Si fuera por la Vera de Plasencia
Á buscar primavera al jardín mío,
Hallara tu Leonor en competencia.
Obras Sueltas, vol. I, p. 268.
[960.] Pues lo digo, etc. In the Valencia edition Martin says:
Quando lo digo lo sé.
Tres puntos del que los vé
Que no son puntos de vara:
Puntos, que puedo decir,
Según en su condición,
Que tres en un punto son:
Ver, desear, y morir.
The sense of the passage seems to turn on the words punto and cara. A punto or "point" is one twelfth of the antiquated French line and one one hundred and forty-fourth of an inch. By a comparison of the two editions it is clear that there is a play on this word. Cara is probably a typographical error for vara, but it may be used here in a related sense to the archaic á primera cara, which was the equivalent of á primera vista. Therefore the sense of ll. 961-2 is: "That is the size that one would take of that foot with a measure," or "That is the size that one would take by a glimpse of that foot."
[971.] De escarpines presumí, etc. The consonance of escarpines is with jazmines, but the contrast is with chapines above. The chapín was a heavy low shoe or sandal better suited to the use of servants, while the escarpín was an elegant thin-soled, shoe or slipper, and often with cloth top as the following verse seems to indicate. Here the sense is not very apparent and may involve some colloquialism of the time. The passage may be freely translated: "I thought you were speaking of escarpines, since the distinction depends only upon (the height of) the cotton (top)."
[973.] paragambas. An obsolete or colloquial word made up of the preposition para, or possibly of a form of the verb parar, "parry off, protect," and the obsolete substantive gamba, the equivalent of pierna. It was evidently applied to some covering of the leg, as a gaiter or boot. In the Valencia edition it appears as two words, para gambas.
[974.] á cierta dama depends upon pregunté.
[975.] cañafístolas=cañafístulas. The word seems to have the idea of something indicated but not named, and here may have the sense of "ridiculous adornments." It is still used colloquially as the approximate equivalent of the English "thingumajig" or "thingumbob." That the author intends it to have something of its true meaning, "purgative," is indicated by the next few lines of the text.
[1009.] fialle, see v. 95 and note.
[1038.] azules enojos, dark clouds. Lit. "blue wrath."