[1882]. This line is faulty; two syllables are lacking.
[1908]. Quevedo is even more famous for his satirical romances (ballads) than for his letrillas and sonnets.
[1926-1929]. Margarita here probably alludes to Quevedo's Poesías Morales, "esto es que descubren y manifiestan las pasiones y costumbres del hombre, procurándolas enmendar."
[1938-1941]. These lines are taken from the first strophe of Quevedo's "Elogio al Duque de Lerma, Canción Pindárica."
[1977]. Sicily was at this time still ruled by a Spanish viceroy.
[1979]. Palermo, a city on the north coast of Sicily, formerly the capital of the kingdom of Sicily and now the capital of the province of Palermo.
[1989-1990]. These lines are taken from one of Quevedo's cold and highly artificial love sonnets, "Musa" IV, VII.
[2030]. ese altivo Girón: cf. Historical Introduction.
[2036-2043]. Sanz quotes the two quatrains of Quevedo's sonnet "Memoria inmortal de Don Pedro Girón, Duque de Osuna, muerto en la prisión." The concluding tercets are inferior to the quatrains.
[2048]. los Guzmanes en Tarifa: the allusion is to Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, called el Bueno (1256-1309). In the reign of Sancho IV of Castile, Alonso Pérez was entrusted with the defense of Tarifa against the Moors. Tarifa was besieged by the traitorous infante Don Juan at the head of an army of Moors and adventurers. Assaults proving fruitless, Don Juan summoned Guzmán to a parley on the walls of the city, where he told him that if Tarifa were not immediately surrendered, the son of the gallant defender would be put to death before his eyes. The answer of Alonso Pérez was to fling down the weapon with which his son should be murdered. Don Juan promptly dispatched the boy and cast his head within the walls.