. despedir= = _y [si no vieran] a Zaida que
le despedia._

13. =cruz=: the cross of a sword is the guard which,
crossing the hilt at right angles, gives the sword the
shape of a cross. The cross swords were held in especial
veneration by the medieval Christians.

Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (_or_ Jove-Llanos)
(1744-1811) was one of the loftiest characters and most
unselfish statesmen ever produced by Spain. Educated for
the law, he filled with distinction important judicial
offices in Seville and Madrid. In 1780 he was made a
member of the Council of Orders. He attached himself to
the fortunes of Count Cabarrus, and when that statesman
fell from power in 1790, Jovellanos was exiled to page 266
his home in Gijon (Asturias). There he devoted himself
to the betterment of his native province. In 1797 the
favorite, Godoy, made him _ministro de gracia y justicia_;
but he could not be other than an enemy of the corrupt
"Prince of the Peace," and in 1798 he was again sent home.
In 1801 he was seized and imprisoned in Majorca and was
not released till the invasion of Spain by the French in
1808. He refused flattering offers of office under the
French, and was the most active member of the _Junta
Central_ which organized the Spanish cortes. Unjustly
criticized for his labors he retired home, whence he was
driven by a sudden incursion of the French. He died a few
days after in an inn at Vega (Asturias).

Jovellanos' best literary work is really his political
prose, such as the _Informe sobre un proyecto de ley
agraria_ (1787) and _Defensa de la junta central_ (1810).
His _Delincuente honrado_ (1773), a _comedie larmoyante_
after the manner of Diderot's _Fils naturel_, had wide
success on the stage. His works are in vols. 46 and 50 of
the _Bibl. de Aut. Esp._ Cf. E. Merimee, _Jovellanos_, in
the _Revue hispanique_, I, pp. 34-68.

=?Quis tam patiens ut teneat se?= _who is so
long-suffering as to control himself?_

21. =prision=: see mention above of Jovellanos'
imprisonment in Majorca.

=39.=--2. It is scarcely accurate to call Juvenal a
=bufon=, since he was rather a scornful, austere satirist
of indignation.

=40.=--26. =cuanto de= is an unusual expression; but if
the line read: _iAy, cuanta amargura y cuanto lloro_, it
would lack one syllable.

=41.=--4-6. =cuesta... infanta=. Evidently the world has
changed little in a hundred years!

=42.=--Juan Melendez Valdes (1754-1817) was born in the
distr