as well as Rosa, puts the pronoun last.
122
A éste le había dado… por callar, He had taken to silence, he didn't feel like talking: dar (impersonal) for some other verb as often; cf. le dio por ahí, he (or she) took to that.
123
Cristo: a strong oath. Usually Cristo is covered by some innocent word beginning with the same sound, as we shall often see. Captain Veneno later says por Jesucristo vivo, 135, 20.
124
balazo de la frente, bullet wound in his forehead: in the Diario I, 168, Alarcón tells of a captive Moor who had a terrible scar in his forehead: nos mostró una larga cicatriz que le atravesaba toda la frente. ¿Cómo no moriste? – La bala se deslizó sobre el hueso, – respondió, He showed us a long scar which crossed his whole forehead. Why didn't it kill you? – The ball glanced on the bone, he answered.
125
por estar la tibia muy destrozada, because the tibia was shattered. The subject of the infinitive is the post-placed noun tibia.
126
a solas, alone, privately: as feminine -mente is universal for the adverb ending, and as cosa is so often understood, it has come about that the fashion is to make adverbial expressions with a feminine form: cf. apenas, a duras penas, a ciegas; and even where the feminine is illogical, as in a ojos vistas, a pie juntillas, a ojos cegarritas: two constructions are confused, the adverb from a noun: a ojos, a pie, a la vista, and the adverb from an adjective.
127
tres Marías: reference to the three Marys at the crucifixion, Matthew 27:56. The phrase has become common with the legend that the three Marys came to Provence together.
128
¡cáspita…! and (20) ¡caracoles…!: note the disguised [encubierto] oath, how it starts as though to say Cristo and switches off to ca-something, any word beginning with ca- (canastos, caminos, canales, calles, culebrines, etc.), or even ca alone, or que. The commonest is caramba. In the Diario I, p. 32, and elsewhere several times, Alarcón speaks of the great amount of swearing: Valiéndose de distintas interjecciones y muletillas, usando de diverso género de oratorio, declaman, votan, refieren, arguyan, se insultan, se reconcilian… Using different interjections and gags, using a varied kind of oratory, they declaim, swear, quote, argue, insult each other, make up… Cf. our disguised forms for Jesus: By Joe, by George, Gewhiz, Jerusalem, Jehosaphat, Jimminy, and many more.
129
Y cuenta que = Tenga usted en cuenta que, And remember or just to think; in Don Quixote, haz cuenta que. Cf. the fuller form Hágase V. cuenta de que no nos hemos abrazado todavía, Remember we have not embraced each other yet. Escándalo, p. 151.
130
calaverada: cf. Aquella calaverada propuesta por la serpiente y aceptada por Eva, That prank proposed by the serpent and accepted by Eve.
131
velis nolis [Latin], whether or no, willy nilly = Spanish quiera o no quiera. Another form is de buen o mal grado, in La Pródiga.
132
dejarse cuidar… por, let [some one] take care of him: se is the object of cuidar, then por following mixes the construction. Cf. English I have heard say by somebody, a mixed construction for I have heard said by somebody, and I have heard somebody say.
133
so pena, under penalty: so pretexto, and so capa, under pretext; so, often pronounced jo, gave way to bajo, which is the common word for under. So [Lat. sub] remains in a few legal or set phrases.
134
precauciones nasales, nasal precautions: facetious, like the expressions of a baseball reporter with us; it is a style of playfulness common with Alarcón.
135
alguno after its word = ninguno.
136
interrumpió: a marked trait of Jorge.
137
señores: includes señoras; cf. los reyes católicos de España, the Catholic king and queen of Spain, i.e. Ferdinand and Isabel.
138
la contraria [razón]: Alarcón uses el contrario, lo contrario, in the same sense.
139
himno de Riego: not so much that he indorsed Riego, as to be mean and pique the marquis. Alarcón would not have a hero too radical. He tells us Jorge had never been a revolutionist (lo que nunca ha hecho ha sido pronunciarse). He tells us of himself that he was anti-royalist only a little while: his democratic impulses (pujos democráticos) were sudden and fleeting (repentinos y fugaces). See Diario I, p. 11.
140
a quien nadie mandaba echar su cuarto a espadas, whom nobody told to bet his money on spades, i.e. he had no business to get into the fray: the figure is of betting on cards.
141
podía haber escarmentado, he might have known better.
142
perito agrónomo, land expert, surveyor: agrónomo is an adjective.
143
Señoras y señores: addressed to the same ones he called señores before.
144
partiendo de la base, starting from the basis = taking for granted.
145
resabios, tricks: note the sense flavor, taste, bad taste, of the stem saber, to taste, smack, flavor, here and in sinsabores, desabrimiento, desabor. Cf. English disgusting [gust, 'taste'].
146
ahorrar descontentos y sinsabores, to spare the lady annoyances and offenses.
147
proveer = resolver, deciding.
148
gran: apocopated, instead of grande as usual whether before masculine or feminine noun.
149
Bilbao: one would think first of the famous Chilean patriot, Francisco Bilbao, after mention of Riego; but as there was no man Maella corresponding, the two names must refer to the towns. Bilbao was besieged several times, and as late as 1874, in the Carlist wars. The Bilbaínos are sturdy and brave, love liberty, and easily join against the government.
