[Footnote 1: #A quien ... comedia.# In spite of the apparent
meaning of these words, the character of doña Clarines was not
drawn from any one person, to whom the authors were introduced
by their boyhood friend, Fr. Bravo Ruiz. What he contributed
was the name, taken from a certain shrine consecrated to _La Virgen de
los Clarines_. The authors appropriated to their own ends this hitherto
unknown attribute of the Virgin. The combination of bluntness and nobility
which 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 other
plays, such as _El niño prodigio, La dicha ajena, El amor a oscuras_,
and _Los leales_.]
[Footnote 3: #Pos, señó, güeno está#, = _pues, señor, bueno
está._ Escopeta uses the pronunciation of southern Spain, where
he was born. A similar manner of speaking is also general
among the lower classes in many parts of Spanish America.
Many of the comedies of the Quinteros are written entirely in
the Andalusian speech, but in this play Escopeta is the only
character who employs it. The equivalent Castilian forms will
all be found in the Vocabulary.]
[Footnote 4: #¿Qué hay con Tata?# _What do you want of Tata?_]
[Footnote 5: #era# = _sería_; the imperfect indicative often
replaces the conditional in the main clause of a condition. It conveys
greater vividness.]
[Footnote 6: #¿No he de saberlo?# As so often in Spanish
conversation, the negative question is equivalent to a positive
affirmation. Translate: _How could I help knowing it?_ or _Of
course 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 ask
only for the sake of asking_.]
[Footnote 9: #como quien dice#, _so to speak_.]
[Footnote 10: #que te agradezco#; supply _quiero decir_ before
que.]
[Footnote 11: #Todo está en todo#, _one can find anything
anywhere_.]
[Footnote 12: #¿Te quedan gajes, además de la titular?# _Do you get
any fees, beside your salary as town physician?_ It is customary for
Spanish municipalities to pay a doctor a certain sum by the
year, in return for which he is bound to treat gratis residents
who desire it.]
[Footnote 13: #dime con quien andas, te diré quién eres.# A
well-known proverb: _A man is known by the company he keeps_. Doña
Clarines means that Basilio's friend is not likely to prove of better
calibre than himself.]
[Footnote 14: #seguro está ... salir#, _it is certain that she will
insult him and send him flying. "Seguro está que_, vale tanto
como _es seguro que no_," says Bello (_Gramática_, 14th ed.,
§ 1141). In the present case, the expressed negative and the one
understood cancel each other, giving an affirmative. The construction
is based on irony, like so many Castilian idioms. See also
Hanssen, _Gramática histórica_, § 644.]
[Footnote 15: #quedarse con el día y la noche#, _to give away all
she has_; lit., "to retain (only) night and day".]
[Footnote 16: #¡Si yo no hago un sueño de dos horas!# _I can't
sleep two hours at a time!_]
[Footnote 17: #hay para no dormir#, _there's cause for losing
sleep_.]
[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 to
interject some phrase of this kind when the name of a deceased
friend 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 with
the 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 for
that_.]
[Footnote 25: #Daría# and #Crispín# are types of the uneducated
but racy Spanish peasant, such as the Quinteros take especial delight in
depicting. _Encarna_ of _La zagala_, _Quintica_ of _Mundo,
mundillo ..._ and _Lucío_ of _El genio alegre_ are the most
important of the spirited figures of country youths and maidens which
appear 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 make
him enter)_.]
[Footnote 30: #En no distrayéndola#, _provided he does not distract
you_.]
[Footnote 31: #No es porque sea mi prima#, _I don't say it
because 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 it
with me printed_.]
[Footnote 34: #¿No había e contestá?# _Of course he answered_.]
[Footnote 35: #el que tiene por qué callar#, _he who had best be
silent_.]
[Footnote 36: #¡To será que no duerma en mi cama!# _I
never shall get to bed after all!_]
[Footnote 37: #lo que aquí se guisa#, _what we are going to
discuss 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 the
girl opposite, after seeing her three days._]
[Footnote 40: #que elogiaba mucho don Quijote#; it is in the
Adventure of the Galley-slaves (Part I, chapter 22) that Don Quijote
delivers a eulogy of one who acts as intermediary between lovers. It
has been called the only passage in which the words of the
gentle-hearted knight sound out of character.]
[Footnote 41: #cuando seguramente ... nada más#, _when one
has 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 that
came 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, not
with _vida_, but with _yo_, the implied subject of _seguir_.]
[Footnote 47: #ningún# is used on account of the negative idea
contained in #eres muy niña para juzgar#, = _no puedes juzgar_.]
[Footnote 48: #acaso venga#; the subjunctive is used here in what
appears to be an independent clause; but in reality _acaso_ = _es
posible que_, and the subjunctive is due to the governing idea of
doubt.]
[Footnote 49: #Cualquiera fía en tus negativas#, _who can trust
your denials?_ The use of _cualquiera_ with negative force arose
no doubt from the ironical sense so often present in Spanish exclamations.
It does not appear to be treated adequately in the grammars, but is
frequent in conversational language; e.g.: "_A cualquier hora_ le
digo yo a doña Lorenza todo eso" (= _nunca_; Quinteros, _La casa de
García_, I, 10) "_Cualquiera_ sabe quién fue su padre"
(= _nadie_; Santiago Rusiñol, _La alegría que pasa_, translation
of Vital Aza, scene 7).]
[Footnote 50: #haya venido o no#, _whether he has already come or
not_.]
[Footnote 51: #lo diseco# = _lo disecaré_. The present tense is
often used for the future, in order to present the idea of futurity with
greater force. The substitution is likely to occur in the principal
clause of a future condition.]
[Footnote 52: #Muy cerca ha de andarle#, _must come very close to
it_.]
[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't
get doctors enough_.]
[Footnote 56: #eso allá usted ... Si la tiene#, _that is for you to
settle with your conscience. If you have one_.]
[Footnote 57: #se me sale siempre sin pensarlo#, _it always escapes
without my thinking it over_.]
[Footnote 58: #Esta noche tiene para todos#, _everyone is being
hit 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 repeated
in a pleonastic object pronoun, unless the two are some distance
apart. Such is the case here. See Bello-Cuervo, § 925.]
[Footnote 61: #ésta# is Marcela.]
[Footnote 62: Para no apurarse ... en medio#, _there's no
cause for worry, I suppose! And I shall have to take the straightest
course_ (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 I
shall faint_; _lit._, 'blow on my eye, for I have caught cold from
a draught'.]
[Footnote 66: #que me quiere más# (_de lo que puedo decir_).]
[Footnote 67: #Paso que daba ... inspirado por él#, _every step
that I took seemed to be by his will_.]
[Footnote 68: #¡El Señor nos coja confesados!# freely, _I hope
we are all prepared to die_.]
[Footnote 69: #el don Guillermo#; the use of the definite article
with a Christian name is either playful and familiar, or, as here,
depreciative.]
[Footnote 70: #De calle se llevaba a la gente#, _people flocked
after him in the street_.]
[Footnote 71: #no los descubriera#, _lest it should betray
them_.]
[Footnote 72: #de cada vez más largas#, _each one longer than
before_.]
[Footnote 73: #séalo ahora#, the neuter form (_lo_), because it
refers to the idea of goodness, not to the feminine noun subject.]
[Footnote 74: The second act takes place two days after the
first.]
[Footnote 75: #no me importa que usted lo sepa#, _I don't
mind if you know it_.]
[Footnote 76: #tal día como hoy#, _on the day corresponding to
this_.]
[Footnote 77: #Tiene el pudor de su desgracia#, _their misfortunes
have not made them brazen_.]
[Footnote 78: #Y ellos conmigo#, _and they would do the same
to me_.]
[Footnote 79: #¿qué tal lleva usted ...#, _how are you getting
along with ...?_]
[Footnote 80: #me está usted poniendo bueno#, _you are giving
me 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 and
general 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 the
songs of three boatmen, one extolling Love, another Glory, and the third
Liberty. They invite him to embark with them, but he replies: "I did so
long 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 and
happiness, 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 will
not tolerate evil impulses (in others)_.]
[Footnote 87: #¿Por qué vino el hablar de estas cosas?# _how did we
come to speak of such things?_]
[Footnote 88: #habrá#, future of probability.]
[Footnote 89: #eso#, a very depreciative neuter, _that
creature_.]
[Footnote 90: #ya ve usted ... loca#, _you see what form my madness
takes_.]
[Footnote 91: #Juegos Florales#. The _Floral Games_ are literary
contests; the authors of the poems which have been awarded
honors receive at the hands of the Queen of the Games prizes,
consisting of flowers, both natural and of precious metals. The
ceremony of the awards is made the occasion of an imposing
festival, whence the allusion in the text. The Floral Games
originated in Toulouse in the days of the Troubadours, in 1324.
They have been revived with brilliance of late years in Barcelona
and Valencia, and have spread thence to many other Spanish
cities.]
[Footnote 92: #esperaba#, the subject is _yo_.]
[Footnote 93: #Que tires para arriba que tires para abajo#, _no
matter 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 some
day_.]
[Footnote 97: #Pues más ... tanto#, _we of this country have more
wit, and don't brag so much about it_.]
[Footnote 98: #a todo ha de estar Tata#, _Tata must look after
everything._]
[Footnote 99: #¡Ya le daré yo a ese paisanaje!# _I'll settle that
habit of saying I'm from his part of the country_!]
[Footnote 100: #En mi vida# is an expression always understood as
negative, even when no negative word appears in the sentence. There are
several 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_) #de
guardar#, an old Spanish proverb, used by Calderón as the title of an
intrigue play.]
[Footnote 104: #a no contar con usted#, _unless we had had
your assistance_.]
[Footnote 105: #En el moral, ni entro ni salgo#, _the ethical side
is no affair of mine_.]
[Footnote 106: #harán ... nieblas de las montañas#, _difficulties
will 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 better
friends 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 waste
time in greetings_; _me_ is a dative of disadvantage, which can
hardly be translated.]
[Footnote 112: #¿Qué tienes?--¡El contento de verte aquí!# _How are
you?--Happy at seeing you here!_]
[Footnote 113: #¡Si vieras!# _if you had seen_! "It is very
common 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 nominative
case of _yo_, although it is the object of a preposition. The
rule is that "if the form of one of two pronouns, or a noun and
a pronoun, governed by _entre_ is identical with that of the
nominative and must precede the other, the second assumes the
nominative 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 have
you believing and laughing at the same time_.]
[Footnote 118: #Hoy# is an adverb modifying #acaba#, not its
subject, as might be the case in English.]
[Footnote 119: #¡Dónde va a parar! ¡A saber ...#, _What can
she be driving at? I should like to know ..._]
[Footnote 120: #Como los dos ... habláis mal#, _as both of you
have every reason to speak well of me, I feel sure that you are speaking
ill._]
[Footnote 121: #Cosas ... piedras#, _you have whims, O Cid, that
would rouse a stone_. These lines are taken from a ballad
(_romance_), no. 818 in Durán's large _Romancero general_. The
ballad is not a very old one (it was first printed in Escobar's
_Romancero del Cid_, 1612); the language is an imitation, and a poor
one, of medieval forms. The restoration of the Latin initial _f_ for
its Spanish development _h_, the use of the article before a noun in
the vocative, and the older #tenedes# for _tenéis_, are such
imitations.]
[Footnote 122: #de alguna manera#, _in some way_. #Señora#
in this passage is a mere title in the first two instances; in the
third it means lady.--#no porque crea#, _not because I believe_.]
[Footnote 123: #Tú verás cómo escribes#, _be careful how you
write_, that is, _how you spell_.]
[Footnote 124: #haches#. The word _alcahuete_ or _alcahueta_,
'a go-between', has a particularly evil connotation in Spanish.]
[Footnote 125: #¿qué entrar y salir trae ese majadero?# _What does
that fool go in and out so much for?_]
[Footnote 126: #para contestarte que sí#, _to have me tell you
'yes'_. The grammar of this sentence is loose, for strictly the
supplied subject of contestar should be _tú_, since _tú_ is the
subject of both inflected verbs. The sense however leaves no choice
but to supply _yo_.]
[Footnote 127: #a ello#, _for the purpose_.]
[Footnote 128: #mi nombre y mis dos apellidos#; the two surnames are
those of one's father and of one's mother, and placed in that order.
Thus in the name _Juan López y Herrera_, the _nombre_ or
Christian name is _Juan_, and the _apellidos_ are the father's
name _López_, and the mother's, _Herrera_.]
[Footnote 129: _la carta está_ #lista#.]
[Footnote 130: #ni más ni menos que lo que#; before _lo que_ it
is usual to employ _de_ after a comparative word. Although Bello
(_Gramática_, § 1016) declares that _que_ may be used equally
well in such cases, it is probable that in this sentence the _que_
for _de_ is due to the fact that the sentence is negative, in analogy
with the use of #que# before numerals in negative sentences.]
[Footnote 131: #¡Medrados estaríamos!# _that would be a fine state
of affairs!_ (if you should compose messages of your own).]
[Footnote 132: _militar_; perhaps the jest turns on the name
#Escopeta#.]
[Footnote 133: #ésa# does not refer to any expressed feminine noun,
but perhaps to one understood, such as _pulla_.]
[Footnote 134: #Eso ... y oro molido que me pidas#, _that and much
more will I do for you_; lit. 'that, and gold-dust if you should ask
for it'.]
[Footnote 135: #¡Santa Bárbara bendita#, etc. This crude
verse can hardly be translated in a way to make much sense.
It is a popular charm against impending misfortune. Scattered
through _La vida que vuelve_, another play of the Quinteros, may
be found many more such conjurations.]
[Footnote 136: #rodándolas materialmente#, _literally tumbling down
them_.]
[Footnote 137: #se la plantó con pelos y señales#, _she accused
him of it to his face, with all the details_.]
[Footnote 138: #tanto y más cuanto#, _more than a little_.]
[Footnote 139: #¡Ni que el mesmo Dios se las dijera al oído!# _it's
as if God himself had whispered them to her!_]
[Footnote 140: #con esta hermana ... cominos#, _it is impossible
to tell what this sister of mine will do_. The more usual form of
the idiom is "no se puede atar un ochavo de cominos con". The
image is that of a string not long enough to hold together a very
small quantity of tiny seed.]
[Footnote 141: #¡no se le vaya ... rato!# _don't let slip the fact
that you were here a little while ago_.]
[Footnote 142: #Nada ... advertirle#, _you might easily do so.
Don't mistake my meaning in warning you_.]
[Footnote 143: #siempre me parecerá pronto#, _I shall never be
ready._]
[Footnote 144: #en lo mejor ... encontrarnos#, _we shall agree
upon the main points_.]
[Footnote 145: #No es ... pintaron#, _the doña Clarines who is
before me is not the one described to me ..._]
[Footnote 146: #lo que fué#, _the past_.]
[Footnote 147: #Tan mal como tú hiciste#, _as well as you did
badly._]
[Footnote 148: #que hicieron#, _which was done_. The third
person plural is sometimes used with an indefinite subject to replace
the English passive.]
[Footnote 149: #para que no salga de los tres#, _so that it may
never go farther than us three_.]
[Footnote 150: #¿Qué ha de ser loca?# _Certainly she's not
crazy_. Cf. p. 5, n. 1. (Transcriber's note: Footnote 6)]
[Footnote 151: #¡Como me han cogido la hora!# _how quickly
they have learned when I come!_]
[Footnote 152: #Gorrión habrá que venga#, _there must be some
sparrows who come._]
[Footnote 153: #no pelearse#; the infinitive is used as an imperative
not infrequently; more often in the negative, but also in the affirmative.]
[Footnote 154: #si se han sentado tres curas#, _¿qué remedio
hay?_ It seems that a true apodosis is to be supplied here. The
phrase two lines above, #¡Si no lo hay!# illustrates the transition
stage, in which the apodosis is more vague, and _si_ is best rendered
'but'.]
[Footnote 155: #¡Qué se han de levantar!# See page 70, note 3.
(Transcriber's note: Footnote 150)]
[Footnote 156: #¡cualquiera los echa!# _no one can drive them
away!_ See page 26, note 4. (Transcriber's note: Footnote 49)]
[Footnote 157: #¡Anda! para que me espante los pajaritos#,
_serves him right for frightening my birds_.]
[Footnote 158: #Como no te sientes en el sombrero#, _unless you sit
on your own hat_ (you'll find no place).]
[Footnote 159: #como no mate usted el tiempo ... ¡lo que es
otra cosa!# _if you don't kill time, you won't kill anything!_]
[Footnote 160: #No estoy por darle a usted más palique#, _I don't
feel like talking with you longer_.]
[Footnote 161: _Todo ...existe._ This _humorada_ is numbered
_10_, of the _Primera parte_, in the _Obras completas_ of
Campoamor, vol. 5, Madrid, 1902.]
[Footnote 162: _Las niñas ... santo_, number 10 of the _Segunda
parte_.]
[Footnote 163: #No sé qué me da#, _it drives me wild_.]
[Footnote 164: _Pasan veinte años_, etc. This is Campoamor's
_Dolora_ number XLIII, entitled _Cosas del tiempo_. It is quoted
here in its entirety. _Mañana de sol_ is hardly more than a genial
expansion of this tiny poem.]
[Footnote 165: #Mucho#, _very_. _Muy_ is changed to
_mucho_ when it is repeated without the adjective or adverb which it
modified in the first instance.]
[Footnote 166: #De todo había#, _there were all kinds_.]
[Footnote 167: #llevaría#. The conditional may express probability in
past time, just as the future does in present time.]
[Footnote 168: #aquello#, _that region_.]
[Footnote 169: #De esto hace muchos años#, _it is many years
since then_.]
[Footnote 170: #deje usted#, _wait a minute_.]
[Footnote 171: _¡Qué formas ... humana! Humorada_ number
31 of the _Primera parte_.]
[Footnote 172: #¡Anda con ésa!# _take that!_]
[Footnote 173: #sentiría#. See page 82, note 4. (Transcriber's note:
Footnote 167)]
[Footnote 174: #el nombre de él# is inserted in order to remove the
ambiguity of _su nombre_ which may mean 'her name' as well as 'his'.]
[Footnote 175: #muy de usted#, _entirely at your service_.]