90 
Indiana University Studies 
Llegan hoy a ser mayores: 
Fuera (Telia los menores 
Ganan mayor dignidad. 
La gentil neseesidad 
Es maestra tan sabida, 
Que so pena de la vida 
Nos hace hacer bondad. 173 
After having played the joke on Gomecio, he says: 
i Que placer y que tamaho 
Por mi lanza se ganar, 
Que me queda que contar 
D’aqui a ciento y un ano! 
<j,Que mano lleva el compano? 
Dios me lo guarda de mal. 
iQuien ordenase otra tal 
A1 traidor del ermitano? 
Quiero llevar esta fiesta 
Con que rla Dorosia; 
Mas su ama renirla 
Porque voy sin la respuesta. 
Voto a diez, pues, -qu’es aquesta; 
i Que dire como me vea? 
Direle qu’es muerta Orfea, 
Pues qu’el mentir poco cuesta. 176 
To say that Lope de Vega got the idea of the gracioso he 
perfected, and which was used in more or less varied form by 
the dramatists of his own and succeeding times, from earlier 
plays, and even from this very play, may, on the surface, be 
more or less accepted. But, to say that the “love tactics” of 
Moreto’s Polilla are based on Lenicio of Torres Naharro, can- 
not be accepted at all. Lenicio serves, simply and entirely, 
as a distracting element in the course of the play. The hermit, 
Teodoro, has much more in common with Polilla, in really plan- 
ning and accomplishing means for diverting a crime. Lenicio’s 
advice to his master quoted above does nothing but warn him 
to proceed cautiously, that women must be handled carefully, 
that discretion is the paramount thing. He offers no definite 
course to Floristan, and things turn out well in the end, thru 
no shrewdness or effort of his. Floristan’s course was to kill 
Orfea, which was, in the first place, postponed by Teodoro, 
and in the end prevented by the providential appearance of 
Policiano. When Lenicio says “que mujeres, cuantas son, 
175 Comedia, Act V, p. 208. 
176 Comedia, Act IV, p. 199. 
