[2422.] In the Valencia edition this passage is identical except that it continues through one more octava.
[2438.] Vinculadas en lacayos, Handed down from lackey to lackey. Vincular, "to entail, continue, perpetuate."
[2440.] Aunque poca me ha cabido, Although little has fallen to my share.
[2444.] Mondoñedo, a town in Galicia, northeast of Lugo, with a population of about 12,000. This region has been particularly prolific in noble houses and among them is that of Lope de Vega. He mentions the fact in el Premio de bien hablar, when he makes don Juan say:
Nací en Madrid, aunque son
En Galicia los solares
De mi nacimiento noble,
De mis abuelos y padres.
Para noble nacimiento
Hay en España tres partes:
Galicia, Vizcaya, Asturias,
Ó ya montañas se llamen.—
[2446.] Volver la silla á el dosel, Conduct himself better on occasions of ceremony. The origin of the expression is explained in the following note in the London edition of the play: "Alude á la costumbre de estar en los actos públicos la silla del rey vuelta hacia el dosel siempre que S. M. no la ocupa. Así se mantuvo la silla real en las Cortes Extraordinarias de Cádiz y Madrid todo el tiempo que Fernando VII estuvo preso en Francia."
[2452.] Aunque pide, etc., Although the sack of salt requires greater fortune. A probable reference to the high cost of living and particularly to the high price of salt, of which Olivares made a government monopoly in 1631, the year previous to the revision or appearance of the play.
[2468.] Que no hay hueso que dejar, For nothing must be omitted. Lit. "For not a bone must be left out".
[2534.] Que á saber, For if I had known.
[2539.] Aunque á Alejandro, etc. Apelles was a famous Greek painter in the time of Philip and Alexander. His renown may be imagined, since the three cities, Colophon, Ephesus and Cos, claimed to be his birthplace. He spent, however, the greater part of his life in the Macedonian court, where he was very popular. Many anecdotes were told of Alexander and Apelles which show the intimate relations of the two and among which is the one referred to in the text. Apelles had painted Campaspe, also called Pancaste, the favorite of Alexander, undraped, and had fallen in love with her. The generous monarch learning of it yielded her up to the painter. This picture is said to have been the famous Venus Anadyomene. At the time of the first representation of the play, the author must have had Apelles fresh in mind, for about that date he cites another anecdote of the painter in his dedication of Amor secreto hasta Zelos, and mentions him several times in miscellaneous verse of the period.