VICTORIAN.

The merest flaw that dents the horizon's edge.

There, yonder!

HYPOLITO.

"T is a notable old town,

Boasting an ancient Roman aqueduct,
And an Alcázar, builded by the Moors,
Wherein, you may remember, poor Gil Blas
Was fed on Pan del Rey. O, many a time)
Out of its grated windows have I looked
Hundreds of feet plumb down to the Eresma,
That, like a serpent through the valley creeping,
Glides at its foot.

PRECIOSA.

O, yes! I see it now,

Yet rather with my heart, than with mine eyes,
So faint it is. And, all my thoughts sail thither,
Freighted with prayers and hopes, and forward urged
Against all stress of accident, as, in

The Eastern Tale, against the wind and tide,
Great ships were drawn to the Magnetic Mountains,
And there were wrecked, and perished in the sea!

VICTORIAN.

O gentle spirit! Thou didst bear unmoved
Blasts of adversity and frosts of fate!
But the first ray of sunshine that falls on thee
Melts thee to tears! O, let thy weary heart
Lean upon mine! and it shall faint no more,
Nor thirst, nor hunger; but be comforted
And filled with my affection.

PRECIOSA.

Stay no longer!

My father waits. Methinks I see him there,

Now looking from the window, and now watching

(She weeps.)

Each sound of wheels or foot-fall in the street,
And saying, "Hark! she comes!" O father! father!
(They descend the pass. CHISPA remains behind.)

CHISPA.

I have a father, too, but he is a dead one. Alas and alack-a-day! Poor was I born, and poor do I remain. I neither win nor lose. Thus I wag through the world, half the time on foot, and the other half walking; and always as merry as a thunder-storm in the night. And so we plough along, as the fly said to the ox. Who knows what may happen? Patience, and shuffle the cards! I am not yet so bald, that you can see my brains; and perhaps, after all, I shall some day go to Rome, and come back Saint Peter. Benedicite! [Exit. (A pause. Then enter BARTOLOMÉ wildly, as if in pursuit, with a carbine in his hand.)

BARTOLOMÉ.

They passed this way! I hear their horses hoofs!
Yonder I see them! Come, sweet caramillo,
This serenade shall be the Gipsy's last!

(Fires down the pass.)

Ha! ha! Well whistled, my sweet caramillo !

-

Well whistled! I have missed her! O, my God!

(The shot is returned. BARTOLOMÉ falls.)

"Digo, Señora, respondió Sancho, lo que tengo dicho, que de los azotes abernuncio. Abrenuncio, habeis de decir, Sancho, y no como decis, dijo el Duque." Don Quixote, Part II., ch. 35.

Page 144. Fray Carrillo.

The allusion here is to a Spanish Epigram.

"Siempre Fray Carrillo estás
cansándonos acá fuera;

quien en tu celda estuviera

para no verte jamas!"

Page 145.

Padre Francisco.

Böhl de Faber.

Floresta, No. 611.

This is from an Italian popular song.

"Padre Francesco,

Padre Francesco!'

· Cosa volete del Padre Francesco

'V' è una bella ragazzina

Che si vuole confessar!'

Fatte l' entrare, fatte l' entrare!

Che la voglio confessare."

Kopisch. Volksthümliche Poesien aus allen Mundarten Italiens und seiner Inseln, p. 194.

Page 146. Ave! cujus calcem clare.

From a monkish hymn of the twelfth century, in Sir Alexander Croke's Essay on the Origin, Progress, and Decline of Rhyming Latin Verse, p. 109.

Page 155. The gold of the Busné.

Busné is the name given by the 'Gipsies to all who are not of their race.

Page 156. Count of the Calés.

The Gipsies call themselves Calés.

See Borrow's valuable and ex

tremely interesting work, The Zincali; or an Account of the Gipsies in Spain. London, 1841.

Page 160. Asks if his money-bags would rise.

"¿Y volviéndome á un lado, ví á un Avariento, que estaba preguntando á otro, (que por haber sido embalsamado, y estar léxos sus tripas no hablaba, porque no habian llegado si habian de resucitar aquel dia todos los enterrados) si resucitarian unos bolsones suyos?" El Sueño de las Calaveras.

Page 161. And amen! said my Cid Campeador.
A line from the ancient Poema del Cid.

"Amen, dixo Mio Cid el Campeador."

Line 3044.

Page 162.

The river of his thoughts.

"Si che chiaro

This expression is from Dante;

Per essa scenda della mente il fiume."

Byron has likewise used the expression; though I do not recollect in which of his poems.

Page 163. Mari Franca.

A common Spanish proverb, used to turn aside a question one does not wish to answer;

"Porque casó Mari Franca

quatro leguas de Salamanca."

Page 164. Ay, soft, emerald eyes.

The Spaniards, with good reason, consider this color of the eye as beautiful, and celebrate it in song; as, for example, in the well known Villancico;

Dante speaks of Beatrice's eyes as emeralds. Purgatorio, xxxi. 116. Lami says, in his Annotazioni, "Erano i suoi occhi d' un turchino verdiccio, simile a quel del mare."

Page 166. The Avenging Child.

See the ancient Ballads of El Infante Vengador, and Calaynos.

Page 166. All are sleeping.

From the Spanish. Böhl's Floresta, No. 282.

Page 183. Good night.

From the Spanish; as are likewise the songs immediately following, and that which commences the first scene of Act III.

"In the Gitano language, casting the evil eye is called Querelar nasula, which simply means making sick, and which, according to the common superstition, is accomplished by casting an evil look at people, especially children, who, from the tenderness of their constitution, are supposed to be more easily blighted than those of a more mature age. After receiving the evil glance, they fall sick, and die in a few hours.

"The Spaniards have very little to say respecting the evil eye, though the belief in it is very prevalent, especially in Andalusia, amongst the lower orders. A stag's horn is considered a good safeguard, and on that account a small horn, tipped with silver, is frequently attached to the children's necks by means of a cord braided from the hair of a black mare's tail. Should the evil glance be cast, it is imagined that the horn receives it, and instantly snaps asunder. Such horns may be purchased in some of the silversmiths' shops at Seville."

Page 201.

BORROW's Zincali, Vol. I. ch. ix.

On the top of a mountain I stand.

This and the following scraps of song are from Borrow's Zincali; or an

Account of the Gipsies in Spain.

The Gipsy words in the same scene may be thus interpreted:

John-Dorados, pieces of gold.

Pigeon, a simpleton.

In your morocco, stripped.

Doves, sheets.

Moon, a shirt.

Chirelin, a thief.

Murcigalleros, those who steal at night-fall.

Rastilleros, foot-pads.

Hermit, highway-robber.

Planets, candles.

Commandments, the fingers.

Saint Martin asleep, to rob a person asleep.

Lanterns, eyes.

Goblin, police officer.

Papagayo, a spy.

Vineyards and Dancing John, to take flight.

Page 213. If thou art sleeping, maiden.

From the Spanish; as is likewise the song of the Contrabandista on page 215..