END.
NOTES.
[Page 4.] The Dramatis Personæ. These have been discussed in the Introduction, page [xlv]. I may add that the "Regidor de Cana" may be for "Regidor Decano." Otherwise I do not see a meaning to it. The term "Alguacil" might be translated "constable," or "bailiff."
[Page 6.] The salutations exchanged between the Alguacil and Governor are repeated frequently between the characters. In the first, the words would seem to be the Nahuatl matataca, to beg, to pray, and miecpialia, to watch over, to protect; in the reply, for the latter is substituted miequilia, to prosper, followed by qualli, good, or well. The terminal s, in mispiales, miscuales, is probably a remnant of the Spanish os, you. No pilse is the vocative nopiltze, my dear son, compounded of the inseparable possessive pronoun of the first person, no, and tepiltzin, an affectionate or reverential form, from the root pilli. The expression need not be taken as literally meaning relationship, as the Nahuas used the formula nopiltzintzinê in addressing all persons of position. "Ma moyolicaizin, Nopiltzintzine, seas bien venido, ó ilustre Señor." Carochi, Gram. Mex., p. 20.
Ya tiguala neme, I take to be yê tiqualli tinemi, in which yê is a particle of contraposition, and both the adjective-adverb qualli, and the verb nemi, to live, to be, are preceded by the second personal pronoun ti. The compound mascamayagua appears to be from maxca, yours, literally, your thing (mo, your, axca, thing), and the optative particle mayecuele, equivalent to the Spanish ojalá; hence the meaning is "yours to command," or "at your service."
In his next words the Governor uses a phrase which is repeated by various speakers with a "damnable iteration" throughout the comedy. Simocague would, in pure Nahuatl, be ximocauoltia, the imperative second person singular, of the compulsive form of mocaua, to cease, to stop, or to suspend something. The noun mocacaua is the word for the pauses or intervals in music. The reason for the frequent repetition of the request, I suppose to be that in the ancient exhibitions of the drama numerous assistants joined in dancing, singing and playing on musical instruments; and when a specified ballet was to be performed, or an important conversation to be repeated, they were courteously addressed, and requested to be silent for a time. Dr. Valentine tells me that in Guatemala the term gente principal is commonly used to designate the most prominent inhabitants of a pueblo.
Necana y paltechua, Nahuatl words, united by the Spanish conjunction. The former is Nah. nequaniliztli, dancing motions; the latter, elsewhere written palechua and paleguisa, is a corruption of paleuqui, suitable, or appropriate things. Hemo, a form of Sp. hemos, is an antiquated expression for tenemos.