[34.]—7. yo te pondré seis velas, I shall offer up to thee six candles; it is a Catholic custom to make an offering of candles for some special intention, or by way of petition or thanks-giving. In many churches candles are to be found unlighted near the altar. The offering is a coin dropped in a box near by, after a candle has been lighted.
14. Eso ha sido del cabello de ángel, the sweets caused it (i.e., the tooth-ache); see voc. under cabello.
25. auxiliar tercero de la clase de quintos, a third assistant civil employé of the government of the fifth grade; the auxiliar tercero de la clase de quintos (the position no longer exists) was an office-holder drawing a salary of three thousand reales (about $150) annually, and consequently was one of the humblest clerks in the Spanish bureaucracy. The author is evidently trying to emphasize the abject category of Atilano, the cesante, and to ridicule a condition of affairs which maintains such poorly paid positions.
[37.]—2. Ande usted con él, you go ahead and tackle him.
18. ¡Los innumerables mártires de Zaragoza! Atilano compares Francisco's victims to the ill-fated defenders of the city of Saragossa in the famous siege of 1808-1809, when the city held out against the French from the 15th of June, 1808, to the 19th of February, 1809. More than half of the inhabitants (about 50,000) perished in the defence.
>LAS SOLTERONAS
[41.]—Stage direction, de junto á, near; de governs the clause junto á la chimenea and combined with it forms an adjectival clause modifying butacas.
3. siempre te llevas más de lo que dejas, you keep taking away more than you leave.
[42.]—2. ejercicios, see voc. for the play on meanings.
[43.]—13. Te, see note 15, 22.