1
The novel follows the linear account of a historical chivalresque biography and the narrative is structurally very coherent, as Perujo has shown (1995). Martorell scarcely leaves his main character in any of the intercalated episodes, and he has little recourse to entrelacement. Nevertheless, he seeks «illusionary effects frequently, and in a most modern way»
(Segre 1993:582). (N. from the A.)
2
They are not simply lexical coincidences, but moments of intertextuality, which have their ancient origin in the final episode of the Pamphilus. Thus, the use of force, with ill treatment of the maiden: «Quod me sic tractas!»
(Pamphilus 688), which in the Tirant becomes: «By your gentleness, do not treat me thus»
; useless cries of resistance, such as «Desine! Clamabo!... Quod agis?... Perfida, me miseram»
(Pamphilus 689-90), which becomes: «Watch out, wretch!... I shall shout! Watch out, I am going to shout»
; the final lament, the amorous surrender, etc. For further details, see Beltrán 1990. (N. from the A.)
3
The comedy would be a borderline case of this second extreme, that is to say, the maximum literary elaboration of a scenes or group of scenes that are scarcely performable (if not impossible to act) in reality, like the aforementioned famous chapter 436 of Tirant lo Blanc, which derives directly from the Pamphilus. (N. from the A.)
4
The scheme for classifying royal ceremonies in fifteenth-century Castile developed by Nieto Soria (1993) also applies perfectly to the Crown of Aragon: ceremonies of access to power, of changes of life (births, baptisms, weddings), of cooperation (oaths, discourses, knightly investitures), of justice (court hearings, challenges and defiances), liturgical, funerary, of reception (royal entrances, reception of embassies, etc.) and of victory. (N. from the A.)
5
«Magnificente» has the meaning of «value», rather than that of something admirable or marvellous. There is an insistence en the financial cost of the machine, when the hermit asks: «What was this thing of so much worth?»
And see shortly before
this in chapter 41 the same sense. (N. from the A.)
6
Thus, Massip recalls the relationship of the «rock» to the meaning it had in Catalan at the time: «pageant wagon», with the representation of religious pieces in the Corpus procession, though also, clearly, of profane elements in royal entries. (N. from the A.)
7
See for these feasts as a whole Riquer 1992:141-8. The eight days' duration is not much, given the complex ceremonies with which royalty entertained the ambassadors. (N. from the A.)
8
I study this aspect and others referring to the Arthur —Morgana episode in greater detail in Beltrán (1997a). (N. from the A.)
9
The juego de cañas was a mock tournament, in which sharpened stakes were used as weapons. (N. from the T.)
10
The chief source of the episode is in the Faula of Guillem de Torroella, as has been recognized, but the idea goes back previously to a kind of vision experienced by Giflet, at the end of the Mort Artu, amidst dense rain and from a distant hill: the arrival and departure of a ship full of ladies, among them Morgana, having called and picked up her brother Arthur. It is called an «interlude» by Riquer (1990:150 and 154), Hauf (1990:15-21), Badia (1993b:121), Grilli (1994:100-3), Perujo (1995:181) and Massip (1996:155-6). What is certain is that Martorell does not call the piece which follows an entremés, although it is one, at least if we go by the first localized appearance of the term in Castilian and its use in the Catalan of the period. In the Tirant, the word entremés appears always with reference to amusing situations, though not only capable of representation, like this one, but also real. (N. from the A.)