Schevill — Studies in Cervantes. 509 



terned after Virgil, probably had no influence upon Cervantes. 

 Whether Sannazaro suggested Virgil to him or not, is a gratuitous 

 question which we have no means of answering. Moreover, those 

 novels of the sixteenth century which occasionally mention sports 

 without describing them at length, may have suificed to induce 

 Cervantes to borrow Virgil's games. 



Sports are spoken of especially often in the pastoral novel, and 

 since occasional parts of the Persiles have the tone of the Galatea, 

 the introduction into the former of long descriptions of games 

 which were merely mentioned in the latter and other pastorals, may 

 have seemed like a commendable venture. Cervantes, however, does 

 not seem to have felt perfectly sure that irrelevant description of 

 races and the like would be of interest to his readers, for on one or 

 two occasions he criticizes their detailed rehearsal in a way which 

 sounds something like a humorous self-reproach.^ 



The games in the fifth book of the Aeneid have been used in two 

 distinct places. In the first (bk. I, ch. 22 of the Persiles), Peri- 

 andro arrives at the island of Policarpo with twelve companions, 

 "todos nobles y deseosos de ganar honra." He competes in various 

 contests, first, the foot race, second, in fencing, third, in wrestling, 

 fourth, in hurling a heavy bar, and lastly, shooting with cross-bow 

 and arrow. In each he is victorious. The corresponding passages, 

 grouped together, will show with what variations from the Aeneid 

 these matches are introduced in the Persiles.- Cervantes leads up to 

 the episode, which he supposes to be perfectly in keeping with the 

 customs of the unknown northern islanders of whom he speaks, by 

 telling of their excellent system of government, their superior laws, 

 their splendid kings. The latter devise public festivals to keep their 

 vassals in a good temper : 



Los reyes, por parecerles que la melancolia en los vasallos suele 

 despertar malos pensamientos, procuran tener alegre el pueblo y 

 entretenido con fiestas publicas, y a veces con ordinarias comedias; 

 principalmente solemnizaban el dia que fueron asumptos al reino, 



'^ Persiles, p. 607, col. 1: "hubieran perdido [la paciencia] escuchando 

 su larga platica, de quien juzgaron Mauricio y Ladislao que habia sido 

 algo larga y traida no niuy d proposito, etc."; and p. 611, col. 2: 

 "Pareceme, Transila, que con menos palabras y mas sucintos discursos 

 pudiera Periandro contar los de su vida, porque no habia para que detenerse 

 en decirnos tan por extenso las fiestas de las barcas." 



- Cf . Appendix V, p. 525. 



