Note 6 — Relation of 1635–36

The Editors are indebted to Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A., of Villanova College, and father Fray Juan but no Mateos, of the same order, of the Escorial, but now (May, 1905) at Villanova, for valuable help in the translation of this pasquinade. As much of the subject matter of the lampoon is local tit-tat, and as many of the meanings (although they would be perfectly apparent to the Manila populace) are purposely veiled, assurance cannot be given that the present interpretation is correct in every detail. There are also evident plays upon words and phrases, which can only be guessed at. Hence, the original is given partly for that reason.

The poetical form in which this pasquinade is written dates from an early period in Castile. Cervantes has a poem of this class in Chapter xxvii of the first part of Don Quijote; while Lope de Vega has also employed it. The second, fourth, and sixth lines form a sort of echo to the first, third, and fifth lines (the six lines being, however, written as three in the pasquinade). See Clemencin’s edition of Don Quijote (Madrid, 1894), iii, pp. 7–9.