The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 26 of 55. Unknown

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      1

      Apparently referring to the gate (now Puerta Real) at the southern end of the city which opens toward Bagumbayan, a district between Manila and Ermita. Through this gate were made the formal entrances of governors and archbishops previous to 1762, when the city was taken by the English; after that time, these entrances were made by the Puerta del Parián, at the north-eastern part of the wall.

      2

      Spanish, mas boluesele el sueño del perro; literally, “a dog’s sleep fell on him.”

      3

      Spanish, tres tratos de cuerda;

1

Apparently referring to the gate (now Puerta Real) at the southern end of the city which opens toward Bagumbayan, a district between Manila and Ermita. Through this gate were made the formal entrances of governors and archbishops previous to 1762, when the city was taken by the English; after that time, these entrances were made by the Puerta del Parián, at the north-eastern part of the wall.

2

Spanish, mas boluesele el sueño del perro; literally, “a dog’s sleep fell on him.”

3

Spanish, tres tratos de cuerda; referring to punishment by suspending the delinquent by his hands, which are tied behind his back.

4

i.e., “gate of the magazines,” or royal storehouses. The northernmost gate of the city, not far east of the fort of Santiago, and opening toward the Pásig River.

5

So in the manuscript, probably a transcriber’s error; but it evidently refers to the Dominican Pinelo.

6

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.

7

See the book of Esther. This is the Hamah of the King James Bible.

8

Father Fray Juan Mateos says of this passage: “The author seems to use the word ‘quesos’ [cheeses], alluding to ‘casos’ [cases] (a practical question of moral theology). I imagine that the text refers to the accusation made against those fathers of being casuists or adapters of the moral doctrine to their own convenience. From the context, one can deduce that ‘cera’ [wax] is used in the meaning of ‘dinero’ [money], and the meaning in that case might be, that the Jesuits were trying to get money by fitting up the consciences of men with moral doctrines easy of fulfilment.”

9

This is a very obscure stanza, although the allusions were doubtless well understood in Manila. The second line might be translated “And who in hanging apples, saw tares;” although the translation as given above is to be preferred.

10

There is evidently a play on the word “cura,” which may mean either “cures,” or “priests” [i.e.,“cures”]. The meaning of the last line seems to refer to the ecclesiastical term.

11

This may be another play on words, for “sinzera” may be the adjective “sincere” or the two words “sin zera,” “waxless,” and hence in this last meaning, an allusion to the third line of the third stanza.

12

This has been already given in Vol. XXV, pp. 216–219.

13

See this paper in Vol. XXV, pp. 243–244.