Harlan: Moreto’s “El desden” 
53 
ing like the “dog in the manger”, whereupon she tells him to 
see no more of Marcela, and when he tells her that he and 
Marcela love each other, she strikes him in the face, drawing 
blood, and afterwards gives him 2,000 escudos to buy new 
handkerchiefs, keeping the bloody one herself. 
The third act finds Ricardo and Federico insisting that it 
is a disgrace for Diana to be in love with her secretary, and 
they give Tristan money to kill Teodoro, which he promises 
to do. In the meantime he hits on the idea of having Teodoro 
pretend to be the long lost son of the Count Ludovico and is 
successful, so that Teodoro, being now a count, is told by Diana 
that they can marry. When Teodoro says that it is all a de- 
ception arranged by Tristan, she is ready to have the latter 
killed in order to keep the deception a secret, which he prom- 
ises to do, and it stands. Ricardo gives Marcela a dowry to 
marry Fabio and Federico does the same for Dorotea and 
Tristan. 
The characters in El perro del hortelano group themselves 
in much the same way as those of El desden con el desden. 
Diana, in the first play, is wooed by Teodoro, Ricardo, and 
Federico, counterbalancing Diana, Carlos, Bearne, and Fox in 
the second. Marcela is the counterpart of Cintia, Dorotea of 
Laura, Tristan of Polilla. Otavio, Diana’s steward, and the 
Count Ludovico have no counterparts in the Moreto play. 
Diana in both plays has the reputation of being opposed to 
marriage. Lope’s Diana, has, in addition, a domineering, 
cross disposition, is most jealous, and plays, all told, the part 
of the “perro del hortelano” to perfection. Psychologically, 
both are well motivated, but each along different lines. Diana, 
in El desden con el desden, reminds us of her counterpart 
where she discounts Cintia’s charms to Carlos, just as, in the 
Lope play, Diana more bluntly tells Teodoro of Marcela’s de- 
fects. Another trick the two have in common is the follow- 
ing: Diana sends word to Carlos to tell Bearne that he is 
her choice, just as Diana, in El perro del hortelano, makes 
Teodoro tell Ricardo that she has decided in his (Ricardo’s) 
favor. 
Teodoro, looking on the practical side, wants to marry Diana 
— who is responsible for putting the idea in his head in the 
first place — simply to become the Count of Belflor, even tho 
he is in love with Marcela. He has nothing in common with 
Carlos. 
