SOURCE: Shepard, Sanford. “Undercurrent and Innuendo in the Troba Cazurra of Juan Ruiz.” Neohelicon 17, no. 1 (1990): 281-89.

In the following essay, Shepard analyzes the sexual symbolism present in the baker episode of the The Book of Good Love.

In the second amorous episode of the Libro de Buen Amor, the Archpriest embroils himself with Cruz, a baker woman, a panadera. The author tells of his adventure in a lyrical version, the form of which is the Arabic zagal, known in Spanish as zéjel. The poem has attracted the attention of Hispanists as an example of an Arabic poetic form in Castilian.¹ Less attention has been given the nature of the undercurrent of innuendo and ribaldry that commentators have sensed only occasionally. André S. Michalski has drawn attention to the problem of the interpretation of this poem in his interesting note entitled “Juan Ruiz's Troba Cazurra: ‘Cruz Cruzada Panadera...