreales); and gold coins:duro,dos duros,doblón(fourduros);media onzaandonza, (eight and sixteendurosrespectively). The present decimal system, with the unit onepeseta= 100centimoswas 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.alpargatasare rough shoes or slippers of canvas, with hempen soles; themonterais a woolen peasant's cap used in many provinces of Spain, and varying in form and color with the locality.
24, 16.granais the Englishgrain, familiar in English literature as late as Milton; e. g. Moryson,Itinerary, III, 1, IV, 96 (1617): "The Spaniards and Portugals boughtGrainefor Scarlet Dye." Cf. the present Englishingrainandingrained.
24, 18.Cf.note to8, 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 Constitutionof 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 copulativede; widows sign their own names, usually with the additionviuda 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 hiscapa(cape or cloak) wrapped closely about the neck and the lower part of the face; this isembozarse(59, 13).Desembozarseis to throw back the cloak and leave the face exposed. Compareembozo,46, 28.
26, 19.vídose; fromver. "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 wordquiroteca—etymologicallyhand-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.
28, 2.se descubrían hasta los pies:bowed to the ground, hat in hand; uncovered and bowed to the ground.
30, 6.estaba subido.Subidois here an adjective in connection withestar,—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 in30, 14,estoy agarrado, and32,26,estoy subido.
31, 3. Note the pun onmono"monkey," andmono"pretty."
32, 9.puede [ser] que: Cf. Frenchpeut-être que,il se peut que.
32, 15.pedazo de bárbaro:you wild man. Compare with this use ofpedazothe French use ofespèce:espèce de vaurien,espèce de barbare, etc., andespèce de type.
33, 5.ramblilla, diminutive oframbla, 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;primerois an adverb.
35, 25.Pamplonaor 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 defendersin 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, in50, 6, and elsewhere; so alsocalavera,45, 25,111, 11, andespía,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.Calaverais given as masculine in the transferred sense by the Academy dictionary, but not by Tolhausen;bestiais exclusively feminine in both. The conclusion is clear, though it may be tempered by the consideration thatbestiain 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 asbestia, or perhaps better, as a careless use ofunby the unlettered Garduña;un ave, p. 60, is analogical toel ave, a regular form; so alsoun 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 wordPurísimato theAve Maria gratia plenaof 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.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 calledderretir 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." SeeButler's Catechism, lessons XX and XXI.
42, 7. Thediezmo(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.
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 aceiteis 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, anddijo 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 alsocomer 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; (acollegiate chaptermay 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 theCanónigo Doctoral, the advocate and man of affairs, who must always be a doctor of canon law, and theCanónigo lectoral, a doctor or licentiate in theology, who expounds the Scriptures. Thewordmagistralhas other special meanings which do not concern us here.
46, 29.Predicador de Oficio, theMagistral;Confesor de la Catedral; thePenitenciario.
48, 6 sqq. Compare with this chapter the conversations of Mr. Nupkins in chapters XXIV and XXV ofPickwick 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-fashionedvelón de Lucenawas a tall brass affair, with a number of wicks fitted into projecting beak-like receptacles for the oil.
48, 22.a lo que.Lo quehere =what; the prepositional force falls on theque, thoughloprecedes.That is what I was coming to, what I was getting at.In form the construction is attracted fromes 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 to17, 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 also84, 18,cuando ha ido,when she has gone=since she has gone.
50, 27.Pósito Real,Pósito Pío. Thepósitowas the public granary, whether national or municipal, to which regular contributions were due by law. Thepósito realwas storehouse of forage for the army, the royal stables, etc.; thepósito píoa 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;bocachais really a bell-muzzledtrabuco.
56, 25.rúbrica. Therúbricais the characteristic flourish that accompanies almost every Spanish signature; it has always been regarded as highly important as an attest of genuineness, much as the seal in other countries. Sofirma y rúbricawould be practically equivalent tohand and seal.
57, 5.con más pelos y señales:With more hairs and moles; i. e., "in greater detail."
57, 18.¡Qué burra ni qué demontre!What the deuce do you want with a burra!
60, 6.pajarraco. The suffixaco(more usuallyajooracho) suggests at once large size and ill-favoredness—hideousness.
62,tit.XVII.Alcalde de Monterilla. Themonterillais a small cloth cap worn by peasants. Its use here is to denote a person whose only distinction is his office, as we speak of a beggar on horseback. A "jay-alcalde" would be a fairly accurate rendering of the idea.
64, 25.de profundis: The first words of the vulgate version of the 129 (130th) Psalm,De profundis clamavi ad te Domine,etc., used in the Catholic Church as a prayer for the souls of the dead.
64, 29.pro. This word is now more usually masculine.
66,tit.XIX.Voces clamantes in deserto.Voices crying in the wilderness; compare Matthew iii, 3, Isaiah xl, 3.
66, 1.que soy de Archena. Archena is a town of the old kingdom of Murcia, on the Segura, about sixteen miles northwest of Murcia. Its introduction here by Uncle Lucas has only the significance of native local pride. Compare the expression current in the United States at the present day: "I'm from Missouri; I want to be shown." For the rest of the line and for a speech analogous in spirit, see Don Quijote's outbreak in Chapter XVII of the Second part: "¿leoncitos a mí?¿a mí leoncitos, y a tales horas?" etc.
69, 7.deliberada y voluntariamente: note the omission of the adverbial suffix. Cf.despertar y vestirse,87, 9.
70, 12.había, impersonal, as proved bycolgadasfollowing.Colgadas, adjective-participle,hanging.
70, 20.reo en capilla. Persons under death-sentence in Spain have the regular attendance of priests, and are confined in a cell specially arranged for religious services, whence the namecapilla. Thehopais a black cassock or robe worn by the criminal at execution.
79, 9.¡Santos y Santas!Saints and Saintesses, though effective, is scarcely English: "male and female saints" obviously will not do. We are constrained to twist the text a bit and translate:Saints of heaven!or better,Saints and angels of heaven!
79, 12.a mí ¿qué?What is it to me?What is that to me?What do I care?
80, 3.cachorrillos. Thecachorrillois a very small pocket-pistol, something on the bulldog order. The name is descriptive, being a diminutive ofcachorro, "puppy."
81, 22.esta es la más negra: elliptical construction; sc.cosa.
82, 10.maula. The word is regularly feminine. The short form of the article here is Garduña's carelessness of speech.
82, 15.talonazois a backward kick or dig with the heel;puntapiéa forward kick with the toe.
83, 17.lo que te dices, trans.:what you are saying. The reflexive pronoun is used colloquially as implying the suggestion of astonishment and warning in the hearer, impertinence in the (first) speaker. [p. 150] Syntactically it seems simply expletive, as also inse anda,57, 19, and elsewhere (sp.105, 30). Inandarsethe influence ofirseis apparent.
86, 5.si será, si será: for classification of uses ofsi, cf. vocabulary.
86, 19.un alfiler de a ochavo.A farthing pin.The prepositiondereally qualifies the distributive expressiona ochavowhich itself stands for "los que se venden" or "se compran a ochavo el uno," or some equivalent phrase.
87, 2.mona. Cf. the GermanAffe, in like sense.
87, 14.téngalas; sc.noches.
88, 3.esta su casa. The Spanish form of courtesy. A welcome visitor is always inhis own house.
89, 4. The expletive use of the name of the Virgin, as of others in Spanish, is well known; it may be general or with some suggestion of personal attribute, as thePurísimaof38, 20; or it may be, as here, with reference to some particular image or shrine. The same thing is true of the use of Mary as a given name in baptism; and the curious Spanish names Carmen, Dolores, Concepción, Pilar and so on, are simply the shortened form of María del Carmen, María de los Dolores, etc.
89, 19.bueno, as in the vocabulary, orhe is in a pretty fix. Cf. use ofbueno, "well," "healthy."
89, 21.Pardo, a royal country seat on the Manzanares, about six miles from Madrid. It was built by Charles I (Charles V), increased by Charles III, and was long a favorite shooting-box, with extensive preserves.
89, 24.Pedro el Cruel. Pedro I, King of Castile and Leon, born about 1334, succeeded his father, Alfonso XI, in 1350; killed by his half-brother, Henry of Trastamara, in 1369; called also Pedro el Justiciero. Intimately associated in history with the Black Prince, John of Gaunt, and Bertrand Duguesclin.
91, 4.que venga a preguntar:should it come to ask. The subjunctive may be taken as a condensed conditional construction, or as characteristic; in either case it is a subjunctive of result:if so be it should come,in case it should come, orshould it be of such a kind as to come.
91, 8, 9.¡caza mayor!—¡mayúscula!big game!—game with a big G.!
91, 28.¡Guarda, Pablo!Expression denoting at once surprise and the recognition of need for caution. Translate,Hold on, fellows!Easy there!Go slow, Johnny!or something of the sort.
95, 17.albarca.The more usual form of the word isabarca. It is the roughest kind of a sandal, a simple rawhide sole, with straps covering two of the toes and fastening about the instep and ankle. Theabarcais very old in Spain: it is mentioned in the General Chronicle of Alfonso the Learned, ed. 1541, folio cclxii verso, and at least one King of Navarre, Sancho Abarca (905-927), had his surname from the use of it among his followers.