[838.] Granada, the most historic city of Southern Spain and the last stronghold of the Moors.
[868.] El camino de Granada, etc. The more probable route from Granada to the capital would have taken her some distance east of Adamuz.
[876.] Traigo jornada más larga, I am making a longer journey. Besides its common meanings traer has that of "to be occupied in making, to have on one's hands." Jornada usually means "day's journey," cf. French étape, but it is also used in the sense of a "journey" more or less long.
[877.] vengo de las Indias. Hence the name "Indiano," which may mean that one is a native of the Indies or simply a Spaniard who is returning from there after having made his fortune. The term has a depreciative meaning also, and then is an equivalent of our nouveaux riches, for which we in turn are indebted to the French. (See Introduction.)
[882.] Porque me dicen, etc., Because they tell me that the realization of one's pretensions which one's occupation puts off, is slow in arriving, I am going to set up a household.
[917.] Que tantas persecuciones, etc. Supply some introductory interrogative expression like "Can it be" or "Do you believe."
[922.] De Amadís, en Beltenebros. Amadís de Gaula is the title of an old romance of uncertain authorship. The oldest text of which we have record was in Spanish or Portuguese prose, and the most interesting part of it is attributed to the Portuguese, Joham de Lobeira. The incident referred to by Lope occurred in the early years of the career of Amadís, hero of the story. After a youth filled with adventure, he meets and falls in love with Oriana, daughter of Lisuarte, king of Great Britain, who returns his affection. A short time afterwards Amadís is freed from a perilous situation by a young girl named Briolania, who herself is suffering captivity. He then promises to return and deliver her. Having been successful in a number of other adventures, he sets out, with the tearful consent of Oriana, to rescue Briolania. After his departure on this mission, Oriana is erroneously informed that Amadís loves Briolania; mad with anger and despair, she sends him a letter saying that all is ended between them. Amadís, having avenged Briolania's wrongs, receives Oriana's letter and, overcome by grief, retires to a hermitage on a rock in the sea, where he receives the name of Beltenebros, which Southey translates as the "Fair Forlorn." Afterwards Oriana, undeceived, seeks a reconciliation with Amadís, and their happiness is at length realized. Amadís has remained the type of the constant lover who comes into the possession of the object of his affections only after adventures and difficulties without number.
[951.] Valencia is an important seaport town on the Mediterranean with a population of about 160,000. The city is picturesquely situated on the banks of the Guadalaviar in the midst of a luxuriant tropical nature. Valencia was formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name and has played an important rôle in Spanish history since the time when the Romans occupied the peninsula. During the Moorish occupation it was a worthy rival of Seville, with which it is here mentioned. The gardens of Valencia have always been justly celebrated for their beauty, and Lope well knew this, for during his exile in Valencia he himself had a garden in which, as he tells us in several of his works, he passed many pleasant hours.
[954.] Vera de Plasencia is a small town northwest of Zaragoza, situated in the desolate Llano de Plasencia. Lope must have sojourned there at some time or have had more than a passing interest in the place, for in his Epístola á D. Michael de Solis he writes: