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even deny it. This makes her furious and causes Enrique to 
remind her that she has already been warned about his dis- 
position. It is next arranged that Inigo go to Isabel and 
work himself up to such a fury of jealousy, accusing her of 
having other lovers who throw stones at her window — all the 
work of Motril — and forbidding any man, even Motril, to 
enter her house, so that when the latter, after being in hiding 
in her room, appears and Inigo swears to kill him, Isabel is 
disgusted and vows she will never marry such a “fiera”. 
In the third act, Margarita and Isabel lament their situa- 
tion, the former insisting that it is worse to be loved by one 
of whom it is necessary to be jealous, and the latter that her 
plight of having a jealous lover is worse. Motril comes to 
tell them that his masters, ashamed of what they have done, 
want to come back and ask for pardon. In the meantime, Ines, 
the servant of Isabel, has learned that Enrique and Inigo have 
been pretending all this time and she so tells the ladies, after 
they have seen the men ; at this interview, Margarita has talked 
with Inigo, Isabel not caring to, and she has been attracted to 
him in proportion as Enrique is unattractive to her. Isabel 
has talked with Enrique and had the same feeling toward him. 
It is Margarita’s suggestion to send for Enrique and Inigo 
again, and by way of revenge for their having pretended all 
this time, she tells them that she and Isabel are now ready 
to marry them, since it is known in the city that they came for 
that purpose. When she says that she accepts Enrique and 
Isabel, Inigo, the gentlemen have nothing to do but acquiesce, 
caught at their own trick. Seeing them so gallant, Margarita 
changes her mind and says that “mejor esta a las mujeres ser 
queridas” and that “dar hielo a fuego es mas propio que dar 
fuego a hielo”, and she gives her hand to Inigo, and Isabel to 
Enrique. Motril chooses Ines and Marcelo, Juana. 
Fernandez-Guerra y Orbe 185 says of this play: 
El principal resorte dramatico de El desden con el desden juega en 
esta comedia. 
This “principal resorte dramatico” of El desden con el des- 
den is the pretended indifference, and even disdain, which 
Carlos employs by way of overcoming the same attitude in 
Diana and making her reciprocate, in the end, his real feeling 
toward her. In Yo por vos , y vos por otro, resort is made to 
185 op. cit., p. 44. 
