[649.] la tarántula; the tarantula is a kind of spider, taking its name from the city of Taranto in southern Italy. Tradition, which modern science cannot corroborate, has it that the bite of the tarantula produces a sort of sleeping sickness known as Tarantism. To rouse the sufferers a wild music (tarantella) was played, which caused them to dance till a profuse perspiration broke out, when the effects of the poison were thrown off.
[659.] por prometido = téngalo usted por prometido.
[720.] al don Cesáreo; the article is used here depreciatively: that fellow...!
[777-778.] como si lo viera, me le hacen a usted; the subject of viera is yo, me is the untranslated "ethical dative," and hacen is the indefinite third plural.
[817.] las [bromas] que yo gasto, what my jokes are like.
ACTO CUARTO
[108-109.] si fuera un coco de fea, if she were as homely as a hedge fence.
[116.] ella es grande; one cannot be quite sure whether this phrase means she is of high station, or she is a grandee. It has not been previously stated that the family of Alto-Rey enjoys the privileges of grandeeship. A grandee of Spain is allowed to keep his hat on in the king's presence, if a man; if a woman, to be seated before the queen (tomar la almohada).
[141.] Ya, para lo que falta..., To be sure, there's no need of saying more.
[157-158.] que no pueda yo...! to think I can't!