1831.] Who tvrolc Gil Bias? 493 



Again : Doctor Sangrado speaks to Gil Bias of the virtues of antimony 

 — " Curris Iriiimpfuilis avtimoiin." This is an evident allusion to the 

 work of a physician named Basile Valentine, published under this title 

 in the year 1677 — a work that could not have been known to a Spanish 

 writer in " 1655." In the course of another conversation, the same 

 doctor speaks of the kermis — a mineral, which, according to Neufcha- 

 teau, was not known before the time of Louis the Fifteenth, and which 

 was introduced by a French apothecary, who obtained the presci'iptioii 

 from a Gei-man chemist. " Of this circumstance likewise," he adds, 

 " a Spanish writer must have been also ignorant in the year 1655." 



Numerous other examples, of a nature equally striking, have been 

 triumphantly adduced by Neufchateau in support of the claims of Le 

 Sage. Llorente combats these arguments with considerable ingenuity 

 and critical acumen ; he proves that events similar to those in the novel 

 actually occurred in Spain. But even were this not the case, they 

 ought in our opinion to weigh but little against the overwhelming mass 

 of direct evidence in favour of a Spanish original; for their introduction 

 may be easily reconciled with such a theory. An elegant writer, in 

 dressing up a foreign work which he intended to palm off on the public 

 as his own composition, would naturally modify, in some degree, the 

 form of it by a judicious introduction of original matter — would seek to 

 pique the curiosity of the public by skilful allusions to some recent 

 popular events of the day. Such a course would powerfully tend to 

 strengthen the reality of the illusion by removing all suspicions of the 

 fraud. Under this point of view only, can Le Sage be considered as the 

 author of Gil Bias — his only original conception that of forming two 

 novels from the substance of one, by the addition of a number of Spa- 

 nish tales and romances. With foreign materials he has raised up a 

 beautiful superstructure that commands the admiration of the world, 

 constructed with such admirable skill that, like Don Ignacio Ypigna in 

 the novel, he may exclaim — 



" Furto laetemur in ipso." 



But while we allow him this glory — one, too, of which he might justly 

 be proud — the merit of the original invention of the fable, and the con- 

 ception of the character of the hero, the truth and fidelity of the details 

 of the picture, we feel, must be awarded to a Spanish master. 



Who this Spanish master was, Llorente also undertakes to determine. 

 After enumerating thirty-eight persons who lived at Madrid about the 

 middle of the seventeenth century, and after weighing the probabilities 

 in favour of each, he finally fixes on Don Antonio Solis de Ribadenaria, 

 a writer of very considerable eminence, and known to the pubhc 

 by his " History of the Conquest of Mexico." There are several circum- 

 stances in the character of Antonio Solis, which are likely to have 

 occurred in the author of (iil Bias, and which could hardly be expected 

 to meet in two persons living at the same period. Solis was a dramatic 

 writer of great repute, and some of liis productions liave, by good judges, 

 been ranked with the best of those of (^alderon and Lopez de Vega. 

 lie was also the author of some historical inquiries written in a style of 

 classical purity and elegance. In the latter jjart of liis life, he embraced 

 the ecclesiastical j)rofcssion, and abandoning his profane compositions, 

 he wrote some " Alysteries" — a species of drama still rejjresented in 

 S[)ain during Lent. The events of liis own life are similar to those 

 which form the ground-work of the latter part of Gil Bias.. He was 



