ESCENA SEXTA

que me se yo:  ‘what do I know about it?’ Note the redundant reflexive.

ACTO SEGUNDO, ESCENA PRIMERA

que _pero_ le puede poner la senorita:  ’what fault can the young lady find with.’

ESCENA SEGUNDA

geringonza:  cf. vocabulary, jerigonza.

hagame decir:  hagame el favor de decir.

ESCENA TERCERA

Ya las quisiera yo de tres y media:  ’I’d rather have them of three and a half.’  Three and a half yards is the regulation quantity of material needed for making a man’s shirt.

ESCENA SEXTA

el dia de los innumerables martires de Zaragoza:  April 16, the feast-day of the eighteen martyrs condemned to death in Saragossa in the time of the emperor Diocletian.

si usted podia ser dichosa:  note the imperfect indicative in an unreal condition.

Sacedon:  watering-place in the province of Guadalajara, Spain.

Nueva Holanda:  Australia.

Isla de Francia:  Spanish form for the old French name of the island Mauritius, to the east of Madagascar.  It is now an English possession.

Pablo y Virginia:  Paul and Virginia (cf. vocabulary under Domingo).

ESCENA SEPTIMA

*_qui pro quo_*:  French quiproquo ‘misunderstanding’ (by taking one person or thing for another); from medieval Latin quid pro quod, the blunder of using one grammatical form for another.  Contrast English quid pro quo ‘equivalent.’

*_Dominus tecum_*:  medieval superstition required the pronouncing of a blessing when a person sneezed, because of a belief in the presence of a demon.  The custom survives in many countries as a form of courtesy.

Herodes el Ascalonita:  ‘Herod of Askelon’; Bruno’s mind, which works in a fashion similar to the working of Sancho’s brain in Don Quixote, is searching for a case of extreme cruelty, and he here probably recalls the slaughter of the innocents at the command of Herod.

ACTO TERCERO, ESCENA TERCERA

*_velis nolis_* (Latin):  ‘willy-nilly.’

no sea que salga:  para que no sea que salga.

dispensa:  in this case, permission from the bishop or other dignitary to waive the formalities preceding a wedding in the Catholic church.

Ofelia, Malvina, Etelvina, Coralina:  heroines of the various books de forro colorado that Matilde has been reading.

que conservo en polvo:  ’that I keep although there is nothing left of it but dust’ (or ashes).