Between the eras proper of tournaments and bull-fights, a species of tilting called correr la sortija was greatly in vogue. A gold finger-ring was suspended by a thread from the top of a pole, and at it charged the cavalier with lance in rest and horse at full speed. The smallness of the object, its constant motion, and its proximity to the pole rendered it an exceedingly difficult feat to accomplish.
Cards and dice were at this time in the height of their fascination. Every class, age, profession, and sex were filled with a passion for gambling—a most levelling vice, at this juncture, bringing in contact noble and commoner, knight and squire, women, servants, and trades-people. An English poet about the year 1500 thus laments the degeneracy of the nobles:
"Before thys tyme they lovyd for to juste,
And in shotynge chefely they sett ther mynde;
And ther landys and possessyons now sett they moste,
And at cardes and dyce ye may them ffynde."
From her low estate of mediæval drudge or plaything, woman was lifted by the exaltation of the Virgin,—lifted too high by chivalry; then fell too low with the sensual reaction. Finally, after many waverings, she rises again, and in the more favored spheres takes her rightful place beside her lord, his confidant and equal. At the time of which I write, however, she was less respected than now, and hence less respectable; less trusted, and consequently less trustworthy. Her virtue, fortified by bolts and bars at home, was watched by servants abroad. Falling into the customs of the invaders during Moslem domination, Castilian ladies became more and more retired, until the dwelling was little better than a nunnery. The days of tournaments, and jousts, and troubadours were over, and indifference succeeded chivalric sentimentality.
FEMALE CHASTITY.
Seldom has Spanish society been conspicuous for its high moral tone. Female chastity was an abstract quality, the property of the father or husband, rather than an inherent virtue for the safe-keeping of which the female possessor was responsible. The master of a household exercised sovereign authority therein, claiming even the power of life and death over the members of his family. He was addressed in the third person as 'your worship;' sons dare not cover their head, cross their legs, or even sit in his presence unless so directed; daughters were betrothed without their knowledge, and to men whom they had never seen; the selection of a husband rested entirely with the father, and the daughter had only to acquiesce. Female decorum and purity were placed under espionage. A dueña kept guard over the wife and daughter at home, and closely followed at their heels whenever they stepped into the street. Ladies, closely veiled, marched solemnly to church, preceded by a rodrigon, or squire, with cushion and prayer-book, and followed by a dueña. At service, her place was in front, and men took up their station behind her. Teach woman first that she is inferior, next that she is impotent; add to this intellectual inanity and implied moral unaccountability, and you have a creature ripe for wickedness.
This excess of caution defeated its own purpose. Women, left much alone within their cloister-like homes, waited not in vain for opportunity. The gay mistress could often too easily win over her attendant, and make of her dueña a go-between; yet if we may believe the record, infidelity was rare, and for two reasons. First, woman in her seclusion escaped many temptations; and secondly, a wholesome fear, the certainty that vengeance, swift and sure, would follow the offence, resulting in the death of one or both offenders, placed a curb on passion. Females of the lower classes, left alone to take care of their virtue as best they might, with faces open and actions free, were less given to transgression than their wealthier sisters.