It is interesting to note that Américo Castro posits Carrizales's similar utterance, «mas no se puede prevenir con diligencia humana el castigo que la voluntad divina quiere dar a los que en ella no ponen del todo en todo sus deseos y esperanzas...» (Celoso, 133), as emerging instead from a «viva tradición islámica». Hacia Cervantes, 445. What is culturally significant, however, is how meaning is produced through translation / publication strategies. In the Italian version, Straparola ends his fairy tale simply, with the victory of Galeotto and the conventional «they lived happily ever after» of the king and queen: «Ed in quel-l'ora fece spianar la torre, e pose la moglie in libertá, con la quale allegramente visse; e Galeotto, nel fatto d'arme vittorioso, con le sue merci a casa fece ritorno». Le piacevoli notti, 100. In the French and English versions, however, shame / honor prescriptions are added to the original thereby producing new and gendered meaning. As Leocadia's father had advised her that «es mejor la deshonra que se ignora que la honra que está puesta en opinión de las gentes» («La fuerza de la sangre», 79), so do the listeners react in the frame story of the English and French versions. They are delighted with the tale, but «were much astonished that the queen should have been led to bring to light so easily her hidden fault, holding that she would have done better to suffer death a thousand-fold than to take upon herself such a scandalous disgrace». The Facetious Nights, 200-201; «la compagnie, qui s'esbahissoit assez comme la royne avoit esté si simple de descouvrir si légèrement son fait, attendu qu'elle se devoit plustôt offrir à la mercy de mille morts, qu'encourir un blasme tant scandaleux...». Les facetieuses nuits, 176.

George Cirot's work on El celoso extremeño is still essential for the study of the sources of both El celoso and the entremés of El viejo celoso. See Works Cited.

«El celoso extremeño», p. 100. I will be referring throughout to the Novelas Ejemplares, ed. Harry Sieber (Mexico: Cátedra, 1988), II: 99-135. References will be to Celoso with page numbers in parenthesis in the text.

Kaplan, 119. It is because Carrizales senses the imminence of death that he wants to leave his wealth to a wife «después de sus días», and rationalizes that in marriage «el gusto alarga la vida» (Celoso, 102). Psychologists have pointed out that, «A man who is driven by a perverse fantasy is terrified of open, ambiguous spaces... He prizes strong, upright, sturdy structures that inspire in him feats of daring and prowess» (Kaplan, 74).

Juan de la Cerda, Libro intitulado vida politica de todos los estados de mujeres (1599); Juan de Soto, Obligaciones de todos los estados y oficios (1617); Fray Luis de León, La perfecta casada (158, 154). All quotes come from Alison Weber, «Pentimento: The Parodic Text of La Gitanilla», pp. 61-62, 67.

For virotes, the young blades who threatened secular and ecclesiastical authority, see Mary Elizabeth Perry, Crime and Society in Early Modern Seville, pp. 155-157. Women often manipulated the image of the woman-easily deceived to their advantage (Davis, 68), and used their «natural» weakness as a weapon against patriarchy. One of the most renowned instances of this is the case of the adulterous wife, Bertrande de Rols, in the celebrated sixteenth-century story of Martin Guerre. The clever Bertrande, who lived with the imposter Arnaud du Tilh (Pansette) for over three years as his wife, was not prosecuted for fraud or for adultery because «the judges agreed to accept her good faith; the female sex was, after all, fragile» (Davis, 90).

Especially pertinent to the myriad interpretations El celoso extremeño has elicited, is Eco's emphasis on the ambiguities that must necessarily arise from a work of art because of the differences in sensibility, education, cultural background, and intelligence of readers. Opera aperta. 7th edition. Milano: Bompiani, 1989. First published in 1962.

Cotarelo y Valledor (261-3), Hegyi (54, 82, 92, 170), plus others, claim it reflects Cervantes's participation in a «secret mission» to Oran in 1581.

«Non possono soffrire gli uomini d'esser ingannati in quelle cose ch'o per se medesmi sanno, o per certa relazione de' padri e de gli avi ne sono informati» (Discorsi dell'arte poetica e del poema eroico, 10).

Zimic examines the readerly aspects of El gallardo. Exploring the reception of Cervantes's entremeses, Spadaccini has proposed they were intended to be perused rather than performed.