Harlan: Moreto’s u El desden” 
35 
Later, she changes her mind and says (Act III, scene xiv) : 
Defenderlas es razon; 
Yo las quiero defender; 
Mas no dejar de querer 
A1 hombre; que sin el hombre 
Aun no esta seguro el nombre 
Desto que llaman mujer. 
Diana, in La vengadom de las mujeres, plays a more active 
part than does Cintia in the other play. She yields to Laura 
less gracefully than Cintia does to Diana. 
The part of the gracioso is lacking in the Lope de Vega play. 
As has been suggested above, Julio furnishes a distracting ele- 
ment for the play, but he has no responsibility in the outcome 
of the play, either from the standpoint of Laura or Lisardo, 
tho he is interested in the fact that she is getting over her dis- 
like for men. Otavio helps his master, but he contributes no 
ideas nor suggestions as to how to overcome the scorn of 
Laura. It cannot, then, be suggested that Moreto received 
any hint for Polilla from this play. 
By way of summary, the resemblance of El desden con el 
desden to La vengadora de las mujeres seems to be limited, 
first to the general structure of the two plays, the juxtaposi- 
tion of the characters ; and, secondly, to the fact that the her- 
oines' initial dislike of the opposite sex is the result of study. 
They then diverge widely. A great struggle, full of good 
psychology and character development, takes place in El des- 
den con el desden, while, in the other play, the “avenger of 
her sex" early falls in love, admits it to herself, and sets about 
to be rid of all suitors except Lisardo. The element of jeal- 
ousy, found in both plays, is handled in each in a different way, 
as has been pointed out. If, as Fernandez-Guerra y Orbe 
believes, this play of Lope's is the real model for Moreto, the 
latter is not greatly indebted to Lope de Vega, for, at most, 
he may be said to have found the stage already set with a 
group of characters, and a certain situation among them ; but 
his method of working out the situation in the masterpiece he 
has left us has, surely, nothing to do with this play suggested. 
There is much more in common between Moreto's piece and 
Lope’s Los milagros del desprecio, by the existence of the char- 
acters Polilla and Hernando, and by the fact that there is a 
struggle in which desprecio copes with desprecio and is over- 
come in the end. 
