Page 170. Mari Franca. A COMMON Spanish proverb, used to turn aside a question one does not wish to answer: "Porque casó Mari-Franca cuatro leguas de Salamanca." Page 171. Ay, soft, emerald eyes. THE Spaniards, with good reason, consider this color of the eye as beautiful, and celebrate it in song; as, for example, in the well known Villancico: "¡Ay ojuelos verdes, ay hagan los cielos que de mí te acuerdes! Tengo confianza de mis verdes ojos." Böhl de Faber. Floresta, No. 255. Dante speaks of Beatrice's eyes as emeralds. Purgatorio, xxxi. 116. Lami says, in his Annotazioni," Erano i suoi occhi d'un turchino verdiccio, simile a quel del mare." Page 173. The Avenging Child. SEE the ancient Ballads of El Infante Vengador, and Ca laynos. Page 174. All are sleeping. FROM the Spanish. Böhl's Floresta, No. 282. Page 195. Good night. FROM the Spanish; as are likewise the songs immediately following, and that which commences the first scene of Act III. "IN the Gitano language, casting the evil eye is called Querelar nasula, which simply means making sick, and which, according to the common superstition, is accomplished by casting an evil look at people, especially children, who, from the tenderness of their constitution, are supposed to be more easily blighted than those of a more mature age. After receiving the evil glance, they fall sick, and die in a few hours. "The Spaniards have very little to say respecting the evil eye, though the belief in it is very prevalent, especially in Andalusia, amongst the lower orders. A stag's horn is considered a good safeguard, and on that account a small horn, tipped with silver, is frequently attached to the children's necks by means of a cord braided from the hair of a black mare's tail. Should the evil glance be cast, it is imagined that the horn receives it, and instantly snaps asunder. Such horns may be purchased in some of the silversmiths' shops at Seville." BORROW'S Zincali. Vol. I. ch. ix. Page 220. On the top of a mountain I stand. THIS and the following scraps of song are from Borrow's Zincali; or an Account of the Gipsies in Spain. The Gipsy words in the same scene may be thus interpreted: John-Dorados, pieces of gold. Pigeon, a simpleton. In your morocco, stripped. Doves, sheets. Moon, a shirt. Chirelin, a thief. Murcigalleros, those who steal at night-fall. Rastilleros, foot-pads. Hermit, highway-robber. Planets, candles. Commandments, the fingers. Saint Martin asleep, to rob a person asleep. Lanterns, eyes. Goblin, police officer. Papagayo, a spy. Vineyards and Dancing John, to take flight. Page 236. If thou art sleeping, maiden. FROM the Spanish; as is likewise the song of the Contra bandista on page 238. Page 269. My grave. NILS JUEL was a celebrated Danish Admiral, and Peder Wessel, a Vice-Admiral, who for his great prowess received the popular title of Tordenskiold, or Thunder-shield. In childhood he was a tailor's apprentice, and rose to his high rank before the age of twenty-eight, when he was killed in a duel. Page 293. Coplas de Manrique. DON JORGE MANRIQUE, the author of this poem, flourished in the last half of the fifteenth century. He followed the profession of arms, and died on the field of battle. Mariana, in his history of Spain, makes honorable mention of him, as being present at the siege of Uclés; and speaks of him as "a youth of estimable qualities, who in this war gave brilliant proofs of his valor. He died young; and was thus cut off from long exercising his great virtues, and exhibiting to the world the light of his genius, which was already known to fame." He was mortally wounded in a skirmish near Cañavete, in the year 1479. The name of Rodrigo Manrique, the father of the poet, Conde de Paredes and Maestre de Santiago, is well known in Spanish history and song. He died in 1476; according to Mariana, in the town of Uclés; but, according to the poem of his son, in Ocaña. It was his death that called forth the poem upon which rests the literary reputation of the younger Manrique. In the language of his historian, "Don Jorge Manrique, in an elegant Ode, full of poetic beauties, rich embellishments of genius, and high moral reflections, mourned the death of his father as with a funeral hymn." This praise is not exagge rated. The poem is a model in its kind. Its conception is solemn and beautiful; and, in accordance with it, the style moves on-calm, dignified, and majestic. This poem of Manrique is a great favorite in Spain. No less than four poetic Glosses, or running commentaries, upon it have been published, no one of which, however, possesses great poetic merit. That of the Carthusian monk, Rodrigo de Valdepeñas, is the best. It is known as the Glosa del Cartujo. There is also a prose Commentary by Luis de Aranda. The following stanzas of the poem were found in the author's pocket, after his death on the field of battle. 66 "O World! so few the years we live, Would that the life which thou dost give Were life indeed! Alas! thy sorrows fall so fast, Our happiest hour is when at last The soul is freed. "Our days are covered o'er with grief, 66 And sorrows neither few nor brief Veil all in gloom; Left desolate of real good, Within this cheerless solitude No pleasures bloom. Thy pilgrimage begins in tears, Or dark despair; |