The Bible in Spain Volume II Part 46

{147a} "Mashes" and mistresses. _Majo_ is a word of more general signification than _manolo_. The one is a dandy, or smart fellow, all over Spain; the other is used only of a certain cla.s.s in Madrid.

{147b} More correctly, _Carabanchel_ or _Carabancheles_, two villages a few miles south of Madrid.

{148} This in prison!

{149} _E.g._ in the citadel of Pampeluna. See _Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society_, i. 152.

{152} Perhaps Waterloo.-[Note by Borrow.]

{154} "It distresses me."

{155} Robbing the natives.

{156} See chap. xiii.

{164} The sun was setting, and Demos commands. "Bring water, my children, that ye may eat bread this evening." Borrow has translated this song in the _Targum _(_v._ p. 343).

{165} The treasure-digger.

{170} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. iv.

{171} The duke became prime minister in August, 1838.

{175} In Gams' _Series Episcoporum_, the standard authority on the subject, the archiepiscopal see of Toledo is noted as _vacant_ from 1836 to 1847. Nor is any hint given of how the duties of the office were performed. Don Antonio Perez Hirias figures only as Bishop of Mallorca, or Majorca, from December, 1825, to December, 1847.

{178a} Kicks from behind.

{178b} "I do not know."

{179a} See note, p. 103.

{179b} "To the gallows! To the gallows!"

{180a} "To the country! To the country!"

{180b} "Ride on, because of the word of truth, of meekness, and righteousness" (Ps. xlv. 5, P.B.V.).

{188} A nickname, unhappily too commonly justified in Southern Spain, where ophthalmia and oculists are equally dangerous.

It is remarkable how many of the great men in Spanish history, however, have been distinguished by this blemish: Hannibal, Viriatus, Taric, Abdur Rahman I., and Don Juan el Tuerto in the reign of Alfonso XI.

{190} Byron, _Don Juan_, xiii. 11. Borrow probably knew well enough where the lines came from. _Don Juan_ had not been published more than fifteen years at the time, and was in the zenith of its popularity. But Byron and his ways were alike odious to the rough manliness of Borrow (see _Lavengro_, ch. x.x.xix.), and, in good truth, however much the poet "deserves to be remembered," it is certainly not for this line, which contains as many _suggestiones falsi_ as may be packed into one line.

Yet the "sneer" is not in the original, but in Borrow's misquotation; Byron wrote "smiled." The idea of the poet having spent a handful of gold ounces in a Genoese posada at Seville and at a bull-fight at Madrid, that he might be competent to tell the world that Cervantes sneered Spain's chivalry away, is superlatively Borrovian-and delicious. The entire pa.s.sage runs thus-

"Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away; A single laugh demolish'd the right arm Of his own country;-seldom since that day Has Spain had heroes."

{192} About thirty pounds, at the exchange of the day.

{195a} "I wish to enlist with you."

{195b} "_Gee up_, donkey!" From this _arrhe_, of Arabic origin, is derived the word _arriero_, a muleteer.

{197} "Blessed be G.o.d!"

{198} See note, _ante_, p. 190.

{201} See vol. i. p. 257.

{202} Aranjuez, the Roman _Ara Jovis_, was, until the absorption of the great military order by the Crown under Isabella and Ferdinand, a favourite residence of the Grand Masters of Santiago.

{203} "Die schonen Tage in Aranjuez Sind nun zu Ende."

The opening lines of _Don Carlos_.

{204} An exceedingly ancient town, celebrated in the days before the Roman dominion.

{205} See Glossary, _sub. verb_. SCHOPHON. As to rabbits in Spain, see note, vol. i. p. 25.

{208} The modern La Granja or San Ildefonso is, in the season, anything but desolate: the beautiful, if somewhat over-elaborate gardens, are admirably kept up, and the general atmosphere of the plain is bright and cheerful, though the Court of to-day prefers the sea-breezes of Biscay to the air of the Guadarrama, when Madrid becomes, as it does, well-nigh uninhabitable in summer.

{211a} A particular scoundrel. His ma.s.sacre of prisoners, November 9, 1838, was remarkable for its atrocity, when ma.s.sacre was of daily occurrence. See Duncan, _The English in Spain_, pp. 247, 248.

{211b} See note, vol. i. p. 164.

{213} August 31, 1838.

{215} Don Carlos, who probably died a natural death in 1568.

{217} The etymology of Andalusia is somewhat of a _crux_; the various authorities are collected and reviewed in an appendix to Burke's _History of Spain_, vol. i. p. 379. The true etymology may be Vandalusia, the abiding-place of the Vandals, though they abode in Southern Spain but a very short time; but the word certainly came into the Spanish through the Arabic, and not through the Latin, long years after Latin was a spoken language. The young lady was quite right in speaking of it as _Betica_ or _Btica_; though the _Terra_ would be superfluous, if not incorrect.

{218} He had succeeded to that t.i.tle on the death of his uncle, December 22, 1838.

{219} _I.e._ "My Lord the Sustainer of the Kingdom." See preface to _The Zincali_, second edition.

{221a} _Tio_. A common method of address, conveying no reference to real relationship. So the Boers in South Africa speak of "Oom (uncle) Paul."

{221b} "What beautiful, what charming reading!"

{223} _No hay otro en el mundo_.

{224a} See note on p. 147.

{224b} ?at? t?? t?p?? ?a? ? t??p??, as Antonio said.-[Note by Borrow].

_I.e._ "As is the place, such is the character (of the people)."

{225} Alcala de Henares. See note, vol. i. p. 223.

{228a} "Good night!"