Note 265 — ACTO I

266. ¿Conocéis?...: i.e. ¿Conocéis...? In the Romance languages the suspensive points take the place, for many purposes, of the dash in English. The most authoritative usage is that when these points are used with an exclamation or interrogation point, as here, they (like the dash in English) are put before the exclamation or interrogation point if they mean that the sentence is broken off, but after it if they mean that there is a break between this and the next sentence. But it is commoner to put the exclamation or interrogation point invariably before the suspensive points, as the comma in English is always put before the dash, regardless of the sense. When this is done, it expresses the sense rightly in most places, but there will generally be a considerable minority of places where the punctuation must be understood as if transposed, i.e. as indicating an uncompleted sentence. Since Sanz, or his printer, followed this more mechanical rule, it is followed in this edition; but the student must take care not to be misled by it.