Note 111 — Chapter XXXIV

The Escudero of the plays and novels of the seventeenth century is wholly different from the Escudero of the romances of chivalry of the sixteenth. Covarrubias, in verb., well describes both sorts, adding, “Now-a-days” (1611) “esquires are chiefly used by ladies, but men who have any thing to live upon prefer to keep at home; for as esquires they earn little, and have a hard service of it.”