On Corella's syntactic, rhetorical and prosodic features, see for example Carbonell (1983: 30-32).

See Carbonell (1955-56:132), Riquer (1964, III: 292), and Romeu (1984) on its date of composition. Romeu also postulates here the existence of a «cicle de Caldesa», comprising the Tragèdia and two poems (A Caldesa and Debat ab Caldesa). Caldesa is never referred to by name within Corella's works, only in their titles. These poems are maldits, taunting poems. Besides these two, the poem Desengany deals with alleged female unfaithfulness and the inconsistency of love in a way similar to that of the Tragèdia de Caldesa (Martínez 1994: 23; Romeu 1984). As to the title's variations, in the Mayans MS it is called the Tragadia rahonant un cas afortunat que ab una dama li esdevench (fol. xxxvii), and in its index La tragedia (fol. 0). Its other testimony, the Jardinet d'orats MS, introduces Caldesa: Tregedia de Caldesa feta per Mossen Corella. See commentaries on its title in Kelly (1993: 211 and n. 149-50) and in Pujol (forthcoming: n. 31), who considers the appearance of the name «Caldesa» in the Tragèdia's title as possibly induced by the presence of Corellan poems addressed to Caldesa in the same cançoner.

As pointed out and commented on by Badia (1993b: 73-74). Its headings are: «I. A tan alt grau; 2. En la part del món; 3. Llarga història seria; 4. Ab esperança de tant; 5. Axí passí la major; 6. O piadosos oints!; 7. Partint-se de la casa; 8. Mourà's corrent (verse); 9. Conegué per l'adolorit; 10. Clarament veig (verse); 11. Si follia és; 12. Ab diversitat de tan».

I quote from Gustà's regularized version (1980), to which Lola Badia contributed. The only serious philological edition of Corella's works is Miquel i Planas's (1913), but it requires revision because some Corellan texts were still undiscovered at the beginning of this century.

It has been considered that the lady's lover is uncultured, as he addresses her with such an illiterate utterance as «manyeta». But Corella does not say who utters it («lo darrer comiat al terme de ma oïda arribà, en estil de semblants paraules»). We must presume then that it does not matter who speaks, but only the words themselves matter, sealed with that kiss.

«Estava, però, la sua delicada persona maculada, semblant a roses ab lliris blancs mesclades, si ab sútzies mans se menegen». Riquer (1964, III: 293, n. 9) explains that the simile of roses and lilies was usual in the ancient world, especially in Ovid, and he points to the Aeneid as the source of this particular passage («aut mixta rubent ubi lilia multa / alba rosa: talis virgo dabat ore colores» (XII, ll. 68-69). He quotes also Guillaume de Blois's elegiac comedy Alda (twelfth century): «Virginis in facie rosa lilia pingit» (l. 129). As we can see, a rose and lily face is usually a virginal one, so Caldesa, who has just enjoyed sex, has her colours metonymically soiled. A previous Catalan example of this image, with a slightly different meaning, can be found in Francesc de la Via's A Bella Venus (early fifteenth century), when the poet falls in love with his lady, and her face, coloured like lilies and roses reveals to him that she has fallen in love at the same time: «Mes jo entesí claramén la preposició de les tues paraules e la vermelor de la tua cara semblave que liris se fosen baralats ab roses» (Pacheco 1963, II: 16, ll. 44-46).

This is an ambiguous sentence: we could understand, as has occurred many times, that her will has a perverted taste and makes her look for repulsive bodies —therefore we must suppose that lover in the story was repulsive. But we can also understand, in a more economical way, that if the lady's «gentil persona» was taken by the protagonist, then her wicked will should become incarnated in another body more appropriate to the ugliness of her inner urges, instead of that really beautiful body of hers, which had not behaved with proper reverence («indignament»). In other words, the protagonist cannot accept that such a noble woman as she is could harbour ugly lust —this lust would better suit an unsightly person. It is in the Debat ab Caldesa that Corella accuses this character of looking for the worst sexual partners —this is what the she-wolf reference represents, according to the bestiaries («per mills sadollar de llop los afectes», Martínez 1994: 58, l. 13). On the possible source of the lady's alleged perverse choices, see Rico 1982.

This is the longer version, that of the Mayans MS. In the other one, that of the Jardinet d'orats, the story ends after the last verse unit. In the table of contents of the latter manuscript, there is a reference to two of Corella's love letters to Caldesa, which unfortunately are lost (Miquel i Planas 1913: xxix).

If this man was any kind of domestic servant from the lady's household, the narrator, who already knew her house, would have referred to him in that way. Corella makes him appear in the story because he is a stranger there, and therefore a mystery which excites the narrator's anguish.

Desengany, ll. 3-4. These lines are also present and developed in other Corellan work, the Lletra consolatòria. See a short but clear insight in Martínez (1994: 20-22), who also points out a third Corellan passage, from the Parlament en casa de Berenguer Mercader: «Que si la pèrdua de llur [ladies'] honestat és la porta per on lo combat de nostres enamorades obres entra, ¿com se farà honestat als altres la tanque, si, per l'entrada de l'u, de la guarda de tal posada ja serà partida?» (Martínez 1994: n. 27).