[7. ]en todo mar conocido: I follow the reading of the text as it originally appeared in El Artista. The later version of 1840 is peculiar in the reading en todo el mar conocido. We cannot be certain that this is a change made by Espronceda himself.
[84. ]Instead of negro the 1840 edition reads ronco.
EL CANTO DEL COSACO
[Attila,] king of the Huns, reigned from 433 until his death 453 A.D. He is noted for the barbaric ferocity of his campaigns against the Eastern and Western Roman Empires and the Germanic kingdoms of the West. In 447 he ravaged seventy cities in Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, and all but captured Constantinople. In 451 he crossed the Rhine and sacked the cities of Belgic Gaul. He was decisively defeated at Troyes by the Gothic leader Theodoric in league with the Roman general Aëtius. He then entered northern Italy, where he continued his depredations and advanced upon Rome. The Emperor Valentinianus II saved the city by paying tribute. Legend has it that while in Gaul a hermit called Attila to his face the "scourge of God." Attila accepted the designation and replied with the remark quoted in the text. This story is not found in Jordanes, Priscus, or any of the contemporary historians. Gibbon says: "It is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod" ("Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," London, 1897, III, p. 469). This poem is a magnificent expression of barbaric battle-lust. Espronceda felt as a youth that wholesale destruction must precede the new order of things in Spain and Europe.
[50.] The poet hopelessly confuses the exploits of the Huns, the Goths, and the Cossacks. Neither the Cossacks nor the Huns ever captured Rome. Alaric the Goth took Rome in 410 A.D.
[65.] The principal Cossack invasion of Poland was in the first half of the seventeenth century, when Chmielnicki, hetman of the Cossacks, with the aid of his Tartar allies ruthlessly devastated the Polish provinces. This war has been vividly described by Sienkiewicz in his novel "With Fire and Sword."
[79.] The Huns are said to have carried raw meat beneath their saddles as they rode. At the end of the day's ride they would eat it.
EL MENDIGO
[108.] The poet has paraphrased the proverb Allá van leyes do quieren reyes, the idea of which is that a tyrant can twist the law to serve the purposes of his tyranny.
A TERESA. DESCANSA EN PAZ