Abstract
As in other lands and in other times, the generally prevailing spirit of adventure and longing for soldierly deeds was not confined to the men. The “hero” of the Monja alférez is a young lady of noble birth from Biscay, who runs away from her convent, serves some time as a page, then as a soldier, in Spain, Italy and America, distinguishing herself enough to gain an ensignship. Finally, she makes herself known to a bishop, who places her in a convent, from which a little later she gains permission to depart and is received with great admiration in Spain and Italy. The story abruptly ends in the midst of a quarrel which the heroine had provoked, she having obtained permission to continue wearing a soldier’s costume.
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Notes
Gallardo, nos. 941–944.
One by Montalvan (Barrera, p. 268); perhaps also one by Belmonte, mentioned in the Bachiller Trapaza. (Ed. 1733, p. 163), the existence of which is doubted by Barrera (p. 31); but Trapaza being of 1634, the statement seems to be rather authoritative.
Historia de la Monja Alferez, dona Catalina de Erauso, escrita por ella misma, é ilustrada con notas y documentos, por D. Joaquin María de Ferrer, Paris, Didot, 1829. The story has recently been translated into French, and edited with a good summary introduction and final bibliographical note, by J. M. de Hérédia: La Nonne Alferez, Paris, Lemerre, 1894, with illustrations by Vierge. There is no doubt as to the real existence and history of the Monja Alferez; the uncertainty is whether she herself wrote what passes as her Life.
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De Haan, F. (1903). La monja alferez. In: An Outline of the History of the Novela Picaresca in Spain. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6318-9_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6318-9_14
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