Note 970 — ACTO SEGUNDO

971. De escarpines presumí, etc. The consonance of escarpines is with jazmines, but the contrast is with chapines above. The chapín was a heavy low shoe or sandal better suited to the use of servants, while the escarpín was an elegant thin-soled, shoe or slipper, and often with cloth top as the following verse seems to indicate. Here the sense is not very apparent and may involve some colloquialism of the time. The passage may be freely translated: "I thought you were speaking of escarpines, since the distinction depends only upon (the height of) the cotton (top)."