Letters from Spain

See Note B.

9

Pobres vergonzantes.

10

See Note C.

11

The secular clergy are not bound by vows. Celibacy is enforced upon them by a law which makes their marriage illegal, and punishable by the Ecclesiastical Courts.

12

See Note D.

13

Feyjoo died in 1765. Several of his Essays were published in English by John Brett, Esq. 1780.

14

There exist in Spain some other colleges which are also called mayores; but none, except four at Salamanca, one at Valladolid, and one at Seville, were reckoned as a part of the literary aristocracy of the country. None but these had the privilege of referring all their interests and concerns to a committee of the supreme council of the nation, expressly named for that purpose.

15

… Il s’est établi dans Madrid un systême de liberté sur la vente des productions, qui s’étend même à celles de la presse; et que, pourvu que je ne parle en mes écrits ni de l’autorité, ni du culte, ni de la politique, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en crédit, ni de l’Opera, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne à quelque chose, je puis tout imprimer librement, sous l’inspection de deux ou trois censeurs.—Marriage de Figaro, Act 5, Sc. 3.

16

Don Manuel Maria del Marmol.

17

Don Manuel Maria de Arjona.

18

A coloured tassel on the cap is, in Spain, the peculiar distinction of doctors and masters. White, denotes divinity: green, canon law: crimson, civil law: yellow, medicine; and blue, arts, i. e. philosophy. Those caps are worn only on public occasions at the universities.

19

Melendez Valdez.

20

Don Juan Pablo Forner.

21

See Note E.

22

“Beauties of Christianity,” 3 vols. 8vo.

23

See Letter III. p. 77.

24

The yellow fever in 1800.

25

See Note F.

26

See Note G.

27

See Note H.

28

Chapter xxxvii.

29

Persons who live in common.

30

See Note I.

31

Charles III.

32

Jovellanos; see Appendix.

33

See Letter V. page 141.

34

Chapter xxxvii.

35

See Letter III.

36

She died in 1821.

37

… Nihilo ut sapientior, illeQui te deridet, caudam trahat,Sat. II. iii.So he who dared thy madness to deride,Though you may frankly own yourself a fool,Behind him trails his mark of ridicule.Francis.

38

“Os quais servidores naô seraô Hespanhôes para gozarem de dita libertade.”

39

The Casuists are divided into Probabilistæ and Probabilioristæ. The first, among whom were the Jesuits, maintain that a certain degree of probability as to the lawfulness of an action is enough to secure against sin. The second, supported by the Dominicans and the Jansenists (a kind of Catholic Calvinists, condemned by the Church) insist on the necessity of always taking the safest, or most probable side. The French proverb Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien, is perfectly applicable to the practical effects of these two systems, as they are observed in Spain.

40

“Calla, maldita lengua,” the usual exclamation which stops the crier, has become a jocular expression in Andalusia.

41

This name is, as far as I know, peculiar to Seville. The similarity of its sound and that of sizars used at Cambridge, seems to denote a common origin in the two words.

42

See page 253.

43

See Letter II. p. 34.

44

A word derived from the verb Majar, to beat in a mortar.

45

Jupiter, ingentes qui das adimisque dolores,(Mater ait pueri menses jam quinque cubantis),Frigida si puerum quartana reliquerit, illoMane, die quo tu indicis jejunia, nudusIn Tiberi stabit.—Casus, medicusve levaritÆgrum ex precipiti; mater delira necabitIn gelidâ fixum ripâ, febrimque reducet.Hor. Sat. L. II. 3. 288.

46

Hudibras, Part II. Canto I.

47

Garlands.

48

Proverbs xxvi. 8.

49

Young men are appointed to go abroad with the Spanish ambassadors in order to learn foreign languages, and thus qualify themselves as diplomatists.

50

It is a well known fact that there are letters in existence addressed by her, while Princess of Asturias, to the judges in the provinces, asking their votes in pending lawsuits.

51

See Note K.

52

See Letter X. p. 309.

53

That of a Catholic Clergyman.

54

See Letter X.

55

This was actually the case at the creation of the Central Junta.

56

The account in Letter VII. of the anxiety manifested by Charles III. on the occasion of sending to Rome a manuscript in the hand of a Spanish simpleton, whom the superstition of that country wished to invest with the honours of Saintship, was compiled from local tradition, and the recollections preserved from a former perusal of the present Appendix. Its noble author, whose love of the literature of Spain, and great acquaintance with that country, would be enough to designate him, were he not best known by a peculiar benevolence of heart, which no man ever expressed so faithfully in the affability of his manners; has subsequently favoured the writer of the preceding Letters with his permission to publish this sketch. The attentive reader will observe some slight variations between my story of Brother Sebastian and that given in this Appendix. But as they all relate to circumstances connected with the city of Seville, I am unwilling to omit or to alter what I have heard from my townsmen and the contemporaries of Sebastian himself.

57

There is a Life of Palafox, published at Paris, in 1767. The design of the unknown author is evidently to mortify and prejudice the Jesuits by exalting the character of one of their earliest and fiercest opponents. The author is, however, either an ardent fanatic of the Jansenist party, and as superstitious as those he wishes to expose; or he promotes the cause of the Philosophers of France and Spain by affecting devotion, and conciliating many true believers to the measure of suppressing the Jesuits.—Palafox was the illegitimate child of Don Jayme de Palafox y Mendoza, by a lady of rank, who, to conceal her pregnancy, retired to the waters of Fitero in Navarre, and being delivered on the 24th June, 1600, to avoid the scandal, took the wicked resolution of drowning her child in the neighbouring river. The woman employed to perpetrate this murder was detected before she effected her purpose, the child saved, and brought up by an old dependant of the house of Ariza till he was ten years old, when his father returned from Rome, acknowledged, relieved, and educated him at Alcalá and Salamanca. His mother became a nun of the barefooted Carmelite order. Palafox was introduced at Court, and to the Count Duke de Olivares in 1626, and was soon after named to the council of India. An illness of his paternal sister, the funeral of two remarkable men, and the piety of his mother, made such impression upon him, that he gave himself up to the most fervent devotion, and soon after took orders. He became chaplain to the Queen of Hungary, Philip IVth’s sister, and travelled through Italy, Germany, Flanders, and France. In 1639, he was consecrated Bishop of Angelopolis, or Puebla de los Angeles, in America. His first quarrel with the Jesuits was on the subject of tithes. Lands on which tithes were payable had been alienated in favour of the Company, and they pretended, that when once the property of their body, they were exempt from that tax. The second ground was a pretended privilege of the Jesuits to preach without the permission of the Diocesan, against which Palafox contended. The Jesuits, having the Viceroy of New Spain on their side, obliged Palafox to fly; on which occasion he wrote his celebrated letters against his enemies. A brief of the Pope in his favour did not prevent his being recalled in civil terms, by the King. At the petition of the Jesuits, who dreaded his return to America, the King named him to the bishopric of Osma. Of the austerity and extravagance of his principles, the following resolutions of the pious bishop are specimens: Not to admit any woman to his presence, and never to speak to one but with his eyes on the ground, and the door open. Never to pay a woman a compliment, but when the not doing so would appear singular or scandalous; and never to look a female in the face. Whenever compelled to visit a woman, to wear a cross with sharp points next the skin.

58

He was not a lay-brother, but a Donado, a species of religious drudges, who, without taking vows, wear the habit of the order; and may leave it when they please. The Donados are never called Fray, but Hermano.—See Doblado’s Letter IX.

59

Letter I. p. 20.

60

Sigillum or annulus Piscatoris, the great seal of the Popes.

61

Gentlemen of the first rank, who are members of the associations called Maestranzas, perform at these games on the King’s birth-day, and other public festivals. Horsemanship was formerly in great estimation among the Andalusian gentry, who joined in a variety of amusements connected with that art. Such was the Parejas de Hachas, a game performed by night, at which the riders bore lighted torches. When Philip the Fourth visited Seville, in 1624, one hundred gentlemen, each attended by two grooms, all with torches in their hands, ran races before the king. This was the only amusement which, according to the established notions, could be permitted in Lent.

62

The reader must be aware that this was an imitation of a foot tournament, an amusement as frequent among the ancient Spanish knights as the jousts on horseback. It is called in the Spanish Chronicles Tornéo de a pié.

63

Though the Spanish writer has forgotten to mention the allegory of the challenger, it is evident, from the sequel, that he was intended to represent Sin.

64

The Spanish Catechism enumerates seven vices and seven opposite virtues.

65

This curious scene is the subject of another picture in the cloisters of Saint Francis, at Seville. The bishop is seen in his bed, where Saint Francis has neatly severed the head from the body with Saint Paul’s sword, which he had borrowed for this pious purpose. As the good friars might have been suspected of having a hand in this miracle, the saint performed an additional wonder. The figures of Saint Paul and Saint Francis stood side by side in a painted glass window of the principal convent of the order. The apostle had a sword in his hand, while his companion was weaponless. To the great surprise of the fathers, it was observed, one morning, that Saint Paul had given away the sword to his friend. The death of the bishop, which happened that very night, explained the wonder, and taught the world what those might expect who thwarted the plans of Heaven in the establishment of the Franciscans.

66

Espinosa, the modern editor and annotator of Zuñiga, states, from ancient records, that within the first six weeks after the appearance of the plague, the number of deaths amounted to eighty thousand. This, however, we consider as a palpable exaggeration; for, though Seville was nearly depopulated on that occasion, it is probable that it never contained more than one hundred thousand inhabitants.

67

Seville has several streets bearing the name of foreign nations—a faint memorial of its former commerce and wealth. The street of the Placentines is a continuation of that of the Franks (Francos). There is a Lombard Street (calle Lombardos), a Genoa Street, and some others of a similar denomination.

68

In the Appendix No. 2, to Lord Holland’s Life of Lope de Vega are found both the originals and translations of some eloquent passages from Jovellanos’s pen, to which I have made an allusion in this note. His portrait also, from a marble bust executed at Seville by Don Angel Monasterio, at his lordship’s desire, and now in his possession, is prefixed to the second volume of the same work.