LIFE OF CERVANTES.
The History of Literature records numberless instances in which genius, regarded with indifference in its own time, has received only from after generations the tribute of just appreciation. Of this sort of contemporary neglect, and posthumous honour, Cervantes is a remarkable example; for even the popularity of Don Quixote which, on its first appearance, met with unparalleled success, did not materially better the circumstances or elevate the position of its author.
It is not very easy to reconcile this literary success with the poverty with which Cervantes struggled even to the latest period of his life, and of which he oftener than once complains in his writings; for it is a well-known fact that though Don Quixote, in the lifetime of its author, attracted an extraordinary share of public attention, yet Cervantes remained poor and neglected. Whilst the book was universally read and admired, the author would appear to have been a person of so little note, that his early biographers did not even think it worth while to put on record the name of his birth-place.
As if anxious to escape from the reproach of knowing little or nothing of the man who shed such lustre over their literature, the Spaniards of the last century entered upon diligent researches, with the view of elucidating every fact connected with the life of Cervantes. These investigations resulted in the collection of a mass of interesting and curious information, which De los Ríos, Pellicer, and Navarrete have severally embodied in their lives of the great writer. The warm discussions which have at various times arisen out of the doubtful question of Cervantes’ place of nativity have been likened to the disputes of the seven Greek cities, when contending for the honour of having given birth to Homer. Madrid, Seville, Valladolid and Esquivias by turns claimed Cervantes as their own, until the question was finally set at rest by his latest and most trustworthy biographers. On the authority of indisputable evidence it appears that Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born at Alcalá de Henares, in the year 1547. The day of his birth is not known; but it has been ascertained that he was baptized on the 9th of October.
The family of Cervantes was of noble descent, Father Sarmiento[5] states, that its earliest members were settled in Gallicia, and that their place of residence was within the Bishoprick of Lugo. Their rank was that of Ricoshombres, (grandees). Subsequently, a branch of the family removed to Castile, and, in the Spanish annals of the beginning of the thirteenth century, the names Cervates and Cervantes are frequently mentioned with honourable distinction. Gonzalo de Cervantes, the founder of the branch whence the great writer was descended, fought gallantly at the storming of Seville, under Ferdinand III., and was endowed with some estates on the partition of the territories wrested from the Moors. A descendant of Gonzalo de Cervantes married a daughter of the house of Saavedra, from which circumstance some members of the Cervantes family added the name Saavedra to their own. On the invasion of South America by the Spaniards, the name of Cervantes was carried to the New World by the emigration of several members of the family.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century we find a Juan de Cervantes filling the post of Corregidor in the town of Ossuna. He had a son named Rodrigo, who, in the year 1540, married Doña Leonora de Cortinas, the daughter of a noble family residing in Barajas.[6] Four children were the issue of this marriage. The eldest was a son named Rodrigo; the second and third, two daughters, named Andrea and Luisa; and the fourth and youngest child was Miguel, who subsequently became illustrious in the annals of literature.
Miguel de Cervantes received from nature a combination of mental endowments such as rarely falls to the share of one individual. To a lively fancy, and great power of inventive genius, he united an extraordinary amount of sound and discriminating judgment. Such was his inherent fondness for reading, that in his very earliest boyhood he was accustomed to pick up all the little scraps of paper he might find in the streets, and to employ himself in perusing whatever happened to be written on them. His gay and humorous disposition was tempered by refined taste; and, to quote the remark of his biographer, Antonio Pellicer, the character of his mind altogether resembled that ascribed by Horace to Lucilius.
Of the boyhood of Cervantes little is known, beyond the few particulars here and there scattered through his writings. Alluding to his early taste for poetry, he says, in the Journey to Parnassus:—“Even from my earliest years, I loved the sweet art of graceful poesy.”[7] In another of his works he tells us how, when a boy, he was taken to a theatre, where he saw Lope de Rueda act. That the performance of that celebrated comedian and dramatist made a powerful impression on his mind is evidently shewn in his maturer years: it is not impossible that his taste for dramatic literature received its first impulse from the acting of Lope de Rueda.
It would seem that Cervantes was destined for one of the learned professions, and on attaining a suitable age, he was sent by his parents to the University of Salamanca, where he remained for the space of two years. Some of the lights and shades of his student life are interwoven in the Novelas exemplares,[8] and also in the second part of Don Quixote. The comic interlude, called La Cueva de Salamanca, seems also to have been suggested by some of the author’s college adventures.
The first person who observed and fostered the dawning talent of Cervantes in poetic composition, was Juan López de Hoyos, who had been his tutor before he entered the University. It happened that Hoyos was commissioned to compose a funeral poem on the occasion of the death of Queen Isabel de Valois, the Consort of Philip II.; and he transferred some portions of this task to his pupils.
Hoyos wrote a narrative of the death and funeral of the Queen,[9] and in that narrative are inserted an elegy, a sonnet, and some redondillas, by Miguel de Cervantes, who is styled by his old tutor, “mi claro y amado discipulo,”—(my clever and beloved pupil). At this time Cervantes was twenty-one years of age; and the praise bestowed on the first effusions of his muse encouraged him to take a loftier poetic flight. There is reason to believe that about this period of his life he produced Filena, a pastoral romance, in the style of Montemayor and Gil Polo; but this, together with most of his early productions, are now lost; a few only being preserved in the Romancero General.
The time soon arrived when the young poet felt the necessity of directing his talents and energies to the means of obtaining a livelihood; for his father, though in circumstances which enabled him to pay for his education, was not sufficiently rich to maintain him. An opportunity which placed it in his power to gain some little emolument occurred in the year 1568, when Cardinal Julio Acquaviva visited the Court of Castile in the quality of Legate from Pope Pius V. Cervantes entered the service of the Cardinal, and in the same year accompanied him to Rome. He filled the situation of Camarero, which may be presumed to have been an office partaking somewhat of a domestic character; but it is a well-known fact that even young Spanish nobles did not, at that period, disdain to accept similar appointments in the households of popes and cardinals. The desire of seeing the world, or the prospect of gaining a powerful patron and a good ecclesiastical appointment were inducements for filling situations which otherwise might have been considered degrading. The vivid impressions produced by this first great journey on the mind of Cervantes are obvious even in the works of his later life. In Persiles y Sigismunda he makes two pilgrims wend their course through Valencia, Catalonia, and Provence to Italy, the route by which there is reason to infer he himself travelled to Rome. The descriptions of scenery in the production just named, bear the stamp of personal recollections. That he was particularly charmed with Catalonia, is evident from the interesting sketches of scenery and manners of that part of Spain, interspersed through the Galatea, as well as from those in the novel of Las dos Doncellas and Don Quixote.
The residence of Cervantes in Rome, though not long in duration, was permanent in his remembrance. In his novel of the Licenciado Vidriera he apostrophises Rome as the “sovereign of the world and the queen of cities.” “As the claws of the lion,” he adds, “denote the animal’s bulk and strength, so may the magnitude and power of Rome be judged by her fragments of marble, her ruined arches, her baths and her colonnades, her colossal amphitheatres, and her river—that river which is rendered sacred by the many relics and martyrs buried beneath its waves.”
After the lapse of a short time, Cervantes exchanged the tranquil occupations he pursued in the service of his spiritual patron for the more stirring duties of a soldier’s life. That he always cherished a peculiar predilection for military adventure is evident from many observations scattered through his writings. Like many of his countrymen in that age, his taste seems to have disposed him to the profession of arms no less than to that of letters. Cervantes was of opinion that military courage and literary talent are more nearly allied than is generally supposed. In Persiles he says,—“There are no better soldiers than those who have been transplanted from the field of study to the field of war. There never has been an instance in which students have taken up arms, that they have not proved themselves to be the bravest and best of soldiers, for when courage is joined to genius, and genius is allied to courage, thereby is formed a combination of qualities in which Mars rejoices.”[10]
Cervantes entered the army as a private soldier, and he served in one of the numerous Spanish regiments then in Italy.[11] It would appear that he was quartered either in Naples or its vicinity. In 1571 the threatened incursions of the Turks and the depredations of the African corsairs disturbed the tranquillity of the southern states of Europe, and once more raised up a league of the Cross against the Crescent. Pope Pius V. conjointly with Phillip II. and the Republic of Venice, entered into a coalition, and fitted out a combined fleet of galleys for the subjugation of the common enemy of Christendom. Marco Antonio Colonna had the command of the Pope’s galleys; those of King Phillip were commanded by Giovanni Andrea Doria, and those of the Republic by Sebastian Veniero. Don John of Austria, son of the Emperor Charles V. was appointed commander of the whole combined squadrons.
Cervantes, with many other young Spaniards, left Naples and proceeded to Messina, then the mustering place of the combined fleets. He enlisted in the corps of Diego de Urbina, which sailed in Colonna’s galleys to the Gulf of Lepanto, and he took part in the celebrated battle fought there on the 7th of October, 1571. During the voyage he had suffered from a fever, and he had not recovered when the action commenced. His commander as well as his comrades recommended him to remain quietly in his cabin; but this he refused to do, declaring his wish to die in the service of God and his King rather than to save his life by ingloriously keeping aloof from danger. He entreated that one of the most exposed posts might be assigned to him. His urgent desire was complied with; and it is stated that he fought with more resolute courage than any man on board the vessel. By the fire of that galley alone it is said more than five hundred Turks were killed. Cervantes, who exposed himself to the fiercest assault of the enemy, received three wounds from arquebus balls, two entered his breast, and the other so dreadfully shattered his left hand that he subsequently had it amputated. But so far from regretting this mutilation, he prided himself on it, and regarded it as an insignia of honour. In his preface to the second part of Don Quixote, he declares that he views his maimed hand as “a memorial of one of the most glorious events that past or present ages have seen, or that the future can hope to see;[12] and,” he adds, “could an impossibility be rendered practicable, and could the same opportunity be recalled, I would rather be again present in that prodigious action than whole and sound without sharing in the glory of it.”
The memorable 7th of October, 1571, was to Cervantes like a ray of light beaming through the clouds of his past recollections. Even in the Journey to Parnassus, which he wrote in his latter years, he says, alluding to the battle of Lepanto, “My eye wandered over the smooth surface of the sea, which recalled to my memory the heroic exploit of the heroic Don John; when aided by courage, and by a heart throbbing for military glory, I had a share (humble though it was) in the victory.”[13]
Cervantes was four and twenty years of age when the Battle of Lepanto was fought. The signal courage he displayed on that occasion obtained for him the complimentary notice of Don John of Austria. On the day after the battle that Prince reviewed the combined fleet, and visited the wounded, presenting to each soldier who had particularly distinguished himself, a sum of money over and above the amount of his pay. Cervantes received from the hand of the prince one of these honourable gratuities.
The victory of Lepanto, though for a time fatal to the Turks, was not succeeded by any permanent advantage to the coalesced powers. Sultan Selim speedily found a strong ally in the dissentient spirit which prevailed among the Christian rulers. By command of Philip II. Don John returned to Messina, where the victorious fleet was received with public rejoicings. Cervantes, not yet recovered from his wounds, was consigned to the hospital, and he remained in Messina whilst most of the troops were dispersed about in the interior of Sicily. In the following year, his military ardour being unabated, he joined another expedition fitted out by the Chiefs of the League, and sailed this time to the Archipelago. He was present at the storming of Navarino; but the expedition having failed in its object, he once more returned to Messina.
The following winter was spent in preparations for a new armament; but owing to the secession of the Republic of Venice from the league, the Spanish and Papal forces alone were found insufficient for attacking the Turks; and in consequence King Philip determined to fit out an expedition against Tunis. The object of the king was merely the dethronement of Aluch Ali in favour of Muley Mahomet; but John of Austria, to whom was entrusted the command of the expedition, hoped to found for himself an independent sovereignty in Africa; and in furtherance of this object, the pope promised his aid. No sooner did the fleet appear within sight of Goletta than the garrison retired from the fort and the inhabitants of Tunis took to flight. A single regiment then sufficed to take possession of the fortress and the city; and there is good reason to conjecture that Cervantes was in the ranks of that regiment. Don John having erected a new fort took possession of Biserta, and leaving behind him a portion of his force he returned once more to Sicily.
Cervantes, with the regiment to which he belonged, proceeded to Sardinia, where he remained during the winter of 1573 to 1574. He was afterwards sent to Genoa, which was then agitated by insurrectionary movements. To quell those outbreaks, Don John was on the point of leaving Lombardy, when he learned that the Turks were actively assembling their forces with the view of regaining possession of Tunis and Goletta. Without delay the prince embarked at Spezzia, with a division of his troops, in which was Cervantes. He proceeded first to Naples and Messina, and then sailed for the African coast. But the little armada had not advanced far on the voyage, when a violent storm which threatened destruction to the galleys drove them back to the Sicilian shore. Meanwhile Goletta and Tunis, after a gallant defence, were retaken by the Turks, an event which at once crushed the hopes of Don John of Austria.
Cervantes, with his regiment remained for a time in Sicily, under the command of the Duke de Sesa. It would appear that he was afterwards removed to Naples, for he says in the Journey to Parnassus, “that he paced the streets of that city for upwards of a year.”[14] There is, however, good reason for believing that his time was not spent in idly pacing the streets, but that during his stay in Naples, he employed his intervals of respite from military duty, in studying the Italian language and reading the works of the best Italian writers; for it is well known that he possessed an erudite knowledge of the literature of Italy.
Urged by an irresistible desire to revisit his native country, and probably dissatisfied with the scanty recompense awarded to his military services, Cervantes solicited leave to return to Spain. His request was granted in a manner highly gratifying to him, in the year 1575, when Don John and the Duke de Sesa furnished him with letters, recommending him to the notice of King Phillip, as a man whose courage had gained the respect of his officers as well as of his comrades.
With a joyful heart Cervantes embarked in the galley El Sol, accompanied by his brother, Rodrigo, who had joined him in Naples. From that port they both sailed on their return to Spain. But the wished for happiness of revisiting his native land was more remote than was anticipated. On the 26th of September, 1575, the Sol was attacked by an Algerine Corsair. After a brave resistance the galley was captured, and all on board were conveyed to Algiers. In the distribution of the prisoners Cervantes fell to the share of Dali-Mami, a Greek renegade, who, by reason of his lameness, was surnamed “the cripple.” The letters addressed to Phillip II., which Cervantes carried with him, led Dali-Mami to believe that his slave was a Christian knight of distinguished rank; and he treated him with the utmost rigour in the hope of extorting a large sum of money for his ransom. But with the fortitude which marked his character Cervantes patiently endured his misery, whilst his thoughts were occupied by schemes for effecting his own liberation and that of his companions. Having devised a plan of escape to Oran, he prevailed on his friends to join him in carrying it into effect. The fugitives succeeded so far as actually to get away from Algiers, when they were betrayed by a Moor who had undertaken to be their guide. They were conveyed back to their prison and confined with more rigour than before. Cervantes as the ringleader was treated with so much severity, that as he afterwards observed, “he learned in that school of suffering to have patience under misfortune.”[15]
Two descriptions of labour were assigned to the Christian captives in Algiers. Some were employed in rowing the galleys and chebeques, others, and these shared the hardest lot, were kept within the city, in places called the bagnios or baths, which were in reality prisons, and which received their names from the numerous baths they contained. Most of the captives in the bagnios were the slaves of the dey or king, but private persons were occasionally permitted to send their slaves thither, especially those who were expected to be ransomed; the bagnios being considered the most secure places of confinement. The slaves whose ransoms were looked for, were not sent out to labour like the rest: but they wore a chain and, moreover, were wretchedly fed and clothed. Of this number was Cervantes, whose condition as a Spanish Hidalgo, gave his master reason to hope that a large sum would be offered for his liberation.[16]
A Spaniard who had passed some years of slavery in Algiers, and who was ransomed in the year 1639, by the monks of the Order of the Santissima Trinidad, drew up, after his return to Spain a narrative of his captivity. He gives a curious description of the treatment of the Christian slaves in Algiers, together with details respecting the manners and customs of the Moors. This narrative has never been printed; but from a manuscript copy of it in the Biblioteca Real at Madrid, the following extracts have been obtained.
“The Christians in Algiers,” says the writer, “have four churches, in which mass is performed. In my time there were twelve priests who officiated daily. In the principal church, which is situated within the King’s Bagnio, and dedicated to the Santissima Trinidad, there are five priests and a Provisor, appointed by his Holiness. There are seven brotherhoods (cofradías), and in each mass is performed daily. Every day alms are begged from the captives for the purchase of wax tapers and altar decorations. Each priest receives out of these alms one real and a half; this with the money paid for masses is all the priests have to subsist on. In the churches the religious service is very properly performed, and sermons are always preached. The Christians are very ill-treated, especially the priests, who are frequently pelted with stones and dirt by the boys as they pass through the streets. At this present time, 10th of March, 1639, Algiers contains 20,000 Christian slaves, 10,000 soldiers, and 1000 counsellors-of-war. These counsellors act as judges in all trials relating to matters connected with the army or navy; and they never take longer than two days to deliberate on any question. The inhabitants of Algiers, both men and women, live very miserably. Their principal food consists of rice and wheat boiled, with a very small portion of salted meat. Even the richest individuals do not live much better. The daily food of the captives consists only of a small loaf of bread. They are treated very cruelly, especially by the Tagarinos, the descendants of the Moors, expelled from Spain. To force them to press their friends for ransom, their daily tasks of labour are augmented, and they are put in chains—the strongest being sent to the galleys. In every part of the city there are mosques, which the women are not suffered to enter: some of these mosques have a tower or minaret, on which a flag is hoisted at noon, lowered at one o’clock, and then hoisted again at dusk. From these minarets the Moors call the people to prayers. The most profound silence prevails during worship in the mosques; no one dares to speak or even to cough. The prayers are short; and whilst they are repeated, the people are squatted cross-legged on the ground, at intervals rising up and then bowing down to the earth. The mosques are hung with great numbers of glass lamps; but they have no other ornaments. The floors are covered with mats, and the walls and ceilings are arched. Within the mosques there are orange trees, and alcoves for the Morabites, who are held in high veneration; they receive presents from the women, whose husbands, strange to say, do not disapprove of this practice. There is a religious festival on Friday in every week. At their meals the Moors place their food on the ground, without spreading any cloth under the dishes, which are of copper, tinned over; even the richer class do not use utensils of silver. The out-door dress of the women consists of long trousers, reaching to the feet, and fastened round the ankles by rings of gold or silver; their outward garment consists of a large cloak enveloping them from head to foot, and leaving only their eyes uncovered. Their dress is decorous, though their manners are not so. Within doors they wear a long tunic, reaching to the ankle, and made of rich damask, satin or silk; they wear many rich jewels, consisting of bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. Many of these Moorish women are very beautiful; but they indulge much in the habit of smoking.”
It happened that a Spaniard, who had been for some time one of the fellow-captives of Cervantes, having been ransomed, was suffered to return to his native country. On his arrival in Spain, he lost no time in conveying to the father of Cervantes intelligence of the unhappy condition of his two sons Rodrigo and Miguel. The old man, without hesitation mortgaged his little property, though by so doing he reduced himself and the other members of his family to a condition bordering on want, and having raised a considerable sum of money he transmitted it to Algiers. The two brothers were thus placed in a condition to treat for their liberation. But Dali-Mami demanded so high a ransom for Miguel de Cervantes, that the latter generously resigned his share of the money sent from Spain, in favour of his brother Rodrigo, who obtained his deliverance in August, 1577. On his departure, Rodrigo promised to spare no exertions for making known the condition of the captives to persons of influence in Spain, so that some effectual measure might be adopted for their liberation. It was proposed that a ship, despatched from Valencia or from the Balearic Islands, should cruise along the African coast, keeping watch so as to be in readiness to receive the captives whenever they might have an opportunity of effecting their escape. Rodrigo Cervantes carried with him, on his departure from Algiers, a letter from one of the prisoners, a Spanish nobleman, related to the house of Alba;—this letter, it was hoped, would have great weight in furthering the execution of the enterprise. Cervantes had concocted the scheme for the escape of himself and his friends, and every preparation had been made for enabling them to carry it into effect.
A little to the west of Algiers, there was a garden, close to the sea shore. It was attached to a villa belonging to Aga Hassan, then Dey of Algiers. Hassan, who was a Venetian by birth, had originally been the slave of the celebrated Uchali. He turned Mahometan, and his apostacy helped him to rise to wealth and distinction in the Ottoman Empire. At the time of the Battle of Lepanto, Aga Hassan filled the high post of Captain-General of the Turkish fleet, and he was afterwards elected Dey of Algiers. This turbulent and cruel man ruled his temporary sovereignty with a rod of iron. His tyranny and barbarity were exercised alike on Moors and Christians; for, as Cervantes makes the captive in Don Quixote remark, “he was the homicide of the whole human race.” Era homocida de todo el género humano.
Aga Hassan’s garden was under the care and superintendence of a gardener, who was a Christian slave and a native of Navarre. Cervantes having made himself acquainted with this man, induced him to make an excavation under the garden in the form of a cave. As early as February, 1577, some months prior to the departure of Rodrigo Cervantes, this excavation was in progress, and several Christian slaves, who had escaped from bondage had taken refuge in it. The number of the fugitives gradually augmented, and in September of the same year Cervantes himself succeeded in eluding the watchful eye of his master, and joining his friends in their subterraneous retreat. He had accurately calculated the time when the expected ship would near the African coast. It did so on the 28th of September; but stood off during the day, so as to keep out of sight, and at night standing close in shore, the vessel gave the signal to the captives. This being unluckily observed by some Moorish slaves, who happened to be on the spot, they gave the alarm. The vessel immediately put back, but shortly afterwards made a second attempt to near the shore, which ended in failure, and she was captured.
But this disaster, discouraging as it was, did not subdue the hopes of Cervantes and his companions, who determined to remain in their hiding place to await another opportunity for attempting their escape. But their schemes were frustrated by the treachery of a slave, who had been a renegade from Islamism to Christianity, and whom the fugitives had incautiously admitted to their confidence. This slave, who was surnamed El Dorador, again turned renegade, and by renouncing Christianity entitled himself to the reward of his twofold apostacy and treachery. The Dey, who claimed all runaway slaves as his own, dispatched a troop of soldiers to the garden. The cave was searched and the fugitives captured.
The details of this event are related by Father Diego de Haedo, a Spanish ecclesiastic, who was contemporary with Cervantes, and who wrote a history of Algiers. Alluding to the seizure of the fugitives in the cave, Haedo says, “The Dey’s emissaries took especial care to secure Miguel de Cervantes, a Hidalgo of Alcalá de Henares, who was the contriver of the whole scheme.”[17] He then adds, “It was a most marvellous thing that these Christians remained hidden in the cave, without seeing the light of day, some for five or six, and others for so long as seven months;—sustained all that time by Miguel de Cervantes; and this too at the peril of his own life, for several times he was on the point of being hanged, empaled, or burnt alive, for the bold adventures by which he attempted to restore his comrades to freedom. Had his good fortune been equal to his courage, enterprise and skill, Algiers would at this day have been under Christian rule; for to no less an object did his designs aspire. The gardener, who was a native of Navarre, was hanged by the feet. He was a very good Christian. Of the incidents which occurred in that cave, during the seven months that those Christians remained within it—and of the bold enterprises hazarded by Miguel de Cervantes—a particular history might be composed.”[18]
Finding that himself and his friends were in the power of their captors, and that it was fruitless to attempt resistance, Cervantes at once declared himself the sole contriver of the scheme, and begged that, as he alone was guilty, the whole punishment might devolve on him. This avowal caused him to be put in chains, and amidst the scoffs and insults of the populace, he was conducted to the presence of Aga Hassan. With fearful threats the tyrant sought to intimidate him into a confession that he had accomplices, and to denounce them; for his object was to make it appear that Father Jorge Olivar, the Redentor, or Slave Ransomer, of the crown of Aragón, was implicated in the affair. But Cervantes persisted in affirming that no one could be accused but himself.
Nevertheless, the barbarous Hassan forthwith condemned all the fugitives to death. The unfortunate gardener was hanged, and Cervantes and his friends would doubtless have shared the same fate, but that, luckily for them, Hassan’s cupidity triumphed over his cruelty. The prospect of ransom money saved the lives of the prisoners; but they were thrown into one of the most loathsome prisons in Algiers, and subjected to all sorts of privation and misery.
But in spite of their bitter sufferings, the captives, most of whom were Spaniards, did not yield to despondency. Each one cheered himself and his companions, by pleasant stories and recollections of their dear native land. The song and the dance, diversions ardently loved by every Spaniard, were not wanting to enliven the gloom of their prison-house. By turns they recited or sang their old national romances, and the heroic deeds of their ancestors inspired them with courage. Their religious festivals, too, were celebrated with all the ceremony which circumstances admitted of, and the prisoners even succeeded in getting up some dramatic representations.[19]
In those palmy days of the Spanish drama, the passion for histrionic performance had taken firm root in the public mind. So popular and universally admired were the comedies of Lope de Rueda, that Spaniards, who had been for years out of their native country, could recollect and repeat by heart favourite passages and scenes from them.
It is well known that Cervantes drew from his captivity in Algiers the subjects of two plays which he wrote at a subsequent period of his life, and in which he depicts the sufferings of the Christian slaves. In one, Los Baños de Argel, a pastoral dialogue, (Coloquio Pastoril) is introduced. It is stated to be from one of Lope de Rueda’s comedies, and is curious from the fact of its being in verse, whilst all the dramas, or as they are called, comedias, of Lope de Rueda, now extant, are in prose. The other play by Cervantes, founded on the subject of Algerine captivity, is entitled La Gran Sultana. The heroine is a Spanish lady, Doña Catalina de Oviedo, supposed to have been captured by corsairs.
Undaunted by failure, Cervantes determined on the first favourable opportunity to renew his efforts to obtain his own deliverance and that of his companions. Increasing difficulties had no other effect than that of strengthening his resolution to surmount them. He felt an irresistible longing for that freedom, which, to quote his own words, is “the dearest gift which Heaven has bestowed on man. For freedom,” he adds, “as well as for honour, it is our duty to sacrifice life. Captivity, on the other hand, is the greatest misfortune which man can be doomed to bear.” He gained over to his interests a Moorish slave, whom he persuaded to convey a letter from him to the Spanish governor of Oran. The object of this communication was to facilitate a plan for the liberation of himself and three of his fellow-prisoners. The letter was however intercepted, and the messenger, by order of Hassan, was immediately shot. Cervantes, as the writer of the missive, was sentenced to receive two thousand stripes; and only by the urgent and repeated intercession of the Christians in Algiers, was the noble slave saved from the infliction of that barbarous punishment. The three Spaniards who were comprehended in the projected plan of escape were put to death; and the extension of Hassan’s mercy to Cervantes may be attributed in a great measure to the influence which an exalted character exercises even on the most uncivilized of mankind.
Another, and to all appearance, a more practicable plan of escape, contrived in 1579, was foiled by the treachery of a Dominican monk. Hassan, to whom the design was disclosed, affected at first to have no suspicion of it; hoping by that means to ensure its detection. The Christians, however, soon learned that their project was discovered. A native of Valencia, settled as a merchant in Algiers, had promised to aid the escape of the prisoners. This man spared no endeavours to prevail on Cervantes to slip away furtively and unknown to his companions. He even undertook to convey him safely on board a vessel about to sail for Spain; for knowing that the Moors would resort to every extremity to extort a confession, the merchant feared that his own life and property might be endangered. Cervantes had by this time broken from prison, and was concealed in the house of a friend; consequently he might with perfect ease and safety have effected his escape on board the ship in the manner proposed. But he would not listen to the suggestion of deserting his companions, and he quieted the apprehensions of the merchant by the most solemn assurance, that neither the fear of torture or death would wring from him a word of avowal that could in any degree compromise a friend. Meanwhile, an order of the Dey was proclaimed through the streets of Algiers, commanding the Slave Cervantes to deliver himself up, and warning those who might harbour him, that they would incur the punishment of death. The fugitive, anxious to screen his friends from all risk, surrendered himself. Aga Hassan, without a moment’s hesitation, ordered him to be hanged. After his hands were tied behind his back, and the rope put round his neck, he was informed that he might yet save his own life by the disclosure of his accomplices. But, faithful to that generosity of feeling, which was one of the most prominent traits in his character, Cervantes persisted in declaring that he alone had wished to escape; but to avoid being further pressed by questions, he named as the accomplices of his design, four Spaniards who had, some time previously, obtained their liberation by the payment of ransom-money. The intercession of an influential renegade, who was an attached friend of Cervantes, induced the Dey once more to spare his life; but he was thrown into a dungeon of the Bagnio, heavily fettered, and watched with the strictest vigilance.
The next project conceived by Cervantes, exceeded in boldness all that he had previously concerted. It was of so wild and romantic a character, that its reality might naturally warrant disbelief, were it not authenticated by trustworthy evidence. This scheme was nothing less than the excitement of an insurrection among the Christian slaves in Algiers, who were to make themselves masters of the city, and transfer it to the dominion of Phillip II. Notwithstanding the rigorous nature of his imprisonment, he contrived to take some steps towards the execution of this bold enterprise. Whether the project was thwarted by discovery, or to what other cause its frustration was assignable does not clearly appear. Certain it is, however, that the Dey of Algiers regarded Cervantes as the boldest and most ingenious of all his Christian slaves. Father Diego de Haedo relates, that so greatly did Aga Hassan fear Cervantes, that he used to say, “he should consider his slaves, his barks, and the whole city of Algiers perfectly safe, could he but get rid of that one-handed Spaniard!”
At length, the freedom so ardently sighed for, and for the attainment of which so many fruitless efforts had been made, was recovered, at a time when even Cervantes himself, sanguine as he was, had well nigh relinquished all hope of ever again being restored to his country.
In the year 1580, Juan Gil and Antonio de la Bella, two monks of the order of the Santissima Trinidad, were sent from Spain to Algiers; the former as Redentor, or slave ransomer, for the Province of Castile, and the latter in the same capacity for the Province of Andalusia. The father of Cervantes was by this time dead, and the family were left in rather straitened circumstances;—nevertheless they succeeded, by dint of great exertion, in raising some money to assist in ransoming their relative. Doña Leonora de Cortinas, the mother of Cervantes, contributed two hundred and fifty ducats;—and Doña Andrea de Cervantes, his sister, gave fifty.[20] The family naturally hoped that the high testimonials of courage and merit, furnished in favour of Cervantes by his former military comrades, together with the letter of recommendation from the Duke de Sesa to the king, would gain the interest of the Court in his behalf. But the appeals addressed to that high quarter were responded to with only lukewarm interest, and accordingly the Monks departed with a sum very inadequate to the accomplishment of the object of their mission, which was to obtain the release of some of the principal captives. Doña Leonora de Cortinas furnished the Redentores with a description of her son, setting forth that he was a native of Alcalá, and the slave of Dali-Mami, the captain of the Dey’s barks,[21] that he was thirty-three years of age and had lost his left hand. A description of himself given by Cervantes to the authorities in Algiers is as follows—“A native of Alcalá de Henares, aged thirty-one, of middle height, having a thick beard (bien barbado), disabled of the use of the left arm and wanting the left hand; captured on board the galley El Sol, when on his passage from Spain to Naples, where he had been long in the service of His Majesty.”[22]
The Redentores arrived in Algiers on the 29th of May, 1580. At that very time the Dey was on the eve of resigning his authority in favour of another Pacha, who was elected to the government of Algiers. Hassan, who had been recalled by the Sultan to Constantinople, was preparing to return thither. Cervantes, being one of the captives he intended to take with him, was actually on board a galley, and ready to sail for the Turkish capital, when the slave ransomers arrived in Algiers. There was no time to be lost, and negotiations for the ransom were set on foot without a moment’s delay. The amount demanded was more than double the sum which the Redentores were authorised to pay. However, Father Juan Gil made up the deficiency by devoting to the release of Cervantes a portion of the money advanced by the friends of other captives, who being then absent from Algiers, their ransom could not be effected. The Redentores pledged themselves to refund the money on their return to Spain, and by these arrangements, together with some abatement in the demand of Aga Hassan, Cervantes obtained his release on the 19th of September, 1580.
But joyfully as he hailed the prospect of returning to his native land, he nevertheless resolved, ere he should quit Algiers, to controvert certain calumnies circulated against him, which he conceived were calculated to impugn his honour. The Dominican Monk, who had betrayed the last plan formed by the Spanish captives for their escape, and who had thereby incurred the hatred of all the Christians in Algiers, sought in revenge to cast on Cervantes the odium of having caused the failure of the enterprise. Cervantes, whose nice sense of honour urged him to free himself from even the slightest trace of suspicion, appealed to the testimony of twelve of his fellow captives, all of them men of high character and members of noble Spanish families. Their evidence refuted in the most complete and satisfactory way the calumnious charges of the Benedictine monk. They unanimously declared that though there were many noble Spanish cavaliers in Algiers, not one was more distinguished for honourable and generous sentiment than Miguel de Cervantes; and that he had invariably manifested the sincerest interest and sympathy for his countrymen and fellow-captives, all of whom regarded him in the light of a brother.
On the 22nd of October, 1580, after five years of detention in Algiers, Cervantes embarked for Spain. He had now before him the cheering prospect of that happiness which he himself has declared to be “one of the greatest that can be enjoyed in this life;—the return to one’s native country after prolonged captivity.” “There is,” he adds, “no happiness like the recovery of lost freedom.”[23]
On his return to Spain, about the end of the year 1580, he repaired straight to Madrid, where his mother and sister were then residing. The reduced circumstances in which he found his family determined him once more to try his fortune as a soldier. At this time, Philip II. was intent on completing his conquest of Portugal by the acquisition of the rich colonial dependencies of that kingdom. It had been determined to maintain a Castilian army in Portugal, for the purpose of preserving public tranquillity, enforcing obedience to the authorities of King Philip, and preparing the reduction of the Azores or Terceras Islands. Rodrigo Cervantes, who on his return from Algiers, had resumed military service, was now in the army of occupation in Portugal, and he was speedily joined there by his brother Miguel.
In the spring of 1581, both the brothers sailed from Lisbon in one of the ships of an armament commanded by General Don Lope de Figueroa. This armament was sent to the aid of Don Pedro Valdez, who had been commissioned to reduce the Azores Islands to the authority of the Spanish crown. A misunderstanding arose between Figueroa and Valdez, on the subject of an attempted landing at Tercera, and not being able to come to an agreement they carried on their operations separately, and after a short time both returned to Portugal.
The Spanish Government found reason to suspect that the pretensions of Don Antonio, Prior of Ocrato,[24] were secretly favoured by France and England, and that the ships of those powers, and especially those of France kept up the spirit of rebellion in the Azores. Phillip II., determined to repress these proceedings, and to take measures for the protection of the Spanish Galeones employed in transporting the treasures of the colonies to the mother country. He accordingly ordered several armaments which had been for some time in preparation in the maritime provinces of Spain, to assemble in the Tagus. It was understood that a French squadron had already put to sea with hostile designs on the Portuguese dependencies; and Phillip on receipt of this intelligence gave the command of the Spanish naval force to the celebrated Admiral Don Álvaro de Bazán, Marques de Santa Cruz. The fleet, having on board several regiments of infantry, sailed from the Tagus on the 10th of July, 1582, and the Spaniards soon fell in with the French squadron. The result was an engagement in which the French ships were dispersed or destroyed. Cervantes states that he was himself engaged in this action, together with his brother Rodrigo, but he enters into no particulars respecting it. Both the brothers likewise served in the expedition which sailed from Lisbon in the following year, 1583, under the command of the Marques de Santa Cruz. The Spaniards effected a landing at Tercera, on the 23rd of June, and the result was the surrender of that island. The submission of the rest of the Azores speedily followed, and the partizans of Don Antonio were finally put down. The campaign being thus gloriously ended, Don Álvaro de Bazán returned to Spain, and on the 15th of September, he entered Cádiz greeted by signal demonstrations of popular triumph.
On the Atlantic, as well as in the Levant, Cervantes had been an eye-witness of the gallant achievements of the great naval hero of Spain. As a soldier he had served under his authority, as a philosopher, he had contemplated his virtues; and he rendered to his glory a poetic tribute of admiration and gratitude. He wrote a sonnet on Don Álvaro de Bazán, which was published by the Licentiate Cristobal Mosquera de Figueroa, in the Comentarios de la jornada de las Islas Azores. In Don Quixote, he also pays an emphatic and well merited compliment to the courage of the celebrated admiral, in that passage where the captive describing the storming of Navarino, says:—“In this campaign, the galley called the Prize, whose commander was a son of the famous corsair Barbarossa, was taken by the captain galley, of Naples, called the She-Wolf, commanded by that thunderbolt of war, that father of the soldiers,—that fortunate and invincible Captain Don Álvaro de Bazán, Marques de Santa Cruz.”
During the time he remained with his regiment in Portugal, Cervantes mingled freely in society, and made himself familiarly acquainted with the language as well as with the manners and customs of the people of the country. His society was sought, and wherever he went he was kindly and hospitably received. That his sojourn in Portugal impressed him with pleasing and grateful recollections, is evident, from the observations here and there scattered through several of his works, especially Persiles. Contrary to the prevailing taste of his countrymen, (for the Spaniards usually entertain no great partiality for the Portuguese language,) Cervantes was charmed with it; pronouncing it to be “a sweet and pleasing tongue,” (lengua dulce y agradable). The people he characterizes as agreeable, courteous, and generous. Speaking of the women, he says, their beauty inspires admiration and love, (la hermosura de las mujeres admira y enamora). Lisbon, he calls a great and famous city, and he declares that Portugal may altogether be regarded as the land of promise (tierra de promisión). With such strong predilections in favour of the country and everything belonging to it, it can scarcely be matter of surprise that Cervantes should have become enamoured of a Portuguese lady, and that the attachment should have been reciprocal. His biographers are silent respecting the connections of this lady, nor do they even mention her name; but all concur in stating that the fruit of this attachment was a daughter, who was known by the name of Doña Isabel de Saavedra. This daughter was the companion of Cervantes through all the vicissitudes of his subsequent life, and after his marriage she constantly resided under the same roof with him and his wife.
On his return to Spain after the successful issue of the Azores expedition, Cervantes’ pecuniary condition would seem to have been very similar to that of Horace after the battle of Philippi.[25] He found himself utterly destitute, and had no means of subsistence save such as he could procure by writing verses. Heretofore his life had been pretty equally divided between war and literature, “now taking up the sword and now the pen,”[26]—like many other eminent Spaniards of that age, who were distinguished equally as soldiers and writers. Even in the dungeons of Algiers, and amidst the most stirring events of war, Cervantes never wholly relinquished his love of literary composition; and many of his sonnets, and other little fugitive poems, bear evidence that, in seasons of trial and suffering, he courted the solace of the Muse. It has been conjectured, and with much appearance of probability, that many of the sonnets, canzonets, and ballads introduced in the Galatea, were composed amidst the active duties of the author’s military career, and during the weary hours of his captivity.
The Galatea was the first work which Cervantes submitted to the press, and it was published in 1584. It is a pastoral romance, partly in prose, and partly in verse, in the style of the Diana of Montemayor; but exhibiting still greater resemblance to Gil Polo’s continuation of Montemayor’s poem. Very little ingenuity is shewn in the invention of the fable; it is merely an insipid story of pastoral life, in the affected and unnatural style so much in fashion in the sixteenth century.
In this frame-work the author has grouped together a rich collection of metrical compositions, in all the various styles of versification practised by the old Spanish and Italian poets. “The story,” observes Bouterwek, “is merely the thread which holds the beautiful garland together; for the poems are the portions of the work most particularly deserving of attention. They are as numerous as they are various, and should the title of Cervantes to rank among the most eminent poets, or his originality in versified composition be called in question, an attentive perusal of the romance of Galatea, must banish every doubt upon these points.”[27]
Lope de Vega, and other contemporary writers, have affirmed that the shepherdess, who is the heroine of the romance, was not a mere imaginary character; but that under the name of Galatea Cervantes pourtrayed the lady to whom he was subsequently married. According to the same authorities, Cervantes represented himself in the character of Ercilio, “pastor en riberas del Tajo,”[28] who is enamoured of Galatea, “pastora nacida en las orillas de aquel río.”[29] It is also believed that the pastoral names of Thyrsis, Damon, &c., are merely fictitious denominations for several of the most celebrated poets of his own time.[30]
On the 12th of December, 1584, Cervantes was united in marriage to Doña Catalina de Salazar, a lady connected with a distinguished Spanish family. She was the daughter of Don Fernando de Salazar y Vozmediano, and of Doña Catalina de Palacios. Doña Catalina brought her husband some little fortune, upon which the newly married couple lived as long as it lasted. After his marriage, Cervantes definitively left the army, and for a time fixed his abode at Esquivias, in which town his wife’s family resided.
The proximity of Esquivias to Madrid, enabled him to make frequent visits to the capital. There he formed acquaintance with most of the distinguished Spanish writers of the day, and he became a member of one of those numerous literary academies which in the reign of Charles V. were established in Spain in imitation of those of Italy. About this time Cervantes began to apply himself zealously to dramatic composition. The taste for theatrical amusements, then so popular in Spain, rendered play writing a ready mode of turning literary talent to profitable account. But there is reason to infer that inclination no less than the prospect of pecuniary gain, prompted Cervantes to write for the stage; and the complacency with which, at a subsequent period of his life, he looked back to his early comedies proves that he thought himself entitled to no little distinction as a dramatic author. That he should so far have mistaken the true bent of his genius, is one of those unaccountable fallacies of judgment, from which even the shrewdest minds are not always exempt. Those of his plays which in the opinion of Cervantes himself possessed peculiar merit, are of that class which was so popular among the Spaniards of the sixteenth century, and called Comedias de capa y espada.[31] In his Viaje del Parnaso, alluding to these plays, the author says—“If they were not my own I should declare that they merit all the praise they have obtained.” One of them, la Confusa, he declares to be “a good one among the best.”[32] La Confusa is one of the many dramatic works of Cervantes, which there is reason to fear are totally lost.
Bouterwek, whilst admitting the general failure of Cervantes as a writer for the stage, nevertheless declares that the high merits of the tragedy of Numancia might well pardon the self-deception under which the author laboured in respect to the limits of his talent in dramatic literature. “With all its imperfections,” observes the celebrated German critic, “the tragedy of Numancia is a noble production, and, like Don Quixote, it is unparalleled in the class of literature to which it belongs. It proves that under different circumstances the author of Don Quixote might have been the Æschylus of Spain. The conception is stamped by the deepest pathos and the execution, at least taken as a whole, is vigorous and dignified.”[33] The tragedy of Numancia and the comedy of El Trato de Argel (life in Algiers), were accidentally discovered in manuscript about the end of the last century; after having been supposed to be irretrievably lost.
During the interval of his alternate residence in Esquivias and Madrid, it is computed that Cervantes must have written between twenty and thirty dramatic pieces. Among those successfully performed at the theatres of Madrid were Los Tratos de Argel, La Numancia and La Batalla naval. In these pieces the author ventured to depart from the forms of the old Spanish drama; and these changes, together with other innovations he introduced, were very favourably received by the public.
But in spite of this partial success, the scanty emolument he acquired by writing for the stage, was inadequate to the maintenance of his family; the more especially as his two sisters were wholly dependent on him for support; for his brother Rodrigo, who was still in the army, was engaged in the wars in Flanders. At this time the position of Cervantes was peculiarly unfortunate and discouraging. He was now upwards of forty years of age and deprived of the use of one arm; and neither his military services nor his literary labours had obtained for him any adequate reward. These considerations determined him to enter upon some other career of occupation less precarious than that which he had pursued since his retirement from the army; and he thought himself exceedingly lucky when an opportunity occurred, which enabled him to escape from the literary drudgery to which he had for some years been doomed. To quote his own words, he joyfully “laid aside the pen and relinquished play writing.” (Abandonó la pluma y las Comedias.)
Antonio de Guevara had just then been appointed Commissary-General, (Proveedor-General), for provisioning the Spanish armadas fitted out for South America. This post was one of considerable importance, and its extensive and various duties required the aid of four assistant commissaries. Through the influence of Guevara, Cervantes was appointed to one of the last-mentioned posts, and in April, 1589, he removed to Seville to enter upon the duties of his office.
It is probable that this change of residence was not less agreeable to him than the change of his occupation; for several members of the respective families of Cervantes and Saavedra were settled in Seville, then the most populous and opulent city in Spain. It is a fact worthy of mention, that two of these relatives of Cervantes were distinguished for their literary talent. The author of Don Quixote himself renders an eulogistic tribute to Gonzalo Cervantes de Saavedra, a famous soldier and poet;[34] and Nicholas Antonio mentions another Cervantes de Saavedra, who distinguished himself as a writer. Both were Sevillians.
The subordinate post of assistant-commissary in Seville would appear to have been accepted by Cervantes, only as the stepping-stone to something better; and he probably counted on advancement through the patronage of Guevara, and the influence of his own relatives, who were persons of some consideration in Seville. Accordingly, we find him, in May, 1590, petitioning the king for one of several posts then vacant in South America. The petitioner, without venturing to express a preference for any particular appointment, declares he shall be satisfied with any one of which he may be considered worthy; his only desire being to serve his king, as he had in the earlier years of his life, and as his ancestors had before him. That Cervantes, at this time, found no great cause to rejoice in the prosperity of his worldly affairs, is obvious in the whole tone of the petition, which he concludes with the declaration of his readiness to “embrace the course of which many unfortunate men in that city (Seville) have availed themselves; namely, to proceed to South America, that last refuge and asylum of despairing Spaniards.”[35] The application for the South American appointment not having been attended with success, he continued in his post at Seville.
In the year 1595 Pope Clement VIII. canonized St. Hyacinthus, in compliance with the solicitation of the King of Poland. The event was celebrated with great solemnity by the Monks of the Dominican convent in Saragossa, and certain poetical prize competitions were proposed on the occasion. The subjects for these competitions having been determined, they were published in all the principal towns of Spain. Cervantes was a successful candidate for one of these prizes, which, from its nature, might have been a more fitting reward for domestic merit than for poetic talent: it consisted of three silver spoons. The umpires, in awarding this prize, styled the winner a son of Seville, which circumstance, together with the long residence of Cervantes in that city, may explain how it came to be regarded as his native place.
Other events occasionally called forth poetic tributes from the author of Don Quixote during his abode in Seville. In the year 1596, the Earl of Essex made a descent on the Spanish coast, took possession of Cádiz and sacked the city. The gentlemen of Seville formed themselves into a sort of Urban guard and marched to the assistance of the neighbouring city. Whether Cervantes enrolled himself in these martial ranks does not appear; but the event inspired his muse with several poetic effusions, one of which is a sonnet preserved in manuscript in the Real Biblioteca at Madrid. This expedition of the English to Cádiz furnished the subject of La Española Inglesa, one of the Novelas which were written at a subsequent period. On the death of Philip II., in 1598, Cervantes was still in Seville, and he composed a sonnet on the occasion which he himself mentions favourably in the Viaje del Parnaso.
Cervantes must have resided in Seville for the space of ten years uninterruptedly, with the exception of little intervals spent in excursions to neighbouring places in Andalusia, and in one visit he made to Madrid. In addition to his official occupations, he occasionally transacted business of other kinds, and was sometimes employed as a mercantile agent (agente de negocios.) Though it may be fairly inferred that these pursuits were not the most congenial to his taste, and though they were of a nature to repress rather than to encourage the excursiveness of a poetic imagination, yet the genius of Cervantes turned to fruitful account even the plodding interval of his existence which was spent in business in Seville. That noble city, then the emporium of the wealth of Spanish America, offered in the active life and busy pursuits of its inhabitants a rich field for the study of human nature. That no object of interest, no trait of character or manners peculiar to this part of Spain, escaped the keen perception of Cervantes is shewn in his novel of Riconete y Cortadillo, and in that entitled, El Zeloso Extremeño. Those animated pictures of Andalusian manners could only have been drawn from actual observation. The peculiar tone which pervades the writings of the author’s latter years, and which distinguishes them in a marked manner from his early productions;—the graceful humour and delicate irony of which he had so masterly a command, may possibly be in a great degree assignable to his residence in the province of Andalusia, and his intercourse with its intelligent and lively inhabitants.
An unfounded accusation, of which he was the object, during his abode in Seville, caused him no little annoyance. He had placed in the hands of a Sevillian merchant, a sum of money, which he had received in the course of some transactions connected with his official duties. The merchant had undertaken to lodge this sum in the national treasury; but instead of so doing, he appropriated the money to himself and fled. Poor Cervantes, who was unable to make good the sum from his own means, was arrested and thrown into a jail on the charge of embezzlement; and he was only liberated on obtaining security for the repayment of the lost money.
After the close of 1598, we find, during an interval of four years, no clear intelligence respecting the life of Cervantes. His early biographers state, that about that period he made a visit to La Mancha, and there wrote the first part of his Don Quixote,[36] that work indeed bears such unquestionable traces of familiar acquaintance with the localities of La Mancha, and with traditions, still preserved there, that it cannot be doubted the author at some period of his life must have made a lengthened sojourn in that province. But though the time and circumstances of his visit to La Mancha may he hypothetical, there is every reason to infer that in the interval during which his biographers partially lose sight of him, Cervantes planned and partly wrote his Don Quixote, that bright gem in the literature of Spain.
After the death of Philip II., the Court removed from Madrid to Valladolid, and in 1603 Cervantes became a resident of the latter city. His removal thither appears to have been influenced by two strong motives; one was to facilitate the means of refuting certain calumnious charges brought against him in Seville and now renewed; and the other was to urge on the attention of the government his claim to reward for long public service. In the first object he succeeded, but in the second he failed; and consequently he was doomed to continue in penury.
The first part of Don Quixote was published in the year 1604,[37] and we have the authority of Cervantes himself for the fact that it was the first book he had written since he “laid aside his pen,” on being installed in his appointment at Seville. The eager interest with which the work was immediately perused by all classes of readers well warranted the remark of the Duchess; “that it came forth to the world amidst the approbation of the public.”[38] The original idea which forms the fundamental principle of the whole work has frequently been the subject of critical controversy; but it appears to have been more accurately understood and defined by Bouterwek than by any other critic. “It has often been said,” remarks the Historian of Spanish literature, “though the opinion has not, perhaps, been duly weighed, that the worthy Knight of La Mancha is the immortal representative of all men of exalted imagination, who carry the noblest enthusiasm to a pitch of folly. This sort of exaggerated feeling may be accounted for by the fact that with understandings in other respects sound, they are unable to resist the fascinating power of a self-deception by which they are led to regard themselves as beings of a superior order. None but an experienced observer of mankind, endowed with profound judgment,—and a genius to whose penetrating glance one of the most interesting recesses of the human heart had been newly disclosed, could have seized the idea of such a romance with energetic precision. No one but a poet, and a man of wit, could have thrown so much interest into the execution of that idea, and no one but an author who had at his disposal all the richness and variety of one of the finest languages in the world, could have invested such a work with that classic perfection of style which gives the stamp of excellence to the whole.”[39]