This poem is the story of an obscure poet in the Spanish city of
Valladolid. It brings out his actual life and the townfolk's
misinterpretations of it. Reports multiply upon themselves and take new
meanings till the harmless poet is generally accounted the King's spy
and the real agent of all royal edicts, the town's master, in fact. The
interest which, as a poet, he takes in all manifestations of life is
popularly supposed to be the alertness of a secret agent of the
government. The reams of poetry he writes are transformed into letters
of information to the King. Rumor translates the poet's perfectly
decent, regular, meager life into secret sybaritic extravagances.
7. _Though none did._ His suit had once been fashionable, but, though
still serviceable, was of a sort no longer worn by his fellow townsmen.
25. _The coffee-roaster's brazier._ The coffee is roasted in a dish that
is made to revolve over the coals in an open pan or basin.
74. _Beyond the Jewry._ Beyond the Jew's quarter, a squalid portion of
the city.