225 



SAAVEDRA, ANGEL DE, DUKE DE RIVAS. 



SABATINI, FRANCISCO. 



226 



Madrid, by the Royal Academy of History, 5 vola. 8vo, 1819; and 

 the edition, with a full commentary and critical notes by the late 

 Don Diego Clemencin. As to translations, it is well known that 

 within a few years after the publication of ' Don Quixote,' it was 

 rendered into almost every European language, and that no nation on 

 the Continent has so fully appreciated its standard merits as our own, 

 since we possess no less than eight different English versions, besides 

 several other works more or less relating to it. Thomas Skelton was 

 the first who translated it, London, 2 vols. 4to, 1620. Edmund Qayton 

 next published hia ' Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixote,' London, fol., 

 1654. J. Philips was the next who translated it, London fol., 1687. 

 Motteux (Peter), a Frenchman by birth, published also a version, 

 London, 4 vols. 12mo, 1712. Ozell (John), London, 4 vols. 12mo, 1725. 

 Thomas D'Urfey, London, 2 vola. 8vo, 1729. Jarvis (Charles), London, 

 2 vols. 4to, 1742. Smollett, London, 2 vols. 4to, 1725. Wilmot, 

 London, 2 vols. 8vo, 1755. By far the best translation, as coming 

 closer to the original than any other, is that of Jarvis, which has often 

 been reprinted. 



In the year 1848 Don Adolfo de Castro published at Cadiz a small 

 work of less than fifty pages of large type, professing to be ' El Bus- 

 capie",' or ' The Squib,' a dialogue written by Cervantes in defence of 

 'Don Quixote,' and of which Sefior de Castro declared that he had 

 purchased a manuscript copy in the preceding year at the sale of the 

 library of an advocate named Don Pascual de Gdndara. A book with 

 the name of Cervantes was sure to attract attention, and the ' Buscapie" ' 

 was soon translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, German, and 

 English/ in our own language twice, once by ' a graduate of Cam- 

 bridge,' and once by Thomasina Ross. The authenticity of the dis- 

 covery was however doubted from the first, both in Spain snd in other 

 countries, and Mr. Ticknor, in the third volume of his ' History of 

 Spanish Literature,' gives a long list of reasons for drawing it in ques- 

 tion, concluding thus "If Don Adolfo wrote it, he has probably 

 always intended in due time to claim it as his own ; if he did not write 

 it, then he has I think been deceived in regard to the character of the 

 manuscript, which he purchased under circumstances which made him 

 believe it to be what ifc is not" To some of the observations of Mr. 

 Ticknor, Don Adolfo de Castro has published an elaborate reply in the 

 appendix to an illustrated edition of 'Don Quixote,' issued at Madrid 

 in 1850, but he gives no direct reply to the passage we have quoted, 

 and this, with other circumstances, induces us to believe the ' Bus- 

 capid ' of Cervantes on a par in authenticity with the ' Vortigern ' of 

 Shakspere or the ' Moredun' of Walter Scott. 



* SAAVEDRA, ANGEL DE, DUKE DE RIVAS, a Spanish poet, 

 painter, soldier, and statesman, of considerable eminence in all four 

 capacities, was born at Cordova on the 10th of March 1791, the 

 second son of the then Duke de Rivaa. He received his early educa- 

 tion chiefly from French emigrants, and was in his youth distinguished 

 for his vivacious manners and his passion for drawing. He was after- 

 wards sent to the Royal Seminary for nobles at Madrid, and thence 

 transferred to the military service, having been already entered at the 

 age of seven as a captain of cavalry. He had lost his father in 1802 ; 

 and in 1806, when he was about to be sent on foreign service under 

 the Marquis de Romana, whose adventures in Denmark form an 

 interesting episode in the early history of the Peninsular war, his 

 mother interposed and procured his exchange into the regiment of 

 body guards of the king, in which his elder brother the then Duke de 

 Rivas was one of the officers. The two brothers were on guard at 

 the Escurial, when after the great outbreak of the 2nd of May 1809 

 General Frere, who commanded a body of French troops in occupation 

 of the palace, called together the Spanish guards and informed them 

 that Murat desired the assistance of a squadron of their number to 

 march with the French to suppress an insurrection in Segovia. Angel 

 de Saavedra, then a youth of eighteen, burst out with an indignant 

 refusal, which was followed by the other officers ; the French proposal 

 was rejected, and shortly after the guards were ordered to march to 

 Madrid. Rumours were rife of their intended massacre ; many of 

 them broke up and dispersed, and Saavedra and his brother set out in 

 disguise to make their way to Saragossa and join the army of Palafox. 

 In this they failed after going through many dangers, but they suc- 

 ceeded in joining the Marquis de Palacios, and for the rest of the war 

 were actively employed. Saavedra shared in the battles of Rioseco, 

 Tudela, Ucles, Ciudad Real, and Talavera. At a skirmish at Anti- 

 gola, on the day before the battle of Ocaiia, he was left for dead in 

 the field with eleven wounds, was found at midnight by a soldier in 

 search of spoil, who carried the news to the Duke de Rivas, and on the 

 next day, wht-n the Spaniards lost the battle of Ocaiia, Angel de Saa- 

 vedra amidst the crowds of fugitives was abandoned in a cart by all 

 but two brother officers, who at last brought him to a place of safety, 

 where finally, after receiving extreme unction, he recovered. Later in 

 the war he was taken prisoner by the French under Sebastian!. At 

 its close he retired from the service with the rank of colonel, and took 

 up his residence at Seville. 



In the year 1813 he made his first appearance as an author in a 

 volume of ' Ensayos Porticos ' (' Poetical Essays '), which met with 

 sufficient favour to call for a second edition in two volumes in 1820-21. 

 He also in the years 1815 and 1816 produced some tragedies which 

 were acted with moderate applause. The character of all these pro- 

 ductions was that of classicality and stiffness, and the author's models 



iilOG. D1V. VOL. V. 



were evidently French. A tragedy entitled ' Lanuza,' on the fate of 

 the Justiza of Aragon, executed by order of Philip II., had more 

 interest than its predecessors from its political tendency. Saavedra 

 joined with enthusiasm in the Spanish constitutional movement of 

 1820, and ' Lanuza ' was acted at Seville with much applause before 

 the suppression of the constitution by the second French invasion of 

 Spain. Its author was chosen deputy to the Cortes for hia native city 

 of Cordova. On the downfall of the constitution he took refuge in 

 London, where he commenced an epic poem on the classic model, 

 entitled ' Florinda ; ' but he soon fouud that the climate of England 

 was too severe for hia health. He removed to Italy, but was 

 refused permission to continue there by the Tuscan and Roman 

 governments, and then withdrew to Malta, where fortunately for him 

 the English flag was flying over a climate like that of Spain. In 

 Malta he remained for about five years, from 1825 to 1830, and while 

 his political principles were confirmed his literary principles under- 

 went a thorough transformation. An intimacy with Mr. Hookham 

 Frere, who, as deeply acquainted with Spanish literature, was glad to 

 converse with a literary Spaniard, led Saavedra to study the English 

 language, to which he had hitherto been a stranger, and he read, 

 under Frere's advice, the best works of English authors, in particular 

 of Shakspere, Byron, and Walter Scott. The result was an ardent 

 enthusiasm for English literature, and a determination to transplant 

 if possible some of the beauties he admired to the soil of Spain. He 

 commenced the poem of 'El Moro Exposito,' or 'The Moorish 

 Foundling,' the ground-work of which is the old Spanish legend of 

 Mudarra and the Infants of Lara, but the execution of which is 

 intended to emulate some of his English models. This was completed 

 during Saavedra 's residence in France, to which country he removed 

 in 1830, and where he earned his support by opening a drawing- 

 school, and by labour as an artist, several portraits from his hand 

 being noticed with approbation by the critics, in the exhibitions of 

 modern artists at the Louvre. The hopes with which he had removed 

 to France were not gratified till January 1834, when he was permitted 

 to return to Spain. 



Soon after his restoration to his native country, the death of his 

 elder brother without issue transferred to him the title and estates of 

 the Duke de Rivas. On the establishment of the Athenaeum of 

 Madrid, which may be called the university of that capital, he was 

 almost unanimously chosen its president, and he was named by the 

 crown .vice-president of the Chamber of Peers. His career as a states- 

 man was as usual in that country stormy and dangerous. As a member 

 of the Isturiz ministry he proposed in 1836 a new plan of public 

 education, and a few months after 1 , on the occurrence of the disgraceful 

 revolution of La Granja, he was obliged to fly for his life, and was 

 concealed in the house of the English ambassador for twenty-two days. 

 He esc.tped to Lisbon in disguise, and afterwards in an EngLsh steamer 

 to Gibraltar, where he found in the governor, General Woodford, one 

 of his old Maltese friends. The storm subsided almost as rapidly as 

 it had risen, and in about a twelvemonth, having given his adhesion 

 to the new constitution of 1837, he was not only permitted to return 

 to Spain and put in possession of his estates, but chosen by various 

 constituencies, and among others by Cadiz, to represent them in the 

 Cortes. His subsequent history has been less marked by vicissitude. 

 He has been a member of several administrations, and was for some 

 years Spanish ambassador to Naples, where he wrote a history of 

 Masaniello's insurrection. The last mention of him that has appeared 

 in the English newspapers was on the occasion of his attending the 

 funeral of Quintana [QUINTANA] in March 1857. He still gives his 

 leisure to poetry and the arts, and some years ago presented four 

 paintings executed by himself to the choir of the cathedral of Seville. 



It is agreed on by all the Spanish critics, that the writings of 

 Saavedra have been of much higher value since his literary conversion 

 than they were before. His principal poem is the ' Moorish Foundling,' 

 which was some twenty years ago iu the enjoyment of a high repu- 

 tation, which has now lost some of its lustre. Its merit perhaps 

 consisted more in the novelty of its style and manner to Spanish 

 readers, than in any sterling vigour or spirit of the author's own. 

 His tragedy of ' Don Alvaro,' which was produced shortly after his 

 return from his ten years' exile, is decidedly the most forcible of hia 

 dramas, and is like the ' Foundling,' remarkable for its innovations on 

 the established forms. Among his shorter poems, ' El Desterrado ' 

 (' The Exile '), which was printed in tho ' Ock>3,' a Spanish magazine 

 published in London during the author's residence in England, and 

 an address, 'Al Faro de Malta' ('To the Maltese Lighthouse'), are 

 the most successful. 



SABATI'NI, FRANCISCO, a Spanish architect, was born at Palermo 

 in 1722. Having completed his studies in literature and mathematics 

 in his native city, he made choice of architecture as a profession, aud 

 visited Rome for the purpose of perfecting himself in it. On leaving 

 Rome for Naples, he was employed as the second overseer of the works 

 at the palace of Caserta, under his father-in-law Luigi Vanvitelli, the 

 architect of that immense edifice. While thus employed, the king 

 bestowed upon him a commission of lieutenant in the artillery, and 

 charged him with the erection of the cavalry barracks near the Ponte 

 della Maddalena, and the arsenal armoury. When, on the death of 

 his brother Ferdinand, the king succeeded to the throne of Spain as 

 Charles III. in 1759, Sabatini settled at Madrid, where, besides being 



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