Schevill — Studies in Cervantes. 499 



passage has tlie tone of a plea in behalf of his own work, which is 

 so free from the dead wood of academic display.^ His admiration 

 of Homer and Virgil has, therefore, merely the traditional stamp of 

 the Renaissance, while his praise of the ancients in general is per- 



Anotaciones al Quixote sees a similarity between Don Quixote II, chapter 

 49, torofs y canas and Virgil, V, vs. 580, etc., of the Aneid; cf. also Ariosto, 

 Orhtiido, 13, 37. 



Cortejon's view, (of. his edition of Don Quixote (Madrid, 1905), Vol. II, 

 pp. xix If. ) that the bits of Latin quoted by Don Quixote are a proof of his, 

 and so of Corvantes's knowledge of Latin, has no foundation; he gives among 

 his examples such as more turquesco, nulla est retentio (redemptio) , quando 

 caput dolct, bene quidon, pane lucrando, est Deiis in nohis, per signum 

 crticis, mare magnum and the like. He even includes the well-known post 

 tenehras spero lucem to be found on title jjages before Cervantes's day, and 

 the very common deum de deo (cf. Gaspar Ijucas Hidalgo, Dialogos, II, chap- 

 ter 3, and Cervantes, the Coloquio de los perros, p. 229, col. 1 ) . Spanish 

 children heard many Latin phrases from the mouths of the priests (on habet 

 borem in lingua, cf. Coloquio de los perros, p. 233, col. 2), and not only 

 in the schoolroom, but from the pulpit; Latin proverbs, such as quando eaput 

 dolet, eie., were used no doubt in conversation, while our author could 

 easily copy the phrases used by others with an equal display of learning. 

 A few may be added to show how valueless tlieir testimony as to Cervantes's 

 learning is: aliquando (sic) bonus dormitat Honierus {Don Quixote, II, 3), 

 stultorum infinitus est numerus (II, 3), operibus credite, et non verbis 

 (II, 50), sicut erat in principio (I, 46), etc.; cf. also El Rufian dichoso 

 for the gloria patri; these simply reflect the teaching of the priests; Los 

 Habladores : "el proverbio latino no dice sino que necessitas caret lege, etc.;" 

 Persiles: Maria optiniani partem elegit; vade retro, exi foras; La guarda 

 cuidadosa: tu dlxisti; these fragments of Latin do not make a latin ist. 

 The verse of Virgil "quis talia fando . . . temperet a lacrimis," II, 

 vs. 6-8, in Don Quixote, II, chap. 39, could have been taken from some other 

 writer, and was always known well enough to have reached Cervantes by 

 word of mouth. 



^ Don Quixote, II, 16: "Y a lo que decis, seuor, que vuestro hijo no 

 estima mucho la poesia de romance, doime a entender que no anda muy 

 acertado en ello, y la razon es esta : el grande Homero no escribio en latin, 

 poiqne era griego; ni Virgilio no escribio en griego, etc. . . . del 

 vientre de su madre el poeta natural sale poeta; y con aquella inclinacion 

 jque le dio el cielo, sin mas estudio ni artificio compone cosas que hace 

 verdadero al que dijo: est Dens in nobis." Cf. also Lope de Vega, El 

 Verdadero Amante, prologue; Dorotea, Vol. II, of "Comedias Escogidas," 

 p. 33 ; Bowie, Don Quixote, part II, 42 cites Morales, Sobre la lengua 

 castellana, p. 3, all containing the idea that, just as the Greeks wrote in 

 Greek and the Romans in Latin, modem peoples should respect and use their 

 own tongues. 



