Note 130 — ACTO PRIMERO

133. Don Diego de noche y coche. The implication is that don Diego is one who would woo his lady love at night and under the cover of a carriage rather than in the more open and approved manner of a gentleman of his rank. In spite of the brilliant example of the king, horsemanship was becoming a lost art and in a complaint of a member of the Cortes, addressed to the king, the subject is treated as follows: "The art of horsemanship is dying out, and those who ought to be mounted crowd, six or eight of them together, in a coach, talking to wenches rather than learning how to ride. Very different gentlemen, indeed, will they grow up who have all their youth been lolling about in coaches instead of riding." (Martin Hume, The Court of Philip IV, p. 130.) There is also a flower called dondiego de noche, and the author may have intended to make also a subtle play on words between this and the more suggestive meaning.