I just read Beth Marie Kosir’s interesting paper on the British codpiece and thought I’d have a quick look through some Spanish stuff. The Hispanic bragueta (I guess it comes from the French braguette, which is actually not a combination of baguette and bragas, “knickers”) seems to have been used first (in the late 15th century) for the bulge-with-a-view device hung between right and left hose and below doublet; as fashion changed, it survived to become the equivalent of our “flies”.
Date and/or context serve to clarify semantics. So, for example, there is little doubt as to the meaning intended in phrases such as hidalgo de bragueta (“codpiece aristocrat”, the legitimate father of seven consecutive sons, ennobled as a consequence (Braudel in The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II/El Mediterráneo y el mundo mediterráneo en la época de Felipe II says they needed 12, and that the consequences were only fiscal)) and bragueta de armar (a piece of armour designed to protect one’s taties from unauthorised harvest).
Most references are ribald. Here from the illustrated 1520 Valencia edition of The life and fables of Aesop (La vida y fábulas del Ysopo) is the tale Of a woman who accused her husband (paragraphised for legibility):
After the wedding he took her with him to a castle of his near Florence and then, after some time had passed, the new husband took his wife to her father’s house, as is the custom after weddings in some parts. And when the new wife arrived in her father’s house she showed no sign of joy, and when they looked at her she dropped her gaze sorrowfully as if melancholy and deep in thought.
And when her mother saw her daughter so thoughtful and pained, she asked the cause of her grief, saying, “How are you, my daughter dear? What do you lack? Are things not to your desire and liking? Why are you so melancholy?”
The daughter replied, weeping bitterly, “Ah mother! You haven’t married me to a man, because what a man should have, he does not, for he has a very small member. Why did the marriage happen?”
And this made her mother very sad and angry for having had such bad fortune. And she went to her husband Nerus and began to tell him the things her daughter had told her. He became gravely angry and sad. And the news spread throughout the household to the friends of his wife, who marvelled that such a handsome young man could be so deficient in the part of his body required for reproduction.
During this interval the tables had been laid and Nerus [this should surely be the husband], accompanied by his closest family and friends, sat down at the tables, although her relatives were sad and thoughtful. And when the groom saw that his people were cheerful and that the family of the bride were not, he requested that they tell him why they were sad. And no one replied. Once again he asked them what was the cause of their sadness. And one of the more open of them and said to him in secret, “You see, my friend, your wife has told us that you’re not man enough to consummate the marriage.”
And when the husband heard this, he started to laugh out loud and said to all present, “Cheer up and take a seat because the cause of your suffering will soon pass.”
And he clothed himself in a short garment and, undoing his codpiece, he produced from under the table for all the company to see a member so big and suited to procreation that all were beside themselves with happiness. And the men wanted to have one like him, and the mistresses that their husbands were so substantially and functionally endowed.
And, seeing this, some of the wife’s relatives went to her and said, “How do you have the nerve to complain about a man like this, so well provided by nature in terms of members? How much would it take to make you happy?”
And so they reproached her for the madness she had inflicted on herself. The newly-wed replied, “Why are you scolding me? I don’t complain without reason. Our little donkey, which is a dirty beast, has a member as thick as my arm while my husband, who is a man, is hardly half the size.”
And that’s why the simpleton thought that men were also hung like donkeys. And for this reason it is said proverbially, “There is less to life than lunatics imagine”.
A cognate of this is Shakespeare’s midsummer night dreaming madman, who “sees more devils than vast hell can hold” (remember Boccaccio’s dirty old desert hermit, fooling sweet young Alibech into allowing him to put the devil back in hell), and Erasmus’ “It is the worst of madness to learn what has to be unlearnt/Extremae est dementiae discere dediscenda” is also pretty close.
(I’m also rather fond of Francisco Delicado’s smutty La Lozana Andaluza (1528), which has young Paje bursting out his codpiece while conversing with the delectable Lozana. Why have no modern designers reintroduced this valuable garment? I can imagine it going down very well in some circles, and you could wear it on your head in cold winters.)
Pogio florentino dize que en otro tiempo uno dicho Nero de Facis fue entre los otros florentinos de sus días sabio y prudente y rico. Este Nero avía una fija fermosa, la qual dio en casamiento a un hombre no menos fermoso que rico y de buen linage. El qual, después de las bodas, lo levó consigo a un castillo do él era señor cerca de Florencia. Y después de tiempo, el nuevo casado traxo su esposa a casa del padre, como es costumbre de fazer en algunos lugares .viij. días después de las bodas. Y quanto esta nueva casada vino en casa de su padre no mostrava alegría, mas quando la miravan inclinava su vista en tierra muy tristemente como malenconiosa y llena de pensamiento. Y quando la madre vio su fija tan pensativa y doliente demandava la causa de su dolor diziendo:
-¿Cómo os va, mi amada fija? ¿Qué os falta? ¿No avéys vos las cosas a vuestra voluntad y plazer? ¿Por qué soys tan malenconiosa?
La fija respondió llorando muy tiernamente:
-¡Ay, madre! Vos no me avés casado con hombre, ca lo que hombre deve aver, éste no lo ha, ca él ha muy pequeña parte del miembro de generación. ¿Por qué se faze el casamiento?
Y d’ esto fue la madre muy triste e ayrada por aver avido tal fortuna. Y se va a su marido Nerus y le comiença de contar la materia como su fija le avía dicho. El qual fue gravemente ayrado y triste. Y aun estas nuevas fueron manifiestas por toda la casa a los amigos de su esposa, de que ellos fueron maravillados cómo tan fermoso mancebo era indigente en la tal parte del cuerpo para el caso de generación. Fueron en este entrevalo las tablas puestas y Nerus, acompañado de sus más cercanos parientes y amigos, se fueron alegremente sentar a tabla, no obstante que los parientes d’ ella fuessen muy tristes y pensosos. Y quando el desposado vio que los suyos eran alegres y los parientes de su esposa tristes, él les ruega que le digan por qué son tristes. E ninguno le respondió. Mas aún otras vez les demandó qué era la causa de su tristeza. Y respondió uno de los más liberales y díxole en secreto:
-Cierto, mi amigo, tu esposa nos ha dicho que tú no eres hombre para cumplir matrimonio.
Y quando esto oyó el esposo, començó de reyr a alta boz, y dixo a todos:
-Fazed buena cara y tomad plazer ca presto será la causa de vuestro dolor passada.
Y él se va a vestir una ropa corta. Y desatada su bragueta, debaxo de la tabla mostró delante toda la compañía un miembro farto grande y conveniente a generación, de que todos fueron muy alegres. Y los hombres lo desseavan aver como él, y las dueñas que sus maridos lo oviessen tan grande y fuessen assí bien fornidos. Y esto visto, algunos de los parientes de la esposa entraron a ella y le dixeron:
-¿Tú has tuerto de te quexar de un tal hombre a quien natura tan bien proveyó del miembro? ¿De qué tu le acusas do tú devieras ser bien contenta?
Y assí rephendían de la locura que le avía tomado. Respondió la nueva casada:
-¿Por qué me reprehendéys? Ca yo no me quexo sin causa. Nuestro asno pequeño, que es una bestia bruta ha un miembro gordo como mi braço y luego mi marido, que es hombre, a gran pena ha la mitad.
E por esto pensava la simple que los hombres eran también fornidos como los asnos. E por esto se dize comúnmente: «Mucho falta de lo que el loco se piensa».
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