[26.]—Nicolás Fernández de Moratín (1737-1780) was born in Madrid of a noble Asturian family. He studied for the law and practised it in Madrid, but irregularly, devoting most of his time to literary work. Besides his poems in the national style (see Introduction, p. xxix) he wrote an epic on the burning of the ships of Cortés and several plays in the French manner, of which only one, Hormesinda (1770), ever had a stage production. His works, with his Life written by his son Leandro, are printed in vol. 2 of the Bibl. de Ant. Esp.
Fiesta de toros en Madrid. Baedeker's guide-book to Spain and Portugal says: "Bull-fights were instituted for the encouragement of proficiency in the use of martial weapons and for the celebration of festal occasions, and were a prerogative of the aristocracy down to the sixteenth century. As the mounted caballero encountered the bull, armed only with a lance, accidents were very frequent. No less than ten knights lost their lives at a single Fiesta de Toros in 1512. The present form of the sport, so much less dangerous for the man and so much more cruel for the beast, was adopted about the beginning of the seventeenth century. The construction, in 1749, of the first great Plaza de Toros in Madrid definitely converted the once chivalrous sport into a public spectacle, in which none took part but professional Toreros." The padded picador of to-day, astride a blinded, worn-out old hack, is the degenerate successor of the knight of old. In the seventeenth century bull-fights in Madrid were sometimes given in the Plaza Mayor (or Plaza de la Constitución).
[6. Aliatar:] this, like most of the names of persons in this poem, is fictitious; but in form these words are of Arabic origin, and it is probable that Moratin borrowed most of them from the romances moriscos. The names of places, it should be noticed, are also Arabic, but the places still retain these names. See Alimenón, and all names of places, in the Vocab.
[28.—19. Hecho un lazo por airón], tied in a knot [to look] like a crest of plumes. This was doubtless the forerunner of the modern banderilla (barbed dart ornamented with streamers of colored paper).
[30.—26-28.] Cual... nube = cual la ardiente madeja del sol deja mirarse tal vez entre cenicienta nube.
[31.—12. blasones de Castilla:] as at this time (in the reign of Alfonso VI) León and Castile were united, the blasones were probably two towers (for Castile) and two lions (for León), each one occupying a corner of the shield.
[14. Nunca mi espada venciera] apparently means: Never did he conquer my sword. This may refer to any adversary, or to some definite adversary in a previous combat.
[26.] The best bulls raised for bull-fights come from the valley of the Guadalquivir.
[32.—22-26.] Así... acerquen á..., Como, may... bring to..., just as surely as.
[33.—8.] Fernando I: see in Vocab.