El Dos de Mayo: on the second of May, 1808, the Spanish people, unarmed and without strong leaders, rose against Napoleon's veteran troops. Aided by the English, they drove out the French after a long and bloody war, thus proving to the world that the old Spanish spirit of independence was still alive. This war is known to the Spaniards as the Guerra de la independencia and to the English as the Peninsular War. The popular uprising began with the seizure of a powder magazine in Madrid by Velarde and Daoiz (see in Vocab.). These men and their followers were killed and the magazine was retaken by the French, but the incident roused the Spanish people to action.
[9.] al furor, in the glare.
[55.—4.] Mantua: a poetic appellation of Madrid. Cf. article by Prof. Milton A. Buchanan in Romanic Review, 1910, p. 211 f. See also p. xxxiii, Introduction to this volume.
[11-12.] ¿Quién habrá... que cuente, who may there be to tell...
[58.—26 to 59.]—3. Note how the poet refers to the various parts of the Spanish peninsula: hijos de Pelayo = the Spaniards in general, or perhaps those of northernmost Spain; Moncayo = Aragon, Navarre and Castile; Turia = Valencia; Duero = Old Castile, Leon and Portugal; and Guadalquivir = Andalusia. See Pelayo and Moncayo and these names of rivers in Vocab.
[5.] Patrón = Santiago, or St. James, the patron saint of Spain. According to the legend James "the Greater," son of Zebedee, preached in Spain, and after his death his body was taken there and buried at Santiago de Campostela. It was believed that he often appeared in the battle-fields fighting with the Spaniards against the Moslems.
[14-15.] á... brindó felicidad, drank in fire and blood a toast to her prosperity.
[60.]—Francisco Martínez de la Rosa (1787-1862) was born at Granada. During the War of Independence he was sent to England to plead for the support of that country against the French. Later he was exiled by Ferdinand VII, and was for five years a prisoner of state in a Spanish prison on the African coast. After his release he became prominent in politics, and was forced to flee to France. In 1834 he was called into power by the queen regent, Maria Cristina. He represented his country at Paris, and later at Rome, and held several important posts as cabinet minister.
See [Introduction], p. xxxvi; Menéndez y Pelayo, Estudios de crítica literaria, Madrid, 1884, pp. 223, f.; Blanco García, I, 115-128; Juan Valera, Florilegio, V, 56-63. His Obras completas, 2 vols., ed. Baudry, were published at Paris in 1845. Several of his articles of literary criticism are in vols. 5, 7, 20 and 61 of the Bibl. de Aut. Esp.
[3.] riyendo = riendo.