74 



CERVANTES 



vious circulation in manuscript and he and his 

 brother-dramatists showed how bitterly they re- 

 sented the criticism in chapter 48. Cervantes was 

 slow in taking advantage of his popularity. In- 

 stead of giving his readers the sequel they asked 

 for, he busied himself with writing for the stage 

 and composing short tales, or ' exemplary novels ' 

 as he called them. The Viage del Parnaso, a 

 poem of over 3000 lines in terza rima, reviewing 

 the poetry and poets of the day, was another of 

 his productions at this time. In 1613 he published 

 his twelve Novelas, and promised his readers the 

 second part of Don Quixote ' shortly. ' But in 1614 

 a writer, under the pseudonym of Alonso Fer- 

 nandez de Avellaneda, brought out a spurious 

 second part, with an insulting preface, full of 

 coarse personal abuse of Cervantes. It was the 

 work or a dull plagiarist, an imitator insensible 

 to the merits of his model ; but it served as the 

 spur Cervantes needed to urge him to the com- 

 pletion of the genuine second part, which was sent 

 to the press early in 1615, and published at the 

 end of the year. It was not too soon ; his health 

 was already failing, and he died at Madrid on the 

 23d of April 1616. His last labours were given 

 to things more important in his eyes than Don 

 Quixote. While it was in the press he revised 

 and published his rejected comedies and inter- 

 ludes, and but a short time before his death he 

 finished his romance of Persiles and Sigismunda. 

 There are few pieces of his writing more charac- 

 teristic of the man than the last two that ever 

 came from his pen written, indeed, upon his very 

 deathbed the address to the reader and the dedi- 

 cation to the Conde de Lemos, whose generosity 

 had relieved him from the pressure of poverty ; 

 and, like every glimpse of himself that his pages 

 give us, they make us wish that we knew more 

 of one so full of wisdom, patience, and charity, so 

 bright and so brave. 



It is in right of Don Quixote that the name of 

 Cervantes has a place here ; but his minor works 

 entitle him to an honourable one in the history of 

 Spanish, literature. His novels are the best of 

 their kind a kind Spain excelled in ; and though 

 the Galatea is doubtless inferior to the Diana, its 

 greatest fault is that, like the Diana, it belongs 

 to a radically insipid species of romance. The 

 title of poet is commonly denied him ; but if a 

 good deal of his poetry is weak, there is much 

 that only a poet could have written, and not even 

 Garcilaso had a finer sense of melody or a truer 

 touch in verse. It would be unjust to judge of 

 his dramatic powers by the comedies printed in 

 1615. They were nothing more than a desperate 

 attempt to gain a footing on the stage by a con- 

 cession to the popular taste. To found a great 

 national drama worthy of his country was the 

 ambition of his life, and the first step was to 

 obtain a hearing. The tragedy of Numancia, 

 with all its defects the most powerful and original 

 drama in the language, is a better measure of 

 Cervantes as a dramatist. And if it is impossible 

 to accept his own estimate of the Persiles and 

 Sigismunda, no reader will deny its invention and 

 grace of style. His minor works all show signs 

 of the author's care ; Don Quixote, on the other 

 hand, is the most carelessly written of all great 

 books. Cervantes, it is plain, did not look upon 

 it in that light. He was very proud of its popu- 

 larity ; but all he ever claims for it is that it will 

 amuse, and that it did the state some service in 

 laughing chivalry romances out of fashion. He 

 wrote it by fits and starts ; he neglected it for his 

 other works ; he sent it to the printers without 

 revision, and made merry over their blunders and 

 his own oversights. But it may be that we owe 

 more to this carelessness than we think. One of 



the marvels of this marvellous book is its perennial 

 youth. After well-nigh three centuries it is as 

 fresh and full of life as when it came from La 

 Cuesta's press. In his other works Cervantes 

 studied recognised models and consulted the tastes 

 of the day ; in Don Quixote he followed the lead 

 of his own genius alone, and wrote only as instinct 

 prompted him. Written in a desultory fashion, it 

 had time to grow and ripen under his hand ; Don 

 Quixote and Sancho, outlines at first, became by 

 degrees flesh and blood realities to his mind, and 

 beings that he loved ; and the book the second part 

 especially served him as a kind of commonplace- 

 book to which he turned to when he was in the 

 mood, making it the depository of his thoughts 

 and record of the experience and observation of a 

 stirring life. We need not commit the disloyalty 

 of doubting his word when he says that all he 

 sought was to cure his countrymen of their passion 

 for chivalry romances. He had motive enough in 

 the magnitude of the evil, and his was only one 

 of scores of voices lifted up against it ; nor is 

 there anything extraordinary in a champion of 

 true chivalry, as he was, resenting a mockery that 

 made it contemptible. But the genius of Cer- 

 vantes was essentially discursive, and many other 

 offenders and offences were comprehended in the 

 indictment that he brought against the romances 

 of chivalry and their readers. 



The only complete edition of Cervantes' works 

 is that or Rivadeneyra (in 12 vols. large 8vo, 

 Madrid, 1863-64). Editions of the selected works 

 are those of Ibarra ( 16 vols. small 8vo, Madrid, 

 1803-5), Bossange (10 vols. 12mo, Paris, 1826), 

 and vol. i. of the Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles 

 (Madrid, 1846). Of Don Quixote in the original 

 about 150 editions are known, and more than 

 double that number in other languages. The first 

 worthy of the book was Tonsorr s ( Lond. 1738, 4 

 vols. ) ; other notable ones are the Academy edition 

 (4 vols. Madrid, 1780); Bowie's (6 vols. Salisbury 

 and Lond. 1781); Pellicer's (5 vols. Madrid, 1797- 

 98) ; Clemencin's ( 6 vols. Madrid, 1833-39) ; Hart- 

 zenbusch's, in vols. iii.-vi. of the complete works, 

 and also in 4 vols. 1863, a beautiful pocket edition 

 printed at Argamasilla, in the house called Cer- 

 vantes' prison ; in these last the editor has often 

 restored the text of the first edition, but often 

 also recklessly tampered with it. F. Lopez 

 Fabra's (2 vols. Barcelona, 1871-74) is an admir- 

 able reproduction by photography of the first 

 edition. The claim of Senor Ortego's edition 

 ( Palencia, 1884) to give corrections made by 

 Cervantes himself cannot be seriously maintained. 

 The reprint of the editio princeps of the first part 

 of Don Quixote, by Mr Ormsby and Mr Fitzmaurice- 

 Kelly ( Lond. 1898 ) is a splendid folio. There are 

 translations in fourteen languages. The oldest is 

 the English by Shelton, made in 1608 and printed 

 1612 (second part, 1620), a vigorous but rude and 

 inaccurate version. Other English translations are 

 those of Phillips (1689), Motteux (1702), Jervas 

 (commonly called Jarvis, 1742), Smollett (1755), 

 A. J. Duffield (3 vols. 8vo, 1881), John Ormsby (4 

 vols. 8vo, 1885), and H. E. Watts (5 vols. 4to, 1888 

 et sea. ). In French there are nine versions, besides 

 abridgments : the oldest is Oudin's ( printed in!616 ), 

 the best Viardot's ( 1836). In German there are no 

 less than thirteen, from the earliest in 1621 to the 

 latest and best by Ludwig Braunfels in 1883-84. 

 There are as many as ten Russian versions, but 

 most of these are from the French, or abridgments. 

 Franciosini's Italian version appeared as early as 

 1622, and has been followed by two others ; and 

 there are versions in Dutch, Danish, Polish, Portu- 

 guese, Swedish, Hungarian, Bohemian, Servian, 

 and Greek. The best Life of Cervantes is by 

 Navarrete ; but there is also a good one by D. 



