Death comes to Mass.Jerónimo de Barrionuevo, a writer from the Spanish Golden Age, maybe is n
Death comes to Mass.Jerónimo de Barrionuevo, a writer from the Spanish Golden Age, maybe is not that known compared with the likes of Cervantes, Quevedo or Lope de Vega, but he left behind a long series of letters to the Dean of Saragossa, in which he penned a vivid portrait of daily life in Madrid during the 17th Century. Barrionuevo’s letters were reunited in several volumes under the title of Avisos. One can find very juicy details, e.g., that day when a woman and her husband were found in bed together in unison with a friar (the friar seems to have been playing the tambourine at the same time). Or we have this strange story from February 1656, when a majordomo of the House of Alba found Death herself, under the appareance of a young and beautiful lady.The scene takes place in the Church of Buen Suceso, then placed at the Puerta del Sol and demolished during the reform of the square in 1854. One of the servants (Barrionuevo precises he was one of high rank) of the Duke of Alba went to mass and found himself sitting near a extremely beautiful lady. From time to time he kept looking at her. At the end of the mass he approached her, discovering, to his horror, that now the lady’s face was that of Death herself. The poor man lost conciousness, and had to be taken back home in a coach. Barrionuevo then claims the man died exactly twenty-four hours later. Of the mysterious lady, nothing else is said. Our writer then goes for a totally different story and tells the Dean how their Majesties (that is, Philip IV and his wife) plan to invite a whole crowd of ladies to the theater and then loose more than a hundred mice just to see what happens (their Majesties finally decided not to loose them, as Barrionuevo tells in his next letter)… -- source link
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