Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/519

* CERVANTES SAAVEDRA. 441 CERVANTES SAAVEDRA. fliaraitor was riiiciiinj; and llic fouiulalion iieiiig laid for that wide understaiuling of liiiman iiatuit- wliieli makes; liis groat work a doliglit to all peoples and at all times. It was this ordeal which waked the soldier, the "mutilated of Le- panto.' from his dream of ronumcc, and pre- pared him for transition into the writer eapahle of the higher and finer linmanity of the Don Quij-otc. The plays wliieh he is said to have written in captivity are lost. The earliest known literary efforts after his return to Spain are some sonnets published in 15S3, the year be- fore his marriage to Catalina do I'alacios 8ala- zar, a young lady of goo<l family from Esquivias, in Xew Castile. Little is known of the marriage beyond the fact that she bore him no children, and that she outlived him by ten years. It is said, howexer, that while courting licr he foimd inspiration to write his pastoral novel, the (lata- tea, publislicd in 1585. Extravagant, artificial, and afTected. like others of its type, it never- theless served to bring Cervantes into notice; and, althimgh never finished, seems to have been regarded by him to the last with especial fond- ness, for in Do)i Quixote he makes the Barber -say: "This book has .some invention; it pro- poses something and concludes nothing; it be- hooves us to «ait for tlie second part which he promises." To this and the following years be- long a long line of dramas — twenty or thirty according to liis own account. Of most of these even the titles hae perished. We know of the f/raii Turquema : the Jcnisalrn : the Batulla iinial; the .Imaranta : the Bosque amorosa ; the Arsinda, and the Coiifusa, which the author flattered himself was "good among the best of the comedies of the cloak and sword." The two .surviving plays are Kl trato de Argcl (Life in Algiers) and L<i yumancin, which deals with the siege of Ximiantia and its capture by Scipio .fricanus. Together these two plays show the liest and the worst of Cervantes's dramatic tal- ent. The fonner is an incoherent medley of personal reminiscences, in which demons and lions and such moral abstractions as Xeeessity and Opportunity are introduced side by side with real characters. La yumaiwia is a tragedy of heroic energj- and intense pathos, which has just- ly excited the admiration of Shelley, Goethe, and .ugust Schlegel. and is little less" than remark- able when we remember that Shakespeare had not yet written, and neither Corneille nor Racine had l)een born. Nevertheless, it must be recog- nized that Cervantes was practically a failure as a dramatist, and in 1.588 was forced to leave the Ihladrid stage, which was before Lope de 'ega had begun to write plays — a fact that dis- poses of the legend that he was driven out by Lope, For the ne.xt few years he lived in strait- ened circumstani-es. In 1.588 he received the po- sition of commissary at Seville, under the Pro- veedor-(ieneral of the Indian fleet. He seems to have held this place until 159:i. In 1594 he was made tax-gatherer in Granada, but three years later not only lost the position, through an ab- sconding subordinate, but suffered a three months' imprisonment besides. In l(i05, while residing in Valladolid, he once more appeared as an author, this time destined to win immortxal fame. In writing Don Quixote, which popular tradition says was begun in jail. Cer-antes's avowed purpose was '"to diminish the authoritv and acceptance that books of chivalry have in the world and among the vulgar." Yet he did not intend to burlesque the old Spanish knight- errantry, for this was already a thing of the past. He sought rather to put an end to the
 * ibsurd and atTected romances which it was then

the fashion to read; and how well he sucewded is attested by the fact that after the appearance of Don Quijroir no new chivalresque romance was ))ublislu-d in Sjiain. hat further purpose Cer- vantes had, and what hidden allegoric meaning lurks in Don Quixote, has provoked endless con- troversy. One of the latest critics of Spanish literature, Mr. KitzmauriceKelly, has very sensi- bly said: "That an allegory of human life was intended is incredible. Cervantes presents the ingenious gentleman as a prince of courtesy, af- fable, gallant, wise on all points save the trifling one which annihilates time and space and changes the aspects of the imiverse ; and he attaches to him Sancho, self-seeking, cautious, practical in liresence of vulgar opportunities. The types are eternal. But it were too much to assume that there e.xists any eonsciotis siiibolie or esoteric purpose in the dual presentation." Carlyle, with curious ineptitude, calls Don Quixote "our joy- fullest modern book." He would have done well to recall that the Barber in Don Quixote speaks of Cervantes as "rather a man of sorrow." and to have heeded Landor, who says that readers who see nothing more than a burlesque in Don Quixote have but a shallow appreciation of the work. Though received with enthusiasm, Don Quixote brought no pecuniary reward to the author. After a silence of several years, he produced, in 1013. his twelve Xovehis exempUires (Exemplary Talcs) ; in 1614 his yinfie al Parnaao (Voviige to Parnassus), a rhymed review of contemporary poets; and in the following year a volume of mediocre dramas. At this time, while engaged upon the second part of Don Quixote, Cen-antes learned that a certain Alonzo Fernandez de Avellaneda, at Tarragona, had published a spuri- ous continuation, a cynical and amusing volume, which had the effect of spurring on Cer-antes to the completion of the true continuation, which otherwise might never have been finished. Cer- vantes died April 23, 1016, just after complet- ing his Ia>t novel. I'lrsilo; l^igimnunda, whjeh was published posthumously. Of the many editions of Don Quixote, the fol- lowing may be mentioned: The first edition ^Madrid. 1605; second part. 1615) ; that by Pellicer CMadrid. 1797-98) ; that of Diego Cle- mencia (Madrid. 18.'?3-39). containing an excel- lent commentary; a photographic reproduction of the first edition (Barcelona, 1871-74); and a recent critical text, edited by Fitzmaurice- Kelly, in course of publication (London. 1S89 et seq.), Cervantes, Ohms Completas (in 12 vols.), appeared in 18G3-64. The earliest Eng- lish version is that of Sheldon (London, 1612- 20; Iate.st reprint, by Henley, 1896). Later renderings deserving mention are: Ormsby's (London, 1885), Dulfield's (London, 1881"), Watts's (London, 1894). The latter contains a lengthy biography. Mr. Watts has also contrib- uted a .short "Life of Cervantes" to the Great M'ritrrs Series, which includes a brief but con- venient bibliography. .Vmong the various other accounts of his life and works are: Xavarrctc, Vida de Miguel Cer-