In giving this quotation from the second act of Moreto's "El Lego del
Carmen o San Franco de Sena," Espronceda is either quoting erroneously
or following some edition not known to me. In the Rivadeneyra edition
the passage is as follows:
SARGENTO
¿Tiene más que parar?
FRANCO
Tengo los ojos,
Y los juego en lo mismo; que descreo
De quien los hizo para tal empleo.
As this play influenced Espronceda, it is well to give a synopsis of it.
Like the "Rufián dichoso" of Cervantes, the "San Franco de Sena" deals
with the sinful life and conversion of one who was destined to be a
saint. Franco of Siena, a youth noted for his wild conduct, falls in
love with the inappropriately named Lucrecia. He kills her lover Aurelio
in a duel, and, passing himself off for Aurelio, elopes with her and
gets possession of her jewels. A cross with a lighted lamp before it is
placed on a wall to mark the spot where Aurelio fell. One night, as he
is passing, Franco sacrilegiously attempts to extinguish the light. A
hand issues from the wall and seizes him by the wrist. Words of warning
accompany this action. Franco shows neither fear nor compunction. He
kills all the officers of justice who try to arrest him. Again passing
the wall, he hears a ghostly voice urge him to try his hand at play,
for by losing he will win. Franco hopes to win in a material way, and
decides to follow this advice. He loses all and then stakes his eyes,
making the blasphemous remark quoted above. He loses and is stricken
blind. His conversion follows immediately. In the weak third act he
becomes a Carmelite monk, and his companions in sin experience a like
change of heart.
The legend of the saint of Siena has many points of similarity with
the legends of Don Juan Tenorio, Don Miguel de Mañara, and Lisardo the
Student; but Espronceda has been only slightly influenced by Moreto's
play. If he gained from it, rather than from Dumas or Mérimée, the idea
of his gambling scene, he does not follow his model closely. In each
case a chain is played for, but in Moreto the game is =pintas=, not
=parar= or dice, and the other details are different. Moreto (1618-1659)
was one of the most graceful but least original of the dramatists of the
classic period.
=438.= The game of =parar=, =carteta=, or =andaboba=, as it was
variously called, was played as follows: The dealer, who also serves as
banker, places two cards face up at his left. The third card he places
in front of himself. The fourth card, called the réjouissance card in
the French form of the game, he places in the middle of the table. The
players stake on this card whatever bets they desire to make, and these
the banker is obliged to cover. He then deals a fifth. If this matches
his own card, he wins all the money staked. If, on the contrary, it
matches the réjouissance card, those who have staked money upon it win
from the bank. If it matches neither, it is laid face up on the table,
and money may be staked upon it precisely as upon the réjouissance card.
So with all successive cards. The deal ends as soon as the banker's card
is matched. He then surrenders the bank to the winner, unless the two
cards laid to his left are matched before the third card dealt, his own,
is duplicated. In this latter case he is privileged to keep the bank for
another deal. This game, by reason of its swift action and the large
number of players who could engage in it, was called =el juego alegre=.
As results depended upon the turn of a single card, it lent itself
readily to cheating. It is mentioned in a _pragmática_ of Philip II,
1575, among a list of games to be prohibited. The modern games of monte
and baccarat have points of similarity. In France and England the game
is known as _lansquenet_, and is supposed to have been invented by the
German _Landsknechte_, mercenary foot-soldiers of the sixteenth
century. For further information see Hazañas y la Rúa, "Los Rufianes
de Cervantes," Sevilla, 1906, p. 44, and Monreal, "Cuadros Antiguos,"
Sevilla, 1906, p. 342. For a similar gambling scene see Tirso de Molina,
"Tanto es lo de más como lo de menos," Act II, sc. vii.
=455. El Caballo=: to understand what follows some knowledge of Spanish
playing-cards is necessary. In Spain the =baraja=, or deck, consists,
according to the game played, of 48 or 40 cards (=cartas, naipes,
cartones=), and not of 52 as with us. The ten spot is unknown, and when
the deck consists of but 40 the eight and nine spots are also wanting.
The =palos=, or suits, are four: =oros= (gold coins, corresponding to
our diamonds), =copas= (cups, corresponding to our hearts), =espadas=
(swords, corresponding to our spades), and =bastones= (clubs). These
figures are not conventionalized. The face cards are three: =el rey=
(the king), =el caballo= (representing a mounted cavalryman, and
corresponding in value to our queen), and =la sota= (a standing
infantryman, sometimes called also =el infante=, and corresponding in
value to our knave). These figures are unreversible. The First Gambler
is dealer and banker, as is shown by the fact that he covers the bets
(line 466). He is losing in spite of the fact that the banker had an
advantage. The =caballo= is clearly the card that has turned up in front
of the dealer. The turning up of a second =caballo= would end the deal.
=457. Pues por poco=, etc.: the Second Gambler is mocking the First.
"You want the =caballo=, and the =sota=, the card next under it in the
suit, has turned up. This is so close that you should be satisfied." All
this is implied in his remark.
=459.= The Second Gambler strikes an irreligious note by pretending to
believe that the First Gambler's oath is a pious remark. He suggests
that prayer and repentance should be deferred until one is dying.
Gentlemen of equal rank formerly addressed each other in the second
person plural.
=466.= The Third Gambler stakes upon the =sota=. Each new card, not
matching previous ones, was the occasion for new bets.
=480.= An allusion to the world-wide superstition that he who is lucky
at love is unlucky at cards and vice versa.
=490. Se vende y se rifa=: Don Félix, who has no ready cash, raffles off
his chain. He places on it a value of 2000 ducats, and announces that
each of the five gamblers who are in funds must contribute 400 ducats
to the raffle. The First Gambler, a heavy loser, does not engage in the
play; and Don Félix, too, enters into this first transaction merely as
a seller. The chain is to go to the player to whom he deals the ace of
=oros=, and he himself will get the 2000 ducats. After this he will
begin to gamble on his own account. The game of =parar= ceased upon the
entrance of Don Félix.
=491. afrenta=: the affront lies in Don Félix's insolent manner and
the masterful way in which he forces them to accept his terms without
question. Indignant as the Fourth Gambler is, he dares not offer open
objection.
=496=. I restore =una= from the 1840 edition instead of =uno=, found in
the later prints. The agreement is with =carta=, understood, not with
=naipe=. So likewise when the cards are dealt out in Moreto's "San
Franco de Sena," the first numeral is =una=.
=498.= Three is the lucky number. The third card falls to the Third
Gambler, who wins. The grief of the First Gambler is increased by the
fact that the winning card would have fallen to him, if he had been in
the game. Line 496 indicates that D. Félix passes him in dealing.
=500.= Having now come into possession of his 2000 ducats, Don Félix,
always a reckless gambler, proposes to stake them all upon a single
throw of the dice.
=516. Si esta imagen respirara=: the First Gambler is so unlucky at
cards that he may be supposed to be lucky in love. Hence sentimental
remarks are placed in his mouth.
=520.= The Second Gambler makes a side bet with the Fourth and then a
second one with the Fifth. These bets will be decided by the same throw
that decides the bet between Don Félix and the Third Gambler.
=526. Tirad con sesenta=, etc.: "Throw in the name of sixty horsemen."
Some word like =hombres= or =demonios= needs to be supplied.
=529.= Don Félix, who has again lost, speaks with ironic blasphemy. He
blames the First Gambler for addressing his prayer to God rather than to
the devil.
=546. vendellas=: for =venderlas=. In Old Spanish the final =r= of the
infinitive frequently assimilates to the initial =l= of the enclitic
pronoun.
=550.= Don Félix's perverted sense of honor will not brook the most
trivial verbal slight to Elvira on the part of another, although he has
cruelly wronged her himself by his deeds.
=558.= The First Gambler is not sufficiently blasphemous to invoke the
devil, and Don Félix does so himself. This invocation changes his luck.
=567. Encubierta fatídica figura=: one of those threadbare phrases
abused by Spain's romantic poets. Valera in his "Del Romanticismo en
España y de Espronceda" instances some of these, such as =negro capuz,
lúgubre són, fúnebre ciprés=, etc. Mesonero Romanos in his "Románticos y
Romanticismo" ridicules the abuse of the word =fatídica=. Espronceda was
less frequently guilty of this sort of unoriginality than other less
gifted poets were.
=610. Mentís vos=: the usual formula for picking a quarrel.
=625, 631. Que=: equivalent to =porque=.
=653. vos=: antiquated for =vosotros=. Don Diego alone is addressed.
After =Esperad, que= may be understood; such omissions of the
conjunction are common in poetry. Punctuating differently, we might
place a period after =Esperad=, in which case =Cuente= might be taken as
a first person imperative.
=676. juego=: such is the reading of the 1840 edition. Some later editor
emended to =fuego=. Though this emendation is plausible, the change
seems to me both unnecessary and unhappy. It is characteristic of Don
Félix's cool insolence that he should refer to his affair with Elvira as
a "game" rather than as a "passion."
=692.= The Fourth Gambler's remark is somewhat ambiguous, but the sense
demands that we take =lo= as referring to Don Félix. Remember that it
was the Fourth Gambler who had resented Don Félix's overbearing conduct.
He acted the coward and now talks like a coward. The Third Gambler is
the most skeptical regarding changes of luck, because he himself has
experienced the greatest ups and downs of fortune in the game just
finished.