Harlan: Moreto’s u El desden” 
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CHAPTER II 
EL DESDEN CON EL DESDEN, Moreto 
The first act of El desden con el desden 6 finds Carlos, Count 
of Urgel, madly in love with Diana, daughter of the Count of 
Barcelona, who is eager to have her marry. The Prince of 
Bearne and Don Gaston, Count of Fox, are also in love with 
Diana, but have been unsuccessful in -their attempts to woo 
her. Diana wants to have nothing to do with men and goes 
so far as to declare that she would rather die than marry. 
Her reputation on this point has become as widespread as her 
fame for great beauty, and Carlos’ presence in Barcelona is at 
first due simply to curiosity to see a woman of this type. 
When he tells Polilla, the gracioso of the play, and his servant 
and counsellor, of his suffering because of the disdain of 
Diana, Polilla predicts that she will fall sooner or later. They 
plan to tell no one that Carlos has fallen in love, and he joins 
in with the other two suitors to continue courting Diana, each 
willing for the one who succeeds in overcoming her disdain 
to possess her, he making it clear that his purpose is not the 
same as theirs. In the meantime, Polilla has introduced him- 
self to Diana as a doctor; he gives his name as Caniqui (mus- 
lin), and professes to cure mol de amor, having come from 
afar to know one who has such disdain toward love. She is 
pleased with him, and, thus, he is in a position to help Carlos. 
Cintia, Diana’s lady-in-waiting, and Diana have had a long 
discussion as to the relative danger of agradecer and querer, 
Diana arguing that the former will inevitably become the lat- 
ter, and Cintia calling down the wrath of her mistress for 
being so warmly disposed to the idea of querer. At the re- 
quest of her father, Diana tells her suitors why she feels 
toward love the way she does, saying that in all her studies 
there is a warning from the past to the future, in that all 
troubles have had their origin in love. To show that she is 
honest in her conviction, she tells the suitors to go ahead with 
their courting if they think they can overcome her dislike of 
marriage. Carlos tells her that he is to join the other two 
only out of a sense of gentlemanly duty, that he feels as she 
Based on the text of Volume XXXII, Clasicos Castellanos, edicion de Narciso 
Alonso Cortes, Madrid, 1916, pp. 165-274. 
