Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/605

 CERTOSA

543

CERVANTES

W'Min in Dublin Review (1S69-73): Bai.mf.s, Fundamental Philosophy, tr. BrOWNSON (New York. 1871 I ; 1.1 l '. 1--..1 i -. la certitude pkUoeophiauc (Paris, 1883): Mivabt, On Truth ■ hi, 1SS9); Schmid. Erkennlni.islehre (Freiburg im. Br., 1890): Ollk-Laprcne, La certitude m->ral<- (Pans, 1888); Ft, Foundation* of Belie) C8th ed., London. 1901); M: .: Crilei ' generate (Louvain, 1S99); Farosb,

Im rrisc de la certitude 1 Paris, 1907).

M. J. Ryan.

Certosa. See Charterhouse.

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, Spanish author, b. at Alcala <li' Benares, Spain, in 1547; d. at Madrid, 23 April, 1616. Of Cervantes it may be most truly said that the narrative of his life is no less fraught with interest than the most exciting novel of adventure. He received the best part of his early training in a school at Madrid conducted by the cleric, Juan Lopez de Hoyos. Despite sundry affirmations to the con- trary effect by this or that biographer, he does not seem to have attended any of the universities then flourishing in Spain. However, as was the ease with many of the leading Spanish spirits of the age, he had early an opportunity to perfect his training by a so- journ in the land where the movement of the Renais- sance had begun, for when but twenty-one years of age, he became attached to the suite of an Italian prelate who was on a mission to the Spanish (curt. With this ecclesiastic, later Cardinal Acquaviva, he went to Rome. Once in Italy he doubtless began straightway to familiarize himself with Italian litera- ture a knowledge of which is so readily discernible in his own productions. He did not find the service of the cardinal to his liking, for in a short time he was figuring as a simple volunteer among the Spanish troops that played a part in the campaign against the Turks. He fought bravely on board a vessel in the great battle of Lepanto in 1571, and was shot through the left hand in such a way that he never after had the entire use ol it.

When his wound was healed he engaged in another campaign, one directed against the Moslem in North- ern Africa, and then after living a while longer in Italy he finally determined to return home. Hut the ship on which he was making the trip back to Spain was [red by corsairs, who took him, with his fellow captives, to Algiers. There he spent five years, un- dergoing great sufferings, some of which seem to be reflected in the episode of the "Captive" in "Hon Quixote", and in scenes of the play, "El trato de Argel". Unsuccessful in several attempts at an es- cape, he was at last ransomed just when he was in great danger of being sent to Constantinople. Had he really been taken there, the world would probably be now without its greatest novel, the imperishable of the Knight of La Maneha. Back once more i-: said, but on no too certain evi- dence, to have spent a year or two in military sen ice. However that may be, he was certainly engaged in literary pursuits from 1582 on; for about this time, a affair— his attachment to Catalina de Palacios, whom he soon made his wife — gave the impulse to the first literary work to bring him public notice. This was the " ( ralatea ". a pastoral romance after the man- ner already established in the peninsula by the "Meninae moca"in Portuguese of Bernardim Ribeiro, and the " I liana enamorada " of Jorge de Montemayor. It is inferior to the " Diana" and as artificial as most works of its kind, still it exhibits a certain power of inventiveness and some depth of real emotion on the part of its author.

Cervantes next turned his attention to the drama, hoping to derive an income from that source; but the plays which I I failed to achieve their pur-

pose. In the main they show that he was out 01 his element in purveying for the stage, that he lacked dramatic instinct. and had never mastered the details of the technic of dramatic art. He is least infelici- tous in two of his plays, the "Trato de Argel", already

mentioned, and the impassioned tragedy, "Nuraan- cia". This latter is the best of all his dramas and yet, correctly appreciated, it is rather a powerful patriotic declamation than a piece of real scenic ex- cellence. It was not printed until 1784.

What he did in the years directly following the time when he renounced the hope of becoming a great dramatic poet is hardly clear. It is safe to assume that he was in sore straits, or he would nut have been content to earn his livelihood as a collector of taxes in the province of Granada. An irregularity in his ac- counts, one due rather to some subordinate than to himself, led to his incarceration for a while during 1597 at Seville. If a remark which Cervantes himself makes in the prologue of "Don Quixote" is to be taken literally, the idea of the work, though hardly the writing of its "First Tart", as some have main- tained, occurred to him in prison. At all events, dur- ing this period of tribulation he must have been evolv- ing in his mind the great work of fiction soon to be published as "El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de La Maneha", whereof the first part was printed in 1605. (The English spelling, "Quixote", trans- literates an early Spanish spelling with "x", current atatime wdien "x" ami "j" werestill frequentlyinter- changed. On etymological grounds the "x" represents the original sound.)

The vogue obtained by Cervantes's story led to the publication of a continuation of it by an unknown who masquerades under the name of Fernandez Avel- laneda. In self-defence Cervantes produced his own continuation, or "Second Part", of "Don Quixote", which made its appearance some ten years after the fust part. Two years before this event, that is, in 1613, he put forth a Collection of tales, the "Novelas cjcmplares", some of which had been written earlier. Not included in the original form of the " Exemplary Tales" is the novelette. "La tia fingida" (The Ficti- tious Aunt), now often printed with them. Some critics would deny it to Cervantes, and it appears not to have been printed until 1814. On the whole, the "Novelas ejemplares" are worthy of the fame of I ten antes: they bear the same stamp of genius as the " Don Quixote". The picaroon strain, already made familiar in Spain by the "Lazarillo de Tormes" and its successors, appears in one or another of them, especially in the "Rineonete y Cortadillo", which is the best of all. The remaining works of our author embrace his "Entremeses" (Interludes), little di matic trifles not wholly negligible; the "Viajc del Parnaso", a rhymed review of contemporary poets. written in tcrza rima; and the "Persiles y Sigis- munda", a novel of adventurous travel completed just before his death.

For the world at large, interest in Cervantes centres particularly in "Don Quixote", and this has been regarded chiefly as a novel of purpose. It is

again and again that he wrote it in order to ridicule the romances of chivalry and to destroy the popular- ity of a form of literature which for much more than a century had engrossed the attention of a large pro- portion of those who could read among his countrymen, and which had been communicated by them to the igno- rant. Byron has taken a very tragic view of t he results wrought by the Spanish romancer; according to him: Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away. And therefore have his volumes done such harm, That all their glory, as a composition,

Was dearly purchased by his land's perdition. (Don Juan, XIII, 11.) Then i of truth, and

much exaggeration in Byron's statement. It Is true that

the Spanish writer set out with t he purpose of assailing the books of chivalry; the friend whom he introduces into the prologue of the work asserts that from the be- ginning to end it is an attack upon them. Mon these works had long called for attack. The count- less novels of knightly daring which had followed