Harlan: Moreto’s “El desden” 
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Alonso of Spain, presumes to court the duchess. Flores tells 
Fadrique of the plan for Porcia to pretend to be the duchess, 
and the latter to pretend to be Porcia, and for him to be most 
gallant to the one called Porcia. When they play a game with 
flowers, Flores is chosen to hand the bouquet to one of the four 
suitors and hands it to Fadrique, who addresses Porcia, repre- 
senting the duchess, and tells her that altho he came to woo 
her, another has won his heart, and he turns to the duchess 
(calling her Porcia) and dances with her. This makes Porcia 
angry, and as duchess, she calls off the continuation of the 
party. As they leave, the duchess tells Fadrique that he must 
not think of her, as they are both poor. He says he cannot 
change his love. She gives him no satisfaction one way or 
the other. 
In the second act, Porcia is in love with Fadrique and asks 
Serafina if she is in love, to which she replies : 
Mas soy tan duena de mi, 
Que he de vencerme y no amar; 
Del amor he de triunfar; 
No quiero amor . . . 
Dueho de mi voluntad 
Eternamente sere. (Act II, scene 1.) 
When Fadrique talks to Porcia, Serafina comes into the 
room many times, on some pretext, causing Porcia to rebuke 
her for having given her permission to love him and then pre- 
venting it. That night there is to be a contest to And out 
which one is most discrete, and Fadrique, knowing what the 
game is, answers correctly all the questions which Porcia puts. 
Before this is held, Urbino gives Flores a locket for deliver- 
ing a note to Porcia, Ferrara gives him two jewels for the 
same service, and Parma gives him a purse of gold if he will 
praise him in Porcia’s presence. This gives Fadrique the 
means of procuring a horse to compete with the others in a 
joust which they have planned expressly because Fadrique did 
not have a horse. At the festivities that night, Flores sug- 
gests a game which they play as follows : He asks Porcia for 
a flower from her hair and gives it to Urbino. Next he asks 
for a ribbon and no one but Fadrique has one, which he hands 
to Serafina. They now argue as to which one is the more fa- 
vored, and Porcia again becomes angry and stops the festiv- 
ities. Serafina and Fadrique are left, and he splits the ribbon 
6—28800 
