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 CERVANTES

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CERVANTES

in the wake of the very worthy " Amadis de Gaula" had obtained an unwonted vogue and had created an air of false idealism which tended to leave Spain un- duly in the rear of advancing civilization, for, cherish- ing them, she clung too closely to the medieval past. Serious historians had cried out against them, so had scholars, theologians, preachers and mystics, and yet many, even the greatest in the land, continued to be no less ardent admirers of them than the innkeeper in the first part of " Don Quixote". For administrative reasons, the Emperor Charles V felt compelled in 1553 to forbid the introduction of the chivalrous romances into the American Indies, and this law the Spanish Parliament would fain have extended to Spain itself in 155S, in order to penalize the further publication of works of the class. But, up to 1602, the novels of knight-errantry continued to appear in con- stantly new although weaker forms, for this was the date of the "Don Policisne de Beocia" of Juan de Silva. Three years later, Cervantes's book was pub- lished, and it instantly accomplished what all previous agitation had failed to achieve, for after its appearance no new chivalresque romance was issued, and the re- printing of the old ones practically ceased.

Now, granting that Cervantes gave the coup de grace to the books of chivalry, we must not overlook the consideration that the lasting value of " Don Quixote" is not to be sought in the fact that it killed the taste for the medieval stories of chivalrous ad- venture, which it parodied with fatal efficiency, but rather in the fact that the author acliieved something immeasurably greater than what he had premedi- tated. He wrote a novel which as a social document has never been surpassed in the annals of narrative fiction, one in which the main interest is found in the behaviour of the two contrasting, yet mutually com-

Elementary, figures of Don Quixote and his squire, ancho Panza, thrown by their creator into contact with a world of materialism, where but scanty respect is entertained for the idealistic past. To say that the decline of Spain is in any way attributable to the success of "Don Quixote" is only Byronic hyperbole; independently of the existence of this marvellous product of the fancy of the genius named Miguel de Cervantes, Spain's loss of its former power is amply explained by political, social, and moral phenomena of various kinds.

From time to time there come forward those who persist in believing that " Don Quixote" was intended to satirize certain important noble personages of the time. It was aimed at the Duke of Lerma, say some; at the Duke of Medina Sidonia, say others. This latter idea was echoed in England by Defoe in the preface to his "Serious Reflections during the Life, and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1720). The sober fact is that no foundation exists for any such interpretations of the author's purpose. In the episodical by-plays, in one or another inter- calated tale such as that of Lucinda and Cardenio, there may be veiled references, satirical or not, to noted characters of the time, but we have no reason to suppose that underlying " Don Quixote" as a whole there is any serious satirical purpose other than to attack the romances of pseudo-chivalry. The book was probably intended by Cervantes chiefly as a work of entertainment; as such it succeeded in his time, and as such it still elicits the enthusiastic in- terest of constantly increasing generations of readers. The many attempts that have been made to detect didact ic purposes of different kinds in t bis or t h.it by- factor of the novel may be regarded as futile. Those ma are far asl ray who suppose that Cervantes meant to assail the Inquisition, to attack the firmly I devotion to the Blessed Virgin, or to deride the clergy as a class.

During its author's lifetime, the first part of the novel passed t hrough at least nine editions in Spanish.

The edition of Brussels, 1607, went all over Northern Europe. By that date it was known in England, and it was promptly placed under contribution by the English playwrights. Thus Middleton utilized it, Ben Jonson and Fletcher drew matter from it, and there is even a tradition that Shakespere collaborated with Fletcher in the composition of a play based on one of its episodes. That a stranger should, in view of the success achieved by the book, conceive the idea of writing a sequel to it is not surprising; Cervantes, in fact, invited a continuation of it in the closing words of his first part. Notwithstanding tliis, he became indignant when the so-called "Avellaneda" pub- lished his prolongation of the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and he bestirred himself to furnish his own rounding out of the story and to make all other spurious sequels impossible by killing off his hero. As to the personality back of the pseu- donym "Avellaneda" many surmises have been made; Lope de Vega has been suggested, so have Tirso de Molina and Juan Ruiz de Alarcon, but all proposed identifications have to be rejected. Who- ever "Avellaneda" was, it must be said in simple justice to him that his literary merits are not slight, and that those critics err who seek to minimize them. He certainly reveals much narrative power, con- siderable humour, a mastery of dialogue, and a forcible style. Of the two parts written by Cervantes, the first has ever remained the favourite. The second part is inferior to it in humorous effect; but, nevertheless, the second part shows more constructive insight, bet- ter delineation of character, an improved style, and more realism and probability in its action. The in- fluence exerted by the glorious work has been enor- mous, for what modern man of genius has not read it? Among the more immediately imitative writings may be mentioned: in French, Charles Sorel's "Berger ex- travagant" and Marivaux's " Pharsimond"; in En- glish, Butler's " Hudibras", Mrs. Charlotte Lennox's "The Female Quixote", and Smollett's " Sir Launcelot Greaves"; in German, Wieland's "Don Silvio Ro- sala". English and French playwrights have bor- rowed liberally also from the "Exemplary Tales", Hardy, Fletcher, Massinger, and Rowley, to mention but a few, are much indebted to them.

As a story, the "Persiles y Sigismunda", just com- pleted at the time of Cervantes's death, and published posthumously, is less interesting than his other nar- rative works. The element of adventurous travel In- sea and land, of which much is made in the late Greek romances, is prominent here; it contains a bewildering entanglement of love episodes, and the characters are always narrating interminable tales which delay the progress of the action. As a result the work is too prolix and becomes somewhat tedious despite the exuberance of fancy and fertility of resource that characterize it. Its rhetoric is more pompous, and in general there is in it greater elaboration of style than Cervantes was wont to show in his compositions.

Obras compldas, ed. HARTZBNBUSCH (12 vols., Madrid, 1S63- 4); Obras (exclusive of the plays 1, in Biblioteca de autores espaiioles, I; Don Quijote, critical ed. of text by Fitzmaurice- Kei.lv and Ohmsiu (2 vols.. London, lS'J'J-l'JOO); critical rd. by Cortejon (Madrid, l'.m.i : annotated ed. by Clemencin (6 vols., Madrid, is ;:; . < :, ■:■.'.' In i. tians-

ui.t Ktndish by ShBI i in, Smollett. Jervis, Motteix, and Ormsby. Pastor, D i ■antinos C- vols., Mad-

rid. 1897 1902); tiros, BibliografCa erttica de las obras d

railti* ['-\ Vols. lN'.l.,'; AsilUF.E, .4/1 Iconography of Dun Q

(London, 1895); Idem, Some Books about Cervantes (1900); articles by Foclchb-Delbobc. in Rt nehiepanigut [Paris ,V1 VII; M'ikei -Farm, in his Eludes sur VBspagne (2nd see. 2nd ed, Paris, ts'.i.V; Fii/.mai ricb-KblxiY, Life of Cervantes (Lon-

d 1892); Idem, i irols. in English

!i (( Slasgow, 1901); [dbm.

//,. ,', / ,./ Spanish Literature isiv 1 bibliography at the end of the l ranch trans, of th tno, y.-tr Biogra-

phie dee Cervantes, in ZeUschrifi f. oergleichende LUteraturge- schichte (new ser.i, XVI. 1 s.|q.; Schevill, Studies inCer- vantes '<<< Modern Philology (1908); Menbndez v Pelayo, . i de archivos, e

J. D. M. Ford.