[17] The well-known passage about Lope de Rueda, in Cervantes’s Prólogo to his own plays, is of more consequence than all the rest that remains concerning him. Every thing, however, is collected in Navarrete, “Vida de Cervantes,” pp. 255-260; and in Casiano Pellicer, “Orígen de la Comedia y del Histrionismo en España,” Madrid, 1804, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 72-84.
[18] “Las Quatro Comedias y Dos Coloquios Pastorales del excelente poeta y gracioso representante, Lope de Rueda,” etc., impresas en Sevilla, 1576, 8vo,—contains his principal works, with the “Diálogo sobre la Invencion de las Calzas que se usan agora.” From the Epistola prefixed to it by Juan de Timoneda, I infer that he made alterations in the manuscripts, as Lope de Rueda left them; but not, probably, any of much consequence. Of the “Deleytoso,” printed at Valencia, 1577, I have never been able to see more than the very ample extracts given by Moratin, amounting to six Pasos and a Coloquio. The first edition of the Quatro Comedias, etc., was 1567, at Valencia; the last at Logroño, 1588.
[19] This is the Rufian of the old Spanish dramas and stories,—parcel rowdy, parcel bully, and wholly knave;—a different personage from the Rufian of recent times, who is the elder Alcahuete or pander.
[20] It may be worth noticing, that both the “Armelina” and the “Eufemia” open with scenes of calling up a lazy young man from bed, in the early morning, much like the first in the “Nubes” of Aristophanes.
[21] Troico, it should be observed, is a woman in disguise.
[22] This superstition about Tuesday as an unlucky day is not unfrequent in the old Spanish drama:—
Está escrito,
El Martes es dia aciago.
Lope de Vega, El Cuerdo en su Casa, Acto II. Comedias, Madrid, 1615, 4to, Tom. VI. f. 112. a.
[23] Rivers in the North of Spain, often mentioned in Spanish poetry, especially the first of them.