MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

^^'r -womm

Miguel de Cervantes

HIS

LIFE &> WORKS

HENRY EDWARD WATTS

^ NEW EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED
WITH A COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEX

LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK

1895

PREFACE

In my first edition of Don ^ixote^ the Life of Cervantes,
forming volume i., was written as an introduction to my
translation, and specially with the object of marking the
close connexion of the author with his work. It having
been deemed advisable to issue the biography as a separate
book, I have availed myself of the opportunity to amplify
the life of Cervantes, adding much especially in the way of
illustration of his character and of his relations with his
contemporaries, with a larger survey of the condition of
Spain and her literature, which, if not out of place in an
introduction to Don ^uixote^ would have disturbed the
harmony of my original scheme of publication.

In the present work, which has been entirely recast and
almost wholly re-written, a far larger space has been devoted
to Cervantes as the man of letters, whose many and various
achievements as poet, pastoralist, playwright, and story-
teller have been somewhat unduly be-clouded by the
exceeding lustre of his one great masterpiece. A fuller
account is given of those minor works, which, though not
all worthy of the author of Don fixate, are all deserving of
study if we would understand his character and trace the
development of his genius. Lastly, there has been added
to this life of Cervantes, with a fuller notice of the condition
of letters under the two Philips, a special chapter on the
relations of the author of Don fixate to his great rival and

203380*?

Cervantes preface

contemporary, Lope de Vega. It is only in this direction
that any new Hght can be expected on that which was
the last mystery of Cervantes' life. But Lope de Vega's
correspondence is jealously kept from curious eyes, and the
patriotism if not the piety of the Spanish Academy of
Letters may be expected to endure for a generation or two
longer. Meanwhile the story of Cervantes' life — a life,
beyond any lived by man of letters, stirring, changeful, and
adventurous, is complete in every circumstance. We know
more about the author of Don Quixote perhaps than about
any great writer. Nothing can increase or diminish his
interest. Whatever record may leap to light, the readers of
Don fixate are not likely to be disturbed by any fear that
its author will be shamed.

I have nothing more to say than to thank those who
have generously helped me in the attempt to make this
book and my translation worthy of its object and my hero.

THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES FOR THE
LIFE OF CERVANTES

Nicolas Antonio (1617-84). Bibliotheca Hispana Nova.
Rome, 1672.

A CATALOGUE of the Spanish writers from 1500 to 1684, in
continuation of the Bibliotheca Hispana Fetus, of the same
learned and painstaking author, who is the chief authority in
early Spanish literature and bibliography. Nicolas Antonio was
the first who admitted Cervantes to a place among the classical
writers of his country. The space devoted to an account of the
life of the author of Don fixate occupies barely one quarto
page of the dictionary, and the details given of Cervantes' career
are very meagre. Antonio makes him a native of Seville
(Hispalensis).

Gregorio Mayans y Siscar (1699-1781). Fida de Miguel de
Cervantes Saavedra. Londres : J. R. Tonson, 1737. (vi. 103 pp.)

The first complete biography of Cervantes, written for the
edition of Don fixate, published at the cost of Lord Carteret,
and printed at the beginning of Tonson's first volume. Mayans
makes Cervantes to have been born in 1549, ^^^ ^^^ birthplace
Madrid — not having had access to documents which testify to
the year and place of Cervantes' birth.

Martin Sarmicnto (i 691-1770). Noticia de la verdadera
patria de Cervantes. (MS.) 1761 (?).

Sarmicnto, who was a most voluminous and versatile writer,
of whose 3000 works {Revista Contemporanea, 1878) only one,

vii

Cervantes

AUTHORITIES

a History of Spanish Poetry, has been yet printed, was the first
to make known, out of Ha;do's Topografia de Argel and other
printed works, the true birthplace of Cervantes. His correspond-
ence with Yriarte, the King's librarian, and others, led to the
investigation of the parish registers of Alcala de Henares in
1752, and the discovery of the baptismal certificate of Cervantes,
and also the record of his marriage. Sarmiento was one of the
earliest to stir up his countrymen to a proper regard for Don
^lixote and its author.

Juan Antonio Pellicer (1738-1806). Nottcias Literarias para
la Vida de Cervantes. Madrid, 1778.

Pellicer brought out an edition of Don ^ixote in five
volumes, 1798, to which was appended a Life incorporating the
above work, with the results of fresh researches. Following up
the clues given by Sarmiento, Pellicer was able to discover many
details of Cervantes' early life, as well as of his residence at
Seville and at Valladolid, with notices of his family and literary
connexions. He was the first to broach the delicate question of
the relations between Cervantes and Lope de Vega, and was
able to unearth some curious facts bearing on their rivalry, with
notices of the contemporary men of letters.

Vicente Gutierrez de Los Rios (1732-79). Memorias de la vida
y de los escritos de Cervantes (appended to the three first
editions of the Academy's Don ^lixote).

Los Rios was a Colonel of Engineers, who gained more
reputation in his profession than he did in letters. He worked
with great zeal and abundant enthusiasm in the cause of
Cervantes, taking him too seriously, and patriotically striving
to make out Don fixate to be an epic Iliad for the heroic
style, and an jEneid for symmetry of construction, beauty of
language, and a well-balanced fable. The Academy dropped the
Life by Rios in its fourth edition of 18 19, retaining only the
ponderous Juicio Critico, Analisis, and chronological scheme.

viii

AUTHORITIES

Cervantes

Martin Fernandez de Navarrete (176 5- 1844). ^^^'^ ^^ Miguel
de Cervantes Saavedra. Madrid, 18 19.

Published to correspond with the four volumes of the fourth
and last edition of Don fixate, edited by the Academy,
Navarrete's biography is by far the fullest and best up to that
date, and distinguished by much good sense, judgment, and
acumen. The arrangement of the book, however, is awkward.
The narrative occupies barely one-third of the volume, the
remainder being filled with the Ilustraciones y Documentos.
Navarrete gives for the first time the details of Cervantes'
service in the Levant, with all the documents relating to his
captivity in Algiers, together with the petition of Cervantes for
employment in the King's service, in which is contained his own
account of the leading passages in his life. These papers were
discovered in 1808 by Cean Bermudez in the archives of the
Indies at Seville, and are now at Simancas. At the end of
Navarrete's Life are several genealogical tables of the family of
Cervantes, with their relations to the royal house of Castile.

Buenaventura Carlos Aribau, Fida de Cervantes, appended to
the collected edition of Cervantes' works, which forms the
first volume of Rivadeneyra's Bibltoteca de Autores Espanoles.
Madrid, 1846.

Aribau's Biography, though a mere compilation from previous
sources, is one of the best for style and arrangement. It is a
concise summary of the leading incidents of Cervantes' career,
with a judicious and thoughtful appreciation of his works. The
Life by Aribau was reproduced in the splendid Argamasilla
edition of the complete works of Cervantes in twelve volumes,
imperial 8vo, (1563-64), which was published under the direc-
tion of Rosell and Hartzcnbusch, with some hundred and ten
pages of Nuevas Ilustraciones and Notas, by Cayetano Alberto
de la Barrera. In vol. vii., among the Poesias Sueltas, is printed
the rhymed letter of Cervantes to Mateo Vasquez, one of Philip
II.'s Secretaries, discovered in 1864, among the archives of the
Condc dc Altamira. In this are contained some curious details

Cervantes

AUTHORITIES

of Cervantes' early life and service, nowhere else to be found.
The fourth canto of the Fiaje del Parnaso is also mainly
autobiographical, while scattered throughout his works are many
hints and references to his adventures and experiences, some of
which have scarcely attracted sufficient attention, even among
the Spanish biographers of Cervantes.

The later biographers of Cervantes, such as Moran and
Mainez, do not need much consideration. They add nothing
to our knowledge of Cervantes, devoting themselves mainly
to the glorification of the man and the writer from the patriotic
side.

The labours of Asensio, especially in the matter of the
portrait of Cervantes, and in the investigation of some minor
points connected with Cervantes' various places of residence, are
worthy of all acknowledgment. And during the last thirty
years there have appeared innumerable articles in reviews,
magazines, and newspapers, which it would be tedious to specify,
containing a few new aspects and illustrations of incidents in
the life of Cervantes.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Birth and Early Tears ..... Piige i

CHAPTER n

ji Soldier at Lepanto . . . . . .16

CHAPTER m

Service Afloat and Ashore . . . . . .31

CHAPTER IV

The Captivity in Algiers . . . . . • 4^

CHAPTER V

The Return to Spain ...... 60

CHAPTER VI

The Author of Galatea' 76

Cervantes

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VII

Literary Life in Madrid ..... P(^ige 93

CHAPTER VIII

Cervantes a Playwright . . . . . .102

CHAPTER IX

Commissary and Tax-Collector . . . . .112

CHAPTER X

Experiences in La Mancha . . . . .123

CHAPTER XI

^ Don fixate' ....... 130

CHAPTER XII

The Romances of Chivalry . . . . .141

CHAPTER XIII
In Falladolid 157

CHAPTER XIV
Novelist and Poet 169

CHAPTER XV

The False ' Don ^ixote ' 1 80

xii

CONTENTS

Cervantes

CHAPTER XVI

Cervafites and Lope de Vega .... Page 192

CHAPTER XVn

The Second Part of ' Don Quixote ' . . . . 206

CHAPTER XVni
Last Tears and Death . . . . . .214

CHAPTER XIX

The Man and the Book ...... 225

APPENDICES

A. — Genealogy of Miguel de Cervantes . . 243

B. — Enquiry into Cervantes' Conduct in Algiers 245

C. — Cervantes' Memorial of his Services . . 253

D. — Letter of Miguel de Cervantes to the

Archbishop of Toledo .... 255

The Bibliography of the Works of Cervantes 256
INDEX 285

Miguel de Cervantes

CHAPTER I

Birth and Early Tears

On Sunday, the 9th day of October, in the year 1547, was
baptized, in the parish church of Saint Mary the Greater, at
Alcala de Henares, Miguel, son of Rodrigo de Cervantes
and his wife Leonor de Cortinas.^

It was the custom in Spain for the infant to be christened
by the name of the Saint on whose day he was born, and
hence, without any direct evidence of the fact, it has been
decided that Miguel de Cervantes was born on the 29th of
September, 1547. His father, Rodrigo de Cervantes, of
whom nothing is recorded in history, was a native of Alcala
de Henares, which is an ancient town of New Castile. His
mother, Leonor de Cortinas, was a native of the neighbouring
village of Barajas. Both Rodrigo and his wife were of good
old Castilian strain, and, though poor, entitled to be ranked
among the hidalgos. They were married in 1 540, and had four
children — two sons and two daughters, of whom Miguel was
the youngest. Rodrigo, the elder brother, was a soldier, who

1 The registry of the baptism is still extant. The name is spelt Car-vantes
in the entry, though in the record of the baptism of the other members of the
family it is correctly given as Cer-vantes, Miguel himself generally spelt his name
Ceriantes — sometimes Cerbante and Cer-vante. The 1/ and b in Castilian are inter-
changeable and have practically the same sound, which is softer than in English.

I I

Cervantes

CHAP.

served in the Levant, in the Azores — where he greatly dis-
tinguished himself and got his promotion — and in the Low
Countries, dying in Flanders, at a date unknown, some years
before Miguel. Of the two sisters, the elder, Andrea, was
twice married, and as a widow for the second time lived with
her brother till the end of his life. The younger sister,
Luisa, became a Carmelite nun in 1565.

The father of Rodrigo de Cervantes was Juan, who seems
to have been of higher station than his immediate descendants,
for he filled the office of Corregidor (answering to mayor or
stipendiary magistrate) of the cityof Osuna. He is mentioned
as a friend and associate of the Conde de Urena, of the
great family of the Girons — the father of the illustrious Don
Pedro Giron, the statesman and diplomatist, who filled
various high places at home and abroad under Philip IL
The family of Cervantes is said to have sprung originally
from Galicia. The name is vulgarly supposed to be drawn
from the ruined tower which stands near the end of the
Alcantara bridge over the Tagus, opposite to Toledo, called
the castle of San Cervantes — still a conspicuous object in the
approach to the old Gothic capital. I agree with Ford in
believing this to be an error. It is rather tjie family which
gave name to the castle than the castle to the family. The
name San Cervantes is admitted to be a corruption of San
Servan, or Servando, a martyr of the early Spanish Church
—a corruption which becomes more natural from the
circumstance that this castle was once the property of an
old member of the Cervantes family.^ According to the
genealogist Mendez de Silva, the first who took the name

^ The ruin was called San Cervantes long before the time of Miguel. That
there was an old connexion between the castle and his family is certain. The
grandfather of Gonzalo de Cervantes assisted in the building of what was then
the tower of San Servando in 1089, when Alfonso VI. toolc Toledo. Covarrubias
makes the foundation still earlier, even of the time of the Goths {Tesoro de la lengua
Caitellana, art. Castillejo). The existing ruin is of the building erected by Archbishop
Tenorio, who died in 1399.

Early Years

of Cervantes was Gonzalo, in the beginning of the thirteenth
century, to distinguish himself from his elder brother, Pedro
Alfonso, who was called Cervatos. Both these names clearly
sprang from the same root [cervus\ and the arms of the two
brothers were alike ; their chief blazon being, of the one,
two stags [ciervos) or^ and of the other, two hinds or, in a
field azure — in punning allusion to their surname. Cervatos
is said to have been the name of the place in Galicia whence
the founder of the family first took his appellative, so called
probably because it was a haunt of stags. Juan de Mena,
the chronicler of the King Juan II., is the earliest who
speaks of the family of Cervantes, deriving their lineage
from the ancient ricos-hombres of Leon and Castile, whose
root was in Galicia.^ In the genealogy of the famous Nufio
Alfonso [temp. Alfonso VI.), the first Alcaide or Governor
of Toledo, written by Rodrigo Mendez Silva in 1648,
the pedigree of the Cervantes family is traced up to the
early Gothic kings of Leon.^ One of the five sons of
the Alcaide was Alfonso Nuno, who is said to have taken
the surname of Cervatos from the estate which he in-
herited from his father. His second son was Gonzalo de
Cervantes, the first of that name, of whom we have before
spoken. Both brothers figured conspicuously in the wars
against the Moors and shared largely in the spoils of battle.
The elder was present at the crowning victory of Las Navas
de Tolosa, won over the Almohades in 121 2, which drove
the Moors for ever from the interior upland and confirmed
Castile to the Christians. Gonzalo de Cervantes accom-
panied the Saint-King Fernando in the campaign which
ended in the conquest of Seville, and got a rich share in

^ See Navarrete, Vida de Cervantes, who cites the Mcmorias de algunos linajes
antiguo: y nobles de Casii/la, by Juan Mena, as existing in manuscript in the Royal
Library (p. 559).

^ See the genealogical tree of the Cervantes family, as taken from Mendez
Silva's Ascendenc'ia i/ustre, g/oriosos Aec/ios, etc., del famoso Nuno Alfonso (Madrid,
1648), in Appendix A.

Cervantes chap.

the repartim'iento — the apportionment of the lands recovered
from the Moor. From him, if we are to beHeve the genealo-
gists and chroniclers, there came in a direct line Juan de
Cervantes, v\^ho, in the reign of Juan II. (1407-54), was a
ve'int'icuatro^ or one of the Council of Twenty-four of Seville.
Thence, the descent to Miguel de Cervantes, our hero, is
clear and uninterrupted.

The family spread throughout Spain, and among the
bearers of the name Cervantes were many of distinction in
the Middle Ages. The first who was seated in Andalucia,
in which kingdom the stock ramified and afterwards became
most fruitful, was Diego Gomez de Cervantes, who is buried
in the church of Lorca. One of his sons was the Grand
Prior of the Order of San Juan, while another married the
daughter of the Admiral of Castile, Ambrosio de Bocanegra.
Their son was Juan de Cervantes, who was Archbishop of
Seville and a Cardinal, dying in 1453, whose handsome
tomb is in the chapel of San Hermenegildo in the
Cathedral. His nephew Juan was the veinticuatro of
Seville, and guarda mayor of the King Juan II., whose son
Gonzalo was commissary-general of the royal fleet in 1501,
and the first to pass over to America, where in Mexico, in
Peru and in Chile, the name has spread, giving presidents
and generals down to our own time.

The patriotic sentiment which slumbered for a hundred
and fifty years — permitting the author of Don Quixote to fall
into oblivion and his very birthplace to be forgotten, even
while his name was ever green in the popular memory and
his book a perennial delight — has found much solace and
refreshment in these genealogical exercises. They may be
regarded as a tardy atonement for the neglect with which
the man was treated — rude offerings at the shrine of the
genius whom, in his lifetime, not all the blood derived from
the old kings nor the writing of Don Quixote could save
from hunger and distress. Cervantes himself, though proud

Early Years

of his pure Castilian stock and his untainted blood, was not
one to boast of natural privileges which availed him so little
— which were so common a pretension in that age. When
taunted by his enemy Avellaneda in other years with being
" as old as the Castle of San Cervantes " — a clumsy sarcasm
directed doubtless at his high birth as well as his infirmities
- — he cared only to reply that "poverty might cloud but
could not wholly obscure nobility." All allowance being
made for the enthusiasm of genealogists, the fact remains
that the family of Cervantes had undoubted claims to be
ranked among the gentry or hidalgos of Alcala de Henares,
though, as the ruins of their house seem to indicate, they
were poor in worldly possessions and made but a mean show
among their neighbours.^

Alcala de Henares, so called to distinguish it from other
Alcalas — the name is simply the Arabic al-kaPat^ "the
castle" — is a dull, decayed town of New Castile, about
twenty miles to the east of Madrid — in a dreary wind-
tossed region, with nothing to attract the visitor but the
great names with which it is linked. The Henares is a
sullen, listless stream, with which it is difficult to associate
the pastoral legends of which Cervantes fondly made it the
centre. It feeds a more considerable river, the Jarama —
famous for the bulls which are reared on its banks — which
runs into the Tagus. The Henares, once beloved of
shepherdesses, whose banks rang to the melody of the
tuneful rebeck and lute — the classic stream of Galatea — is
now suggestive of nothing more poetical than sheep-washing.
The city by which it flows is but a shell, too roomy for its
sparse population ; yet it was once a place of great importance,
which made a figure in the world. The walls and towers,
colleges and chapels, still present an imposing appearance from
outside, and bear witness to its former greatness. In the

^ The local tradition points to an old wall and gateway of tapia, or beaten
mud after the country fashion, as part of the house in which Cervantes was born.

Cervantes chap.

CoUgio Mayor de San Ildefonso is seen what survives of
the famous university, w^hich w^as second only to that of
Salamanca in splendour and celebrity. The old city was
called Complutum [quasi conjiuvium^ Ford suggests), whence
Cervantes' la gran Cornpluto^ in the only mention he makes
of his birthplace in Don fixate. The University, founded
in 1510, by Cardinal Ximenes, the famous Minister of
Ferdinand and Isabella, once contained nineteen colleges
and twice as many chapels, and was so amply endowed that
Erasmus dubbed it Panplouton?- Cardinal Ximenes, who
retired hither when he had lost the favour of the Catholic
Kings, devoted all his great wealth, the plunder of Moordom,
to its adornment and enrichment. Hither came, in the early
half of the sixteenth century, most of the golden youth of
Spain to be educated ; here was printed, at the Cardinal's
instigation and expense, the famous Complutensian Polyglott ;
here Francis the First, when Charles V.'s prisoner, was
royally entertained ; here Ximenes himself is buried in the
Colegio Mayor, under a gorgeous monument with an
arrogant epitaph. The once famous University has been
removed to Madrid, and Alcala is now, as Ford describes it,
a shadow of the past, the echoes of whose- deserted streets
are scarce ever awakened but by the tread of pilgrims, chiefly
English and American, to the birthplace of Miguel de Cer-
vantes. A flaming inscription on a wall-plate distinguishes
what remains of the house where the author of Don Quixote
was born, though the house does not correspond with the
description of the wall and the gateway of tapia which,
according to Lardizabal, was all that remained of the house
of Cervantes in 1804.^

^ Also the cumplimiento of all learning. There are said to have been ii,ooo
students here in the reign of Charles V., the French King Francis remarking,
when a visitor here in 1525, that "one Spanish monk had done what it would
have taken a line of kings in France to accomplish."

^ See Navarrete, Vtda de Cervantes, p. 213.

Early Years

A signal proof of the carelessness and indifference with
which Spaniards regarded their greatest countryman, is
afforded by the fact that it was more than a century and a
half after his death before they began to investigate a detail
so considerable as the place of his birth. Although Fr.
Diego de Hasdo, in his Topografia de Argel (written before
Don fixate appeared, though not published till 1 612), had
given a long account of Cervantes as un hidalgo principal
of Alcala de Henares ; and although Mendez de Silva, a
leading genealogist of the seventeenth century, in one of
his works ^ had repeated this statement, confirming it by
particulars of Cervantes' lineage, no one in Spain seems to
have taken any notice of these informations for a hundred
and fifty years after Cervantes' death. The mystery in
which Cervantes had deliberately wrapped the birthplace of
his hero — cuyo nomhre no quiso acordarse — to the end that
"all the towns and villages of La Mancha might contend
among themselves for the honour of giving him birth and
adopting him for their own, as the Seven Cities of Greece
contended for Homer," by a singular freak of destiny involved
his own place of birth. The prediction was fulfilled to the
letter, for Don Quixote as well as for his author. The
contention among the towns of La Mancha for the honour
of being Don Quixote's birthplace v/as no fiercer than the
dispute which has raged among the towns of Spain for the
glory of producing the most illustrious of her children.
Seven cities have actually contended for the honour of being
the cradle of Miguel de Cervantes — Madrid, Seville, Toledo,
Lucena, Esquivias, Alcazar de San Juan, and Consuegra.
Don Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, Cervantes' first biographer,
in the Life prefixed to the London edition of 1738, maintains
that Cervantes was born at Madrid, which was also, appar-
ently, Lope de Vega's opinion. Don Nicolas Antonio, in the
scanty article on Cervantes in his Bibliotheca Hispana Nova^

^ In his Aicende'ncla del Famoso Nutio Jilfjnio, 1648.

Cervantes

CHAP.

makes him a native of Seville. The claims of Alcazar de
San Juan are hotly advanced to this day, on the strength of
a certain entry in the parish register recording the baptism
of a certain " Miguel," son of Bias Cervantes Saavedra and
Catalina Lopez, on the 9th of November, 1558. Opposite
to the entry, in a comparatively m.odern hand, is written,
Este fue el autor de la historia de Don Quixote (this was the
author of the history of Don Quixote). That such the said
Miguel could not be is clearly proved by the date of his
birth, a date which would make him take a conspicuous part
in the battle of Lepanto before the age of thirteen. That
there was another Miguel de Cervantes, who, strangely
enough, had for a second surname Saavedra,^ is certain, and I
cannot help thinking that some of the incidents of his Hfe
(he seems to have been somewhat of a scapegrace) have got
mixed up with the history of the true Miguel de Cervantes.
He might have been some cousin, for the name is by no
means uncommon in Spain, then as now ; and the author of
Don Quixote is known to have had an uncle and other
relatives in La Mancha. The credit of having settled this
controversy is shared between the learned and most in-
dustrious Benedictine Fr. Martin Sarmiento^ and Don Juan
de Iriarte, the King's Librarian at Madrid, temp. Charles IIL
Iriarte discovered among the manuscripts of the Royal
Library a document, dated 1581, giving a list of certain
captives who had been redeemed from Algiers the year before,
among whom is included " Miguel de Cervantes, of the age
of thirty years, a native of Alcala de Henares." Following
up this clue, Father Sarmiento consulted Haedo's Topography
of Algiers^ and found there the notice of Cervantes to which

^ The additional surname of Saavedra was assumed by Cervantes after his
return from Algiers in 1580. It came into the family of Cervantes from his
great-grandmother Doiia Juana, daughter of Don Juan Arias de Saavedra, who
became the mother of Juan de Cervantes, the corregidor of Osuna, That the
other Miguel de Cervantes was also a Saavedra proves him to be a near relation
of our hero.

Early Years

I have referred above. Sarmiento seems to have hesitated
for some time, strangely enough, between these evidences in
favour of Alcala and the entry in the parish register of
Alcazar de San Juan. Finally he made up his mind,
and wrote the tract, Noticia sobre la Verdadera Patria
de Cervantes^ in 1761, which has settled the question. That
there should have been so long a doubt on the subject, with
the abundant material, printed and in manuscript, extant
for resolving it, is a striking proof of the indifference
with which the Spanish men of letters and learning regarded
Cervantes and Don ^uixote^ until foreign opinion had stirred
them to an effusion of patriotism.^ Even to this day, the
authors of the once flaming dispute between Alcala and
Alcazar have not lost their heat,^ in spite of the testimony
afforded in Cervantes' own hand, in the papers discovered in
1804 by Cean Bermudez, in the archives of the Indies at
Seville. Among these, which are printed in full length by
Navarrete, is a memorial in Cervantes' own writing, demand-
ing of Father Juan Gil, the official redeemer of captives in
Algiers, an investigation into his life and conduct in captivity,
in which he styles himself " Miguel de Cervantes^ natural de
la villa de Alcala de Henares.^^ ^

Of Cervantes' youth and early life at Alcala we have no
details, and only such slight traces as are to be found in his
works. In one of those delightful bits of autobiography
which he now and then (alas ! too rarely) indulges us with
in his prologues and dedications, he tells us of one of the
favourite amusements of his early years. This was to

^ See for further details of the story of how Cervantes' birthplace came to be
discovered, Navarrete, p. 206, and following.

^ One of the stoutest champions on the side of Alcazar is a respectable
gentleman of that city, Don Juan Alvarez Guerra, who tried to impress me with
his views by word of mouth in 1884, and who gave me his book, entitled So! de
Cer-vantes Sda-vedra, su Verdadera Patria Aka-zar de San 'Juan — a quarto of 240
pages, of a credulity and unreason stupendous.

* See Navarrete, I/ustraciones y Documcntos, pp. 311-49.

Cervantes

CHAP.

attend the representations given by the strolling company
of players organised by Lope de Rueda, the first who gave
form and order to the Spanish Drama. The passage occurs
at the beginning of the Prologue to the collection of Cer-
vantes' Comedies and Farces, published in September, 1615,
a few^ months before his death : " In past days I once found
myself in a conversation among friends in vv^hich vi^e discussed
Comedies and matters relating thereto. . . . And the ques-
tion vv^as raised : Who was the first who brought them out
of their swaddling-clothes and gave them habitation, and
attired them decently and handsomely ? Said I, who was
the oldest of them there, I remembered well seeing the great
Lope de Rueda act, a man distinguished for his acting and
for his intelligence. He was a native of Seville, and by
trade a gold-beater, that is, one of those who make gold-leaf.
He was admirable in Pastoral Poetry, and in that department
neither then nor since till now has any one excelled him ;
and though from being then a boy I could not form any
right judgment as to the goodness of his verses, from some
which cling to my memory, examined now in mature age,
I find that what I have said is true. ... In the time of
this celebrated Spaniard the whole apparatus of a manager
of plays was contained in a sack, and consisted of four white
sheep -skin dresses trimmed with gilt leather, and four
beards, wigs, and crooks, more or less." As to the stage
and the properties, they consisted, Cervantes says, the first,
of " four benches arranged in a square, with five or six planks
on top of them, raised but four hands'-breadth from the
ground." The only decoration of the theatre was "an old
blanket drawn aside by two ropes, which made what they
call the green-room, behind which were the musicians sing-
ing some old ballad without a guitar." ^ The performances
used to take place in some public square, as now with

^ See Prologue in Ocho Comedtas y Ocho Entremeses nuevos nunca representados.
Madrid, 1615 : reprinted by Bias Nasarre, in 1749.

Early Years

strollers at a country fair, and were given twice a day, in
the forenoon and the afternoon. Lope de Rueda is known
to have been present at Segovia with his company of players
on the occasion of the festivities held in that city when the
new Cathedral was consecrated in August, 1558,^ and it is
most likely that he proceeded thence to Madrid and perhaps
to Alcala. Cervantes was then in his eleventh year. Of
any other pursuit or recreation than theatre - going in
those early days we have no record. Grammar and the
humanities Cervantes learnt under Lopez de Hoyos, a
teacher of some celebrity in that age, a poet and a man of
letters, who seems to have kept a school at Madrid,- From
Lopez de Hoyos, who is praised by Nicolas Antonio as a
man of " vast erudition," Cervantes probably acquired all the
learning he ever possessed, which, though sneered at in after
life by some of his contemporaries, was such as befitted a
youth of his station at that period. There would have been
no point in the sarcasm, launched at him by some of the
envious wits of the Court when Doyi Quixote appeared, of
ingenio lego — the lay or unlearned genius — had he received
a regular university education. His early works show a
large and varied acquaintance with the Latin classics.
Though never a ripe or an exact scholar, he knew at least
as much as a writer, who was not an ecclesiastic, was bound
to know. In after life, amidst the turmoil and troubles of
his adventurous and distressful career — without books and
the means to buy them — he forgot much of what his good
master had taught him, dropping much of the humanities
while increasing his stock of humanity. He attributes to

^ Navarrete, p. 257, who quotes from Diego de Colmenarcs, the historian of
Segovia.

^ The site of this school is said, in a book entitled El Anttguo Madrid, to
be No. 2, in the Calle de la Villa, now occupied by a house inhabited by the
Countess de la Vega del Pozo, which bears on its gate a marble slab with a
commemorative inscription. (Mesonero Romanes, in the Iluitracion, 15th April,
1872.)

Cervantes

CHAP.

Cato a distich of Ovid's. He does not remember the names
of the horses of the Sun. On the other hand, he will be
found to surpass his stay-at-home contemporaries in general
knowledge, both of books and of men. His books show
a general acquaintance with foreign countries, especially of
the East, which was unusual in a Spanish author. Like
many other great writers, he is to be claimed as one of the
condemned band of " desultory readers." According to his
own account he read everything, even to the pieces of torn
paper to be picked up in the streets.^ Of romances and
the romantic poetry, both of Spain and of Italy, he must
have acquired a knowledge as profound as did Alonzo
Ouijano himself; nor did any one ever study with greater
enthusiasm and relish those pernicious books of chivalries
than he who lived to give them the death-stroke. With
the literature of his own country he shows in all his works
that he was well acquainted ; and all that was romantic in
the poetry of Italy must have been as familiar to him as
Amadis or Palmer in.

Of any other education than that which Cervantes
received from Lopez de Hoyos and gave himself, there exists
no evidence. The tradition that he spent two years at the
University of Salamanca, which is accepted by Navarrete
and by Ticknor, rests upon no basis of fact. Considering
the circumstances of his family, and that they had a Uni-
versity at their doors as celebrated as any in Spain, it is most
unlikely that they should send him to Salamanca. Navarrete,
indeed, quotes the statement of a certain ex-professor of
rhetoric at Salamanca, to the effect that he had seen the
name of Miguel de Cervantes in the University Registers
as having matriculated and gone through a two years' course
of philosophy ; but this seems to have been an idle rumour,
which no one has since been able to confirm.^ Of the class

^ See Don fixate, Part I. ch. ix.

^ The tradition that Cervantes studied at Salamanca is thought to be

Early Years

to which Cervantes belonged very few w^ent to the Uni-
versity, unless intended for the priestly profession. Cervantes,
indeed, seems in various passages of his writings to ridicule
the student life and system of training at Salamanca ; and
such familiarity as he shows with it might easily have been
acquired by his residence at Alcala. There was not much
in that age which the Universities of Spain could teach
beyond grammar and what was called philosophy — a philo-
sophy which knew no science but that of Aristotle and
Ptolemy, and rejected as false and immoral all that was
contrary to the Catholic Faith and the teaching of the
Church.

The relations between the young Cervantes and his
tutor, Lopez de Hoyos, seem to have been most intimate
and cordial. Hoyos may, indeed, claim the honour not
only of having given a bent to the genius of the youth, but
of being the first to detect in his literary productions the
promise of greatness. When Isabel of Valois, the beautiful
third wife of Philip IL, died suddenly, as did so many of
Philip's family and kin, her obsequies were celebrated at
Madrid with great pomp and splendour, on the 24th of
October, 1568. Among other offerings laid on her tomb
were a number of encomiastic sonnets and elegies, composed
by the pupils of Lopez de Hoyos. Cervantes could hardly
be now reckoned a pupil, being nearly twenty-one years of
age, yet some half-a-dozen of the poems were contributed
by him "in the name of the whole establishment" (de todo

strengthened by the local belief that he lodged in the Calle de Moros, in which
a house is shown as that of Cervantes. It is said also that in the novel La
Tia F'wgida, the author shows much familiarity with Salamanca, in which
city the scene is laid, the story being taken from a real occurrence in 1575.
But La Tia Fingida was never acknowledged by Cervantes, nor did he include
it in the edition of the No^elas published in his lifetime. From internal
evidence I do not believe it to be his work, nor could he have had any personal
knowledge of what happened at Salamanca in 1575, being in that year either
at sea in the Mediterranean or a captive at Algiers.

Cervantes

CHAP.

el estudio)} Of these Hoyos, in his introduction and notes,
makes special mention, as of " elegant style," " rhetorical
colours," and " delicate conceits," speaking of their author,
with fond partiality, as his " dear and beloved pupil." These
early pieces are still extant ; - but, though interesting as
the first-fruits of that intense love of poetry of which, in a
well-known passage in his Voyage to Parnassus^ he speaks,^
they are of small merit.

Besides these early poems, written under the auspices of
his tutor and under the influence of ceremonial woe, Cer-
vantes seems at this early period to have written a pastoral
poem called Filena^ for so we must read the passage in the
V'laje del Parnaso : —

Tambien al par de Filis mi Filena
Resono por las selvas, que escucharon
Mas de una y otra alegre cantilena;

which Mr. J. Y. Gibson, in his elegant version of the
Voyage to Parnassus^ has Englished thus : —

To rival Phyllis my Phylena gay

Hath carolled through the woods, whose leafy land

Gave back the sound of many a merry lay.

Filena has been overtaken in the wave which has swept
away to oblivion so many of Cervantes' early productions :
ballads innumerable, sonnets, elegies, and plays, of whose
fate he speaks, with a gay good-humour, as not undeserved.
What survived was a certain reputation as a maker of poetry,

^ I cannot help believing that Cervantes must have assisted Hoyos in the
Madrid school.

^ They are to be found in Aribau's edition of the vv^orks of Cervantes in
Rivadeneyra's series of the Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles ; also in the sumptuous
Argamasilla edition of Rosell and Hartzenbusch.

2 Desde mis tiernos anos ame el arte
Dulce de la agradable poesia
Y en ella procure siempre agradarte.

— Viaje del Parnaso, canto iv.

Early Years

which he had acquired even at this early period of his
manhood,^ and before he had entered upon the next stage
of his busy and troubled life.

^ Navarrete, with what seems to be a confidence scarcely warrantable, speaks
of Cervantes as being already, at this early period, reckoned among " the most
celebrated poets of the nation,"

CHAPTER II

A Soldier at Lepanto

In the autumn of 1568, when Miguel de Cervantes was en-
tering his twenty-second year, there came to Madrid a legate
from the Pope Pius V., charged with a message of con-
dolence to King Philip on the death of his son Don Carlos,
whose sudden and mysterious decease a few months before
had deprived the throne of an heir and plunged the Court in
gloom. Julio Acquaviva, the youthful nuncio, was a man of
high birth and graced with many endowments — muy virtuoso
y de muchas letras — as his letter of credit from the King's
ambassador at Rome described him. He had need of all his
grace and all his tact for the mission with which he was
charged, which is said to have been particularly disagreeable
to Philip — all the more as the visit of condolence was used
to cover a complaint from the Pope against the King's
officers, for interfering with the Papal jurisdiction in the
Milanese. The King is reported to have received Acquaviva
with scant courtesy, rejecting the condolence and resenting
the complaint. With all his zeal for the Church, Philip was
most tenacious of his temporal rights even when they
encroached, as they did in his Italian provinces, on the
Pope's claims to ecclesiastical supremacy. Acquaviva stayed
but a few months at the Court. He was made to feel that
his visit was inopportune and unwelcome by the terms of
the passport delivered to him, from Aranjuez, on the 2nd
of December, 1568, in which he is ordered, under Philip's

CHAP. 2 Soldier at Lepanto

own hand, to return to Italy by way of Aragon and Valencia
" within the space of sixty days."

During the time spent by Acquaviva at Madrid the
Pontifical envoy made himself very agreeable, we are told,
to the men of letters and of learning at the Court — seeking
their society with eagerness, receiving them at his table,
driving them about in his carriage in public, and taking
pleasure in discussing with them " divers curious questions
of politics, the sciences, learning, and literature." ^ Among
the other young men of genius whose society was sought
by Acquaviva (himself but twenty-four years of age at this
period) was Miguel de Cervantes, who was probably intro-
duced to his Excellency by Cardinal Espinosa, then President
of the Council and Inquisitor-General, to whom had been
dedicated some of the poems written by Cervantes on the
death of Queen Isabel. The introduction led to the engage-
ment of Miguel de Cervantes as camarero — page or chamber-
lain — in the train of Acquaviva. In that age the office was
reckoned no menial one, but was sought by young men of
good birth as an apprenticeship to courtly life. The great
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, a scion of the proudest noble
house in Spain, who rose to fill the highest offices in the
State, began his career in the same humble capacity as cama-
rero to a Cardinal. Cervantes' motive in taking service with
Acquaviva has been represented by some of his biographers
as springing from his singular affection and fidelity to the
Church at this early period of his life ; but it is more
probable that he was actuated chiefly by a desire to see the
great world. The service of the young Acquaviva, a scion
of the noble Italian house of Atri, scarcely promised to
be one of religious severity. A Cardinal of twenty-five
(Acquaviva did not attain the capelo till after his return to
Rome, in 1570) might fairly be expected to offer to a youth

^ So writes Mateo Aleman, the author of Gu-z.man de Alfarache^ who saw his
Excellency at MaiJrid. See Navarrete, pp. 285, 286.

17 2

VA.

Cervantes

of Cervantes' temperament a sphere of life in which the
genial current of his soul might flow unchecked. Society
at Rome in the train of one of the great princes of the
Church was not in those days distinguished by the rigour of
its asceticism. To the adventurous it offered adventures " up
to the elbows."

Journeying by way of Valencia and Barcelona, according
to the King's prescript, Acquaviva took the road to Rome in
the last days of December, 1568, with Cervantes in his train.
They travelled along the south coast of France, as we may
fairly presume from Cervantes' description of the cities and
scenes on this road in his Galatea^ which was composed
before he could have re-visited this part of Europe.

Cervantes must have arrived at Rome in the early spring
of 1569. Of his stay in the Imperial city we have no record
beyond the passing allusions he makes in his works to this
period of his life. Rome, in 1569, was scarcely a foreign
city to a Spaniard. The close of the long and obstinate
duel with France had left Spain supreme in the Italian
Peninsula. She was absolutely mistress of Lombardy and of
Naples. The Tuscan states were her dependants. Spanish
garrisons were in all the large cities. Sicily and Sardinia were
subject islands. Even the Pope, in all his secular affairs,
followed the counsel and direction of the Spanish King.
The proud republic of Venice maintained a sullen partnership,
soon to be exchanged for active rivalry, in the power of the
sea. The age was one fertile of enterprise ; and it is scarcely
a wonder that Cervantes found the service of the Cardinal-
elect not much to his taste. To a soul inflamed by visions
of romance and of knight-errantry, to be chamberlain to a
high ecclesiastic was hardly a congenial employment. Early
in the spring of 1570 we find Cervantes, now in his twenty-
fourth year, giving up his pageship to enlist as a soldier in
the Spanish service, entering the regiment of Moncada in
the company commanded by the famous captain Diego de

2 Soldier at Lepanto

Urbina.^ In those days it was not thought derogatory in a
young man of good family to serve in the ranks, and many
a youth of even higher birth than Cervantes had begun his
military career as a common soldier. There has been much
controversy on the question w^hether the military service
which our hero first entered was that of the Pope or of his
natural sovereign the King of Spain, some doubts being
raised by certain words of Cervantes in the dedication of his
Galatea^ to Ascanio Colonna, to the effect that he had
" followed for some years the conquering banners " of that
celebrated Papal general (his father), Marco Antonio Colonna.
Those solicitous to claim Cervantes in every act of his life
as a true son of the Church triumphantly quote this passage
as indicating his preference of the Pope's to the King's
service. The question is one of small importance, and is
very easily settled. The truth appears to be that a Spanish
contingent was placed at the service of his Holiness by
Philip II. at this time, which for a short period was under
the command of Marco Antonio Colonna.^ At this period
the fame of that redoubtable Spanish infantry, who " made
the earth tremble with their firelocks,"^ was at the very

^ In the Captive's Story in Don Quixote (Part I. ch. xxxix.) Diego de Urbina
is called " a famous captain of Guadalajara," under whom Perez de Viedma (the
Captive) served as alfere'z or ensign. According to the register of the men
serving in the King's armada in 1571, which is preserved at Simancas, the total
complement of the tercio de Moncada in Sicily and Italy was 1578 men.

^ The words in the dedication of the Galatea are for haber seguido algunos anos
hi "vencedorai handeras de aquel iol de la mUlc'ia que ayer nos quito el c'lelo delante de
lot cjos. In the prologue to his Novels Cervantes says, speaking of himself, that
he " fought under the victorious banners of the son of that thunderbolt of war,
Charles "V. of happy memory " {militando debajo de las muy -vencedoras handeras del
hijo del rayo de la guerra, Carlos Sluinto de felice memorid).

2 As Colonna was afterward second in command of the allied fleets at Lepanto
and elsewhere, Cervantes might well speak of having followed his conquering
banners without being guilty of inconsistency in saying, some thirty years after-
wards, that he had fought under Don Juan.

* So Lorenzo Vanderhammen — the first biographer of Don Juan of Austria,
and also historian of Philip II.

Cervantes chap.

highest, A succession of skilful masters of war, from
Gonsalvo de Cordova to the Duke of Alva, had brought
the Spanish foot-soldier to a perfect state as a man-at-arms.
As a fighting instrument, the tercio^ was without an equal
in the armies of Europe ; and perhaps for solidity, for
discipline, for the confidence bred by a long course of
victory, was unsurpassed by the Macedonian Phalanx, the
Roman Legion, or the unreformed British Regiment. None
but picked men, of good character and decent birth, were
eligible to the ranks ; and to be a common soldier under so
distinguished a captain as he who led the tercio de Moncada
was in itself no mean distinction for a youth of good family.
Under the Papal general Colonna the Spanish contingent in
Rome was ordered, in the summer of 1570, to Naples, there
to be amalgamated with the other forces of the King of
Spain, and re-organised for the great enterprise which was
then in contemplation, by the heads of the Church, for the
advancement of Christendom.

The Holy League against the Turks, inspired and
devised by Pope Pius V., a man whose zeal, energy, and
sincerity of character did so much to re-kindle the fine
old rage of Christendom against Islam, is an adventure
which need not occupy us any more than as it is connected
with the life and fortunes of Miguel de Cervantes. While
Philip, with characteristic caution, was still hesitating whether
or not to involve his forces in a struggle which he suspected
to be less for the benefit of himself than of his maritime
rivals the Venetians, the winter of 1570 saw the power of
the Turk advanced to its very zenith. All Christendom
had been alarmed and scandalised by the easy conquest of

^ The normal strength of the /frao was 3000 men, divided into companies of from
one hundred to a hundred and fifty each. In the case of such regiments as those
of Moncada and Figueroa, the number of men serving in the ranks (or as iisonos,
supernumeraries waiting for vacancies) would be considerably higher, from the
greater attraction which those names had for recruits of good family, and the
greater demand for their services in the extensive dominions of Spain.

2 Soldier at Lepanto

Cyprus ; though every Power thought the particular scandal
and the first peril to belong to its neighbour. The Turkish
fleet had no rival in the Mediterranean. The Turks, though
of a race which belonged rather to the desert and the moun-
tain than the sea, trained and led by those renegade Christians
of whose abilities they have always been known to make
good use, had come to be reckoned as the best of sailors
in the narrow seas. In number, in strength, and in the per-
fectness of their equipment, the Turkish ships constituted a
force such as no single Christian Power could then encounter
with any hope of success. The siege and conquest of Cyprus
by Selim II. proved that Venice, single-handed, was unequal
to the task of resisting the Ottoman. The Pope might
well begin to fear for his own temporal dominions. But
Pius V. was a Pontiff of the antique mould, who looked
beyond the aggrandisement of the Papal See, the strengthen-
ing of his own power, or the enrichment of his own family
— the usual concerns of the successors of the Apostle. He
invoked all Christendom to the aid of Venice, in language
such as for centuries had not been heard from the chair of
St. Peter. And though the Christian States could hardly
have doubted the sincerity of a spiritual head who had declared
his readiness to give his last shirt in aid of the good work of
the assassination of Protestant Elizabeth, yet Christendom
did not respond so cordially as might have been expected.
The Powers, as in every age before and since, were jealous
of each other. Some of them were not sorry at heart that
the maritime pride of Venice had been lowered. The Most
Christian King could not be got to hate the Sultan so much
as he did the House of Austria. Charles IX. of France had
hereditary friendly relations with the Turk, and was even
suspected of giving secret aid to the Porte. The Emperor
Maximilian had but lately made a treaty of peace with
Turkey, and was not likely to be turned from it by any
tender feeling for his kinsman of Spain, any more than for

Cervantes chap.

his old rival the Pope. Only Spain could be got to give a
reluctant and hesitating response to the prayer for aid to
Christendom in its great fight with Islam. It was not,
however, until after the year had passed which had witnessed
the fall of Cyprus, and until late in the summer of 1571,
that any active steps were taken to give effect to the Holy
League, of which the three members were the Pope, Spain,
and Venice, The treaty between these three Powers was
signed on the 20th of May, 1571. The combined fleet,
of which the primary object was the recovery of Cyprus,
assembled in the harbour of Otranto on the 2ist of August.
The Spanish contingent was under the command of the
Genoese admiral, Giovanni Andrea Doria — a seaman almost
equal in reputation already, though only in his thirty-first
year, to his uncle the famous Andrea Doria. The Venetians
were led by the veteran Sebastian Veniero, and the Papal
squadron by Marco Antonio Colonna, who v/as appointed
Commander-in-Chief until the arrival of Don Juan of
Austria. The very names of the leaders of the allied
fleet seem to indicate the insincerity of the alliance, and
were no good augury of its stability. The three admirals,
though all Italians and all good Catholics, 'were known to
be in mortal enmity one with another, — the Genoese and
the Venetian, hereditary foes of many generations, being
only prevented from flying at each other's throats by the
presence and predominant influence of the Roman-Spaniard,
who in his turn hated and distrusted his two associates.

During the winter of 1570 and until the arrival of the
Spanish reinforcements, with the regiment of Lope de
Figueroa and the main body of Moncada's, Miguel de
Cervantes was at Naples, where he tells us that he " trod
the streets for more than a year." ^ Don Juan of

^ Napoles la ilustre,

Que yo pise sus ruas mas de un ano.

— Viaje del Parnaso, canto viii.
22

2 Soldier at Lepanto

Austria,^ who had been appointed Generalissimo of the allied
forces, arrived at Naples on the 9th of August ; and on the
20th of that month, — the valuable interval being spent in
high festivities, — put to sea again with thirty-five galleys.
Of these the Marquesa was one, a private ship of Doria's,
commanded by Francisco Sancto Pietro, on board of which
was Miguel de Cervantes, with a detachment of the Mon-
cada regiment. On the 23rd of August, Don Juan arrived
at Messina, the appointed final rendezvous of the allied
fleets, and took over the supreme command from Marco
Antonio Colonna. A council was summoned of the chief
naval and military commanders, in order to settle the plan
of operations. Much time was spent in discussing various
schemes and in arranging the disputes between the several
commanders. The Venetians were all for immediate attack,
though they are described by Don Juan himself, in a private
letter, as being the worst provided and the least orderly of
all his ships. The strength of the Spaniards consisted in
their trained soldiers ; that of their allies chiefly in seamen.
Don Juan himself, who seems to have exercised very little
authority over the Venetians, was at first for delaying the
sailing of the fleet, but at last became enthusiastic for an
immediate attack. The allied squadrons put to sea on the
1 6th of September, numbering, according to a letter of Don
Juan himself, 208 galleys, 7 galleasses, and 24 sailing vessels.
The war galley of this period in build and appearance was
not unlike those of the Romans except that it had only one
tier of oars, and was from a hundred and twenty to a hundred
and fifty feet in length, with a beam of from fourteen to
twenty feet. It was propelled by from twenty to twenty-six

^ He was the natural son of the Emperor Charles V. by Barbara Blomberg, a
singer of Ratisbon. That is the accepted story of his birth, but there is much
reason to doubt whether Barbara Blomberg was his mother. The historian
Strada believes, on the authority of the Archduchess Isabella, the favourite
daughter of Philip II., that Don Juan's mother was a high lady of the Court.

Cervantes chap

pairs of oars, each worked by from three to six men, sitting
close together on benches set athwart or at a right angle to
the side — the strongest rower taking the inside place. The
oars were thirty to forty feet long, worked through thwart-
holes, one-third within and two-thirds without, the rowers
being protected while at work by a row of iron shields
running along the outside, as well as by the high bulwarks.
There was a high poop and a forecastle where the guns
were placed, on traversing platforms, which could only be
fired fore and aft. From stem to stern there ran a gangway,
on a level with the shoulders of the rowers, on which the
officers walked to give their orders and to direct the oarsmen.
The galley carried sometimes two, sometimes three masts,
according to its size, with fore and aft sails, — the masts low
and the yards high-peaked, in the Mediterranean fashion.
The galleass was a larger and more powerful galley, with
longer oars, set wider apart, requiring seven men to each.
Besides the forecastle and poop guns, the galleass carried
smaller broadside pieces, placed on platforms between the
benches of oarsmen, with loop-holed bulwarks for the
musketeers. Sailing ships were rarely used in the Medi-
terranean in the sixteenth century except, for trade, and
of their employment in battle in the narrow seas this, I
think, is the first instance. The oarsmen in the galleys,
it is perhaps needless to say, were all criminals under
sentence. In the Turkish galleys they were Christian
slaves — prisoners of war.

The total number of soldiers on board the fleet was
26,000. The line of battle, as arranged on the advice of
the most expert captains, was in three divisions. The first
division or right wing, consisting of the Spanish vessels
and those in the immediate service of Spain, 54 in number,
was under the command of Doria. The centre was com- \
posed of 64 galleys, Spanish and Roman, under Don Juan
himself. The left wing, of 53 galleys, comprising the

2 Soldier at Lepanto

Venetian ships, was under the command of Agostino
Barbarigo. There was a rear or reserve squadron of 30
galleys, under the Marquess of Santa Cruz ; while the
six galleasses were distributed in pairs among the three
divisions of the line. Besides the galleys and galleasses
were the 24 sailing ships, chiefly used as transports and
as depots of the soldiery, under the command of Gutierre
de Arguello, whose orders were to employ them wherever
he could inflict most damage on the enemy.

The allied fleet, which was the largest up to this time
ever seen under the Christian flag, sailed at once in search
of the enemy, who was not found till the 7th of October, —
the interval being chiefly passed in quarrels between the
Spaniards and the Venetians, which at one time rose to
such a pitch that Don Juan threatened to put the Venetian
admiral under arrest, who had hanged some Spanish soldiers
for disobedience of orders almost in his sight. The sight of
the enemy at length brought the Christian commanders to
reason if not to harmony. The Turkish fleet was discovered
in order of battle within the Gulf of Lepanto, at the entrance
of the Gulf of Corinth, in waters which have been reddened
with the blood of more than one great sea-fight.^ The
Turks were commanded by Ali Pasha, who had under him
the most skilful corsair of the time, Aluch Ali — a Cala-
brian renegade.^ Their galleys, though more numerous,

^ The promontory of Actium, where just sixteen hundred years before had
been decided the fate of the Roman world, was within a short distance to the
north-west, and nearer still was the scene of Navarino, the " untoward event "
which for ever closed the record of the Turks as a great naval power.

- Aluch Ali, variously called Uluch Ali, Ouloudg Ali, L'Ochiali, Luchali,
and in tl^e English State papers of the time Ochali, was a very conspicuous
figure in the chronicles of that period — the most famous commander at sea,
perhaps, whom the Turks ever possessed. He was given the name of Kh'didg,
or the Sword, by the grateful Sultan, for his good conduct at Lepanto. He died
of poison in 1580, at a good old age. In the Story of the Captive, in chapters
xxxix, and xl. of Don Sluixote, Part I., this eminent naval hero is spoken of
with respect for his bravery and comparative clemency — a kind of magnanimitv

Cervantes

were smaller than those of the Christians ; inferior in the
number and calibre of their guns, and rowed by Christian
slaves, who could have had no great stomach for the fight
under such masters. The two fleets advanced towards each
other both animated by the desire of battle, the Turks at
first having the weather-gauge, though the wind shifted
suddenly to the west, by a special interposition of Pro-
vidence, at the very crisis of the shock, with a smooth sea
— and so the allies had the advantage.

The battle of Lepanto, the greatest of sea-actions in
modern history up to that date, and perhaps, for the number
of men engaged and the issues at stake, the greatest ever
fought in any age, has been so often described, and recently
with such elaborate minuteness in the animated pages of the
biographer^ of Don Juan of Austria, that it will scarcely
be expected of me to tell the story afresh. Suffice it to
say, that the allied fleets won a victory which, if not so
decisive as it should have been, was very creditable to their
Commander-in-Chief, and especially to the soldiers who
fought on board his ships. But of all who distinguished
themselves in that memorable fight — though the names
of the leaders of the Christian host included half the
Golden Books of Venice and of Genoa and the most
famous of the proud nobility of Spain, with Don Juan
himself, who fought on that day like a hero of romance —
the one who is best remembered by posterity for his share
in the battle is Miguel de Cervantes, the private soldier of
the regiment of Moncada. And as a common soldier, his

which, alone among the writers of the period, Cervantes was wont to show to all
his enemies.

^ The late Sir William Stirling Maxwell, whose Life of Don John of Austria,
in two beautiful volumes, is, whether in the larger or in the smaller edition, so
splendid a monument to that perhaps a little over-praised hero. I have followed
Sir William Stirling Maxwell generally as my guide in the account of the battle
of Lepanto. The best Spanish history of the battle is Don Cayetano Rosell's
Historia de la Combate Nwoal de Lepanto. Madrid, 1853.

2 Soldier at Lepanto

conduct would have made him famous, had he not survived
that glorious day to be the author of Don fixate. Cervantes'
ship, the Marquesa, though belonging to Doria, vfzs placed
in the left wing, which was under the immediate command
of the Venetian provedditore general^ Agostino Barbarigo.
There has been fortunately preserved for posterity a minute
and exact account of Cervantes' behaviour in the battle.
Being ill and weak through a fever he had contracted at
Naples, he was entreated by his captain and his comrades
to remain below in the cabin. But he replied that he pre-
ferred to die fighting for his God and for his King to betaking
himself to cover and preserving his health ; and he besought
the captain to station him in the post of greatest danger. ^
In accordance with his desire, he was placed in command
of twelve soldiers on the quarter-deck, by the side of the
long-boat [esquife] — a station where he was necessarily
exposed to the hottest fire from the enemy's arquebusiers
and bowmen.2 The Marquesa^ judging by the loss she
suffered and the trophies she secured, must have been in
the very thick of the fight, and contributed at least her
full share to the signal victory achieved by the left division.
Our hero was among the foremost who boarded the galley

^ See the sworn testimony given by Mateo de Santisteban before the Alcalde,
in support of Rodrigo de Cervantes' (the father's) petition for aid in raising the
money for Cervantes' ransom, on the 17th of March, 1578 (Navarrete, p. 317).
Santisteban was one of Cervantes' fellow-soldiers in Diego de Urbina's company,
who fought by his side on the deck of the Marqueia. After quoting the words
of Cervantes as I have given them above, Santisteban declares that he saw him
fight as a valiant soldier at the post to which he was appointed by the captain.
Gabriel de Castafieda, an alfere% or ensign in the same company, gives the same
testimony, repeating Cervantes' words, adding that he knew that Don Juan had
raised his pay by five or six escudos. Others of his comrades speak in equal high
terms of Cervantes' conduct in the battle.

^ Bows and arrows were used by the Turks at Lepanto, and apparently with
great effect when at close quarters — perhaps for the last time in a sea-battle,
though we hear of them being among the furniture of the English ships which
fought the Armada seventeen years afterwards. The inferior quality of the Turks*
artillery was doubtless one of the chief causes of their defeat.

Cervantes chap.

of the Pasha of Alexandria, which was captured with the
roval standard of Egypt, more than five hundred Turks
being slain, with the Pasha himself. Cervantes suffered
severely in his own person for the active part he took in
the fight. He received three gun-shot wounds, two in the
breast and one in the left hand, which maimed it for ever.
Yet were these hurts cherished by him in after-life as the
most glorious of his honours, having been got, as he says
himself, on " the greatest occasion that past or present ages
have witnessed, or that the future can hope to witness," —
preferring to have endured his losses and his sufferings to be
whole and taking no share in the glory of that day. That
the conduct of Cervantes in the battle of Lepanto earned
the applause of all his comrades and won for him, as a
private soldier, the especial notice of his leaders, we have
ample evidence to prove — evidence which is beyond the
suspicion of having been manufactured after he had become
celebrated as a writer.

The honour of the victory must be said to be due, in an
unusual measure, to the skill, intrepidity, and moral influ-
ence of the Generalissimo himself — a youth of the same
age as Miguel de Cervantes — who gave promise in this
brilliant achievement of a future which fate and the envious
Philip did not permit him to reach. Beginning the day by
dancing a galliard on the poop of the flagship, with some of
his noble companions, to the music of the kettle-drums and
recorders,^ Don Juan performed his part throughout with
admirable coolness and judgment, distinguishing himself no
less by his modesty in speaking of his brilliant exploit, his
clemency to the vanquished, and his magnanimity to the
sulky and stubborn Venetians ; on whom, however, to

^ See the curious account of Don Juan's behaviour, quoted in Stirling
Maxweirs book (vol. i. p. 411) from Caracciolo's Commentaries. Mass had been
celebrated on board of every ship on the morning of the day of battle, which was
a Sunday.

2 Soldier at Lepanto

judge by the tale of the killed and wounded, the hardest
part of the fighting had fallen. But though the centre and
the left wing had been signally victorious, the right wing,
under Doria, which was opposed to the Turkish left, under
the astute and daring Aluch Ali, came out of the battle
with less honour. Doria made the mistake, so common in
naval warfare, of extending his line with a view to envelop
his adversary. After much manoeuvring between the rival
leaders, both renowned in that age for seamanship, Aluch
Ali found an opening in Doria's line through which he bore
down with 30 of his swiftest galleys ; and, getting in the
rear of the main body of the allies, was able to inflict much
damage and rescue several of his own captured vessels,
finally making his escape to sea in good order with the
remnant of the Ottoman fleet. The battle of Lepanto,
though it did not tend greatly to Christian unity and did
not destroy the Ottoman power at sea, "arrested," as Bacon
said, " the power of the Turk." The victory of the Holy
League, though dearly purchased, was, in a material sense,
more decisive than naval engagements are wont to be.
Over 20,000 of the Turks were calculated to have perished,
including all the principal commanders ; 5000 were taken
prisoners, including Ali Pasha's two youthful sons; 170
galleys were captured, most of them useless from the wear
of battle, and more than 100 were supposed to be sunk
or wrecked. The Holy Standard of Mecca, the Sultan's
Imperial flag, and the sword of the Turkish Admiral- in-
Chief, were among the trophies of the victors. From
12,000 to 15,000 Christian captives obtained their freedom
from slavery. The loss of the allies is reckoned at between
5000 and 7000 killed, and 8 or 10 galleys sunk or burnt.^
All Christendom rang with the fame of the victory. Pope

^ These figures make out the total number engaged on both sides to be no
less than 70,000 men, — soldiers, seamen, and oarsmen, — a host more numerous
perhaps than any that ever fought in a naval battle in modern history.

Cervantes chap, a

Pius, to whom the news had been already revealed by-
special miracle,^ burst out when the actual message came
from the young conqueror, in the Evangelist's words : —
Futt homo missus a Deo cui nomen erat yohannes? To Marco
Antonio Colonna, when he entered his native city, there
was given an ovation after the antique pattern. The
Blessed Virgin received a new title from the grateful Pope.
Painters, sculptors, poets vied with each other in com-
memorating the deeds of that glorious day. Philip II., the
Spanish King and half-brother of the victor, was, of all,
the least moved by the event, receiving the joyful news
at vespers "without a change of countenance." When
Christians slew Christians two years afterwards, at the
Feast of St. Bartholomew, the grim monarch was able to
smile.3

^ The legend, as preserved in Rome to this day, is that the Pope was on his
knees in prayer before the image of the Madonna, painted by Fra Angelico da
Fiesole, in the afternoon of yth October, which was a Sunday, when the Virgin
revealed to him, in the usual manner, that the Christians had beaten the Turks.
This image, which now belongs to the Church of the Magdalen near the
Pantheon, is still held in special honour by the Romans ; and on the ter-
centenary of Lepanto was carried in procession through the streets, clad in a
new frock and enriched with a new garniture of gold and gems.

2 The same words are said to have been uttered by the Emperor Leopold I.,
when the news came to him of the defeat of the Turks at Vienna by the Polish
King John Sobieski, in 16S3.

^ It must in fairness be acknowledged that Philip afterwards wrote a
tolerably gracious letter to Don Juan, and received his messenger, Don Lope de
Figueroa, who brought him the formal news of the victory, with the captured
sacred standard of the Prophet, very cordially, bestowing honours on him and on
some of his chief captains, with a liberality unwonted.

CHAPTER III

Service JJloat and Ashore

The victory of Lepanto was a supreme effort of the new
Christian unity and Allied enterprise, which could not be
repeated. The season of the year, with the condition of
the fleet, rendered it imperative on Don Juan to seek the
shelter of a friendly port. The day of the battle had been
followed by a severe storm, which had damaged many of the
ships. There were about 14,000 wounded to be cared for,
and provisions were running short. So after dividing the
booty, which was immense, and making a half-hearted
attempt on Santa Maura, where there was a Turkish
garrison, Don Juan sailed away for Messina, arriving there
on the last day of October. Here the sick and wounded
were landed. The Commander-in-Chief showed what in
that age was most unusual interest in his invalids, appoint-
ing his own household physician, Gregorio Lopez, to the
duty of attending the wounded, devoting a sum of 30,000
crowns which had been presented to him by the municipality
to their use, and personally visiting the hospital and seeing
that his orders were carried out. Among those under
treatment was Cervantes, with two wounds in the breast
and one through the hand. That these wounds must have
been severe is shown by his long detention in the hospital,
and by the fact that when, two years afterwards, he shared
in the expedition against Tunis, they were still unhealed.

Cervantes chap.

"My wound yet dripping with blood" [vertiendo sangre
aun la herida)^ he says, in his epistle to Mateo Vasquez.
The arquebuse ball which pierced his left hand rendered it
useless for the rest of his life.^ Yet never was any token
of valour or prize of victory more dearly cherished by a
soldier than were his wounds by Cervantes ; who ever
esteemed them, though they added to his infirmities and
contributed to render severer for him the struggle of life, as
among the most fortunate accidents of his career. When,
many years afterwards, he was taunted by his enemy Avella-
neda, bv a thrust not more malicious than maladroit, with
this among other personal defects that he had " more tongue
than hands " [mas lengua que manos)^ Cervantes' retort was,
that to charge him with the loss of his hand was to impute
to him the greatest honour to which a soldier could aspire.
In several of his works he speaks with a simple yet proud
complacency of his wounds, holding them as his chief titles
to honour, the left hand being maimed " for the greater
glory of the right." That his services and suffering in the
battle attracted an unusual degree of notice, we know from
contemporary records and from official documents.'^ In the

^ Of this wound in the hand the popular belief — fostered by the forged and
lying portraits and effigies of Cervantes — that it led to the loss, that is, the
amputation, of the hand at the wrist, appears to be contrary to all that
Cervantes himself says of the matter. In the epistle to Mateo Vasquez he
says : —

—la siniestra mano

Estava por mil partes ya rompida —

•' the left hand was shattered in a thousand places." In the Viaje del Parnaso,
he says that he lost el mcmimlento de la mano i^uierda, meaning the use of
it, the hand remaining manca y estropeada, "maimed and mangled." There is
much reason to doubt that he lost his hand altogether, by a shot or a surgical
operation ; and the fact that he was able to serve as an infantry soldier for four
years afterwards, and was employed actively in more than one campaign, seems
to be a conclusive proof that he must have retained some power in the wounded
member.

2 See the Ilustracio/ies and Documentoi collected by the faithful and judicious
Navarrete and appended to his Life of Cert-antes.

3 Afloat and Ashore

archives of Simancas are preserved the accounts, secret and
extraordinary, of Don Juan's expenditure in the campaign of
the Levant. Among these is an entry by the Treasurer of
the Fleet to the effect that, on the 23rd of January, 1572,
at Messina, various sums were distributed among those who
had been wounded at Lepanto, the name of Miguel de
Cervantes being down in the list for 20 ducats. There
is another entry on 17th March of the same year, of
payments made to those who had deserved well in the battle
of the 7th of October, and among these is Miguel de
Cervantes, who receives 22 ducats. On the 29th of April
of the same year an addition was made to the pay of Miguel
de Cervantes, by a special order, of three escudos a month —
these being, we may conclude, silver escudos or crowns, of
the value of ten reals apiece.

On the 29th of April, 1572, being convalescent, though,
as we learn from himself, not yet cured of his wounds,
Cervantes left the hospital of Messina, being a soldado
aventajado^ to join, by command of Don Juan, the regiment
of Lope de Figueroa. As a soldado aventajado or select
soldier, to whom a special gratuity had been given for dis-
tinguished service, he was now an officer elect, on the list
for promotion.^ The company in which Cervantes was
enrolled was that which was soon afterwards commanded by
Don Manuel Ponce de Leon, and was regarded as the leading
company of what then was a corps d'elite. The tercio de
Figueroa^ of which we hear so much in the wars of that
period, both by sea and land, was the most famous of all the
regiments of Spanish infantry. In 1567 it was composed of
40 companies and 6446 men. From its designation of tercio
de la armada del mar Oceano it seems to have been specially
reserved for expeditions beyond the sea, resembling in its

^ To be a captain in the tercio de Figueroa it was necessary to have been at
least six years a soldier and three an ensign {alfereTi), or ten years a soldado
aventajado,

33 3

Cervantes

constitution the French Infanterie de la Marine. Under
the name of the Regiment of Cordova it survived to a late
date, fighting at Trafalgar under Admiral Gravina against
the English. Don Lope de Figueroa, who gave his name
to this distinguished regiment, w^as himself one of the most
illustrious of the Spanish captains of the age. He had been
Don Juan's right-hand man in the suppression of the in-
surgent Moriscoes, in the year before Lepanto. In the great
naval battle he had his place, v^^ith others of the elite of Don
Juan's captains, on the forecastle of the Spanish flagship.
He vi^as sent with the news of the victory to the King,
bearing the captured standard of Ali Pasha, the Turkish
Admiral. After a long life of service in many parts of the
world, in the Levant, in Italy, in Flanders, in Portugal,
Don Lope, — the pattern of a Spanish man-at-arms of the
sixteenth century, — closed his career in 1585, worn out by
his much toil and many wounds.^

The allied fleets had by this time completed their re-
fitting ; and though the enthusiasm of the Leaguers had
considerably abated, through internal dissensions fomented
by the outside Christian states and by Turkey, it was
resolved that Don Juan should lead another armament
against the Turks in the Levant. The death of the
energetic old Pope, in April, was a great blow to the cause ;
for although his successor, Gregory XIII., began his ponti-
ficate by urging the Confederates to action, there was much
difficulty in getting them to move. The truth is that from
this time the allies began to perceive that their objects were
by no means identical. Each, as in every Christian alliance
since, had his own policy to serve in the East. The
Venetians were intent solely upon recovering their lost

1 He was a favourite hero with the playwrights, and frequent glimpses of
him appear in the comedies, — one of the most vivid of which is in Calderon's
Alcalde de Zalamea, where the war-worn veteran appears as a grumbling
valetudinarian.

Afloat and Ashore

colonies in the Levant. The King of Spain was jealous of
his victorious and popular half-brother ; and, though bent
upon schemes of African conquest, was not over eager to
entrust them to the execution of Don Juan, who was
himself suspected of visions of an independent empire in
Africa. Meanwhile, the Turks were busily employed in
recruiting their shattered forces and in building a new fleet.
By June Aluch Ali was at sea again with 170 galleys,
laying waste the shores of Greece and re-conquering many
of the fortresses which had been lost in the year before. In
July the Turkish fleet, relatively as strong as it had been
before Lepanto, was once more threatening the Adriatic.
Don Juan being still delayed at Messina through the
difliculties placed in his way by the King, the allied fleet,
reduced by many individual secessions, was under the com-
mand of Colonna, who had joined with the Venetians at
Corfu. Some skirmishing ensued between the two fleets
on the western coast of the Morea, but to no effect —
Colonna's endeavours to force on a battle, of which he might
have all the glory, before the arrival of the Commander-in-
Chief, being frustrated by Aluch Ali. At length Don
Juan was enabled to take command of the fleet, which was
now, by the accession of the Spanish ships, increased to a
total of nearly 200 galleys, besides 40 large sailing ships
and 8 galleasses, — a force actually larger than that which
had won at Lepanto, and perhaps more highly organised
and in better discipline. Nothing, however, came of this
grand expedition, which, partly through the unaccountable
hesitation of the leaders, but more perhaps through their
divisions and mutual jealousies, utterly failed of its object ;
though at one time the entire Turkish fleet was blockaded
within the narrow port of Modon, and might have been
easily destroyed. Every attempt to bring on a general
engagement was foiled by the superior skill and seamanship
of the Turks, and at last the allied fleet had to retire,

Cervantes chap.

through stress of weather, to Corfu, — abandoning all the
fruits of the victorious campaign of Lepanto, and leaving
Aluch Ali master of the sea. On the 25th of October,
Don Juan re-entered the harbour of Messina, this time not
as a conqueror ; u^hile the Turks hailed with acclaim their
own admiral, who, without hazarding a battle, had restored
to them all their old power and prestige at sea.

That Cervantes was on board the fleet during this
inglorious second campaign in the Levant is clear, if only
from the minute and accurate account of the futile opera-
tions in the Bay of Navarino which he gives in the Story
of the Captive in Don Quixote} The winter and spring
following, the regiment of Figueroa was quartered mainly
in Sicily, though from an entry in the Treasurer's account-
books Cervantes seems to have been left with his company
at Naples. On the nth of February, 1573, there is an
order on the officials of the fleet, dated from Naples, to pay
Miguel de Cervantes, "a soldier in the company of Don
Manuel Ponce de Leon," ten escudos of what is due to him ;
another sum of twenty escudos being paid him in the month
following. The beginning of March saw the Holy League
dissolved, through the secession of the Venetians, who had
been enabled, by the good oflices of France, to make a
separate peace with the Sultan. The Pope urging King
Philip to a war of conquest on his own account against the
Turks, an expedition was resolved upon, under the conduct
of Don Juan, against Tunis. Nothing, however, was done
until the autumn. On the 8th of October the expedition
appeared ofF the Goletta, the harbour of Tunis, in the fort at
the entrance of which, since the time of its conquest by
Charles V. in 1535, there had been a Spanish garrison.
Driving the Turks out of Tunis, Don Juan took possession
of the city, and an attempt was made, by setting up a
Moorish prince of the old reigning family as ruler, to create

^ Don fixate, Part I. ch. xxxix.
36

Afloat and Ashore

a division between the natives and the Turks. Leaving a
small reinforcement w^ith the Spanish garrison at the
Goletta, Don Juan returned to Naples. That Cervantes
served in the Tunisian campaign w^e know^ from his ow^n
w^ords.i From the end of 1573 ^^ ^^^ beginning of May of
1574, Cervantes w^as in garrison v/ith his regiment in the
island of Sardinia. In that month he was sent to Genoa in
the galleys of Marcelo Doria in order to be stationed in
Lombardy, under the orders of Don Juan. On the 27th of
July there was held at Piacenza, with all antique pomp and
ceremony, a grand tournament under the auspices of the
Farnese, in honour of their illustrious kinsman, "the most
valiant of Knights Errant," " the only hope of an oppressed
and afflicted religion," the puissant conqueror of the Turk.
Cervantes might have been present as a spectator. At least
he would have heard news of these chivalric doings, and
many things of " tilting furniture and emblazoned shields,"
such as could not but be stored up in the memory of one
by nature already well inclined to dream of —

Le donne, i cavallier, I'arme, gli amori,
Le cortesie, I'audaci impresi —

the singing of which by the great romantic poet of Italy
was then fresh in the minds of men. There were gallant

^ In the rhymed epistle to Mateo Vasquez, the King's secretary, he says : —
Y al reino antiguo y celebrado,
A do la hermosa Dido fue vendida
Al querer del Troyano desterrado,
Tambien, vertiendo sangre aun la herida,
Mayor con otras dos, quise ir y hallarme,
Por ver ir la Morisma de vencida.

(Then to the kingdom, ancient and renowned,
Where beauteous Dido, by love betrayed,
Her doom in Troy's illustrious exile found,

Though yet my stricken hand distilled its gore,
With other hurts still green, I fain would go
To sec the unbelievers trounced once more.)

Cervantes chap.

doings at Piacenza on this occasion — pageants, processions,
defiances — such as recalled the proud days of the old chivalry.
The circumstantial, matter-of-fact way in which the business
is recorded, as though it were a fitting and necessary end to
the sterner work to which it was to do homage, proves how
deeply the minds of the noble youths of the period were still
impressed with the spirit of the extinct chivalry, — how green
were its memories and recent its glories. A challenge was
sent by the Count Alberto Scotti, in due knightly form, to
all the world, inviting the entire universe to testify to the
superior loveliness and virtue of the lady whom the said
Knight, defender of the lists, had made mistress of his
aff^ections, and declaring that he is prepared, with sword and
lance and other necessary furniture, to do battle against any
Knight so daring as to decline to comply with that simple
proposal, and to "make him feel how greatly he has deceived
himself."^ The hero in whose honour the tournament was
held was one to whom on every account such an offering
was most fitting and congenial. There was much of the
Errant about Don Juan, in his character and in his genius,
as in his career j much that was calculated to arouse the
golden youth of Spain and of Italy to the eniulation of the
deeds of "fabled knights in battles feigned." ^

On the 7th of August, Don Juan, sated as he must have
been with the incense offered him by the best blood of Italy,
embarked at Spezzia, taking with him the regiment of
Figueroa, in which, doubtless, Cervantes was still serving.

^ See the account of this quaint proceeding, with all the ceremonial of the
tournament, in Sir W. Stirling Maxwell's Life of Don John of Austria. The
gravity and the business-like air with which the proceedings were conducted are
curious, as affording evidence that up to this date at least (1574) the practices, the
language, and the apparatus of knight-errantry had by no means become extinct.

"^ At the tournament which took place in connexion with Count Alberto
Scotti's challenge, Don Juan himself, " being the honourable and unconquered
Knight for which the world knows him, could not restrain himself from
appearing," says the chronicler. And to Don Juan was awarded the prize of the
lance, as having been the most expert in the use of that weapon.

3 Afloat and Ashore

He was called to the affairs of Tunis, now, throuo-h the
weakness of the Spanish garrison and the increasing audacity
of the Moors and their Turkish allies, growing daily more
desperate. A shifty and equivocal letter from Philip had
thrown upon Don Juan the whole responsibility of deciding
upon the fate of Tunis, while refusing the material aid he
required in order to restore the Spanish dominion in Africa.
There were reasons, independent of his jealousy of his
brilliant half-brother, which at that time might well make
the Spanish monarch hesitate to support Don Juan in any
vigorous attempt to stave off the coming disaster at Tunis.
The Low Countries were in open rebellion, encouraged
both by France and by England. The war with Turkey
was still raging, and a powerful Ottoman fleet had sailed for
the African coast. Italy itself was in a troubled state, with
the Pope irritated at the continued occupation of his territory
by Spanish troops. In the midst of the conflicting instruc-
tions which he received from Madrid, whose real purpose
seems to have been to spare the King any further expense
in Africa, while involving Don Juan personally in the dis-
honour of retreating before the Turks, there came a series
of furious storms which detained the Spanish fleet, with the
troops intended for the succour of Tunis, in the Sicilian
ports. Before the fleet could sail, news came of the fall of
Tunis and of the Goletta, after a desperate resistance to an
overwhelming military and naval Turkish armament. This
ignoble end to the chapter of warlike enterprise and glorious
adventure which had seemed to open for Spanish manhood
by the great day of Lepanto, must have filled the bosom of
the ardent young soldier of Figueroa's regiment with a sense
of deep disappointment and disgust, which, in his Don
^ixote^ in the chapters referring to this shameful Tunis
episode, he does not care to conceal. The vision of chivalry
was dissolved. The age of knightly deeds, which seemed to
have come again to this eager student of romance, he must

Cervantes

CHAP. 3

have felt to be a mockery of the past. The glimmer of
Lepanto was but the departing light of a day which was gone
for ever. And now the sick and maimed soldier, fretting
out his heart for want of action, must have felt that

the true old times were dead,

When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.

In August, 1575, when there appeared to be no further
prospect of active work with the army, Cervantes, being
then at Naples, besought and obtained leave to visit Spain,
having been absent from home nearly six years. Don Juan
himself gave him letters to the King, strongly recommending
him, as "a man of valour, of merit, and of many signal
services " done to his Majesty, for the command of a
company of the troops being raised for Italy .^ The Duke
of Sessa and Viceroy of Sicily also wrote to the King and
to his Council, in very flattering terms, in favour of "a
soldier as deserving as he was unfortunate, who, by his noble
virtue and gentle disposition, had won the esteem of his
comrades and chiefs." Furnished with these, — which proved,
alas ! to be " letters of Bellerophon " to him,- tending, as we
shall see, rather to the aggravation of his state than the
bettering of his fortunes, — Cervantes embarked at Naples for
Spain on board the galley El Sol^ in company with his
brother Rodrigo — who had also served in the campaigns of the
previous years — of Don Pero Diaz Carillo de Quesada, ex-
Governor of the Goletta, and several other distinguished
gentlemen, chiefly soldiers on leave returning to their native
country.

^ See the memorial presented by Cervantes to the King in 1590 (Appendix C).

CHAPTER IVi

The Captivity in Algiers

On the voyage to Spain there befell Cervantes that great and
cruel calamity which, while it altered the whole current of
his fortunes and spoilt his career, brought out into stronger
relief the nobility of his character, and perhaps determined
the course of his genius. The vessel in which he had taken
his passage home — the galley El Sol — when almost in sight of
the Spanish coast, was met, on the 26th of September, 1575,
by a squadron of Algerine corsairs under the command of
the redoubtable Arnaut Mami, one of those renegade sea-
captains who were then the terror of the Mediterranean.^

^ The chief authority for the facts of Cervantes' captivity in Algiers is
Haedo's Tofograjia e Historia General de Argel, published at Valladolid in 1612.
Fray Diego Haedo, a Benedictine monk, was Abbot of Fromesta, and nephew of
a prelate of the same name, Archbishop of Palermo, who died in 1608. The
book seems to have been the joint composition of uncle and nephew, and bears
internal evidence of truthfulness in its minuteness, elaboration, and candour.
The latter part, giving an account of the sufferings of the captives in Algiers, is
based on the information of certain well-known persons who had been released
from slavery, especially of Dr. Antonio de Sosa, the Captain Geronimo Ramirez,
and Don Antonio Gonzalez de Torres, Knight of the Order of Saint John, who
are introduced as interlocutors in the story, and evidently speak of their personal
knowledge of Cervantes. Although the book was not published till 16 12, the
licence for printing it is dated 1604. Father Haedo, therefore, must have
written before the publication of the First Part of Don Quixote ,• nor is there any
evidence in his book to show that he had any other knowledge of Cervantes
through his informants except as un hidalgo principal de Ahala de Henares.

^ Arnaut Mami, as his name indicates, was an Albanian renegade, chief of the
Algerine corsairs, and a very celebrated sea-rover of that age. He is mentioned

Cervantes chap.

After a fruitless attempt at escape, there ensued a desperate
fight between the El Sol and three of the foremost of the
pirate galleys, in which Cervantes is reported to have borne
a conspicuous part. The unequal combat ended in the
surrender of the Spaniards, who were divided among the
corsairs, according to their custom, — the captives being
prized according to their supposed rank and ransom-yielding
capacity. Cervantes himself fell to the lot of one Deli
Mami, a renegade Greek, a man noted even amongst that
ungodly brood for his wild ferocity — a raez^ or corsair
captain.^ The letters of Don Juan of Austria and of the
Duke of Sessa, found upon Cervantes, led his captor to be-
lieve that he was a prize of exceptional value, upon whom a
large ransom might be set. He was, therefore, brought
to Algiers, loaded with chains and treated with especial
severity, in accordance with the corsair policy, in order that
he might be the more solicitous of freedom.

The kingdom and city of Algiers were then a dependency
of the Turkish Empire, having been conquered from the
Moors by Aruch Barbarossa, the elder brother of the more
celebrated Khayreddin Barbarossa, in 151 6. The govern-
ment was administered by a Viceroy from Constantinople,
frequently changed, who was usually a successful soldier or
seaman, Turk or renegade. In 1575 the Viceroy, or Dey,
who was the twenty-first in succession from Barbarossa,
according to Father Haedo, was Rabadan Pasha, a Sardinian
renegade — a pupil, like his successor, of the famous Aluch
Ali, who had then exchanged Algiers for Tunis.^ The
whole business and ra'ison d'etre of Algiers was piracy.
The corsair captains were the rulers of the State, and their

in several of Cervantes' works, and figures in two of the ballads in Duran's
Romancero General (vol. i. p. 147).

■• Deli Mami, Cervantes' first master, should not be confounded, as sometimes
he has been, with Amaut Mami. The one was but a raez, or owner and captain
of a corsair galley ; the other held the supreme command of the corsair fleet.

2 Haedo, p. 84. Rabadan was succeeded in June, 1577, by Hassan.

4 Captivity in Algiers

prizes at sea the whole public revenue. The Dey was but
the chief of the corsairs, who administered the affairs of his
truculent little kingdom upon a system the most methodically
ruthless and regularly savage perhaps ever known within so
short a distance of civilisation. The barbarities practised
upon the unfortunate Christians who fell within their power
have been the theme of innumerable pens ; nor can we
refrain from a feeling of wonder how so insignificant a band
of adventurers was able for so long a period to defy all the
naval powers of Christendom. The total population of the
city of Algiers, which really contained the whole Algerine
State and strength, according to the careful estimate of
Father Hasdo, did not amount to 100,000, about the year
1575.^ Of these the Turks proper, — the ruling caste, —
were in an insignificant minority. The renegades,^ who
were of every Christian nation in the world, including
English, Scotch, Irish, Russian, must have numbered nearly
one -third of the entire people, and seem to have done more
than a proportionate share of the pirating and plundering.
The captives who still retained their name of Christian are
reckoned at nearly 25,000, among whom were noblemen
and officers of the highest quality, especially Spaniards and
Italians. Except when they gave offence to their masters by
attempting to escape, and thus trying to rob them of what
was supposed to be their lawful perquisites, namely, their
ransoms, — the captives who were in the ransomable class
seem to have been treated with tolerable liberality. They

^ There were 12,200 houses within the city walls in Hsedo's time, which,
giving a larger allowance than usual to each house, in consideration of the poly-
gamous establishments of the great, would still bring the total number within
100,000.

^ Of the 35 corsair captains whose names are given in Haedo (p. i8), 24 were
renegades or sons of renegades, 10 Turks, and one a Jew. Though dubbed
corsairs and pirates by their Christian neighbours, these gentlemen rovers probably
no more deserved the epithet than did the privateers in the last great war, and
not so much as the buccaneers of the New World in that and subsequent ages.

Cervantes chap.

were not debarred from commerce among themselves. They
led their own life, were allowed (as Mahomedans in Spain or
in Italy certainly were not) the free exercise of their religion,
and were even permitted their own recreations.^ The
number of renegades of every race and tongue among them
was, perhaps, regarded by their masters as sufficient security
for their slaves' good behaviour.

Among all those in the power of Hassan Pasha no captive
earned so much distinction as Cervantes, by the courage and
fortitude with which he bore his terrible ordeal as well as by
the daring and ingenuity of his unceasing attempts to break
away from his chains. He had not been long at Algiers
before he began to plot schemes of escape. In company
with several other of his fellow-captives, he made an attempt
to reach Oran by land, — Oran being then in Spanish hands ;
but the party was deserted by the Moor whom they had
engaged as their guide after the first day's march, and were
compelled to return to Algiers, there to be loaded with
heavier chains and kept in stricter confinement. Two or
three other ineffectual attempts were made by him to recover
his freedom, as he mentions himself in his comedy of El
Trato de Argel; but in every case, though, he displayed
extraordinary courage and craft in planning what could not
have been other than a very desperate enterprise, and was
invariably the first to take the blame when the attempt
miscarried, he met with his usual bad luck, being foiled by
the timidity or the treachery of some one amongst his
companions.

1 Plays were allowed to be acted and poems to be recited, — the authorities,
with that scornful tolerance ever characteristic of the Turk, refraining from
interfering with these amusements ; see Cervantes' comedy of hos Bami de Argel.
Cervantes himself is said to have composed poems and dramas, profane and
religious, to keep up the spirits and to cheer the faith of his brethren in
captivity. La Virgen de Guadelupe, supposed to be one of these, has been printed
by the Seville Society of Bibliophiles ; but it is of a quality such as would scarcely
amuse even an Algerine slave, and bears no trace of Cervantes' hand.

4 Captivity in Algiers

In the second year of his captivity, some of his personal
friends having been rescued, Cervantes wrote home by one
of them — Gabriel Castafieda^ — to his parents, describing
his own and his brother's deplorable state. The father,
Rodrigo Cervantes, responded to this appeal by remitting to
Algiers a certain sum, being all that he was able to raise by
the pledging of his estate and the dowries of his two
daughters. The money was rejected by Deli Mami as not
enough for the redemption of so illustrious a captive as he
deemed Miguel de Cervantes to be. It was a common
trick for the corsairs, says Haedo, to pretend, out of malice or
cupidity, that their slaves were of exalted condition, though
pleading poverty, as doubtless such was a common plea. Of
some poor fisherman or shepherd they would say that he was
a man of quality, that it was useless for him to deny it, they
being informed that he was a cousin or a nephew of the
Duke of Alva. So the poor wretch would be loaded with
a heavier chain to make him confess. Should any slave, out
of his charity, give his cloak, or his cap, or a pair of good
shoes to another Christian, he would be immediately accused
by some miscreant Moor or malicious Christian (and there
were some of the latter class in Algiers, as Cervantes' history
shows) of being a great man in disguise, who concealed his
rank for the sake of reducing his ransom. Then the corsair
would assert with many oaths, and call upon Allah to
confirm him, that the slave was a great man, the son of a
Count, the cousin of a Marquess, or a Duke, or a Prince. If
he was an ecclesiastic, and had a good appearance, they would
at once proclaim him for a Cardinal, or at the least an Arch-
bishop or a Patriarch. So testifies the good Doctor Sosa,

^ Gabriel de Castafieda was with Cervantes in the attempt to escape to Oran.
He was an alf/rez, or ensign, in Cervantes' regiment, and had fought in the
Marquaa at Lepanto. He was one of those who bore witness to Cervantes'
behaviour in that battle, and testified, in his deposition in support of Rodrigo
Cervantes' petition (to be mentioned hereafter), that he had read the com-
mendatory letters which Cervantes was bearing when taken captive.

Cervantes chap.

who was a captive himself for four years, and knew
Cervantes in Algiers, — doubtless from painful experience of
over-appraisement in his own person.^

Miguel de Cervantes, who was of a free and open dis-
position, ready to share all he possessed with his brothers
in affliction, was sure to be an object of suspicion to his
masters as one of more worth in piastres than he claimed to
be. The corsairs knew a good man's value, if his country-
men did not. Therefore they set him at a high figure.
The ransom sent by the father, however, was sufficient to
obtain the release of his elder brother, Rodrigo, with whom
Cervantes concerted a scheme for the deliverance of himself
and certain of his friends through the agency of an armed
Spanish ship, which was to appear off the shore on a stipulated
day. Rodrigo Cervantes returned to Spain in August, 1577,
furnished with letters from two captives of high rank — Don
Antonio de Toledo, of the family of Alva, and Don Francisco
de Valencia — directed to the Viceroys of Valencia and the
Balearic Islands, praying them to help this design by the
despatch of a war-vessel, as agreed upon between Cervantes
and his brother.

In preparation for this, the most daring of his attempts
at escape, Cervantes had already taken the preliminary steps.
About six miles from the town of Algiers, to the eastward,
a certain Greek regenade Hassan, one of the alcaldes of the
city, had a country-house, with a garden, by the sea-shore,
under charge of a slave called Juan, a native of Navarre. In
this garden was a cavern in which Cervantes, with the
connivance of Juan, had concealed several Christian captives.
Others were from time to time introduced, until, at the date
of Rodrigo's departure, there were hidden away in this
place of refuge, in anticipation of the relief to come from
seaward, forty or fifty escaped slaves, most of them Spaniards
and gentlemen of quality. It is a proof at once of Cervantes'

1 See Hsedo, pp. 227, 228.
46

4 Captivity in Algiers

resources of invention and dexterity, as well as of the
ascendency acquired by him over all with whom he came
into contact, — a proof also, perhaps, of the comparative
liberty enjoyed by the Christian captives, in certain cases, —
that he was able to support the members of this subterraneous
republic with food for more than six months without in-
curring the suspicions of his jealous master. Deli Mami.
His plans being completed at last, and the day drawing near
which had been arranged for the coming of the Spanish
vessel in aid, Cervantes himself took refuge in the cavern,
about the 20th of September. Everything seemed to
promise well for the success of his hardy enterprise. A
frigate was despatched from Majorca, under the command
of a tried and expert seaman acquainted with the coast,
which came off Hassan's garden on the night of the 28th of
September, and was able to communicate with the inmates
of the cavern. Some Moorish fishermen, however, having
given the alarm, the vessel was obliged to put out to sea
again. Meanwhile, treachery was at work among those
who knew of the secret of the cave. A certain renegade
called El Dorador (" the Gilder "), who had been entrusted
by Cervantes with the duty of conveying provisions to the
people in the cavern, repented of his resolution to return to
the land and the faith of his fathers, and went before the
Viceroy, Hassan Pasha,^ to reveal the scheme of Cervantes.
The Viceroy, who appears to have had an extraordinary and
inexplicable dread, mingled with no less strange a respect,
for Cervantes, was all the more eager to profit by El
Dorador's disclosure as it would give him the property in
all these would-be fugitive slaves, according to the law and
custom of Algiers. A strong force of armed Turks was sent

^ So I have Englished, according to my rule in such cases, the name which
appears in all the Spanish histories as Azan or Asan Baxa or Baji. There is no
sound of j/5 in modern Spanish — the harsh, guttural aspirate x or j being used to
express it in all words of Eastern origin.

Cervantes chap.

to the Alcalde's garden to search for the captives in the
cavern. Cervantes, perceiving the failure of his scheme,
was the first to come forward, and, presenting himself at
the entrance of the cavern, to declare before the Viceroy's
soldiers that none of his companions had any part or blame
in that business ; that he alone had persuaded them to fly
and to conceal themselves there, and that he had arranged
and managed the whole affair. The Turks, surprised at a
confession so extraordinary and magnanimous, sent off one
of their number to the Viceroy to inform him of what
Cervantes had said, with the result that Hassan Pasha
ordered all the other captives to be incarcerated in his bagnio,
but Cervantes to be conducted to his presence.

In this crisis of his fate, Miguel de Cervantes owed his
escape from a cruel death to his undaunted bearing, — with
some aid, perhaps, from the Viceroy's cupidity and jealousy.^
Of all those who had held rule in Algiers under the Turk,
Hassan Pasha, the renegade Venetian, was the most noted for
his extravagant and inhuman cruelty. Father Haedo's testi-
mony, which is based on that of eye-witnesses, describes his
reign as one of the bloodiest in the annals of Algiers. Cer-
vantes himself, who is rarely betrayed into speaking ill of an
enemy, has drawn a graphic picture of this monster whom,
by a pardonable pleonasm, he styles "the homicide of all
human kind." ^ Speaking through the mouth of the captive
Captain Viedma, in the fortieth chapter of the First Part of
Don ^ixote^ — " nothing distressed me so much," he says,
" as to hear and see at every turn the till then unheard-of and
unseen cruelties which my master practised on the Christians.
Every day he hanged a slave ; impaled one ; cut off the
ears of another ; and this upon so little occasion, or so
entirely without cause, that the Turks would own he did
it merely for the sake of doing it, and because it was his
nature." Over this tyrant Cervantes seems to have exercised

^ See Don S^uixote, Part I. ch. xl.
48

4 Captivity in Algiers

some extraordinary influence, which can be attributed only
to his undaunted spirit and the singular respect in which he
was held by his companions, many of whom were superior
to him in rank and in condition. According to the remark-
able testimony of Father Hasdo, Hassan Pasha was wont
to say that, " if he had this maimed Spaniard in safe
keeping, he would reckon as secure his Christians, his ships,
and his city." ^ Threatened with torture and instant death,
with the spectacle of many of his companions hanged or
mutilated before his eyes, Cervantes refused to implicate
any one in his scheme of flight. The Viceroy, who was as
greedy as he was cruel, was eager to find some pretext for
laying hold of the Redemptorist Father Jorge Olivar, who,
in the character of ofiicial ransomer for the kingdom of
Aragon, was protected by Algerine custom. Could Olivar
be proved to have been cognisant of the cavern scheme,
there would be a tangible pretext for squeezing out of him
a large ransom. But nothing could be got from Cervantes,
whom the Viceroy, — whether for greater safety or in the
belief that so resolute a slave must be a man of great mark
in his own country, and therefore likely to be redeemed at
a high price, — purchased from his master, Deli Mami, for
500 gold crowns.

About this period it must have been, in the autumn of
1577, that Cervantes wrote his rhymed epistle to Mateo
Vasquez, the Secretary to Philip II. It consists of 81
tercets, beginning with a biographical sketch of the author,
in which his acts and services by sea and land are recited,
and concluding with a proposal for a general rising of
the Christian slaves in Algiers, to be seconded by an
armament from Spain. King Philip was entreated to
conclude the work begun with so much daring and valour
by his beloved father ; to quell the pride of that pirates'

^ De%ia A%an Baxa, Rey de -Argel, que como el Iwvlesse guardado al europeado
Eipanol tenia seguros sus Chriuianos, baxela, y aun toda la ciudad. Hasdo, p. 185,

49 4

Cervantes chap.

nest ; to take pity on the Christians who, with straining
eyes, watch for the coming of the Spanish fleet to unlock
their prison doors. Nor does the poet doubt that the
" benign Royal bosom " feels the misery of the poor wretches
who pine in chains, almost within sight of the sacred
invincible shores of their native land. The adventure,
though bold and romantic, was by no means impracticable,
and, had there been any chivalry extant in Spain, would have
been attempted. The captives in Algiers were strong in
numbers. The land was weak ; the city ill-fortified ; and
its defenders, divided by blood and race, united only by a
common faith and lust of gain. The enterprise was far
easier than that which, at this time, tempted the madcap
Dom Sebastian, last of the Portugal Knights Errant, into
the neighbouring realm of Morocco. But Philip the
Prudent had other designs in view. That benign bosom
was occupied just then with his Christian neighbour's
heritage, and in weaving his nets for the entanglement of
his brother Don Juan in Flanders. The epistle of Cervantes
to Mateo Vasquez probably never got beyond the desk of
the Secretary.^

Never weary of seeking for a means of, breaking out of
his abhorred prison, Cervantes, about the end of 1577, made
another attempt at evasion. He sent a secret message by
a Moor to Don Martin de Cordova, the Governor of Oran,
praying him to send some safe Christian men to the frontier
to meet himself and some other captives. The unfortunate
messenger was intercepted and taken before the Viceroy,
with his letters, which bore Cervantes' seal and signature.

^ The epistle to Mateo Vasquez, of surpassing interest for its details of
Cervantes' life as well as a sample of his early poetry, was unknown to his
biographers before 1863. In that year it was found among the archives of the
family of Altamira by Don Tomas Munoz y Romero, and has been reprinted in
the two editions of Argamasilla edited by Hartzenbusch. The last sixty-seven
lines of the poem are repeated almost verbatim in Cervantes' play of El Trato de
Argel. It has been translated into English by Mr. Gibson.

4 Captivity in Algiers

The Moor was ordered to be impaled, and Cervantes to
receive two thousand blows with the stick. The captives
and others interceded for him, and once more he gave an
opportunity to Hassan Pasha to exercise the unfamiliar
virtue of clemency. But neither the terrible risks he had
run, nor the persistent misfortune which seemed to dog his
steps, could keep Cervantes from meditating fresh schemes
of escape. In September, 1579, there was a Spanish
renegade, known when in grace as the Licentiate Giron of
Granada, but, since his backsliding, as Abderrahman. This
renegade, pining to return to his faith and his country,
sought out Cervantes and plotted with him a plan of escape.
Two Valencian merchants resident in Algiers — Onofre
Exarque and Baltasar de Torres — were to provide an armed
vessel at their cost, in which sixty of the principal captives
were to embark at some favourable moment, under the secret
direction of Cervantes. Once again the scheme was
frustrated by treachery. One Blanco de Paz, an Aragonese
and Dominican monk, who had conceived a bitter enmity
against Cervantes, revealed the plot to the Viceroy.
Cervantes, we are told, might have escaped himself had he
accepted the offer of one of the Valencian merchants to fly
with him at once and abandon his companions. But he
refused his liberty on these conditions. Meanwhile, the
Viceroy, having learnt of the scheme through the informa-
tion of Blanco de Paz, made public proclamation through
the city that any one harbouring Cervantes (who had fled
from his house and sought refuge with one of his friends)
should be punished with death. In order that no Christian
might suffer on his behalf, Cervantes came forward
voluntarily and presented himself before the Viceroy. He
was seized and bound hands and feet, with a rope round his
neck, and threatened with instant death. Cervantes, pre-
serving the utmost serenity, not only refused to inculpate
any one in this design, but, by his ingenious and witty

Cervantes chap.

answers, so tempered the wrath of Hassan that for his only
punishment he was ordered to be confined in the Moors'
prison, which was in the Viceroy's palace, where he was
kept for five months, laden with chains and fetters and
guarded with the utmost rigour, acquiring, as one of the
witnesses of his conduct — Luis de Pedrosa — says, " great
fame, praise, honour, and glory among the Christians." ^
Not less wonderful than the constancy and the fortitude
displayed by Cervantes through all these trials, was the
singular forbearance displayed towards him by those to
whom generosity to a Christian slave must have been a virtue
very little practised. In recalling the memory of this cruel
time afterwards in Don Quixote, Cervantes speaks with a
certain complacency of the immunities which his character
among the Algerines had won for him. Captain de Viedma,
the captive whose story forms an episode in the First Part
of Don ^ixotgj after reciting some of Hassan Pasha's
cruelties, says : — " The only one who held his own with
him was a Spanish soldier, called De Saavedra,^ to whom,
though he did things which will dwell in the memory of
those people for many years, and all for the recovery of his
freedom, his master never gave a blow, nor bade any one to
do so, nor even spoke to him an ill word, though for the
least of the many things he did we all feared he would be
impaled, as he himself feared more than once." ^ There is
a mystery about this treatment of Cervantes in Algiers
which is not explained by the fact that his captors took him

^ Navarrete, pp. 41 and 358. It seems, by the deposition of some of the
witnesses at the enquiry afterwards held on Cervantes' conduct, that he was
befriended in this, perhaps his worst strait, by one Morato (Murad), called
Maltrapillo (the Sloven), a Murcian renegade and corsair captain, who was one
of Hassan's principal favourites. This man is mentioned by Hasdo as one of the
thirty-five owners and masters of galleys. There is a Hadji Murad who figures
conspicuously in the Captive's Story in Don Siuixcte (Part I, ch. xl.) j but he can
hardly be the same as the above,

^ i.e. Cervantes. ^ Don S^uixote, Part I. ch. xl.

4 Captivity in Algiers

to be a person of more importance than he really was.
Christian noblemen and gentlemen of high rank and
condition were almost daily the victims of Hassan Pasha's
inordinate lust for blood ; it being one of the favourite
amusements of the tyrant to cut ofF the noses and ears of
those who offended him, especially those who were caught
trying to escape. What was the nature of the spell which
Cervantes only, of all who fell into his power, was able to
exercise over this monster ? That Cervantes was known to
be the ringleader of the malcontent slaves and suspected of
plotting a general rising of the Christian captives, were but
reasons the more why the Algerines, having him in their
power, should do to him as they had done to thousands of
his companions. But though they loaded him with irons,
and kept him in a duress so strict that Father Haedo says of
his captivity it was "one of the worst ever known in
Algiers,"^ he was never beaten or hurt or abused in his
person. Fear alone could hardly account for this immunity ;
still less can we believe, after the emphatic testimony borne
by his comrades to his unswerving loyalty to creed and
country, that his captors treated him with indulgence
through any hope of his turning renegade. May we not
suppose that there was really more of human nature among
those wild corsairs, — that collection of adventurers from all
parts of the earth who held their own so boldly in their
pirates' den against all maritime Christendom, — than the
Spanish annalists and monkish chroniclers have been willing
to allow ; that the mingled genius and greatness of Miguel
de Cervantes were enough to account for even that miracle,
the clemency of Hassan Pasha ?

Towards the end of 1579 this cruel episode in the life

1 C'/W ser de los peorei que en Argcl a-via. Haedo says, moreover, that " had
his fortune corresponded to his intrepidity, his industry, and his projects, this
day Algiers would belong to the Christians j for to no other end did his intents
aspire." Haedo, p. 185.

Cervantes chap.

of Cervantes was drawing to its term. In that year the
great preparations made by Philip 11. for the conquest of
Portugal, the throne of which country was left vacant by
the tragic end made by the King Sebastian at Alcazarquivir,
in the year preceding,^ spread terror along all the coasts of
Barbary ; it being supposed that Philip's object was to
make a descent on Algiers. The strenuous efforts made
by the Algerines to add to the defences of their port were
the occasion of fresh suffering and hardship to their captives,
who were worked day and night on the fortifications. It
may be also that the prospect of danger from without made
the masters more eager to realise their property in slaves.
A ransom had been placed upon Cervantes, as we have said,
far larger than his friends could afford to pay. Meanwhile,
his father and mother, with other relatives, had never ceased
in their efforts to raise sufficient funds for the redemption
of their younger son. Among the documents found by
Cean Bermudez, in 1808, in the archives of the Indies at
Seville, is the petition presented to the Royal Council, on
the 17th of March, 1578, by Rodrigo Cervantes, the father,
reciting his son's services and praying for assistance to free
him from his captivity.^ The Duke of Sessa backed up
this petition, writing strongly in Cervantes' favour, — speak-
ing of him as a good soldier who had fought for his Majesty ;
whom he had himself recommended for promotion ; who
was deserving of all favour and aid to free him from captivity .3
It does not appear that this appeal met with any direct
response. The father, Rodrigo Cervantes, died in 1579,

^ The battle of Alcazarquivir, where Sebastian, King of Portugal, and all
his army were overthrown and destroyed by the Moors under their dying Sultan
Muley Muloch, was fought on the 4th of August, 1578.

^ Navarrete, p. 315.

2 Navarrete, p. 314, The Duke of Sessa and Terranova, grandson and heir
of the Great Captain, and lately Viceroy of Sicily, had already borne flattering
testimony to Cervantes' services at the battle of Lepanto. His son was after-
wards the great friend and patron of Lope de Vega.

4 Captivity in Algiers

leaving the burden of Miguel's liberation to fall upon the
mother, Leonor de Cortinas, and the widowed sister, Andrea
de Cervantes. These two women managed to raise between
them a sum of 300 ducats, equivalent to 3300 reals?- A
sum about equal to this was got from various other sources,
chiefly by way of loan ; and the money was entrusted to
Father Juan Gil — stet nomen in ceternum ! — of the holy order
of the Redemptorists, and official Redeemer of Castile.^
Father Gil arrived at Algiers on his mission of mercy on
the 29th of May, 1580. The offer of 600 ducats was
refused by Hassan, who demanded 1 000 — that being double
the sum he had paid for this slave to Deli Mami. Hassan
Pasha had now been recalled from his government, and was
on the point of giving up the Viceroyalty to his successor,
Jaffier. He had completed his arrangements for the voyage

■'■ There is so much confusion in the Spanish coinage of this period, through
the same denominations serving for gold and for silver pieces, that it is difficult
to arrive at an exact estimate of the value of the sums raised for Cervantes'
ransom in our money. The ducado, or ducat, used throughout Italy, Spain, and
the Mediterranean, was fixed by a decree of Philip II., in 1566, to be of the
value of 400 mara-uedis. As 34 mara-vedh w^ent to a real, the ducat (of gold)
was worth a little less than 12 reals, which would be about equal to our half-a-
crown. The escudo, so called from bearing the royal escutcheon, was always
half a dohlon, though what a dohlon was, — the familiar doubloon of our buccaneers,
80 called from bearing the two effigies of Ferdinand and Isabella, — is not so
certain. The escudo of gold was worth 10 reals, — a little less than the ducat.
The coinage of Spain, especially the gold, was in that age at a premium through-
out the Mahomedan countries ; and in all bargains about ransom in Algiers,
says Haedo, it was stipulated that the price should be paid in Spanish gold.
The sum contributed by the widow Cervantes for the release of her son would
be equal to about ,^35 in English money, without allowing for the difference of
value in money between that time and this.

^ To the character and services of this eminent servant of God Cervantes
bears grateful and emphatic testimony in his Trato de Argcl, calling him "a most
Christian man, known to be friendly to the doing of good, who set an example of
great Christianity and great wisdom " (Act v.). In the novel of La Espanola
Inglesa, there is also a graceful tribute to the zeal, courage, and humanity of this
most useful and blessed order of Reciemptorists, who devoted their lives to the
rescuing of poor Christian captives from slavery, and often were known to give
their own persons in pledge to redeem poor captives unable to raise a ransom.

Cervantes chap.

to Constantinople, and Cervantes, with the rest of his slaves,
was already on board one of his galleys, chained and fettered.
At the last moment, moved by compassion and fearing to
let slip the opportunity. Father Gil, by his earnest supplica-
tions and efforts among the local merchants and others, was
enabled to raise a further sum of 500 escudos in Spanish gold,
with which Hassan was satisfied.^ Cervantes disembarked
from the slave galley on the 19th of September, once more
a free man — having completed just five years of captivity.

There took place a delay of a few weeks longer before
he was enabled once more to set foot on his native soil,
through an incident highly characteristic of our hero. His
malignant enemy, the Dominican Blanco de Paz, the same
who had denounced him to Hassan for his last attempt at
escape, had circulated certain calumnies in Spain respecting
Cervantes' behaviour at Algiers during his captivity. In
order to obtain greater credit for these inventions, Blanco
de Paz had given himself out to be a familiar of the Holy
Office, with a mandate and commission from the King to
exercise his functions in Algiers. Whether Blanco de Paz
really possessed this character or whether he was an im-
postor, is not very clear from the scanty lights we have on
this, not the least mysterious passage in Cervantes' history.
Considering the malevolence with which he pursued Cer-
vantes, and the strange, inexplicable rancour with which he
followed up the feud, apparently for some time after the
Algerine episode, — a rancour totally irreconcilable with his
being a charlatan or having only a personal quarrel with
Cervantes, — I cannot help thinking that there was something
more than a private grudge at the bottom of Blanco de Paz

^ Thus the total sum paid for Cervantes to his captors, after five years of
incessant striving among his relatives and friends, supplemented largely by the
charity of the Redemptorists and of those who knew him in Algiers, was a
little more than jQioo of English money — which would be equal in these days,
at the usual reckoning, to about /CS°°-

4 Captivity in Algiers

and his enmity. That he was a Dominican is certain ; and
the Dominicans were but slaves of the Holy Office. In
after years it was a Dominican who tried to do Cervantes a
mortal injury by disfiguring Don fixate, and robbing him
of the credit and the fruit of his genius.^ Why should
Cervantes have taken such pains formally to combat Blanco
de Paz, and to contradict his calumnies ? That he did so
we may be thankful ; for it is through the investigation
held before Father Juan Gil, for want of any judge or
commissary qualified to administer justice in Algiers, that
we obtain a most minute, vivid, and pathetic picture of
Cervantes' life during his Algerine captivity. Had there
survived no other record than this of the life of Cervantes,
— had he not written a line of the books which have made
him famous — the proofs we have here of his greatness of
soul, constancy, and cheerfulness under the severest of trials
which a man could endure, would be sufficient to ensure
him lasting fame. The enthusiasm, the alacrity, and the
unanimity with which all the witnesses, — including the
captives of the highest rank and character in Algiers, —
give their testimony in favour of their beloved comrade,
are quite remarkable and without precedent. They speak
of him in terms such as no Knight of romance ever deserved ;
of his courage in danger ; his resolution under suffering ;
his patience in trouble ; his daring and fertility of resource
in action. He seems to have won the hearts of all the
captives, both laymen and clerics, by his good humour,
unselfish devotion, and kindliness of heart. Finally, the
elaborate process, with its twenty- five articles and the
individual depositions to each, which lasted over twelve
days, was concluded on the 22nd of October, by an affirma-

^ The so-called Fernandez Avellaneda, author of the spurious Second Part
of Don Quixote, is demonstrated to have been of the religious profession and a
Dominican. Some have supposed that he was Blanco de Paz himself; but
more of this hereafter.

Cervantes

tion under the hand of Father Juan Gil himself, that he
knew the parties to the process and all the deponents of
personal knowledge ; that Blanco de Paz was a notorious
liar and calumniator, hated of all ; and that Miguel de
Cervantes was deserving, for his conduct in captivity, of
all the praises which he had received.^ Cervantes' acquittal
was complete. The process which he had challenged seems,
in that age, to have been regarded as unusual, and there
have not been wanting in recent times critics who have
deduced from it theories reflecting on his conduct, or at
least on his orthodoxy. But looking to the unexampled
persecution of which he had been the object at the hands
of those pretending to be the official representatives of the
Faith in Algiers, Cervantes showed equal boldness and
sagacity in courting an enquiry. He had every reason to
believe himself still in the King's service. He had every
right to hope for advancement in his profession. It was
necessary to him, therefore, to return to Spain with a clean
bill of good conduct and orthodoxy. And we shall be able
to see in his subsequent career, that this triumph over
Blanco de Paz, though it did not blunt the edge of his
enemy's rancour nor lead to our hero's material betterment,
was of some value to him as a man of letters.

This affair ended, Cervantes left Algiers, landing in
Spain with some of his ransomed companions on one of the
last days of 1 580.2

^ See Appendix C, at the end of this volume, for an abstract of all the pro-
ceedings at this curious and interesting enquiry, with the depositions of the
principal witnesses, taken from Navarrete, who quotes the documents in full,
from the copy made by Senor Cean Bermudez of the papers found in the
archives of the Indies at Seville.

^ Cervantes made frequent mention and great use of his Algerian experiences
in all his works. The story of the Captive in D^n S^uixote is evidently a real
passage in the life of one of his fellow - prisoners, in which allusion is made to
himself and to some of his own adventures. In several of the novels, as El
Amante Liberal and La Espanola Ingksa, are introduced Algerine corsairs and
their captives. In the comedy of El Trato de Argel (Life in Algiers), which

4 Captivity in Algiers

was thirty years afterwards incorporated in another called Los Banos de Argel, the
scene is laid in Algiers, and Hassan Pasha and other real personages are brought
upon the scene. In El Gallardo Espanol, the hero, Saavedra, turns renegade
for love, but returns to the true faith and retrieves his honour. In La Gran
Sultana, the heroine is a Spanish lady captured by the Algerines, who is taken
to Constantinople and captivates the Grand Senor, — founded on the real story
of one Dona Catalina de Oviedo. In Persiks and Sigismunda, there are also
captives and corsairs. In all his works Cervantes shows what, for that age,
was an unusual familiarity with the Moors, the Mahomedan faith and customs
and the language and idioms of the East, having probably acquired a competent
knowledge of colloquial Arabic, as well as of the Lingua Franca, a mixed
language then commonly spoken throughout the Levant and the courts of
Barbary, — making use of his knowledge in Don ^luixote, in which words of
Eastern origin and Eastern ideas are of frequent occurrence.

CHAPTER V

The Return to Spain

Cervantes returned to Spain to experience that which he
has declared to be the greatest pleasure which can be enjoyed
in this life, which is "to arrive, after a long captivity, safe
and sound to one's native country." Little other cause had
he for joy on the termination of his long and cruel slavery.
He was now in his thirty -third year, with a courage
unbroken and a heart and temper over which fortune seemed
to have no power. Yet his condition was desperate enough,
in a worldly sense, to need all the resources of his gay and
sanguine nature to preserve him from despair. He had
come back to Spain, after ten years' absence, disappointed
in the promise of his life, without a profession, without a
career, neither a soldier nor a civilian, not knowing whether
he was in the King's service or out of it. To begin the
world afresh he was even less favourably equipped than he
had been as a young man before Lepanto. His wounds
must have been a serious impediment to him in the pro-
fession of arms which he had adopted. His chief patron,
Don Juan, was now dead ; and such interest as his past
services and good character had won him could scarcely
avail him much among the multitude of competitors for
preferment. That which was his chief title to fame, his
conduct and service at Lepanto, was precisely that which
recommended him the least to his King, who hated the

CHAP. 5 Return to Spam

memory as he had grudged the glory of his brother's
victory. The family of Cervantes were reduced to poverty
through their efforts for his release. He himself was
encumbered with a portion of the debt which had been
incurred for the raising of his ransom, which, small as it
was, took him four years to discharge.^ What was there to
do in the Spain of Philip II. for the poor maimed soldier,
who had not yet discovered the treasure of his own genius ?
Spain in 1580, to all outward seeming, was at the very
height of her power and greatness. During the hundred
years preceding she had risen, amidst the wonder and envy
of her neighbours, from a cluster of petty states to the
foremost place among the nations of the earth. The
extinction of the Moorish dominion in the Peninsula ; the
conquests of her valiant soldiers, under a succession of able
native generals, in Italy and in Flanders ; the distracted con-
dition of France through internal religious wars ; and the
lucky marriage with the House of Austria, had contributed
to advance a State hitherto almost a stranger — a quantite
negligeable — in the policy of Europe, to be the greatest, the
strongest, and the wealthiest empire on earth. The heir
of the Emperor Charles V., although he succeeded to but
a portion of his father's dominion, was the master of two
continents. No monarch since Charlemagne had exer-
cised so wide a rule. In 1580 he had acquired, by the
easy conquest of Portugal, the sovereignty of the entire
Peninsula. He was lord of more than half of Italy, including
Lombardy and Naples, with the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

^ By a document found among the archives of the Indies in Valencia, being
a cedula or deed in the name of the King Philip II., dated the nth of August,
1584, extending the time during which a certain privilege was granted to Dona
Leonor de Cortinas (the mother of Cervantes) for sending merchandise for sale
from Valencia to Algiers, it appears that up to this date some of Cervantes'
ransom-money was still unpaid to those who had helpeo his family to raise it ;
nor was it until the December following that the debt was finally discharged,
out of the profits of the cargo for which the King's licence was given.

Cervantes

The states of Tuscany and of Genoa were his vassals. The
Duke of Savoy was his son-in-law and dependent. The
Low Countries he still held military possession of, in spite
of all the genius and craft of Orange and all the valour and
obstinacy of the Dutch. Of the new world Spain held the
fairest portion. From Chile to Florida, three-fourths of
the known continent was hers. All the wealth of the
Indies, then not merely a figure of speech but a substantial
yearly tribute, of which the Spanish King was the sole
dispenser, was poured into the Spanish ports. Seville had
been raised to be the rival of Venice as the emporium of
commerce, the mart of the world. By sea and by land
Spain was predominant. Her navy was by far the greatest
ever seen in Europe, and, in spite of the EngHsh adven-
turers, still held the command of the seas. Her soldiers were
acknowledged to be the best, for trained valour and skill,
in the world. She was the mingled envy, admiration, and
terror of her neighbours. She was at the head of European
civilisation, and aspired to give law and fashion to all
Christendom. Her native art was still in its infancy ; but
in literature her golden age had dawned with extraordinary
splendour. No nation seemed to exhibit the promise of a
more exuberant harvest in poetry and in the drama. The
age was pregnant with greatness — the soil bursting with
the long pent-up life of centuries. Never before had there
been such a prospect opened to the national genius. Never
had Spain filled so large a space in the eyes of the world.

At this epoch, when all her greatness was at the highest,
the decay of Spain had already begun. The fruit was
rotting before it was ripe. Under the rule of Philip II. it
was impossible but that the true health and strength of the
nation should decline. This puny Atlas had, in 1580,
borne the burden of the two worlds now for five-and-twenty
years. The patriotic historians trace the decadence of Spain
from the degenerate successors of " Philip the Prudent,"

5 Return to Spain

who himself is always spared from criticism by reason of
his orthodoxy, his very Spanish character, and his active
repression of heresy, abroad and at home. But there can be
no doubt that the mortification in this overgrown carcase of
empire had commenced with Philip II. At heart a monk
rather than a king, a meaner creature never held dominion
over the sons of men. With none of the impulses which
contribute to a nation's greatness had Philip the smallest
sympathy. He had no taste either for war or for letters.
He was splendid only in autos de fe. He preferred burning
his subjects to any other pastime or exercise. In him the
national tendency to intolerance, begotten of the long duel
with the Moslem, during which to be a Christian was to be
a patriot and a good Spaniard, reached its culmination and
found its purest expression. He hated poetry, and tried to
put down the drama. He was jealous of all intellectual
eminence. He had no idea but to strengthen the Church,
and conceived of no duty higher than of extirpating freedom
of thought throughout his dominions. Under this sour and
gloomy despot, who boasted of governing two worlds from
his solitary desk, what could ensure the health and prosperity
of a great empire ? Nothing is more certain than that the
decay of Spain had begun even from the very moment when
she was crowned arbitress of the destinies of Europe. There
was no real life in the members of this giant body, which
lay like a huge polype across two hemispheres. The heart
fulfilled none of its functions. The energy which had
sustained the people against the Moors seemed to die out
suddenly, as a national force, after the conquest of Granada.
The discovery of America rather precipitated than retarded
the ruin of Spain. All the enterprise, all the chivalry, all
the enthusiasm inherited from her Gothic blood seemed to
flow in one ceaseless stream across the Atlantic. Cortez
and Pizarro — the last of the true Knights Errant — sought
their adventures in the New World ; and their companions

Cervantes

practised in Mexico and in Peru the lessons they had learnt
in their romances. There is ample testimony, even in the
pages of the native writers, to prove that the discovery of
America, instead of being a source of riches, was really a
cause of impoverishment to the mother-country. The best
blood of Castile was poured out into Mexico and Peru.
The lust for gold — the rage for dominion — absorbed every
other wholesome passion, drained every other feeling. There
is much reason to doubt whether Spain derived even any
material benefit from her American colonies. The ten
or twelve millions of gold which were computed, in the
most prosperous period, barring accidents and the English
buccaneers, to come in every year, were more than counter-
balanced by what went out in the shape of men, their
industry, and their enterprise. It is certain that Philip's
revenue, never estimated at more than sixteen or seventeen
millions of dollars, was never equal to his wants. In his
correspondence with Don Juan in Flanders, and with his
Viceroys in Italy, the one constant burden of the King
is the inadequacy of the Royal income to supply their
demands ; and yet Philip had the one virtue of frugality.
The foreign wars had exhausted his treasury. Flanders
was an ever open sore — the support of the Catholic League
a running issue — the garrisons in Italy a perpetual drain.
Of the total revenue of Spain, nearly two- thirds were
unavailable for the current expenses of the State, being
already pledged to the bankers of Venice or of Genoa.
Indeed, the whole realm of Spain was "leased out, Like to
a tenement or a pelting-farm." Every great office was sold
for the benefit of the King. The few rich were becoming
richer, while the mass of the people were steeped in poverty
— a poverty year by year becoming straiter through the
increase of the cost of living, caused by the influx of
American gold. There was much splendour at Court, and
much show of wealth among the grandees and the great

5 Return to Spain

ecclesiastics, but we have ample evidence to prove that the
nation at large was poor. There was a certain activity of
commerce, and a movement in industry, greater, perhaps,
than there has been since ; but the country, as then
administered, was a losing business. All public life under
Philip II. had been extinguished. Aragon still claimed,
indeed, to exercise her fueros^ and sometimes, as in the
affair of Antonio Perez, used them to thwart the King's
humour.^ But there was very little left of the old provincial
constitutions and privileges. All power was centred in the
Sovereign, — more completely, perhaps, than in any state in
Christendom. Philip was absolute master, in fact if not in
name, of the lives and liberties of his people. The Cortes
still met occasionally, indeed, and it was a part of the tyrant's
policy to pretend to consult them when he desired to divide
his responsibilities ; but, except to vote supplies or to pass
resolutions in restraint of vice or luxury, the Cortes had
ceased to be a living power in the State.

There may be another side to the picture, as it is
inevitable that there should be. This does not claim to be
the last word on Philip II. I am writing, not the history
of Philip, but the life of Cervantes — treating of Philip only
as he had to do with my hero. There are apologists for
Philip II., of course. Henry VIII. has been shown to be a
gentle and noble prince, zealous for his country's good.
Charles II. was no worse than he should be — even too good
for his dull and over-virtuous country. Pedro the Cruel
was remarkable for his love of justice. Ivan of Russia was
a stern represser of evil-doers. Nero's amiable character
brought him to ruin ; and of Tiberius the worst to be
said, it has been proved, is that he was too fond of seclu-

' Aragon had, from a remote date, her own especial laws and privileges,
fueros, to which she clung with great tenacity, and always possessed a greater
share of individual liberty than any of the kingdoms which, under Ferdinand
and Isabella, became provinces.

65 5

Cervantes chap.

sion. It is enough for me, here, to say that the rule
of Phihp II. was out of harmony with the spirit and un-
favourable to the genius of at least one good Spaniard, who
is more to the world than he who governed Spain for nearly
half a century. That Philip was steadfast in his devotion
to his own conception of duty, nor without a certain dignity
in his kingly office, it is impossible to deny. He was free
from some of the commoner vices of kings. He was frugal,
temperate, and fairly continent. He had a pride in him-
self and in his cause. The prudence for which his country-
men give him chief praise was rather caution — a caution
which sprang rather from a general suspicion of men's motives
than from confidence in his own. He trusted no one. His
own agents he was always trying to deceive to their ruin
or to circumvent for their confusion. His frugality was
practised at the expense of his officers. He was as penu-
rious as Elizabeth herself, and starved the soldiers who
bled for him. His caution was often rashness, and his
economy extravagance. What is there more to say which is
pertinent to this history, which proposes to tell of a romance
and its begetter ?

Amidst the general decay of all the natural forces of
the country one power only throve and grew, with a vigour
and vitality which were the sure forerunners, as they were
among the chief causes, of the fast-hastening decrepitude of
Spain. Under Philip II., if nothing else flourished, the
Church was in rude and rampant health. To quote the
words of the English Ambassador, Sir Charles Cornwallis
(written in the next reign, but as true of the state of things
under Philip II.), "the riches of the Temporall hath in a
manner all fallen into the mouthes and devouring throates
of the Spirituall." Under Philip commenced that rage for
religion, — at least, that enthusiasm for the idle and luxurious
life led by the monks and nuns, — which attained to such
prodigious and almost incredible lengths within the next

5 Return to Spain

generation. While everything else withered, the Church
alone remained green and luxuriant. So vast an establish-
ment for the service of God was, perhaps, never maintained
in any other country on earth, with so beggarly a return in
the shape of good morals. All virtue, all enthusiasm, all
intellect — whatever was spared from America — went in the
direction of the Church. There is something appalling in
the rush which was made towards the religious life and the
religious endowments in that age and in the succeeding one.
The Spanish writers, in their pious exultation, help us to
ample evidence. In a petition to the King, only a few
years after Philip II. 's death, the Cortes — even the Cortes
— express their alarm at the multiplication of churches and
convents. They say that there were in Spain 9088 monas-
teries, not reckoning the nunneries, which "little by little,
with dotations, confraternities, chapelries, or purchases, are
getting the whole kingdom into their power." ^ In the
beginning of the reign of Philip's son, the two orders of
Dominicans and Franciscans alone numbered 32,000 mem-
bers. In two bishoprics, Calahorra and Pamplona, Davila
reckons that there were 24,000 of clergy. In the diocese of
Seville there were 14,000 ministers of religion, the cathedral
alone engaging the services of a hundred priests.^ Within the
whole dominions of Philip, with a population, excluding the
wild Indians of South America, which could not have ex-
ceeded 50,000,000,^ there were 58 archbishops, 684 bishops,

^ See the authorities quoted by Buckle in his famous chapter on the history
of the Spanish intellect, in his History of Ci-vi/isation, vol. ii. p. 476. I have
never found Buckle wrong in his citations, though often hasty in his con-
clusions.

^ See Davila and Yanez, in their histories of Philip III., Geronimo dc
Cevallos, D'ncurso de los Razcnes, etc., and a cloud of other witnesses, lay and
ecclesiastic.

* Ticknor and others make it 100,000,000 ; but this is surely an exaggeration,
unless we include all the unreclaimed Indians of Mexico and South America.
In Spain, the population, which under the Romans used to be reckoned at
14,000,000 (probably an exaggeration), and in the time of Ferdinand and

Cervantes chap.

11,400 abbeys, 936 chapters, 127,000 parishes, 7000 religious
hospitals, 23,000 religious orders and confraternities, 46,000
monasteries, 13,500 nunneries, 312,000 secular priests,
400,000 monks, 200,000 friars and other ecclesiastics.^
About 1,000,000 human beings cut off from natural and
wholesome life, and dedicated to a life of idleness, whether in
mortification or in luxury ! To crown all, there hung over
the land the black shadow of the Inquisition. The age of
most abundance and fruitfulness in Spain, — the seed-time, if
not the harvest, of the national genius, — was also unhappily
the age of the greatest oppression. The crop, debarred
from free growth, shut out from wholesome light and air,,
chilled and stunted by the cold breath of the Holy Office,
produced little but sickly and distorted weeds. The period
of activity in art and in letters coincided with the renewed
vigour of the Church against heresy and free thought.
What Bossuet called "the holy severity of the Church of
Rome, which will not tolerate error," was never more
conspicuous than in the reign of Philip II. The Inquisi-
tion, which had been comparatively idle during the tolerant
age of Charles, had broken out into new heat under his son.
From 1556 to 1597 the tale of heretics roasted gives a total
of 3990, or about 140 a year. Besides, there were 18,450'
imprisoned for various terms and sent to the galleys. Not

Isabella at 15,000,000, had declined at the end of Philip's reign to 12,000,000.
The Milanese, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and the other Italian dominions of
Spain might have contained a third more. The Low Countries could not have
numbered more than 4,000,000. This leaves 18,000,000 for America and the
colonies.

1 The Rev. Dr. Dunham, in his History of Spain, on the whole an honest
piece of work, though with a strong bent towards absolutism and ecclesiasticism,
quotes these figures not only without wonder but actually with a certain
complacency, defending them as "not so outrageous," and as evidencing a
state of things over which good Churchmen should rejoice, following up this
glorious list of good things belonging to the Church with the remark that " at
this time the state of the Peninsular population was one of comparative
comfort."

5 Return to Spain

even the Primate of all Spain was spared, for Archbishop
Carranza of Toledo suffered seventeen years of torture in
prison for maintaining in print that " works done without
charity are sins and offend God." ^ With the fear of this
dread tribunal, with its secret purposes, its mysterious agents,
and its invisible spies, darkening every act of life, invading
every home and shadowing all communion of man with
man — what nation, however powerful and wealthy, vigor-
ous of spirit and ripe of genius, could hope to retain
greatness ?

Such a world as this it was into which Miguel de
Cervantes, with his gifts, his experiences, and his yearnings,
was launched at the close of the year 1580. The records
of his life are extremely scanty, and such as are furnished
chiefly out of his own works. Despairing of other employ-
ment and waiting for the preferment he believed to be his
due, Cervantes was driven to take service again as a soldier,
resuming his place in the ranks of his old regiment of
Figueroa, which was now on the frontier, forming part of
the army destined for the subjugation of Portugal. In this
regiment was also carrying a musket (if we can believe his
own story) a youth called Lope de Vega, destined to be a
lifelong competitor with Cervantes. ^ The Tercio de Figueroa^

^ Opera quacunque sine carhate facta sunt pcccata et Deutn offendunt — which is
precisely the sentiment put by Cervantes in the Duchess' mouth in respect of
Sancho's penance [Don S^uixote, Part 11. ch. xxxvi.), in the passage which was
expurgated by the Holy Office,

^ We have only Lope's own authority for it in rhyme, which, though
accepted by all the biographers, I hold to be worthless. The dates do not
square with each other, or with the known facts of Lope's life. He says, or
sings, that ^t fifteen he was brandishing " a naked sword " against the Portuguese
in Terceira. But the first expedition to the Azores was not until 1582, and
Lope was born in 1562. It follows that, either he did not go to Terceira, or
that he was not fifteen but twenty when he went there. But in 1582 Lope
was in the service of the young Duke of Alva as secretary, having just left the
University of Alcala. Lope was much given to lying, and it may be that this
particular invention about wielding the naked sword in Terceira was needed to
cover some less heroic passage in his stormy youth — which was sufficiently rich in

Cervantes

since last Cervantes served in it, had become famous by its
exploits in the Low^ Countries under Don Juan and his
successors, and was now^ generally known as the tercio de
Flandes. It was still commanded by the veteran Lope de
Figueroa, who at this date, — according to Calderon's play of
the Alcalde de Zalamea^ the scene of which is laid on the
road to Portugal, — was old and gouty. The regiment itself,
though retaining its ancient renown in arms, seems not
to have improved, if we are to believe Calderon, in discip-
Hne or in morals since its service abroad. The soldiers,
ill paid and worse cared for, had acquired an evil name
throughout the country-side for their misdeeds, and are
said to have been more dreaded by the people than any
enemy.

In the beginning of 1580 King Philip's preparations for the
invasion of Portugal had been suspended through his illness,
caused as it was said through fever brought on by grief for
the loss of his fourth wife, Anne of Austria. His claims on
Portugal were founded on his being the son of the Infanta
Isabel, sister of Joam III., who left no legitimate male
issue — the last of the old line of Portuguese kings. But
there was another claimant in the person pf Antonio, who
figures in history as the Prior of Ocrato. He was the
bastard son of Luis, the brother of Joam III. France
supported his claim out of jealousy of the aggrandisement of
Spain. Elizabeth gave him fair words but poor succour in
her usual fashion, not caring to risk much in his enterprise,
yet willing to hurt Philip, in accordance with her policy of
war with Spain at all points.

On land there was very little opposition to the march of
the Spanish army. By the spring of 158 1 the Duke of Alva
had completed the conquest of Portugal. But Don Antonio,
aided by France, continued to maintain the contest at sea,

scandalous episodes, if we may trust what is believed to be the story of his own
life in Dorothea.

5 Return to Spain

having his centre in the Azores, the inhabitants of which
were in his favour. Contrary to w^hat the Spanish historians
assert, England gave the Prior of Ocrato no help, though
Elizabeth would not — perhaps could not — prevent some
of her ardent sea-adventurers from sharing in the enter-
prise, through the eternal hatred of Spain and probably
the hope of plunder. A fleet of 60 French ships, under
the command of Philippo Strozzi, a distinguished military
captain, of much experience on land though unversed in
affairs of the sea, was despatched to the Azores in support
of Don Antonio's cause. They were joined by 6 English
privateers from Plymouth. An expedition was organised at
Lisbon against him, under the veteran admiral Alvaro de
Bazan, Marquess of Santa Cruz, in which Cervantes and his
brother Rodrigo took part. The headquarters of the
regiment of Figueroa were at Lisbon. Some disputes
between the naval and the military commanders frustrated
the first expedition prepared against Don Antonio, and it
was not until the summer of 1582 that the Spanish fleet
under Santa Cruz appeared off the island of Terceira, the
largest of the Azores. Serving on board of the ships were
3000 infantry of the Figueroa regiment, " chosen men," says
the chronicler, "well-trained old veterans, able and well-
disciplined."^ The Spanish fleet was to have been reinforced
by a squadron from Cadiz under Aguirre, but Aguirre did
not join in time to take part in the operations. According
to Herrera^ the Spaniards had 27 ships, with 3000 soldiers
on board. Opposed to them, under the command of
Strozzi and Le Brissac, were 60 French vessels, smaller in
size, but with 6000 soldiers, including those on shore. A
fierce battle was fought off Angra, which ended in a
complete victory for Santa Cruz. Miguel de Cervantes

^ Mosqucra de Figueroa, Comentdrio de la Jornada de las Islas de lot ^xores
(1596).

' Antonio de Herrera, Hittoria de Portugal, 1591.

Cervantes chap.

and liis brother Rodrigo were on board the galleon San
Mateo^ one of the two flagships, which bore the brunt of the
hn;htino; and suffered very heavily, having been surrounded
and assailed by three of the enemy. The Marquess of
Santa Cruz is charged by the French writers who treat of
this battle with a deed of savage brutality. He is said to
have ordered Philippe Strozzi, when brought before him,
bleeding of his wounds, to be flung into the sea. But
Herrera, from the Spanish side, — a contemporary historian
of these events, — says that Strozzi was dead of his wounds
when taken on board the Spanish flagship. Of the prisoners
taken the officers and gentlemen were beheaded, and the
common men hanged to the number of over 300.^ But it
was a cruel age, when war had lost much of its civility.
The old chivalry was dead ; the new humanity was not yet
born. The Spaniards excuse Santa Cruz, who in other
passages of his life had not been wanting in generosity, on
the ground that the French partisans of Don Antonio were
pirates, there being at that time peace between Spain and
France. The Marquess of Santa Cruz returned to Lisbon
on the 25th of September. His work, however, was not
yet done, for a third expedition was despatched in the
following year against the refractory Don Antonio, whose
adherents had made head again, leaving Lisbon on the 23rd
of June. Terceira was again the scene of an obstinate
struggle, in which Rodrigo Cervantes so greatly distinguished

1 The historians have taken very little note of this sea-fight, in which
England is generally made to play a part. Mr. Froude has a page about it in his
great history, but it is, as usual, full of blunders. Strozzi is called "a veteran"
and " the old admiral," — but he was neither an admiral nor old. He was only
in his forty-second year, and had never been at sea before. It was Santa Cruz,
born in 1510, who was the old admiral. Mr. Froude gives the Spanish force as
double that of the French, but the Spaniards quote the figures, showing the
French were superior in numbers of ships and men, though their ships were
smaller. Mr. Froude's story about Santa Cruz intending to have had Strozzi,
if taken alive, pulled to piece« between four boats, is beyond credence as past
proof.

5 Return to Spain

himself by his personal valour as to obtain the notice of his
commander and promotion to the rank of an alferez^ or
subaltern officer.^ Whether Miguel also was in this
expedition is not certain. We know from his own
memorial to the King, some years afterwards, petitioning
for employment, that he served under the Marquess of
Santa Cruz in the Azores, but it was probably in no very
active or prominent capacity. In a contemporary record of
the campaign in the Azores appears an eulogistic sonnet by
Miguel de Cervantes, in which "the great Marquess" (the
same whose beard was singed by Drake at the entrance of
the Tagus in 1585) is exalted for his great deeds in the
usual hyperbolical style of the period.^ After the completion
of the work in the Azores and the suppression of Don
Antonio, the Spanish fleet returned to port, — on this occasion
to Cadiz, there to receive, says the historian, the applause of
all good Spaniards.

With this ended the military career of Miguel de
Cervantes. The precise date of his leaving the regiment of
Figueroa is not recorded. During his stay in Lisbon, he
conceived a favourable opinion of the Portuguese and of
their city, lavishing on them much praise for their agreeable,
courteous, and liberal manners ; commending their language
as sweet and pleasant, and especially admiring the beauty and
lovable qualities of their women ^ — praise rarely earned by

^ Rodrigo de Cervantes was one of three who jumped into the surf at the
attack on the forts which defended the Puerto de las Muelas near the city of
Angra in Terceira, and led the party of soldiers against the French under
Bourguignon, by whom the place was defended ; Comentario de la Jornada de las
lilas de lot Azorei. It does not appear that on either this or the former occasion
the English took any part in the fighting.

^ This was he whose deeds "neither oblivion, nor time, nor death can
consume," — the greatest of Spain's sea-captains, who was nominated to the
command of the Invincible Armada, but died suddenly just before it sailed, and
was succeeded by the incapable Duke of Medina Sidonia, — a change very much
to the benefit of England.

' How deeply imprinted on the heart of Cervantes was the memory of this

Cervantes chap.

the Portuguese from their neighbours, and in that age
especially most uncommon, Cervantes had room in his
large heart for every one — Moors, Portuguese, even English-
men — in days when the English Queen was looked upon by
Spanish patriots as a monster outside of humanity, and when
Lope de Vega could write his Dragontea^ foaming with
wrath and spite, over the dead Sir Francis Drake. Of the
Portuguese ladies Cervantes' good opinion was not without
return. He had an amour with one unknown, by tradition
a lady of high quality, the fruit of which was a daughter,
Isabel, his only child,— her father's constant companion till
his death. ^

At some period which his biographers have not been able
to fix with any certainty, but probably subsequent to his
return from the last expedition under the Marquess of Santa
Cruz, Cervantes was at Mostagan, on the coast of Barbary,
then a Spanish possession, — whence he was sent to Spain
by the Governor with despatches for the King, by whom he
was ordered on some service, most likely in connexion with
the provisioning of the troops, to Oran, where also was a
Spanish garrison.- This employment, which may have
flattered Cervantes' hopes of civil preferment, seems to have
led to no immediate results.

Meanwhile Cervantes was engaged in preparing for the
press his first acknowledged book, a mixed prose and
poetical romance, upon the model of the pastorals then in
fashion, entitled Galatea. He had also in contemplation

pleasant time in Portugal, is proved by the singular enthusiasm with which he
speaks of the country and of the people thirty years afterwards in his Persiksy
Sighmunda (bk. iii. ch. vii.). This was in an age when, as Byron says in
Childe Harold—

Well did the Spanish hind the difference know
'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low.

^ Called Dona Isabel de Saavedra, who after her father's death took the veil,
and entered a convent of bare-footed Trinitarian nuns at Madrid.

^ The sole authority for these facts is Cervantes' memorial to the King in
1590, in which they are recited. See Appendix C,

5 Return to Spain

about this time another important step in his life, which was
his marriage,^

1 Sir Richard Burton, in one of his notes to the translation of the LusiaJs
(vol. iii. p. 67), remarks that, " seeing they must often have heard of one another,
curious to say, Camoens never mentions Cervantes." It would have been curious
if he had. Camoens was born in 1524, — twenty-three years before Cervantes,
TAe Lusiads wzs ^uhlished in 1572. Its author died in 1579, — six years before
Cervantes published his first book. Cervantes mentions Camoens once in Don
Sluixote (Part II. ch. Iviii.).

CHAPTER VI

The Author of ' Galatea '

A NEW epoch in the life of Cervantes opens in 1584. In
that year he printed his first book, and married a wife —
these two momentous steps being, in more than one way,
connected. He was now in his thirty-seventh year ; and
perhaps there could be no more fitting time to describe his
personal appearance. There is no curiosity so natural or
reasonable as that which seeks to know how the great men
of the past, vv^hose names are eternal, looked to the world
when alive. Few men there are vv^hose features we should
more gladly call up than that of the author of Don ^ixote.
Unhappily, the creations of his fancy havp a more real
presence than is retained by their creator. The images of
Don Ouixote and of Sancho Panza we can recall with a
sufficient distinctness, in spite of all that several generations
of painters and engravers have done to distort and disfigure
Cervantes' ideals. But of Cervantes himself we have not,
alas ! any pictured memorial. The Stratford bust and the
Droeshout portrait have done something, if not very much,
to enable us to realise the features of Shakspeare. But the
country of Cervantes has preserved no true effigy or picture
which can be safely accepted as the portrait of the author of
Don ^ixote. Spain, ever incuriosa suorum — careless in every
point and circumstance of her greatest genius, neglectful
of him when he lived, not knowing where he was born, and

Author of 'Galatea'

still indifferent to where he was buried, — by a supreme and
almost incredible piece of apathy has allowed all trace of at
least two portraits of Cervantes, which were painted in his
lifetime by well-known artists, to be lost, or, if extant, to be
past identification. More fortunate than his contemporary,
Shakspeare, Cervantes lived in an age when art was in the
full vigour of its spring. He is known to have been intimate
with two of the best of the early Spanish painters — Francisco
Pacheco, the master and father-in-law of Velasquez, and Juan
Jaureguy, poet as well as artist, whom our author extols in
several of his writings. There is no reason for doubting the
statement, — in itself most credible and confirmed by what
Cervantes himself says, at least in regard to one of them,^ —
that by both Cervantes' portrait was painted. Pacheco is
known to have made a collection of a hundred and seventy
portraits, in black and red chalk, of all the most eminent
men of his time ; and that Cervantes' portrait was among
them cannot be doubted.'^ That a portrait by Jaureguy

^ See the opening sentences of the address to the reader in the Prologue to
Ncmdas Exemplares. Cervantes is apologising for some friend who, like many
others in the course of his life, has dealt with him rather according to his
worldly state than his genius, "which friend might well have engraved and
sculpt me on the first leaf, since the famous D. Juan de Jaureguy gave him my
portrait." I cannot understand any one reading the words and concluding, as a
recent English translator has done (who seems to think that Cervantes got no
more than his deserts in his treatment by his countrymen), that " they imply
nothing more than that Jaureguy could or would paint a portrait of him if asked
to do so." Surely they imply that there was such a picture, but that the friend
who might have engraved it for the book failed to do so, as Cervantes hints,
because he was not sure of being paid for his work. It is not the picture but the
print from it, the absence of which Cervantes so good-humouredly bewails, in
the reader's interest.

^ See Navarrete, pp. 92, 196, and 537, Navarrete, who in matters of fact
may be entirely trusted, quotes from the Grandezas de Espana of Pedro de Medina,
published in 1590, in which, speaking of Seville, the author says it was the
centre of men of learning and letters. In that year Cervantes was residing at
Seville, now well known by his poems and plays ; and Pacheco, a great lover ot
literary company and a poet himself, was one of his friends. It is Pacheco
himself who tells us, in his Arte de la P'mtura (bk. iii. ch. viii.), th.it he had

Cervantes chap.

existed, from which an engraving was to have been made, to
be affixed to the first edition of the Novelas Exemplares^ we
know by the opening words of the author's preface, apologis-
ing to his readers for its non-appearance. What has become
of these two portraits ? For more than a hundred years, —
since Spain awoke to discover the merit of the author of
Don ^dxote^ — they have been lost. If they exist at all,
they are hidden away in some old museum or private
gallery, doing duty, perhaps, for ancestors of the family or
kinsmen. But what, then, it will be said, of that stately
and ultra -Spanish face, which looks out upon us in all
the modern editions of Don ^uixote^ — that "portrait of a
gentleman," in a dress of surprising splendour and newness
such as Cervantes never wore in his life — he who had not
even a cloak in his old age to clothe him before Apollo^ — all
starched and frilled, in a collar of the period, in a close-
drawn more than a hundred and seventy portraits in black and red chalk.
Rodrigo Care, in his Claros Varona de Sc-vtlla, confirms Pacheco's statement,
adding that to every portrait was appended an eulogy, and that of the whole
collection a volume was made which Pacheco sent to the Conde-Duque de
Olivares, the celebrated favourite of Philip IV. Pacheco, born in 1568, lived to
1654. After his death his collection of portraits was broken up, some of them
being engraved in various books of that and the following century. In 1830 the
book, with a reduced number of drawings, was in the possession of one Don
Vicente Aviles. From him or his successors it passed, in 1864, after various
fortunes, into the hands of Sefior Asensio, one of the most devoted, persevering,
and enlightened of all modern Cervantists, who has done so much by his own
labours to atone for the past ill-treatment of Cervantes by his countrymen. The
precious volume, which has been carefully reproduced by photo- lithography
(Seville, 1869), now contains only fifty-six portraits, among which, unhappily,
that of Cervantes is not to be found. See for a very full account of Pacheco's
work and its history Asensio's Francisco Pac/ieco, sus Obras Artistlcas y Literarias,
Seville, 1886.

^ See his reply when advised by Apollo to show no resentment at unkind
Fortune, but to "fold up his cloak and sit thereon" : —

— Bien parece, senor, que no se advierte,
Le respondi, que yo no tengo capa.

(" It seems, my Lord, then that you have not noted,"
I answered him, " that I possess no cloak.")

6 Author of 'Galatea'

buttoned doublet of the fashionable cut, who so long has
decorated our frontispieces, to the confusion of all physio-
gnomy ? Unhappily for those who insist upon a portrait
of the real man, — perhaps happily for Cervantes and his
character, — this is an impostor, who is easily exposed. The
story of how this head came to delude the world as the vera
effigies of the great Spaniard is a singular one. When, in
1738, Lord Carteret, to please Queen Caroline, brought out
his fine edition of Don Quixote in four large quarto volumes
— the first in which the text received due honour as a classic
and still one of the handsomest which has ever appeared,
printed in all the luxury of Tonson's type and adorned with
gorgeous and ghastly sculptures by Vanderbank and Vander-
gutch — all possible efforts were made, through the British
Ambassador in Spain, to discover a portrait of Cervantes, to
be engraved in the frontispiece. According to the opening
sentence in Dr. Oldfield's preface, no portrait of Miguel de
Cervantes could be found, in spite of all the enquiries made
at Lord Carteret's instance through the British Ambassador
at Madrid.^ In this extremity William Kent, the well-known
English artist, was set to make a figure of the author of Don
Quixote which should be appropriate to his great design in
writing that book. This task William Kent executed in all
good faith and with perfect honesty, taking for his guidance
the minute and particular account of his person and features
which Cervantes himself drew in the prologue to the Novelas
Exemplares^ in lieu of the print, after Jaureguy, of which he
was disappointed — which, perhaps, he could not afford to
have engraved. That there was no attempt at deception, by
palming off an imaginary for a true portrait, is proved by

1 No aviendo hallado (for mas solic'ttud que se aya fuesto) retrato alguno de Miguel
de Cervantes Sao'uedra, ha farecido comieniente foner en el Jront'ispicto de su Historia
de Don Sluixote de la Mancha una representacion que figure el gran designio que twvo
tan ingenioso Autor — says Dr. Olcifield. (Ad-vertenaas sohre las estamfas desta
Historia, in the first page of vol, i. of the Don fixate of 1738.)

Cervantes chap.

the lettering — Retrato de Miguel de Cervantes per el Mismo
(Portrait of Miguel de Cervantes by Himself). The figure
is a three-quarter length, representing a man in the prime of
life, elegantly attired, with the well-known rufF and frills,
seated on a chair, with a pen in his hand. The left arm
ends at the wrist in a stump. In the background is a picture
of Don Ouixote on horseback, fully armed, with Sancho on
his ass behind. In the margin is the painter's name and
legend — " G. Kent inven'. et delin'." The design is wholly
conventional, precisely such as any foreign artist might have
drawn out of his own imagination after reading Cervantes'
description of himself and hearing a little about Don fixate.
That this could be no true portrait, and that the print could
not have been copied out of any contemporary picture or
engraving, is proved by the left hand being represented as
mutilated, and by the introduction of Don Ouixote and Sancho
Panza. Cervantes' left hand, as we have shown in a previous
chapter, had not been lopped off but only disabled ; nor is
he known to have been painted by any one after the
publication of Don fixate, when he was nearly sixty years
of age.

This fanciful picture drawn by the English artist, William
Kent, to decorate the first great English edition of Don
^uixote^ has served as the basis of all the existing portraits
of Cervantes. The invention proved an entire success —
that highly -typical Spaniard, with the hooked nose, the
large moustache, the round eyes, and the baby mouth, in the
portentous collar, having achieved a triumph such as few
works of English art ever won outside of England. The
after-history of this child of William Kent's fancy is very
curious. When, some forty years afterwards, the Spanish
Academy, shamed by the homage paid to Cervantes by
foreigners, brought out their own first classical edition of
Don ^uixote^ more fortunate than the English editors they
were able to give what claimed to be a true portrait of the

6 Author of 'Galatea'

author. The narrative of its discovery, as told by the
Spanish editors in their preface, is as romantic as the story
told by the author himself of the finding of the missing
portion of Don ^uixote^ — fitting into its place, at the head
of the first Spanish edition, with a neatness and felicity
none the less admirable for being vi^holly undesigned. The
editors begin by ingenuously confessing that all trace of the
two portraits of Cervantes knovi^n to have been painted in
his lifetime w^ere at that date (1780) lost beyond recovery.
But by great good luck, precisely when they most wanted a
portrait with which to deck their edition, the Conde del
Aguila, a patriotic nobleman of Seville, was found to possess
one. The Conde del Aguila had purchased it some years
before of a picture-dealer in Madrid, who sold it as the work
of Alonso del Arco. But here was a little difficulty, as the
Academy naively suggest. Alonso del Arco, the deaf and
dumb painter, was born in 1625, nine years after the death
of Cervantes, so that he could not have painted his picture
from the life. The Academy, however, wanted a portrait
of Cervantes badly, in order to be on a level with their
English rivals. They seem to have pursued their investiga-
tions in a spirit of thrifty research resembling that in which
Don Quixote tested his helmet, which, on the first trial,
we learn that he demolished with ease ; " and so, without
caring to make a fresh trial of it, he constituted and accepted
it for a very perfect good helmet." The Academy, fearing
to prove too much and to lose their prize if they persevered
with their enquiries, pronounced the Conde del Aguila's
picture a very good and proper portrait — if not an original,
probably the copy of some original by Jaureguy, or Pacheco,
or some one else, executed in Cervantes' lifetime.^ It was

1 Sec Don ^ixote. Part I. ch. ix.

* There is a portrait, said to be by Velasquez, several times engraved — last In
Paris, 1853, by Leissncr, with a dedication to the Empress — of which little need
be said, as it is on the face of it apocryphal. It represents a man of between

81 6

Cervantes chap.

accordingly engraved and prefixed to the great edition of
Don fixate printed by Ibarra in 1780, with copper-plates
by native artists, which were at least as grotesque and even
worse drawn than the rival Dutch embellishments. But now
a strange thing appeared. The portrait in the Academy's
edition, which was a bust only, was found to be identical in
feature, in look, and in pose with Kent's ideal portrait of
1738. It was in an oval frame, bordered with appropriate
emblematical devices, showing only the face and the upper
part of the body, but with the same dress, the same starched
and enormous ruff, the same pronounced aquiline nose, and
smug, well-contented expression, with the eyes a size larger
and rounder, — the mouth even smaller, and the moustache
more trim and pointed. The Academy's own explanation
of this mystery (of which the true solution is, of course,
that the Conde del Aguila, or the dealer who sold him the
picture, had copied the English print) can scarcely be said to
be satisfactory, as, indeed, it has not satisfied even Spaniards
themselves. They submitted, they say, Conde del Aguila's
picture to two professional painters, who, comparing it with
Kent's print, came to the conclusion that it was the older of
the two ; that the style was of the schools of Vincenzo
Carducho and Eugenio Cajes, who flourished in the reign
of Philip IV. ; and that, though not a contemporary portrait,
it must have been copied from an older picture, probably of
the time of Cervantes. These conclusions, which to an
unprejudiced judgment appear to be self-contradictory and
mutually destructive, were accepted by the Academy as
decisive. While admitting that the one portrait must have

forty and fifty years, with a dull repulsive countenance, habited in a costume
certainly not of a fashion earlier than 1640. This could not have been painted
from the life by Velasquez, for, born in June, 1599, the painter was only in his
seventeenth year when Cervantes died. Nor is Velasquez known to have left
any picture painted from a life-sketch of Cervantes. Had such existed, we may
be sure that it would have been discovered by the Academy when in quest of a
genuine portrait to adorn their first e<i)tion.

6 Author of ^Galatea'

been a copy of the other, they tried to make the world
believe, as several generations of good Spaniards have believed,
that it was the earlier one which was the copy, the later the
true original. This absurd theory cannot deceive any but
those who desire to be deceived. Putting aside the palpable
internal evidences of falsity in the picture itself, — the features,
which could never have belonged to Cervantes ; the costume,
which he never could have worn ; the accessories, which
openly proclaim the cheat — the idea that the English
editors, having a true and accredited portrait before them
wherewith for the first time to adorn an edition of Don
fixate and give it value, should deliberately prefer to call
it an invention, is too preposterous to need a word in its
refutation. If Lord Carteret's editor had a real portrait
of Cervantes before him, is it likely that he should lie
and tell his readers he could not find one ? What could
have been the motive for any such deception ? Lord
Carteret's edition of 1738 was clearly not designed for the
trade or intended for commerce. It was carried through in
a pure spirit of courtesy for the queen of George II. and of
reverence for Cervantes. Is it credible that the fact of a
genuine portrait being in existence should be concealed ?
Why should it be concealed ? Surely, if there was such a
portrait, as the Spanish Academicians pretend to believe, it
was rather Lord Carteret's interest to exhibit a print of it to
the world than to have an imaginary portrait made for his
frontispiece. The whole story as told by the Spanish Royal
Academy of Letters is too absurd, and little creditable to
their acumen, good taste, or candour. But it is of a piece
with all the rest of the history of the treatment of Cervantes
by his countrymen.^

^ Navarrete, like a good Spaniard, accepts the decision of the Academy, which
Ticknor also seems to support, on the ground that " the old picture," meaning
Conde del Aguila's, is " conforme en todo " with the author's own description of
himself. But it must be evident that this can be no proof of its genuineness ;
for, of course, the painter, whoever he was, would take care to keep as close to

Cervantes

To the long story of the quest of Cervantes' portrait
there yet belongs another chapter. Not content with the
effigy which had done duty for so many years among
Spaniards as the true image of Miguel de Cervantes, a
gentleman of Seville, Don Jose Maria Asensio y Toledo, —
one of the most ardent and enlightened of the modern race
of Cervantophiles, who has done knight's service in the
cause of the author of Don Quixote, — following up a clue
contained in a certain anonymous manuscript relating to the
history of his native city, was led to search among certain
pictures known to have been painted by Pacheco (about
1600) for a convent at Seville. In the manuscript was a
note to the effect that in one of six pictures was a portrait
of Miguel de Cervantes. The pictures were a series intended
to celebrate the good deeds of the brethren of the Redemp-
torist Order, in the release of captives from Algiers. Pacheco
was known to be a friend of Cervantes ; and Cervantes was
certainly among the most famous of the captives redeemed
from Algiers. Furnished with these lights, Senor Asensio,
aided by some artist friends, made a careful search among
Pacheco's six pictures now in the Provincial Museum of
Seville, late the convent of La Merced. Among them was
one numbered and described: "No. 19. San Pedro de
Nolasco en uno de los pasos de su vida " (St. Peter of Nola in
one of the passages of his life). It represents a boat putting
off from the Algerian shore, in and about which are seven
figures, one of which is the saint himself, apparently in the
act of embarking. Among the other six, which Senor
Asensio has satisfied himself are all portraits, is a man stand-
ing on the stern of the boat, pushing her off from shore with

the written description as he could. By the majority of Spanish Cervantists in
the present day, the puerile fable of the Conde del Aguila's picture is rejected ;
the fancy portrait by Kent being admitted to be the original. Yet to this day
the national artists go on repeating the same well-worn face on canvas, in stone,
and in brass ; and the national poets continue to write sonnets on that forged
nose and those artificial eyes.

6 Author of 'Galatea'

a pole — with his left hand, which is obscurely painted, as
though to hide its disfigurement — attired like a sailor, with
bare legs and feet, and a wide, low-crowned hat. He has his
face turned to the spectator, as though the artist intended him
to be fully seen. This is Miguel de Cervantes, according
to Senor Asensio. Unfortunately, the conclusion is but the
last step in a long process of conjectures. There is no proof
whatever that Senor Asensio is right ; nor can there be any
proof until the missing sketch of Cervantes in black and
red, known to have been included in Pacheco's contemporary
book of portraits, is discovered. All we can say in favour of
Senor Asensio's hypothesis is that it is a very ingenious and
plausible one. That it may prove to be true, should be the
prayer of every lover of Cervantes. For this might be, if it
is not, the portrait of the author of Don Quixote ; and, at
least, it is vastly better than the cheat which has long
imposed on the world — the terrible creature of Kent's fency.
The figure in the boat represents a man in the prime of
early manhood, such as Cervantes was when he was released
from captivity. The face, though badly modelled and ill
drawn, is a singularly fine one, and such as might well
belong to Miguel de Cervantes. The broad forehead, the
beautiful eyes, the well-defined and prominent nose, the
shapely head set upon a manly neck and shoulders, are
somewhat marred by a weak chin and jaw ; but the physio-
gnomist will discover in all these features nothing but what
is characteristic of the genius and temperament of Cervantes.
Senor Asensio rather spoils his own case by saying, as a
climax to his reasoning in favour of the truth of his discovery,
that the face of el barquero resembles that in the Conde del
Aguila's picture. But that which is a forgery can lend no
confirmation to that which claims to be true. The two
portraits are really quite distinct, and could never have been
painted of one and the same man.^

^ See Asensio's Nuevot Documenios para iluitrar la -viJa de Miguel de Cer-vantes,

Cervantes

A far better testimony in favour of el barquero is that his
features tally exactly with the portrait of himself which
Cervantes has painted in words.^ In the prologue to his
Novels, written when he was in his sixty-sixth year, after
asking his readers to excuse him for not giving them an
engraving from Jaureguy's picture in the frontispiece, the
author thus paints himself: — "He whom you see here, of
aquiline feature, with chestnut hair, a smooth, unruffled
forehead, with sparkling eyes, and a nose arched, though
well proportioned, — a beard of silver which, not twenty
years since, was of gold, — great moustaches, a small mouth,
the teeth of no account, for he has but six of them, and
they in bad condition and worse arranged, for they do not
hold correspondence one with another ; the body, between
two extremes, neither great nor little ; the complexion bright,
rather white than brown ; somewhat heavy in the shoulders
— this, I say, is the aspect of the author of Don Quixote of La
ManchaH''^ With this, which presents to us a sufficiently

etc. Seville, 1864. I write with an exact copy of the head and bust of ^/ harqucn
in colours before me, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Senor Asensio.
The head has been engraved in Sir William Stirling Maxwell's L\fe of Don
John of Austria, who takes it unreservedly as a genuine portrait of Cervantes, It
also appears in the frontispiece to Mr. Gibson's translation of the Viaje del
Parnaio. In neither of these etchings is the expression of the original well
conveyed. The eyes, especially, are of a wonderful softness and brilliancy in the
original, and the chin and jaw are not quite so feeble as in the reproductions.
The autotype, made from a copy taken directly from Pacheco's picture, which is
given in the frontispiece to this volume, gives a very good idea of the original.

^ Here I must differ from Ticknor, who, in a note to Asensio's book, printed
in the catalogue of his library at Boston, says that "the handsome boatman is
very unlike the description Cervantes gives of himself." Ticknor could not have
seen the original picture at Seville, and is evidently speaking of the print given
in Asensio's book, which is by no means a satisfactory reproduction of Pacheco's
figure.

^ Prologo al Lector, in the introduction to the Ncmelas Exemplares. The
colour of the boatman's hair and beard is a ruddy chestnut in the original ; and
one touch at least of the verbal description — the shoulders algo cargados — is
strikingly evident in Pacheco's picture. Cervantes belonged by blood to the old
Gothic light-haired type of Spaniards, now fast dying out before the black-haired

6 Author of ^Galatea'

striking and attractive personality, the world must be
content. To enable us still further to call up the image of
the man before our mind's eye, let it be added that he had a
hesitation in his speech, of which he himself makes a jest,
and to which his veiled adversary, Avellaneda, seems to
allude ; and that he was near-sighted.^

The Galatea^ Cervantes' first book, appears to have been
completed before the end of the year 1583.^ It was approved
for publication on the 1st of February, 1584, but, for some
reason not explained, it was not published till the beginning
of the year following.^ The dedication, in which Cervantes
speaks of his early life at Rome, is to Ascanio Colonna,
Abbot of St. Sophia, the son of Marco Antonio, his old
admiral at Lepanto. Galatea is a pastoral romance, or, as
Cervantes calls it, an Eclogue, of the kind which the
Portuguese poet, Jorge Montemayor, in his Diana had
brought into fashion from Italy. A Valencian poet before
Cervantes — Gil Polo — had improved upon Montemayor's
model in his Diana Enamorada^ which Cervantes praises

swarthy Iberian, more or less mixed — the type to which Camoens also belonged,
as Sir Richard Burton remarks in his translation of The Lusiads, — the type
of the conquering race, — of the Cid, of Don Enrique, the sailor prince of Portugal,
— and of the best manhood of the Peninsula.

^ In the Prologue to the No-velas he alludes to his infirmity of speech. Also
in the P^iaje del Parnaso, cap. iii. Also in the letter to Mateo Vasquez, where he
spea so ^j lengTia balbuziente y quasi muda.

Avellaneda, in his bitter, envenomed prologue to his parody of Don fixate,
which is a long personal attack on Cervantes, with an incredible malignity
speaks of the author's having mas lengua que mams — " more tongue than hands,"

^ Cervantes speaks of it in his dedication as las frim'icias de mi corto ingenk —
" the first-fruits of my poor wit." This must not be understood literally, and
is not reconcilable with the evidences quoted by Navarrete in proof of the fact
that even before the publication of Galatea, as early as 1 581, Cervantes had been
classed by Galvez de Montalvo and by Pedro de Padilla among " the most famous
poets of Castile."

' Navarrete and Ticknor, following all the older authorities, make the place
of publication Madrid and the date 1584. But Salva has proved in his Biblio-
graphy that the Galatea was first published at Alcala, the author's birthplace, at
the beginning of 1585,

Cervantes chap.

somewhat extravagantly in the sixth chapter of the First
Part of Don Quixote. The Galatea is, perhaps, the best
in that kind, which, perhaps, is no great praise. That
Cervantes' contemporaries thought so is proved by the fact
that seven editions were called for in the author's lifetime,
and by the praises which were lavished on the book, not
only at home but abroad. That, judged by our modern
standard of taste, the Galatea is tedious, feeble, and diffuse,
is to condemn not so much the work of Cervantes as the
taste and temper of the age in which he lived. Not much
can be done with shepherds and shepherdesses in fable.
They sing, they love, they talk. One asks another (not
without cause) why he is dull ; the other answers, because
some girl whom he loves does not love him. Then,
perhaps, the lady enters and gives many long reasons why
she should love somebody else. No genius can invest such
themes, whether in prose or in poetry, with any human
interest. The life is unreal ; the passions false ; the loves
and the occupations equally artificial. The best that
can be said for the Galatea is that it is at least as good
as any of its models. The taste for these things is now
lost, but in that age the pastoral was highly popular. We
know from the story told by Marquez Torres in his Appro-
bation of the Second Part of Don ^uixote^ that even so late
as 1614 gentlemen from France affected to letters had their
Galatea by heart — prizing it, perhaps, even higher than Don
fixate. Who shall account for the caprices of taste in
literature ? Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia was once held in
high esteem as a work of entertainment, and went through
many editions. The Spanish Galatea^ in its prose and verse,
is at least as good as the English Arcadia. There is some-
thing in its gracefulness of style, its naivete^ its tender
allusions to our "own agreeable Henares," by the verdant
banks of which the well -clad shepherdesses were wont to
sing their loves, or the shepherds, with pipe and rebeck,

6 Author of 'Galatea'

to bewail their mistresses' cruelty — which makes this simple
piece of affectation still live, if it is only for the sake of
the author. In after years no one ridiculed this class of
composition more happily than did Cervantes himself —
preserving for it, as I have no doubt he did, a tender
sentiment even while he ridiculed it, as for the books of
chivalries. In the Galatea the absurdity inherent in such
pastorals is heightened by the device, common to pastoralists
of that age, of introducing real personages in the scene
under romantic names. His future wife, in whose honour
and for whose delectation the tradition runs that Cervantes
composed the story, appears disguised as Galatea^ while
Cervantes himself masquerades as her lover, the shepherd
Elicio. Damon, Tirsi (Thyrsis), Ttfnbrio, Er astro, and all
the rest are friends of the author, with, perhaps, their own
stories told. Even the grave and reverend Hurtado de
Mendoza is introduced as the shepherd Meliso lately deceased.^
The opening scene has a peculiar interest as bearing on
the circumstances of Cervantes' own love, rehearsed for the
benefit of his mistress. The shepherd Elicio is enamoured
of the peerless Galatea, who, though reared amidst pastoral
and rustic parents, was of so lofty and exalted an understand-
ing that the wittiest ladies of the court would have esteemed
themselves happy to be like her not only in beauty but in
wit, so rich and infinite were the gifts with which Heaven
had adorned Galatea. She was adored by many shepherds
of quality, among whom the gallant Elicio, to whom nature
had been more bountiful than fortune or love, dared to love
her, with as pure and sincere a love as the virtue and
discretion of Galatea permitted. Of Galatea it is not
understood that she abhorred Elicio, any more than she
loved him, for sometimes as though conquered and com-
pelled by his attentions she lifted him to heaven with

^ Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, the author of La Gucrra de Granada, died in

Cervantes

CHAP.

some chaste favour, and at other times, without taking
thought of him, she would disdain him in such fashion
that the love-lorn shepherd hardly knew what was to be
his doom. In short, while Galatea did not wholly desire
Elicio, Elicio could not and would not forget Galatea.
And so on, in a strain which doubtless was not unfamiliar
nor disagreeable to the fair Catalina de Palacios Salazar y
Vozmediano.

Introduced into the body of the romance, without much
pertinency to what is doing, is a long poem called the Canto
de Ca/iope, which is a catalogue of all the leading poets of
Spain, — an enormous tribe, whose very names and obscurity
are sufficient to deaden any attempt to preserve them alive.
Some of the occasional stories and the episodes, though they
have little to do with shepherding, are prettily told, with
all Cervantes' grace and skill as a raconteur. The style
throughout is pure, harmonious, and flexible, more correct
than in the author's more famous later work. But, apart
from the romantic circumstances of its birth, Galatea^
though it brought our author fame, even beyond his own
country, must be pronounced unworthy of his powers, as it
was out of keeping with his genius. He himself, in the
famous inquisition on Don Quixote's library, has pronounced
a very fair verdict on the book (of which it must be re-
membered that he had promised a second part, which never
came), by saying that " it contains a little of good invention:
it proposes something but concludes nothing,"^

A few days before the publication of Galatea^ Cervantes
was married at Esquivias, a small town of New Castile,
between Madrid and Toledo, to Dona Catalina de Palacios
Salazar 2 — a young lady of respectable family, perhaps a

^ See Den S^uixote, Part I. ch. vi.

* The lady's full name, as given in her deed of marriage settlement, is
Catalina de Palacios Salazar y Vozmediano, the daughter of Hernando de Salazar
y Vozmediano and Catalina de Palacios.

6 Author of 'Galatea'

little higher than his own in worldly position. The I2th of
December, 1584, was the date of the ceremony. There is
a tradition that a kinsman of the bride's opposed the match,
on the ground that the aspirant to the hand of Dona Catalina
was not sufficiently endowed with the gifts of fortune ; and
that Cervantes, in revenge, made him the hero of Don
Quixote} This legend belongs to the foolish family of the
inventions based on the theory that Don Quixote was a
satire, intended to have a personal application. Very little
is known about Cervantes' wife except that she was much
younger than himself, that she bore him no children, and
survived him more than ten years, requesting in her will to
be buried by his side.^ Cervantes settled upon her a dowry
of a hundred ducats, which was estimated at that time to be
a tenth of his fortune. By a subsequent deed, of which a
copy is preserved with all the items, all the goods of Doiia
Catalina at the time of her marriage are secured to her by
her husband. There is a curious inventory of the young
lady's effects given by Pellicer, which proves that in worldly
substance she must have been superior to her husband. The
goods of Doiia Catalina, the enumeration of which is not
without a certain pathos, as showing what was held at that
time to be more than equivalent to the fortune with which
Cervantes was endowed, include several plantations of young
vines in the district of Esquivias ; s'xxfanegas of meal and
one of wheat at eight reals ; ^ various articles of household
furniture ; two Hnen sheets, three of cotton ; a cushion stuffed

^ The story as told by Jimenez Serrano, in his article Un Paseo a la Patria dt
Den Siu'ixote in the Sem'inario Pltitoreico, 184.8, is that it was a cousin of Cervantes'
wife who opposed the match — one Don Rodrigo Pacheco, who was a hidalgo of
Argamasilla, of whom and his picture in the parish church of that town I shall
have more to say hereafter. Others say his name was Quesada.

2 Dona Catalina died at Madrid on the 31st of October, 1626, and was buried
in the convent of the Trinitarian nuns, in her husband's grave, of which the site
is now forgotten.

^ T\\t fanega was a measure of grain about equal to an English bushel j eight
reali would be one shilling and eightpence.

Cervantes chap. 6

with wool, two pillows of the same, one good blanket and
one worn ; tables, chairs, pots and pans j a brasier, a grater,
several jars, sacred images in alabaster and silver gilt ; a
crucifix, two little images of the baby Jesus, con sus ropitas y
camisitas — with his little garments and body linen ; four
bee-hives, and forty-five hens and pullets, with one cock.^
These details of household wealth seem to justify the
opinion of those neighbours of Dona Catalina at Esquivias
who held that in marrying the old maimed soldier she
threw herself away.

Cervantes seems to have been resident in his wife's town
of Esquivias for some months after his marriage. We find
him at Madrid soon after, occupied in his first efforts to make
a Hving by his pen.

^ See the inventory in full as given by Pellicer in the Appendix to his Life of
Cervantes, in his edition of Don Slu'ixote, vol. i. p. 205.

CHAPTER VII

Literary Life in Madrid

In 1585 Cervantes moved from his wife's town of Esquivias
to take up his residence for a time in Madrid. He had now
finally adopted Hterature as a profession, having no other
means than by his pen to support himself and those
dependent upon him. These included at this time, and for
some years afterwards, not only his wife and his Httle
daughter, Isabel, but his widowed sister, Andrea, with one
daughter, Costanza, now eight years of age. His other
sister, Luisa, three years older than himself, had become a
nun in 1565.^ The household must have been a poor one,
for, beyond some small income derived by the wife from her
little estate in vines, and the earning of the sister by needle-
work, there was no other provision than such as Cervantes
was able to make by his writings. This was a resource
sufficiently precarious in that age, before letters had become
recognised either as a calling or as a trade j when those who

^ Of the other members of the family, the brother, Rodrigo, was serving
with his company of the Figueroa regiment in Flanders. The mother, Doiia
Leonor de Cortinas, seems to have been living on her own small means ; but that
Cervantes still preserved the due filial relations with her is proved by her
becoming one of his securities, in 1595, on account of his debt to the Crown.
Pellicer, upon no other foundation than that one Dofia Magdalena de Sotomayor,
a beata, is named as a sister of Miguel de Cervantes, in a deposition made at
Valladolid some years afterwards, makes Dona Leonor to have taken a second
husband, one Nicolas de Sotomayor. But Navarrete proves that this could not
be {y'lda de Cer-vantes, p. 249).

Cervantes

CHAP.

wrote were many, and those who read were few ; when
authors were poorly paid, if paid at all, and publishers, in the
modern sense, did not exist.

Cervantes was probably the first man of genius since
the revival of learning who made an attempt to earn a live-
lihood by his pen, unaided by any other resource. The
attempt was all the more desperate from the peculiar con-
dition of Spain in the latter years of Philip's reign, — a
condition which made the struggle for existence almost
hopeless for a writer of original genius, who was also of
independent mind. It was a period of extraordinary growth,
combined with a season of sternest repression. Never
was the Spanish intellect so fruitful or so busy ; never was
the popular taste so corrupt, or the restraints upon free
thought so numerous and so degrading. The blight fell
precisely when the ground was richest and the promise of a
crop most hopeful. At that date no country in civilisation
could boast of an intellectual energy so great as Spain. Her
renown in arms, her supremacy in empire, seems to have
acted as a spur to the national genius. The season of glory
was the season of growth. In spite of all external checks,
there was a spring of life in the nation such as Spain had
never experienced. There was a tumult in the veins of the
people such as even Philip could not repress, which the
Church vainly attempted to stem or to guide. It was the
dawn of the Golden Age in letters and in art. In one
direction the outburst was phenomenal. The Spanish nation
went into poetry with a vigour and unanimity such as could
be nothing less than appalling to a man intending to enter
the profession of letters. The easy Castilian tongue which,
with its double resource of consonant and assonant, lends itself
naturally to rhyme, grew poets at an alarming rate. The
multitude of versifiers in Cervantes' time was so great as to
be a standing joke with the wits. All Spain was a grove of
singing-birds. Men in every station of life turned to verse-

7 Life in Madrid

making. Those who could not spell yet dared to rhyme.
A theme was never wanting so long as fortune was unkind,
Ministers forgetful, or hunger pressing. The struggle for
existence brought out poets in shoals. " In every street four
thousand poets," writes one, as the last news from Madrid.^
There were tailor poets and cobbler poets, who rhymed when
they should be sewing and heeling. Cervantes himself, in
his Voyage to Parnassus^ though the most tolerant of critics,
who praised more bad writers than any good writer ever did,
makes immense fun of the poetambre^ the poetastery — the
deluge of bards from the clouds — " the vulgar squadron of
seven-month poets, twenty thousand strong, whose being is
a mystery," — " the useless rabble who attempt to storm the
mount when they are not worthy to stand under its shade." ^
Among the men of letters in that day, the very prime of
the Golden Age of Spain, who out of the herd of small
rhymesters and cultured ecclesiastics are distinguished (the
man of letters in Philip's reign if not a soldier was always a
priest), are some who, if mutual commendatory sonnets are
to be believed, were the personal friends and associates of
Cervantes. The Court of Madrid in 1585, under Philip II,,
was not very favourable to the cultivation of literature.
Gongora, who had winged his way with the rest of the
singing-birds from his loved Cordova to Madrid, vented his
spleen "against the brutes of Circe's crew, who hunted for
place with famished maw, suing for the great Ministers'
favour," in more than one satirical sonnet, — railing at the
Court and courtiers, their lies and flatteries. Among them,
resident at Madrid, more fortunate than the rest as always,
was the youthful Lope de Vega, then newly married to his
first wife. The Phcenix of Spain, now in his twenty-

^ En cada calle quatro mil poetas, says Tome de Burguillos, — that is, Lope de
Vega himself, who took that name to cover some of his more sportive effusions.

* See especially the second chapter of the Viaje del Parnoio, The whole poem
is a good-natured satire on the poetasters of the day.

Cervantes chap.

third year, and already famous as a poet, was mewing his
wings for a new flight, in an interval between one scandalous
adventure and another. As his wife's mother was a Cortinas
from Barajas, the native village of Cervantes' mother, we
may presume that the connexion led to some intercourse
between the two households. But I/ope was already happier
in his fortunes than his rival, for he had attracted the notice
of the young Duke of Alva (grandson of the famous general,
of the Low Countries and of Portugal), to whom he was
acting as confidential secretary.

In 1585, having written many eclogues (he commenced
to rhyme before he could speak, and was an expert Latiner
at five, according to his own story), he wrote his Dorotea^
a dramatic romance, in which he introduced his own loves
— already numerous, lawful and otherwise. Soon after he
got into a quarrel with a gentleman of the Court, rehearsed a
scene in one of his own plays of the Sword and Cloak,
wounded his adversary after lampooning him, and was cast
into prison, whence after release he was exiled to Valencia,
then as a centre of letters the second city in Spain. Losing
his wife within a year after his return to Madrid — there had
been a Filis to share his ample store of love before her
death — he made desperate suit to another, was rejected, and
went for a soldier — this time apparently in earnest — out of
devotion if not for glory, embarking in one of the ships of
the Invincible Armada. Before this happened there had been
some interchange of compliments between him and Cervantes.
The older poet had praised the younger in the Canto de
Caliope^ which would be a striking proof of Cervantes' dis-
crimination were it not for the fact that he had praised others
equally heartily, who remained obscure. Lope did not return
the compliment, though he mentioned Cervantes' name in
his romance of Dorothea (not published till many years after-
wards). There is no reason to believe, in spite of what the
Spanish biographers assert, that there was at any time a close

7 Life in Madrid

intimacy between two men of tempers so opposite, but at this
early period at least Cervantes had given Lope no cause for
jealousy. They are said to have been members of a literary
club in Madrid, to which all the leading wits belonged.
Among these was Vicente Espinel, twelve years older than
Cervantes, of whom the younger man spoke with singular
warmth many years afterwards, as "one of my oldest and
truest friends " ; who was of a mordant and envious spirit, how-
ever, and wrote disparagingly o^ Don Quixote after the author's
death. Espinel, first soldier then priest, like so many others of
that time, became famous as a lyric poet, added a fifth string
to the guitar, translated Horace, and in his old age wrote El
Escudero Marcos de Obregon^ a story of semi-picaresque life
which the author thought better than Don Quixote. He
lived to be ninety, and became a pensioner on the bounty of
Cervantes' patron the Archbishop of Toledo. Juan Rufo,
who is praised so warmly by the Priest in the famous inquisi-
tion on Don Quixote's books, was the author of La Anstriada^
which is a chronicle in verse of the deeds of Don Juan of
Austria, published in 1583, of which the subject was certain
to recommend both itself and the author to Cervantes.
Cristobal de Virues was another epic poet, whose Monserrate
is praised in Don Quixote — -a Valencian and one of the men
of Lepanto, who was one of the earliest to practise the
dramatic art. Alonso de Ercilla was a soldier-poet who sang
of the conquest of the Araucos, the heroic natives of south
Chile, after taking part in the campaign. Besides being lauded
in Don ^uixote^ he figures as one of the shepherds in Galatea^
and may therefore be presumed to be among Cervantes'
intimates. Barahona de Soto, an Andalucian who wrote of
the Tears of Angelica^ was also of the pastoral company in
Galatea. Lopez Maldonado, whose Caneionero was published
in 1586, is another who was excessively praised by the critic
of Don Quixote's library, who calls him "a great friend of
mine," and preserves his book from the fire. Luis de

97 7

Cervantes

Montalvo, whose Shepherd of Filicla was a pastoral of the same
kind as Galatea^ ordered by the Priest to be " guarded like a
precious jewel," clearly belongs to the circle of Cervantes'
familiar friends. Another of them was Pedro de Padilla,
whose Treasure of Various Poems is gently reproved in Don
^I'lxote for including some low, rustical verses. Padilla, who
professed religion in his old age, wrote a duller and more
decorous series of odes in praise of saints, called El fard'tn
Espiritual^ in which are no less than three sets of verse in
praise of the author by Cervantes, in one of which he is
called the " seraphic father." Another very particular friend
of Cervantes was Pedro Lainez, who figures as Damon in
Galatea — a poet of repute, whose widow afterwards lived at
Valladolid in the same house with the family of Cervantes.
All these had sonneted each other's works after the fashion
of the time— a fashion into which Cervantes fell like the rest,
though he ridiculed it in his famous Prologue to the First
Part of Don ^I'lxote. Then as now there were mutual
admirers. Thev exchanged the politest epithets, grinding
sonnets and quint'illas in each other's favour. He who was
dubbed " great " gave back " illustrious " — " divine " responded
to "angelic." These amoebaean strains, however, did not reach
far. They hurt no one and helped a few, only a very little.
When Bavius lauded Maevius it was not that his friend
might find a publisher or an editor. When Maevius was
penetrated by wonder at the excellence of Bavius it was
without any eye to the circulating library. No one then
made anything out of a book unless it was in the shape of a
gratuity from a patron or other great man. The exchange of
sonnets was for honour not profit, and being commercially
null may be said to have been ethically harmless. Literature,
in that fortunate age, had not become a trade.

Outside the circle of Cervantes' immediate friends there
were great men in letters, some passing away and others not yet
arrived, who helped to make that the Golden Age of Spain.

7 Life in Madrid

Luis de Leon, the greatest master of Castilian eloquence
and the last great poet in the old style, whose merit as a
lyrist, unspoilt by Italian taste, has hardly been sufficiently
estimated, lived all his life in retirement and died unnoticed
in 1 59 1 — one of the truly devout spirits of the age, vi^ho
narrow^ly escaped torture by the Holy Office for his version of
the Song of Solomon — " w^hom I revere, adore, and foUow^,"
said Cervantes. He belonged to a former generation, w^ho
wrote in the great simple native style, then falling out of
fashion. There are many w^ho doubt whether the newer
mode, with its artificial graces and more elaborate forms,
first imported from Italy by Boscan and carried to its
highest perfection by Garcilaso de la Vega — who died before
Cervantes was born — was any gain to Spanish literature.
One of the greatest of its professors — a consummate master
of the Arte Mayor^ was Fernando de Herrera, priest at
Seville, whom Cervantes might have known in after years,
when a resident in that city. Herrera is placed by the
native critics at the side of Luis de Leon — they two being
still reckoned among the masters of pure Castilian verse,
who became classic in their Hfetime. Herrera wrote a
magnificent sonnet on Lepanto, which earned for him from
Cervantes the epithet of " the Divine." Luis de Gongora,
born in 1561, also a priest, was of the new order, and a very
different character — an arrogant, self-asserting, restless man,
who rose to be leader of the new Culteranismo^ which is a
kind of prefigurement of modern Symbolism. In his
younger days, when praised by Cervantes, he was natural,
simple, and tender. Then he grew conceited and began
to Gongorise — setting that pestilent fashion of Euphuism
which so many followed to their detriment, from which
Cervantes himself hardly escaped — the fashion of making
style do for sense, using words to express every meaning but
the natural one, with false images decked in foreign clothes
— the Latin'iparla^ which Quevedo so mercilessly ridiculed.

Cervantes chap.

In those early days, however, the cultos had scarcely ven-
tured upon serious literature. Their master Gongora, if
we may judge from a certain passage in after life (to be
spoken of by and by), was no friend of Miguel de Cervantes.
Neither were the brothers Argensola, Lupercio and Bar-
tolome — Aragonese, of sour and selfish temper, although
included among the crew so profusely praised in the Canto
de Caliope. The elder brother was, in 1585, secretary to
the Duke of Villahermosa, the supposed original of the
Duke in the Second Part of Don ^ixote ; and some believe
that he is the ecclesiastic whom Cervantes handles with such
unusual acrimony in Chapter Thirty-one. The younger
Argensola is one of those suspected of taking a base revenge
on Cervantes in after years, as will be told in the course of
this story. Both he and his brother came more than once
between Cervantes and his fortune. Of a more pleasant
character were our hero's relations with one Francisco de
Ouevedo — a genius of all those of the time most akin to his
own — who, though of a bitter tongue against all the world,
had ever a good word and a high respect for the author of
Don ^lixote. Ouevedo belongs to a generation later, who
though he wrote many things in verse, printed nothing in
Cervantes' lifetime. He is mentioned, however, in the
Adjunta al Parnaso in terms which prove that he was a
favourite with Miguel de Cervantes. These are among the
poets, great or to be great, who rose above the multitude of
versifiers and made of that time the Golden Age of Spain.

To strive against the vast herd of writers then springing
into life for a living — to win his bread in the struggle, with
his gifts so ill fitted for the sordid game, the chase for the
patron — was a task for which the good-natured genius of
Cervantes was unequal. Verse in those days was but a
poor victual and poetry a scant provision. Of the two
realms of gold, the newspaper and the novel, the one was
non-existent, the other still to be discovered by Cervantes

100

7 Life in Madrid

himself. Though he had won much fame by his Galatea^
it was such fame as availed him little in the severe competi-
tion with his higher-placed rivals. He had not yet found
the secret of the treasure which lay within his bosom j nor
is there anything more pathetic in literature than his
desperate efforts to earn his fortune by doing with his pen
as others did. Of poems and ballads he says himself that he
wrote, about this time, an infinite number,^ all of which
have perished, so far as we know — perhaps without any great
loss to himself or the world.^

A few commendatory sonnets which, with his usual
good nature, he lent to his poet friends to help their dull
productions, are all that survive of his works which belong
to this period. They are distinguished rather by their
subtlety in discovering the merits of others than by any
merit of their own. Despairing of success in any other line,
Cervantes now turned, as did so many of his friends, to the
stage — his early predilection.

^ Yo he compuesto romances infinitos
Y el de los Zelos es aquel que estimo,
Entre otros que los tengo por malditos.

(Of ballads I've writ many, and the best

I hold to be on yealousy, the rest

I fear are gone unto the place unblest.)
2 Some of Cervantes' ballads may be still extant, if no longer to be identified
as his. Clemencin starts the very reasonable conjecture that the ballads about
Uchali (Aluch Ali), of which there are several in the collections, may have been
among those composed by Cervantes. (See Clemencin's Don Sluixcte, vol. iii. p.
157.) In Duran's Romancero are five anonymous ballads, in which a slave of
Aluch Ali is introduced, the first of which represents him as sighing for his
mistress Tal'mca, which is an anagram of Catalina, the name of Cervantes' wife.
This can hardly ht accidental. (Duran, vol. i. p. 145.) The ballad of Los Zeloi
is included among Cervantes' smaller poems in Aribau's edition of his works in
the Biblhtcca de Autores Espanoles, The best of Cervantes' known ballads are
those in his charming novel of La Gitanilla, which are full of grace and tenderness.

lOI

CHAPTER VIII

Cervantes a Playwright

At what period Cervantes began to write plays for the
stage we are not told ; but it was at least a year or two
before Lope de Vega turned his versatile genius in the same
direction. Under the successors of Lope de Rueda, the
drama had begun to take form and to increase rapidly in
popularity. Cervantes, as he tells us himself, had witnessed
its beginnings,^ and takes credit to himself for various im-
provements in the construction of the plays and in the
character of the performances. He is entitled to be called the
pioneer of that new intellectual movement in Europe, when
the genius of poetry descended on the stage and found its
noblest voice in the drama ; the first to give artistic form to
Spanish comedy. The birth of the regular drama was
almost simultaneous in Spain, in France, and in England ;
but Spain may fairly claim to have led the way in giving
shape and substance to the dramatic performance. Naharro,
Rueda's successor, had made many improvements in the stage
business. He brought the orchestra to the front, which
before had been hidden. He did away with the false beards
which all the players wore, whatever were their characters.
He invented machinery, clouds, thunder and lightning,
duels and battles. These were chiefly improvements in the
material and in the mise-en-scene. Among the things for
which Cervantes takes credit is the having reduced the acts

^ See the Prologue to his Comedies and Interludes, published at Madrid in 1614.

102

CHAP. 8 A Playwright

from five to three, and in the introduction of moral and
allegorical figures on the stage, which speak and move like
the other persons of the drama. In neither of these claims
is he strictly correct. If there is any merit in investing
with corporeal substance creatures of the imagination — ab-
stractions, the virtues and the vices — to mingle on the boards
with flesh and blood men and women of the piece, the
credit of the invention belongs to the primitive dramatist j
this being a common device, as Ticknor has pointed out, in
the old miracle plays. As to the change in the number of
acts, it had been made long before Cervantes' time by
Avendaiio.^ These are points, however, of small import-
ance, on which it is excusable that Cervantes should err —
writing as he did in his old age, thirty years afterwards.
What is certain, and the one thing material to this history,
is that he was for some time successful in his career of a
playwright. According to Pellicer he received payment
for each play at the full rate of 800 reals^ which was as
much as was given to Lope de Vega in the height of his
fame. According to Montalvan Lope usually got no more
than 550 reals for each representation. However this may
be, so much is certain that before Lope's appearance
Cervantes was the greatest of the playwrights in popular
favour, making as pure dramatist (the profession before his
days was usually coupled with that of actor and manager)
what may be presumed to be a greater success, with what
was essential to him, a larger income, than any writer ever
did in Spain up to that time.

What we know about the comedies (it is to be understood
that all plays are in Spanish cojtiedias^ whether comic or
tragic) written by Cervantes for representation is almost
entirely derived from himself, in the interesting prologue to
his Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes^ published in 1 614.
These last do not include such as were acted, being either

^ See Ticknor'a History of Spanish Literature, vol. ii. p. 192.
103

Cervantes chap.

written at a subsequent period, or among those that were
rejected, or what is most likely, composed without any idea
of the stage. Speaking of the " twenty or thirty " plays of
his which were acted, Cervantes declares that they were all
received with favour. " They ran their course without
hisses, cries, or disturbances. They were all repeated without
their receiving tribute of cucumbers or of any other missile." ^
If it was a modest triumph, it must be confessed that it is
recorded in sufficiently modest phrase. Elsewhere, in his
delightful Appendix to the Voyage to Parnassus^ Cervantes
mentions the names of some of these plays : — Los Tratos or
El Trato de Argcl{\J\^Q. in Algiers), La Numancia^ La Gran
Turquesca^ La Batalla A^^-y^/ (probably the battle of Lepanto),
La yerusalen^ La Amaranta or La del Mayo (The Flower
of May), El Bosque Amoroso^ La Unica y Bizarra Arsinda
(The Rare and Matchless Arsinda), with many others whose
names he cannot remember. But the one of which he
speaks with special pride is La Confusa (The Perplexed Lady),
to which he refers more than once as ranking " good among
the best of the comedies of the Cloak and Sword {de capa y
espadd) which had been, up to that time, acted." Of all
these only two have survived to this day — La Numancia
and El Trato de Argel — although there are slight incidental
references to some of the others in the literature of the
succeeding period.^ These two dramas, which exhibit to
us Cervantes in his prime as a writer for the stage, are of a
character and quality so different as, if we did not know the
extraordinary versatility of the writer, to make it difficult to
believe that they were the work of one and the same hand.

^ Sin que se lei ojreciese ofrenda de pefinas m de ctra cosa arrojadh-a, — the
throwing of cucumbers at the actors being, we suppose, the recognised method of
damning the play.

^ The dramatist, Mates Fragoso, who flourished in the second half of the
seventeenth century, in one of his plays, La Corsdrta Catalana, has a passage alluding
to La Bizarra u4rsinda as one of the " famous comedies of the ingenious Cervantes."
See Barrera in the first volume of the Argamasilla edition of Cervantes, p. 151.

104

A Playwright

Although exalted, as a drama, beyond its merits by Schlegel
and Bouterwek — who have placed it on a level with the
masterpieces of ^^schylus — the Numancia of Cervantes is a
noble composition, which, apart altogether from its artistic
worth, rises, by its grandeur of patriotic sentiment and
loftiness of moral tone, to a height such as no Spanish
dramatist ever reached. From its subject, it is something
more than a poem. The verse is inspired by the very genius
of patriotism. The lines glow with a fierceness and intensity
of national passion which absorb and kill all meaner sentiment.
For this quality of pure, concentrated, heroic energy, there
is nothing equal to it in the ancient or modern drama.
Defective in almost everything necessary to make a success-
ful tragedy ; without plot or passion ; with very little action,
and devoid of all stage artifice and conventional effect,
Numancia is to the Spanish drama what Don Quixote is to
Spanish romances — the one only second to the other among
the numerous and varied products of the genius of Cervantes.^
To be properly appreciated it must be regarded as a chapter
in a great national epic. As one who has translated it with
abundant grace and sympathy remarks, it is " simply a
glorious page in Spanish history converted into sounding
verse " — " an attempt to give form and body on the stage to
a great national event." ^ One incident in its life speaks

^ The Numancia has for its subject the famous siege of the Iberian city of
Numantia by the Romans under Scipio Africanus. After resisting the power
of Rome for fifteen years, and suffering fourteen months of every kind of
privation and horror, the Numantines perished to a man, conquered by famine, —
the last survivor of the garrison, Viriatus, hurling himself from the battlements
as the Romans entered the city. It is the most heroic page in the history of
Spain which Cervantes chose for his theme. The ancient town of Soria, in Old
Castile, on the borders of Aragon, claims the name of Numantia ; but the true
site is about five miles distant, it being difficult to identify the spot which
was the scene of this unparalleled deed of Sai/xovlT) dperi^, as the Romans
passed a ploughshare over the ruins of the devoted city.

^ The late J. Y. Gibson, who has given us in English a very faithful and
spirited version of Numancia.

Cervantes chap.

eloquently of the success achieved by the author in his
immediate purpose. During the memorable siege of
Zaragoza in 1808, when the French cannon were thunder-
ing at the gates, and Palafox and Tio Jorge were holding
them heroically against overpowering numbers, the happy
idea occurred to the national leaders of putting Numancia
upon the stage, to give life and courage to the garrison.
The device was successful beyond all stage precedent. The
audience went out against Lefebvre's trained battalions with
renewed spirit. The French were hurled from the crumbling
walls ; and Zaragoza was saved. Thus had Cervantes a
triumph such as few dramatists have been able to claim. A
play that could fulfil such a function is not to be judged like
an ordinary drama. In the power of moving the readers, in
the reality of the impressions conveyed, in the painting of
the sublime pathos, horror, and despair of the scene, Numancia
is, indeed, unique among plays. In the construction of the
several kinds of verse here used, Cervantes displays a skill,
grace, and happiness of which no other of his poems gives
any evidence. Some of the lyrics are in spirit and in structure
equal to the best in the language. Lira^s despairing appeal
to her lover Morandro has a tender pathos which must have
drowned all the stage in tears. The invocation to the river
Douro —

Duero gentil que con torcidas vueltas —

has ever been esteemed by Spanish critics one of the sweetest
passages of Castilian verse. One scene alone — the rising of
the corpse at the bidding of the wizard Marquino — is for
the sublime of horror, for grandeur of tragic effect, and
sustained power of invention superior to anything imagined
by Marlowe or Shakspeare.^

1 Even the judicious Hallam is moved out of his ordinary reserve to devote
three pages of his history to an analysis of this remarkable poem. Ticknor, who
is not given to over-laudation of Cervantes, is unstinted in his praise. August

106

A Playwright

This height Cervantes in his dramas touched but once.
What The Perplexed Lady may have been we cannot guess
from the author's perhaps too partial judgment upon it as
the best of the class to which it belonged. The father is
seldom to be trusted as a critic of his offspring ; and we
have no other opinion of Cervantes' comedy than his own.
If El Trato de Argel^ the only play dealing with modern
and common life which has survived, may be taken as a
sample of Cervantes' art in the entertainment of an audience,
we can understand how it was that he fell out of favour when
the newer artist appeared. It is without any regular plot,
written in that easy octosyllabic metre, in both consonant
and assonant rhyme, with redondillas^ terza rima^ and other
popular measures interspersed, — in that style which to English
ears is so monotonous and according to English taste so un-
suitable to dramatic effect. The scenes are little else than
transcripts from Cervantes' own experiences as a captive in
Algiers. Real incidents and even real personages are
introduced, mingled with demons and apparitions like
Necessity and Opportunity^ which act and speak like creatures
of flesh and blood. It is difficult to conceive how such a
play could have been acted ; and even more difficult to
imagine how it could have been written by one who, as
Cervantes shows through the mouth of the Canon of
Toledo in Don ^uixote^ has conceived so true and excellent
an idea of the function of the drama. Certainly his own
genius — various of resource and fruitful in kind as it was —
was not suited to play-writing. The qualities most admir-
able in his own masterpiece are precisely those which are of
least account in the drama. Cervantes could paint individual
scenes of comedy, and no one so perfectly understands the
art of making the creatures of his imagination live and move.

Schlegel thinks that it was here that Cervantes found a proper field for the
complete development of his inventive genius.
^ See Don ^^ixoie, Part I. ch. xlviii.

107

Cervantes chap.

But in that rude age, having to battle with adverse fortune,
he was unable to compete in the new art with others less
hampered by scruples of duty — more prolific and more
pliable.

About the time when Marlowe in England had pre-
pared the way for Shakspeare's entrance, Cervantes made
his exit from this stage.^ As he tells us himself, with his
wonted frankness, he found other things to occupy him.
" I gave up the pen and comedies, and there entered presently
the monster of nature, the great Lope de Vega, and assumed
the dramatic throne. He subjugated all the actors, and
placed them under his jurisdiction. He filled the world
with comedies — suitable, felicitous, and well- worded — and
so many that those in writing exceeded ten thousand sheets,
all of which have been represented." ^

The words in which Cervantes speaks of his great rival
have been much commented upon, and with reference to
the relations between them (to be hereafter more largely
spoken of) deserve to be noted. Let us remember, in the
first place, that Cervantes is speaking from recollection,
nearly thirty years after he had ceased from play-writing,
in which interval had happened much to strain what,
perhaps, never was too cordial a friendship with Lope de
Vega. The phrase which I have rendered " the monster
of nature " [?nonstruo de naturaleza) has a double meaning,
and therefore was, I have no doubt, deliberately used by
Cervantes to characterise the productive powers of Lope,

^ The growth of the drama in Spain was almost contemporaneous with that
of England, though it is probable that the first came to maturity, both in the
writing and in the representation, a little sooner than the second. Spain, during
the latter two decades of the sixteenth century, was certainly more advanced in
all the liberal arts than England, though how much was derived by the latter from
the former is not to be determined.

2 See the interesting prologue to the Comedias y Entremeses, published in 1614.
These are not to be confounded with the plays written for acting in Cervantes'
earlier life.

108

8 A Playwright

never exercised with any kindliness towards himself. By
those who insist upon shutting their eyes to the true relations
between the two men, monstruo de naturale%a is rendered
" prodigy of nature." So doubtless Lope was, and in
either sense. But monstruo^ in this connexion, is generally
used in bad part. It is so used in the only place where
the phrase occurs in Don ^ixote, where the Knight
is rating his squire (Part I. ch. xlvi.). In speaking
of one who had literally taken the bread out of his
mouth (not for the first time), surely there was some
excuse for a little bitterness in Cervantes' tone. Taken
altogether, the passage in which he speaks of his being
driven from the theatre by Lope must be regarded as
frank, fair, impartial, and with as much generosity as
accorded with his own self-respect. Sir Walter Scott did
not with greater magnanimity or gracefulness speak of
being outshone by Byron in poetry.

At this time (1588) Lope de Vega was twenty- six
years of age, being fifteen years younger than Cervantes.
According to my calculation Cervantes must have been
writing for the stage two years before Lope appeared
on the scene.^ When Lope first began to write plays for
representation we do not know, but it was almost certainly
not until after his return from his cruise in the Armada, some
time in the autumn of 1588. Long before this, indeed, he

1 A recent English writer on the subject (Mr. Ormsby) traverses Cervantes'
own statement of the cause which led him to abandon play-writing on the
ground that Cervantes had left Madrid for Seville before Lope began to write for
the stage. But this is no reason why he should not have continued to write
plays in Seville, nor was Madrid the only city where there were companies of
players. Senor Asensio, in his Nuevos Documentos (1864), prints an agreement
between Cervantes and one Rodrigo Osorio, by which the latter engages to give
Cervantes 550 reals each for six comedies, provided they are successful. The
date of this agreement is 1592, which proves that Cervantes clung to the hope
of succeeding as a playwright after he had left Madrid for Seville. According
to Montalvan 550 reals was the average price which Lope got for each of his
plays. It does not appear that the contract with Osorio was ever carried out.

109

Cervantes

had written piays, as he had written almost everything else.
The earliest of his dramas which is extant is El Verdadero
Amantc^ which, according to the author's own account in
the dedication to his son, was composed by Lope when he
was, for him, at the mature age of fourteen. Three years
before this he had written a dramatic piece in verse, as he
tells us himself. When fairly started in the "new art of
making comedies " he flooded the stage with an outflow of
drama in a stream so profuse as to be the wonder of the
world. Plays were poured out at a rate unparalleled, of
which the record is incredible. The faithful Montalvan, the
panegyrist and disciple, in his Fama Posthu7na^ is unable to
contain his language for wonder at the miraculous power of
production with which this prodigy of nature was endowed,
who in twenty-four hours could turn out a comedy of more
than 2400 lines, complete with all its furniture of intrigue
and double-play, — of loving, fighting, and bustle, with jokes
and deaths, and all things necessary. Doubtless it was a
stupendous genius, such as left room for no one else on that
limited stage. But when we are called upon by a recent
apologist for Lope ^ — who, while affecting to trim the balance
between the two men, speaks of Cervantes as a dramatist
who had " conspicuously failed " against a dramatist who had
" brilliantly succeeded" — to admit that it was the former who
had the better reason for jealousy, there are a few words to
be said on behalf of the truth. By what standard are we
to measure the two men ? Is it as dramatists in the true
sense, or as makers of plays to suit the vulgar taste ? There
is no proof that, even according to the lower test, Cervantes
was a "conspicuous failure." We have no record of his
failing other than his own modest confession, which scarcely
amounts to an admission of inferiority. Of Lope's "brilliant
success " as a caterer for the amusement of a Madrid audience
and a popular entertainer, there can be no question. But

^ In the Sluarterly Re-vitrw for October, 1894.
IIO

A Playwright

the very figures in their largeness testify against the dramatist
as artist. Eighteen hundred regularly constructed comedies
of three acts apiece, besides innumerable entremeses^ autos^ loas,
and sayneteSj we are told that Lope wrote in the intervals of
his priestly functions and his professional attendance on autos
de fe^ besides poems, stories, apologues, and pastorals. Suppos-
ing that they occupied the theatres for forty years — which is
the extreme period covered by Lope's dominion over the
stage — this gives but a poor average term of life for each
piece, allowing for fast-days and relaxation. The theatres, of
which there were two only in Madrid in Philip IIL's time,
could not have been open all the year round, and there were
others besides Lope who wrote comedies, long before he
quitted' the stage. Cervantes himself mentions Tarrega,
Aguilar, Velez de Guevara, Guillen de Castro, Mira de
Mescua, Galarza, Miguel Sanchez, and Doctor Ramon, as
among the established playwrights of the time. Tirso de
MoHna and Alarcon entered the theatre before Lope had
left it. Not one of Lope's numerous progeny, therefore,
could have had a long run. And when all is said, there is
one piece of the " conspicuous failure," called Numancla^
which still holds its place in the world's literature, while
of the eighteen hundred pieces of the " brilliant success "
there are not half-a-dozen whose names are remembered
to-day out of Spain ; nor one character, scene, or line which
any one not a member of the Spanish Royal Academy cares
to recall.

Ill

CHAPTER IX

Commissary and Tax-Collector

Unable to cope with a rival of a comedy-making capacity
so prodigious, who succeeded in pleasing the public in a
measure and after a fashion to which he had nothing to
offer equal or similar, Cervantes was driven to seek for a
livelihood elsewhere and by other means. Abandoning the
profitless pursuit of literature and deserting the Court, where
he despaired of favour, he removed with his family to Seville,
then the richest, busiest, and most populous city of Spain —
" the support of the poor and the refuge of the outcast " —
the emporium of the commerce and wealth of the New World,
with whose life and manners he came to acquire so profound
and minute an acquaintance. Through the interest of some
of his friends he obtained a place as one of four commis-
saries employed under Antonio de Guevara, the Royal
Purveyor- General for the fleets and armaments of the
Indies, to purchase stores in Andalucia. His commission
is signed the I2th of June, 1588, his two sureties in the
office being Juan de Nava Cabeza de Vaca and Luis
Marmolejo. From that date, for some time after, we hear
of Cervantes only as a buyer of grain and oil in the
districts round Seville, an occupation of little profit to
him, except in so far as it enlarged his field of knowledge
of men and manners, and subject to risks which involved
him in a new series of misfortunes. This business seems to

112

Tax-Collector

CHAP. 9

have included the collecting of small dues on behalf of the
King from the country people, and making advances for
the supply of such articles as were required for the public
service. The irony of fate is here curiously illustrated.
While no scrap of his other manuscripts survives, there
are extant, carefully preserved, many receipts, schedules of
expenditure, invoices, and accounts relating to these trans-
actions, written in a bold, clear hand. In May, 1590,
being sick of the grain and oil buying in Andalucia, Cer-
vantes bethought him of the usual resource in those days
of men of broken fortune, to pass to the Indies, "the
refuge and the sustenance of desperate men of Spain."
He therefore addressed a memorial to the King, through
the President of the Council of the Indies, in June, 1590,
in which, after reciting his services by sea and land,
especially at Lepanto and in the Levant, his sufferings
as a captive in Algiers, his subsequent employment in
Portugal and in the Azores, during all which period he
had received no favour,^ he humbly solicits His Majesty
for one of three or four places which he learns at that
time to be vacant, — namely, that of accountant of the
kingdom of New Granada (in the north of South America),
or of governor of the province of Soconusco in Central
America, or paymaster of the galleys of Carthagena (then
the chief port of the Spanish-American trade), or magistrate
of the city of La Paz (in Bolivia).^ The petition seems to
have been not unfavourably received, and it is said that
Cervantes might have been successful in obtaining one of

^ En todo Cite dempo no se le ha hecho merced ninguna — meaning, no favour in the
shape of place or preferment.

^ See the memorial in full, with the unsatisfactory endorsement (yet seeming
to imply approval), by Dr. Nufiez Morquecho, probably a secretary — busque for
aca en que se le haga merced — (Let him seek about here for the favour he
wants), in Appendix C. The document, found among other papers relating to
Cervantes by Cean Bermudez in 1808, is valuable as containing particulars of his
service nowhere else recorded.

113 8

Cervantes

CHAP.

the places he asked for, but for his own imprudence or
negligence, in some point of conduct which is left a
mystery. In one of the autobiographical stanzas of the
Voyage to Parnassus^ the poet seems to hint at some in-
capacity on his part to preserve the good which he
had won from fortune.^ Probably, without imagining
anything worse to his discredit, Cervantes had a full
measure of the defects which belonged to one of his
sanguine, romantic, fervid temperament. The very qualities
which made him loved by his fellow-captives and dreaded
by his jailers in Algiers, were those most unsuitable to
official life in Spain under such a ruler as Philip. That
he was careless, unthrifty, irresolute of will, and too quickly
moved from following the path of his own good by dreams
of some more romantic pursuit, is easily conceivable of the
author of Doyi Quixote.

Failing to get a place in America, Cervantes was com-
pelled to return to his miserable work of buying corn and
oil and wine for His Majesty's fleets — a service which
brought him into close communion with the country people
in the districts about Seville and Granada. Up to 1598
Cervantes was employed in various parts of the kingdom in
this and the kindred office of small tax collector, at an
annual salarv, according to his papers still extant, of three
thousand reals^ or about £^^^0 a year.^ In 1594 we hear of
him as being for a time in Madrid, but it is in connexion

^ Apollo says to him : —

Tu mismo te has forjado tu ventura,
Y yo te he visto alguna vez con ella,
Pero en el imprudente poco dura.

(Thyself hast forged thine own destiny,

And Fortune I have seen some time with thee.
But from the imprudent she doth quickly fly.)

See also a passage in Don fixate where we seem to have the author speaking of
himself (Part II. ch. Ixvi.). ^ See Navarrete, p. yj,

114

9 Tax-Collector

with one of those unpleasant passages which showed how
unfit he was for work of this kind — demanding scrupulous
exactitude in the paying and receiving of moneys, and entire
distrust of his fellow-men. On two or three occasions,
through what appears to be nothing else than over-zeal in
the King's service, or over-confidence in his agents, he
fell into trouble, having to pay in his own person or out
of his own pocket for the faults of those in whom he
trusted.

Of all the occupations in which a man of genius could
engage that of tax-collector must have been to a tempera-
ment like that of our Cervantes the most uncongenial and
repugnant. This, to that romantic soul, with an imagina-
tion fed with dreams of chivalry, must have been a torture
worse than Algerine captivity. Nor can the mind conceive
of a greater mockery of fortune than the gay, sweet-
tempered soldier doomed to chaffer in grain and peddle in
oil. That Cervantes would have fallen into trouble while
pursuing his ignoble employment was certain : that he
should have been imprisoned was for the world fortunate, for
it led to the engendering of Don Quixote. The earliest of
Cervantes' jail experiences was in 1592, on account of an
affair which seems to indicate a strained relation between
him and the Church. Having laid an embargo on certain
wheat belonging to a priest, in his capacity of tax-collector,
Cervantes was seized hold of by the correg'idor of Ecija,
and confined for three months in the prison of Castro del
Rio. The clergy then, and for some time afterwards, were
exempt from most of the taxes levied on the King's subjects.
This was the first of the mishaps in which Cervantes was
involved in the course of his humble employment.

In the midst of these uncongenial occupations we get
just one glimpse of the man of letters. In 1595, on the
occasion of the canonisation of San Jacinto, a Dominican
house at Zaragoza offered a prize of three silver spoons to

115

Cervantes

CHAP.

the man who should make the best gloss on a quatrain in
praise of the new saint. Cervantes entered the lists as a
competitor, and succeeded in winning the first prize — the
three spoons. Who shall say that letters were neglected
under the reign of Philip II.? — In 1596 Cervantes found
a very different, probably a more grateful, theme for his pen.
In that year an expedition was sent by Queen Elizabeth, in
return for the affront offered her by Philip in his Invincible
Armada, to ravage the southern coasts of Spain. A fleet
under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham entered
the port of Cadiz, and a body of soldiers was landed, under
the orders of the Earl of Essex, who burnt and destroyed
what property of His Spanish Majesty's they could not
carry away — to the consternation of the citizens and the
great glory of Protestant England. The Spanish army and
fleet under the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who ought to
have defended Cadiz, got themselves into places of safety ;
and it was not until after the English had gone away with
their rich booty, — after destroying thirteen ships and forty
large galleons, and inflicting a wound on Spanish finance
from which it is said that Philip never recovered, — that
the Duke of Medina Sidonia marched in with his brave
soldiers. Cervantes wrote a satirical sonnet on this occa-
sion, ridiculing the display of tardy valour made by the
be-plumed volunteers, and telling how — the English Earl
having gone away without any fear — the great Duke of
Medina came in triumphantly.^ The incident afforded
Cervantes, moreover, a subject for one of his smaller novels.
La Espanola Inglesa^ written, as appears from internal

^ The sonnet was first printed by Pellicer in his Life of Cer-vantes, from a
manuscript in the Royal Library at Madrid. The concluding lines are : —

Ido ya el Conde sin ningun recelo,
Triunfando entro el gran duque de Medina.

(The Earl departed without dread or damage,
In triumph there came in the great Duke Medina.)
116

9 Tax-Collector

evidence, fifteen years afterwards, in which the heroine is a
girl of Cadiz who was carried away to England by one of
Essex's captains.

About this period Cervantes fell into the first of his
money troubles in connexion with his office. Having to
remit a sum of 7400 reals from Seville to Madrid, he
entrusted it to the hands of one Simon Freire, as his agent.
Freire became a bankrupt and fled from Spain. This
involved Cervantes in a debt to the Crown, for which,
being unable to pay, he was thrown into prison. Having
reduced the amount by what he had recovered from the
bankrupt estate of Freire to 2600 reals^ Cervantes was
released, after a detention of three months. Neither then
nor at any time afterwards, — although the affair hung over
him to trouble him for many years, — was there any charge
implicating his own personal rectitude.^

On the 13th September, 1598, died Philip II. We
know of Cervantes' presence in Seville at this time through
the mocking sonnet he wrote on the exaggerated grandeur
of the sepulchral monument which was raised in honour of
the dead King. "Splendid in ashes and pompous in the
grave," if mean in his life and paltry in his work, for Philip
was erected, within the body of the great cathedral, an
edifice of three stories, forty-one feet high and forty-four feet
square, such as almost scandalised, by its elaborate grandeur
and profane magnificence, the Church whose sorrow it was
intended to express. On this occasion there took place a
curious wrangle in the cathedral itself, carried to most
unseemly lengths, between the representatives of the Inqui-
sition and the civic authorities, which was not settled
without some painful scenes, — serving to show that the
people thought less of the deceased monarch than of their
own rights and dignities. The catafalque, which one of

1 Cervantes seems to have been twice imprisoned in connexion with this
unhappy business, before he finally left Andalucia.

117

Cervantes chap.

the historians of the time describes as one of the rarest
mortuary structures which human eyes ever beheld,^ was
embellished with numerous statues by leading sculptors, and
pictures by the most eminent local painters, among whom
Pacheco is named. Cervantes seems to have regarded the
whole proceeding with great disgust, and wrote upon it
some ironical verses, which were as successful in hitting the
taste of the citizens as in winning his own good opinion,
for he praises them extravagantly in the Voyage to Parnassus
as "the principal glory of my writings."- The sonnet,
which has great merit in a line which Cervantes rarely
attempted, — and never without so much success as proved
that this was more congenial to him than sentimental or
romantic poetry, — is of irregular structure, — or rather, it is
a sonnet with a prece of another attached to it, seventeen
lines in all, — but of an excellent wit and humour, and
perhaps not least interesting for this that it seems to
indicate what was in Cervantes' secret mind regarding the
character and rule of Philip.^

^ Una de las mas peregrinas maquinas de tumuio que humanos ojos habian alcan-zado
a vcT : Espinosa, Histcria y grande-zas de la gran ciudad de Se-villa (1630).
There is a minute description of this catafalque, with all its adornments, in a
work by Francisco Geronimo Collado, a contemporary, printed by the Sociedad
de Bibli'jfiloi Andaluces in 1869.

2 Honra principal de mis escritos. The death of Philip was doubtless regarded
as a relief by the majority of his subjects, and the new reign was looked forward
to as the opening of a freer life. Such sentiments as are here expressed could
hardly have been uttered in Philip's lifetime.

3 The sonnet was first printed, without the author's name, in the collection
of Jose Alfay (Zaragoza, 1654). Don Vicente Salva printed it in his Spanish
Grammar, from a manuscript said to be in the handwriting of Cervantes. Don
Cayetano de Barrera saw it, with some variations, in a contemporary manu-
script entitled Sucesos de Se^illa, purporting to give a relation of events at Seville,
1 592-1604. The late J. Y. Gibson has thus rendered this difficult piece into
English : —

I vow to God such grandeur stuns my brain !
I'd give a crown its wonders to detail j
For such a grand machine on such a scale

Beggars description, makes invention vain.
118

9 Tax-Collector

During this period of his life, Cervantes is said by his
biographers, upon what appears to be insufficient evidence,
to have enjoyed the society of the learned and lettered
persons who then made Seville a famous centre of the
liberal arts. The only traces we have of his acquaint-
ance with the writers, his contemporaries, are such as are
found in the commendatory verses he lent to their books,
— a form of compliment of which, though he came to
ridicule it afterwards, Cervantes was very profuse. We
mav reasonably suppose that it was about this time that he
wrote the majority of his Noroelas^ in several of which we
find scenes and characters such as only could have been
drawn from a familiar and intimate knowledge of Seville
and its environments. That, before he left Seville, he
was a second time cast into prison because of his old debt
incurred on account of Simon Freire, is to be gathered
from extant documents. That about this time, from
between the end of 1599 ^"^ i^^S? is to be placed that
passage in his life which brought him in connexion with
La Mancha and was the source of Don ^'ixote^ seems
highly probable. This was the lowest point he touched
in his fortunes. He had fallen into such poverty as to
be even dependent for bread on his friends, — on one of
whom, Pedro de Morales, an actor, he lavishes tender

Now, by the living Christ, each piece, 'tis plain,
Is worth a million ! Pity it should fail
To last an age ! Hail, grand Sevilla, hail,
In wit and wealth a second Rome again !
I'd wager that the soul of the deceased.
On such a sight as this to gloat and gaze,
Hath left its joys eternal in the skies.
A listening puppy answer'd, "I, at least,

Sir soldier, doubt not what your honour says,
Who dares to think the opposite — he lies ! "
On this, to my surprise,
The stripling stinted, fumbled with his blade,
Look'd sideways, vanished, and no more was said.
119

Cervantes

expressions of gratitude for aid rendered him in this his
worst strait.^

Very little is known of the circumstances which first
brought Cervantes into contact with that province of Spain
which has since become indissolubly linked with his name. It
was about the time when his fortunes had sunk to the lowest,
that the Grand Priory of San Juan, with which Cervantes
appears to have had some sort of connexion through members
of his family, commissioned him to collect certain dues or
rents accruing to the Order in the town and district of
Argamasilla.2 This was an office which naturally made the
holder of it a person not entirely grateful to the inhabitants,
a people among the rudest in Spain ; and it is easy to imagine
that Cervantes was not a man to execute such a function in

1 Pedro de Morales is twice mentioned, with more than usual warmth, in
the Voyage to Parnassus. In the first passage Cervantes calls him " the asylum
where his fortune was repaired." In the second, towards the close of the poem,
he says : —

El pecho, el alma, el corazon, la mano

Di a Pedro de Morales y un abrazo.

(My bosom and my soul, my heart and hand

I Pedro Morales gave, in one embrace.)
This benefactor of Cervantes lived to be one of the most famous actors of the
time, surviving Cervantes many years.

- This was not the first time, — as it would appear from a communication for
which I am indebted to my friend Don Pascual de Gayangos, — that Cervantes
had been employed in the service of the Priory of San Juan. Among the
Spanish Manuscripts in the British Museum (Add, 28, 364, No. 38), catalogued
by Seiior Gayangos (vol. iii. p. 757), is an interesting passage about Cervantes,
which has never before been noticed by any biographer. It occurs in a letter
from Sanctoya de Molina (the secretary of the Council of the Military Orders
in 1584) to Mateo Vasquez, the King's Secretary, in which he discusses the
qualifications of various persons for the vacant offices in the Order of San Juan.
Among them he names three, Ruben de Celis, Cer-vantes, and Canto. El Ruben
no con-viene de ninguna manera, y el Cer-vantes es muy henemerito y sir-vio el partido de
Montanches muy hien. No conoce a Canto. (Reuben will not do by any manner of
means, and Cervantes is very deserving and served the district of Montanches
very well. Nothing is known of Canto.) Montanches is in the province of
Estremadura, and that Cervantes was employed there is quite a new fact to his
biographers.

120

9 Tax-CoUector

a manner, through his love of it, to make it less unpalatable.
Anyhow it happened that he fell into disfavour with the
people of Argamasilla. Some say it was because he was
concerned in an enterprise connected with the manufacture
of saltpetre and gunpowder, and desired to employ the waters
of the Guadiana — never too plentiful — in that industry, to
the prejudice of their cornfields. Another story is, that
while engaged in collecting his rents he diverted himself at
the expense of certain high citizens of Argamasilla by giving
vent to lampoons and satirical sonnets. Whatever the cause
of offence might have been it is certain that Cervantes was
laid hold of, and by the arbitrary order of the local authorities,
on no charge that has been specified, thrust into the cellar
of a house belonging to one of the principal men of the
town, and there incarcerated for some weeks. A letter
written by Cervantes, addressed to an uncle Juan Bernabe
de Saavedra, a citizen of Alcazar de San Juan, was extant
up to the beginning of this century, in which the captive
bewails his condition and implores his kinsman's aid.
"Long days and troubled nights are wearing me out in
this cell, or I should say cavern," — these are the opening
words of Cervantes' letter, which, alas ! like many another
relic of his life, has been lost through the carelessness of
his countrymen. The unanimous testimony of the towns-
people points to a house in the principal street of Argamasilla,
known as the Casa de Medrano^ — still standing in perhaps
almost the same condition as when Cervantes was here, — as
the place where he was incarcerated — in a cellar below the
level of the roadway.^ I have little doubt that this was the
place where the design of the book which was "engendered
in a prison " was first moulded. 2 To believe, as many have

^ I have seen and examined the cellar, under the guidance of the intelligent
priest of Argamasilla, and can vouch for its dismal condition. No one would
lightly commit a dog to such a hole.

^ See the opening words of the Prologue to the First Part of Den Sluixote.

121

Cervantes

CHAP. 9

believed, that it was in a prison that Cervantes wrote Don
^uixote^ is preposterous. The author nowhere says so, and
if Argamasilla be the place where the idea of the book came
into the author's imagination, the feat of writing it, or
anything else, would have been in the dark cell of the Casa
de Medrano impossible.

Fernandez-Guerra maintained that the prison of Seville was where Cervantes
wrote, or at least planned, Don S^uixote. I cannot agree with this opinion, for
this among other reasons, that the book must have been written after Cervantes'
experience of La Mancha, and there is no evidence of Cervantes being imprisoned
after he left Argamasilla.

122

CHAPTER X

Experiences in La Mancha

ArgamasillAj called de Alva to denote its once having
formed a portion of the great domain of that ducal family,
and to distinguish it from another Argamasilla to the
westward, has acquired a renown in the higher geography
of romance which to its present inhabitants is a little
embarrassing, though they cannot be persuaded into regard-
ing it as unflattering. That Cervantes had conceived a
grudge against the people of La Mancha on account of
certain affronts or wrongs suffered at their hands is a
tradition too general and too firmly fixed to be lightly
rejected. That he proposed to take his revenge by writing
a book in which La Mancha should be brought into
contempt, is a theory as diflScult to believe as that Don
^uixote^ his final message to the world, in which he poured
out all his soul, was such a book. No good Manchegan
ever took Don fixate for a satire. If a satire, it is the
clumsiest ever penned, for it has endeared the satirist for
ever to his victims The one book of which La Mancha
is proud is Don Quixote. The people are eager to claim
Miguel de Cervantes as one of themselves. In spite of his
own testimony Alcazar will not give him up to Alcala.
They struggle for the possession of their libeller with a
fierce acrimony which scorns date, document, and circum-
stance. Putting all motives of resentment aside, and

123

Cervantes chap.

Cen'antes had enough such against Spain at large, not to
speak of this one poor district, those who have visited this
region of La Mancha must acknowledge its exquisite fitness
to be the field of such a romance as that which Cervantes
conceived during the long days and dismal nights of his
captivity in the cell of the House of Medrano. Out of all
the provinces of Spain, this was happily chosen as the theatre
for the exercise of an expiring chivalry. And among the
towns of La Mancha — an unlovely region inhabited by
a rugged people whose chief characteristic is a humorous
mingling of shyness, cunning, and ferocity — Argamasilla holds
no mean place, perhaps held a higher one in Cervantes' time,
when all the traffic of the Indies must have passed through its
highways. The town is substantially built, with streets wider
and cleaner than are usual in Spain, amidst fertile and not
unpleasant surroundings.^ The sullen Guadiana flows (when
there is any water) through it, as it did when the Duchess'
messenger arrived there to look for Sancho Panza's wife.
Women m.av be seen washing clothes in the sluggish stream,
just as Sancho's daughter was doing when called to hear
news of her father, the Governor. The Casa de Medrano^
the house where Cervantes was locked up, is ^ conspicuous
building — a solid structure of stone.^ The natives are eager
to show you down the darksome cell where Cervantes was
confined. In the outskirts of the village are the ruins
of a house which is affirmed to have been the dwelling
of Don Quixote, where may be traced a large round window,
out of which the Knight's books might have been pitched

^ The traveller by the main line of railway from Madrid to the South need
not look out for Argamasilla at the station so named. The village is ten miles
away from the railway station, by a very bad road.

- Some thirty years ago it w-as used by Rivadeneyra as a printing-office, from
which were issued his two beautiful editions of Don Sluixote. This curious act of
expiatory homage was rendered more emphatic by the presence of the Infante
Don Sebastian Gabriel de Borbon, by whom the first sheets of the larger edition
were pulled from the press.

124

In La Mancha

by the Housekeeper into the outer yard. The place of chief
interest to the visitor, however, next to the dungeon vi^hich
held Miguel de Cervantes captive, is the parish church,
which, by its size and grandeur, proves that Argamasilla
was once a much more considerable place than it is now.
In the north transept of this church, in one of the side
chapels, there is an oil picture enclosed in a retablo^
representing the Virgin in the air with angels about her,
looking down upon a gentleman and a lady kneeling in the
act of prayer. The gentleman is of about fifty years of
age, with high cheek-bones and lantern jaws, adust com-
plexion, wandering eyes, and large moustaches. The lady
is much younger, and not uncomely. Below the picture is
an inscription setting forth how that Our Lady appeared to
this gentleman when given up by physicians, on the eve of
St. Matthew, in the year 1601, and cured him — who had
promised her a lamp of silver and called day and night upon
her in his great affliction — of a great pain he had in his
brain through a chilliness or dumbness which " curdled it
within."^ The portrait is of one Rodrigo Pacheco, who
is known to have been the only hidalgo resident at Arga-
masilla at this period. The lady was his niece. The
picture was painted to commemorate Rodrigo Pacheco's re-
covery from his mental ailment, — he being the owner of
the only house in the village which corresponds to the
description of Don Quixote's. It must have been put up
in the church about the time when Cervantes was in La
Mancha. Lastly, Pacheco, as the leading man in Arga-
masilla, was he by whose authority Cervantes was clapt into
the cellar under the house known as La Casa de Medrano.
This same Rodrigo de Pacheco it was who, according to
a tradition before mentioned,- was the cousin of Catalina de

^ The concluding words of the inscription, now to be read with some
difficulty, are — clamandola de dia y de noche del gian dokr que tenia en el ceUbro de
una gran frialdad que ie le quajo dentro, - See ante, p. 91,

125

Cervantes

Palacios, who opposed her marriage with Miguel de
Cervantes.

Such are the facts which, pieced out by local tradition and
belief, have been used to support the legend which connects
Cervantes' trials and experiences in La Mancha with his
next work, the history of Don Quixote?- That there is
some bottom of truth in all this may be freely admitted.
The sight of the picture in the parish church, with its
curious story of the lantern-jawed hidalgo^ recovering from
a mental disorder, may have given shape to some image in
Cervantes' brain which, fitting into a long-conceived purpose,
may have begotten, in some lonely hour of watching in his
cell, that "meagre, shrivelled, and whimsical" child of his
genius, hereafter to assume immortality.

I cannot believe, however, but that Cervantes had the
idea of Don Quixote in his mind long before this period of
his life. The death of Philip II. on the 15th of September,
1598, could not but have had a direct influence on the
current of Cervantes' genius. There is no need to discuss
again the character of this pious and prudent monarch.
Posterity, outside of Spain, is nearly agreed as to the nature
of his rule, and its influence on the destinies of his country.
However agreeable to the temper of the age and to the
spirit of the nation, the influence of Philip was not of a
kind favourable to romance, or to the development of such

^ Hartzenbusch tells us, in a note on this subject in his larger edition, that
he once had a female servant, a native of Argamasilla, who used to assure him
in all seriousness that on an altar of the church in her village there was painted
a picture of Don Quixote. Enrique de Cisneros, in an article in the Re-vista
Espanola, November, 1869, gives a full account of the tradition and of the evidence
on which it rests. What is certain is that at this day it is the common belief of
the inhabitants of Argamasilla that Don Quixote, an ingenious gentleman of
quality, was their townsman. Cervantes himself is less spoken of. Against this
may be set the story of that more advanced Spanish gentleman who gravely
assured a friend of Jarvis, the translator, that " Cervantes was a wag, his whole
book mere fiction, and that there never was such a person as Don Quixote."
(Translator's preface in Jarvis' original edition).

126

In La Mancha

gifts as Cervantes possessed. In this place, we are concerned
only with Philip as the all-powerful sovereign under whom
our hero had to fight the battle of life in the prime of his
manhood. Prudent or pious or great as he might be, he
was not such a king as Cervantes, good Spaniard as he was,
could be supposed entirely to approve — a king according to
the chivalric pattern of some of the old Castilian kings, his
ancestors. To a soul filled with ideals of the old chivalry
we cannot conceive of a rule or a ruler more antipathetic than
such as Spain enjoyed during the latter half of the sixteenth
century. It is necessary to dwell the more on this point
seeing that the native critics and biographers, even down to
our days, moved by an exaggerated spirit of patriotism, are
in a conspiracy to disguise or to distort the relations of the
Prince of Wits to the monarch whom he served so faith-
fully, whether as soldier, sailor, or commissary. That
Cervantes was other than a good Spaniard and a sound
Catholic, in an age when those two characters were synony-
mous, no one will presume to affirm. That he had any love
for a dispensation under which his faith and service had
been scorned, which was so alien to his own nature, which
had crushed out the romance of his life, and extinguished
all those glowing dreams of chivalry enkindled at Lepanto —
was hardly to be expected of human nature. It was im-
possible that Cervantes could have any sympathy with a
ruler who was in himself the very antithesis of romance —
the opposite of all true chivalry — whose mission on earth
seems to have been to extinguish all that was left of the old
heroic spirit of Castile. There is reason to believe that
Cervantes, like other good Spaniards who were nothing less
than loyal and patriotic, hailed the decease of Philip II. as
the close of a dark night and the accession of his son as
the promise of a fair dawn. What is material to my present
theme is to insist that Cervantes could hardly have won the
place he has done in the world's regard had he lived all his

127

Cervantes chap.

life a subject of Philip II. This is not to maintain the
theory which some have maintained, in Spain and elsewhere,
that Cervantes was moved, at any time of his life, to shine
as a political or a social reformer. He was essentially a man
of letters, seeking — at least in the latter portion of his life,
after the collapse of his early dream of soldiership — no other
distinction than by his books. He was content to take the
world as he found it, and was oppressed by no sense of " a
mission." Like our own Shakspeare, whom he resembled
in temper as in genius, he did not meddle with the world's
bettering, except as it came in the way of his art. And if
it is only by chance expressions, by side hints, and words of
double meaning, that Cervantes shows his mind about public
affairs in the time of Philip II., let us remember that it was
an age when a man could hardly speak the thing he would —
that the Inquisition was in full blast, and its spies and in-
formers everywhere, as we have seen in the course of Cer-
vantes' story already. Yet there are evidences, positive and
negative, in Cervantes' works from which we may safely
infer that he did not approve of the character and system of
Philip II. In the first place, in an age when it was the
custom in every printed book for the author to pour out a
stream of eulogy on the reigning monarch, to laud his
wisdom and might, and especially his singular prudence
and magnanimity, Cervantes seems deliberately to have
avoided doing so. Even the cautious Clemencin, the
great Spanish commentator, who is nothing if not ortho-
dox, is forced to admit that all Cervantes' references to
Philip are ironical or have a double meaning.^ In the
Numancia^ in the passage where he was led to speak of the
King, he calls Philip segundo sin segundo — a poor pun,
which may be taken either way. In Don ^ixote^ where
Charles V. is several times praised with enthusiasm, Philip
receives no other notice than once as nuestro buen rey —

^ See Clemencin's Don Quixote, vol. ii. p, 290.
128

In La Mancha

"our good King" — a phrase more contemptuous than
complimentary.

The final and I think positive proof of Cervantes' feelings
towards Philip II. is afforded by the satirical sonnet before
mentioned, written on the occasion of the funeral monument
to the dead King at Seville. Allowing for some humorous
exaggeration, Cervantes' reference to this piece of verse in
after years in the Voyage to Parnassus^ where he calls it " the
principal glory of my writings " [honra principal de mis
escritos)y would be a ridiculous exaggeration if one could
suppose that the author was speaking of the literary merits
of the poem. There can be little doubt that Cervantes
meant us to infer that for this elfusion he took special credit
because therein he gave voice to what was in the heart of
the people on the death of the King.

There is evidence enough, as I hold, in Cervantes' life
and works to prove that he regarded the opening of a new
reign as full of hope both for himself and his country.
Whether or not this hope was justified, at least the dawn of
a new era seems to have quickened his powers and given
him new inspiration. Under Philip II. we can scarcely
conceive of Don fixate as possible. It could hardly have
been written ; and if written, could not have been published.

129

CHAPTER XI

* Don fixate '

The accession of the new King, which had been hailed as
" the light after darkness," had little effect on Cervantes'
fortunes. Philip III., though he had some taste for letters
and was not without sprouts of kindliness in his heart, had
been by education and by an over-strict regimen in youth
debased, so that he was even more completely a slave to
the priestly influence than his father had been, without any
of his father's ability or force of character. The Duke of
Lerma was " the Atlas who bore the burden of the mon-
archy."^ He was a man, according to Quevedo, "alluring
and dexterous rather than intelligent ; ruled by the interested
cunning of his own creatures but imperious vvith all others ;
magnificent, ostentatious ; choosing his men only by con-
siderations of his own special policy or from personal friend-
ship." Under such a man, who ruled the King at his will,
it was not likely that any portion of the Royal benevolence
should light on Miguel de Cervantes.^ Moreover, the
crowd of suppliants at Court was very great, their appetite

^ The phrase was probably used by Cervantes in irony. It had been used
by others before, and was a common form.

- I cannot understand what Mr. Froude meant when, in his Life of Erasmus
(p. 73), speaking of the world's debt to the patrons of literature, he wrote,
" without the Duke of Lerma we should have had no Don ^^uixote." There is
no proof whatever that the Duke of Lerma ever did anything to help Don
fixate or its author.

130

CHAP. I I

'Don Qi^ixote'

stimulated doubtless by the flattering reports ot the new-
King's liberal disposition.

A contemporary writer laments with pathetic zeal and
pious indignation the lot of many famous captains and valiant
soldiers, who, after serving the King all their lives and being
riddled with wounds, were not only pushed aside into corners
without any reward, but condemned to see unworthy men
without merit loaded with benefits, merely through enjoying
the favour of some Minister or courtier.^ The Duke of
Lerma, as one who professed a contempt for all letters and
learning, was even less likely to be influenced by Cervantes'
literary merits than by his services as a soldier, — services
which had now become an old story. Disappointed in his
hopes of preferment, Cervantes had to maintain himself and
his family by the exercise of his pen, — writing, as we learn,
letters and memorials for those who needed them,^ while
busy upon his new book.

Without the gifts which are in favour at Court — unskilled
in the arts of solicitation — we can imagine, with a man of
Cervantes' temperament, what a special hell it must have
been — " in suing long to bide." About this time he seems
almost to have dropped out of life. The four years between
1598 and 1602 are the obscurest in his story. We do not
know where he lived or what he did. It was the crisis of
the struggle with his unrelenting evil destiny. The pre-
sumption is that he was still in the south, engaged in his
humble occupation of gathering rents, of buying grain for
the use of the fleet, with intervals perhaps of social enjoy-
ment among such friends as he had made at Seville ; among
whom is reckoned the painter Francisco de Pacheco. This
was for our hero the darkest hour before the dawn. For
already, according to my calculation, he must have begun

^ Fr. Sepulveda, quoted by Navarrete, p. 98.

' And " employed in various agencies and businesses," says Navarrete, vaguely
(P- 99)-

'31

Cervantes chap.

to write Don ^iixote, being now (1602) in his fifty-fifth
year.^ He had duly qualified himself, by personal experience^
to tell the story of the adventures of him who sought to
revive the spirit of the ancient chivalry. His own romance
was ended. The pathetic lines of Goethe might seem to be
written for his own case : —

Wcr nie scin Brod mit Thranen ass,

Wer nicht die kummervollen Nachte
Auf seinem Bette weinend sass,

Dcr kcnnt cuch nicht, ihr himmlischen Machte.^

Never had any man of letters to go through a severer
ordeal. At last his genius found the true path for which
it had been beating about so many years ; but not until
his prime of life had passed, when even that brave heart
must have been chilled and that gay spirit deadened.

In 1601, Philip HI., at the instance of the Duke of
Lerma, removed the Court to the old capital of Castile,.
Valladolid — by nature far better situated for a metropolis
than Madrid, which had been the choice of his grandfather,,
Charles V. Thither Cervantes repaired, in 1603, doubtless
with some hope of gleaning some crumbs of the Royal favour..
He was no more fortunate with the new King than he had
been with the old. Despairing of place or patronage, he
turned, with his brave spirit unquenched as by the record

^ That Don fixate could not have been written before 1591, is proved by
the mention in chapter vi. of a book published in that year. That it must have
been written subsequently to 1596 is proved by the reference in chapter xix. to
an incident which was not ended till September, 1596 (see Navarrete, p. 79).
There are other hints and allusions in the story which, I think, show that it
could scarcely have been begun while Philip II. was alive.

2 From JVilhelm Meister, LeAyJa/ire, ch. xii., thus Englished by Thomas

Carlyk :—

Who never ate his bread in sorrow,

Who never spent the darksome hours
Weeping and watching for the morrow.
He knew you not, ye unseen Powers.
132

'Don Oiiixote'

sufficiently appears, to completing this new thing among
books.

Don Quixote was probably finished by the beginning of
1604, though some further time elapsed, as it seems, before
the author had courage to go to print. His genius had lain
fallow for twenty years. He was now old, and had written
nothing, or at least published nothing, since Galatea. What
fame was left to him he had earned as a poet among many
poets. As an author, if he was remembered at all, it was
in a line wholly different from that which he now essayed.
There is reason to believe that the manuscript of the new
book was in circulation among those who called themselves
the author's friends, as was the custom of the age, before he
found a patron and a publisher.^ The publisher was got
at last in Francisco Robles, the King's printer, to whom
the copyright was sold for ten years.^ The patron appeared
in the person of the Duque de Bejar, a nobleman described
by a writer of that age — Cristobal de Mesa — as himself
both a poet and a valiant soldier. The choice was not
altogether a happy one, for the Duke of Bejar might be
said to have an ancestral claim to be regarded as a patron
of books of chivalries. It was to his great-grandfather that
one of the silliest and most extravagant of the romances had
been dedicated by the author, Feliciano de Silva, who is the
writer specially ridiculed by Cervantes — the very book which
is the subject of a parody in the opening chapter of Don

^ There are two curious pieces of evidence in proof that Don S^uixote was
known before it was printed. In the first edition of the Picara Juitina, com-
posed by Francisco de Ubeda, — the licence to print which is dated August, 1604,
— there are some truncated verses, like those in the beginning of Don fixate,
in which Don ^ixcte is mentioned by name as already famous {Catdlogo de
Saha, vol. ii. p. 157). Also in a private letter from Lope de Vega to his
patron, the Duke of Sessa, there is a malignant allusion to Cervantes, speaking
of poets. "There is none so bad as Cervantes, and none so foolish as to praise
Don ^ixote." The letter is dated 4th August, 1604.

* That seems to have been the usual period for which a book was licensed in
that age. The sum which Cervantes received for his copyright is not recorded.

Cervantes chap.

^dxote.^ The Duke of Bejar was noted, moreover, for
his own uncommon affection for the books of chivalries
then in fashion, and it is probable that he at first under-
stood Don ^uxote to be one such as he was in the habit
of reading. Learning of his mistake, he refused, it is
said, the dedication, and withdrew his patronage from the
author. Then, according to the pleasant story first told by
Vicente de los Rios, was enacted that scene which has
been so favourite a subject with modern artists. Cervantes
begged of the Duke to give him a hearing before deciding
against his book ; upon which he was permitted to read a
chapter, which the Duke found so much to his taste that
he graciously re -admitted the author into his favour, and
consented to receive the dedication. There is another
tradition which imputes to the Duke's confessor — an
ecclesiastic who must have had a keener nose for heterodoxy
than most of his fellows — the original rejection of the
dedication by the Duke, the alteration in its wording, and
the subsequent neglect of the author.- The Dedication which
now does duty at the opening of the First Part of Don
^ixote^ I have shown to have been tampered with by
some one bearing no good will to Cervantes. ,

The privilege of publication is dated the 26th of
September, and the Tasa^ the 20th of December, 1604.
The book itself, the First Part of Don ^ixote (it was not
so called in the first edition, of course), was printed by Juan
de la Cuesta during 1604, and published at Madrid in January,
1605.^ The impression was very carelessly made, and swarms

1 The Third Part of Don Florise! de Niquea was dedicated to a former Duque
de Bcjar. See Salva's Cala/ogo, vol. ii. p. 14.

2 Cervantes is supposed to reflect on this meddlesome ecclesiastic in Part II.
ch. xxxi. of Don S^uixote, where there is a passage against those of the religious
profession who " govern the houses of Princes," written with a bitterness most
unusual in our author.

2 Those who are fond of dwelling on coincidences may find one here of
singular interest. The year during which Don S^uixote was being printed was

'Don Quixote'

with blunders, typographical and otherwise, showing that it
was not corrected or revised by the author. The press-work,
however, is quite equal in execution to that of most books of
that age.

The reception which Don Quixote met with on its first
appearance was cordial beyond all precedent, and such as
must have convinced the author, who was evidently doubtful
of his new experiment, that here at last his genius had found
its true field of exercise. The persons of culture, indeed,
received the book coldly. The half-learned sneered at the
title as absurd and at the style as vulgar. Who was this
ingenio lego — this lay, unlearned wit — "a poor Latin-less
author," which is what they said of Shakspeare — outside of
the cultos proper, of no university education — who had dared
to parody the tastes of the higher circles ? The envy and
malice of all his rivals — especially of those who found
themselves included in the satire — even the great Lope
himself, the Phoenix of his age, then at the height of his
glory — spoke out, with open mouth, against the author.
The chorus of dispraise was swelled by all those, persons
chiefly of high station, whose fashion of reading had been
ridiculed. A book, professing to be of entertainment, in
which Knights and Knightly exercises were made a jest of,
— in which peasants, innkeepers, muleteers, and other vulgar
people spoke their own language and behaved after their
own fashion, — was a daring innovation, all the more offensive
because the laugh was directed at what was felt to be a
national infirmity. Who was the bold man who, being
neither courtier nor ecclesiastic, made sport for the world
out of the weaknesses of caballeros? An old soldier of

also the year in which, according to the best authorities, Shakspeare was
producing his perfected Hamkt. The two noblest works of human wit, their
subjects bearing a curious affinity one to another, each the story of a mind
disordered by the burden of setting the world right, were thus born in the same
year.

Cervantes chap.

Lepanto, indeed ! Lepanto was a name outworn. Spain
was now in a new world. Crusades against the unbeliever,
even those more popular ones which combined the saving
of souls with the getting of gold, were long out of fashion.
Lastly, the entire ecclesiastical body — the formidable phalanx
of the endowed, with their patrons, dependants, and dupes —
though they were too dull to perceive and too dense to feel
the shafts aimed at obscurantism and superstition, had some-
thing more than a suspicion that this book called Don fixate
was a book to be discouraged.

In spite of the frowns and sneers of the quality, however,
and the ill-concealed disgust of the learned, Don ^ixote was
received with unbounded applause by the common people.^
Those best critics in every age and country, the honest
readers, who were neither bourgeois nor genteel, neither
learned nor ignorant, welcomed the book with a joyous
enthusiasm, as a wholly new delight and source of enter-
tainment. Nothing like it had ever appeared before. It
was an epoch-marking book, if ever there was one.

The proud and happy author himself spoke of his success
with a frank complacency which, in any other man, would
savour of vanity. Some seven or eight editions of Don
fixate are supposed to have been printed in the first year,
of which six are now extant, — two of Madrid, two of Lisbon,

1 Con general aplauso de las gentes — he says in the Second Part of Don Sluixote,
speaking through the mouth of the Duchess. The legend, revived in the
present age, that Don Sijjixoie hung fire on the first publication, and that the
author wrote anonymously a tract called El Buscapk' (The Search-Foot), in order
to explain his story and its object, rests only upon the evidence of one Ruidiaz,
and is contradicted by all the facts of the case. No such aid was necessary to
push the sale of the book, whose purpose had been sufficiently explained by the
author in his preface. The so-called Buicaple, published in 1848 by Adolfo de
Castro, is an impudent forgery, which has imposed upon no one. It is the
composition of Sefior de Castro himself, who is & farceur, of some wit and more
effrontery. Ticknor is even too serious in the attention which he bestows on
Senor de Castro and his work, which an English publisher has thought worthy
of a translation.

136

'Don Quixote'

and two of Valencia.^ The number of copies issued from
the press in one year was probably in excess of the number
reached by any book since the invention of printing.^ But
though all Spain talked of Don Quixote and read Don
fixate ; and though the book brought him much fame,
some consolation, and a few good friends, it does not appear
to have helped to mend the fortunes of Cervantes in any
material degree. In accordance with the usual dispensation,
the author derived the least benefit from his success.
Francisco Robles and Juan de la Cuesta, doubtless, made a
good thing of it ; but to Miguel de Cervantes there must
have come but a small share of the profit. The laws of
copyright were, in that age, little regarded ; and it may be
questioned whether, in a book published in Madrid, they
could be enforced outside of Castile. The pirates and the
wreckers were busy upon Don ^ixote from its very earliest
appearance ; and its quick and plentiful reproduction in all
the chief cities, not only of Spain but of the outside Spanish
dominions, though highly flattering to the author, could not
have greatly helped to lighten his life of toil and penury.

Taking the object of Don Quixote to be, what Cervantes
declared it, — "the causing of the false and silly books of
chivalries to be abhorred by mankind," — no book was ever
so successful. The doughtiest Knight of romance never
achieved an adventure so stupendous as that which Miguel
de Cervantes undertook and accomplished. With his pen,

^ Senor Gayangos is of opinion that there were other editions of 1605 which
have wholly perished j one probably at Barcelona, the press of which city was
very active in that year ; one at Pamplona, and probably one at Zaragoza, which
were capitals of old kingdoms. See also Serior Asensio's letter to the Ateneo,
No. 23, p. 296 ; and the Bibliography of Don Slu'txote at the end of this volume.

* The ordinary obrada, or impression, of a book at this period, I am told by
Senor Gayangos, — and there can be no better authority, — was 250 copies. But
in the case of a popular book like Don S^uixote the impression would be larger —
probably 500 copies. Supposing eight editions to have been issued in 1605,
there would thus have been printed 4000 copies in the first year — a number
unprecedently large in an age when readers were few and books a luxury.

Cervantes chap.

keener than the lance of Esplandian or Felixmarte, he slew
the whole herd of puissant cavaliers, of very valiant and
accomplished lovers. Before him went down the Florisandros
and Florisels, the Lisuartes and Lepolemos, the Primaleons
and the Polindos, and the whole brood of the invincible.
Scarcely a single romance was printed, and not one was
written, after the date of the publication of Don Quixote}
Such a revolution in taste was never accomplished by any
single writer, in any age or country.

A i&^ words only are here needed, in the discussion of
that question which has occupied so largely the ingenuity
of writers, native and foreign, as to what was the object
of Cervantes in writing Don Quixote. There are those
who insist upon seeking in every work of humour or of
wit, some meaning other and deeper than in the book
appears, as though it were impossible that an author should
be disinterested, or write merely out of the fulness of
his heart or pride in his work. With Cervantes' own
declaration, more than once repeated, of the purpose of his
book, the critics will not be content. So good a book must
have had a better reason for being than Cervantes' dislike of
the fantastic books of the later chivalry. WJio then was
the man — the original of Don Quixote ? Against whom was
the satire levelled ? Of course nothing was then known to
the world outside of poor Don Rodrigo de Pacheco, the
Argamasillan hidalgo. Some great man Cer\'antes must have
intended to ridicule. It was Charles the Fifth, said some.
It was his son Philip, cried others — ignoring the absurdity
of the Prudent one losing his wits through excessive reading
of romances. It was the Duke of Lerma — or the Duke
of Osuna — or some other great man, or Cervantes' wife's

^ The last book of the kind written before Don fixate, according to
Clemencin, was Policisne de Boecia, published in 1602 5 but La Toledana Discreta,
which is a romantic poem in otta-va rima, was published in 1604, and a few
chap-books and religious romances, of the slighter kind, afterwards.

^Don Quixote'

cousin, who opposed his marriage with Catalina. It was
Ignatius Loyola — our own countryman, the good John
Bowie, suggested.

Surely these various theories are a little far-fetched, and
not a little grotesque and absurd. What there is in either of
the two Spanish monarchs to liken him to the Knight of La
Mancha it is difficult to see. Those who have looked upon
that wonderful equestrian picture of Titian's in the Museo at
Madrid, with its weird, weary, far-ofF expression, are irre-
sistibly led to think of Don Quixote j but the converse is
by no means so clear, that on looking at Don Quixote we
are tempted to think of that most unromantic of monarchs,
Carlos Quinto.^ His son is still more unlike his supposed
portrait. As to the Duke of Lerma, they who can believe,
on the faith of the cock-and-bull stories told by the Abbe
Lenglet du Fresnoy and the Jesuit Rapin, that Cervantes
satirised the all-powerful Minister in revenge for personal
injuries suffered at his hands, may be consigned to the same
limbo with the believers in the Bacon-Shakspeare. The
theory about Loyola, first mooted by Bowie, the English
commentator, is of all perhaps not the least absurd. The
one shred by which it hangs is a passage in Don Quixote
where the angry Biscayan, the adversary of Don Quixote, is
made a native of Azpeitia — this being the name of the obscure
village where Loyola was born.

A sufficient answer to all these theories is that contained
in the book itself. Surely no one has read Don ^ixote
with profit to himself who has been unable to see that the
hero is not one whom the author desired to revile or to
malign. Never was a satire like this, which leaves us full

' The question is re-opened in the Esfana Moderna (1894), by my good friend
Asensio, who quotes from one of the histories of Charles V. how that as a youth
he would draw his sword and lay about him at the figures in the tapestry, and how
once he was discovered teasing a cageil lion with a stick. This is slender material
on which to base the theory of Charles V. being the original of Don Quixote.

Cervantes

CHAP. I I

of love and sympathy for the object. And why cannot we
beHeve the author when he avers that never did his humble
pen stoop to satire ? ^ He meant, of course, the satire of
persons as distinguished from the reprehension and the
ridicule of human follies and general vices. As a lampoon,
Don fixate could hardly have endured to this day. The
spirit which has given it eternal life is love, and not hate.

^ Nunca volo la humilde pluma mia
Por la region satirica.

— Viaje del Parnaso, canto iv.

140

CHAPTER XII

TTie Romances of Chivalry

To estimate the worth of the senace performed by Cer-
vantes, — not in abolishing romance, as has been absurdly-
said, still less in discrediting chivalry, as with even a more
perverse misconception of his purpose has been suggested,^
but in purging books of fiction of their grossness and their
extravagance, and restoring romance to truth and to nature,
— we have to consider the enormous influence exercised by
this pernicious literature over the minds of the people of
Spain in the sixteenth century. Thoroughly to deal with
even the bibliography of the romances called of chivalry is
not practicable within the limits of this volume, nor is it
necessary for the purpose of understanding Cervantes' object
in writing Don Quixote. I must be content with a brief
sketch of the extent to which the reading of "books of
chivalries " prevailed in Spain, and its effects upon public
taste and morals. At what precise period the chivalric
romance had its origin in Europe is an enquiry which need
not occupy me here. The class of books we have specially
to consider I hold to be essentially of Spanish growth, owing
nothing except the germs ot some of the stories and a few

1 Byron's oft-quoted line about Cervantes having " laughed Spain's chivalry
away," may be paired off for extravagance if not for wit with Montesquieu's
remark that "the Spaniards have but one book, — that which has made all the
others ridiculous." There was little chivalry left in Spain to laugh away ; and
Cervantes, of all Spaniards, was the man least likely to aid in laughing it away.

141

Cervantes chap.

names of heroes and of places to the romances of Northern
Europe, of Gothic or of Gaelic origin. The idea of
Warton that the romances are of Arabic or Eastern descent
may be summarily dismissed. There is nothing in the
literature of the East in the least like these stories, nor has
any one ever succeeded in tracing any of the Western tales
of adventure to an Eastern source. Some of the inventions,
the apparatus, the furniture of the romances are, of course,
the common property of mankind. As Hobbes observes,
"impenetrable armour, enchanted castles, invulnerable bodies,
iron men, flying horses, and other such things are easily
feigned by them that dare." The East had its heroes and
its romances — its tales of love, of war, and adventure — but
they are wholly distinct from the parallel inventions of
Western Europe. Rustem and Antar and Hatim belong
to a different order of beings from Amadis and Lancelot and
Tristan. At the root of Western Romance is the spirit of
chivalry — the spirit, of which the exaltation of woman was
the essence — an idea repugnant to the Oriental mind, and
alien to all Moslem sentiment. Chivalry, as an institution,
was a product of an order of society such as could not exist
except where there was freedom of intercourse between the
sexes. It was necessarily evolved from the more or less
artificial life which was led by men and women in mediaeval
Europe. The principle of honour, on which chivalry was
founded, was the salt which kept society sweet in an age
darkened by ignorance and soured by superstition.

The spirit of chivalry, in its purest form, was an emana-
tion from the inner soul of humanity and a force in the
development of civilisation of which the power and the
value have scarcely been duly estimated. Its essence was
unselfishness — the subordination of personal gain to abstract
right — the exaltation of love and honour. Chivalry gave to
men whom religion repelled a faith and a standard of life.
They who believed in nothing else, believed in "God and

142

Romances of Chivalry

my Lady." In a dark age this was the one light which
gave hope to the despairing and a promise of the dawn.
The love which inspired the knight to good deeds was in
itself a religion, which kept his heart pure. The devotion
was often fantastical, but at least it implied sensibility and
selflessness, and lifted the spirit from the grosser passions
of the flesh. The true knights were bound to be —

Bounteous, merciful.

Truth-speaking, brave, good livers.

Their valour might have been over-cultivated, but it was a
virtue which was the faithful mother of other virtues — of
courtesy, generosity, self-restraint, and chastity. The duties
to which the knight was vowed were such as included all the
noblest virtues of the age :—

To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,

To love one maiden only, cleave to her.
And worship her by years of noble deeds.

What if the faith was not always pure and sometimes
carried to excess. There would have been none at all, had
that been absent. Chivalry was the sweetener of life — the
leaven of humanity. Dark indeed were the Middle Ages but
for this kindling influence, and dismal their record. History
without a Black Prince and a Du Guesclin, a Bayard and a
Godfrey de Bouillon, had been a barren chronicle.

Even for the Knight Errant, the monstrous growth of
a later age, there is much to be said. He was a little
clamorous in the assertion of his mistress's charms, and too
intolerant of men of the larger growth. He wandered too
extravagantly, and fought too wantonly. He made as many
widows as he succoured, and never wanted orphans to
relieve. But though incontinent of love as of blood, he
was honest in his devotion, and served his lady purely as

Cervantes chap.

did Don fixate his Dulcinea. Though a free lance he
was no mercenary. Empires fell to his puissant arm, but it
was not for greed of territory that he fought, nor in winning
islands did he look to a commercial return.

South of the Pyrenees chivalry lingered long after its
spirit had fled from Western Europe. Even in the grotesque
formulas of the Paso Honroso we can trace, in the scrupu-
lous gravity with which the duties of the jousters are laid
down and in the honourable courtesy which pervades the
whole function, the influence of what was still a lofty
and ennobling institution. A century after our English
Chaucer had mocked at the knightly gestours in his
7^7/1? of Sir Thopasj which the Host cut short as a " drasty
rime," the order and calling of knights were at the height
of their glory and popularity in Spain — even invested with
a new dignity which it derived from the soil. Imported, as an
institution, from abroad, and enormously developed in the
fifteenth century, in respect to its usages, ordinances, and
furniture, by the entrance into the Spanish arena of the two
rival bodies of knights adventurers under their respective
champions Prince Edward of England and Bertrand du
Guesclin, in no country did chivalry take root so kindly or
flourish so luxuriantly as in Spain. The ceaseless wars with
the Moors had trained the whole manhood of the nation to
soldiership. The trade of fighting was famiHar to every man
of good birth, so that the word for knight [caballero) came to
be synonymous with that for gentle?nan. The constant
exercise in arms made of chivalry, in Spain, a more solemn
and serious calling than elsewhere. As a native writer says,
with equal point and spirit, there was developed by the
chronic war with the Moor a caballerismo (there is none but
a Spanish word for a quality purely indigenous) essentially
distinct fi-om the gay, fantastic chivalry of the North. It
extended to all classes of the people. It was not confined to
the aristocracy. "Every Spaniard was a warrior, every

144

Romances of Chivalry

warrior a noble, and every noble a Knight of his country." ^
They had not to go far to seek for adventures. They had the
Paynim at home : Mahound and Termagaunt were at their
doors. There was a constant supply at hand of men of the
wrong faith and alien habits — the delight in fighting whom
was enhanced by the fact that they equally were possessed
of the chivalric fervour, and, though Moors and misbelievers,
gentlemen still and cavaliers.^ The long and desperate
struggle for existence evolved the highest qualities of the
race. And small wonder it was that out of that fruitful soil
which had grown the Cid and the warriors of the heroic age
(who should be rightly classed as pre-chivalric) there sprung
up that ranker produce, the Knights Errant. Of these, the
seekers after adventure, the Bohemians of the Knightly
order, Spain, as her native historians boast, was the teeming
mother. No other country in that age, or in the previous
one, could show the world such a scene as that gravely
enacted before King Juan II. and his Court, when eighty
Knights ran a-tilt with each other, and incurred serious loss
of limb and permanent injury to their persons, in order that one
of them might fulfil a fantastic vow made to his mistress.^

Knight Errantry, which was a caprice in France and in
England, in Spain was a calling. No other country could
afFord such a field for it, and to no other society was it so
well suited. The grave and wise Fernando de Pulgar, the
counsellor and chronicler of Ferdinand and Isabella, speaks
with complacency of the noblemen he knew who had gone
into foreign countries in search of adventures, "so as to
gain honour for themselves, and the fame of valiant and

^ See the eloquent and judicious prologue to hia Romancero General by Don
Agustin Duran.

^ Caballeros Granadinos,
Aunque Moros, hijos d'algo.
* See the account of the Paso Honroso, held at the instance of Suero de
Quinoncs, before Juan II., in 1434, at the bridge of Orbigo, near Leon, which is
contained in Appendix D, vol. i., of my translation of Don fixate,

145 10

Cervantes chap.

hardy knights for the gentlemen of Castile," — boasting that
there were more Spanish Knights of the errant sort than
of any other nation.

The romance of chivalry was the natural growth of this
fashion of Knight Errantry ; and, like its parent, it flourished
nowhere so luxuriantly as in Spain. Amadis of Gaul and
Belianis of Greece are, in fact, as much " racy of the soil "
as Don fixate itself. The theory much favoured by
French writers, who see French influence in all that dis-
plays imagination, that the romance of chivalry had its origin
in France, may be true of most, but is certainly not true of
Arnadis and his race. M. Baret, who maintains- — " c'est La
France qui a fourni le canevas sur lequel le genie Castillan a
brode le riche tissu qui a si longtemps charme I'Europe,"
has himself contributed the evidence by which to refute that
position.^ The Amadis and its compeers (excluding the
books of Provencal birth, such as Tirant lo Blanch') have
little in common with the Armorican or Norman legends.
No one can compare them with the romances of the
Sangreal and the Round Table without being struck with
their essential difi^erence, not only in style but in tone and
in spirit. There is no doubt that the Breton romances were
known in the Peninsula long before any of native growth
made their appearance. In the Amadis itself there are
allusions to the characters in the older books. Arthur
himself is mentioned- — el muy virtuoso rey Artur? The

^ De U Amadis de Gaule et de son Influence, par Eugene Baret, 1853 — a work of
much intelligence, to which recent Spanish critics have been more indebted than
they have cared to acknowledge. M. Baret's main thesis is that Amadis of Gaul
came into Spain in the suite of the literature of Provence, — a position which, I
think, cannot be maintained. The Amadis is of a character essentially distinct
from any work of Provencal origin.

^ Amadis de Gaula, bk. i. ch. i. In the Fourth Book there is mention of the
king " Uterpadragon," father of Arthur, of " Tristan de Leonis," and of " Mares
de Cornualla," — but only in a very casual way, showing that the writer had
heard of these worthies, and not indicating any kind of connexion between them
and the subject of his own story.

146

Romances of Chivalry

names of Lancelot and Tristan occur, and the Tabla Redonda
is frequently referred to as the pattern of chivalry. But the
spirit of Amadis is as distinct from the spirit of the Mort
^Arthur as one book can differ from another, both relating
to knightly adventures. The Amadis — I speak of the later
and more highly developed A?nadis^ formed upon an older
story dating back to a century earlier ^ — which is of the highest
and purest type of the Spanish romance, introduces us to a
w^orld entirely strange — as unlike that of Arthur and Lancelot
as Lyonnesse is unlike Trapisonda. The hero himself is
cast in a more refined and elaborate mould than any of the
Arthurian heroes. He has sensibility, tenderness, culture,
and even virtue. As the perfect knight, the model man-at-
arms, he is a far higher conception than Lancelot or any of
the rough and tumble heroes of the British school. The
scenes in which he moves are drawn with a more skilful
hand ; the society is more highly developed, more civilised,
and on the whole more moral than that to which we are
introduced in the French books. In the history of Amadis
itself (composed, as by internal evidence is proved, out of old
materials in the early years of Ferdinand and Isabella) there
is no coarse word and no lewd idea, though much freedom of
morals and much simplicity. As for its literary merit. Sir
Walter Scott, who should be no mean judge, thought it "a
well-conducted story." Mr. Ticknor, who is not wont to be
enthusiastic in these matters, praises it for its " lofty tone that
rises to eloquence "■ — for its " earnestness and truth." Tasso
called it "the most beautiful as well as the most profitable

^ The bibliography of the Amadis and the other romances is given at length in
the first volume of my translation of Don S^uixote (Appendix A). I may here
repeat that there was an old Amadis, existing before the middle of the fourteenth
century in some rude form (now lost), which was expanded, refined, and enlarged
by Garci Ordoiiez de Montalvo at a date, as appears from his preface, posterior
to 1492, and first printed before the close of the fifteenth century. The earliest
extant edition is of Zaragoza, 1508. It is of the newer Amadis that Cervantes
speaks.

Cervantes

CHAP.

Story of the kind that can be read." Compared with any of
the romances of that age, or of the age succeeding, to the
work of Garci Ordonez de Montalvo must be assigned a
very high place. The Ainadis is an interesting story that
may even now be read, after all the modern romances and
tales of adventure. The characters are drawn with a certain
skill and fidelity to nature. The situations are, many of
them, highly dramatic, and are not constructed but come
about naturally. The scenes, such as that between the
Child of the Sea (the youthful Amadis) and the fair Oriana,
in the first book, when they became aware of their loves ;
the interview between the lovers, after Amadis is acknow-
ledged son of Perion, King of Gaul ; the scene between the
mother and the daughter in the third book ; and several
others, are natural and pathetic, told with a simplicity and
dignity of language such as are not too common in romance.
What story of the fifteenth or sixteenth century can we
set before Amadis de Gaula ? It is not only the best in its
kind, but vastly better than the tedious and artificial
romances of the age succeeding — the interminable produc-
tions of Gomberville, Calprenede, and Madame de Scudery.
It is long J but so are many good books. The hero fights
too often and wins too certainly. But it is very good
fighting, which cannot be said of some modern attempts in
that kind. The killing is done by none of your amateur
butchers, — delicate baronets, and sham Highland chieftains, —
but by those who understand their business, writing for those
who knew what real slaughter was as distinguished from
the literary and mechanical. There is a monotony in the
hero's unvaried triumphs, but so there is in the exploits of
Achilles and the god-protected heroes of Homer. After all,
very few romances have been written, from that time to
this, so worthy of that name, so pure in spirit, so noble in
sentiment, as Amadis of Gaul. As a mirror of the age, when
the spirit of chivalry was a real and a living influence, when

148

Romances of Chivalry

a belief in giants and magicians was a part of the national
religion, when to worship one's mistress and to insist upon
her pre-eminence in beauty and virtue was the duty of every
well-born gentleman, — nothing which has been written in
any tongue is superior to Amadh of Gaul ; to which we
have only to add the opinion of that consummate master of
romance, who was so deeply versed in all the literature of
chivalry, Miguel de Cervantes himself — that it is "unique
in art and the best of all the books which have been composed
in that kind."

The kind was infinite ; for Amadis had a numerous
and prolific progeny. It is enough in this place to say that,
from the first to the last, covering a period of nearly two
hundred years, there were produced in Spain alone over
seventy romances of chivalry ; this one fact alone testifying
to the enormous hold which this species of literature had
taken of the national mind.^ Of the extent to which the
popular morals as well as the popular taste were corrupted by
this kind of reading (it being understood that the successors
of Amadh departed very widely from their ancestor in morals
as in manners), we have abundant testimony. Among
other famous writers who declaimed against the evil caused
by the books of chivalries were Luis Vives, Alejo Venegas,
Diego Gracian, Melchior Cano, Fr. Luis de Granada, and
Arias Montano. Venegas tells us that " the reading of Books
of Chivalries was the sole entertainment of the country
people and persons of leisure, and the object of discussion to
the learned and intelligent men of the nation." Father
Passevin, a Jesuit, in 1593, ^^^ persuaded that the invention
was of the Devil, who had inspired the author of Amadis in
order to aid the revolt of Luther and to overturn the Catholic
religion. The Cortes and the Church inveighed strongly

^ See Appendix C for further notice of Amadh, \X.i genius and influence;
also the Bibliography of the Romances of Chivalry, in vol. i. of my translation
of Den a^uixole,

149

Cervantes chap.

against the pernicious literature, and edicts were more than
once passed for its suppression. The Emperor Charles V.,
in 1543, issued a decree prohibiting the printing or sale of
these books in the Indies. Yet Charles himself, we are
told, chose Belianis of Greece for his favourite reading. As
a last resource, the priests, unable to stem the flow of
knightly romance, attempted to give it a new direction by
writing religious books in imitation of those of chivalries.
Fr. Gabriel de Mata, in 1587, wrote of the exploits of St.
Francis of Assisi under the name of El Caballero Asisio. In
1554, Heronimo de San Pedro had composed The Celestial
Chivalry^ in which the same pious object was veiled under a
romantic name, and the Cavallero Peregrino Conquistador
del Cielo^ which brought down romance proper to the
humble level of the religious tract. All these laws and
these decrees and devices could not, however, wean the
people from their favourite passion. Long after chivalry
was dead, men continued to read Amadis^ and would read
nothing else. Of the grave and potent Diego Hurtado de
Mendoza, we are told that, when sent on an embassy to
Rome, he took with him, as his only reading, Amad'is of
Gaul and Celestina^ — finding them, it is added, more sub-
stantial than the Epistles of St. Paul.^ Even the sainted
Teresa, glory of Spanish piety, not only found much pleasure
and spent much time in reading these wicked books, but, it
is reported, wrote them herself.^ Of Loyola, also, it is told
that he formed his idea of a Christian order upon that of
chivalry. The learned and acute author of the Dialogo de la
Lengua^ lately identified as Juan Valdes the Reformer, speaks
of the ten years he wasted at Court, studying Florisando^

1 Francisco de Portugal, in his Arte de Galanteria, 1682, p. 71. This is not
saying much, perhaps, for the entertainment to be found in Amadis, but a good
deal for the taste of Mendoza — the author of La'zarillo de Tcrmes, and a prime
favourite with Cervantes.

2 See the Life of this most romantic and sentimental lady, — a female Quixote,
if ever there could be one, — written by Dr. Francisco de Ribera.

150

Romances of Chivalry

Lisuarte, and the rest.^ The characters, the incidents, the
names in Amadis were familiar in all men's mouths, and
found currency even out of Spain. The romance passed early
into France and England, and had a success throughout
Europe greater than had been won by any work of pure
Spanish origin since the invention of letters — a success only
inferior to that achieved by the book which in the next
century cast Amadis and all his tribe into oblivion. Elizabeth
of England was dubbed Oriana by the gallants of her Court,
who bandied compliments out of that "storehouse of elegant
inventions." Darioleta^ the confidante^ became a common
synonym for a go-between — surviving even to this day in
cookery as a cheese-cake. The farthest province of north-
west America was christened by the conquistadores by a
name out of Esplandian? And it is on record that Don
Guerau de Espes, Spanish ambassador in England in 1568,
was taken sharply to task by King Philip's Privy Council
for writing a letter " composed of fantasies " taken from
Amadis de Gaula to the Duke of Alva, in which the English
Queen is likened to Oriana, with other frivolities declared to
be " scandalous and malicious." ^

There were some simple or devout enough to take the
romance for a gospel, who believed in Amadis as much as
in any other hero or saint. In the Arte de Galanteria^
written by Francisco de Portugal about the close of the

^ In the Dialogo de la Lengua, first published by Mayans y Siscar in his
Origenes, 1737, as Dialogo de las Lenguas, and so generally cited. But Usoz y
Rio, in his recent edition of the works of this eminent Spanish Reformer
(published under the auspices of B. B. WifFen), has proved that, seeing the
subject was only the Spanish language, it should be Dialogo de la Lengua. It
was written in the first half of the sixteenth century, and is very valuable for its
just and acute remarks on the language. The style of Amadis is praised by
Valdes.

"^ California — which was an island inhabited by griffins and abounding in
precious stones [Esplandian, ch. Ivii.).

2 Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, 1569-71.

Cervantes

CHAP.

sixteenth century, it is mentioned that a Portuguese poet,
Simon de Silveira, once swore upon the Evangelists that he
believed the w^hole of Amadis to be true history. This is
capped by another story in the same book of \\o^ a certain
Knight came home from hunting and found his w^ife and
daughters dissolved in tears. Asking them w^hat w^as the
matter, — vi^hether any child or relation w^as dead, — they said
" No ; but Amadis is dead ! " They had come to the
174th chapter of Llsuarte of Greece^ w^here the old Amadis
finally dies.

The influence of the Palmer ins and of the Carlovingian
romances, u^hich form a class by themselves, vv^as scarcely
inferior to that of J?nadis. Pabnerin of England himself,
the patriarch of the family, — that " Palm of England," as
Cervantes calls him, — may be placed second to his rival in
merit. The difference in spirit is great between the two ;
for J?nadis really is, though in its present form of the
fifteenth, of the fourteenth century, when chivalry was
in its early prime ; and Pabnerin was not written till the
sixteenth century, when the true ideal of knighthood had
already been dimmed by the lust of gold-seeking and
religious adventure. Southey, perhaps, ranks Palmerin too
high in the literary scale by placing it on a level with Amadis^
and averring that he knew "no romance and no epic in
which suspense is so successfully kept up." Of their
successors, the long line of sons, grandsons, and nephews,
each more valiant and puissant than the last, it must be said
that they are as scant of beauty as of grace. In order to
keep up the interest of their readers, the authors of the
Primaleons and the Polindos, — the Florisels and the Floris-
andos, — were compelled to put in wonders on an ascending
scale ; to pile up adventure upon adventure ; to make the
dragons fiercer, the giants huger, the fighting more terrible,
and the slaughter more bloody. The popular appetite,
which craved for more and more excitement with every

152

12 Romances of Chivalry

successive stimulant, could only be fed by inventions so
monstrous that it is a w^onder the stomach of the readers of
romances of chivalry did not reject the nauseous aliment.
Yet there is no evidence of any decline in the production of
these books up to the date of the appearance of Don
fixate.

It was to do battle vi^ith this brood of fabled monsters,
against w^hom the pulpit and the parliament had preached
and legislated in vain, that Cervantes took up his pen. The
adventure was one reserved for his single arm ; and it was
achieved with a completeness of success such as must have
astonished our hero himself, as we know by many signs that
it disgusted and irritated many of his literary rivals. The
true nature of the service performed, as well as Cervantes'
motive in undertaking it, has been greatly misrepresented.
Nothing can be more certain than that his aim in Don
fixate was, primarily, to correct the prevailing false taste
in literature. What moral and social results followed were
the necessary consequences of the employment of his rare
wit and humour on such a work. There is no reason to
believe that Cervantes, at first, had any more serious
intention than that which he avowed, namely, to give "a
pastime to melancholy souls " ^ in destroying " the authority
and influence which the books of chivalries have in the
world and over the vulgar." That he was not impelled to
this work by any antipathy to knightly romances as such, —
still less by any ambition to repress the spirit of chivalry,

' See the Vtaje del Parnaso, ch. iv. : —

Y he dado en Don S^uixote pasatiempo

Al pecho melancolico y mohino

En cualquiera sazon, en todo tiempo.
(And I am he in ^luixote who has given

A pastime for the melancholy soul

In every age, and all time and season.)

Why cannot we believe the author, when he thus plainly and candidly avowi
his purpose ?

Cervantes chap.

or to purge the commonwealth of social and political abuses,
— is abundantly proved by the whole tenour of his book, if
not by the evidence of his life. His own tastes strongly
inclined him to books of romance. Perhaps no one in that
age had read more of those books, or was so deeply imbued
with their spirit. He cannot help letting us feel, even in
that famous inquisition which the Priest and the Barber
held on Don Quixote's library, that he has a kindness for
those he chastens. In the spirit of the good Inquisitor,
the Priest would save their souls while he burns their bodies.
He specially exempts the good books from the penalty of
the fire, speaking handsomely of Amadts of Gaul and
Palmerin of England. To argue that because Cervantes
burlesqued them, therefore he hated them, is to go against
the order of nature. Cervantes no more designed to bring
the chivalric romance into contempt by writing Don fixate
than Chaucer to belittle the trade of knightly minstrelsy by
writing Sir Thopas. The Orlando Furioso is almost as much
parodied in Don fixate as is Jmadis of Gaul ; yet are we
to conclude that Cervantes despised Ariosto and proposed
to annihilate him ? That Cervantes had no feeling against
romances of chivalry, as such, but only against ,bad romances,
is proved in Don ^ixote itself, where, through the mouth
of the Canon of Toledo, the author lays down the rules on
which a true romance should be written, purposing himself
to write one.^ His complaint of the majority of the old
romances is that they were so full of absurdities and extrava-
gances as to bring such literature into discredit. The
opinion of an acute Spanish writer, Don Vicente de Salva,
on this noint we hold to be a very sensible one : — " Cervantes

1 See Don Quixote, Part I. ch. xlviii. Here, and in the chapter before,
Cervantes, through the mouth of the judicious Canon of Toledo, criticises the
books of chivalries because they are deficient in art, and do not fulfil their
purpose. He is opposed to them, not because they are of chivalries but because
they are bad books.

Romances of Chivalry

did not intend to satirise the substance and essence of books
of chivalries, but only to purge away their follies and impossi-
bilities." What is Don ^ixote itself, it is shrewdly added,
but a romance of chivalry, " which has ruined the fortunes
of its predecessors by being so immensely in advance of
them ? " ^ What was Cervantes' own last book, as we shall
presently show, but in some kind a romance of chivalry, —
not free, alas ! from some of the very errors he had himself
burlesqued ? Nay, what was Cervantes' own life but a
romance of chivalry ?

That, after all, the overthrow of the books of chivalries
was but a small part of the good work which Cervantes
performed in Don Quixote is only to say that, like all great
writers, he " builded better than he knew." The pen of
the genius, as Heine says, is ever greater than the man
himself. Rejecting all the many subtle and ingenious
theories as to what was Cervantes' object in writing his
book } that it was a crusade against enthusiasm, as even
Heine seems to suspect ; that it was a missionary tract,
intended to destroy Popery and throw down Anti-Christ,
as some, even bearded men, have dared to suggest ; that it
was a programme of advanced Liberalism artfully veiled
under a mask of levity, and, indeed, the forerunner of that
gospel of sentimental cosmopolitanism since preached by
other eminent persons supposed to resemble Cervantes in
their characters or Don Quixote in their careers ; — I hold
that the author wrote but out of the fulness of his own
heart, — giving us, by a happy impulse, a fable in which are
transparently figured his own character, his own experiences,
and his own sufferings. What is the key but this to the

^ See the essay of Salva's, in Ochoa, Apuntcs para una Biblioteca, vol. ii.
pp. 723-40. I know one great Spanish scholar who has never forgiven Cervantes
for destroying the books of chivalries. But his anger is rather that of the
bibliographer than of the critic or patriot. He has the best collection of those
evil books in Europe.

Cervantes

CHAP. 12

mystery which makes this book, on a purely local subject
of passing interest, the book of humanity for all time, — as
popular out of Spain as among Spaniards ? A mere burlesque
would have died with the books which it killed. A satire
survives only so long as the person or the thing satirised is
remembered. But Don fixate lives, and, by a miracle of
genius, keeps Atnadis and Palmerin alive.

The invention is the most simple, as it is the most
original in literature. From Don fixate dates an epoch in
the art of fiction. For once Cervantes was happy in his
opportunity. And what is the secret of his success ? It is
that this " child of his sterile, ill-cultured wit " is no creature
of pure fancy, but fashioned in the very likeness of its
parent, drawn out of his life, shaped after his pattern — an image
of its creator. How could Cervantes' romance fail of holding
the field against all the romances ? It was his own life from
which he drew — that life which had been a true Knight
Errantry. The hero himself, the enthusiast, nursed on
visions of chivalry, who is ever mocked by fortune ; the
reviver of the old knighthood, who is buffeted by clowns
and made sport of by the baser sort ; who, in spite of the
frequent blows, jeers, reverses, and indignities he receives,
never ceases to command our love and sympathy — who is
he but the man of Lepanto himself, whose life is a romance
at least as various, eventful, and arduous ; as full of hardships,
troubles, and sadness ; as prolific of surprising adventures
and strange accidents, as the immortal story he has written ?
This is the key to Don ^ixote, which, unless we use, we
shall not reach to the heart of the mystery.

156

CHAPTER XIII

In ValladoM

The records of Cervantes' life at Valladolid, where he was
residing when Don Quixote was published, are brief and
scanty. His success as an author does not seem to have led
to any improvement in his fortunes. The same cruel
destiny which marred the process of his Hfe at every turn
pursued him still. His book brought him much fame and
a few friends, but it stirred up against him the malice of his
rivals, especially of those in high place who believed that
they and their works were the objects of his satire.
Valladolid, as the seat of the Court, was the resort of the
most famous of the men of letters, for there were gathered
the patrons. Those mentioned as being most intimate with
Miguel de Cervantes were Pedro Lainez, the poet, a friend
of many years ; Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola, who
with his brother Lupercio was reckoned one of the best
writers of the age ; and Vicente Espinel, the poet-musician,
also an old friend, but who, as appeared afterwards, could
not forgive Cervantes his success in Don fixate}

^ Pedro de Lainez, an early friend of Cervantes, died at Valladolid in the
year 1605 — his widow living in one of the apartments of the house where
Cervantes lodged. The two Argensolas, whom Cervantes was always praising,
appear to have ill deserved his friendship, Vicente de Espinel, also an old friend,
took, occasion after Cervantes' death to speak of his own Marcos de Obregon,
published in 161 8, as superior to Don S^uixote. The only one of the fellow-
writers, his contemporaries, who, to his own honour, had always a good word for

Cervantes chap.

Among those who had risen into eminence since last
Cervantes was at Court was Luis de Gongora, now a full-
fledged priest with a rich benefice, who had passed from his
pure and simple early song into the abyss of Culteranismo.
Gongora was of an envious and malignant nature, who could
bear no rival near his throne. He was one of those who
looked with strong disfavour on Don ^ixote^ as he could
not help feeling that some of the shafts directed against the
affectation and extravagance of language in the old romances
touched his own new fashion of Euphuism. Gongora took
his revenge with a characteristic duplicity of malice, by
trying to make mischief between Cervantes and Lope de
Vega, both of whom he hated. He wrote an ill-natured sonnet
in abuse of Lope, in truncated verses like those which had
appeared in the preface to Don ^uixote^ so that it might
pass for the composition of Cervantes. Lope retorted by a
dirty and scurrilous sonnet addressed to Cervantes.^ That
Gongora bore no good-will to either of his more successful
contemporaries is sufficiently proved by evidence in his
acknowledged works. Another of Gongora's sonnets ap-
peared about this time, which is interesting as one of the
earliest of the contemporary references to Don Quixote, and
in the glimpse it affords of the popular humour. On the
28th of May, 1605, there was received at the Spanish Court
the Earl of Nottingham (late Lord Howard of Effingham)
the Lord High Admiral of England, who had been sent by
James L, with a train of thirty or forty gentlemen and some
six hundred attendants, to celebrate the new peace between
Spain and England, and also to offer congratulations to

the author of Don Slulxote, was Francisco ^uevedo — the one of all nearest akin
in genius to Cervantes.

^ Both sonnets are printed in Pellicer's first volume. The second may be
that " bad, weak, graceless, and pointless sonnet," speaking ill of Don S^uixote,
to which Cervantes refers in the Adjunta al PamaM, for which, as he complains,
his niece paid a real in postage. It is quite possible that Gongora wrote both
sonnets. That was his style.

158

In Valladolid

Philip III. on the birth of a son and heir. The visit was
one marked by a singular display of splendour on the side
of Spain ; the show, on the English part, being a good deal
marred by a torrent of rain which poured down upon the
cavalcade as it advanced to greet the King, and spoiled the
coats of the English cavaliers and besmirched their feathers.^
The Lord High Admiral, howev^er, had no cause to complain
of his hosts, though the spectacle of a train of English gentle-
men passing along the streets must have been a rare sight
in the Spain of that day.

By the more patriotic of the Spaniards this enthusiasm
over the English — the heretics and time-honoured enemies
of the faith and the nation — was resented as unbecoming.
The more rigid Cathohcs, as we learn from various con-
temporary allusions, grudged the large sums expended on
feasting the Lutherans. A sonnet was written by Gongora
on the occasion, giving vent to the popular feeling, which
has a significance deeper and other, as I believe, than that
which has been generally assigned to it by Spanish critics.
The lines are so curious for their sarcastic humour and spirit
of Espanolismo as, apart from the reference to Don ^ixote,
to deserve quotation : —

Pario la Reyna : el Luterano vino
Con seiscientos herejes y heresias :
Gastamos un millon en quince dias

En darles joyas, hospedaje y vino :

Hicimos un alarde 6 desatino,

Y unas fiestas, que fucron tropelias,
Al Anglico legado y sus espias

Del que juro la paz sobre Calvino :

^ Cabrera, Relacknes de la Corte de Eipana de 1599 a 1614. The Spanish
annalist appears to have been struck with the good appearance presented by the
Englishmen, especially those who left their chins unshaven. Also by the fact that
the Admiral and some of his suite attended mass.

Cervantes

' Bautizamos al niilo Dominico

Que nacio par serlo en los Espanas :
Hicimos un sarao de encantamento :
Quedamos pobres, fue Lutero rico :
Mandaronse escribir estas hazanas
A Don Quixote, a Sancho, y su jumento.

In rude English, with as close an adherence to the letter
as the exigencies of metre allow, this may be rendered thus : —

The Queen brought forth : there came the Lutheran,
Six hundred heretics and heresies
In's train — a million in a fortnight flies

In gew-gaws, shows, and wine to greet the man.

We made parade — our feasts to follies ran,
To hurry-skurry our festivities,
All for the English legate and his spies ;

Who Calvin's Bible swore the peace upon.

The brat we christened Dominick, for he
Was born to be our Spain's Dominican ;
We gave a ball for fairy feast might pass,

We rested poor, that Luther rich might be :
Unto Don Quixote the commandment ran.
To write these deeds — to Sancho and- his ass.^

In this sonnet, as I understand it, there is evidence not so
much of Gongora's spite against Don Quixote as of his ill-
humour with the festivities and the occasion for them, with
perhaps a suggestion of Cervantes' un-nationalism if not of his
heterodoxy. From that day to this there have not been wanting
Spaniards who, even while flattered by the attentions paid to
Don Quixote by foreigners, cannot rid themselves of a suspi-
cion that these have been earned at the expense of the nation,

^ The allusion to Dominico contains a play upon the infant's name (he was
christened Felipe Dominico Victor, and lived to be Philip IV.), as well as upon
dominico in the old sense of seiicr — a conceit which may not be rendered in an
English version.

1 60

In Valladolid

if not of the Catholic religion. They half resent an apprecia-
tion which seems to imply that the only good book in Spain is
that which ridicules what they feel to be the leading Spanish
weaknesses. There was an opinion, even among the admirers
of Cervantes, that he had carried his victory too far over the
books of chivalry. After all, they were Spanish books, the
product of Spanish genius, especially intended to illustrate and
glorify the qualities and sentiments which Spaniards hold in
the highest esteem. There was an uneasy suspicion that the
sallies of the mad Knight had tended to the destruction of more
than the books of chivalry. The things ridiculed were essen-
tially things of Spain. Was rodomontade to be demolished,
and braggadocio brought to naught ? The rivals and enemies
of Cervantes — the bad writers whom he had mocked, the
dealers in sham romance and pinchbeck chivalry whose trade he
had spoilt, the charlatans who had profited by the follies and ex-
travagances he denounced — ^joined with the ultra-patriots in
resenting the book as an oiFence to the national sentiment.
An anonymous poet, writing a century and a half later, gives
blunt expression to a feeling which I suspect is not yet dead
among persons of culture in Spain. In numbers whose har-
mony is sensibly affected by the poet's indignation, he points
out what this errant design [andante desigtiio) of Miguel de
Cervantes has done for Spaniards. " His blows have left us all
wounded." It was of Spanish honour that the author was the
executioner. Spain, " not seeing the venom hidden in those
flowers of wit," applauded a work which had made mock of
herself and her " dreaded valour." Foreigners took delight in
the book because it vilipended Spanish institutions. This was
the reason why they made so much of Don Quixote — why it
was reprinted and translated, and adorned with pictures,
worked into tapestry, moulded into sculpture, and engraven.
" Fools ! " cries the angry bard — " do ye not in this mirror
see yourselves ? This is what ye are and ye have been."
In the same vein wrote one Zavaleta, author of a book

i6i "

Cervantes chap.

published in 1750, wherein Lope de Vega and Calderon are
praised extravagantly, while Cervantes is bitterly assailed for
his unnational spirit. The author of Numancia was for this
critic not patriotic enough. The soldier who had fought
and bled at Lepanto was an enemy of his country.
Foreigners, cries Zavaleta, relish and extol Don Quixote — a
book " dry, poor, dreamy, and in fine designed for nothing
but to declare to the world the fatuous valour of a frantic
madman " — because they find therein a picture of Spanish
vain-gloriousness and fanfaronade. To accuse him, who has
done more than any one else to bring Spain within the
circle of humanity, of defect of patriotism, is surely the
most notable development of that deformed thing called
Espanolismo.

In the reference to the mandate to Don Ouixote, Sancho,
and his ass to tell of the deeds of extravagant welcome on
the occasion of the Englishmen's coming, I do not think that
Gongora meant any more than to gibe Cervantes for the
liberality he had always shown in writing of those who were
the bitter enemies of his country and his faith. On the
strength of this sonnet, however, and without any other evi-
dence, the biographers have concluded that tlje official account
of the Earl of Nottingham's embassy and of his reception by
the Spanish Court was written by Cervantes ; and the piece
is even included among the works of Cervantes in the larger
Argamasilla edition. I confess I can see no trace of Cer-
vantes' hand in this dull and formal narrative ; nor was it in
the least likely that he would be employed in such a work,
being, so far as can be learned, without any favour at Court
at this time.i

A passing glimpse is obtained of Cervantes and his family
about this time by an unpleasant affair which was the

^ The tract is entitled, Relacion de lo sucedido en la ciudad de Valladolid, etc.
etc. It was published at Valladolid in 1605 ; and is reprinted among Cervantes'
works in the octavo Argamasilla edition of 1864.

162

In Valladolid

occasion of trouble, and perhaps of scandal, to the household.
On a night in June, 1605, Don Caspar de Ezpeleta, one of
the Court gallants, passing along the street where Cervantes
lived,^ was suddenly assailed by a man out of the darkness,
who dealt him two severe wounds and fled. Crying out for
help, there ran to his assistance the dwellers in the house
near where he fell, among whom were Miguel de Cervantes
and some of the women of his family. Don Gaspar was
taken into Cervantes' lodging, where he died in a few hours,
living long enough, however, to bequeath some of his fine
clothes to a member of Cervantes' family, in recompense of
her services to him when wounded. In accordance with the
rude custom of Spanish law, Cervantes and his family were
taken off to the jail, where they were detained until after
the enquiry into the cause of Don Caspar's death. The
formal depositions- before the Alcalde are still extant, and
they are curious for this only, as throwing light upon the
circumstances and the manner of living of Cervantes at this
period. The family of Cervantes — himself fifty-seven years
of age — consisted at this time of his wife, Dona Catalina ;
his natural daughter, Isabel, aged twenty ; his widowed sister,
Andrea, aged sixty-one ; Costanza her daughter, aged twenty-
eight J Doiia Magdalena de Sotomayor, called his sister,
but who must have been a cousin, over forty ; and Maria,
their servant. Out of the depositions are to be gleaned these
facts : — That the household was poor, living in a not very
high quarter, in a house shared by other tenants j that Miguel
de Cervantes had many visitors j that he " wrote and trans-
acted business" there [escribia y trataba negocios^ says his sister
Andrea) ; and that the family were dependent on him,

^ Cervantes lived in the house opposite the slaughter-house, near the wooden
bridge over the small river Esqueva, The house now pointed out as his is No.
14, Calle de Rastro.

^ See the account of the affair in detail as given by Pellicer, with the
depositions of the witnesses. Vida de Ccr'vantci, p. 119, in vol. i. of his edition
of Don S^ixote,

163

Cervantes

assisted by some needlework of the women, for their
living.^

In 1606, Valladolid having been found unsuitable for the
Royal residence, the Court was removed once more, and for
the last time, to Madrid. Thither Cervantes with his family
followed, — not sorry, perhaps, to be nearer the ancestral
homes of Alcala and Esquivias. There is some reason to
believe that, after leaving Valladolid, Cervantes paid a short
visit to Seville, where he had many friends, before settling in
Madrid. Among the manuscripts preserved in the Biblioteca
Colombina at Seville (the library founded by Fernando Colon,
the son of the great Admiral, in the chapter-house of the
cathedral), is one dating from the early part of the seven-
teenth century, which includes various comic pieces by
Ouevedo and others, with the novel of the Tia Finz'ida^
ascribed to Cervantes, and the account of a burlesque tourney
held at San Juan de Alfarache, a village near Seville, on the
4th of Julv, 1606. In this, many of the poets and men of
letters residing in Seville took part, among whom was Ruiz
de Alarcon, afterwards well known as a dramatist. It was a
kind of poets' festival, held in the open air on the banks of
the Guadalquivir, at which poems were recited, comedies
acted, and a mock contest fought with swords and spears. A
narrative of the proceedings, in the shape of a letter to one

■'■ There is no trace of any suspicion attaching to Cervantes, or to any member
of his family, of complicity in this affair. But one of the witnesses speaks ot a
woman having been the cause of the trouble, which is probable enough — without
witnesses. Don Caspar de Ezpeleta had a repute for gallantry. There is in the
British Museum Library a manuscript diary by a Portuguese gentleman, living
at Valladolid at this time, in which the name of " Cervantes " occurs, in a not
very reputable connexion — being uttered by a woman in a gambling-house.
Seiior Gayangos wrote an article on this Portuguese and his diary in the Rcvista
de Espana. I do not myself — con pa'z sea dicho — attach any importance to this
discovery. The name of Cervantes was common enough in that age. Had
there been any ground for the imputation that our Miguel de Cervantes was a
night-rufBer and a frequenter of gambling-houses (he being now nearly sixty years
of age), we may be sure that we should have heard of it, from the mouth of some
one of his friends.

164

In Valladolid

Don Diego de Astudillo, in the city of Seville, was written
by some one, whose name is not disclosed, who acted as
secretary of the revels. From internal evidence, I am inclined
to believe, with Senor Guerra y Orbe, who first published the
letter in 1864, that this secretary might have been Miguel de
Cer\'antes. The style is very like his, and the letter abounds
in phrases such as occur in Don ^uixote^ with unmistakable
allusions to the characters and incidents in the story. The
names assumed by the various competitors, such as Don Tal
Principe de Para-cual la Baja^ Don Floripando Talludo^ Prin-
cipe de Chunga, one of the mantenedores (taken by Alarcon,
who was a Mexican by birth), and Don Rocandolfo de la Insula
Firme^ are in the humour of Cervantes, and seem to come
from the same mint as Brandabarbaran de Boliche and Penta-
polin the Garamantan. If not written by Cervantes himself,
and one of those "stray pieces going about hereabouts
without the name of their author," of which he has told us
there were many,^ this letter to Astudillo is important, if only
for this, as showing that even at this early date (1606) the
names, phrases, and incidents out of Don Quixote had become
familiar in the mouths of the gay youth of the period.^

Of the first three or four years passed at Madrid, there is
nothing worthy of record in the life of Cervantes, except
that in 1608 was brought out that which must be regarded
as the true second edition of the First Part of Don ^uixote^
the first which had the benefit (though only partially) of the
author's corrections and alterations. In 1605, when the first
edition of Don Quixote was printed at Madrid, the author
was residing at Valladolid. He was now at Madrid and
able to look after his book, in which he had every cause to

^ See Prologue to the Nwelat.

- The tract is entitled, Algunoi Dates nue-vos para ilustrar el ^uijote, etc. etc.,
by Don Aureliano Fernandez Guerra y Orbe. Madrid, 1864. Seiior Guerra y
Orbe, whose recent decease (1894) is a serious loss to the small band of good
Cervantists, makes out a very good case, and is entitled to much credit for his
discovery.

165

Cervantes chap.

be interested. With characteristic carelessness, while he
corrected some of the blunders and supplied some of the
omissions in the text, Cervantes left others unnoticed, to the
confusion of his critics, and commentators, and translators.
His two chief patrons at this time were the Cardinal Arch-
bishop of Toledo, Bernardo Sandoval y Rojas, uncle of
the Duke of Lerma, and the Conde de Lemos, nephew and
son-in-law of the King's favourite. Both these high-placed
men were noted for their fondness for learning and literature,
and their liberality to poets and men of letters. The Arch-
bishop, by his position, was the most powerful churchman
in Christendom next to the Pope, and being at the same
time Inquisitor-General, — an office which he assumed un-
willingly after twice refusing it, — his friendship must have
been of singular value to the author of Don Quixote.
That he was a prelate in advance of his age is shown by
various acts of his life, such as his rebuke to the Provincial
Boards of the Inquisition for their over-zeal in witch-
finding;^ his discouragement of autos de fe^ which were
considerably fewer under his administration than under any
previous Inquisitor-General ; and, lastly, by his appreciation
of the merits of Don ^u'lxote^ a book always under suspicion
of the orthodox. One proof of the Archbishop's freedom
from the prejudices of his cloth and the period is to be found
in the fact that Don Quixote was published — the Second Part
with his special approbation — without any passage being
thought worthy of expurgation. Yet at Lisbon, which
was practically outside of the Archbishop's jurisdiction and
where his example was of no force, several passages, as I have
shown in my edition of Don ^uixote^ came under the jealous
eyes of the Holy Office and were put in the Index Ex-
pur gator'ius. I have no desire to make too much of Archbishop
Sandoval's liberality. Still, it was only a generation before
that a predecessor of his in the Primacy of Spain, Archbishop

^ See Llorente, ch. xxxvii, 2, 51.
166

In Valladolid

Carranza — who, as having helped in the burning of the
English bishops in 1556, might be supposed to have suffi-
ciently established the correctness of his principles — had
been deprived of all his offices and punished by more
than sixteen years' imprisonment with torture for consorting
with men of dubious orthodoxy and uttering in a book a
mild opinion about the inefficacy of works without charity.
And it is a little remarkable that it was not until Archbishop
Sandoval's death in 16 19 that the Holy Office took any
notice of Don fixate, ordering that passage to be expunged
as impious and contrary to the Faith wherein the Duchess
tells Sancho that "works of charity which are performed
coldly and feebly have no merit nor avail anything." ^
There can be no doubt that Cervantes was greatly in-
debted during his lifetime to the favour of the Archbishop
for what we must regard as his singular immunity from the
attentions of the Holy Inquisition.

The Conde de Lemos, the Archbishop's kinsman, who in
those years held the high office of President of the Council
of the Indies, must also receive such credit for goodness and
liberality as is implied by the praise which Cervantes so
lavishly bestows on him as a lover and a patron of letters.
He seems to have held out some promise of employment to
the author of Don Quixote in after years, when Viceroy
of Naples ; but the Argensolas, Bartolome and Lupercio,
claimed a monopoly of his countship's favour ; and they, it
is suspected and as Cervantes plainly hints, intercepted the
Conde de Lemos's bounty .^

^ Don Siuixote, Part II. ch. xxxvi.

2 The two Argensolas, whom Cervantes was always praising, appear to have
ill deserved his friendship. They followed in the train of the Conde de Lemos
when that nobleman was appointed Viceroy of Naples in 1610 ; and Cervantes
seems to complain in chapter iii. of the Voyage to Parnassus of promises made
by them and forgotten : —

Mucho espere, si mucho prometicron,
Mas podra ser que ocupaciones nuevas
Lcs obligue a olvidar lo que dijeron.
167

Cervantes

CHAP. I 3

There is no reason to believe that from either of these two
great patrons Cervantes ever received any favour more sub-
stantial than such as took the shape of casual alms ; though
with his usual profusion of good-nature he speaks of them
both as though they were the support of his life and the
cheerers of his now fast-coming old age.

i68

CHAPTER XIV

Novelist and Poet

Disappointed in his hopes of civil preferment, and probably
feeling at this time his unfitness, through advancing age and
infirmities, for any active employment, Cervantes began to
devote himself more sedulously to his books and his literary
projects. In 1609, being then in his sixty-second year, he
sought to make a provision for his last days and to secure
himself decent burial, according to the fashion of the age,
by entering the congregation of the Oratory of the Knights
of Grace — a confraternity in connexion with a monastic
order, though not itself monastic, which was much patron-
ised by the leading men of letters as well as by the magnates
of the Court, in which number were included Lope de
Vega, Quevedo, the Prince of Esquilache, and others. His
wife and his sister Andrea had joined the Third Order of
St. Francis — the latter, who had been her brother's faithful
and devoted companion ever since his return from Algiers,
dying in October, 1609. About this period also, if we may
believe his biographer Navarrete, Cervantes had become a
member of a literary club or society, called the Selvages^
which was composed of the best wits of Spain residing in
the capital.

Stimulated, doubtless, by the applause with which Don
Quixote had been received, and believing himself now secure
of his public, Cervantes, in his latter years, took pains to

169

Cervantes

CHAP.

gather together his various writings, developing at the same
time an activity and fecundity in production most unusual
in a man of his age. In 1 613 he published his Novelas
Exefnplares^ some of w^hich had been w^ritten many years
before. In a dedication to the Conde de Lemos he speaks
somew^hat bitterly of the evil tongues vv^ho, out of envy, had
tried to do him vi^rong, w^hile offering to his patron thirteen
(they were but twelve) of his tales, which, "had they not
been turned out of the workshop of his own wit, he might
presume to place by the side of the best ever designed " [los
mas pintados). In a lively prologue, interesting, as all his
prologues are, because of the glimpses they give us of his
life and character, Cervantes claims to be the first who has
written novels in the Castilian tongue {el pr'imero que he
novelado en la lengua Castella7ia\ and explains why he has
called them ncnjelas exemplares^ because " there is not one of
them from which some profitable example (or instruction)
cannot be drawn." They are of various character and
merit, exhibiting in an extraordinary degree the versatility
of the author and his deep and wide knowledge of life under
divers conditions. Those in which the scene is laid in
Seville, as the Rinconete y Cortadillo — which, next to Don
Quixote, must be regarded as the author's best piece of
humour — were probably written on the spot, exhibiting, as
they do, so fresh and lively a picture of the vagabond and
picaresque gentry — the half-world of the Andalucian capital
— the thieves, bona-robas^ and bullies for which Seville was
always ramous. Rinconete and Cortadillo are two youths
in quest of fortune, who forgather on the road to Seville
and discover to each other their accomplishments in the arts
of cheating and stealing. They enter the city to commence
their profession, when they are accosted by a third, who
enquires whether they have paid toll at the custom-house of
Seiior Monipodio. " Is there then a duty on thieves in this
country ? " asks Rinconete. " Yes," answers the other ; " or

170

Novelist and Poet

at least they have to be registered before Seiior Monipodio,
who is their father, their master, and their protector,"
They are told that it will cost them dear if they venture to
steal without his warrant. Cortadillo had thought thieving
a free trade, exempt from tax and due, or that thieves paid
in the lump, — in the throat or in the shoulders ; but seeing
that every country has its usages, agrees to conform to this,
especially as it is Seville, where, as the first country in the
world, the usage should be most judicious. They are
guided to the house of Monipodio, where Rinconete and
Cortadillo are duly made free of the craft and introduced to
the rest of the crew. There is an admirably vivid scene of
the picaros at supper, diversified by the entrance of a girl
all dishevelled and bruised and in tears, who complains of
having been flogged by her lover for not sending him
money, and a quarrel between two of the bravoes, with
frequent alarms at the gate from the passing officers of
justice. What is remarkable is the stress laid on the
devoutness of the gang. Father Monipodio insists upon a
portion of every stealing being spent in buying oil for the
lamp which burns before a highly venerated image of the
Virgin, and there is not one of the thieves who does not
recite his rosary carefully, — many of them not stealing at all
on a Friday, — while the blessing of Our Lady is invoked in
all the more perilous enterprises. Another thing to note in
the story — which, though dealing with the lowest life in a
manner perfectly realistic, contains not one coarse word or
impure idea — is the close relation which exists between the
master of the thieves and the alguacils and officers of the law
— which doubtless was a true picture of society in Seville in
Cervantes' time.

In another of the stories, which is The Colloquy of Scipio
and Berganza^ two Dogs of Mahudcs^ the scene of Ber-
ganza's adventures is laid chiefly in Seville, and we have
Monipodio again introduced as a receiver of stolen goods.

171

Cervantes chap.

In the course of his career from being a watch-dog to a
butcher to be a guardian of the hospital of Valladolid,
Berganza tells of many tricks in various orders of life,
among which figures very prominently the witch Cani-
zares, who is supposed to have been a real personage.
La Gitanilla, or The Little Gipsy Girl^ is a charming story,
told with infinite naivete and grace, of a child of noble
parentage stolen in infancy and brought up in all the
accomplishments of the Gitanos, who wins all hearts by her
beauty, her songs, and dances, beguiling a young cavalier to
follow her in all honest love, to end in an equal marriage.
It is the original of all the gipsy stories in that kind, from
which Weber took his opera of Preciosa and Victor Hugo
his Esmeralda. La Espanola Inglesa (The English Spanish
Lady) tells how a child was carried away a prize from
Cadiz by an English naval commander named Clotaldo at
the sacking of the city by the Earl of Essex. Being
brought to London and educated as one of the English
nobleman's family, Isabel captivates the heart of Ricaredo,
the son of the house. She is introduced at Court, and the
English Queen, who is painted in very flattering colours,
behaves after a fashion more creditable to Cervantes' gener-
osity than to historical accuracy — taking a warm interest in
the stranger and loading her with costly jewels, among
which is a string of pearls valued at 20,000 ducats. All
goes merrily for the lovers until the appearance of one
Count Ernesto, the son of Her Majesty's Keeper of the
Robes, who desires the beautiful Isabel for himself, and lays
schemes for the destruction of his rival. Isabel is poisoned,
and loses all her beauty. Then a Scottish heiress, the Lady
Clenarda, appears on the scene, whom Ricaredo is urged to
marry, but Ricaredo will not. The lovers are separated,
Ricaredo being taken captive by an Algerine corsair, and
Isabel, upon the news of his death, resolving to become a
nun. But at the last moment, when arrived at the church

172

Novelist and Poet

door, she recognises Ricaredo as a meanly -dressed slave,
just released from captivity, and the story ends in a happy
marriage. La Ilustre Fregona (The Illustrious Scullery-
Maid) is a legend of Toledo, the scene of which is laid in
a tavern still standing, almost in the same state as vi^hen the
lovely and well-born Costanza was in service there, under
the name of the Posada de Sangre. It is a lively picture of
contemporary life and manners. El Amante Liberal (The
Generous Lover) is an intricate story of love and adventure,
drawn from the writer's experiences of life in captivity
among the Turks. La Fuerza de la Sangre (The Force of
Blood) is a short tale of how the victim of a disorderly
passion achieves her revenge and reparation. Las Dos Don-
cellas (The Two Damsels) and La Senora Cornelia are of
a simpler construction and of less interest. El Zeloso
Extremeno (The Jealous Estremaduran) and El Casamiento
Enganoso (The Deceitful Marriage) are short stories of
intrigue such as were popular on the stage — probably
transcripts from real life. El Licenciado Vidriera (The
Licentiate Glass-House) is of a curious recondite humour,
abounding in sarcastic allusions, of which the point is now
with difficulty discernible. The hero is an eccentric, whose
brain has been turned by a love-potion, so that he imagines
himself to be made of glass. The Tia Fingida or Pretended
Aunt^ which is sometimes attributed to Cervantes and is
even included among the other novels in Hartzenbusch's
edition, I cannot believe to be from the pen of our author.
It never was acknowledged by Cervantes, and the only
reason for supposing it to be his work is that the manuscript
was found in the same collection with some of the novels
which Cervantes afterwards published. The idea of the
story is coarse and far from "exemplary." And, as I have
said before (p. 13), the scene is laid in Salamanca, described
by a student on the basis of a real romance in 1575, when
Cervantes was either at sea or in Algiers, never having been

173

Cervantes

himself at the University. Apart from all other reasons for
not admitting it among his novels, surely this is enough that
Cervantes did not claim it when he collected and published
his Novelas Exemplar es in 1 613.

The Novels of Cervantes have ever been esteemed by
his countrymen as second to Don Quixote only among his
works. They have been often reprinted, and even in
translation have enjoyed a certain favour. Scott, who is to
be reckoned among the good Cervantists, was wont to
express a great love for the Novelas^ confessing, according
to a conversation reported in Lockhart, that they had " first
inspired him with the ambition of excelling in fiction."^
The influence oi Monipodio is clearly to be discerned in the
Ahat'ia of the Fortunes of Nigel. Duke Wildebrod is but an
enlarged and exalted copy of the original father of the
thieves, who may also be said to be the literary parent of
Dickens' Fagin. The Novelas Exernplares have suffered, as
have all the lesser members of the family, from their
relationship to their illustrious kinsman ; but they are
clearly of like blood and composition with Don Quixote.
The mintage is the same, though the metal is less precious.
They are sufficient, did they stand alone, to prove Cervantes'
surpassing excellence as a story-teller. But these poor
relations of the Knight of La Mancha, it must be confessed,
seem scarcely worthy of their distinguished lineage. Their
merits are local and transient. The characters are true to
the life, but it is the lesser Hfe of Seville and of Toledo.
They are types of Spain in the early seventeenth century, but
not types of humanity ; good for that age, but not for all time.

The year following, in 16 14, Cervantes published his
V'laje del Parnaso^ usually, but wrongly, in all the modern
editions, entitled Viaje al Parnaso. It is a journey not to,
but in and around, Parnassus, written in ter%a rima, in
eight chapters, professedly in imitation of an Italian poem

1 See Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. x. p. 187 (1869).

Novelist and Poet

by Cesare Caporali in the same metre. The poem of
Caporali, to which that of Cervantes bears no resemblance
whatever except in name and measure, is now forgotten.
That of Cervantes might, perhaps, have shared the same
fate, but for its autobiographical details. Ticknor's verdict
that as a poem it has " little merit " is too harsh a one.
The leading idea is a battle between the good and the bad
poets, which might have furnished Swift with a hint for his
Battle of the Books. The bad poets having taken unlawful
possession of Parnassus, Apollo summons Cervantes in order
to consult him as to those who should be enlisted on his
side to drive out the intruders. Mercury is sent in a galley,
built of allegory and rigged with verse — in a passage which
is the best in the poem for richness of fancy and playful
invention — to Cervantes on this mission. The occasion is
seized by the poet for an enumeration of the good poets
existing in Spain, in a style which recalls that of the Canto
de Caliope of thirty years before. Like the Canto de Caliope^
the Fiaje del Parnaso is spoilt by excessive good-nature.^
The interminable roll-call of names of fifth-rate poetasters,
most of whom survive only in this record, even relieved as
it is here and there by a stroke of irony or sarcasm, is heavy
enough to sink even a more buoyant vessel than that of
Apollo's messenger, of which the rigging was all of seguidil-
las^ the yards of couplets, and the timbers of stanzas.^ The

^ The V\a}e del Parnaso was dedicated to Don Rodrigo de Tapia, a Knight of
the order of Santiago, of whom nothing is known except that he was the son of
Don Pedro de Tapia, a member of the King's Council, and adviser to the Holy
Office.

^ Profuse as are the praises which are showered on the poets, — good, and
mediocre, and bad, — they did not satisfy everybody. Manuel de Villegas, a
respectable poet himself, best known by his Eroticas, which are imitations of
Anacreon, was offended with Cervantes because he had not said enough in the
Viaje of his friend Bartolome de Argensola, and assailed him as mal pacta y
Sluixotisia, The motive with Villegas might have been a less pious one than
regard for his friend, seeing that he also was one of the dependants on the bounty
of the Conde de Lemos.

^75

Cervantes chap.

conceit is too delicate a one to bear all this living freight ;
and it is no wonder that the Viaje del Parnaso fell dead in
its day, and remained forgotten till nearly a century and a
half afterwards.^ Its chief interest to us lies in the fourth
chapter, where the poet gives us a list of his several produc-
tions, and some pregnant hints as to his way of life, his
poverty, and its causes. Of far greater intrinsic value than
the verse is the prose Appendix, in which, under the title of
the Adjunta al Parnaso^ we have a charmingly characteristic
presentment of the writer in his habit as he lived. The
picture of Paticracio de Roncesvalles^ the young exquisite of
the period and would-be poet — who comes in rustling in
silks, in starched rufF and frills, to visit Cervantes, is
conceived in the author's happiest vein, and may match any
of the living figures in the Don Quixote gallery .^ We have
here a glimpse of Cervantes himself at home in the Calls de
las Huertas^ " facing the houses where the Prince of Morocco
used to lodge." ^ We are told the curious story of how his
niece took in a letter, paying a real for postage, which turned
out to be a scurrilous sonnet in dispraise of Don ^uixote^
and how that Cervantes had six comedies then in hand, with
as many farces, which he thought of giving to the press,
as the managers would not have them, seeing that their

^ It was republished by Sancha in his useful but most incorrect series of
Cervantes' minor works in 1784.

2 Let Pancracio de Roncesvalles be set alongside of Osric, the " water-fly " j
and Sancho Panza with Christopher Sly. They are the only two parallels I can
trace between the creations of Cervantes and of Shakspeare, in neither of whom
is to be detected any hint of the other. Yet Shakspeare might have read Don
Slu'ixote before he died ; though certainly Cervantes never knew of Shakspeare.

3 In 1609 Cervantes was living, as appears by a document cited by Pellicer
(p. 213 of his Vida de Cer-vantes), in the Calle de la Magdalena. In 16 10 he
occupied a house in the Calle de Leon. There is mention also of his living in
another house in the Calle del Duque de Alba. All these are neighbourhoods
scarcely above the scale of those inhabited by the poor ; though Cervantes' last
residence, in the Calle de Francos, was within a few doors of that occupied by
the great Lope de Vega.

- See above, p. 158.

176

Novelist and Poet

regular playwrights were hanging on them, whom they were
bound to employ. The mingled grace, modesty, and good
humour with which Cervantes speaks of his literary projects,
and their fortunes, contribute to make this one of the most
delightful of those only too brief transcripts he gives us of
his life. Nor can we wonder, contrasting the ambitious
poem with the modest appendix, that there should prevail
among the booksellers of that age the opinion, so naively
repeated by Cervantes himself, that " of his prose much was
to be expected, but of his verse nothing."

The next year, 1615, even while he was engaged in
hurrving to a completion that great work which was to
be the crown and sum of his literary achievement — the
Second Part of Don fixate — Cervantes brought out a
volume of eight comedies and eight farces or interludes
[entremeses), which had never been played, and, perhaps,
were never intended for representation. They had prob-
ably been written some years before, and had been laid
aside in some coffer and forgotten. Induced by the fame
of the author, even though he had been told that his
verse was less marketable than his prose, a bookseller was
found who offered to buy them. "I made the venture,"
says Cervantes in his preface to the book j " I sold them
to the bookseller, who sent them to the press. He paid
me a reasonable sum for them ; I took my money meekly,
without making account of the quirks and quibbles of the
players. I would they were the best in the world, or, at
least, of fair worth." ^ The comedies are certainly not

^ One Bias de Nasarre, who, in 1749, reprinted these plays of Cervantes for
the first time, gravely starts the theory that their author made them purposely
bad in order to caricature the plays of Lope de Vega, just as he had written Don
Bluixote to parody the old romances. I agree with Ticknor that Nasarre's
sincerity is greatly to be suspected. It was he who, as we shall see, republished
Avellancda'g spurious Second Part of Don ^luixote in 1752, averring it to be
superior to that of Cervantes. It was Nasarre who, Navarrete declares, wrote
the misleading entry opposite to the baptismal register at Alcazar de San Juan.
(Navarrete, p. 556. See before, p. 8.)

177 12

Cervantes chap.

good ; one of them — Los Bams de Argel — is a mere re-cast
of El Trato de Argel^ written thirty years before. In them
the author violates every one of the canons of the dramatic
art he had himself laid down in Don fixate. Indeed, the
fact that he was induced to publish them at all proves only,
I think, that he was poor and in stress of money. The
farces are much superior to the comedies in spirit and in
style ; and some of them, I believe, have been put on
the stage, literally or in adaptation, in Germany if not at
home. They abound in pointed dialogue, witty equivoques^
and telling situations — seeming to prove that Cervantes
found this more easy and familiar kind of drama more
suitable to his genius than the comedies of the higher art.
In one of them. La Guarda Cuidadosa (The Watchful
Guardian) there is a living picture (some have taken it
to be a portrait) of an old soldier doing sentry over a
house where his mistress lodges. In all of these smaller
pieces, which are mostly in prose, are to be found abundant
traces of Cervantes' humour, and they have a bustle of life and
movement such as might even fit them for the modern stage.
The longer comedies are of inferior merit. Such as they are,
we must suppose that Cervantes intended them as specimens
of the drama which was in vogue in his day, rather than as
models of that true art of which we know he had grasped
the principles. The publication was no success, nor was the
book ever reprinted until 1749. There is good reason to
believe from the tone of his private letters as well as of his
printed address to his patrons, that at this period, on the eve
of the crowning glory of his life, which was to be the close of
his career, Cervantes was no better off in worldly circum-
stances than he was before Don fixate was written.

A story told by Francisco Marquez Torres, chaplain to
the good Archbishop of Toledo, in the Approbation prefixed
to the Second Part of Don Quixote, dated 27th February,
161 5, may be properly introduced here as throwing a light

178

Novelist and Poet

on the condition of Cervantes and the opinion of his con-
temporaries about him at this period. After speaking of the
great popularity which the works of Cervantes had won for
their author, — not only throughout Spain, but in France,
Italy, Germany, and Flanders, — the Archbishop's chaplain
certifies that, two days before, he had received a visit from
several French gentlemen who had come to Madrid in the
train of the French Ambassador,^ when, the name of Miguel
de Cervantes having been brought up in conversation, they
broke out into praises of his books, one of them saying that
he knew the Galatea almost by heart. " They interrogated
me very minutely about his age, his profession, his quality,
and fortune. I found myself compelled to say that he was
an old man, a soldier, a gentleman and poor. To which
one of them responded in these precise words : — ' But does
not Spain keep such a man rich, and supported out of the
public treasury ? ' Another of those gentlemen broke in
with this idea, saying, with much acuteness : ' If it is
necessity compels him to write, may God send he may
never ^ave abundance ; so that, poor himself, he may
make the whole world rich.' "

^ This French ambassador, called by the Spanish commentators the Duque de
Umena, must have been the Due de Mayenne, who was sent by the Regent Anne
of Austria, to conclude the double marriage of the Prince of Asturias (afterwards
Philip IV.) with Isabelle de Bourbon, and of Louis XIII. of France with the
Infanta Ana, eldest daughter of Philip III. The " M. de Boulay," who is
quoted by some authorities (among others. Sir Richard Burton in his preliminary
notes to the LusiaJs) as being the recipient of a whispered remark by Cervantes
to the effect that "he could have made his Don ^luixote better but for the In-
quisition," I have been unable to identify. I do not believe in the story.

179

CHAPTER XV

The False ' Don Quixote '

During all this period of active production, or at least from
1612, as may be gathered from patent hints in his other
works and plain indications in the book itself, Cervantes v^^as
engaged in the composition of a Second Part of Don Quixote.
That he did not originally contemplate a Second Part, but
intended the First to be a complete story in itself, is probable.
The book was an experiment on the public taste, de-
bauched and vitiated by bad romances, of which Cervantes
could hardly be expected to foretell the result. That he
intended the First Part, from the beginning, to be a perfect
story, is proved by his division of the book into four parts
in imitation of the book of Jmadis of Gaul. That he
afterwards, as he proceeded with the story — even before he
came to the end of it — changed his purpose, and conceived
the design of continuing the Knight's adventures to a
third sally, is proved by the words of Cid Hamet Benengeli
which close the last chapter. " We are informed," says
Cid Hamet Benengeli, "that he has done so" — that is, that
a certain university scholar had deciphered certain writings
relating to the Knight of La Mancha — "and that he means
to make them public, giving us hope of the third sally of
Don Ouixote." In a few sentences before this we are told of
a tradition that on this third sally Don Quixote went to
Zaragoza, there to take part in the famous jousts which

180

CH. 15

The False 'Don Quixote'

were held in that city. It is true that the author ends
the last chapter of his First Part with the line from
Ariosto : —

Forse altri cantera con miglior plettro.

To this, by some modern commentators, has been assigned
the singular meaning that Cervantes not only gave up all
further right in his story but invited some one else to
complete it ; but surely that is a false interpretation of
the author's design, which is refuted by every word which
Cervantes himself has said of his own book. The line from
Ariosto is a common form of parting, the conventional envoi
or leave-taking, which may be a prophecy or a challenge, but
surely was not an invitation. Cervantes probably suspected
that what had happened to others would happen to him-
self — that some one would try and anticipate him in the
conclusion of his book. But that he intended to dismiss
his hero for ever as Ariosto had taken leave of Medoro and
Angelica, and to part with his property in Don ^uixote^ is
an extraordinary theory, involving as poor a compliment to
the author as to his book. At first, doubtful of the fate of
this new adventure, Cervantes might have been indifferent
to the welfare of his own creation. But that, long before
he could have suspected any one else of continuing his work,
he himself purposed to continue it, is evident by numerous
passages in the Second Part, and in fact by the whole scope
and plan of the later book. What does Cervantes himself
say in the beginning of his own sequel ? *' ' And does the
author, perchance, promise a Second Part ? ' enquired Don
Quixote. 'Yes, he promises it,' answered Samson Carrasco,
* but he has not found it, nor does he know who has it ;
and so we are in doubt whether it will come out or not.' "
This must have been written before 161 2, when the world
was eagerly demanding a Second Part. " Let us have more
Quixoteries ; let Don Quixote fall to, and come what will

181

Cervantes chap.

we shall be content with that." ^ The people had already
caught the spirit of the book, and were quick to apply its
points. The names of Quixote and Sancho Panza were
fiimiliar in their mouths. Every lean, broken-kneed screw
was a Rozinante, and every sleek ass a Dapple. No book had
entered so deeply into the life and heart of the nation. Even
in Cervantes' time his characters had become public property.
In the Prologue to the Novelas Exemplares^ which must
have been written, as the Dedication proves, before June,
1613, Cervantes promised that he would bring out "first
and speedily a continuation of the exploits of Don Quixote
and the pleasantries of Sancho Panza." At an earlier date
than this the author must have already written his 7th and
15th chapters, wherein is laid down his whole scheme of the
denouement and ending of the story, with the means to be
taken for curing Don Quixote of his craze and bringing
him back to his village, — long before he could have heard
a whisper of any design in forestalment of his own. Twelve
months after, as we see by the date of Sancho's letter to
his wife Theresa, Cervantes had more than half completed
his Second Part. In the literary circles of Madrid his
design must have been perfectly well known, and by his
true friends the accomplishment of his great work anxiously
expected. To lay so much emphasis on this, which might
appear to be a point self-evident, would be needless were it
not for a thing which now happened to Cervantes, the
cruellest, perhaps, of all the wrongs he suffered in the course
of his long life of trouble and of misfortune, and an out-
rage unparalleled in the history of literature. The blow
was dealt to Cervantes by a secret hand in his tenderest
part. The one book which had been the triumph of his
life — which had brought him fame and justified his genius
before men — was Don ^ixote. After long beating about
in the maze of letters, entangled by the dead forms of old

^ Don S^uixote, Part II. ch. iv.
182

The False 'Don Quixote'

romance and the rank growth of the newer culture, misled
by false lights which his needs had compelled him to follow,
Cervantes had found the true path. But he was not to
enjoy even this one good stroke of luck in peace ; his very
Don Quixote being turned, by a refinement of malice, into
a weapon for his bosom. In the summer of 1614, when
the world was impatiently expecting from him the com-
pletion of his book, there appeared at Tarragona, printed in
close imitation of the form of Cervantes' First Part,^ a
volume which announced itself as '•'•The Second Part of the
Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha^ containing
his Third Sally." The author proclaimed himself to be the
Licentiate Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda, a native of
the town of Tordesillas. The book was dedicated to the
"Alcalde, Regidors, and Hidalgos of the noble city of
Argamasilla, happy country of the gentleman-knight Don
Ouixote," etc. One Dr. Rafael Orthoneda gave his
approbation to the work, saying that it "ought to be
printed because it seemed to him to contain nothing im-
modest or forbidden." The Doctor Francisco de Torme
y Liori, Vicar-General to the Archbishop of Tarragona, gave
his licence for the printing in his own hand, dated 4th July,
1 6 14. The terms in which these august persons spoke of
the book, and their effusion in justifying beforehand its
chasteness and propriety, seem to indicate that there was a
conspiracy in which certain high ecclesiastics were implicated,
to bring out the book in all haste and secrecy before the real
Don Quixote appeared.

^ In form and type the book closely corresponds with one of the two issues
of the first edition, printed by Mey at Valencia, in 1605, with a frontispiece of a
mounted knight with lance in rest, exactly corresponding to that in Mey's First
Part — thus proving, as Salva remarks, that it was the intention of the Tarragona
printer to pass off this spurious Second Part as the true one. Mey printed his
own edition of Cervantes' Second Part in 1 6 16. The Tarragona counterfeit,
now quite as rare as any of the genuine early editions, is an octavo of 290 pages
with five of contents.

183

Cervantes chap.

Had this been merely a continuation of a popular work,
prompted by the usual spirit of commercial enterprise — an
attempt to forestall Cervantes' market by some rival who
honestly believed Don ^ixote to be public property and
thought himself equal to the true author, the thing would have
been bad enough, even for that little scrupulous age. Other
authors had been treated in the same way. The Guzman de
Alfarache of Mateo Aleman had been continued in a second
part by one calling himself Mateo Luxan, without the
author's knowledge or leave. The second part of Lazarillo
de Tormes was composed by De Luna many years after the
first by Mendoza. Of such continuations we have examples
in all literary history. Byron had a follower in Don Juan^
and the true Pickwick was attended in due course by Pickwick
Abroad. But here ends all that can be said in justification of
Avellaneda's Don fixate. Mateo Aleman, though he is
bitter against Luxan for the liberties taken with Guzman de
Alfarache^ has no reason to complain of any but a trade
injury. He even acknowledges in his preface to his own
second part, that Luxan was not wanting in literary culture.
De Luna, though he continued Mendoza, never attempted
to degrade or travesty his work. The author of Pickwick
Abroad would have resented any charge of want of loyalty to
Dickens. Herein consists the one singular and essential
difference between the author of the false Don Quixote and
any other continuator, imitator, or parodist. It was bad
enough to attempt to forestall Cervantes' own work — to
take the bread out of his mouth ; but the injury inflicted on
Cervantes was one far greater, and intended to be greater, for
which there is no parallel in the history of letters. That
Avellaneda's was no ordinary case of imitation is proved by the
spirit of malice and of mischief which breathes through every
page of his book ; and not only in the openly hostile preface
but throughout the story. Had Nash or Greene or any one of
Shakspeare's rivals, out of envy of the "Johannes Factotum"

184

IS The False 'Don Quixote'

— the " only Shakescene " — treated Hamlet as Avellaneda
has treated Don Quixote ; had he, ignoring the poet's own
conclusion, so turned the story that Ophelia, rescued from
the brook, should be confined in a reformatory ; that Claudius
should find grace and become head of a religious house,
Horatio become a jester at the court of king Fortinbras, and
Hamlet end his days in a lunatic asylum, — this would have
been a trial even for the sweet temper of our Shakspeare.
But an outrage greater than this did the veiled enemy of
Cervantes attempt to perpetrate on his book. In the Second
Part of Avellaneda we perceive not only a studied ignorance
of Cervantes' design, an absolute insensibility to any feeling
of romance or of chivalry, to the tenderness, the humour,
the pathos of the story — a brutal incapacity to apprehend the
spirit of the book ; but a deliberate attempt to spoil the
work of Cervantes — to rob him of its glory, and to degrade
his characters, to drag them into the mire and b-smirch them
with filth. Avellaneda's Don Ouixote is a common lunatic,
who ends by being shut up in a madhouse. His Sancho is
a mere vulgar glutton, a booby without sense or humour.
In place of the graceful and witty Dorothea, we have the
lewd and dirty Barbara. All grace, all tenderness, all flavour
have vanished from the story ; and the residuum is but a
dull, dirty, obscene book, which it is a disgrace to the
Spanish nation that any Spaniard should speak of with even
toleration.^

The outrage on Cervantes would have been bad enough
had it ended here. But that this was no ordinary imitation,
— that Avellaneda was actuated, not by any literary ambition,
still less by any liking for the story, in continuing Don
S^uixote — is sufficiently proved by the Prologue, which is
written in the bitterest and most malignant tone of personal

^ Yet there are Spaniards who not only tolerate Avellaneda, but have
included his false Don Sluixote in their collection of national classics, in the
Biblioteca de Autores EiJ/ancles.

185

Cervantes chap.

animosity against Cervantes, breathing spite and jealousy in
every word. In this he is reviled with a fury which, in its
extravagance, becomes almost laughable ; not only for his
faults as an author, but for his defects of character and his
bodily infirmities, — even for his wounds, his old age, and his
poverty. He is called a "cripple, a soldier old in years
though youthful in spirits (a curious reproach, but evidently
meant to sting), envious, discontented, a backbiter, a male-
factor, or, at least, a jail-bird." He is likened in his ruinous
state to the old castle of San Cervantes. He is reproached
with having "more tongue than hands," — his assailant, in
his desire to note his defect of speech, being so blinded by
malignity as even to libel that infirmity which Cervantes
took to be the chief glory of his life, the hand disabled at
Lepanto. Finally, after " unpacking his heart with words,"
and cursing like a very drab or a cloistered monk, Avel-
laneda, in his rage, avows that his express object in writing
his book is to deprive Cervantes of the profit expected from
Don Quixote.

What outrage inflicted on a man of letters was ever
greater than this ? Yet a modern translator of Don Quixote
(Mr. Ormsby) — from whom better things might have been
expected as a scholar and a presumed lover of Cerv^antes —
has put forth the remarkable opinion that after all this was
no great matter to cry out about ; that Cervantes had " no
reasonable grievance " except in the matter of the preface ;
that Cervantes had no case or a very bad one ; that he ought
to have borne it better than he did, seeing that other writers
had been treated in the same way ; that Avellaneda's book
would never have been heard of had Cervantes behaved in
some other and more manly way about it ; finally, which is
a climax worthy of Germond de Lavigne himself, that we
owe a debt to Avellaneda, seeing that but for him Don fixate
would have remained " a mere torso instead of a complete
work."

i86

The False 'Don Quixote'

After this, from a gentleman who has so much regard for
Cervantes as to do him the honour of translating him, it
ceases to be a wonder not only how any man should have
written a parody on Don fixate, but how any man could
have praised the false Second Part as equal, if not superior,
to the real. That there are some of this breed still extant,
out of Spain as well as in it, is clear. What is amazing is to
discover that it is Cervantes, the true man, who has to answer
for misbehaviour in the matter of this Avellaneda forgery —
not the false rival, the malignant reviler of his name, the
robber of his fame and spoiler of his work. No doubt our
hero should have behaved much more nobly ; but let us
think what was the provocation. Of course he should have
had philosophy enough to bear it ; but of our charity let us
remember that this was an old man, much vexed by fortune,
approaching the close of his life, to whom nothing more
happy had happened than the writing of the book so
wantonly abused. Doubtless he should have passed over the
injury — as modern authors, more fortunate in their training,
are wont to do — and should have suffered in silence. How
much more noble or good-natured Cervantes might have
been, I do not know, though I find it hard to conceive of a
nobler and better nature. As in the history of letters there
is nothing like this outrage which was committed upon him,
so in the same record I can find nothing more manly and
dignified than Cervantes' answer to his assailant. As to
what is said about the reader's debt to Avellaneda in respect
that he has made Cervantes give us a complete work instead
of leaving Don ^ixote^ it is sufficiently answered by what
has gone before. I have proved that Cervantes designed to
complete his book, and had written at least three-fourths of
the Second Part, with a perfect scheme for a denouement
and conclusion, long before he could possibly have heard of
another hand as engaged in the work. What then is the
amount of our indebtedness to Avellaneda ? — The only effect

187

Cervantes chap.

the forgery had upon Cervantes was to quicken him in his
labour, and to induce him to alter to a small extent the issue
of Don Quixote's final adventure.

But leaving for the present the question of Cervantes'
own conduct in this strange passage of his life, and I find
it hard to blame him for any part of it, what of the hidden
enemy by whom he was so cruelly and basely used ? There
can be no reasonable doubt that this was no ordinary quarrel
between two men of letters. It was a deliberate personal
attack on Cervantes, arising, as the preface clearly avows,
from a motive deeper than that of literary jealousy. Who
could be the author of the false fixate — who sought to
spoil Cervantes' book, and to rob him of the glory and the
profit he had won by the First Part ? That is a mystery
still unsolved, which claims a literature to itself. That
Avellaneda is an assumed name is certain. No one of that
name was known in that age as a writer. Tordesillas is a
town of old Castile, between Valladolid and Medina del
Campo, a long way from Tarragona — used in this connexion,
doubtless, as a blind. So much as this has been proved
by internal evidence and by the hints dropped from the
writer. Avellaneda, whoever he was, was an Aragonese, a
monk, a Dominican, a writer of plays, and an intimate
personal friend of Lope de Vega. That he was an Aragonese,
Cervantes himself pronounces — from the style, his disuse of
the article, his use of the infinitive for the gerund, and
certain other peculiarities for which the writers of Aragon
are noted. That he was a monk is proved by his familiarity
with monastic observances and his frequent reference to
them. That he was a Dominican and a preacher is strongly
suspected by his profuse display of ecclesiastical learning, his
quotations from the Fathers, and his partiality for the
Dominican Order. That he was a writer of comedies
himself is very probable, from the personal offence he owns
to taking at Cervantes' criticisms of the drama. Lastly,

i88

15 The False 'Don Quixote'

that he was one of Lope de Vega's intimate friends is seen
from the zeal with which he adopts his cause, making it a
particular charge against Cervantes that Lope de Vega is
treated with scant reverence in Don ^dxote.

Further than this no one has penetrated the secret of
Avellaneda. There have been innumerable conjectures,
however, as to the authorship of this spurious Second Part of
Don ^ixote. Mayans y Siscar, Cervantes' first biographer,
declares that this disguised enemy was so powerful that
Cervantes did not dare to name him. Cean Bermudez, at
the commencement of this century, surmised that Avella-
neda might be Blanco de Paz, — Cervantes' old enemy of
Algiers, — an opinion which has been adopted in our days by
Senor Benjumea. The voice is like that of Blanco de Paz,
indeed, who was a Dominican and an Aragonese, with a
curious rage of spite against Cervantes ; but as Senor
Asensio has pointed out, there is no proof that Blanco de
Paz ever returned to Spain from his captivity, and it is
extremely unlikely that he was alive, thirty-four years after,
to indulge in his ancient grudge against his fellow-captive.
Adolfo de Castro, in a serious mood, has suggested Luis
de Aliaga, King Philip's Confessor, as likely to have been
Avellaneda ; and Aliaga's claims to that distinction are
certainly very strong. He was known to have a peculiar
hatred to the literary profession, through having been a
frequent subject of their satire. He is said to have written
plays himself. He was made the subject of ridicule by
Quevedo (Cervantes' friend) in his Cuento de Cuentos and
other satires ; and wrote a pamphlet in reply to Ouevedo,
called Fenganza de la Lengua Espanola^ the style of which
is said to be similar to Avellaneda's. Some other coin-
cidences are certainly very remarkable and can scarcely be
accidental, tending to strengthen the conjecture that Aliaga
was Cervantes' hidden adversary, and that Cervantes knew
him to be Avellaneda. In the passage describing Don

189

Cervantes

CHAP.

Quixote's entry into Barcelona, in the company of Don
Antonio Moreno, it is related that some wicked boys of the
city lifted the tails of Rozinante and Dapple, and stuck
under them some branches of furze [aliagas'^). Aliaga is
known to have gone by the nickname of Sancho Panza^ by
reason of his large paunch and his thin legs, and there is a
virulent lampoon levelled at him by the Conde de Villa-
mediana, beginning : —

Sancho Panza, el Confesor
Del ya difunto Monarca.^

In spite of all this weight of indirect testimony, I cannot
believe that a person so eminent in position and so powerful
in influence as Aliaga, the King's Confessor, could have
occupied himself in writing the spurious Second Part of
Don ^uixotCj nor do the motives alleged seem to me strong
enough to account for his singular acrimony in that pub-
lication. Other names have been mentioned, among them
Alarcon the dramatist, Bartolome de Argensola, and the
monk Perez, who wrote La Picara yustina. Argensola,
who is proudly claimed by M. Germond de Lavigne as
Avellaneda, had been a friend of Cervantes, but was at this
time (1614) at Naples with the Conde de Lemos. He
who wrote La Picara yustina was vile enough in thought
and style to have forged Don ^ixote^ but he had no motive

^ See Don Sluixote, Part II. ch. Ixi. This was probably a skit at Aliaga,
who was the universal butt of the wits of the age ; but it is no proof that
Cervantes took Aliaga to be Avellaneda.

^ Luis de Aliaga was appointed confessor to Philip III., through the influence
of the Duke of Lerma, in 1608, and Inquisitor-General on the decease of the
Archbishop Sandoval in 1619, though he had been petitioned against, in 1612,
by the Council of the Indies, as a man of scandalous life and habits. He was
dismissed from these offices with ignominy and banished to his country house, in
1621, to the delight of all good men. Philip III., on his death-bed, is said to
have denounced Aliaga in terms which implied that Aliaga had hastened his
death. To this Villamediana is supposed to allude in his verses. See more of
Aliaga in Guerra y Orbe's Algunoi Dates para iluUrar el Sluijote. Madrid, 1866.

190

The False 'Don Quixote'

for this particular villainy. Alarcon was thirty years of age
in 1 6 14. In 1606, if one may believe that Cervantes w^as
then at Seville, assisting in the high jinks at San Juan de
Alfarache, Alarcon must have made his acquaintance, he
being one of the competitors in the mock tourney. In
1608 Alarcon returned to Mexico, his native country, but
in 161 1 came again to Spain. It is certainly curious that,
while every other dramatist of the age makes mention of
Cervantes,— most of them dipping largely into his repertory
of inventions for their comedies, — in none of Alarcon's
dramas is there any allusion to Cervantes or to Don
^lixote.

I do not believe, however, that Alarcon, whose first
comedy was played at Madrid in 1613, could have had any
sufficient motive for assailing Cervantes so venomously as
Avellaneda assailed him. Nor was Alarcon any friend to
Lope de Vega, which is fatal to the theory of his being
Avellaneda. Who, then, was the secret enemy who dealt
Cervantes this dastardly blow ; who had motive enough to
hate Cervantes and to degrade the character of Don Quixote ;
who had interest enough to get his scurrilous book pub-
lished with the approbation of archbishops and the superior
clergy ; who had cause to resent the freedom with which
the comedies of the day and their writers were treated in
Don Quixote; who had his own personal reasons for being
jealous of the fame and the influence of the author ; who
had a strong motive for remaining concealed ? That
Cervantes knew who his assailant was, or at least came to
know it before the Prologue to his own Second Part was
written, I have little doubt. There is a peculiar tone of
suppressed injury — of surprise and contempt mixed with
indignation — a strange reluctance to press his complaint,
out of regard seemingly for the office or the quality of his
adversary, which to me is strong confirmation of what I
hold to be the true solution of this dark mystery.

191

CHAPTER XVI

Cervantes and Lope de Vega

I AM now come to a chapter in the life of Cervantes which,
for the honour of literature and of Spain, it were well that
the honest biographer could afford to pass over. But it is
impossible, in attempting to solve the mystery of the false
Don ^uixote^ to avoid touching on the relations between
Cervantes and his great and life-long rival. Lope de Vega.
In these relations, which Spanish critics, out of motives
pious and patriotic, have treated of very delicately, is
involved much that is important for the reading of the char-
acter of our hero and for the understanding the temper of the
age for which he wrote. The jealousies of men of letters have
unfortunately been but too common in every age. The
quarrels of authors are a favourite theme for the curious in
human frailty. And never were evil-speaking and ill-doing
between author and author carried to a sharper point than
in Spain during the first decade of the seventeenth century,
when the struggle for the patron was at the keenest. The
swarm of competitors for literary fame was all the denser,
the shouldering and the elbowing the fiercer, as the resources
of the country began to diminish and the natural avenues to
wealth became clogged and more difficult. The intercourse
between the leading wits of the day was painfully deficient
in courtesy, and when they fell out, as often happened, their
language to each other betrayed feelings which in this

192

i6 Lope de Vega

politer age, when we have happily got rid (as it is con-
fidently reported) of the bludgeon and the poisoned dagger,
are scarcely comprehensible. We have only to read the
satirical sonnets exchanged between Gongora and Lope de
Vega, or between Quevedo and Gongora, to perceive what
little restraint even the best of the men of that day — the
Phoenixes, the Mirrors, and the Oracles of wit and learning
— were able to exercise towards each other, when their
passion of jealousy was aroused. Gongora writes verses
against Quevedo, calls him " drunkard," " stupid pedant,"
and reviles his defect of vision and his limping gait. Ouevedo
retorts in kind, and with equal delicacy of wit, saying that
he will have to smear his verses with bacon fat to keep
Gongora from gnawing them — thus gently insinuating that
the leader of the Cultos was a Jew or a Moor. On Villa-
mediana's fresh grave Gongora discharges venom, treating
that " blood-stained heart " as in life Villamediana had
treated all other hearts. Between Lope de Vega and
Gongora similar compliments passed, in foul sonnets levelled
at each other. The historian Mariana, resenting an attack
by his critic Ramila, calls him " ass in voice and aspect, ass
in the feet and bosom, with nothing recorded of his life
which did not smell of ass."

The only writer of the time against whom no like
reproach can be brought was Cervantes. There is not a
line of his about a rival or contemporary which implies
anything worse than a good-humoured jest or a piece of
banter. When most severe and with just cause he uses no
weapon sharper than irony, and even his deadliest sarcasms
are purged of offence by humour. Like our own Shak-
speare, as painted by Ben Jonson, he was of "an open and
free nature," who thought no evil and looked for none ; of a
temper the sweetest among men of genius, who had come
through the fiery ordeal of a life of hardship with a heart
unsoured as with honour unblemished. In him the old

193 '3

Cervantes

CHAP.

Castilian virtues of manliness and dignified self-restraint
were blended with qualities more rare among his country-
men — with a gaiety of soul, a cheerful frankness, and
sereneness of temper, which were as conspicuous in his
relations with his brothers of the pen as they had been with
his companions in captivity.

With Lope de Vega, a man of a mould quite other,
Cervantes was brought early into contact ; and it is
impossible to avoid the question which now arises as to
the nature of the relations between the two men. They
crossed each other's path very often, and there is much in
their connexion, whether we call it competition or not,
which is of interest in understanding the story, if not in
unravelling the mystery, of Cervantes' life. If we are to
believe the majority of the Spanish critics, especially those
of the earlier time, the relations between Lope de Vega and
Cervantes were of perfect amity, as between the two
greatest men of letters there should be. If there was any
difference between them, it was such as was inevitable from
disparity of age and inequality of worldly fortunes.^

On the part of Cervantes, the feeling of natural resent-
ment at a dispensation which placed a man whom he
regarded as not his superior in a position so far above him
in worldly esteem and in fortune, was one certainly not
inconsistent with a friendly disposition towards Lope, and
a generous recognition of his merits. No one has spoken
more warmly or more profusely in favour of Lope de Vega.
So early as 1584, when Lope was but twenty-two years

^ Navarrete is one of those who try zealously to maintain this position.
Pellicer is not so confident, Clemencin was clearly visited with strong sus-
picions of Lope, though he tries to conceal them and to hold the balance even
between the two. Ticknor has summed up the case with great fairness in his
note on the subject, except that he gives to Dorothea, in which there are two
casual references to Cervantes, the date of 1598. But Dorothea, though written
in Lope's youth, was not published till 1632, sixteen years after Cervantes'
death.

194

i6 Lope de Vega

of age, — when assuredly he could not have been much
known and a word of praise was most useful to him, —
Cervantes had named him among the rising poets of Spain,
and had foretold his greatness in the Canto de Caliope. In
1598, when he was himself in the depths of poverty, he
had written a laudatory sonnet for Lope's poem of La
Dragontea. It is quite true, as Ticknor observes, that in
what Cervantes says about Lope de Vega there is a tone of
" dignified reserve and caution." There could not be much
love between the two men, even if their social positions had
been equal ; and it is all the more creditable to Cervantes'
sense of generosity that he was able to praise a rival in
whose popularity he could not but feel there was implied so
much of injustice to himself. In the First Part of Don
^dxote^ Cervantes has unquestionably spoken with great
freedom of the popular favourite. The famous Prologue is
clearly levelled all through at Lope de Vega, — at his
pedantry, his conceit, his literary tricks and artifices, though
what is said is in a tone of good-natured banter or " chafi\,"
which none but a malignant nature would take for malice.
In the forty-eighth chapter, where the Priest of Argama-
silla discourses with such excellent judgment of comedies
and their makers. Lope is principally aimed at and severely
criticised, especially for his degradation of his art to the taste
of the vulgar. But his faults are touched with much delicacy j
nor is there a single word which can be tortured into an ex-
pression of personal ill-feeling. In this same chapter some of
Lope's dramas are selected for especial and extravagant praise.
While Lope's manner of writing is ridiculed, his defects are
set down rather to his easiness in accommodating himself to
" the taste of the actors " than to his own want of art or
judgment, while Lope himself is called "that most happy
genius of these kingdoms, who has composed such an infinite
number of plays with so much glory, with so much grace,
such elegant verse, such choice language, such weighty

195

Cervantes chap.

sentiments, — so rich in eloquence and loftiness of style as
that the world is filled with his renown."

On the other side what have we ? The only book of
Lope's in which the name of Cervantes occurs, though he
published many books while Cervantes was alive and
struggling for fame and fortune, was Dorothea — a wild
dramatic romance in which the shameless story of Lope's
own early loves is told with amazing effrontery. But as
Dorothea did not see the light till 1632, it comes to this,
that in return for all Cervantes' praises of him not one
single word was said in any published work of Lope's during
Cervantes' lifetime. As Ticknor observes. Lope had many
opportunities for a good word which might have been of
use to his less fortunate rival. He actually makes use of
incidents in Cervantes' life in Algiers in one of his plays,
Los Esdavos de Argel^ introducing Cervantes himself in
person as one of his characters, and pillaging whole scenes
and passages from Cervantes' own play of El Trato de Argel^
without one word to signify his respect for the man, of
sympathy for his sufferings, or in commendation of his
heroic conduct. After Cervantes' death Lope mentions
him four times in various of his works up to 1635 ; in the
Laurel de Apolo devoting fourteen lines to his memory, but
in every case either coldly or in terms curiously forced and
insincere. As for Don ^ixote^ in reply to what is called
" the charge " made by Cervantes' partisans that Lope never
praised it in print, we are asked by a recent notable reprover
of partisanship! — "Why should he?" Why should he,
indeed ? There could not be much to Lope's Hking in
Don ^ixote. It was a book written in reproof of the
popular taste for extravagance and affectation in books, in
which the practice of writing comedies merely to suit the
humour of the audience and for pelf had been severely
condemned.

^ In the S^uarterly Re-vieio for October, 1894.

ig6

i6 Lope de Vega

But though Lope left nothing in print to signify his
opinion of Don ^uixote^ an accident, which we cannot regard
as other than fortunate, has let us into the secret of Lope's
mind in regard to his rival's book. Searching among the
papers in the archives of the Conde de Altamira, which had
once belonged to the Duke of Sessa, Lope's great friend and
patron, the German Adolph Schack found some autograph
letters of Lope to the Duke, extracts from which he
published in the Appendix to his book on the Dramatic
Literature and Art of Spain?- Among these is one dated
the 4th of August, 1604, in which Lope, giving the latest
news from the Court, says : " Of poets I speak not. Many
are in the bud for next year, but there are none so bad as
Cervantes, or so foolish as to praise Don Quixote ; " and again,
speaking of satire : " It is a thing as hateful to me as my
little books are to Almendares (a poor poet of the day) and
my plays to Cervantes." The animus here is tolerably
manifest. At this date let us remember Don ^lixote had
not vet been published, so that Lope could only know of it
by report, or what is more likely, from having seen it in
manuscript, which he could scarcely have done had he not
been a professed friend of the author.

We are told by those who claim to discuss this small matter
without any feeling of partisanship that "rather too much
has been made of these words of Lope about Cervantes " ;
and perhaps, if there was no more than this in the private
correspondence of Lope with the Duke of Sessa, we might
be disposed to agree with the opinion. But the letters
between Lope and the Duke were very numerous, and
Schack was allowed to examine only a small portion of them.
The bulk of that correspondence still exists in manuscript,
consisting of 225 letters filling three volumes folio, which
are carefully locked from curious eyes in the Biblioteca

1 Nachtrdge voir Gesch'ichte der Dramatisc/ien Lileratur und Kunst in Spanien, von
A. F. von Schack. Frankfurt, 1854.

197

Cervantes chap.

Nac'ional. The erudite Barrera, historian of the Spanish
drama, to whom the precious papers were submitted for
examination, will perhaps be able to say when the whole of
Lope's letters will be published. If as an appendix to that
truly magnum opus, the complete edition of Lope de Vega, — of
which only one volume a year has come out since 1890, — we
need not look for full light on this dark matter until some time
in the middle of the twentieth century .^ Meanwhile, it is no
secret that some appalling revelations await a future genera-
tion respecting the character of that glory of his nation and
wonder of the world, Lope de Vega. A few of the letters
have found their way into print, and may be read by the
curious in Los Ultimas Amores de Lope de Vega^ by Ribas
y Canfranc, published in 1876. Of these it is enough here
to say that they exhibit the great public entertainer of the
period, the brilliantly successful dramatist, now in holy orders,
— a familiar of the Inquisition, and of the mature age of fifty-
five, in the character of head-procurer to the nobleman of
whose soul he was in charge. Under the pretence of making
the Duke his confidant in his own adulterous adventure, the
reverend chaplain is seen to be helping his Grace in his
amours, — when not engaged, we presume, in carrying a torch
at an auto de fe or assisting at mass. The whole story of
the mutual pandering is droll almost to the overpowering
of the disgust. The Duke's own letters unfortunately are
not preserved, but the passages in which " Belardo " imparts
to "Lucilo" — such were the sweetly sentimental names
adopted by this disreputable pair of old gentlemen — the

^ The edition is being brought out under the care of Senor Menendez y
Pelayo, and promises the " complete works " of Lope de Vega. Seeing that
vol. iii., to which in three years we have got, only goes so far as some of the
plays from Scripture, and that none of the comedies proper are yet touched, or
the farces and dialogues, not to speak of the miscellaneous poems, the novels,
the pastorals, etc. ; seeing that, according to Hartzenbusch, to print the whole
of Lope's works would need fifty such volumes as those of Rivadeneyra's
Biblhteca, this is a very large promise.

198

i6 Lope de Vega

troubles of his soul in respect of helping his Grace with
*'Jacinta," while confiding to him his interesting relations
with " Amarilis," are a comedy more exquisite than Lope
ever invented, and of a humour almost equal to any scene in
Don Quixote}-

We have no further concern with this scandal in this
place except for the strong light it throws upon the moral
character of the man whose intellectual feats Cervantes had
been at such pains to extol. From the story of the life
of Miguel de Cervantes, of which his relations with Lope
de Vega form an essential part, this chapter, however offen-
sive to the national pride, cannot be omitted. It serves to
prove at least that in the ethical part the " prodigy of nature "
was not strong ; that his powers of self-deception were equal
to those of his professional feigning ; that in the art of
" making comedy " he was as expert at home as on the stage ;
that he was not very nice as to the means he took for
gratifying his purposes, as indeed is shown by the whole
story of his life. Who can tell what further secrets lie
hidden in that bundle of papers so jealously hidden away by
the guardians of Spanish orthodoxy, literary and religious ? ^
Who can assure us that there are no other allusions to
Cervantes than those which the too curious Schack was
lucky enough to capture at a casual reading ? The excuse
for hiding the Sessa correspondence is that it contains scandal

^ Amarilh was a married woman, Dofia Marta de Nevares. Gongora got
hold of the scandal, and wrote some verses on it : —

Dicho me han por una carta
Que es tu comica persona —
Sobre los manteles mona,
Y entre las sabanas marta,-^

a play upon the word marta — a marten. The Duke's eldest son stood sponsor
at the birth of Lope's bastard girl.

* Other collections of private letters by Lope are spoken of by Gayangos, in
his translation of Ticknor, as belonging to the Marques de Pidal, which have
never seen the light.

199

Cervantes chap.

about Lope, the priest and Inquisitor ; but seeing that it
covers the period of this other great scandal — the secret attack
upon Miguel de Cervantes by some one who was at least a
very warm friend of Lope — may we not fairly suspect that
there is something contained in the letters more than has
appeared — something which might throw light upon this
dark mystery of Avellaneda ?

Judging of the unknown from the known, there is
evidence enough to connect Lope de Vega with the
publication of this false and malignant book, which, under
the pretence of being a continuation of Don ^u'lxote^ was
an elaborate attack upon Cervantes, his character and his
work. Lope de Vega had been all his life a persistent rival
of Cervantes — watching his progress, waiting on his steps,
imitating him at every turn of the thorny path to fame,
and pursuing him through every field of letters with a jealous
tenacity to which I do not know any parallel. Whatever
the elder man wrote, the younger copied. Cervantes wrote
a pastoral — Galatea; Lope de Vega wrote a pastoral — •
Arcadia?- Cervantes wrote plays ; Lope de Vega wrote
plays (here beating his rival out of the field by his amazing
productiveness). Cervantes wrote novels ; Lope de Vega
wrote novels. Then Cervantes wrote Don ^lixote ; and
here Lope de Vega's instinct must have told him there was
no copying Cervantes. It was a blow which shook his
throne, and fluttered the whole tribe of his flatterers and
parasites. The Prologue must by them have been regarded as
nothing short of rese-majeste. Here was one who had mocked
the very majesty of Spanish letters on the throne, who had
ruffled the Phoenix of the age, who had carried his audacity
so far as to speak lightly of "one whom nations the most

■^ In a former edition I wrote, by a slip of the pen, Dcntkea in place of
ylrcadia. Dorothea is not a pastoral, and anything but an Arcadia. But if any
blunder is excusable in a writer it is that of not remembering the name of one
of Lope's multitudinous productions.

200

i6 Lope de Vega

remote so justly honour, and to whom our country owes so
much for his innumerable stupendous comedies, written with
all the vigour of art which the world demands, and with the
correctness and purity to be expected from a minister of the
Holy Office." This, from Avellaneda himself, is an exquisite
touch, seeing what were the pious works in which the
minister of the Holy Office was then engaged, with his
Grace the Duke of Sessa.

Who, then, but Lope de Vega could have written, if not
the spurious Second Part, at least Avellaneda's brutal and
malignant prologue? In this last there have not been
detected any traces of Aragonese, — though even such might
have been introduced purposely, for the better disguising the
authorship.^ No one, as I think I have shown, had so great
a motive for injuring Cervantes in his Don fixate. No
one was so capable of doing him that injury as a priest, who
was acute enough to detect that the book boded his order no
good ; as a familiar of the Inquisition, which holy system
had been burlesqued, exposed, and brought to naught ; as a
writer whose literary sins had been held up to ridicule ; as a
dramatist whose plays had been condemned ; finally, as the
leading star in the literary firmament which had been eclipsed.
But then we are told that there is "no positive proof" that
Lope was Avellaneda. If there was any positive proof, of
course the controversy would be at an end. What positive
proof could we have in the circumstances ? Who was likely
to confess to the authorship of that dastardly and malignant

^ The apologists for Lope have made much of the difference of his style from
Avellaneda's ; but it is worthy of note that Cervantes, in the Prologue to his
own Second Part, charges his adversary not only with "hiding his name" but
"disguising his country" — trying to pass for an Aragonese for greater deception.
Lope was quite capable of such a triclc, or if not, could easily have got one of
his numerous train of satellites to do this dirty work for him. There are some
who have even detected a resemblance in style between Avellaneda's book
and Lope's early dramatic romance of Dorothea, the only thing he wrote in the
romantic way,

201

Cervantes

CHAP.

prologue ? No direct testimony can be expected to come
from any Spanish source. Again we are told that "the
character of the book " is inconsistent with the theory that
Lope wrote it, not to speak of " the impossibility of a brave
soldier, as Lope was, taunting another with having lost his
hand at Lepanto." But it is precisely the character of the
book which confirms the suspicion that Lope, and none but
Lope, was the author — its character of foul ribaldry, joined
to the base personal malice displayed against Cervantes.
As to the " brave soldier " argument, it is a desperately
feeble one. What do we know of Lope as the " brave
soldier " ? It is true he took a month's cruise on board one
of the vessels of the Armada, coming back to Cadiz uninjured.
But where is the record of any special bravery displayed by
him on board the galleon San "Juan — the tale of the heretics
whom he slew, of the dangers he encountered and the
wounds he endured ? History is absolutely dumb as to
the deeds of Lope de Vega as soldier and sailor, and to com-
pare them with those of Cervantes is ridiculous. Not less
maladroit is the reference to Lope's generous pleading for
Vicente Espinel with the Duke of Sessa as a proof of Lope's
freedom from jealousy, when we remember that Espinel was
one of those false friends who, extravagantly praised by
Cervantes, turned traitor to his friend's memory, disparaging
Don fixate after the author's death and rating his own
Marcos de Obregon as superior.

All that we know of Lope de Vega's character confirms
the theory which attributes to him the authorship of the
spurious Second Part of Don ^uixote^ and the more we know
of that character the more probable that theory becomes.
In his lifetime Lope was noted for his jealousy of every one
who came too near his throne. His own pupil and friend,
Alarcon, wrote of him as —

Envidioso universal

De los aplausos agenos —
202

i6 Lope de Vega

the universal envier of the applause given to others. That
Lope de Vega, with his own hand, wrote the false Second
Part which was intended to forestall and to spoil Cervantes'
own coming Second Part, no one, of course, can positively
say. It is not likely that he did, nor necessary to his
purpose that he should. But every collateral circumstance,
every presumption, every fact which has been brought to
light, tends to support and confirm the opinion, which even
some Spaniards are now beginning slowly to admit, that
Lope de Vega, singly or in collaboration, was — if not the
author — the inspirer, the true and only begetter of the Don
Quixote of Avellaneda. That the word went round the
circle of Lope's satellites that Don fixate was to be depre-
ciated is proved by testimony more ample than I have room
for in this place.^

From the defence of Avellaneda, or the excuse for him, to
the approbation of his work is but a step — a step which even
Spaniards have been bold enough to take. Even when
they had the true Don Quixote before them there were
critics, native and foreign, who preferred the imitation to the
original, the base coinage — doubly base for its bad work
and its ill intent — to the sterling metal. Just as Shakspeare
had his Greene and his Rymer, so Cervantes was fated to
have his Le Sage and his Lavigne. The Archbishop of
Tarragona and his Vicar-General, those seasoned vessels,
who found nothing immodest in Avellaneda's ^ixote^ —
nothing but what is chaste entertainment and good morality,
— have not been without followers in Spain and elsewhere.
Bias de Nasarre, in his reprint of Avellaneda in 1732, declared
the character of the false Sancho to be more natural than

^ See Pellicer, Ticknor, and Guerra y Orbe, passim. In E/ Ca'valkro f^enturoso,
by Juan de Valladares, — a work never published, the manuscript of which is
in the possession of Scfior Gayangos, — there is an allusion in the preface de-
preciatory of Don ^luixote. The approbation is under Lope de Vega's hand, dated
1617. Valladares was a priest.

203

Cervantes

Cervantes' Sancho ; that Cervantes had borrowed his own
Second Part from Avellaneda ; that the glory of Avellaneda
is the greater, for the droll reason that " it needs more force
of genius to add to first inventions than to make them." ^
Don Agustin Montiano, who gives his approbation to the
book of Avellaneda, speaking of Cervantes' harsh remarks
on his competitor, does not believe that any judicious man
would decide in favour of Cervantes, defends Avellaneda
from the reproach of being " cold and without mirth," and
prefers his Sancho to the original.^ A greater than any
of these false Spaniards — Le Sage — perhaps to show his
spite against a book from which he could not steal, — "in
this fair garden left to feed. To batten on the moor," — made
a French version of Avellaneda, trimming and combing him
into French elegance, omitting his bawdry and purging him
of his grossness. According to this judge of what was
knightly and romantic, " Avellaneda has very well sustained
the character of Don Ouixote ; he has made a Knight Errant
who is always grave, and all whose words are magnificent,
pompous, and flowery." ^ The latest of this school of odd
perverse antipathists is that acute and ingenious Spanish
scholar, M. Germond de Lavigne, — said to be a disciple of
Victor Hugo, — who has taken up Avellaneda with warmth,
abusing Cervantes for lack of generosity in not welcoming
his traducer as a concurrent ; and placing him on the same
level of les petites passions de rivalite. He denies the gross-
ness of Avellaneda and the delicacy of Cervantes ; avers that

^ Bias de Nasarre, who has figured before in this biography, is said to have
been one of those who affected French tastes, then becoming fashionable under
a Bourbon king. He assumed the name of Isidro Perales.

^ Agustin Montiano y Luyando, who signed the Approbation for Nasarre's
reprint of Avellaneda (the first ever made of the book, and the only one till
Rivadeneyra gave it the honour of a place in his Biblioteca), was Secretary to
Philip V,

^ See Le Sage's preface to his translation, or rather rechauffage, of Avellaneda,
in the first edition of 1704. In this, Don S^uixote is turned into Dom Guichotte.

204

i6 Lope de Vega

the copyist is entitled to our respect because he has conducted
his story strictly according to " the logical succession of the
ideas of the master " ; declares the plan of Avellaneda superior
to that of Cervantes ; with a sublime audacity charges
Cervantes himself vv^ith plagiarism from the other ; finally,
pronounces Cervantes " un esprit leger^ frivole^ et vagabond " /

205

CHAPTER XVII

The Second Part of ' Don ^lixote '

The scheme of the false knight who with vizor down had
tried to personate the true so as by deliberate misbehaviour
to bring shame on his rival, had such success as that notable
piece of villainy deserved. Not long had Avellaneda to plume
himself upon the triumph of his craven device. Cervantes
first became aware of the intruder upon his domain when
himself half through the fifty-ninth chapter of his Second Part.
He was then leisurely taking Don fixate to the jousts at
Zaragoza, where, in accordance with the plan of the third
sally, as distinctly announced in the fifteenth chapter, the
Knight was to be encountered in the lists by the disguised
Samson Carrasco, overthrown, and brought back to his village
to be cured of his knight-errantry craze. There is no
foundation whatever for the strange theory which a recent
English critic has advanced that but for Avellaneda Cervantes
would not have completed his own book. The design of the
Second Part had been already declared, and the process of
the denouement plainly indicated. The only effect which
the publication of Avellaneda's book had upon our author
was to cause him to divert his hero's course from Zaragoza
to Barcelona — " in order," as he says himself, " to prove that
new historian a liar." We do not know that this change
of destination involves any loss to the reader. The plan of
taking the Knight to Zaragoza to mingle with real knights

206

CHAP. 17

The Second Part

at a tournament was not very promising. Cervantes even
seems to welcome the diversion with something more than
a boyish delight in this unexpected prospect of a good
fight. His own Don Quixote was beginning to show signs
of weariness. Adventures were almost exhausted. Even
Sancho's spirits were beginning to flag. Therefore, though
at the expense of some dislocation of the narrative, and the
straining of Rozinante's powers, who had to go two hundred
and thirty miles in four days, — and the confusion of the
topographers, who cannot understand why the author did
not make more of the country — Cervantes abandoned his
first intention, and, with a little violence to chronology and
geography, took his hero to Barcelona. The desire of Cer-
vantes to get away from Avellaneda's ground was perfectly
natural, and it is a little absurd to blame him, as Mr. Ormsby
has done, for " not thinking enough of his readers." The
readers have nothing to forgive the writer. His last chapters,
even though we may concede that there are some marks of
hurry in the composition, show no falling off in humour or
spirit. The final scene in the Duke's castle we could have
done very well without, and Altisidora we hardly cared to
see again. But the bright and sparkling chapters of life at
Barcelona ; the manner in which the Knight's overthrow by
him of The JVh'ite Moon is accomplished j the incidents on the
return journey to Argamasilla and Sancho's penance at night in
the wood ; and the end, with the sickness and death of Don
Quixote, and Sancho blubbering by his master's bedside, and
bidding him to rise and resume his adventures, for " the
maddest thing a man can do is to die," are as true to nature
as they are consummate in art — the perfect sequel to the
story, in which assuredly the reader has not been forgotten.
How much better Cervantes might have done I know
not, or how differently he should have behaved under the
trial he had to endure, when another hand had tried to
degrade his hero and to spoil his book. That he must have

207

Cervantes chap.

felt the foul blow deeply is manifest, from the frequent
references he makes to Avellaneda and to the impudent
attempt to rob him of his hero, and from the reply he makes
to his enemy in the Prologue. It is easy to say that he
ought to have behaved differently ; but he did not — not being
blest w^ith those moral gifts with which modern critics are so
richly endowed. For my part I see nothing to regret from
the part of either the author of Don Quixote or his readers.
I cannot admit that there is a single word he wrote in his
own justification, while suffering under this cruel stroke
dealt him by an unseen enemy, which can fairly be said to be
unworthy of his fine genius and nature — of the author of Don
^iixote. I do not think he loses his temper even under this
unexpected blow, or his dignity, and certainly not his skill
of fence. With exquisite art he even makes use of the
blundering thrusts of his adversary to furnish and embellish his
own work. Avellaneda serves him for a perpetual whetstone
to his wit, and for new occasions of humour. Nothing can
exceed the delicacy of the style in which the clumsy malice
of the forger of the spurious Don Quixote is made to administer
to the triumph of the real and true Knight ; nor is there
a single line which for the sake of his author or of the
story we have reason to wish away. The manner in which
Avellaneda and his hero are introduced in the later chapters
some have regarded as an excrescence, but to me it is only
an addition to the entertainment. Avellaneda is made to
find sport for him he had come to spoil, and in the
playing off of the sham knight and squire against the real
the reader has an unexpected and wholly new source of
humour.

Before the true knight the false vanished. The book, of
which its eccentric French admirer says that it had un succes
real^ seems to have had but a short life.^ Upon Cervantes'

^ M. Lavigne is not even honest in his perversity, but, like a true Frenchman,
invents his facts to support his theories. In order to make us believe in the

208

The Second Part

second entrance into the lists, Avellaneda was overthrown as
easily and as completely as Belianis and Felixmarte had been
in his first adventure. To the credit of the people they would
not read the false Don ^uixote^ having the true one. In the
dedication of his last book of comedies to the Conde de
Lemos in 1615, Cervantes had spoken of Don Ouixote as
''waiting in the Second Part, booted and spurred, to do him
homage." The Approbation of Marquez Torres (spoken of
before) is dated the 27th of February, 161 5. The licence
to print, however, was not granted until the 5th of November.
The dedication to the Conde de Lemos is dated the last day
of October. In this the author speaks of his making haste
to publish, in order to be rid of the " disgust and nausea "
which another Don Ouixote had caused him — going on to
speak of his rival in terms which have been allowed, by his
sternest critics, to be manly, simple, and dignified. " That
which I cannot help feeling," he says, " is that he charges
me with being old and maimed, as though it had been in
my power to stop time from passing over me, or as though
my deformity had been produced in some tavern, and not on
the grandest occasion which ages past or present have seen,
or those to come can hope to see. If my wounds do not shine
in the eyes of him who looks on them, they are at least
honoured in the estimation of those who know where they
were acquired ; for the soldier looks better dead in battle
than alive in flight. And so much am I of this opinion, that
if now I could devise and bring about the impossible, I would
rather be present again in that wonderful action than now be
whole of my wounds, without having taken part therein."
He goes on to protest that he is not one likely to " persecute

popularity of Avellaneda he spealcs of a second edition of the spurious Second Part,
of Madrid, 1615, on the authority of an apocryphal entry in Ebcrt's Lexicon.
The Spanish bibliographers know of no such edition. There never was such an
edition. Avellaneda's book was never published a second time, being snuffed
out when Cervantes' own Don fixate appeared, — until revived, in 1732, by
Nasarre.

209 14

Cervantes chap.

any ecclesiastic — above all if he is a familiar of the Holy-
Office to boot" (glancing at Lope, then newly endowed
with the religious habit, whose " innumerable stupendous
comedies" Avellaneda had charged him with disparaging) ;
and averring that he "adores the man's genius, and admires
his works continuous and virtuous." " Continuous and virtu-
ous ! " There is a characteristic double edge to this last
compliment ; and in the notion of Cervantes persecuting a
familiar of the Inquisition — one more given to persecuting
than being persecuted — there is much humour, which the
Count his patron would doubtless appreciate. Cervantes
proceeds to tell a story of how the Emperor of China,
desiring to found a college at Pekin, had asked him to be
Rector — a story which by some has been taken seriously.
It doubtless refers to a tradition of some offer having been
made to Cervantes of a place as professor of the Spanish
lan2;uage in Paris. This was refused for a reason Cervantes
refers to, when he goes on to say that he asked the Emperor's
envoy what arrangements had been made for paying his
expenses to China, upon which the answer was — " None,
not even in thought." So the author of Don fixate, being
now not only infirm but in much want of njoney, prefers —
"Emperor for Emperor and Monarch for Monarch" —
the Conde de Lemos at Naples for his benefactor and sup-
porter — a delicate hint, double charged, of complaint and
supplication.

The Second Part of Don Quixote was published in
November, 1615, the printer, Juan de la Cuesta, and the
bookseller or publisher, Francisco Robles, being the same as
for the First Part. The success of the new volume was
quite as great as that of its predecessor. Cervantes' own
opinion, put into the mouth of Samson Carrasco, that
" second parts were never good," has been in this instance
signally confuted. By the majority of critics the Second
Part of Don ^lixote has been preferred to the First. Despite

210

The Second Part

of Charles Lamb, who declared that in writing " that un-
fortunate Second Part," Cervantes "sacrificed his instinct to
his understanding,"^ the second Don Quixote must be pro-
nounced even superior to the first in execution. There is
more richness of colour, more play of fancy, more wealth of
invention. The author is on firmer ground, and surer of his
audience. The First Part was an experiment in an untried
field. In the Second, there is no longer any doubt. The
fable expands, the characters are more fully developed, the
action becomes more lively and more picturesque. The
author has fallen in love with his own creations, and attends
more carefully to their behaviour. Don Quixote is less the
man out of his wits, and more the man of ripe sense. Above
all, Sancho plays a more important part in the piece, throwing
off much of his clownishness, and growing in wit, manners,
and wisdom. Some new personages are introduced, such as
Samson Carrasco and the Duke and Duchess, who throw
into higher relief the humour of the scenes, while they
relieve the monotony of the Errantry business. One notable
difference between the First and the Second Part is that the
parody of Amad'is^ as the story proceeds, is, to a large extent,
dropped. We have fewer references in the Second Part to
Knighthood and the books of chivalries. Cervantes seems
even to have imagined that he had gone too far with his
diatribe against the romances, which he loved only too well
himself. His purpose accomplished of destroying the taste

^ See Lamb's letter to Southey (19th August, 1825) : — "Marry, when some-
body persuaded Cervantes that he meant only fun, and put him upon writing that
unfortunate Second Part, with the confederacies of that unworthy Duke and
most contemptible Duchess, Cervantes sacrificed his instinct." This is hardly
in Lamb's best taste. To abuse the Duke and Duchess for the parts they are
made to take, it like Partridge at the play telling the Queen to "go about her
business, for she is a vile, wicked wretch." Cervantes must be supposed to know
his own business. The Duke and Duchess may be contemptible, but they were
dramatically necessary. They certainly, with all their tricks, do not degrade but
rather exalt Don Quixote in our esteem, while they contribute largely to our
entertainment.

211

Cervantes

for the chivalric books, he sets himself to provide his readers
with an agreeable compensation. Something of the charm
of the original book, of course, is wanting to the continua-
tion — the naivete^ the simplicity, the invention itself, which
cannot be repeated ; but in all the higher essentials of a
work of genius the Second Part of Don Quixote must be
pronounced even better than the First. There is more of
human interest in the story. There are fewer interruptions
in the shape of episodes and occasional poetry. The figures
on the stage are more various ; and they move and act, as
well as speak. The play itself is better constructed, with
more harmony between the parts, more freedom in the
action, more breadth of comedy, more flexibility of language.
How comparatively poor and dull had been the story were
the new Sancho away, with his proverbs, his governorship of
Barataria, his adventures in the Duke's castle, the dis-
enchantment of Dulcinea ! How imperfect our idea of the
Knight without the adventure of the Lions ; the converse
with Don Diego de Miranda ; the descent into the Cave of
Montesinos ; the encounter with Roque Guinart ; — without
that final catastrophe, so artfully contrived, which rounds
off the story in the only natural and perfect manner with
the overthrow of the Knight of the Rueful Feature by the
Knight of the White Moon, leading to the return home
and the breaking of the romantic dream, as the poor Knight
falls sick and regains his old self, the good Alonso Ouixano,
only to die. Who could spare that last passage of knightly
adventure by the strand of Barcelona, with the speech of the
beaten champion of the revived chivalry, never so noble as
in his fall, which moved the heart of Heinrich Heine to
breaking, — the best designed of sequels, the perfect end to a
great romance ? That end was even better than Heine
conceived. We may fairly suspect the German romance
master himself of mock enthusiasm — of incapacity at least
to enter into the soul of Miguel de Cervantes — when he

212

The Second Part

concludes his pathetic lament over the fall of Don Quixote
with : — " Alas ! this shining Knight of the White Moon who
overcame the bravest and noblest of men was a disguised
barber ! " " Disguised barber " makes one shudder. Was
this indeed the end ? That were " a satire on human
enthusiasm indeed " — a burlesque on " military heroism," as
the German-Jew-Frenchman took Don Quixote to be, with
a strange misreading of the author's purpose. Cervantes,
however, knew his business better than to make such a
blunder. To clap harness on Master Nicholas — to turn the
barber's pole into a lance — would have been a comic ending,
as false in art as untrue to nature — an outrage upon the
reader and an offence to every instinct of chivalry. The
Knight of the Silver Moon was no disguised barber, but
Samson Carrasco the scholar — the very man of all for the
part. The cure of the madman by means of his craze was
of the very essence of Cervantes' story, and to choose the man
of wit for the rescue of the good gentleman his neighbour
was the only proper ending of the romance. It is a true
knight errant who dissolves the dream of Knight Errantry.

The marvel of all is that this book, with its frolic grace,
its abundant wealth of humour, of gaiety, and of invention ;
so rich in blood and overflowing with the sense of existence ;
so brimful of humanity, of love, and of hope, should be the
work of a man approaching the seventieth year of a life of
trouble, of toil, of privation, and of disappointment, such as
few men have ever lived.

213

CHAPTER XVIII

Last Tears and Death

The completion of his great work preceded but by a few
months the close of the author's career. The brave, gay
spirit was about to be quenched. The soul that had "toiled
and wrought " —

That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine —

was active and bold to the last, planning, in his sixty-ninth
year, new schemes of books. In the Dedication of the
Second Part of Don Quixote to the Conde de Lemos,
Cervantes had announced that in four months the Travels
of Persiles and Sigismunda would be ready, which was to be
" either the worst or the best of books of entertainment in
our language." He had spoken of the Persiles two years
before in his prologue to the Novels as a book in which he
would compete with Heliodorus, and also of another pro-
jected work, Las Semanas del Jardin ( The Weeks of the
Garden'). In his dedication of his Comedies he had again
referred to El gran Persiles^ to Las Semanas del fardin^ and
to the second part of Galatea as forthcoming, si tanta carga
pueden llevar mis ancianos ho?}ibros (if my old shoulders
can carry so heavy a burden). Of these projects, the only
one which he lived to carry out was his romantic story of
imaginary travels, after the manner of Heliodorus, called

214

CHAP. 1 8 Last Years

Persiles and Sigismunda, which was not published, however,
till after his death. In the prologue to the Persiles he tells
us, in his own graceful style, of an adventure which happened
to himself when returning from Esquivias, his wife's town,
whither he had gone for change of air, to Madrid, This is
so pleasant a picture of a cheerful old age, undimmed by
time, care, or sickness, that often as it has been quoted, I
cannot refrain from repeating it : — " As it fell out, beloved
reader, coming one day, I and two friends of mine, from the
famous town of Esquivias, — famous for a thousand things,
one for its illustrious families and another for its most
illustrious wines, — I was aware of one who came spurring in
great haste behind my back, wishing to come up with us, a
wish to which he gave voice, calling out to us not to push
on so fast. We waited for him, and there came up on a
little she-ass a grey student, — for in grey was he all attired, —
gaiters, shoes, and sword in brass-bound scabbard, a shining
Walloon collar, with pleats of equal length, though sooth to
say there were but two of them, for the collar kept con-
tinually falling to one side, and he catching it up with great
care and pains to keep it straight. Coming up with us, he
said : — ' Sure your worships are bound for some office or
benefice at Court, since it is there that his most Illustrious
Eminence of Toledo is and his Majesty as well, seeing the
rate at which you are travelling ; and, indeed, my ass has
won the prize for his pace more than once.' To which one
of my companions replied : — ' The nag of Sefior Miguel de
Cervantes is to blame for this, for he is a quick stepper.'
Scarce had the student heard the name Cervantes when,
alighting from his mount, his pad falling on one side, his
valise on the other, — for in all this splendour was he travelling,
he made for me, and, hastily seizing me by the left hand,^

1 Here is evidence to show that, contrary to the old belief on which the
modern portraits and statues of Cervantes are founded, he had still a left hand,
though mutilated.

215

Cervantes

CHAP.

cried : — ' Yes, yes ; it is he of the crippled hand, safe enough,
the all-famous, the merry writer, and, indeed, the joy of the
Muses.' To me, who in these brief terms saw of my praises
the grand compass, it seemed to be discourteous not to
respond to them, so, embracing him round the neck, whereby
I made entire havoc of the collar, I said : — ' This is a mistake
in which many friends from ignorance have fallen. I, Sir,
am Cervantes ; but not the joy of the Muses, nor any of the
fine things your worship has said. Regain your ass and
mount, and let us travel together in pleasant talk for the
rest of our short journey.' The polite student did so j we
reduced our speed a little, and at a leisurely pace pursued our
journey, in the course of which my infirmity was touched
upon. The good student checked my mirth in a moment :
— ' This malady is the dropsy, which not all the water of
Ocean, let it be ever so sweet-drinking, can cure. Let your
worehip, Seiior Cervantes, set bounds to your drink, not
forgetting to eat, for so without other medicine you will do
well.' ' That many have told me,' answered I, ' but I can
no more give up drinking for pleasure than if I had been
born for nothing else. My life is slipping away, and, by the
diary my pulse is keeping, which at the latest will end its
reckoning this coming Sunday, I have to close my life's
account. Your worship has come to know me in a rude
moment, since there is no time for me to show my gratitude for
the good-will you have shown me.' By this time we reached
the bridge of Toledo,^ whither I betook myself, — he turning
aside to take that of Segovia." The narrative, so character-
istic of the blithe good-humour with which Cervantes bore
his lot, even in the near prospect of death, ends with a fare-
well to all that has made life sweet for him : " Good-bye,

^ This is not the present bridge at one of the entrances into Madrid but an
older one, long since pulled down to make room for the existing structure, with
the comic figures of San Isidro and his wife looking wistfully for water in the
river below, which dates from 1735.

216

i8 Last Years

humours; good-bye, pleasant fancies; good-bye, merry
friends ; for I perceive I am dying, in the wish to see you
happy in the other life."

The readers of the best of biographies will remember
that affecting scene in the library at Abbotsford when
Lockhart read out this passage to Scott — always a great
lover and admirer of Cervantes — then stricken like him with
a mortal disease, and approaching the end of his heroic days
of strenuous labour. " Sir Walter did not remember the
passage, and desired me to find it out in the Life by PelHcer,
which was at hand, and translate it. I did so, and he
listened with lively and pensive interest." Wordsworth was
there, himself in his youth not unvisited by dreams from
" the groves of chivalry," who had in visions —

Harmonious tribute paid

To patient courage, and unblemished truth,
To firm devotion, zeal unquenchable.^

Allan, the historical painter, was one of the circle, and
told Lockhart, as he relates, that he " remembered nothing
he ever saw with so much sad pleasure as the attitudes and
aspect of Scott and Wordsworth as the story went on."

In the pathetic dedication of Persiles to his old friend
and patron, the Conde de Lemos, are the last words of
Cervantes, written on his very death-bed. It is an extra-
ordinary and most vivid picture of a soul cheerful, humor-
ous, and sweet-tempered to the end. Quoting the words
of an old poem and turning them so as to fit his own
case, "with one foot in the stirrup, waiting the call of
Death," he tells the Count : — " Yesterday they gave me
Extreme Unction, and to-day I am writing. The time is
short ; my agonies increase ; my hopes diminish." He
repeats his assurances of regard and of love for his Excellency,

^ Sec the Introduction to the Prelude,
217

Cervantes

CHAP.

and enlarges, with his accustomed profuse good-nature, on
the bounties of which he has been the recipient (bounties
probably of no great price). His mind is still occupied with
his books. If by a miracle he survives, he purposes to leave
to the world as relics of himself his Weeks of the Garden ;
the famous Bernardo (now for the first time mentioned and
never heard of again) ; and the sequel to the Galatea^ of
which he knows that the Count is an admirer. And so
with a last prayer for God's blessing on him, he ends on the
19th of April, 1 61 6. Four days afterwards he died.^

Three weeks before his death, sick in his own house, he
had made profession of the Third Order of St. Francis,
whose habit he had assumed at Alcala in 161 3. Too much
importance must not be attached to this profession, which is
an evidence rather of poverty than piety. There is no
greater proof of the extent to which the priestly caste had
dominated the minds of Spaniards in that age than in the
existence of the opinion that it was not possible for a man
to die decently, or at least to be sure of decent burial, unless
he were enrolled in one of the religious orders. In the case
of Cervantes, there is no special significance in an act which
his Spanish biographers have hailed as a conclusive proof of
his devotion to the Church. For certain he was not one
who, in Milton's sarcastic phrase —

To be sure of Paradise,

Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,

Or in Franciscan thought to pass disguised.

His last act was in conformity with the general tenour of
his life as a good Spaniard, loyal in all the observances of
religion to the national standard of belief.

^ Nominally on the same day with Shakspeare (23rd April) j but allowing
for the difference of styles — England not having adopted the Gregorian Calendar
till 175 1 — Shakspeare, a younger man by nearly seventeen years, outlived Cer-
vantes by some ten days,

218

i8 Last Years

Of the desperate condition of Cervantes' fortunes, even
in these last days when he was at the height of his fame and
popularity, and had achieved the one great work which was
to make him immortal, we have painful evidence in an
affecting letter, the last of his writings, addressed to the
Archbishop of Toledo, dated the 26th of March, 1616, of
which this is a translation : —

My very illustrious Lord — A few days since I received
your most Illustrious Lordship's letter^ and with it new proofs
of your bounty. If for the malady which affects me there could
be any relief the repeated marks of favour and protection which
your Illustrious Person bestows on me would be sufficient to
relieve me ; but^ indeed^ it increases so greatly that I think it
will make an end of me^ although not of my gratitude. The
Lord God preserve you as the executor of saintly deeds^ so that
you may taste of the fruit of them there in His holy glory ^ as
fervently desires your humble servant^ who kisses your most
exalted hand.

MIGUEL DE C ERF ANTES SAAVEDRA}-

Cervantes' confidence in Saint Francis was scarcely
justified, at least so far as concerned the assurance of a safe
resting-place for his bones on earth. He was borne to the
grave "with his face uncovered," as was the custom with
those who had been enrolled of the Franciscan order. No
ceremonies else are recorded as taking place at his burial.
Thirty years afterwards his life-long rival Lope de Vega was
followed to his rest by a vast multitude, in funereal splendour
such as no king had ever known, three bishops officiating at
his grave ; grandees bearing his coffin, amidst the tears of the

^- A facsimile of this letter, one of the very few genuine relics of Cervantes'
hand which have been preserved, other than invoices of grain and oil and accounts
of business transactions, is given in Appendix D. It was found among the
archiepiscopal archives at Toledo, where perhaps may still be other remains of
Cervantes.

219

Cervantes chap.

populace ; the ceremonies lasting over nine days, at a pro-
digious cost, borne by that pattern of patrons the Duke of
Sessa. The circling wheel of Time has redressed the
balance. To-day, while the author of Don Quixote lives in
every tongue, the name of Lope, once a synonym for all
that was excellent, remains in our memories only as a word
for facile and plenteous production.

By Cervantes' will — -which like so many memorials of
him his country has suffered to be lost — his wife Dona
Catalina and the Licentiate Francisco Nuiiez, an inmate of
his house,^ were appointed executors — his only direction to
them, so far as we know, being that they were to bury him
in the graveyard of the Trinitarian Convent in the Calle del
Humilladero. The choice of this spot for his resting-place
gives evidence of Cervantes' lasting remembrance of the old
good service done by the Trinitarians on his behalf.^ His
daughter and only child, Isabel, was a professed nun in
this religious house. In this same ground were interred
in after years his widow, his daughter, and other members
of his family. No stone or inscription marked the spot
where the author of Don ^Ixote was laid. In 1635 the
sisters moved into another convent in the Calle de Can-
taranas — exhuming on their removal, as the custom was,
the bones of all the members of their Order and their
friends, and transporting them to their new abode. There,
mixed with remains of a meaner kind, now rests, undis-
tinguishable from the others, what is mortal of Miguel
DE Cervantes.

^ Cervantes died in his house at the corner of the Calle de Leon, abutting on
the Calle de Francos. The house, a poor one, of one storey, was pulled down
in 1833. On that which occupies the site was affixed, by order of Ferdinand
VIL, a trophy composed of appropriate devices, poetical and military, enclosing a
medallion (fancy) portrait. The Calle de Francos has since been renamed " Calle
de Cervantes."

^ Father Juan Gil, the Redemptorist to whom Cervantes owed his release
from captivity, was of the Trinitarian Order.

220

18 Last Years

His grateful country, "slowly wise and meanly just,"
awakened after long years to a sense of what it owed to
the great writer, has set up the " tardy bust " — a repro-
duction of the fancy portrait by the Englishman Kent — on
the facade of the Trinitarian Convent in the Calle de Can-
taranas, with appropriate devices and a suitable inscription.
This, with the mean and commonplace statue of Cervantes
by Sola in the Plaza de Cortes — also after the hook-nosed
Kent portrait, of which the chief feature is the hiding of
the maimed left hand under the cloak — makes up the sum
of all that Spain has achieved in stone or bronze, to perpetuate
the memory of him who has done so much to make her
famous.

Of the works about which in his last days Cervantes
showed so much anxiety, all but one have perished, probably
without any great loss to the author's reputation. The
"famous Bernardo'''' remains unheard-of — probably never
was born. The Weeks of the Garden^ of which there is a
vague tradition that it was a work of devotion, never
appeared. That Second Part of Galatea^ the firstborn of
his genius, always tenderly loved — of which the promise
was given more than ten years before, in the First Part
of Don fixate — is gone like the shepherds and shep-
herdesses of Henares, never to be recalled. There survives
only of those last works of Cervantes the romance of
Persiles and Siglsmunda^ which was published by his widow
in 1617 — a story of which the too partial Valdivielso, who
writes the Approbation, declares that "of the many books
written by Cervantes none is more ingenious, more cultured,
or more entertaining." In this opinion posterity has not
shared, though of the minor works of Cervantes none have
been oftencr reprinted and translated. Written in Cervantes'
old age, it bears on its face but too palpable traces of its
birth. The only interest it has is a pathetic one, rather
personal than literary. The story is in professed imitation

221

Cervantes chap.

of the Tfieagenes and Chariclea^znd it is only just to say that
it is equal to its model — quite as dull and tedious. The
strangest thing about the book is that it is a return, in great
part, to that very style of artificial romance which in Don
fixate Cervantes had exploded — not, indeed, that it is ex-
travagant or affected, monstrous in its inventions and vile
in its morals, like the v/orks of Feliciano de Silva, but that
it deals v^^ith a Ufe which never was led, by people who could
not exist — who, if they did exist, had nothing to do with
romance. A pair of lovers, under disguised names, meet
with every kind of adventure. They tell a great many
stories, and have a great many told to them ; and, after
the classic pattern, encountering shipwrecks, captivity,
ravishment, and every kind of peril by land and sea,
from robbers, pirates, savages, and alguazils^ — Persiles and
Sio;ismunda turn up at Rome, where the gentleman being
shown to be the heir to the " King of Thule," and the
lady the daughter of the Oueen of Friesland, they are
married, receive the Pontifical blessing, and live happy,
blessed in a large and virtuous progeny. Introduced in
the story are many curious passages of life and manners,
which we may take to represent the average knowledge
of the age, in regard to the geography and the natural
history of foreign countries. There are savage islanders ^
and Northern sea-rovers, Scottish chiefs of quaint de-
nomination, and Irish kings of eccentric habit. Among
the various countries to which the disguised lovers wander
is an island off the coast of Hibernia where reigns a king
Policarpo with a daughter Sinforosa. In this happy island,
which from these traits we detect to be Ireland, is a
custom by which the inhabitants choose their best and most
virtuous to be king, which dignity is not attained by expense
of gifts or promises of favour — a custom which of necessity

^ Coleridge believed that in Persiles is contained the germ of Robinson Crusoe
{Literary Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 130).

222

i8 Last Years

leads to all the people being good and virtuous from the
desire to reign. Other strange things we learn of foreign
lands and customs — that noxious creatures die when they
touch the soil of England, that the Maurices are a leading
clan in Ireland, and Rubicon a name highly honoured among
the nobles of Scotland.

The most interesting things in Persiles are some bits of
personal reference which have scarcely attracted the notice
of the biographers. In the tenth chapter of the Third Book
there is an account of a fight with Algerine pirates, which
is doubtless a transcript from real life and the true story of
Cervantes' own capture in the Sol galley. There is a sarcastic
reference in one passage to the Alcalde and Regidors of some
town unnamed which may be Argamasilla, and the incident
from Cervantes' life in La Mancha. Persiles and Sigismunda
is a mine whence many have dug ore to furnish stories and
dramas in various languages. It provided our English
Fletcher with the plot and the groundwork of his play,
The Custom of the Country^ of which, however, the indecency
is all Fletcher's own. Persiles has been several times trans-
lated, the earliest English version being of 1 619.

Esteemed by the majority of Spanish critics as equal if
not superior to Don Quixote in beauty and correctness of
language, Persiles and Sigismunda is to me, in spite of the
style, which is graceful, refined, and flowing, the most
insipid of all Cervantes' works, of which it is almost
incredible, had we not ample proof of the extraordinary
range and diversity of his powers, that it should have
been written by the hand which wrote Don ^ixote.
Making all allowance for the natural blind love of the
literary parent for his offspring, and for the decay of
Cervantes' powers from age and his growing infirmities,
the fact that this book, a reversion to the old artificial
type of romance which the author himself had done so
much to destroy, should have been so carefully composed

223

Cervantes chap.is

by him, in a spirit faithful to the antique traditions, is an
enigma, like some others in Cervantes' life, of which I
can find no solution. He has himself given us the choice
to place it among the best or the w^orst books in the Vi^orld.
It is neither ; but if not the worst in the world, it is the
least of the works of Miguel de Cervantes.

224

CHAPTER XIX

The Man and the Book

Don Quixote was the sum of Cervantes' work — the crown
of his achievements in hfe and literature. The book which,
in a happy hour for himself and the world, he produced,
in which his genius found perfect expression, stands alone
without peer or second. Singular and unique among the
products of human wit, it towers so high above the rest of
its author's progeny as scarcely to appear of the same
kind. And yet they who have followed me to this last
chapter of the life of Miguel de Cervantes will have no
difficulty in making out the kinship between Don fixate and
his less favoured brethren. While on one side Don fixate
is linked with Numancia — the swan-song of mediaeval chivalry
with the dirge over the antique heroism — on the other it joins
hands with Rinconete^ the humour of the low life of degraded
Spain. From the sublime of the knight errant to the
abyss of the picaroon — from the lofty ideals of the patriot to
the sordid realities of the lot to which his needs compelled
him — the distance covers all the wide space between Cer-
vantes' imagination and his experience.

In Don fixate we have the true image of the author.
The story of the would - be reviver of the old chivalry is
but the story of Miguel de Cervantes. Cette imagination
hautaine que rCetait que hors de propos^ as Sainte-Beuve truly
describes him, is the reflection of that other spirit nursed on

225 15

Cervantes

romance, whose fate it was to spend the flower of his life
under Philip the Prudent. Why seek for a clue to the
motive oi Don fixate? If we read the life of the author
aright, the book is no mystery. If it is a satire, as some think,
it is a satire upon that part of human nature which was never
so signally illustrated as in that most lovable man, Miguel
de Cervantes. If it is a burlesque on enthusiasm, it is the
enthusiam of the soldier of Lepanto v/hich is burlesqued.
Who but he is " the very perfect gentle knight," whom we
adore while we laugh at, whom no disasters can abase, whose
buffetings never remove him from the pale of our sympathies,
and who is always the man of pure honour and a gentleman
— Alonso the Good amidst all his out-of-date trappings of
romance, never ceasing to be the true knight even under the
barber's bason, nor soiling his scutcheon even when thrown in
the dust and cudgelled by the base hands of clowns and galley-
slaves ? His only defect is that he is out of touch with the
age, which is all the worse for the age. To say that he is a
mocker of enthusiasm, as Heine takes Cervantes to be, is to
misread the man and mistake his purpose. There was no
one in whom enthusiasm, the fire of life, was so quick as in
Cervantes. If he mocked at anything it was at himself,
making sport, with a gaiety in which there is an infinite
depth of pathos, of an infirmity which he knew to be his
own. There is much contention among the critics as to
whether Don ^ixote is a sad or a merry book. The joy-
fullest of books, cries Carlyle. The most melancholy of
books, says Sismondi. Are they not both right ? And is it
not to this double character, in which laughter and tears are
so subtly blended, that Don ^ixote owes its perennial charm
and undying savour ? Herein lies the consummate power of
the writer, — the proof of his mastery of the true sources of
smiles and tears, — that in his medicine intended for the
melancholy there is that which mocks the laughter which it
raises. There is an aspect in which Don ^uxote may well

226

The Man and the Book

be called a sad book. It is the elegy over a fallen state, at
which it may be perceived that the author is laughing as
much to hide his own emotion as out of mere high spirits.
Some of the scenes in which Don Quixote is buffeted and
belaboured beyond all reason, as the reader is inclined to
think — to a degree which makes him angry with the author
— do they not witness to this pathetic mood on the part of
Cervantes, — the old man who had lived to see his own
visions of chivalry mocked and dispelled by the vulgar age
in which his lot was cast ?

To me it seems a paradox, not less flagrant than any
other of the many of which Cervantes and his works have
been the object, to say that Don Quixote is without pathos.
As merely a comic book, a droll story, it certainly could
never have held its place among the books of the world.
Admirable as the humour is, of the purest and rarest kind — a
humour that ripples along as a perpetual accompaniment of
the story, which reveals itself in every act of the characters,
and is part of their life and motion — the humour alone would
not account for the evergreen vitality of Don Quixote.

The book owes its singular charm — the quality which
makes it unlike any other book ever written, — to the
material of which it is compounded. It is drawn out of the
heart of the author, who was the most engaging personality
in all the world of letters. There is no life of any maker of
books which is so essentially a romance, nor in any romance
was a story ever feigned so perfect in all its parts, so rich in
incident and character, so moving and absorbing, as the
story of Cervantes. How could Don ^ixote miss being the
world's delight, seeing that here we have a picture of the
romantic soul of Miguel de Cervantes himself painted with
all the art of the master humourist, in a story which is a
parable for all humanity ? The qualities which have given
immortality to Don Quixote are to be found in the life of
Cervantes. I do not know that the character of the author

227

Cervantes chap.

can be better summed up than in the words of Aribau, one
of the most judicious of his Spanish biographers. "Fearless
in peril, strong in adversity, modest in triumph, careless and
generous in his own concerns, delighting in conferring
favours, indulgent to the well-meant efforts of mediocrity,
endowed with a sound and very clear judgment, of an
imagination without example in its fecundity, — he passed
through the world as a stranger whose language was not
understood. His contemporaries knew him not, but regarded
him with indifference. Posterity has given him but tardy
compensation. It has recognised him as a man who went
before his age, who divined the tastes and the tendencies of
another society, and, making himself popular with his inex-
haustible graces, announced the dawn of a civilisation which
broke long afterwards."

If of any man it can be said that he was before his age,
and therefore his age knew him not, it is of Miguel de
Cervantes. Probably he himself did not know the full worth,
as he was late in learning the true bent, of his genius. A
gallant soldier in an age when it seemed to him that his
country was at the head of civilisation, he did not comprehend
that it was a civilisation fatal to romance. ,The knowledge
came in his later years and its fruit was Don Quixote. His
life up to that time was one incessant struggle against the
spirit and the taste of his time, even when he condescended,
for a living, to imitate that spirit and to administer to that
taste. Of his philosophy, and of the purpose he had in view
when he wrote his books, there has been a great deal written
— a great deal that is extravagant and beside the mark. My
own view is that he took life, as he did all his trials, with a
light heart, not troubling himself much about philosophy.
He wrote simply because he must — out of the fulness of
his heart when able, but generally out of necessity, and to
get bread.

Neglected for some hundred and fifty years after his
228

The Man and the Book

death, it is only in recent times that his countrymen have
awakened to the discovery that in the author of Don Quixote
they possessed a genius vi^ho w^as a credit to Spain. Within
the last thirty years there has been an extraordinary recrud-
escence of enthusiasm over El Manco de Lepanto^ — the Joy
of the Muses, — the Prince of Spanish Wits. That enthusi-
asm has run to bounds w^hich must furnish the shade of
Cervantes vi^ith abundant subject for laughter. They have
discovered in Don Quixote things which would have startled
the author himself to know. They have found him to be,
in his treatment of lunacy, a greater than Boerhaave — the
predecessor of Pinel. They have proved him for juris-
prudence an equal to Justinian. They have testified to his
extraordinary merit as a geographer. They have demon-
strated him for seamanship second to none. Last and
greatest feat of all, they have discovered that he is a
theologian, as devout in his religion as profound in his
elucidation of its mysteries.^

This is the climax of the long and loud chorus of
jubilation which has gone up in various shapes of essay,
psan, ode, and eulogy, disguised under the names of com-
mentary and criticism, in honour of Miguel de Cervantes,

^ Dr. Hernandez Morejon, physician to Ferdinand VII., wrote a book to
show that, in his treatment of Don (Quixote's malady, Cervantes equalled
Hippocrates and Boerhaave in precision, and that he anticipated Pinel in his
application of moral remedies to mental diseases. Don Antonio Martin
Gamero, in his yurispertcia de Cer-vantes (1870), finds in Don S^uixote a treasure
of judicial and juridical learning. Don Fermin Caballero, in Cervantes Geografo,
has no difficulty in proving the author of Don Sluixote to be a profound
geographer. In Cer-vantes Marino^ Don Cesareo Fernandez finds abundant
evidence to show Cervantes was a perfect mariner. Finally, and to cap all, we
have that eminent priest from Toledo, Jose Maria Sbarbi, who has written a
tract, entitled Cer-vantes Teologo, in which he insists that Cervantes' knowledge
of theology, in all its mysteries, was at least equal to his proficiency in any of
the other sciences. This is the same Sbarbi who once wrote a letter scouting
the idea of the translatability of Don S^uixote. Certainly, if Sbarbi were
allowed to be right in his theological discovery, there would be no need to
discuss the question of Don Siulxote's translatability.

229

Cervantes

to whom his country scarce gave bread when living. Of
this enthusiasm, which has now ripened into a sort of cult,
with its priests and its acolytes, more profuse of voice than
of offering, — its chanting and its dancing boys, — what is to
be said, except that it is very creditable to the discrimination
(though tardy) of his countrymen, though not a little
misleading if we are to judge soberly of the man and his
work. It is not that Cervantes is not entitled to all the
homage which Spain renders him to-day, by way of
compensation for her past neglect. That neglect was all
the more ungrateful seeing that Cervantes was nothing if
not muy Espanol^ — a very Spaniard, — a man " in whom the
ancient Gothic humour more appeared Than any that drew
breath " in Spain. To-day, the eulogies are a little hyper-
bolical, as some of them are scarcely deserved. In respect
of Cervantes' orthodoxy, for instance, it is a little too absurd
to ask us to accept Don Quixote as not only a book of
humour, but a book of religion — of the religion of which
Father Sbarbi is a member, which necessarily excludes all
others. Let it be understood, once for all, that I do not
propose to claim Cervantes as one alien to the faith of his
country. There was no character, perhaps, which he, as
one who had fought and bled for Christendom, would have
more energetically repudiated. That Cervantes was perfectly
loyal to the only religion he could know, may be accepted
as beyond question. That he had no idea whatever in Don
Quixote of opposing himself to the cardinal articles of the
national faith, is abundantly clear from the whole tenour of
the man's life and writings. He was a good Catholic, as
the term was. As a good Spaniard he could hardly be
anything else in those days. This did by no means imply a
ready submission to all the despotic claims of the Church in
matters not concerned with the essentials of religion. To
say that he never dreamt of heading a movement for free
thought, is to say no more than that he was not a Con-

230

The Man and the Book

stitutionalist or an Irreconcilable.^ He took his faith easily,
as a wise man should, not caring to make it a burden to
him. He was not of the stuff of which confessors and
martyrs are made, which is no reproach to a man of letters,
who had to live by the writing of books. He was, above
all, of the true faith of which all great writers are — a
Humanist, in the best sense, not troubling himself about
other people's consciences, — neither theologian nor latitudi-
narian, — but simply one whose head was clear of the follies
and extravagances of the reigning superstitions, and his
heart full of all love and tenderness for his fellow-men, —
such love and tenderness as he has put into Don Quixote.

The secret of the perennial freshness of Don Quixote is
but partially revealed in the story itself. The art, indeed,
is, in its kind, exquisite. As a mere story-teller, Cervantes
must be reckoned as one of the very first in that calling.
In the mere technical part, too much cannot be said for the
consummate ease and grace of the narrative, careless and
almost reckless of literary effort as it is. No work was ever
produced by human art so perfectly simple and sincere, so
utterly devoid of self-consciousness or any vulgar trick of
authorship. The wit, the humour, the good sense, and the.
human nature, which are the distinguishing characteristics
of Don ^ixotej are so carefully blended, and rise so naturally
out of the situations, as to defy analysis. Of the invention,
what can be said which is not an echo of a thousand voices ?
Don Quixote himself is the most lovable personage in all
fiction. He has stood as the model which all who have
followed Cervantes have never been tired of copying.
Every imitation and every caricature only serves to exalt
the original. Hudibras and Uncle Toby, Colonel New-

^ Nay, there are some who have said as much, M. Germond de Lavigne, of
whom we have spoken before, the admirer and defen<ler of the spurious Don
Slutxote, wrote for a Madrid journal, La Dhcusion, in 1868, a paper showing that
Cervantes was a member of the party of the Federal Republic.

231

Cervantes

CHAP.

come and Mr. Pickwick, — what are all these, and many
others, but the descendants of the hero of La Mancha, who
stands as much higher than any of his progeny as Amadis
does than his children and grandchildren ? That " errant
star of Knighthood made more tender by eclipse " is still
the type of all true chivalry. The pathos, the dignity, the
fine sense of honour, the courtesy and kindliness which
survived so much rough and ignoble treatment, make up
such a picture of the true gentleman as can never be
obsolete. It is Cervantes' peculiar glory — a glory which is
shared by Shakspeare alone among the sons of men — that
he has given permanence and immortality to an image of
his own creation. Don Quixote is even a more wonderful
creature of genius than any single one of Shakspeare's
making. In the crowded gallery of Shakspearian men and
women there is no portrait of so rare a type and so distinct
an individuality. And yet what character could be con-
ceived less likely to endure than such a one, according to
any scheme of probabilities ? A gentleman of La Mancha,
whose wits have been turned by the reading of romances of
chivalry, going about in quest of adventures in company
with a village boor through that most unromantic of
districts — all the odds were surely against such a conception
as this being received with favour by the nations of the
world. It was impossible to imagine a fable, constructed
out of such materials, lasting to be " the Bible of the
people." The wits of the time, Cervantes' contemporaries,
might well be confounded by the audacity of such an
invention. If it served to point a local, transient folly, was
there anything antecedently less likely to win the suffrages
of mankind and to live for ever in the hearts of all people
for all time to come ? Yet this is the miracle which the
pen of Cervantes has wrought. By means so simple as even
to this day to be a wonder to the ordinary race of critics,
who cannot comprehend a success achieved in defiance of

232

The Man and the Book

all the rules of art, he has contrived to make this passing
skit against a reigning delusion a parable for ever, and the
best and most cheerful as well as the healthiest of parables.
Why need we seek for any hidden moral or allegory in Don
Quixote f It is good enough for the story alone. We read
it not for the moral, but for the adventures — passing over,
we fear, a good deal of the wisdom, kindly common sense,
and perpetual flow of human nature for the sake of the
ever- fresh incidents, the pictures of life on the road, the
delightful confabulations between master and man, the play
of characters, the healthy, open-air spirit of life, and the
humour which is so closely interwoven with the whole
texture of the fable. As for this humour, which is the
living principle of Don Quixote, it is of a quality peculiar to
Cervantes — the gift which differentiates his genius. It is,
to use the congenial words of Scott, " the very poetry of the
comic, founded on a tender sympathy with all forms of
existence, though displaying itself in sportive reflection, and
issuing, not in superficial laughter, but in still smiles, the
source of which lies far deeper." We have been recently
told by one of that race of critics who have never been able
to forgive Cervantes, — a mere uncultured wit, an ingenio
lego^ — fo'' writing so good a book, that of " that finer and
more delicate humour through which there runs a thread of
pathos, Cervantes had but little" ; that his humour, for the
most part, is of "that broader and simpler sort, the strength
of which lies in the perception of the incongruous." Such
a bold word as this argues that the critics of Cervantes are
richer than we could have suspected by one humourist
at least, of a remarkable breadth and simplicity. There is
no " thread of pathos " in Don ^ulxote^ indeed, for the
humour and pathos are so interwoven as that they are one
web. The character of the hero is of a pathos all compact,
which surely is the essential mark of his humour among all
other kinds of humour. What would the critic have ?

233

Cervantes chap.

The best part of mankind, from that day to this, have
agreed in their praise of the book. As "a pastime for the
melancholy and mopish soul," — which was the author's
declared purpose in the writing, — no book has ever been so
popular, not with the vulgar only but with critics of the
rarest quality and the nicest apprehension. Those who
asree in nothino- else are united in their admiration of Don
Quixote. Men so opposite in their sympathies as Swift and
Charles Lamb, Heine and Samuel Johnson, Sainte-Beuve
and Carlyle, Walter Scott and August Schlegel, are joined
in applause of Don fixate. Of all wits Cervantes is the
one most acceptable to wits. And yet no book was ever
less indebted to the critics than Don fixate in winning its
way into popular favour. From the first it was the people's
book, taken to heart with a fervour which went beyond the
author's hope and even his purpose. As he says himself,
"children handle it, grown men digest it, grey -beards
rejoice in it." The admiration in Spain rapidly grew into a
faith passing humour. There is a report that in the last
century public readings of Don ^uxote were held in
country places, the elders of the village expounding the text
for the benefit of the vulgar. The next step^ for the story
to harden into seriousness — the romance to settle down into
reality — was a natural evolution. To this day there are
people in La Mancha who take Don Quixote for a real
character, — more by token that there are the windmills all
about which he invented, and there is the house at Arga-
masilla in which he dwelt.

There is no country which is without its Don fixate,
— no language in which it is not a classic. Dr. Johnson
esteemed the book as the greatest in the world after the
/AW, and one of the three written by man which the
readers wish to be longer. To the enchanter who raised
Omar Khayyam from the dust and gave him a new and
more glorious life, '•^ Don fixate was the most delightful

234

The Man and the Book

of books." Our own master of romantic story confessed
that he owed his inspiration to Cervantes, and in his own
novels drew frequent draughts from that well of adventure.
The gloomy soul of Swift found early solace and refresh-
ment in the book of the Spaniard, as the author of Gulliver
was one of the first of the Olympians to hold out the hand
of welcome to Don Quixote. All the greatest in that kind
— the weavers of story, the makers of humour, the world's
entertainers — have taken Cervantes for their model. In
England we have been the most devout and constant among
the lovers of Don ^utxote^ as we were the first among the
nations to give him welcome, the first to recognise the
genius of the author as belonging to mankind.

Of the story itself as a piece of literature, what is to be
said that has not been said a thousand times ? Whether it is
a book of drollery or a picture of life and manners — humorous
or pathetic or merely romantic — the work is of a kind unique,
unlike anything that was done before or has been achieved
since. The question whether the author was more romantic
or more real is of eternal debate, as whether Don Quixote is
a book glad or sorrowful. He is not to be classed with any
school, being truly of the company of the three or four
highest of the sons of men who have drunk of the water of
life and are immortal. Realism has but a short date, dying
with the matter in which it works. Humour is of an
essence frail and fleeting, changing from age to age,
dependent, almost as much as wit, on taste and fashion.
Mere drollery — the making of things to laugh at — is a
puppet-play, which is soon over and quickly tires. Of all
that the human imagination has done in creating objects for
laughter, how little remains untouched by the wear and tear
of the centuries ! The ghosts of comedy — the disembodied
heirs of invention — haunt and sadden our book -shelves.
The paths of literature are strewn with the remains of dead
humourists, of whom the greater part arc already turned to

235

Cervantes chap.

"organic mould." How much is left green of Rabelais?
Gargantua can hardly hold his giant head above the slime,
and Pantagruel is sunk in a maleholge of filth. Time
has already overtaken Dickens. The critic has arisen to
pronounce the inimitable creation of yesterday to be vulgar
and inane and the comedy obsolete. The humour is faded
into the mere grotesque — the pathos laughed at rather than
the fun. In Don ^uixote^ almost by a unique destiny, there
is no decay or mark of corruption. Time has not lessened
its charm nor dulled its savour. Humour alone could not
have w^orked this miracle. Don Quixote survives because
the humour spells humanity ; to speak a paradox, it is
immortal because it is human.

The consummate power of Cervantes as a writer is shown
in the effect produced by means which seem to be wholly
inadequate — so simple as to look like commonplace. To
this delusion the style of Cervantes lends itself not a little.
It is a style perfectly natural and simple, more loose and
careless perhaps than the style of any writer who has
become a classic, but with a fascination all its own. For
lucidity and directness it is like the style of Swift, but with
a grace and variety and flexibility which are not to be
found in the work of the terrible Englishman. The story,
is of the simplest, which grows rather than is constructed.
The first of all modern novels has this peculiar distinction,
that it dispenses with such attraction as comes from love-
making. The love -business in Don Quixote is entirely
parenthetical — when it is anything else than caricature.
Yet the author's disdain of this almost universal spice with
which to flavour his story has not tended in any appreciable
degree to reduce its interest. Nor is it because Cervantes
did not know how to paint women that he left them out of
the main action of his book. The women in Don Quixote,
though entirely secondary and subordinate, like all Shak-
speare's women who are not unsexed by some abnormal

236

The Man and the Book

passion, are not less vividly pictured and strongly individual-
ised than the men. The Housekeeper and the Niece —
who cannot picture them w^ithout the aid of the artists ?
Xhey appear but seldom, and utter but a few sentences in
the course of the story, but they are moving in the flesh
before us : the ama with her fussy household loyalty to her
master ; the sohrina^ a pert young hussy, who is not afraid
to chalF her uncle while in awe of his humours. The
imagination may please itself in the thought that probably
she was drawn from Costanza, the daughter of Andrea,
Cervantes' sister, who shared her uncle's modest home for
many years. The beautiful and witty Dorothea — the love-
sick Clara — the frolicsome Duchess — even poor Maritornes,
are creatures of flesh and blood, who live and move on the
canvas. We can say of them what Rafael Mengs said on
first sight of the famous Velasquez picture in the Madrid
gallery. Las Hilanderas : Esto no es pintado con la mano sino
con la voluntad. The Priest, with his genial tact and keen
good sense ; Master Nicholas the Barber, a maladroit and
blundering vulgar person ; Samson Carrasco, the scholar,
ready of resolve and resource as of wit ; Don Antonio
Moreno, that pleasant portrait of a Spanish country gentle-
man ; Gines de Pasamonte, the arch picaroon ; Roque
Guinart, the gallant freebooter ; the Duke, half-ashamed of
his practical jokes on the poor Knight ; the page who goes
to find Theresa Panza ; the five innkeepers, all different
from each other — there is no character, however small or
unimportant, who is not touched with the breath of life.
What Dryden said of Shakspeare is as true of Cervantes :
" He drew them not laboriously but luckily ; when he
describes anything, you more than see it, you feel it too."
From the principals to the accessories, even to the ladies and
gentlemen who play at Arcadia, they are not made, but crea-
tures already existing. They come into the process of the
story as though by no effort of the author, and because they

237

Cervantes chap.

happen to be on the road. The ploughman singing as he
goes to his early work of the Chace of Roncesvalles, the
young soldier carolling of his want of pence — they are
touches of life, which light up a picture which by its nature
is inclined to monotony. Nor is the composition less
admirable than the drawing of the individual figures. The
behaviour of each in relation to the other is always in char-
acter. The people talk, not as if they wanted to be reported,
but as they actually did talk and had been overheard. What
can be more easy and natural than the dispute between Sancho
and his wife as to whether Sanchica shall marry a Count ?
Or Sancho's action when he creeps a-tiptoe, with his finger
on his lips, looking behind the hangings, to see if any one is
listening, when he tells the Duchess of Dulcinea's enchant-
ment ? Or Dulcinea's own behaviour, when met riding
out of El Toboso by her enamoured captive knight ? Let
us take, as a capital instance of Cervantes' power of
realisation, the scene at Don Quixote's house-door, where
Sancho is trying to push his way in, while the Housekeeper
and Niece are stoutly resisting. We can hear the clamour
of female tongues, and see the two women holding the door,
with Sancho shouting, " Housekeeper of Sataii," and crying
for his governorship. These are not like things written or
even acted. We seem to have assisted at them — to have
overheard the talk from some secret place, to have known
the people, as indeed we never can forget them, they being
more lasting than if they had been of flesh and blood.

As to the perpetual contrast between Don Quixote himself
— the man of imagination, the enthusiast — and Sancho — the
man of vulgar common sense, "the practical man" — which
is the leading feature and the motive of the book, it is here
that the genius of Cervantes, by universal acknowledgment,
has achieved its highest triumph. Don Quixote must not
be taken as a man out of his senses. He is only out of his
wits: his understanding is deranged. He is "nobly wild —

238

The Man and the Book

not mad." While under his delusion, and only so long as he
is under it, he is incapable of reasoning accurately, but he
does not lose his faculty of reason in all matters else. When
not under the influence of his craze, he speaks with judg-
ment, soberness, and uncommon good sense. His heart
remains untouched, and his sense of honour is never lost,
but rather rendered more acute ; it being here that he is
" finely touched." Sancho is the converse of Don Quixote.
He is the animalist as opposed to the idealist. " Put him
and his master together, and they form a perfect intellect ;
but they are separated and w^ithout cement ; and hence, each
having a need of the other for its ow^n completeness, each
has at times a mastery over the other." ^ The humour of
such a parallel and contrast has its roots deep in human
nature. It is no mere artificial conjunction of two natures
brought together for comic effect, as in those couples of a
lower art, — Hudibras and Ralpho^ and Mr. Pickwick and
Sam Weller^ and others in that kind, of which the climax of
burlesque is reached in Tartarin de Tarascon^ which is an
impossible attempt at a combination of the two natures in
one person,— but a conjunction which " possesses the world,"
in Coleridge's phrase, and hence a conjunction which the
world cannot let perish.

The medium through which his eff'ects are produced is
admirably fitted to Cervantes' purpose. The contrast be-
tween his hero and his surroundings, — between the Knight's
chivalric designs and their ignoble failures — between Don
Quixote himself, the grave and stately hidalgo of romantic
aspirations, and the vulgar herd who follow him, and beat him,
and mock him, from the Duke down to the muleteers, — is
heightened by the simple, lucid, and naive language in which
the story is told. Cervantes, happily, was not infected by
what Bacon calls " that first distemper of learning when
men study words and not matter." He was of the great age

^ Coleridge in Literary Remains, vol. i. p. 120.

Cervantes

CHAP. 19

when writers still wrote unconscious of style. He drew with
that "economy of line " which is the peculiar gift of the true
artist. He had no vanity of the pen, choosing words not for
their own sake but as best for his purpose — not caring to
attract attention to the children of his wit by their fine
clothing. No writer is so disdainful of the usual tricks of the
literary craftsman. Wielding the noble Castilian like a
master so that it seems possessed of a new character and a
larger faculty in his hands, Cervantes has invested it with a
nobility of tone, a purity and grace, such as this tongue
never reached before or has known since. And the miracle
he has wrought in Don Quixote is that, while it is the finest
flower of Spain, breathing the very essence of the national
spirit, it is equally the book for every language and country
and for all time.

240

APPENDICES

241

APPENDIX A

GENEALOGY OF MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

The descent of Miguel de Cervantes from Nuno Alfonso, called
El Gran, or the Great, Alcaide (Governor) of Toledo, and a
Rico Hombre of Castile, born 1090, and died II43, in battle
against the Moors, has been traced by Navarrete, on the authority
of Mendez de Silva and other genealogists.

Cervantes' kinship with the Royal house of Spain is made
out by Mendez de Silva through a daughter of Nuno Alfonso,
El Gran, who married the Count Pedro Gutierrez de Toledo,
The thirteenth in direct succession from her was Dona Mariana
de Cordoba, who married Don Fadrique Enriquez, Admiral of
Castile, the great-grandson of Alfonso XL Their daughter,
Dona Juana Enriquez de Cordoba, was the second wife of Juan
IL, King of Aragon and Navarre. Their son was King Ferdinand
of Aragon, who married Isabella (the Catholic) of Castile, and
made the kingdoms of Spain into one. Their grandson was
Charles V., the father of Philip II. and of Don Juan of Austria.

243

DESCENT OF MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

NuNO Alfonso

(married Teresa Barroso).
I

Alfonso Munio
(the first called Cervatos).

I
GoNZALo DE Cervantes
(the first called Cervantes).

I
Juan Alfonso

(Commander in the Order of Calatrava).

Alonso Gomez

I
Diego Gomez

(the first who settled in Andalucia),
I

GoNZALO Gomez
(a Veinticuatro of Seville).

I
RODRIGO

(called El Sordo (the Deaf) ; his brother Diego was the founder of the branch
in La Mancha).

I
JuAN

(a Veinticuatro of Seville),

Diego
(a Commander in the Order of Santiago).

JUAN

(Corregidor of Osuna, 1531-58).

I
RODRIGO

Andrea

(Twice

married.

A widow in

1576).

RODRIGO

(Served in various
campaigns, and

died in Flanders,
date unknown).

LuiSA

(Became a

Carmelite Nun

in 1565).

MIGUEL

(The author of
Don fixate).

244

APPENDIX B

Abstract of the Proceedings at the enquiry into the conduct of
Miguel de Cervantes during his captivity in Algiers, together
with the depositions of the witnesses. (From Navarrete,
Fida de Cervantes : Ilustraciones y Documentos.)

In the city of Algiers, a territory ot the Moors in Barbary,
on the loth of October, 1580, before the Illustrious and Most
Reverend Father Juan Gil, Redeemer on behalf of his Spanish
Majesty, there appeared Miguel de Cervantes, who has been a
slave but is now free and ransomed, and presented the following
petition : —

Miguel de Cervantes, native of the city of Alcala de Henares,
in Castile, being at present in Algiers, ransomed and about to
depart in freedom, declares that, being on his way to Spain, he
desires, — and it is to him of importance, — to make an information
with witnesses, concerning not only his life and conduct in
captivity, but also other things touching himself in person, in
order that it may be presented, if necessary, before His Majesty's
Council, and enquired into for his interest. And because there
is no Christian person in this Algiers who has jurisdiction between
the Christians, and your Reverence being in this Algiers as a
redeemer of captives, the representative at once of his Majesty
as of his Holiness the Supreme Pontiff, whose delegates the
Redemptorist brethren are, therefore, in order to give force and
authority to the said information, he prays your Reverence to be
good enough to assume this office and jurisdiction, and hear the
evidence in this case.

Father Juan Gil having acceded to this request, an enquiry is
245

Cervantes

APPENDIX B

held, and certain formal interrogatories, in all twenty-five, are
put to a number of witnesses. Christian captives in Algiers, or
those who have been lately redeemed, referring to the conduct of
Miguel de Cervantes during his captivity, especially in regard to
his various attempts to free himself and other prisoners. The
evidence of the principal witnesses, stripped of legal phrases and
formal repetitions, is as follows : —

Alonso Aragones, native of Cordova, replies in detail to each
of the enquiries, and affirms especially that he knew Cervantes
for about four years ; that the frigate which was to make the
attempt at a rescue in 1577 came twice to Algiers, failing on the
second voyage ; that he knew one called El Dorador (The
Gilder), on whose information Cervantes was seized, and had
known him when he was a Mahomedan (that is, before he made
pretence of turning Christian again) ; that the Dey Hassan,
enraged at Cervantes for his project, ordered him to be put
among his own Christian slaves, and to receive 2000 blows with
a stick, though, through the intercession of some who went bail
for him, they were not inflicted. He knew the renegade Giron
also, and of his converse with Cervantes ; and of the purchase
of the vessel by the money advanced by Onofre Exarque, which
was done under Cervantes' direction, who managed everything,
and went about and planned as the author of all. This witness
was one of those whom Cervantes invited to escape in the second
vessel, and testified how the plan miscarried through the treachery
of Blanco de Paz, who gave information of it to the Viceroy,
getting for his reward an escudo of gold and a jar of butter,
averring that when the decree went out against any one concealing
Cervantes, they all supposed that when the Viceroy laid hands
on him he would not escape with his life, or, at least, not without
the loss of his ears or nose, so cruel was the temper of the
Viceroy, and so great the eclat the affair made throughout
Barbary ; that Cervantes, of his own free will, delivered himself
up, the Viceroy rejoicing much to get him into his power, that
he might be able to crush the Valencian merchants who had
been participators in the attempted escape ; but that the said
Miguel de Cervantes, heeding neither the cruel threats nor the

246

APPENDIX B

Cervantes

promises with which he was assailed, would blame no one, guid-
ing the affair to so happy an issue, and answering the Viceroy's
questions so dexterously, that the said Viceroy was confounded
and remained content, without being able to confirm the truth
of what he had already learnt through Blanco de Paz ; and
throughout this affair the said Miguel de Cervantes showed very
great spirit and discretion, taking the business on himself alone
and on four other gentlemen who were already at liberty. And
this witness vouches that if the said Miguel de Cervantes had
told what he knew, many gentlemen who were concerned in the
affair, regarded by their patrons and masters as poor people,
would have been discovered and come into the hands of Hassan
Pasha, by whom they would not have been released but for
heavy ransoms, and, moreover, the said merchants would have
been deprived of their goods and made slaves. And this witness
knew, moreover, that Miguel de Cervantes was imprisoned in
the Moors' gaol five months, loaded vnth chains and condemned
to much hardship, and thence was placed in a galley, with
double fetters and shackles. And he avers to have seen
Cervantes, in all the time of his captivity, mix and converse
very familiarly with the highest of the Christians, ecclesiastics,
religious persons, men of education, gentlemen, and his
Majesty's captains, conducting himself decorously, respectably,
and cheerfully ; and the witness is aware that Miguel de
Cervantes has been on friendly and intimate terms with the
Redemptorists, having frequent converse with them and dining
at their tables.

Diego Castellano, a captive ensign, native of Toledo, testified
that he had known Cervantes since 1570 ; was also one of the
slaves invited to escape in the vessel of the renegade Giron. He
confirmed what the previous witness has said about Cervantes'
behaviour when the attempt miscarried ; how he went before
the Dey of his own accord, and, in spite of all threats, would
accuse no one but himself; how that he was saved from
punishment by the intercession of a Spanish renegade named
Maltrapillo, who was a great favourite with the Dey. He
affirmed that with the little Cervantes possessed, he would

247

Cervantes

APPENDIX B

relieve poor Christians, helping them to perform their daily tasks
and to live their lives.

Rodrigo de Chaves, native of Badajoz, himself just ransomed,
deposed that he had known Cervantes for three years ; and was
able to answer as the other witnesses had answered to the
interrogatories.

Bernardo de Vega, inhabitant of Cadiz, said that he had
known Cervantes since he had been made captive. They were
both under one master, who was wont to treat Cervantes with
great severit)', loading him with double chains and making his
life miserable, all with a view of getting a large ransom for him,
he being supposed to be a person of consideration. The
witness, after speaking of the affair of the attempted escape (in
1577) as a topic of conversation among the principal people of
Algiers, averred that Cervantes was a man very discreet, and of
habits and tastes so good that all rejoiced to deal and to converse
with him, adding that, though his society was sought by the
leading captives, soldiers, and priests, he was amiable, and
courteous, and free with all the world.

Juan de Valcazar, native of Malaga, had known Cervantes
for six years ; had been taken captive with him in the Sol, and
had been his mate in Deli Mami's house ; could not testify as to
the matters of the escapes, having been then with his master
at Tetuan ; but affirmed that Don Juan of Austria, the Duke of
Sessa, and the other powerful captains, held Cervantes in great
esteem as a good soldier ; spoke of the persons concerned in the
attempted flight to Oran ; testified to the worthy and Christian
conduct of Cervantes in relieving the poor captives and keeping
up their spirits, comforting them in their affliction, and keeping
them steadfast in their faith.

Domingo Lopino, a captain, native of Sardinia, confirmed the
testimony of the previous witnesses as to the conduct of Cer-
vantes on the two occasions when his schemes of escape by sea
were frustrated, bearing witness to the good character and
reputation in which Cervantes was held in Algiers, especially
after his generous action in exculpating his companions and
taking the whole blame of the project of escape upon himself;

248

APPENDIX B

Cervantes

for which action he (the witness) and they all coveted his
society and friendship, and envied his virtue and faithfulness.
Furthermore, this witness confirmed all that had been said of the
treacherous and hostile behaviour of Blanco de Paz, who had
come to him and offered him gifts and promises of protection,
visiting himself daily in the gaol, in which he was confined in
chains, to try to make him testify against Cervantes.

Fernando de Vega, native of Toledo, had known Cervantes
for two years, and confirmed the good report which had been
given of him during this time.

Cristobal de Villalon, native of Valbuena, had known
Cervantes since 1576, and had been concerned in the attempts
at escape. Cervantes himself had said to him, when the
attempts failed, to have no fear, for he would save them all and
take all the blame upon himself.

Don Diego de Benavides, native of Baeza, had only been
two months in Algiers, having arrived from Constantinople to
be ransomed ; and could not speak of his personal knowledge
of the facts, but had enquired of the other Christians, what
gentlemen there were in Algiers, persons of quality, with
whom he could have communion, and they had replied to him
that there was one in especial, very accomplished, noble, and
virtuous, who was of a good disposition, and friendly with other
gentlemen ; and this was said of Miguel de Cervantes. There-
fore this witness sought him out, and, when he found him, the
said Cervantes, in very kindly terms, offered him a lodging,
linen, and such money as he had, and took him along with him
to where they at present messed together, and occupied one
chamber, treating him so kindly that this witness found in him
a father and mother, — a thing new in the world, — and they
were waiting for an opportunity to return together to Spain.

The Ensign Luis de Pedrosa, native of Osuna, had been two
years a captive in Algiers, during which time he had known
Cervantes : confirmed all that the previous witnesses had said,
part of which was within his own knowledge, and part notorious
in the city ; spoke of Cervantes as the grandson of Juan de
Cervantes, late corregidor of Osuna through the nomination

249

Cervantes

APPENDIX B

of the Conde de Urena, father of the then Duke of Osuna,
who had been greatly esteemed in that city as a noble and
honourable gentleman. This the witness knew because his
own father (de Pedrosa) had been a great friend of the corre-
gidor's. He testified that Cervantes had consulted him in
the business of the projected escapes by sea ; that, when the
second attempt miscarried, Cervantes sent word privately to
this witness bidding him and the rest be of no fear, for he was
able to get them all off, telling them to cast the blame upon him ;
that, when Cervantes had eluded the fierce Viceroy's wrath so
cleverly, he won great fame, praise, and honour, and showed
himself worthy of the highest reward ; that, although there were
other no less worthy gentlemen there, Cervantes took the lead
of them all in doing good to the captives and in honourable
actions, for he had a special grace in everything he did, and
was so clever and clear-sighted that none came near him. In
regard to the business of Blanco de Paz and the information
laid by that person before the King, this witness averred that
it was because Cervantes was the leader and actor in everything
that Blanco de Paz was jealous of him, though all they of good
quality and worth in the city complained of Blanco de Paz.

Brother Feliciano Enriquez, native of Yepes, a Carmelite
friar, had known Cervantes during the whole time of his
captivity ; had been concerned in the projects of escape ; had
been for some time unfriendly to Cervantes through having
heard ugly reports of him from a person, but, finding them
afterwards to be all calumnies, had become a great friend of
his, as were all the rest of the captives, who envied his gentle-
manly. Christian, honest, and virtuous conduct {su hidalgo proceder,
Cristiano y honesto y virtuoso).

At the end of these formal depositions is appended, at the
request, as it is said, of Cervantes, the personal testimony of
Father Juan Gil himself, of the Order of the Most Holy
Trinity, and official Redeemer of captives for Castile at
Algiers. Father Gil begins by declaring that he knows all
the witnesses who have given evidence in this case, and
certifies to their being persons of honour and veracity, whose

250

APPENDIX B

Cervantes

evidence is nothing but the truth in all they have said and
sworn. He certifies, moreover, for the information of the
King's Council, to whom these depositions are to be sent, that
as written by the regular notary of the Christians at Algiers
they are to be taken as faithful and authentic transcripts of the
evidence. Lastly, in his own person Father Gil testifies that
during the six months he has been at Algiers, on his mission
of redemption, he has dealt, conversed, and communed with
Miguel de Cervantes closely and familiarly, and that he knows
him for a very honourable man, who has served his Majesty
many years ; and that, especially in this captivity, he has per-
formed work which deserves that he should receive much
favour from his Majesty, as appears from the testimony of all
the witnesses at this enquiry, who are men of credit and repute
among all, or otherwise they would not be admitted to his com-
munion and intimacy.

As a postscript to this document is a still more elaborate and
detailed certificate by Dr. Antonio de Sosa, who, not being able
to give his evidence in person because of the close and rigorous
confinement in which, as a slave, he is kept by his master, sends
his written answers to all the interrogatories. Dr. Antonio de
Sosa, who seems to have been a person of superior learning and
capacity among the captives, affirms that, for the three years and
eight months of his captivity in Algiers, he knew, and had
frequent and familiar converse with, Miguel de Cervantes. The
said Cervantes, he declares, often complained to him that his
master would insist upon his being a Spanish gentleman of very
high quality, and therefore treated him with especial rigour,
loading him with chains and putting him to extraordinary
hardships, in order to force him to ransom himself. As to the
business of the first attempt at escape in 1577, and the hiding
of the captives in the cave. Dr. Sosa declares that he was
informed of every stage of it, up to the time of Cervantes
himself taking refuge there, — exposing himself to the manifest
peril of a very cruel death, such as the Turks are wont to inflict
on those who engage in such enterprises. As to Blanco de Pa?,,
Dr. Sosa testifies that it was he who, out of malice and envy of

251

Cervantes

APPENDIX B

Cervantes, gave such information to the Dey as spoilt the second
scheme of escape ; for which the said Blanco de Paz was held
in great odium and abhorrence by the other Christians, who, but
for Dr. Sosa's interference, would have beaten him for his wicked
deeds, even though he was a priest. As to the questions about
Cervantes' general behaviour during his captivity. Dr. Sosa
vouches that during the period of his knowledge of him he
had not seen or noted any evil or scandalous thing in him, nor
would he have held familiar commune had he known him for
otherwise than as an honourable and good Christian. Returning
to Blanco de Paz, Dr. Soso declares that though the said Blanco
de Paz claimed authority and credit in Algiers as a commissary
of the Holy Office, he was never able to produce his powers,
though taking informations and administering oaths in that
character, to the scandal of the Holy Office ; whose name he
used against his enemies, and especially against Miguel de
Cervantes.

(These documents, signed by Father Juan Gil, of which the
originals were discovered by Cean Bermudez in 1808, still exist
in the archives of Simancas. They are among the most im-
portant of the materials on which the biographer of Cervantes
has to rely for the history of his captivity in Algiers ; nor is it
possible to have clearer or stronger testimony. Cervantes'
purpose in insisting upon this formal and elaborate enquiry
is obvious enough. He considered himself to be still in the
public service. He had to account for the years of his
captivity. His enemy, Blanco de Paz, for reasons not very
clear, had sent to the Government a false and scandalous
report of Cervantes' conduct in Algiers. It was necessary
that the charges therein made, which seem from the obscure
hints we get of them to be chiefly directed at Cervantes'
religious opinions and practice, should be rebutted ; nor was
there any way of meeting them fairly and openly in Cervantes'
interest, for the credit of his family, who had received some
favours in the matter of his ransom, and for his prospects of
advancement in the King's service, except by such a formal
process as that which was instituted before Father Juan Gil.)

252

APPENDIX C

CERVANTES' MEMORIAL OF HIS SERVICES

Among the papers discovered by Cean Bermudez in the Archivo
General de Indias at Seville in the year 1808 were some precious
documents relating to Cervantes, up to that time unknown, which
were first printed by Navarrete in 1 819. First in importance
among these is a petition in Cervantes' own hand addressed to
the King, through the President of the Council of the Indies,
praying for one of the offices then vacant in America, as a com-
pensation for his sufferings, and in acknowledgment of his services
on behalf of the King. The memorial is dated the 29th of
May, 1590, and runs as follows in translation : —

Sir — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra declares that he has served
Tour Majesty many years in divers expeditions, by sea and land, for
the last two and twenty years, particularly in the naval battle, where
he received many wounds, from which he lost the use of a hand by an
arquebuse shot ; and in the year following he was at Navarino, and
after that in the affair of Tunis and the Goletta ; and when coming
to the capital with letters of recommendation from Don Juan and
the Duke of Sessa to Tour Majesty, he was taken captive in the galley
El Sol, he and his brother, who also has served Tour Majesty in the
same expeditions, and they were carried to Algiers, where, in ransom-
ing themselves, they spent their patrimony as well as all the estate oj
their parents and the portions of their two unmarried sisters, who
were reduced to poverty through ransoming their brothers ; and after
their release they went to serve Tour Majesty in the kingdom of
Portugal and in the Terceiras with the Marquess of Santa Crux. ;

Cervantes

APPENDIX C

and now at the present they are serving and serve Your Majesty, the
one of them in Flanders as ensign, and the other, Miguel de Cervantes,
was he who brought the letters and advices from Mostagan and went
to Oran by order of Tour Majesty, and since has helped in doing you
service in affairs of the fleet under the orders of Antonio de Guevara,
as is shown by the informations he holds ; and in all this time there
has been done him no favour whatever. He prays and beseeches
humbly, so far as he can, that Your Majesty should bestow on him
the favour of a place in the Indies, of the three or four which are
now vacant, one of them the accountantship of the new kingdom of
Granada, or the governorship of the province of Soconusco in Guate-
mala, or treasurer of the galleys of Carthagena, or magistrate of the
city of La Paz; and any of these offices with which Your Majesty
may favour him he will accept, for he is a man capable and sufficient
and well-deserving of Your Majesty's favour, ana his desire is to
continue always in the service of Your Majesty, and to spend his life
as his ancestors have done, so that thereby he may be benefited and
favoured.

This memorial is endorsed, the ist of June, 1590, by the
Doctor Nunez Morquecho, probably the King's Secretary in
the department of the Indies — Busque por aca en que se le haga
merced — (Let him look about here — meaning at home — for the
favour).

254

!^Ly YtMiy^ Je^^

APPENDIX D

LETTER OF MIGUEL DE CERVANTES TO THE
ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO

On the opposite page is a facsimile of the letter addressed by
Cerv-antes to the Archbishop of Toledo, to which I have referred
on p. 219.

The original is in the possession of the executors or the late
Marques de San Ramon, from whom I have been able to obtain
it through the kind offices of my friend, Don Pascual de Gayangos.

The following is a literal transcript of this document : —

AL ILMO. SR. EL SEIZOR D. BERNJRDO DE
SANDOVAL r ROXAS, ARZOBISPO DE TOLEDO

Muy Illustre Senor — Ha pocos dias que recevi la carta de
vuestra Senoria Illustrissima, y con ella nuevas mer cedes. Si del
mal que me aquexa pudiera haber remedio, fuera lo bastante, para
tenelle con las repetidas muestras de favor y amparo que me dispensa
vuestra Illustre Persona : pero al fin tanto arrecia que creo acabara
conmigo, aun cuando no con mi agradecimiento. Dios nuestro SeTior
le conserve egecutor de tan Santas obras para que goce del fructo
deltas alia en su santa gloria, como se la desea su humilde criado, que
sus magn'ificas manos besa. En Madrid a 26 de Marzo de 1616
a'^os.

Muy Illustre Senor,

MIGUEL DE CERB ANTES SAAVEDRA.

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE
WORKS OF CERVANTES

A COMPLETE bibliography of all the works of Cervantes, to
include every edition of each of his books and in every language,
would be a compilation of value only to the book-collector,
undesirable for any literary purpose. Even if it were possible
to attain absolute completeness, the list would extend to dimen-
sions far beyond the scope of the present undertaking. A mere
catalogue of all the impressions of Don Quixote, with the trans-
lations, would occupy more space than I can spare ; while to
enumerate all his books necessary to a Don Quixote librar)%
would be an epitome of Spanish literature. The tale of the
numxber of times that Don Quixote has been printed, either at
home or abroad, in its native language or in translation, is
ever-growing and endless. The total reached' by one calculator
is surpassed by the next. The estimate of Lopez de Fabra, the
editor of the beautiful Barcelona facsimile of the first edition,
who made the figure 278 — 87 in Spain and 191 in foreign
countries — has already swelled to 356; nor is this likely to
be the correct sum, seeing that many foreign translations are
unknown out of the country where they were produced.

There is the less necessity for attempting to give even an
approximately full list of the editions of Don Quixote, seeing
that the majority of them are mere reprints, with no claim to
be called editions. Between the middle of the seventeenth
century and the date of the Academy's first edition in 1780,
the book was frequently reprinted in Spain, without any
attention to the correctness of the text, with numerous errors

256

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

and corruptions of the press repeated and multiplied in every
successive issue, wath even the title of the story altered — in bad
print and worse paper — sometimes " adorned " with sculptures
or woodcuts of curious and amazing ugliness. During the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries also the greater part of
the foreign editions were mere copies of one another, of no
critical or even proper bibliographical value.

What I have attempted in this Bibliography is to give, in
chronological order, every edition of Cervantes' works which has
any distinction in its kind, from containing any new or peculiar
feature in its impression, its form of publication, or any other
circumstance attending its production which may give it value
or interest.

I. GALATEA

Primera Parte de la Galatea, dividida en seys llbros. Compuesta
por Miguel be Cervantes. Alcala : 1585.

Of 375 octavo pages, with 8 of dedication, etc. This is the
earliest edition extant, of which only one copy is known — in the
possession of the Marques de Salamanca. Salva maintains it to
be the editio princeps, but I agree with Asensio and the older critics
in believing that there must have been an edition of 1584.
The privilege to publish is dated the ist of February, 1584.
Cervantes married his wife in December, 1584, and for reasons
which will be manifest to those who have read the story of his
life I think we may presume that his first book was printed
before that date. There were some six or seven editions of
Galatea before the author's death. After a long sleep it was
resuscitated by Sancha in his edition of 1784, of two volumes.
The Galatea, which has still a vogue in its French dress by
Florian, seems to have escaped the notice of the early English
translators, being first Englished in full by G. W. J. Gyll, in
1867.

257 17

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHy

II. DON QUIXOTE IN THE ORIGINAL.

Part I.

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Compuesto por
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, etc. 1605. Madrid: Juan
de la Cuesta.

This is the first edition of Don Quixote, a quarto of 664
pages, of which 632 form the text. The licence {privilegio) is
dated the 26th of September, 1604 ; and the tasa (valuation
for tax) 20th December, 1604. On the title-page, after the
imprint, are the words Vendese en casa de Francisco de Robles,
librero del Rey, nuestro Senor — " Sold at the house of Francisco
de Robles, bookseller to our Lord the King." In the centre of
the title is a device of the printer, Juan de la Cuesta, a hand
holding a hawk, unhooded, and a lion couchant, with the legend
Post tenebras lux. This motto, common to all Cuesta's books,
and, in fact, often used by other printers of the age, refers, of
course, to the invention of the art of printing — without any
special reference, as in these days has been rashly assumed, to
Cervantes and his design in Don Quixote. This first edition,
now one of the rarest of books, is fairly well printed, with
ornamental capitals and a few other typographical embellish-
ments ; but it swarms with blunders of the press, having
apparently never been revised by the author. A copy was sold
at Baron Seilliere's sale in 1888 for j^ii3. A facsimile of this
and of the first edition of the Second Part, reproduced by photo-
typography, was brought out at Barcelona in 1872, under the
auspices of Don Francisco Lopez Fabra \ with a supplementary
volume containing 1633 notes by Don Eugenio Hartzenbusch.
These, for the most part, are arbitrary emendations and correc-
tions of the author, mostly those which had been adopted by
Hartzenbusch in the text of his two editions of Argamasilla —
to be spoken of hereafter.

258

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. Em Lisboa. Impresso
com lisen^a do Santo OfEcio por Jorge Rodriguez. 1605.

This, as Salva clearly demonstrates, must be the second
edition printed of Don Quixote, for it contains, what no other of
the early editions does, the passage in ch. zxvi. about Don
Quixote's rosary (see note in loco), exactly as in Cuesta's first
edition. It is a quarto of 462 pages, printed in double columns.
The approbation is dated February 26, 1605, a little more than
two months later than that which is affixed to Cuesta's first
edition. It is even rarer than any of the Madrid editions.
Portugal, at this date, 1 605, was under the Spanish crown.

There was a second edition printed at Lisbon, in 1605, by
Pedro Crasbeeck — an octavo of 916 pages; equally rare with
the first, and equally without authority from, or profit to, the
author.

El Ingeiiioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. Con Privilegio de Castilla,
Aragon, y Portugal. Madrid : Juan de la Cuesta. 1605.

This, the second of the two only genuine editions, printed in
1605 by Juan de la Cuesta, and sold by Francisco Robles, though
in form, size, the character of the print, and the number of
pages, precisely similar to his first, contains some curious and
important variations. By Navarrete and by Ticknor it was
taken to be the first of the two Cuesta editions ; but that this
could not be is clearly demonstrated by Salva. In the first
place, the privilege carrying the author's rights, or such as in
that day could be enforced, includes Aragon and Portugal, as
well as Castile. It is evident, therefore, that Robles, having
reason to complain of the breach of his copyright through the
printing of surreptitious editions in Aragon and Portugal, was
induced to issue a second impression {pbradd) with the addi-
tional words on the title-page which we have quoted. Another
proof that this was the second edition is afix)rded by the altera-
tions made in ch. xxvi., where Don Quixote makes his rosary,
not of his shirt-tails, but of oak-galls — a change, doubtless, made

259

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

by the author at the instance of the censorship. In other
respects this second edition is even more carelessly printed than
the first, having apparently been hurried through the press. A
curious misprint appears in the very title-page, where the book
is said to be dedicated to the Duque de Bcjar, " Conde de
Barcelona" instead of " Benalcazar," — the Countship of Barce-
lona having been one of the minor titles of the Crown since the
days of Ferdinand and Isabella.

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. Impreso con licencia
en casa de Pedro Patricio Mey. 1605.

This is a small octavo of sixteen preliminary leaves and 768
pages, better printed than any of the preceding. The text
follows that of Cuesta's second edition. From the words in the
title-page we may presume that Pedro Patricio Mey was an
honest man, as well as a good printer, and bought his privilege
of reprinting Don Quixote from the owner of the copyright.

There was, as Salva and Gayangos maintain, a second edition,
or impression, made at Valencia in 1605 — closely resembling the
other in appearance, but with a few different readings.

These may be reckoned the six existing editions of 1605 —
of which he who possesses one may be reckoned supremely
happy among Quixote, and Quixotic, collectors* I have spoken
elsewhere of other supposed editions of 1605, which, however,
as they are now non-existent, need not occupy a place in this
Bibliography.

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. En Brusselas, por
Roger Velpius. 1607.

This, the Brussels edition, the first printed out of Spain
(Brussels was still under the Spanish dominion), though not
pretending to a licence and clearly a piratical enterprise, pos-
sesses some distinctive features which make it valuable in a
Quixote collection. In the first place, it is well printed, as
were all the books of Roger Velpius, in a smaller form than
any which had yet appeared. The text has been revised by

260

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

some intelligent reader, who (of course, without authority)
made some corrections, a few of which were afterwards adopted
by the Spanish Academy. There is a brave attempt to reduce
to order the passages about the stealing of Sancho's ass ; but
other blunders quite as bad are retained. The book is, perhaps,
quite as rare as any of the genuine first editions. I possess a
copy, the gift of my late friend, Mr. J. Y. Gibson.

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don fixate, etc. Madrid : Juan de la
Cuesta. 1608.

This, the true second edition, made under the eyes of the
author and containing many alterations and corrections, has
served as the basis of all the editions of the Spanish Academy,
and must be regarded as the most valuable which the true
bibliographer (distinguished from the book-fancier) can pos-
sess. Mr. John Ormsby, it is true, adopting the heresy of
Hartzenbusch, contends that "no particular sanctity" attaches
to the corrections here made ; " that it is plain that he
(Cervantes) was not even aware of any such corrections
having been made," and that " they must stand or fall on
their own merits like those of any other printer." By any
other printer ! — But this is to beg the whole question. The
printer of the edition of 1608 was Cervantes' authorised printer
of the editions of 1605. Is it credible that without the
authority of the author — that author being, in 1608, resident
in Madrid, as he was not in 1605 — Juan de la Cuesta would
venture to correct the text in a material passage as the text is
here corrected, putting in a long speech by Sancho (the lament-
ation over Dapple, which critics have admired as one of the
most admirable and characteristic pieces of invention in the
book), and, in two or three places, supplying omissions and
amending blunders in the text ? Surely, as I have contended
elsewhere, the very fact that some corrections were made,
and not all that might have been made, is in itself a proof
that no one but Cervantes could have been the corrector.
If it had been the printer who corrected, and was able to
invent so capital a scene as that of Sancho bewailing the loss

261

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

of his ass, why did he not correct more and correct completely ?
And where does it appear that Cervantes was "not even aware
of the corrections " ? That he was aware of some corrections
is clear from the words put into Sancho's mouth in ch. iv.
of the Second Part, where, talking of this very incident, he
says: — "I set up a lamentation which, if the author of our
history has not put in, you may reckon that he has not put in
a good thing." Is it possible to believe that Cervantes would
so speak of a passage not written by himself, but composed and
inserted by the printer without authority ? And how can it be
said that he was not even aware of the corrections, — this passage
of Sancho's lamentation being one of them ? The question,
however, seems to be settled, for English translators and English
readers at least, by the authority of the Spanish Academy, which
has based its fourth and last edition of 1 8 19 upon Cuesta's edition
of 1608. Let the judicious Cervantophile, therefore, never cease
to strive to obtain, as the nucleus of his Don ^lixote library, the
edition of 1608, which in the book market is almost as rare as
any of the first editions.

There was an edition of the First Part published at Milan
(then under Spanish rule) in 16 10, and a second edition at
Brussels, by Roger Velpius, in 161 1, — neither of any critical
value. These are all the editions now extant of the First Part,
published in Cervantes' lifetime, though there is reason to
believe that there was an edition of Barcelona (to which Cer-
vantes seems to allude in Part II. ch. iii.), and probably of
Zaragoza, Pamplona, and Antwerp, within the first decade of
the seventeenth century, all of which have disappeared.

The Second Part.

Segunda Parte del Ingenioso Cavallero Don Quixote de la Mancha^
etc. Madrid: Juan de la Cuesta. 1615.

This is the first edition of Cervantes' Second Part, in quarto,
of 584 pages, very similar in form and execution to Cuesta's
First Part, with the same device and legend on the title-page.
There is a long and interesting "approbation," written by

262

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

Marquez Torres, the Secretary to the Archbishop of Toledo
(Cervantes' patron), dated 27th February, 161 5. The privi-
legio is dated 30th March, and the dedication to the Conde
de Lemos 31st October. The book is even rarer than any of
the early editions of the First Part, nor is it more carefully
printed. It is to be remarked that Don Quixote is styled in the
title-page, not El Ingenioso Hidalgo, but El Ingentoso Caballero
— a change which Clemencin attributes to carelessness, but
which is more likely due to design. At the opening of the
Second Part of the story, Don Quixote is a fully -dubbed
Knight {armado caballero), and not merely a hidalgo.

Only one other edition of the Second Part is known to have
been published in Cervantes' lifetime, namely, that of Brussels,
in 161 6, by Huberto Antonio, in which the approbation of
Marquez Torres is omitted.

In this place we have to notice the spurious Second Part,
published under the name of Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda,
in 1 6 14, after Cervantes had given public notice of the ap-
proaching completion of his own Second Part ; the full title
of this false Quixote, the character and mystery of which
have been fully investigated elsewhere, is Segundo Tomo del
Ingenioso Hidalgo Don fixate, etc. It is dedicated to the
" Alcalde, Regidores, and hidalgos of the noble city of
Argamasilla, happy country of the gentleman knight {hidalgo
caballero') Don Quixote of La Mancha." It was published at
Tarragona, in a quarto of 572 pages, without approbation, tasa,
or licence, under a feigned name. The book is now very
scarce. It was reprinted in 1732, and again in 1805, with
omissions of some of the viler chapters. It was deemed
worthy of being put into a French dress by M. Le Sage,
and afterwards by M. Germond de Lavigne (in English by
Stevens), and had better be forgotten for a vile, malignant,
and indecent libel, without grace or worth of any kind.

263

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Complete Don Quixote.

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. (Ambas Partes.) A
Costa de Juan Simon. Barcelona, 1617. 2 vols. 8vo.

This, according to Salva, is the first complete edition of the
two parts of Don ^lixote, published the year after the author's
death. The two parts, however, are not printed uniformly, nor by
the same printers, and it is doubtful whether they were intended
to be issued together.

Primera y Segunda Parte del Ingenioso Hidalgo, etc. Madrid :
Francisco Martinez. 2 vols. 410. 1637.

This, according to Navarrete, is the first complete edition.
It is poorly printed, like all the rest of this century, on vile
paper, with the dedications and prefatory verses omitted. There
were three or four editions, mostly based on the above, in the
years following, equally bad and now equally rare.

Vida y Heckos del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. En
Bruselas, por Juan de Monmarte. 1662. 2 vols. 8vo.

An edition distinguished as being the first in which Cervantes'
title was wantonly and foolishly altered into Vida y Hechos del
Ingenioso, etc. — an innovation adopted by all the subsequent
editions, until the Academy's first edition of 1780. This
edition has the further distinction of being the first which
was "embellished" with plates. These embellishments, which
herald the long line of vile attempts to make Don Quixote a
picture-book, are remarkable, even among the Don Quixote
illustrations, for their ugliness and ludicrous inappropriateness
to the text.

There were several other editions with plates, sometimes
styled muy donosas y apropriadas a la materia, published in
the Netherlands and in Spain, equally worthless for anything
else than as testifying to the continued popularity of the book
throughout the seventeenth century. In the edition of Madrid,

264

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

1674, by Andres Garcia de la Iglesia, it is said in the dedication
that "the works of Cervantes were current amidst the general
applause through all the world," and that in Spain the editions
were repeated almost every year.

Fida y Hechos del Ingenioso, etc. Londres, 1701. 2 vols. 4to,
with plates.

This edition, mentioned by Navarrete on the faith of the
" Index of Faulder," should be the first ever printed in England.
I cannot learn anything about it, however, from any other
authorit}", and am inclined to disbelieve in its existence. We
may pass over all the other many succeeding editions to
come to —

Fida y Hechos del Ingenioso Hidalgo, etc. Londres : J. and R.
Tonson. 4 vols, large 4to, 1738, with copper-plates designed
by Vanderbusch and engraved by Vertue and Vandergucht.

This edition is remarkable as being the first in which due
honour was paid to Cervantes in the treating of his immortal
work as a classic, and not a mere book of drolleries. Its origin
is told by Mayans y Siscar (the editor), in his Prologue to the
Pastor de Filida, Valencia, 1792. Queen Caroline, wife of
George XL, being of a romantic turn and fond of reading books
of imagination, formed a collection of these, which she called
7^1? Library of the Sage Merlin. Talking of her design one day
to Lord Carteret (the well-known Minister), an admirer of
Spanish literature, he told her that one book was lacking, " the
most agreeable and witty ever written in the world," of which
there was no edition worthy of a place in her collection. He
undertook, therefore, to have Don ^ixote published at his
expense, in a style worthy of the author. He carried out his
promise by bringing out this magnificent edition, printed by
Tonson, with all the luxury of his well-known press, and edited
by Don Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, a learned gentleman of
Valencia, who was assisted by Pedro de Pineda, a teacher of
Spanish, and apparently by other scholars. The editor wrote

265

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

for it the Life of Cervantes, — a biography necessarily very
imperfect, seeing that many essential documents were then
undiscovered, yet the first in which any attempt was made to
elucidate the history of the author. The text was also amended
and corrected in many places, — the original verses restored, and
many of the excrescences which had grown round the book in
its passage through the Spanish and Flemish presses lopped off.
The copper-plates were done on a scale of great magnificence,
so far as the engraving was concerned, the engravers being Vertue
and Vandergucht. The artist, however, one Vanderbusch, by no
means corresponded in skill and in imagination to his author, —
his inventions being incredibly bald, vulgar, and grotesque, with-
out any spark of real humour, or sense of harmony with the text.
Finally, there was affixed to the first volume a portrait of Cer-
vantes, which was lettered Retrato de Miguel de Cervantes por el
Mismo (The Portrait of Miguel de Cervantes by Himself).
This, as we have pointed out elsewhere, which is the original
of all the extant portraits purporting to be of Cervantes, was
made up by the artist, William Kent, out of the verbal descrip-
tion given by Cervantes of himself in the prologue to his Novelas.
With all its defects, the edition which I have cited always as
Lord Carteret's is a noble book, worthy of the author and of
England, and deserving of a place in the library of every lover
of Cervantes.

Stimulated by the production of Lord Carteret's edition of
the Spanish masterpiece in a foreign country, the Spanish Royal
Academy was put on its mettle, and after many years' labour, —
its pace being quickened at last by the announcement of still
another critical edition to appear in London, — was delivered of
its first great work, to which the original title was restored of —

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. Madrid : 4 vols,
imp. 4to, 1780.

In this edition the Academy corrected many of the blunders
and misprints which had crept into the text, while it adopted
several of Mayans' suggestions and emendations. The print

266

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

and paper are of superb quality, and the presswork under
the famous Ibarra, prince of Spanish printers, very excellent,
though not better than Tonson's. The plates were designed
by the most famous Spanish artists of the day. They are a
little less grotesque, because more Spanish, than in previous
editions, and are fairly well engraved ; but still absurdly false,
affected, and inappropriate, — the artists appearing not to have
given themselves the trouble of reading the book they illustrated.
The portrait (of which more is said in another place), professing
to be taken from an original picture in the possession of the
Conde del Aguila, is merely a reproduction of the bust from
Kent's imaginary picture of Cervantes, with the details and
flourishes omitted. Tn this edition, which can hardly be said to
keep its value in the market except in the eyes of the hunters
after editions de luxe, the chief features are the Life of Cervantes
and Analysis of Don (Quixote, by Don Vicente de los Rios, an
officer of Engineers. Don Vicente was a passionate admirer of
Cervantes, and is worthy of praise for some contributions to our
knowledge of the man and of his book, but he is tedious and
pedantic, and with his frequent parallels to the Iliad and the
jEneid not a little absurd.

The next step in the bibliography of Don (Quixote was a very
notable one. It was the publication of —

La Historia del famoso cavallero Don Quixote, etc., con annotaciones^
indices, y varias lecciones, por el Reverendo Don 'Juan Bowie.
6 vols, in 3, roy. 4to. (The first volume printed in London,
and the rest at Salisbury.) 178 1.

Though he had no right to alter his author's own title, and
though he takes some unaccountable liberties with his book,
John Bowie is deserving of the eternal good-will of all Cer-
vantophiles as having been the first who, in any language or in
any country, devoted to the text of Don Quixote the patient
care, industry, and learning which up to that time had been
the perquisites of the ancient classics. Bowie, who was the
incumbent of Idmestonc, a small Wiltshire village, spent four-
teen years of his life, as he tells Dr. Percy, in learning Spanish,

267

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SO that he might annotate Don Quixote. He succeeded so far as
that he produced an edition which, however decried on its first
appearance and for a long time unsaleable, has now attained its
proper rank in literature. Bowie's knowledge of the romances
of chivalry and of the Italian romantic poetry was most extensive,
and he was the first who traced the numerous references and
parallels in Don Quixote to their originals. Subsequent Spanish
commentators and editors have borrowed largely from the
Wiltshire parson, while they have not been always scrupulous
in acknowledging their debts. Not the least valuable feature of
Bowie's edition is the series of indexes of proper names and
leading words — of infinite use to every student of Don Quixote,
when once he has the key to Bowie's somewhat eccentric way of
denoting the places where the words occur.

A second and a third edition of the Royal Academy followed
in 1782 and 1787, — of no other value than as testifying to the
constant demand for Don Quixote. The next important critical
edition was —

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. Nueva edicion, corregida
de nuevo, con nuevas notas, con nuevas estampas, con nueva
analisis, y con la vida nuevamente comentada por Don Juan
Antonio Pellicer. Madrid: Sancha. 1797-98. 5 vols. 8vo.

There is not so much that is new in this edition as the
flowing promise of novelties in the title-page indicates. Pel-
licer took a great many of his notes, — almost all which verify the
passages in the romances referred to, — from Bowie, with insuf-
ficient acknowledgment. Pellicer's own notes are few, and his
criticisms of no great value, as when he remarks that ingenioso
was meant by the author to apply, not to his hero, but to his
book. The " nuevas estampas " promised are by Navarro, — of a
hideousness equal to any of the old.

There were several re-impressions of Pellicer's edition, one in
Paris, one in Bordeaux, one in Barcelona, and one in Leipzig
(1800), with Beneke's vocabulary of Quixote words (not without
value to the student). No other editions need occupy us until
we arrive at —

268

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. Madrid. l8ig.
4 vols. 8vo.

This is the fourth and, up to the present date, the last
edition of the Academy, in which several corrections are made,
— the First Part being more directly based upon Cervantes'
own edition of 1608 than before, — for the reason given that
this edition was " the latest choice of the author," and therefore
preferable to the first (of 1605), "which was neither made
under his eyes nor received the last touches of his hand."
There are some new plates from designs by Rivelles, which
are not quite so bad as those in preceding editions, though still
bad enough. Some years ago it was reported that the Academy
was about to bring out another edition of Dofi Quixote; but
apparently it has been content to delegate that duty to Senor
Hartzenbusch, one of its members. For the present this
Academy's edition of 1 81 9 is indispensable to the Don Quixote
library, as containing the purest and best text on what we must
take to be the highest authority.

The next in order, passing over a great number of editions,
mostly reprints of the Academy's editions of 18 19, was —

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. Comentado por Don Diego
Clemencin. Madrid : 1833-39. ^ ^°^^- 4^°*

This is the famous edition of Clemencin, with a comment-
ary more full, minute, and elaborate than any of which Don
Quixote has ever been the object. Perhaps no book, ancient
or modern, has been dissected, analysed, criticised, and illus-
trated with so free a hand, and, on the whole, with so much
industry, patience, and learning as Don Quixote has been by
Senor Clemencin. I have had frequent occasion to comment
upon the commentator, to differ with him, and to protest
against his treatment of a book which, with all his zeal on the
author's behalf, he seems to have been constitutionally incapable
of understanding. Nevertheless, it would be ungrateful of me
not to acknowledge my indebtedness to Clemencin for a very

269

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

large portion of the knowledge I possess of Don Quixote.
This edition was to have been supplemented, according to the
editor's original design, by an extra volume of notices of the
Spanish romances of chivalry ; but Don Diego Clemencin
died before his work was completed, — the concluding volume
being edited by his sons. Possibly this may account for some
of the imperfections and redundancies in these six volumes.
An index to Clemencin's notes, by Mr. Charles F. Bradford
of Boston, was published at Madrid in 1885, and forms an
indispensable addition to these six volumes, with which it is a
pity it was not printed uniformly.

The next critical edition — passing over reprints and editions
de luxe, one of the most sumptuous of the latter being Moran's
magnificent Don Quixote in two volumes folio, printed at
Barcelona in 1862, with woodcuts of scenes and places more
appropriate than most illustrations to the book — is —

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote, etc. Edicion corregida
con especial studio de la primera, por Don Juan Eugenio
Hartzenbusch. Argamasilla de Alba : Rivadeneyra. 4 vols,
izmo. 1863.

This is the first of the two editions put forth by Hartzen-
busch, in a beautiful form, with every grace of type, paper, and
print. The printing was done in the Casa de Medrano at
Argamasilla, where also were printed the four volumes of
the larger edition of Cervantes' entire works, including Don
Quixote, in the cellar which was the prison wherein the book
was conceived. Unhappily, Hartzenbusch, — the son of a
German carpenter who was naturalised in Spain, — though him-
self a man of letters more eminent than any of those who edited
Don Quixote, and professing a profound regard for Cervantes
and admiration for his work, was unable to keep his hands
from defacing the text, through a sheer itch for emendation.
Not content with pointing out in his notes how the passage
might have been better turned or rendered clearly, Hartzenbusch
boldly alters the text to suit his theories, — a liberty unpardon-
able in any commentator, and all the more inexcusable in

270

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

Hartzenbusch, who was a man of talent and judgment, himself
a poet and dramatist, who for many years held a leading place
in the literature of his adopted country. Hartzenbusch was born
in 1806, and filled the oifice, for many years up to his death, of
librarian of the National Library at Madrid. He is best known
as the author of Los Amantes de Teruel, — a drama founded upon
a famous episode of a pair of lovers who died for love in 1217,
the subject of many earlier ballads and plays. Hartzenbusch
died at a good old age in 1885.

To the beautiful facsimile reproduction of the first editions
of the two Parts, published under the auspices of Colonel
Lopez Fabra (referred to above), there was appended a supple-
mentary volume of 1633 notes by Hartzenbusch, almost
entirely conjectures in emendation of the text. Some of these
are new, and in some places the notes of 1843 have been
omitted or corrected. There are very few of any real value,
the commentator being more intent upon displaying his own
ingenuity than in discovering the author's meaning.

There have been several editions of Don Quixote in Spain
in recent years, mostly distinguished by " illustrations." The
only professedly new edition is that of Ramon Leon Mainez,
in five volumes, published at Cadiz in 1877. It is of small
critical value, the editor's commentary being distinguished
rather for enthusiasm than for judgment.

There is an edition oi Don Quixote (Part First only) published
at Palencia in 1884, by Feliciano Ortego Aguirrebena, purporting
to be based on an original manuscript supposed to be of Cervantes.
The corrections, impudently claimed to be those made on the
author's own proofs, are conjectural emendations by Sefior
Aguirrebena himself, of no value whatever. It is one of the
numerous outrages in that kind of which Cervantes has been
made the victim in his own country.

TRANSLATIONS OF DON QUIXOTE

The editions of Don Quixote in foreign languages are infinite
in number, and of every variety of merit. In this place I am

271

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

only able to speak of those which seem to me to be of literary
or bibliographical value. Beginning with the English, as I
have a right to do, seeing that the first translation made of Don
Quixote was an English one, there is, first —

The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight Errant Don
Quixote of the Mancha. Printed for Ed. Blount and W.
Barret, 2 vols, small 4to, 1612-20.

The translator's name, as appears from the dedication to Lord
Walden, is Thomas Shelton, — though who or what Shelton was
has baffled all research. In his dedication, Shelton speaks of
having translated, "some five or six years ago, the History of
Don Quixote (meaning the First Part) out of the Spanish
tongue in the space of forty days," — which, if true, would
sufficiently account for the slovenly character of his work.
There has been much controversy over the First Part of
Shelton, owing to the fact that what passes as the first edition
of that First Part has never been seen with a printed title-
page, with colophon and date. But I think I have made it
clear that this supposed "first edition," so called in the British
Museum catalogue and elsewhere, is but a reprint of the real
First Part, issued to resemble Shelton's Second Part in 1620.
The genuine first edition of Shelton's First Part, of which only
one copy exists (that, in 1894, in the possession of Mr. Yates
Thompson), has a printed title-page with date, 161 2. It is a
small quarto of 598 pages, the last four not numbered, printed
within vertical and horizontal lines, not only differing in type and
presswork from the reprint but with variations in the text, as
pastora for shepherdess in the story of Chrysostom, etc. There is
a heading to each page of "The Delightfull Historie of the Wittie
Knight Don Quixote." The fact that only one copy of the real
first edition survives, and that the printers Edward Blount and
William Barret reprinted it in 1620 when they brought out
Shelton's Second Part, is a proof of the extreme popularity of
the book in England even at this early date. With the discovery
of the dated real First Part there is no longer any necessity to
refer to the collateral evidence furnished by the Registers of the

272

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

Stationers' Company to prove that Shelton published his Don
Quixote in 1612. In regard to the date (1620) of the Second
Part, there is also some confusion. The dedication is to the
Duke of Buckingham, and it is signed, not by Shelton, but by
Blount ; and the entry in the Stationers' Register is under the
name of Edward Blount, with the date 5th December, 161 5,
which was only a few months later than the date of the issue
of the original Second Part at Madrid. The Second Part is far
more loosely and hastily translated than the First, which has
given rise to the belief that it was not the work of Shelton,
but of some other hand. There is even some reason to doubt
whether there was any Thomas Shelton other than Edward
Blount himself. However this may be, it is a book which, in
spite of its numerous and glaring faults, is worthy to be prized
for its language alone as a treasure of quaint, delightful, rough
English, in which the spirit of Cervantes survives better perhaps
than in any of the more modern versions. A second edition of
Shelton, in one folio volume, purporting to be "now newly
corrected and amended," was published in 1652. But it is
identical with the older edition. In 1706 Captain Stevens
published a revised edition of Shelton, which has been several
times reprinted.

T7:e History of the most renozvned Don Quixote and Sane ho Panza,
now made English according to the humour of our modern
language. Folio. London, 1687.

This was by John Phillips, Milton's nephew — a poor, ribald
piece of work, without a spark of the original humour, now
deservedly forgotten.

The History of the renowned Don Quixote. Translated from the
original by several hands, and published by Peter Motteux.
4. vols. i2mo. London, 170 1.

This is Motteux's version, of which I have spoken fully
elsewhere. It has been rated far too high by Lockhart, who
brought out a new edition in 1822, with original notes (almost

273 18

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

wholly taken from Pclliccr), and translations of the ballads.
It is to be noted that Motteux's work clearly shows marks of
the "several hands" employed, the language being by no
means uniform, with some chapters better than others. The
Second Part is generally closer to the text and more carefully
executed than the First, — which is not usual in the translations
of Don Quixote. There have been recent reprints of Motteux,
of which the only merits are the handsome type and paper.
The etchings in one of them by Los Rios are spirited and
Spanish, but not Quixotesque or faithful to the text.

The Life and Exploits of the Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of
La Mancha. Translated by Charles Jarvis. 2 vols. 4to.
London, 1742.

This was a posthumous work of the painter, Charles Jervas,
the friend of Pope, elsewhere sufficiently characterised. It
is the translation best known in commerce, holding its ground
apparently to the present day — I am puzzled to know why,
except that it is a commonplace and unhumorous production,
with the few naughty words in the text softened for polite
modern ears. There are numerous revised versions of Jarvis,
in which his style is still further smoothened, conventionalised,
and dulled.

The History and Adventures of Don Quixote. Translated from
the Spanish by T. Smollett. 2 vols. 4to. London, 1755.

This was evidently an enterprise started by the booksellers in
opposition to Jarvis. Smollett knew nothing of Spanish, and
seems to have used a French original. It is very loose and
vulgar and altogether worthless, save for some happy turns of
English.

The History of Don Quixote. Illustrated with engravings after
R. Smirke, R.A. 4 vols. 8vo. London, 1818.

A translation made by the artist's sister, who seems to have
had no more Spanish than her predecessors. The plates are
strikingly unlike anything in the text.

274

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

The Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha. A new
translation by A. J. DufEeld. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1851.

— With all the poetry, as appears from a recent republication
of it, done by Mr. J. Y. Gibson.

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. By John
Ormsby. 4 vols. 8vo. London, 1885.

— Of which I may be excused from giving any opinion, other
than is contained in my references to some of Mr. Ormsby's
readings and theories.

French.

Le Valeureux Don Quixote de la Manche, etc. Traduit fidelement
de I'Espagnol, par Cesar Oudin. 8vo. Paris, 161 6.

This, the first translation of the First Part only, is usually
joined to F. Rosset's Histoire du Redoubtable et Ingenieux
Chevalier Don Quixote. 8vo. Paris, 16 18. Neither has any
merit except for a certain na'ivet'e and quaintness of expression,
or any value save for the old language.

Histoire de P admirable Don Quixote de la Manche. 4 vols, i zmo.
Paris, 1677-78.

This is by Filleau de St. Martin, and, like nearly all the
French versions, very unfaithful. None of the European
translators have departed more widely from the spirit of Cer-
vantes than the French, evidently under the idea that this
was some barbarous genius who had to be trimmed and clipped
to be made presentable to the polite world.

Florian published what he called a translation of Don Quixote
in 1799, but it is a mere abridgment, adapted to the French
genius, having nothing but a certain grace of style — as unlike
the original grace of Cervantes as possible — to recommend it.
There is no other French version worthy of mention till we
come to —

275

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

V Ing'enieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte. Traduit et annote par
Louis Viardot. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1836.

— First published with the woodcuts of Tony Johannot,
which are very spirited but very un-Spanish. M. Viardot's is by
far the best of the French translations, in spite of the trenchant
attack which was made upon it by Biedermann in Don Quichotte
et la tache de ses traducteurs. (Paris, 1837.) Viardot was a
competent Spanish scholar, who had some knowledge of Spain
and of the character of its people. He has a habit of shirking
difficulties, — sometimes of omitting whole passages, which he
cannot understand or is afraid to tackle, — but he has a good
style of his own, and has Frenchified Cervantes with much
success.

The more recent French versions are those of Damas-Hinard
(1847), Furne (1858), and Lucien Biart (1878), — the last with
a sympathetic preface by Prosper Merimde. I do not think any
of them equal to Viardot, Biart's being professedly accommodated
to the humour of the French.

Of the other European translations it is needless to give a
detailed account. The oldest German version is of the date
1 62 1, extending to only a portion of the First Part. The
version of Tieck, so highly applauded by Heine, is lively
and spirited, but by no means faithful. Of the other modern
translations that of Braunfels the latest (4 vols. sm. 8vo.
Stuttgart, 1884), is, by those competent to form an opinion,
judged to be the best.

The earliest Italian version is that of Franciosini, of which
the first complete edition is that of 1625. It seems to me more
faithful to the letter of Cervantes than any of the early foreign
versions ; and it has this special value in the eyes of the students
of Cervantes, that at the time it was written Spanish must have
been a familiar language in Italy. I have myself found much
assistance in Franciosini, in understanding words and phrases,
now obsolete in Spanish and unexplained by any of the com-
mentators. Franciosini's translation seems to hold its place to
this day in Italy.

276

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

Of the Dutch, Russian, Polish, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian,
Romaic, Servian, Guzerati (?), and other versions, I may perhaps
be excused from speaking, feeling myself but indifferently well
qualified to give an opinion. To the mass of my readers it will
be sufficient to know that Don Quixote has been translated into
all these languages, and is a popular book in every one of them,
however badly translated.

The numerous abridgments, continuations, and imitations of
Don Quixote, in English and in other tongues, need not occupy
us long. They bear unconscious testimony to the unfailing
charm of the book, and are a naive acknowledgment that it
ought to be longer, even when they dishonour the author by
their corrections, mutilations, and clumsy attempts at improve-
ment. Of Avellaneda and his malignant Second Part, designed
to do injury to Cervantes and his work, I have sufficiently
spoken. All the others — from the ribald paraphrase of Tom
D'Urfey (1696) and the facetious version of Ned Ward (17 1 2),
whose Hudibrastic doggerel is not without a certain humour
(though as unlike as possible to the humour of Cervantes), down
to the latest boys' book, in which Don Quixote is brought into
line with African adventure and South Sea scoundrelism — are not
guilty of any outrage worse than the spoiling the text of Cervantes
to accommodate it to the taste of the age. They are so far insen-
sible to any humour, as while perpetrating this offence — an
offence not so great against the author as against his readers — to
adorn the story with embellishments of their own — even decor-
ating the title with livelier epithets for greater attraction —
calling it "the much esteemed" — "the most admirable and
delightful" history, of the " cvcr-renowned" knight, with the
humours of his "facetious" squire Sancho Panza. Some more
fastidious have " divested the book of cumbrous matter," while
others like " M. Jones," who produced a Don Quixote for
ingenuous youth in 1871, profess to give the story "without the
tediousness of the historian." But if even Walter Scott is not
pure or plain enough for the modern British boy, how should
Cervantes hope to escape the desolating hands of the adapter?
Almost worse are those who have chosen Don Quixote as a field

277

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

for the popular artist — who have turned the story into a picture-
book — the pictures being first and the text second — the artist
not troubling himself about the author, and generally not caring
to read the book which he illustrates. The most flagrant case
of this is the illustrated Don Quixote of Dore, where the imagin-
ation of the author is entirely overwhelmed and obliterated by
the extravagant fancies of the artist.

The imitations, from the earliest days, have been numerous
— from Fielding's Don Quixote in England, which is a desper-
ately dull play (in spite of the songs which are among the
best of Fielding's), and Smollett's Sir Lancelot Greaves to
Mrs. Lennox's Female Quixote and the Spiritual Quixote of
" Geoffrey Wildgoose," The work of Cervantes has been from
the beginning a rich mine of invention and adventure to the
playwrights, balletists, and entertainment-mongers. Comedies,
even in the author's lifetime, were made out of the episodes in
his work, and not only Don (Quixote and Sancho Panza but
Cervantes himself were brought upon the stage. Even while I
am writing this (1894) there is advertised the new ballet of Don
Quixote in one of the London theatres. And, still more recently,
the old Knight has been represented on the stage, by one of the
newest creation, in two or three scenes taken from the story.

The books of criticism, explanation, and illustration form a
library of their own, more diverting perhaps than curious or
valuable. One of the earliest in the subject of Don Quixote is
the Rev. John Bowie's Letter to Dr. Percy, in 1777, wherein is
announced his design for "a new and classical edition." At that
date, with the exception of certain tracts of the laborious and
erudite Father Martin Sarmiento (who wrote about everything
and published only one thing), on the subject of Cervantes
and his birthplace, neither the man nor the book had won
much attention from the learned in Spain. The publication of
Pellicer's edition in 1797 marks the dawn of the period of
revival, when Don Quixote, after having for a century and a half
fallen into the class of a chap-book or book of drolleries, began
to be regarded seriously as a work not unworthy of the attention
of the critic, and calculated to confer honour on Spanish litera-

278

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

ture. From that time to this the apologists, expounders, com-
mentators, analysts, and panegyrists have been very busy with
the book. Among the earliest of this century was Eximeno,
whose Apologia de Miguel de Cervantes (1806) was aimed at the
refutation of the theories of Rios, who had taken the scheme of
the story too seriously. In the same year was published Pellicer's
defence of Don (Quixote against one Nicolas Perez, who wrote
El Anti-Quixote (1805). Biedermann's Don Quichotte et la tacke
de ses traducteurs (1837) was aimed at Viardot's French version
but is profitable to all translators. F. A. Caballero in 1840
published his Pericia Geografica de Cervantes, to prove the
exceeding merits of the author of Don Quixote as a geographer.
In 1848 Adolfo de Castro launched his squib — El Buscapie —
pretending it to be a work of Cervantes, who wrote it with a
view of stirring up the interest in Don Quixote. When challenged
to produce the manuscript or proofs of his story, the merry Adolfo
could only reply by defying his critics to single out any word in
the Buscapie which had not been used by Cervantes — with
which one may dismiss Senor De Castro as a wag who has
benefited little by the humour of Don fixate. Clemencin's
elaborate and voluminous commentary gave rise to much
controversy, the ablest defender of Cervantes against his critic
appearing in Juan Calderon, whose Cervantes Vindicado (1854)
cleared Don Quixote of misinterpretation in a hundred and
fifteen passages. Senor Pardo de Figueroa, who chooses to
masque his name in Epistolas Droapinas (1868), is an ingenious
writer, who, if he had but bridled his inclination to frivolous
and untimely jesting, might have done useful service as a
Ccrvantista. Senor Diaz de Benjumea in his various enig-
matical tracts. El Correo de Alquife, La Estafeta de Urganda, El
Mensage de Merlin (1861-75) ^^ ^°° much on the other side,
treating of the supposed mysteries in Don Quixote with a
solemnity which is very trying to the devout Cervantist. In
the discourse read before the Royal Academy by Juan Valera,
Sobre el Quixote (1864), arc much sound sense and acute analysis
by the author of La Pepita Ximena. The journalist Tubino has
written Cervantes y el Quijote (1876) — critical studies of unex-

279

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ceptionable good sense. To Seiior Ascnsio's valuable contri-
butions, chiefly biographical, to the literature of Don Quixote
I have referred fully elsewhere. The very latest of those who
have flourished their names over Cervantes and his book belong
chiefly to what Tacitus calls the pessimum inimicorum genus^
laudantes, whose immoderate and uncouth raptures over the
Principe de los Ingenios and his works are calculated to bring
ridicule on the true faith and its sincere professors.

III. NOVELAS EXEMPLARES.

Novelas Exemplares de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Madrid :
Juan de Cuesta. 1613.

A quarto of 274 pages of text, with 12 pages preliminary, of
excessive rarity. Sancha, who reprinted the Novelas in 1783,
was never able to see a copy of this first edition, with all his
enquiries and researches. The Novelas were reprinted in the
following year, at Madrid and at Brussels, and at Milan in
161 5. The book was frequently reprinted in Spain, in Flanders,
and in Italy during the seventeenth century.

Novelas Exemplares, etc. Dirigida a la Excelentissima Senora
Condesa de Westmorland. En Haya : J. Ncaulme. 1739.
2 vols. 8vo.

This edition, dedicated to the Countess of Westmorland,
was brought out under the care of Pedro de Pineda, a teacher
of Spanish in London, to whose zeal (untempered by judgment)
we are indebted for several reprints of books in that language.
The two volumes are well printed and adorned with twelve
copper-plates after designs by Folkema. It is further curious
for giving in the frontispiece Kent's portrait of Cervantes,
reproduced from the print in the Don Quixote of 1738.

With the Novelas is frequently included, in the later editions,
as in the sumptuous one forming part of Rivadeneyra's complete
re-issue of Cervantes' works (1863-65) La Tia Fingida, which I
have elsewhere given reasons for not admitting among the

280

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cervantes

works of Cervantes. La Tia Fingida first appeared in a mutil-
ated form in El Espiritu de Miguel de Cervantes, by Arrieta
(1814.). It was published complete, after a manuscript col-
lated by Navarrete, at Berlin in 1818, with a preface in German
by F. A. WolfF. It should not be in any collection of Cervantes'
works.

The first English translation appeared in 1640 under the
title of Exemplarie Novells, by Don Diego Puede-Ser, which is
a punning translation of James Mabbe. Only six novels are
translated out of the twelve. Another partial translation, in
1742, purports to be by "T. Shelton." Separate novels by
diiFerent hands appeared in English in various collections.
The first and only complete translation of the twelve Novels
was that which appeared in Bohn's Standard Library in 1881,
under the name of W. K. Kelly. The same translator, in a
previous issue in 1855, of Bohn's Extra Volume Series, had
included the Pretended Aunt and the Buscapie — for greater
attraction.

In French there is an old translation by Rousset (1640),
including two stories not by Cervantes, and a modern and very
agreeable version by Viardot, of 1838.

IV. VIAJE DEL PARNASO.

Viaje del Parnaso. Compuesto por Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
Madrid, 1614. 8vo.

Eighty leaves, with 8 preliminary. The first impression has a
sonnet prefixed — " The Author to his Pen " — which was omitted
in the second, of the same date and otherwise identical. The
Viaje was not printed again in Cervantes' lifetime. There is an
edition of Milan, 1624, i2mo, with a different dedication and
without the author's Prologue, but with his sonnet. It was
reprinted by Sancha in one volume, together with La Numancia
and El Trato de Argel^ two of Cervantes' early plays, then for
the first time published.

There is an English translation by G. W. J. Gyll in 1870,
281

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

who also translated Numancia and El Trato de Argel. The
Foyage to Parnassus was also translated by Mr. J. Y. Gibson in
1883, with the addition of Cervantes' rhymed letter to Mateo
Vasquez. In this volume the Spanish text is given side by side
with the English version. To Mr. Gibson, the best of Cervantes'
translators in verse, we are further indebted for a very spirited
version of the Numancia, published in 1885.

A French translation of the Voyage to Parnassus, by M.
Guardia, appeared in 1864, with an elaborate biographical
notice of all the poets named. A French translation of
Numancia and the later plays was published in 1862, by
Alphonse Royer.

V. PLAYS AND FARCES.

Ocho Comedias y Ocko Entremeses Nuevos, nunc a represen-
tados. Compuestos por Miguel de Cervantes Saavcdra.
Madrid, 161 5.

This was published but a few months before the author's
death, and contains 257 pages, with 4 of introduction.

These plays were re-published by Bias de Nasarre in two
volumes 4to in 1749 5 ^^'^^^ ^ preface having for its object to
prove that Cervantes wrote these comedies in ridicule of Lope
de Vega, just as he had written Bon Quixote in ridicule of the
Books of Chivalries. I have spoken elsewhere of Bias de
Nasarre, who may reasonably be suspected of a treachery
equal to his folly.

VL PERSILES AND SIGISMUNDA.

Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, Historia Septentrional. Por
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Madrid: 161 7. 8vo.

This was published by Cervantes' widow the year after his
death. The printer is Juan de la Cuesta, who printed Don
Quixote. It is a volume of 226 pages and 6 preliminary, with
Cuesta's shield and device, and the epitaph by Francisco de
Urbina. A counterfeit edition of Persiles was issued in the

282

BIBLIOGRAPHY Ccrvantes

same year, in a quarto form, of i86 pages, in two columns.
Another edition was brought out by Cuesta of 524 pages, and
in the same year appeared editions at Pamplona, Barcelona,
Valencia, Paris, and Lisbon, followed by one at Brussels in
1618, and one, if not more, at Madrid in 1619.

Persiles and Sigismunda was twice reprinted by Sancha in
1781 and in 1782 ; and of modern editions there are more
than of any of Cervantes' works, excepting Don Quixote.

The Travels of Persiles and Sigismunda were first translated
into English, said to be from the French, in 16 19. An English
version by L. D. S. (Louisa Dorothea Stanley), with a monstrous
caricature in the frontispiece claiming to be a "portrait of Cer-
vantes," appeared in 1854. The translator confesses that she
has " taken some few liberties, omitted some pages and occa-
sionally altered a sentence." There is a German version by
Ludwag von Tieck (Leipzig, 1837).

Vn. COMPLETE WORKS.

Obras de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Madrid : 16 vols.
1803-5. 8vo.

An edition printed by Ibarra, not including some minor
pieces.

Obras Escogidas de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Nueva edicion
clasica. Por Don Augustin Garcia de Arrieta. Paris: 1827.
10 vols. i6mo.

This edition includes the Life by Navarrete (without the
useful Ilustraciones y Documentos), the Analysis of Don Quixote
by Vicente de los Rios, the Numancia, and two of the Inter-
ludes, but not the Persiles.

Obras de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Madrid : Rivadcncyra.
1852. Imp. 8vo.

This is the most useful edition of the collected works of
Cervantes, with an excellent Life by Aribau, forming the first

283

Cervantes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

volume of the Biblioteca de Autores EspaJloles. It contains,
besides Don Quixote, the Novelas Exemplares, Galatea, the Fiaje
del Parnaso, and Peniles and Sigismunda — in small type of
double columns, on indifferent paper and in an awkward size.

A complete edition of all the works of Cervantes, edited in
a manner worthy of the fame of the author, is up to the present
time a desideratum. There is no edition containing all his
writings which can be said to be satisfactory. The truth is,
that the fame and popularity of Don Quixote are so great as to
overpower and oppress the children of the same family, some of
whom suffer undeserved neglect from the exclusive attention
which is bestowed on the favourite. None of the minor works,
in prose or poetry, have received any care or attention. They
are reproduced mechanically, because they are the works of
Cervantes, but they have never been edited, even in that
partial and imperfect way in which Don Quixote has been edited.
The best, because the fullest and most complete, edition of the
Opera Omnia of Cervantes is undoubtedly that which was
produced under the joint editorship of Rosell and Hartzcn-
busch, in twelve handsome volumes, of which the Don Quixote
forms four, printed at Argamasilla and at Madrid in 1863-65.
This, in all externals, in beauty of type and paper and in
splendour of presswork, is worthy of Cerv-antes. But it
includes several pieces which can on no sufficient evidence
be proved to be his, while, except the volumes containing
the Don Quixote, it does not appear to have received much
critical revision. As for the Don Quixote in this edition,
unhappily it has been treated on Hartzenbusch's method, — the
text being arbitrarily altered in many places to suit that editor's
ideas of what Cervantes ought to have written, without regard
to the author's own words. This wanton and ungodly dese-
cration of the text must ever deprive Hartzenbusch's edition
of any claim to be recognised as final or sufficient.

284

INDEX

Abbreviations. — C. stands for Cervantes ; D. Q. for Don Quixote ; t:. refers to
the note on the page quoted. The titles of all the works of Cervantes and all
books quoted are in Italics.

Abderrahman, a renegade in Algiers,

Academy, Spanish, edition of D. ^,

80 ; on the portrait of C, Si et uq.
Acquaviva, Cardinal, mission to Madrid,

16 5 Cervantes takes service with, 17
Adjunta al Parnaso, account of, 176
Aguila, Conde del, his supposed portrait

of C, 81
Alarcon, Ruiz de, the dramatist, 164 ;

conjectured to be Avellaneda, 191 ;

his opinion of Lope de Vega, 202
Alcala de Henares, birthplace of C, 7 5

account of, 5, 6
Alcazar de San Juan, reputed birthplace

of C, 9 ; entry in parish register

of, 8
Alcazarquivir, battle of, 54 and n.
Aleman, Mateo, author of Guzman de

Alfarache, 184
Alfonso Nufio, 3
Algerine experiences, referred to by C.

in his works, 59 n. ; pirates, treat-
ment of their slaves, 53
Algiers, account of kingdom of, 42 ;

piracy in, 43
Algunot Datoi nucvoi para iluttrar el

^ijote, 165 n,
Aliaga, Luis de, conjectured to be

Avellaneda, 189 ; account of, 190 n. ;

supposed allusions to, in D, ^, 190

285

Ali Pasha, Turkish admiral-in-chief,

Alliance, Christian, against the Turks,

20 ; dissolved, 36
Allies, second expedition of, against

Turks, 35 ; ineffectual campaign,

36
Aluch Ali, 25 and n. ; out-manosuvres

Doria at Lepanto, 29 ; Capitan Pasha

in second naval campaign, 35
Alva, Duke of, conquest of Portugal,

70 .
Amadh of Gaul, origin of, 147 ; charac-
ter of, 149 ; progeny of, 149 ; popu-
larity of, 151
Amante Liberal, El, novel by C, 173
Amaranta, La, comedy by C, 104
Antonio, Don, claimant of throne of

Portugal, 70, 71
Antonio, Don Nicolas, theory con-
cerning C.'s birthplace, 7
Arcadia, Lope de Vega's pastoral, 200
Arco, Alonzo del, Spanish painter, 81
Argamasilla, C. imprisoned in, 121 ;
account of, 123, 124 ; picture in
church of, 125
Argensola, Bartolome Leonardo de,
100, 157, 167 n. J thought to be
Avellaneda, 190
Argensola, Lupcrcio de, 157, 167 n.
ArgucUo, commander at Lepanto, 25

Cervantes

Aribau, quoted, on character of C, 228

Ariosto, quoted, 181

Arms of Cervantes, 3

Arnaut Mami, C. captured by, 41

Asensio, Senor, discovers a clue to a
portrait of C, 84 ; his collection of
portraits by Pacheco, 78 ;;.

Astudillo, Don Diego de, letter to,
ascribed to C, 165

Authorities for Life of C, vii.

Avellaneda, Licentiate Alonso Fer-
nandez de, author of false Second
Part of D. ^, 183 ; caricatures D.
i^, 185 ; malice of, 186 ; his
identity, 188, 203 ; theories con-
cerning, 189 et seq. ; known to C,
191 ; compared with C, 204

Avendano cuts down number of acts in
plays to three, 103

Azores, expeditions to, 71, 72

Ballads of Cervantes, loi and n.
Banos de -Argel, Los, play by C, 178
Barahona de Soto, 97
Barbarigo, Agostino, Venetian Admiral,

Baret, M., on Amadh of Gaul, 146
and n.

Batalla Naval, La, Comedy by C, 104

Bazan, Alvaro de, Marquess of Santa
Cruz, 25

Bejar, Duke of, dedication of D. ^ to,
133 ; story of C. and, 134

Bdian'n of Greece, Charles V.'s fondness
for, 150

Birnardo, El, work by C, 221

Bibliography of the works of C,
256

Biblioteca Colombina at Seville, 164

Birthplace of C, controversy concern-
ing, 7

Blanco de Paz, informs against C,
51 ; secret enemy of C, 56; con-
jectured to be Avellaneda, 189

Blomberg, Barbara, supposed mother of
Don Juan of Austria, 23

Borbon, Infante Don Sebastian Gabriel
de, helps to print an edition of D.
^, 124 n.

Bosque Amoroso, El, comedy by C, 104

Boulay, M. de, story of, concerning C.
and the Inquisition, 179 n.

Burial of C, 219

Buscafie, El, 136 n.

286

Caballer'ia Celestial, La, 150

Caballerismo, Spanish, 144

Caballero, Fermin, on C, as a geo-
grapher, 229 n.

Cjhjllcro Asisio, El, I 50

Caballero Peregrine, El, 150

Caballero Venturoso, El, by Valladares,
203

Cabeza de Vaca, Juan de, one of C.'s
sureties, 112

Calle de Francos, now Calle de Cer-
vantes, 220 n.

Camoens and C, 75 n.

Cantaranas, Calle de, C.'s bones re-
moved to the, 220

Canto, a competitor for employment
with C, 120 n.

Canto de Caliope, in La Galatea, 90

Caporali, Cesare, 175

Carranza, Archbishop, 69

Casamiento Enganoso, El, novel by C,
173

Castaneda, Gabriel de, fellow -captive
with C, 27 n. ; bears letters home
from C, 45 and n.

Castro, Adolfo de, author of El Buscapie',
136, 189

Castro del Rio, C. imprisoned at, 115

Catalina, Dona, wife of C, 90 ; joint-
executrix of C.'s will, 220

Celis, Ruben de, competitor for office
with C, 120 «.

Cervantes, Andrea, sister of C, 2, 163

Cervantes, Gonzato de, 3

Cervantes, Juan de, grandfather of C, 4

Cervantes, Miguel de, birth and
parentage of, 1 j name of, 2 ; youth
and early life, 9 ; love of plays, 10 ;
education, 11 ; pupil of Hoyos, 12;
love of poetry, 13 ; early poems, 14 ;
takes service with Acquaviva, 17 ;
enlists as a soldier, 18 ; at Naples
(1570), 22; at the battle of Lepanto,
23 ; his conduct in the battle, 27 j
is wounded, 28 ; invalided at Messina,
31 ; character of his wounds, 32 and
n. ; rewards for services at Lepanto,
33 ; rejoins regiment of Figueroa
(1572), 33; takes part in second
expedition against Turks, 35 ; at
Naples (1573), 35; in garrison in
Sardinia (1573-74), 37; at Genoa
(May, 1574), 37 ; obtains leave of
absence, 40 ; capture by Algerine

Cervantes

pirates, 42 ; slave to Deli Mami, 42 ;
plots to escape, 44 ; his family try
to ransom him, 45 ; attempts to
escape with a body of captives, 46 ;
fails and is punished, 48 ; inspires
dread in Hassan Pasha, 49 ; writes
rhymed epistle to Mateo Vasquez,
50 ; plots a third time to escape, 5 1 ;
brought before the Viceroy, 52 ;
mystery about his treatment, 53 ;
testimony in his favour, 54 ; release
from captivity, 56 ; investigation held
before Father Juan Gil after release,
58 ; testimony of his fellow-captives,
App. B ; returns to Spain, 60 j
resumes soldiering, 69 ; serves in
expedition to Azores, 71 ; abandons
military career, 73 ; life in Portugal,
74 ; writes his first acknowledged
work. La Galatea, 74 ; his natural
daughter Isabel, 74 ; his mission to
Mostagan, 74 ; his marriage, 90 ;
settlement on his wife, 91 ; life in
Madrid, 93 et seq. ; his poverty :
struggle for existence as a man of
letters, 94 et seq. ; his friends, 99 ;
writes an infinite number of ballads,
10 1 ; writes plays, 102 et seq. ; quits
play- writing, 108 ; compared with
Lope de Vega, 1 1 1 ; removes to Seville,
112; a Commissary, 112; applies
for employment in the Indies, 113 ;
supposed imprudence or unthrift, 1 14
and «. ; a tax-collector, 114; first
imprisonment, 115 ; gets "a prize for
best quatrain in praise of S. Jacinto,
116; writes satirical sonnet on occa-
sion of Howard's expedition to Cadiz,
116; imprisoned for Freire's debt,
117 ; satirical sonnet on monument
of Philip II., 118 J said to have
mixed with men of letters in Seville,
119; writes Novels, 119; extreme
poverty, 119; imprisonment at
Argamasilla, I2i ; begins to write
D. ^, 131 ; his occupations, 131 ;
removes to Valladolid, 132; com-
pletes First Part of D. ^, 133;
life at Valladolid, 157 ; affair of
murder of Don Caspar de Ezpleta,
163 ; removes to Madrid, with the
Court (1606), 164; visit to Seville
(probable), 165 ; enters congregation
of the Oratory of Knights of Grace,

169 ; publishes his Ncrvelas Exemp-
lares, 170 ; publishes his Viaje del
Parnaso, 174; publishes his Comedies
and Interludes, 177 ; writing Second
PartofZ). ^(1613), 182; effect of
appearance of false Second Part on,
206 J his defence against Avellaneda,
209 J dies (April, 16 16), 218; last
letter, 219; burial, 220; estimate
of, 225 et seq. ; his faith and politics,
231 ; his humour and pathos, 233 ;
his style and art, 236 j his creations,
237

Cervantes, Miguel de, another of name,
8

Cervantes, Rodrigo de, brother to C,
2 ; accompanies Miguel to Spain
(1575), 40 J ransomed, 46 ; takes
part in expedition to Azores, 73

Cervantes, Rodrigo de, father of C., i

Cervantes, San, castle of, 2 and n.

Cervantes and D. ^, 227

Cervantes and Lope de Vega, 192

Csr-vantes Geografo, by Fermin Caballero,
229 n.

Cer-vantes Marino, by Fernandez, 229 n.

Cer-vantes Teokgo, by Juan Sbarbi,
229 n.

Cervatos, original of Cervantes, 3

Charles V., forbids romances of chivalry,
150; supposed original of D, j^.,
139 and n.

China, Emperor of, story that he in-
vited C. to become head of a college
in China, 210

Chivalries, books of, origin of, 146 ;
their popularity in Spain, 146 et seq. ;
evil caused by, 149 ; edict of Charles
V. against, 150

Chivalry in Spain, 144

Church, the, in Spain, 66

Coleridge, on D. SI., 239

Colloquy of Scipio and Berganza, C.'s
novel, 171

Colonna, Ascanio, 19, 87

Colonna, Marco Antonio, 19, 22

Corned ia s y Entremeses, published, 177

Commendatory verses, exchange of, 98

Compluio, la gran, 6

Qjnfusa, La, comedy by C, 106

Cortinas, Leonor de, C.'s mother, tries
to ransom him, 55

Cuesta, Juan de la, prints First Part of
^.^,134

287

Cervantes

Culteranismo, 99
Cyprus, fall of, 21

Death of C, 218

Deli Mami, C.'s master in captivity,
42 ; sells C. for 500 crowns, 49

Dialogo de la Lengua, by Valdes, 151
and n.

Don Sluixote, place where first engen-
dered, 121 5 when written, 132;
first printed, 133 ; published, 134 ;
editions of, 136, 137 5 theories
respecting its object, 138 and «. ;
abolishes romances of chivalry, 141 ;
C.'s aim in writing, 153, 154;
meaning of, 156 ; true second edition
of, 165 J general estimate of the
book, 225 et seq. ; key to, 226

Dorador, El, betrays C.'s scheme of
escape, 47

Doria, Giovanni Andrea, 22

Dorothea, Lope de Vega's dramatic
romance, 96, 196, 200

Dos Doncellas, Las, novel by C, 173

Dragontea, La, Lope de Vega, 74

Drama in Spain, 102 n.

Ducat, value of, 55 «.

Dunham, Rev. Dr., author of History
of Spain, quoted, 68 n.

EccLEsiASTicisM rampant in Spain, 66

et seq.
Ecija, corregidor of, imprisons C, 115
Elicio, character in Galatea, 89
Enquiry into C.'s conduct in Algiers,

App. B
Ercilla, Alonso de, 97
Escla-vos de -/irgel, Los, comedy by

Lope de Vega, 196
Esfanola Inglesa, La, novel by C, 116,

172
Espinel, Vicente, author of El Escudero

Marcos de Obregcn, 97, 157
Espinosa, Cardinal, 17
Essex, Earl of, sacks Cadiz (159S),

116
Expunged passages in D. ^, 167
Ezpeleta, Don Caspar, his murder,

163

Family of C. (1585), 93
Farnese, Duke of Parma, presides at
Tournament of Piacenza, 37

Felipe Dominico Victor, Infante of

Spain (Philip IV.), 160 n.
Fernandez, Cesareo, on C. as a mariner,

229 n.
Figueroa, Lope de, C.'s commander,

33. 34, 70
Figueroa, tercio de, 33, 70, 71
Filena, early pastoral poem of C, 14
Fitzgerald, Edward, his opinion of D.

Fleet, disposition of Allied, at Lepanto,

24 ; first sight of Turkish, 25
Freire, Simon, debtor to C, 117
Froude, J. A., his blunders, 130
Fuerz-u de Sangre, La, novel by C,
173

Galatea, La, first published, 87 ; esti-
mate of, 88 5 Second Part of, 221

Gallardo Esfanol, El, play by C, 59 n.

Galleass, description of, 24

Galley, description of war, 23

Gamero, on C. as a jurist, 229 n.

Gayangos, Sefior, 120 n. ; on editions
of D. ^, 137 n. ; article of, in
Re-vista de Espana (on Cer-vantes in
Valladolid), 164

Genealogy of C, 3, 5, and App. A

Gil, Father Juan, 55 ; his testimony
to C, 58

Giron, the Licentiate, a renegade, plots
with C, 5 I

Gitanilla, La, novel by C, 172

Golden Age, the, of Spain, 95

Goletta, La, fall of, 39

Gongora, Luis de, 95, 99, 158, 193 ;
satirical sonnet on D. .^, 160

Gran Turquesca, La, comedy by C, 104

Gregory XIII., 34

Guarda Cuidadcsa, La, farce by C, 178

Guevara, Antonio de, Commissary-
General, 112

H.CDo's Topography of Algiers, 7, 49,

Hartzenbusch, story regarding picture
in church in Argamasilla, 126 n.

Hassan, the Greek renegade, 46

Hassan Pasha, Viceroy of Algiers, 47,
485 his saying of C, 49 ; his cruelties,
52 ; accepts a ransom, 56

Heine quoted, 158 ; blunder of, respect-
ing D. Q.'s final overthrow, 213

288

Cervantes

Henares, river, 5

Herrera, Antonio de, History of Pcrtu-

Herrera, Fernando de, 99

Hobbes, quoted, 142

Holy Inquisition, 128

Holy League against the Turks,

22 ; dissensions in, 34 ; dissolved

(March, 1573), 36
Hoyos, Lopez de, C.'s master at

school, II, 13
Hugo, Victor, his indebtedness to

C, 172
Humilladero, Calle del, C. buried in

convent in the, 220
Humour, C.'s, 236

Ilustre Fregona, La, novel by C, 173
Imprisonment of C. at Seville, 117;

in Argamasilla, 121
Ingenio Lego, term applied to C, 1 1
Inquisition, Holy, in Spain, 68 et seq.,

167
Inventory of C.'s wife's goods, 91
Iriarte, Juan de, discovers list of

Algerian captives, 8
Isabel, natural daughter of C, 74
Isabel of Valois, verses on her death

by C, 13

Jaureguy, Juan, paints C.'s portrait,
77 and n.

Jerusalen, La, comedy by C, 104

Johnson, Dr., his opinion of £). ^, 234

Juan, a slave of Hassan, 46

Juan, Don, of Austria, conduct at
Lepanto, 23, 26, 28 ; a knight
errant, 37 ; gives letters of recom-
mendation to C, 40

Juan de Alfarache, San, burlesque
tournament at, 164

yurispericia de Cer-vantes, by Gamcro,
229 «.

Kent, William, designs an imaginary

portrait of C, 79
Knight Errantry, 143
Knight of the White Moon, the, 213

La del Mayo, comedy by C, 104
Laincz, Pedro, friend of C, 98, 157
Lamb, C, opinion of Second Part of
D. i^, 211

Laurel de Apolo, poem by Lope de
Vega, 196

Lavigne, M. Germond de, 208 n. 5
admires false Second Part of D. i^.,
204 ; claims C. as a Federal Repub-
lican, 231 n.

Lemos, Conde de, C.'s patron, 166,
209, 217

Leon, Luis de, 99

Lepanto, battle of, 26 et seq. ; slain
and wounded at, estimate of, 29

Lerma, Duke of, his treatment of C,
130

Le Sage, translates Avellaneda's Second
Part, 204

Licenciado f^idriera. El, novel by C,
173

Lisbon, C.'s stay at, 73

Lockhart, passage from his Life of
Scott, 217

Lope de Vega, 95 ; relations with C,
96 ; writes Dorotea, 96 ; begins to
write plays, 108 ; his exuberance,
109; compared with C, no j
relations to C, 192 et seq. ; corre-
spondence with Duke of Sessa, 197
et seq. ; works of, 198 ; character
of, 202; reference to, by C, 210;
scandals about, 199 j as a soldier,
202

Loyola, supposed original of D. Q.,

139
Luxan, Mateo, continuator of Guzman
de Alfarache, 184

Madrid, C.'s return to, 164 ; C.'s

houses in, 176
Maldonado, Lopez, 97
Maltrapillo, 52

Mancha, La, C.'s visits to, 120
Marmolejo, Luis, surety for C, 112
Marquesa, La, ship in which C. fought

at Lepanto, 23
Marquez Torres, Francisco, story told

by, 178, 179

Marquino, the wizard, 106

Marriage of C, 90

Mateo, San, galleon in which the

brothers C. fought at Tcrccira, 72
Maxwell, Sir William Stirling, his

Liji of Don John of Austria, 26 n.
Mayans y Siscar, biographer of C, 189
Maycnnc, Due de, French ambassador

(1615), 179 «.

289

Cervantes

Mciiina Sidonia, Duke of, ii6
Medrano, Casa de, C. imprisoned in,

121 ; account of, 124
Memorial to the King, C.'3, App. C.
Mena, Juan de, 3

Mendez Silva, genealogy of C, 3, 7
Mendoza, Diego Hurtado de, 17, 150
Mcngs, Rafael, quoted, 237
Messina, C. in hospital at, 31
Modon, port of, 35
Moncado, regiment of, 18
Monipodio, 171, 174
Montalvo, Luis de, 98
Montanches, Cervantes in, 120 «.
Montesquieu, quoted, 141 «.
Montiano y Luyando, Augustin, his

preference for false Second Part of

D. ^, 204 and n.
Morales, Pedro de, friend of C, 120

and «.
Morejon, Dr. Hernandez, on C. as

a physician, 229 n.
Morquecho, Dr. Nunez, 113 «.
Mostagan, C.'s stay at, in Barbary,

74
Murad, Hadji, 52 n.

Naples, C. at, 22

Nasarre, Don Bias de, republishes C.'s

Comcdias, 177 n. ; appreciation of

Avellaneda's false Second Part of

D. ^, 203
Navarino, 36
Nottingham, Earl of, visit of, to Spain,

158
Novelas Exemplares, account of, 170 ;

reception of, 174 j prologue quoted,

jj «., 182
Nucvos Documentos para ilustrar la -vida

de Miguel de Cer'uantes, by Asensio,

85 n.
Numanc'ui, La, critique of, 105-107 ;

acted at Zaragoza (1808), 106
Nunez, joint executor of C.'s will,

220
NuHo, Alfonso, El Gran, 3

Ocho Comedias y Entremeses, 77
Oldfield, Dr., preface to D. ^, 79 ;

on C.'s portrait, 79
Olivar, Father Jorge, official ransomer

of captives, 49
Onofre Exarque, merchant in Algiers,

290

Orthoneda, Rafael, his approbation of
Avellaneda's false Second Part, 183

Osorio, Rodrigo, agreement with C. to
publish his plays, 109 n.

Pacheco, Francisco, painter, his por-
trait of C. 77 et seq.
Pacheco, Rodrigo de, portrait of, in

church in Argamasilla, 125
Padilla, Pedro de, 98
Palacios y Salazar, Dona Catalina, C.'s

wife, 90 J her death (1626), gi «.
Palmerin of England, character of, 152
Pancracio de Roncesvalles, 176 and n.
Paseo a la Patria de Don S^uixote, Un,

by Serrano, 91 ;z.
Pathos of £). ^, 233
Pedrosa, Luis de, witness to C.'s

behaviour, 52
Perez, the monic, thought to be Avel-

laneda, 190
Pcrros de Mahudes, Los ; or Colloquy of

Scipio and Bergan%a, 171
Persiles y Sigismunda, announced by C,

214 ; anecdote of C. and the student

in prologue to, 215 ; C.'s farewell

words in dedication of, 217 ; account

of the work, 221
Philip IL, his character and rule, 62,

65 ; conquers Portugal, 70 } dies

(1598), 117; catafalque of, C.'s

sonnet on, 118,; C.'s opinion of,

128
Philip III., character of, 130 ; removes

the Court to Valladolid, 152
Piacenza, tournament at, 37
Picara Justina, La, D. i^ mentioned

in verses in, 133 n.
Pius v.. Pope, message to Philip II.,

16; forms the Holy League, 20;

on the victory of Lepanto, 30 and n.
Plays, C. a writer of, 102 ; rate of

remuneration for, 103 ; list of, 104
Poets in Spain, 94
Policisne de Boecia, said to be last

romance written before production

of Z). i^, 138 n.
Polo, Gil, author of Diana Enamorada,

87 . .

Ponce de Leon, Manuel, captain m

Figueroa's regiment, 33
Portrait, C.'s own portrait of himself,

Cervantes

Portraits of Cervantes, 76 et seq.

Portugal, conquered by Alva, 70

Portuguese, C.'s opinion of the, 73

Posada de Sangre, La, 173

Poverty, C.'s, 78 n.

Prologue to First Part of Z). ^ 195 ; to

Nwelas Exemplares, 182 ; to Corned ias

y Entremeses, 10, 177 ; to Persiles y

Sigismunda, 217
Pulgar, Fernando de, on knights errant,

145

Sluarterly Re-vinv, on Lope de Vega,

110, 196
Quesada, Don Pero Diaz Carillo, the

Governor of the Goletta, 40
guevedo, 100, 130, 193
(Juinones, Suero de, hero of the Paso

Hor.rcso, 145 «.
fixate, Don ,• see Don S^uixote

Rabadan Pasha, Dey of Algiers, 42
Ransom, amount of, demanded for C,

55 ; raised by C.'s family, 56 j paid

off in Dec. 1584, 61
Relacion de lo suced'ido en la cludad de

Valladolid, 162 n.
Religion in Spain, 67 et seq.
Ribas y Canfranc, author of a book on

Lope de Vega, 198
Rinconete y Cortadillo, novel by C,

170
Rios, Vicente de Los, relates story

concerning dedication of D, ^. to

Duke de Bejar, 134
Rivadeneyra, the publisher, 124 n.
Roblcs, Francisco, publisher of D. ^,

133
Romances of chivalry, popularity of,

144; origin of, 1465 influence of,

149
Rome, C. at, 18

Rueda, Lope de, C.'s reference to, 10
Rufo, Juan, 97

Saavhdra, Juan Bernabe de, 121 ;

additional name assumed by C,

8«.
Sainte-Beuve, his character of D. Q.,

225
Salamanca, C. a student at, 12
Salva, Vicente, on C.'s aim in writing

D. ^, 182

Sancha, printer of C.'s works, 176 n.

Sancho and Don Quixote, contrasts of
their characters, 238

Sancto Pietro, captain of the Marquesa,
23

Sanctoya de Molina, letter to Mateo
Vasquez, 120 n.

Sandoval y Rojas, Don Bernardo,
Archbishop of Toledo, character of,
C, 166; C.'s letter to, 219 and
App. D

San Juan, Priory of, C. employed to
collect tithes for, 120 and ;;.

Santa Cruz, Marquess of, a com-
mander at Lepanto, 25 ; his expedi-
tions to the Azores, 71, 72 ; his char-
acter, 73

Santisteban, Mateo de, testimony to
C.'s conduct at Lepanto, 27 n.

Sarmiento, first discoverer of C.'s
birthplace, 8

Sbarbi, Jose Maria, on C. as a theo-
logian, 229 n.

Schack, discovery of correspondence of
Lope de Vega, 197

Schlegel, August, on La Numanc'ia,
106 n.

Scott, Sir Walter, and C, 174, 217 ;
praises Amadh, 175

Scotti, Count Alberto, challenger at
Piacenza, 38

Second Part of £). ^., promise of, 181,
182; published, 210; character of,
21 1

Second Part of D. i^. False, published,
183; attributed to Lope de Vega,
203

Selim IL, 21

Selvages, the, literary club, 169

Semanas del "Jar din. Las, 2 1 4

Scnora Cornelia, La, novel by C, 173

Serrano, D. Jimenez, gin.

Sessa, Duke of, writes letters of re-
coinnicndation on C.'s sailing for
Spain, 40 and n. j backs up petition
to King to ransom C, 54 ; Lope dc
Vega's patron, 197

Seville, C. at, 77 n. ; removes residence
to, 112

Shnkspeare and C, 131;, 176 n.

Silva, Fcliciano de, author of romances
of cliivalry, i 33

Silvcira, Simon (k", 152

Sismondi'g opinion of D. i^, zz6

291

Cervantes

Sol, El, vessel in which C. embarked
for Spain, 41 ; captured by Turks, 42

Soldado a'vcntajado, C. a, 33

Sosa, Dr. Antonio de, fellow -captive
with C, 41 «.

Southey's opinion of Palmerin of Eng-
land, 152

Spain, survey of, under Philip II., 61
et seq. ; seeds of decay in her great-
ness, 62 5 revenue and its application,
64 ; condition of the people, 64

Spanish infantry, the, 20

Stage, early Spanish, description by
C, 10

Strozzi, Philippe, commander of French
expedition in the Azores, 71 ; his
defeat and death, 72 and n.

Swift, appreciation of C, 235

Tapia, Don Rodrigo de, 175 n.
Tartar in de Tarascon, by Daudet, 239
Tasso, Torquato, admires u^mad'n, 147
Terceira, island of, attack on (1582),

72
Tercio, the Spanish, composition of,

20 and n.
Teresa, Santa, writes romances, 150
Theogenes and Chariclea of Heliodorus,

222
Tia Fingida, La, novel attributed to

C, 13 n., 173
Ticknor, 103, 177, 194
Toledo, Archbishop of, a patron of C,

166 ; character of, 167 j letter of

C. to, 219
Toledo, Canon of, on books of

chivalries, 154 and n.
Toledo, Don Antonio de, fellow-captive

with C, 46
Torres, Baltasar de, merchant in Algiers,

SI
Torres, Marquez, his Approbation of

Second Part of D. ^, 178
Tournament of Piacenza, 37
Trato de Argel, El, comedy by C, 44,

58 n., 104, 107
Trinitarian Convent, C.'s burial-place,

220

Tunis, expedition against, 36 j its

capture by the Turks, 39
Turks, power of the, 21
Turqueica, La gran, comedy by C, 104

Ultlmos Amores de Lope de Vtga, Los,

198
Unica y Bizarra An'mda, La, comedy

by C., 104
Urbina, Diego de, 19
Ureiia, Conde de, 2

Valdivieso, Josef de, 221

Valencia, Don Francisco, captive in

Algiers, 46
Valladares, Juan de, author of the

Ca-vallero Venturoio, 203
Valladolid, C.'s residence in (1603),

i32> 157

Vasquez, Mateo, secretary of Philip
II., 46, 47 and n.

Velasquez, his supposed portrait of C,
81 n.

Venegas, Alejo, on evil caused by read-
ing books of chivalries, 149

Veniero, Sebastian, Venetian admiral,
22

Viaje del Parnaso, published, 174 ;
character of, 175

Viedma, Captain, the captive in D.

Villamediana, Conde de, lampoon of,

on Aliaga, 190^
Villegas, Manuel de, author of the

Eroticas, 175 «.
Virues, Cristobal de, 97

Will of C, 220
Women in D. ^, 236
Wounds, C.'s, 31, 32 and n,

XiMENEZ, Cardinal, founder of Uni-
versity of Alcala, 6

Zaragoza, siege of, Numancia played

at the, 106
Zavaleta, an author, 162
Zelcso Extremeno, El, novel by C, 173

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

ft\i)>^

RECEIVED

!. D - ' ' ■ L

MAY 26 1965

7-4 4-9 S - I

Form L9-Series 444

UC SOUTHERN Rl3

A 000 024 407 9