Harlan: Moreto’s “El desden” 
105 
is a more finished, more carefully planned piece of work than 
the one which inspired it. To bring this idea more specifically 
to bear on Moreto, the following by Fernandez-Guerra y Orbe 
is quoted : 204 
Pocos de sus contemporaneos tienen tantas comedias que puedan 
hoy poner en escena sin necesidad de alterarlas ni refundirlas. Debese 
esto al delicado gusto e insigne constancia con que, renunciando a la 
nombradla de original y fecundo, gozo en desarrollar, completar y per- 
feccionar lo que era digno de complemento y mejora, sabiendo bien 
que sin la forma el pensamiento no vive. Asi jamas ni su gloria ni su 
provecho le interesaron tanto como la gloria y el provecho del arte. 
In the review of the comparisons made with El desden con 
el desden of the plays suggested as sources of this play, it is 
possible to dismiss a fairly large proportion as having little or 
nothing in common with Moreto’s work. 
The play Despreciar lo que se quiere of Juan Perez de 
Montalvan must be ruled out because of being unavailable. 
From the available synopsis there appears to be no resem- 
blance between it and El desden con el desden. 
In the case of the other plays, the texts of all of which have 
been available, the following points, briefly put, have come to 
light : 
El desden vengado, of Lope de Vega, has nothing in common 
with El desden con el desden. The same is true of La boba 
para los otros y discreta para si, also by Lope. El perro del 
hortelano , as a play, contains nothing suggesting El desden 
con el desden, but the expression “el perro del hortelano”, 
common enough, is used by Polilla to Diana when the latter, 
jealous because she is not included in the festivities, suggests 
that they be dispensed with. La dama melindrosa, by the 
same author, has still less in common with El desden con el 
desden than El perro del hortelano. In the case of A lo que 
obliga el desden of Salado Garces, we found no justification 
for the suggestion of influence on Moreto. In Montalvan’s 
Los desprecios en quien ama, jealousy and not disdain is the 
keynote, and only the beginning and the final situations be- 
tween the ladies and their lovers are at all similar. 
Calderon’s Para veneer a amor, querer vencerle gives us a 
slight suggestion of Polilla in Espolm, in the fact that he as- 
sumes responsibility for the outcome of Cesar’s effort to win 
Margarita. Lenicio, in Torres Naharro’s Comedia Serafina , 
204 op. cit., p. xxviii. 
