Note 39 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
This Paso—true to the manners of the times, as we can see from a similar scene in the “Diablo Cojuelo,” Tranco VI.—is reprinted by L. F. Moratin, (Obras, 8vo, Madrid, 1830, Tom. I. Parte II. p. 644), who gives (Parte I. Catálogo, Nos. 95, 96, 106-118) the best account of all the works of Timoneda. The habit of singing popular poetry of all kinds in the streets has been common, from the days of the Archpriest Hita (Copla 1488) to our own times. I have often listened to it, and possess many of the ballads and other verses still paid for by an alms as they were in this Paso of Timoneda.
In one of the plays of Cervantes,—that of “Pedro de Urdemalas,”—the hero is introduced enacting the part of a blind beggar, and advertising himself by his chant, just as the beggar in Timoneda does:—
The prayer of the secret soul I know, That of Pancras the blessed of old; The prayer of Acacius and Quirce; One for chilblains, that come from the cold, One for jaundice that yellows the skin, And for scrofula working within.
The lines in the original are not consecutive, but those I have selected are as follows:—
Se la del anima sola, Y se la de San Pancracio, La de San Quirce y Acacio, Se la de los sabañones, La de curar tericia Y resolver lamparones.
Comedias, Madrid, 1615, 4to, f. 207.