Note 145 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
The part we should least willingly suppose to be true—that of a droll, roistering soldier, who gets a shameful subsistence by begging for souls in Purgatory, and spending on his own gluttony the alms he receives—is particularly vouched for by Cervantes. “Esto de pedir para las ánimas es cuento verdadero, que yo lo ví.” How so indecent an exhibition on the stage could be permitted is the wonder. Once, for instance, when in great personal danger, he prays thus, as if he had read the “Clouds” of Aristophanes:—
Animas de Purgatorio! Favoreced me, Señoras! Que mi peligro es notorio, Si ya no estais en estas horas Durmiendo en el dormitorio. Tom. I. p. 34.
At the end he says his principal intent has been—
Mezclar verdades Con fabulosos intentos.
The Spanish doctrine of the play—all for love and glory—is well expressed in the two following lines from the second jornada:—
Que por reynar y por amor no hay culpa, Que no tenga perdon, y halle disculpa.