[4] This last edition of 1863, enlarged and corrected by reference to a German annotated translation and to the Spanish translation (with ample notes) of his first edition by Don Pascual de Gayangos and Enrique de Vedia.
[5] That a canoness is a woman who enjoys a prebend, without being obliged to make any vows, or renounce the world, may be unknown to some readers.
[6] Meaning, of course, the sun.
[7] Does not appear in this extract.
[8] Don Lope de Figuerroa, who figures also in the Amar despues de la Muerte, was (says Mr. Ticknor) “the commander under whom Cervantes served in Italy, and probably in Portugal, when he was in the Tercio de Flandes, the Flanders regiment, one of the best bodies of troops in the armies of Philip II.,” and the very one now advancing, with perhaps Cervantes in it, to Zalamea.
[9] Count Julian, governor of the provinces on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar, to avenge himself on King Roderick for dishonouring his daughter, the famous La Cava (also called Florinda) of the Spanish ballads, invited (711 A.D.) the Moors into Spain.
[10] The street singers of Spain are invariably recruited from the large army of the blind.
[11] A stick about a foot in length, wound round with gay ribbon or strips of coloured paper, and with a barbed dart at the point. The great feat is to stick a pair of banderillas, at one and the same time, one in each side of the bull, just above the shoulder.
[12] San Antonio is the patron saint of animals (St. Anthony and his pig), and reference to this saint is a favourite Spanish jest. To tell a youth his saint’s day is St. Anthony is equal to saying, “You are a donkey.”
[13] Garbanzos—chick-peas.