stocracy down to the
sixteenth century. As the mounted _caballero_ encountered
the bull, armed only with a lance, accidents were very
frequent. No less than ten knights lost their lives at a
single _Fiesta de Toros_ in 1512. The present form of the
sport, so much less dangerous for the man and so much more
cruel for the beast, was adopted about the beginning of
the seventeenth century. The construction, in 1749, of
the first great _Plaza de Toros_ in Madrid definitely
converted the once chivalrous sport into a public
spectacle, in which none took part but professional
_Toreros_." The padded _picador_ of to-day, astride a
blinded, worn-out old hack, is the degenerate successor of
the knight of old. In the seventeenth century bull-fights
in Madrid were sometimes given in the _Plaza Mayor_ (or
_Plaza de la Constitucion_).

6. =Aliatar=: this, like most of the names of persons in
this poem, is fictitious; but in form these words are of
Arabic origin, and it is probable that Moratin borrowed
most of them from the _romances moriscos_. The names of
places, it should be noticed, are also Arabic, but the
places still retain these names. See =Alimenon=, and all
names of places, in the _Vocab._

=28=.--19. =Hecho un lazo por airon=, _tied in a knot [to
look] like a crest of plumes_. This was doubtless the
forerunner of the modern _banderilla_ (barbed page 265
dart ornamented with streamers of colored paper).

=30.=--26-28. =Cual... nube= = _cual la ardiente madeja
del sol deja mirarse tal vez entre cenicienta nube_.

=31.=--12. =blasones de Castilla=: as at this time (in the
reign of Alfonso VI) Leon and Castile were united, the
=blasones= were probably two towers (for Castile) and
two lions (for Leon), each one occupying a corner of the
shield.

14. =Nunca mi espada venciera= apparently means: _Never
did he conquer my sword_. This may refer to any adversary,
or to some definite adversary in a previous combat.

26. The best bulls raised for bull-fights come from the
valley of the Guadalquivir.

=32.=--22-26. =Asi... acerquen a..., Como=, _may... bring
to..., just as surely as_.

=33.=--8. Fernando I: see in _Vocab._

=35.=--28. The stanzas of pages 34 and 35 are probably
known to every Spaniard: schoolboys commit them to memory
for public recitation.

=36.=--15. =dignaredes= = _dignareis_. In modern Spanish
the _d_ (from Lat. _t_) of the 2d pers. plur. verb endings
has fallen.

=38.=--4. =Y..