223 



SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE CERVANTES. 



SAAVED1U, MIGUEL DE CERVANTES. 



224 



1850. The Gulistan is one of the beat text-book for learning Persian. 

 A good Life of Saadi is given in the introduction to Harrington's 

 edition of his works (a translation from the Persian of Dowlet Shah) ; 

 a briefer notice in D'Herbelot; and one of some length in Von Hammer's 

 ' History of the Elegant Rhetoric of Persia ' (' Geschichte der SchiJnen 

 Redekiinste Persiens.) 



SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, the celebrated author 

 of 'Don Quixote,' was born at Alcahi de Henares, on Sunday, the 9th 

 of October 1547, of an ancient family originally from Galicia, which 

 had for some time been established in Castile. His grandfather, Juan 

 de Cervantes, was corregidor of Ossuua. His mother belonged to the 

 illustrious family of Barajas. Very little is known of the early life of 

 Cervantes, except that he received his first education at the place of 

 his birth, and gave very early proofs of talent. Having attained the 

 proper age, Cervantes repaired to Salamanca, where he entered himself 

 as a student at the university, and remained two years. He then went 

 to Madrid, where his parents placed him under the tuition of Juan 

 Lopez de Hoyos, a learned theologian, who filled the chair of belles- 

 lettres in that city. Under him Cervantes seems to have made 

 considerable progress. He himself informs us (' Viage al Parnaso,' 

 p. 54) that he composed several romances or ballads, besides a pastoral 

 called 'Fileua;' and when, in 1569, his master published a collection 

 of poems on the death of Isabella of Valois, wife of Philip II., there 

 appeared, among the rest, two poetical compositions by Cervantes, 

 whom he calls " our dear and beloved pupil." 



In 1568 Cervantes entered the household of Cardinal Aquaviva, 

 then at Madrid, and accompanied that prelate on his return to Rome. 

 He remained with him one year, after which he entered the army, and 

 served as a volunteer under Marco Antonio Colonna, the commander 

 of the papal forces against the Turks. He greatly distinguished 

 himself at the battle of Lepanto (October 7, 1571). Though suffering 

 at the time from intermittent fever, he took an active part in the 

 combat, and received three arquebuse wounds, two in the breast, and 

 one in hia left hand, which maimed him for life. He continued to 

 serve under Don Juan of Austria, and his successor in command, the 

 Marquis of Santa Cruz, until 1575, when he revisited his native country, 

 and spent some time at Madrid among his friends and relations. 

 Having early in 1576 obtained a command in a regiment about to be 

 sent to the Low Countries, Cervantes embarked with his elder brother 

 Rodrigo, also a soldier, on board the Spanish galley El sol (the sun). 

 On the 26th of September however, the galley was suddenly surrounded 

 by an Algerine squadron, under the command of Arnaut Maini, who, 

 after a most obstinate defence, boarded and took it, and carried his 

 prize into Algiers. The crew and passengers were sold as slaves. 

 Cervantes, who had fought with desperation on the boarding of the 

 galley, was reserved by Mami for himself. 



The numerous interesting details which Cervantes has given us in 

 his novel ' El Cautivo ' (the captive), and which have also come down 

 to us from undoubted and impartial sources, display so much gallantry 

 and magnanimity on his part, that they cannot be read without calling 

 forth our admiration. After many bold but unsuccessful attempts to 

 regain his liberty, by which he ran great risk of losing his life, Cervantes 

 was redeemed in 1580 by the Fathers of Mercy, established for that 

 purpose at Algiers, who paid to Hassan Aga, then his master, the 

 enormous sum of 500 gold ducats, which had been raised among his 

 friends and relatives. On his return to his native country, Cervantes, 

 being destitute of all resources, again resumed the military profession, 

 and served in three successive expeditions against the Azores. It was 

 not till his return, to Spain in 1584 that he appeared as an author, 

 having soon after published his ' Galatea,' a pastoral romance in prose 

 and verse, in imitation of 'La Diana' of Montemayor a species of 

 composition much in fashion at that time. In this romance Cervantes 

 personified himself, as well as the lady of his love, Dona Catalina 

 Palacios y Salazar, whom he married in the same year (1584) under 

 the names of Elicio and Galatea. He next devoted all hia attention 

 to the composition of dramas, of which he wrote upwards of thirty, 

 and which, he informs us, were all acted with considerable applause. 

 These are however all lost with the exception of two, ' El Trato de 

 Argel ' (' Algerine Dealing '), and ' La Numancia.' But notwithstanding 

 his theatrical success, Cervantes must have been in bad circumstances, 

 since in 158 8 we hear of him at Seville, where he filled the office of 

 assistant-purveyor to the Indian fleets. That he was not content with 

 his situation, and that it was an insignificant one, would appear from 

 the fact of his having shortly afterwards, in 1590, made an application 

 to be employed in the New World. At length, the purveyorship 

 having been abolished, and his office suppressed in 1596, Cervantes 

 earned a scanty livelihood by becoming agent to various municipalities, 

 corporations, and wealthy individuals. We have few traces of the 

 mode in which he exercised his pen during this interval, and with the 

 exception of two burlesque sonnets (' estrambotes '), one of which was 

 intended to ridicule the ostentatious arrival of the Duke of Medina 

 at Cadiz, after this town had been plundered and abandoned by the 

 Earl of Essex, we hear of no other productions of his genius. It is 

 probable however that during hia stay at Seville he wrote some, if not 

 all, of his ' Novelas Exemplares,' which he subsequently published. 



From 1598, when he left Seville, to 1602, when we hear of him at 

 Valladolid, there ia a gap in the history of this great man, which all 

 the diligence of his biographers had hitherto failed in filling up, it not 



being known whore he resided or what pursuit he was engaged in. 

 Some indeed are willing to supply the deficiency by supposing him to 

 have been engaged as tithe-collector in La Mancha, and they add, that 

 whilst fulfilling the duties of his office he was put in prison by the 

 alcalde of Argamasilla, a small town of that province, and thut he 

 thus wrote the first part of his 'Don Quixote' in confinement. The 

 accuracy with which the country of La Mancha and the manners and 

 customs of its inhabitants are described in that work, is certainly 

 in favour of the conjecture that he resided some time there ; but 

 Navarette (' Vida de Cervantes,' p. 95) has shown that the report of 

 hia imprisonment rests on no other foundation than vague tradition. 

 However this may be, Cervantes was at Valladolid in 1602. Three 

 years after he published the first part of his ' Don Quixote,' which he 

 dedicated to Don Alonso Lopez de Zuinga y Sotomayor, seventh duke 

 of Bejar. Though the work excited no great attention at first, it sud- 

 denly came into vogue, and was eagerly read by all classes of society. 

 No less than four editions of it were printed in various parts of the 

 Peninsula within the first year after its appearance (1605); two at 

 Madrid, one at Valencia, and another at Lisbon. Its fame spread 

 rapidly to all the neighbouring countries. But notwithstanding this 

 enthusiastic reception of his work, Cervantes continued poor, and he 

 was accordingly engaged by the Duke of Lerma, the minister of Philip 

 III., to write an account of the festivities, bullfights, religious ceremo- 

 nies, and so forth, with which Lord Howard, ambassador of James I., 

 was received at Valladolid in 1605. On the return of the court to 

 Madrid in 1606, Cervantes followed it, and he continued to inhabit 

 that city to the end of his life. In 1606 he brought out a correct 

 edition of the first part of 'Don Quixote,' and in 1613 his 'Novelas 

 Exemplares' (Exemplary Tales), twelve in number, by which his 

 literary reputation was greatly increased. In 1614 he published his 

 ' Viage al Parnaso ' (Journey to Parnassus), a work which cannot pro- 

 perly be ranked in any particular class of literature, but which, next 

 to ' Don Quixote,' is the most exquisite production of its immortal 

 author. This work however being intended as a satire upon the bad 

 poets of his time, some took offence at it, and became Cervantes' 

 bitterest enemies. One, among others, published under the assumed 

 name of Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda, a continuation of ' Don 

 Quixote,' full of invective and abuse (Tarragona, 1614). This probably 

 hastened the publication of the second part, which was sent to press 

 early in 1615, with a dedication to his patron the Conde de Leroios. 

 His other works are a collection of comedies and ' entremeses ' (inter- 

 ludes) written in the fashion of the new school introduced by Lope de 

 Vega, but which were never acted ('Mad., 4to, 1615) ; and a novel 

 entitled ' Persiles y Sigismunda,' composed in a style very different 

 from that of his other works, and certainly the least successful of all 

 his productions. (Madrid and Barcelona, 1617.) 



Cervantes died at Madrid on the same day as his great contemporary 

 Shakespere, on the 23rd of April, 1616, being then in his sixty-ninth 

 year. He was buried without the least pomp in the convent of the 

 nuns of the Trinity in the Calle del Humilladero, where his daughter 

 Dona Isabel had four years before taken the veil. But the nuns 

 having removed to another convent in the Calle de Cantaranas, the 

 old one was pulled down, and the remains of Cervantes were lost. 

 Within the last few years however two monuments have been erected 

 in Madrid to the memory of this great man : one, in the Plaza de las 

 Cortes, consisting of a beautiful bronze statue upon a square pedestal 

 of granite, on the sides of which are bas-reliefs representing subjects 

 taken from ' Don Quixote ; ' the other is his bust in white marble over 

 the door of the house in the Calle de Fraecoa, where he lived and 

 died. 



His works have been too often analysed to render it necessary here 

 to dwell upon their merits. His first publication, ' Galatea,' is beauti- 

 ful in its spirit, interesting and pleasing in its details, but not original; 

 as a work, it is cast in the same mould as other pastorals written 

 before hia time. Cervantes had imagination and invention ; he always 

 wrote with purity, frequently with elegance; but he was not a 

 poet ; he wanted that severe taste, that power of concentration and 

 perfect ear for harmony which form poetry. His plays therefore are, 

 generally speaking, bad. But his master-work, ' Don Quixote,' is 

 perfect in all its parts. The conception is admirable and the author 

 shows in every page a highly philosophic mind, the noblest sentiments 

 expressed with inimitable simplicity, and a perfect knowledge of 

 the human heart. Of his ' Novelas,' or ' Tales,' it may be said that 

 they are not only interesting and amusing, but perfectly moral. 

 The ' V oyage to Parnassus ' is in many respects a master-piece of art, 

 and the weapon of satire is handled dexterously, but without ill 

 nature. 



The Life of Cervantes has been written at great length by some of 

 the most eminent Spanish authors : Father Sarmiento, Mayan*, Los 

 Rios, Fernandez, and Navarette. The last has spared no trouble in 

 investigating the most minute incidents of the life of Cervantes, and 

 has produced a work which, accompanied as it is by many original 

 documents, leaves nothing to desire. The editions of ' Don Quixote,' 

 published in and out of Spain since the death of the author, have 

 been so numerous as to render it almost impossible to give anything 

 like a correct list of them. We shall therefore mention only a few of 

 the best : Madrid, 4 vols. 4to, 1780, with engravings on copper; Lon- 

 don,by Bowie, 6 vols. 4to, 1781 ; Madrid, by Pellicer, 5 vols. 8vo, 1797; 



