Harlan: Moreto’s “El desden” 
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Con celoso despecho, 
La mina reventando de su pecho, 
Desdenes y rigores 
Troco en halagos, y ferio a favores. (Act III, scene xviii.) 
A suggestion.for Carlos could perhaps be gained from Cesar 
in Calderon’s play, but Moreto has made far more out of the 
part, making Carlos disdainful toward Diana from the very 
beginning. 
Diana, with her conscientious scruples against men in gen- 
eral as the result of much reading and thinking, is very dif- 
ferent from Margarita, whose reason for refusing Cesar is 
only because she wants to rule the state of Ferrara; it is a 
matter of ambition, which, once thwarted definitely, gives her 
the idea of considering love, especially when urged to it thru 
her jealousy of Matilde. She turns abruptly the whole way 
around and says to Cesar: 
Pues si mi necio desden 
Maestro os hizo en olvidar 
Enseneos mi amor a amar. (Act III, sciene xv.) 
Like Diana, Margarita tells Matilde that she loves Cesar 
herself, but Matilde is not so gentle about giving up to Mar- 
garita as Cintia is to Diana. Diana, told by Polilla that her 
pulse and all the other symptoms indicate that she is jealous 
and in love, threatens to have him thrown out the window, just 
as Margarita, told by Espolin that Cesar is engaged to the 
fictitious Princess of Sustamberg, tells him to go before she 
has four servants throw him from the balcony. 
Espolin, tho not posing as a “medico de amor” and, there- 
fore, not having the advantageous access to Margarita’s in- 
nermost thoughts, as Polilla has to Diana’s, expresses confi- 
dence that Margarita will be brought around, just as Polilla 
has the same conviction about Diana. He expresses him- 
self as follows : 
Tu no sabes 
Lo que a una mujer obliga 
El mirarse despreciada 
De aquel que se vio querida. (Act III, scene vi.) 
His repeating to Cesar “resistencia” when the latter is be- 
ginning to put his attempt to forget into practice but is find- 
ing it hard to ignore Margarita, reminds one somewhat of 
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