[364. ]El bien pasado y el dolor presente: an obvious reminiscence of Dante's:
Nessun maggior dolore
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice
Nella miseria.—"Inferno," Canto V, ll. 121-123.
There is no greater sorrow than to recall the happy time in the midst of misery.
[371. ]The letter which follows represents Espronceda's most important borrowing from Byron. It is based upon Doña Julia's letter of adieu to Don Juan: see "Don Juan," Canto I, stanzas 192-197. The circumstances attending the writing of the two letters are entirely different. The tone of Doña Julia's letter is cynical; she is a married woman whose sin has been discovered and whose husband is forcing her to enter a convent. Doña Elvira's letter, written with death in view, is tender and pathetic. For details see Churchman, "Byron and Espronceda," Revue Hispanique, Vol. XX, p. 161.
PARTE TERCERA
In giving [this quotation] from the second act of Moreto's "El Lego del Carmen o San Franco de Sena," Espronceda is either quoting erroneously or following some edition not known to me. In the Rivadeneyra edition the passage is as follows:
SARGENTO
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