Iquest;quién? 8 page

y agachándose graciosamente, hasta completar la reverencia que a la sazón estaba de moda, y que se llamaba

la pompa.

—Pero yo... Pero tú... Pero nosotros... Pero 122-20 aquellos...—seguía mascujando el vejete, tirándole

a su mujer del vestido y perturbando sus cortesías mejor iniciadas.

¡Inútil afán! ¡Nadie hacía caso de Su Señoría!

Marchado que se hubieron todos, y solos ya en el salón 122-25 los desavenidos cónyuges, la Corregidora se dignó

al fin decirle a su esposo, con el acento que hubiera empleado una Czarina de todas las Rusias para fulminar sobre un Ministro caído la orden de perpetuo destierro a la Siberia: 122-30 123

—Mil años que vivas, ignorarás lo que ha pasado esta noche en mi alcoba... Si hubieras estado en ella,

como era regular, no tendrías necesidad de preguntárselo a nadie.—Por lo que a mí toca, no hay ya, ni

habrá jamás, razón ninguna que me obligue a satisfacerte; 123-5 pues te desprecio de tal modo, que si no fueras

el padre de mis hijos, te arrojaría ahora mismo por ese

balcón, como te arrojo para siempre de mi dormitorio.—Conque, buenas noches, caballero.

Pronunciadas estas palabras, que Don Eugenio oyó 123-10 sin pestañear (pues lo que es a solas no se atrevía con

su mujer), la Corregidora penetró en el gabinete, y del gabinete pasó a la alcoba, cerrando las puertas detrás de sí; y el pobre hombre se quedó plantado en medio

de la sala, murmurando entre encías (que no entre 123-15 dientes) y con un cinismo de que no habrá habido otro ejemplo:

—¡Pues, señor, no esperaba yo escapar tan bien!...—¡Garduña me buscará otra! 124

XXXVI

CONCLUSIÓN, MORALEJA Y EPÍLOGO

Piaban los pajarillos saludando el alba, cuando el tío Lucas y la señá Frasquita salían de la Ciudad con dirección a su molino.

Los esposos iban a pie, y delante de ellos caminaban apareadas las dos burras. 124-5

—El domingo tienes que ir a confesar (le decía la Molinera a su marido); pues necesitas limpiarte de todos tus malos juicios y criminales propósitos de esta noche...

—Has pensado muy bien... (contestó el Molinero). 124-10 Pero tú, entretanto, vas a hacerme otro favor, y es dar

a los pobres los colchones y ropa de nuestra cama, y ponerla toda de nuevo.—¡Yo no me acuesto donde ha sudado aquel bicho venenoso!

—¡No me lo nombres, Lucas! (replicó la señá Frasquita).—Conque 124-15 hablemos de otra cosa. Quisiera

merecerte un segundo favor...

—Pide por esa boca...

—El verano que viene vas a llevarme a tomar los baños del Solán de Cabras. 124-20

—¿Para qué?

—Para ver si tenemos hijos.

—¡Felicísima idea!—Te llevaré, si Dios nos da vida. 125

Y con esto llegaron al molino, a punto que el sol, sin haber salido todavía, doraba ya las cúspides de las montañas.

. . . . . . . . . . .

A la tarde, con gran sorpresa de los esposos, que no esperaban nuevas visitas de altos personajes después 125-5 de un escándalo como el de la precedente noche, concurrió al molino más señorío que nunca. El venerable

Prelado, muchos Canónigos, el Jurisconsulto, dos Priores de frailes y otras varias personas (que luego se

supo habían sido convocadas allí por Su Señoría Ilustrísima) 125-10 ocuparon materialmente la plazoletilla del

emparrado.

Sólo faltaba el Corregidor.

Una vez reunida la tertulia, el señor Obispo tomó la palabra, y dijo: que, por lo mismo que habían pasado 125-15 ciertas cosas en aquella casa, sus Canónigos y él seguirían yendo a ella lo mismo que antes, para que ni los

honrados Molineros ni las demás personas allí presentes participasen de la censura pública, sólo merecida por

aquel que había profanado con su torpe conducta una 125-20 reunión tan morigerada y tan honesta. Exhortó paternalmente a la señá Frasquita para que en lo sucesivo

fuese menos provocativa y tentadora en sus dichos y ademanes, y procurase llevar más cubiertos los brazos

y más alto el escote del jubón: aconsejó al tío Lucas 125-25 más desinterés, mayor circunspección y menos inmodestia en su trato con los superiores; y acabó dando la

bendición a todos y diciendo: que, como aquel día no 126 ayunaba, se comería con mucho gusto un par de racimos de uvas.

Lo mismo opinaron todos... respecto de este último particular..., y la parra se quedó temblando aquella tarde.—¡En dos arrobas de uvas apreció el gasto el 126-5 Molinero!

. . . . . . . . . . .

Cerca de tres años continuaron estas sabrosas reuniones, hasta que, contra la previsión de todo el mundo, entraron en España los ejércitos de Napoleón y se armó la Guerra de la Independencia. 126-10

El señor Obispo, el Magistral y el Penitenciario murieron el año de 8, y el Abogado y los demás contertulios

en los de 9, 10, 11 y 12, por no poder sufrir la vista

de los franceses, polacos y otras alimañas que invadieron

aquella tierra ¡y que fumaban en pipa, en el presbiterio 126-15 de las iglesias, durante la misa de la tropa!

El Corregidor, que nunca más tornó al molino, fue destituido por un mariscal francés, y murió en la Cárcel de Corte, por no haber querido ni un solo instante

(dicho sea en honra suya) transigir con la dominación 126-20 extranjera.

Doña Mercedes no se volvió a casar, y educó perfectamente a sus hijos, retirándose a la vejez a un convento,

donde acabó sus días en opinión de santa.

Garduña se hizo afrancesado. 126-25

El Sr. Juan López fue guerrillero, y mandó una partida, y murió, lo mismo que su alguacil, en la famosa batalla de Baza, después de haber matado muchísimos franceses. 127

Finalmente: el tío Lucas y la señá Frasquita (aunque no llegaron a tener hijos, a pesar de haber ido al Solán de Cabras y de haber hecho muchos votos y rogativas)

siguieron siempre amándose del propio modo, y alcanzaron una edad muy avanzada, viendo desaparecer el 127-5 Absolutismo en 1812 y 1820, y reaparecer en 1814 y 1823, hasta que, por último, se estableció de veras el sistema Constitucional a la muerte del Rey Absoluto, y ellos pasaron a mejor vida (precisamente al estallar la

Guerra Civil de los Siete años), sin que los sombreros de 127-10 copa que ya usaba todo el mundo pudiesen hacerles

olvidar aquellos tiempos simbolizados por el sombrero de tres picos.

FIN. 129

NOTES

The references are to page and line of the text.

1, 9.pícaros. This word, as a substantive here, and as an adjectiveelsewhere, 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. The pícaro is 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 to Señor; also because of his friendly disposition. In 29, 10 tía Josefa is evidently pejorative.

3, 12.las licencias necesarias. The censoring and licensing of books inSpain antedates printing by quite two hundred years. Provision was made for it by Alfonso el Sabio in the Siete Partidas (1256-1263). The function was gradually assumed by the Inquisition, after its establishment in 1480, first tacitly, and with the coöperation 130 of the civil authorities, later, after 1640, independently. From 1550 on no book could be published or circulated in Spain without the aprobación and the other formalities whose sum constituted the licencias 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 the licencias, 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 comiccharacter of the Spanish classic drama, as the Clown and the Fool of the English. The first examples of the gracioso are 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 sheetsof 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. His Romancero General, here referred to, the standard collection of old Spanish songs and ballads, was published in two volumes of the Biblioteca 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 theprólogo to the picaresque novel Vida 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 of Novelistas Posteriores a Cervantes, of the Biblioteca 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 in 5, 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.

|

Louis, Dauphin, Duke of Burgundy

|

Louis XV

|

Louis, Dauphin

|

Louis XVI (jefe de ellos) beheaded January 21, 1793.

|

Charles IV

of Spain, deposed 1808.

Louis XIV (of France)

|

Louis (Dauphin)

|

|

Philip, Duke of

Anjou,

Philip V of Spain

|

|

5, 13 sqq.Rívoli, village of Italy, near Verona, where Bonaparte defeated theAustrians, 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 votivekind, 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 analogous 132 sort, are C. m. b. or C. p. b.— cuyas manos, cuyos pies beso—often inserted in letters after the name of

some person; and there are others. The Latin absit omen! may be called to mind in this connection.

6, 12.Gaceta.The Gazette, the official newspaper of Spain, was establishedin 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, the Gaceta was 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 the Gaceta, in the present passage; and Richard Ford, in the 1845 edition of his Handbook for Travellers in Spain, vol. II, page 728, says of it: "Its pages for the last fifty years, the French Moniteur only 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 ofNapoleon, 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 theking to any particular province, town, or individual. Celebrated examples in Spanish national history are those granted to Aragon and to the Basque provinces. On the fuero see Rafael Altamira y Crevea, Historia de España y de la Civilización Española, Barcelona, 1900 and 1902, vol. I, pp. 502 sqq. The word fuero is 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 royalgovernor nor court, the corregidor was, 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. 133

He was appointed directly by the king. With constitutional government, he has lost importance, and when found is simply an alcalde, 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 omittedportions of the preface already referred to, that the different ballads assign different places to the action; the one published in Durán's Romancero bears the title El Molinero de Arcos, and the scene is laid at Arcos de la Frontera; another, a romance de ciego this, 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, 134 remembering that Alarcón was born in Guadix; and, read in connection with this last-named passage, the following, taken from page 273 of De 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 independentof 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. The chocolate of line 11 is the irregular luncheon more generally called merienda. The more usual arrangement in the household economy of the larger cities of Spain to-day includes the desayuno at rising, usually simply a cup of chocolate; almuerzo, the second breakfast, or luncheon, at from ten o'clock to one; the merienda, if taken, after the siesta, at four or five o'clock; and the comida at eight or after in the evening. This late comida is also sometimes called cena; though often the real cena is 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. 135

8, 10.Rosario.The saying of the prayers of the Rosary is an entirely privatedevotion, and as such may be done at any hour (compare 117, 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, thoughquite in another way. A tertulia is 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 profundisisrecited for the souls of the dead.

8, 16.guisado, "cooked,"pp.ofguisar, used as substantive, and byantonomasia for stew, fricassee.

9, 4.entremés, sainete, auto sacramental.Theentremésis a very shortdramatic interlude of very light character, rarely more than a few minutes in the acting, which was performed between the acts of the heavier plays: the sainete (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 (French la saynète), to mean a very short comedy or farce, with two or at most three or four characters. The auto sacramental was 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 the auto 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 the auto, 257 sqq. 136

9, 10.volver a las andadas,going back over our traces.

10,tit.III.Do ut des:One good turn deserves another, orTurn about is fairplay.

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 of parras, i. e. of grape-vines, trained over trellises to form an arbor.

10, 24.macarros,macaroon, differing from those we know by not beingnecessarily of almond meal, being rather larger and rather darker in color.

11, 3.rosetas, a Spanish popcorn, so called from the shapes taken by thekernels 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 thefire to be well warmed, but not scorched; trans., in the glow of the fire.

por Pascuas,on feast-days,on special occasions. The word Pascuaprimarily 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, Pascua has come to mean any three-day feast of the church; and in the plural, as here, any season of more than usual rejoicing.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 606