508 
S A A V 
in which there are mines of iron, alum and tin. The woods 
are extensive in this quarter, and abound in game. The 
other products of this circle are hops, flax, turf, and coal. 
There are some manufactures, of which that of cotton is most 
considerable. 
SAATZ, in Bohemian Zatets, a town of Bohemia, on 
the Egra, and the chief place of the preceding circle. 
Population 3800; 89 miles west-by-north of Prague, and 28 
east of Carlsbad. Lat. 50. 18. 35. N. long. 13. 35. E. 
SAAVEDRA (Fajardo Diego), a Spanish writer and states¬ 
man, was born of a noble family in the kingdom of Murcia, 
and after being ambassador in Switzerland, was appointed a 
member of the supreme council of India. He died in 1648. 
As an author, his chief works are, “ The Idea of a Politic 
Prince;” “The Gothic Crown;” and “ The Literary Re¬ 
public.” This last is said to be a curious and well-written picee. 
SAAVEDRA (Miguel Cervantes de), better known by 
the name of Cervantes, the most celebrated literary cha¬ 
racter of modern Spain, was born about the year 1549. 
Neither he himself, nor any authentic biographer, has 
mentioned the place of his nativity ; so that different parts 
of Spain have laid claim to that honour, with as much zeal 
of contention as the different places which of old were 
claimants for the cradle of Homer. The province of 
Andalusia seems on the whole to possess the best title. His 
descent is by himself said to be honourable; and his 
writings prove that his education must have been liberal; 
but his own total silence as to the manner in which he 
passed his youth, and the circumstance of his serving as a 
common volunteer in the army of Mark Antony Colonna, 
seem to prove that he had no other patrimony than his 
sword and learning. When his military service commenced 
is doubtful; it is certain, however, that embarking with the 
troops under Colonna, on board the fleet commanded by 
Don John of Austria, he was present at the famous battle of 
Lepanto in 1571, where he had the misfortune to lose his 
left hand by a shot. Either in this expedition, or in his 
service as chamberlain to cardinal Aquaviva at Rome, he 
obtained a certain share of wealth; tor in his captivity at 
Algiers, during five years and a half, which commenced in 
1574, when he was taken by a Barbary corsair, he appears 
to have been well furnished with money, which he liberally 
bestowed among his fellow-captives. Several romantic 
circumstances, but of dubious authority, are recorded of him 
whilst a slave at Algiers. A large price was paid for his 
ransom, which, together with his subsequent expense of 
living, probably in the free style of a soldier, entirely ex¬ 
hausted his store. He had already established a reputation 
for poetical talents in his country, which was much aug¬ 
mented by the publication in 1584 of his “ Galatea,” a 
poem in six books, dedicated to Ascanio Colonna. He 
likewise, either before or after his captivity, or in both 
periods, composed various pieces for the Spanish theatre, 
which was then nearly in a state of barbarism, and of which, 
in its more regular form, he is reckoned one of the fathers. 
A course of years little accounted for, now elapsed in the 
life of Ceivantes, of the incidents of which scarcely any 
thing is known, but that he married, was reduced to great 
distress, and was finally lodged in a jail for debt. In 
this forlorn situation he composed the work which has con¬ 
ferred immortal honour on his name—his “ Don Quixote.” 
As to the serious purpose of it, various opinions have been 
given, probably with more fancy and subtlety than truth. 
Perhaps he had nothing further in view than to write a 
diverting and instructive satire on the extravagant tales, 
which, under the title of romances, over-ran the age, and 
prejudiced the taste, at least, if not the manners of his 
country. That any thing like practical knight-errantry was 
the foible of his countrymen at that time, is a supposition 
not warranted by the state of society; and a soldier and 
patriot could not wish to quell the gallant spirit of martial 
enterprise. But books of chivalry, with their monstrous 
fictions and affected sentiments, were fair game for a man 
of wit and sense ; nor could they be more agreeably 
E D R A. 
ridiculed, than by displaying their effects on the imagination 
of a madman, resolved to put their lessons into practice. 
The first part of this work was printed at Madrid in 1605, - 
and its success was prodigious. It was read by all ages and 
ranks; its fame spread into foreign countries, and editions 
and translations of it were multiplied. It seems to have had 
its full effect in correcting the public taste, and putting a 
stop to the fabrication of romances. That it also lowered 
the adventurous spirit of the Spanish nation, and laid the 
foundation of the timid indolence under which it has since 
languished, is, probably, an overstrained conclusion. With 
respect to the' author, it appears to have been the means of 
liberating him from prison, and obtaining him a degree of 
patronage from the great; but the court and kingdom of 
Spain have by no act of solid bounty freed themselves from 
the disgrace of suffering their greatest genius to sink under 
the depression of habitual indigence. In 1613, Cervantes 
published his “ Novels,” which are agreeable specimens of 
that kind of writing, and became popular. They are of a 
similar character with some introduced in to the Adven¬ 
tures of Don Quixote, and display his inventive and descrip¬ 
tive talents in serious story, as the other had done in bur¬ 
lesque. Indeed, Cervantes, though he chose to make the 
fictions of chivalry the object of his ridicule, had much of 
the romantic in his own composition; and in the points of 
love and heroism was a true Spaniard, though he discarded 
the follies of enchantment and supernatural agency. While 
preparing for the press a second part of his Don Quixote, he 
underwent the mortification of being anticipated by an Arra- 
gonian writer of mean genius, under the name of Alonzo 
Fernandez de Avellaneda; who not only debased the original 
by a very insipid and absurd application of its plan and 
characters, but loaded the author with much personal 
abuse. Cervantes, however, reclaimed his right, by pub¬ 
lishing, in 1615, a true second part, which sufficiently 
proved that the author of the first was alone capable of 
an adequate continuation, and which was received with 
avidity by all who had been interested in the genuine Don 
Quixote. About this time he also published a poem entitled 
“ A Voyage to Parnassus,” which was an ironical satire 
upon the Spanish poetry of his time, and upon the bad taste 
of patrons. This was more likely to increase the number of 
his enemies, than to acquire him any substantial favours 
from the great. Accordingly, such was his poverty at this 
period, that he was obliged to sell eight plays and as many 
interludes to a bookseller, for want of means to print them 
on his own account. The indifferent terms he was upon 
with the actors prevented his bringing them on the stage; 
and indeed the rising reputation of Lope de la Vega had 
eclipsed that of Cervantes as a dramatic writer. His last 
work was a novel, entitled, “ The Troubles of Persiles and 
Sigismunda,” which he did not live to print. In his preface, 
that humour, which had illuminated the pages of his Don 
Quixote, still flashes out, and dispels the gloom of poverty 
and sickness. He relates an adventure which befel him on a 
journey on'horseback to Toledo, when a scholar, who had 
joined the company, being informed who he was, leaps from 
his ass in a rapture, pays him high compliments, and in 
the course of conversation recommends to him a regimen for 
the dropsy under which he laboured. Cervantes, however, 
excuses himself from complying with his advice. “ My 
life,” says he, is drawing to a period, and by the daily 
journal of my pulse, which I find will have finished its course 
by next Sunday at farthest, I shall also have finished my 
career: so that you are come in the very nick of time to be 
acquainted with me.” An affectionate dedication of this 
work to his best patron, the Count de Lemos, is dated April 
19th, 1617 ; and as he mentions in it that he had already 
received extreme unction, it is probable that a day or two 
more finished the scene. A licence was granted in the 
September following to the widow of Cervantes to print this 
novel for her own benefit; and it was probably the only 
property this literary glory of his country had to leave. 
To enter into a discussion of the character and merits of 
such 
