This aphorism, also widely imitated in Spanish Golden Age literature, is studied for the theater of the period by H. Templin, in «The Exculpation of 'Yerros por Amores' in the Spanish Comedia», Publications of the University of California at Los Angeles in Languages and Literatures, No. 1 (Berkeley: California UP, 1933-38), pp. 1-49. A play attributed to Lope (available in BAE) carries the title Los yerros por amor, and indeed, the plot revolves around this theme. See S. Griswold Morley and Courtney Bruerton, The Chronology of Lope de Vega's 'Comedias' (New York: Kraus Reprint Corp., 1966), pp. 357-58.

No less an authority than Cristóbal de Fonseca admits that at least in part, the actions of lovers are to be excused: «Love (saith the Wise man) is strong as death; and, in this comes near to death, in that it makes the Lover oft-times not to see what he fixeth his eye on, not to answer what he hears, or what he is demanded: and indeed, oft-times to put him into such trances, as that he seems rather a moving trunk of flesh, then a living Soule: and, this in part excuseth the words and acts of 'Lovers', as proceeding from men distracted, rather then from men in their wits; and hereupon the 'Romans' had a law, exempting such Lovers from the penalty of death, holding them to be no better than mad men». Christopher de Fonseca, A Discourse of Holy Love [...], Trans. Sir George Strode, (London: F. Flesher for Richard Royston, 1652), p. 19. (It should be noted that the translator rendered the work very loosely and even added much of his own invention). The debate between moralists and physicians on whether love could overthrow reason was the source of heated disputes in the period.

Jorge de Montemayor, Los siete libros de la Diana (Valencia, 1559). I have used the edition of Enrique Moreno Báez, (Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1976), p. 163. The passage quoted reflects one of the most frequently cited reasons for writing pastoral literature: the author must serve an apprenticeship with the low pastoral style before he is qualified to undertake the more dignified heroic style. The prodding of timid lovers to grasp what they desire, then, can be envisioned as an heroic act -one of virtue- when viewed from a certain perspective.

Hebreo, in fact, paints a picture of violence as a necessary adjunct of true love. A fragment of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's translation of the dialogues (Madrid, 1590), reads: «El amor que es regulado por la razón no suele forçar al amante y, aunque tiene nombre de amor, no tiene el efecto, porque el verdadero amor a la razón y a la persona que ama haze fuerça con admirable violencia e increyble furor, y más que otro impedimento humano perturba la mente, donde está el juyzio, y haze perder la memoria de toda otra cosa, y de sí solo la llena, y en todo haze al hombre ageno de sí mismo y propio de la persona amada». León Hebreo, Diálogos de amor traducidos por Garcilaso Inga de la Vega, ed. Eduardo Juliá Martínez, (Madrid: Librería General Victoriano Suárez, 1949), I, p. 107. The passage continues at length in the same vein.

The passage from Hebreo reads: «Señas es que no las sientes, pues no las crees; que no puede creer la grandeza del dolor del amante sino quien lo participa». (Edition previously cited, I, p. 110). This, in effect, can be interpreted as a more subtle form of the aphorism «yerros por amores, dignos son de perdonar».

Gaspar Gil Polo, Primera Parte de Diana enamorada, cinco libros que prosiguen los siete de la Diana de Jorge de Montemayor (Valencia: Joan Mey, 1564). I have used the following edition: Diana enamorada (1564) Together with the English Translation (1598) by Bartholomew Yong, eds. Raymond L. Grismer and Mildred B. Grismer, (Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Co., 1959), p. 262.

Antonio de Lo Frasso, Los diez libros de Fortvna de Amor [...], (Barcelona: Pedro Malo, 1573), f. 26r. The appropriate passage from Hebreo reads: «Y aunque el apetito del amante con la unión copulativa se harta, y cessa luego aquel desseo o apetito, no por esso se priva el cordial amor, antes se enlaça más la possible unión, la cual tiene actual conversión del un amante en el otro, o el hazer de dos uno [...] y quedando el amor en mayor unión y perfeción, queda en continuo desseo de gozar con unión la persona amada, que es la verdadera difinición del amor». (Edition previously cited, I, p. 101).

See J. B. Avalle-Arce's study of suicide in Cervantes, «La canción desesperada de Grisóstomo», NRFH, 11 (1957), 193-98. On the topic of death in the Galatea, see Bruno M. Damiani's «Death in Cervantes' Galatea», Cervantes, 4, no. 1 (Spring, 1984), 53-78. On violence in the works of Cervantes, see Cesáreo Bandera's Mímesis conflictiva: ficción literaria y violencia en Cervantes y Calderón, (Madrid: Gredos, 1975).

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Primera parte de la Galatea, dividida en seis libros [...], (Alcalá de Henares: Juan Gracián, 1585). I have consulted the edition of J. B. Avalle-Arce in «Clásicos Castellanos», 2 vols., 2nd ed., (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1968), II, p. 156.

Bernardo González de Bobadilla, Primera parte de las nimphas y pastores de Henares. Diuidida en seys libros [...], (Alcalá de Henares: Juan Gracián, 1587), f. 53v. (The underlining is mine).