Note 293 — EL CAPITÁN VENENO[4] (continued 2)

aunque tenga más orgullo que D. Rodrigo en la horca. Other variants of this proverbial saying are: tener más vanidad q. D. R. en la horca; tener más fantasía q. D. R. e. l. h.; tener más gravedad q. D. R. e. l. h.; and andar más honrado q. D. R. e. l. h. All these phrases are supposed to refer to the bearing maintained by the notorious Marqués de Siete Iglesias, D. Rodrigo Calderón, who was the favorite of Philip III, and who was executed October 21, 1621, after conviction in a trial during which two hundred and thirty accusations for misdeeds were lodged against him. Despite the appropriateness of the phrases as descriptive of his bearing at the execution, the fact remains that the phrase Tiene más fantasía que D. Rodrigo en la horca occurs in a book published in Zaragoza in 1560, cf. Luis Montoto y Rautenstrauch, Personajes, personas y personillas, Sevilla, 1912, vol. III, pp. 25-26. Cf. also Enciclopedia Universal, etc. (Espasa), vol. 10, p. 653.