Cervantes Saavedra

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, pron. thr•r•viin'tes sira-tiedrtl, .11Htem. HE (154/ 1616). The most famous of all Spanish writers, and author of the world-renowned /ton Quixote. His early years are involved in obscurity. It is known that he was of pure Castilian stock, being the second son of Rodrigo de Cervantes and Leonor de Cortinast that his birthplace was Alcalti the lienares, although for 200 years this was a matter of dispute. seven cities claiming the honor; and that he was baptized October 9, 1547, whence it is plausibly conjectured. in view of his name, that he was born on the lliehaelmas Day preceding. There is a tradition, now gen erally discredited, that Cervantes spent two years at the University of Salamanca. What is definitely known is that he studied under Lope de Hopis, a teacher of some celebrity iu Aladrid t and when, on the occasion of the death of Isabel of \valid:4. Philip 11.'s third wife, Hopis edited a memorial volume of verse, six of the poems were contributed by Cervantes, his earliest known essay in literature. But his practical education in the knowledge of life—the education which from net ion and hardship and disap pointment—still lay before him. At 21 he left Spain in the suite of the special nuncio. Giulio Acqini•iva, who was returning to Tlome. Here a lice crusade was being organized against the Turks, and Cervantes soon caught the prevail ing contagion. Ile enlisted in a regiment of Spanish infantry, and played a gallant part at the battle of Lepanto. receiving wtamds one of which crippled his left hand for life. "for the greater glory of his right," as he phrased it. He also took part in engagements before Na varino, Corfu. Tunis—after which he was for a time again in Italy, and there presumably ac quired that knowledge of the language which later bore fruit in the slight coloring of Italian idioms that are to be finite] in even his best pages. In 1375 he set sail for Spain, but the vessel was seized by .Algerine pirates and all on board car ried into Algiers as prisoners.

Cervantes's captivity lasted for five years. during which he showed noteworthy fortitude and intrepidity, offering himself as leader in all attempts of the Christians to escape, attempts always frustrated at the last moment: forced to witness the almost daily atrocities which his owner, 'Hassan Pasha. practiced upon his fellow prisoners., and often himself threatened with inhuman tortures, although. through some un explained influence, the threats were never car ried out. Finally the sum .hunanded for his ransom. painfully raised by his widowed mother and sister. and eked out by the efforts of a pious friar. ,Tuan nil, and some Christinn merchants in Algiers, was paid. and Cervantes was free to return to Spain. This period of his career de serves to be dwelt upon, for it was here that his eha meter m as ripening :mid the fon mkt t ion being laid for that wide under-tanding of human nature 11 it'll hi- great murk a delight to all peoples and at. all times. It was this ordeal which waked the soldier, the 'mutilated of Le panto,' from his dream of romance, and pre pared him tor transition into the capable of the higher and liner humanity of the Don Quixote. The which he is said to have in captivity arc lost. The earliest known literary efforts after his return to Spain are some sonnets published in 1583. the year be fore his ma•riage to Catalina di' Palacio": Ssalli Zal% a young lady of good family from Esquivlas, in New 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, however, that while courting her he found inspiration to write his pastoral novel. the Go/a ria. published in 1553. Extravagant, artificial, and affected. like others of its type. it never theless served to hring Cervantes into notice: and. although never finished, seems to have been regarded by him to the last with especial fond ness. for in Don Quixote he makes the Barber say: This book has some invention; it pro poses something and eimeludes nothing: it be us to for the part which he promises." To this and the following years be long a long line of dramas—twenty or thirty according to his own account, of most of these even the titles have perished. We know of the T sea : the Jcrusab'n: the Bolan!! 40Prat: the .t»laranta; the Bonne umorosa the rsindo, and the Cot/luso, 'which the author flattered himself was among the best of the comedies of the cloak and sword." The two surviving plays are El Mato de Arg

August sehlegel• and is little less than remark abl• when we remember that Shakespeare had not yet written. and neither Corneille nor Racine had been born. Nevertheless. it must be recog nized that Cervantes was practically a failure as a dramatist, and in 1555 was forced to leave the Madrid stage. which was before Lope de Vega had begun to write plays—a fact that dis poses of the legend that lie was driven out by Lope. For the next few years he lived in strait ened cireum-tanees. In I5s,8 he received the po sition of commissary at Seville. under the Pro ve.%dor-I:eneral of the Indian fleet. Ile scents to have held this place until 1593. In 1594 he was made tax-gatherer in Granada, but three years later not only lost the position. through an ab semiding subordinate, but ,,uirm,d a three imprisonment besides. In 1605, while residing in lie once more appeared as an author. this time de-tined to win immortal fame. in writing Don Quixote, which popular tradition -ay- was begun in jail. Cervante-'s avowed purpose was "to diminish the authority and acceptance that books of chivalry have in the world and among the %idgar." Vet he did not intend to burlesque the old Spanish knight erra ntry. for this wa- already a thing of the past. Ile sought rather to put an end to the absurd and affected l‘ 11 MI it was then the fashion to read; and how well he succeeded is attested by the fact that after the appearance of Don Quixote 110 new eltivalresque roomnee was published in Spain. What further purpo.4. Cer vantes haul, and what hidden allegoric mtraning lurks in Don Quixote, has provoked endless con troversy. (Me of the latest critics of Spanish literature. Mr. Fitzmanrice-Kelly, has very sensi bly said: "That an allegory of human life was intended is incredible. Cervantes presents the ingenious genth•man as a prince of courtesy. af fable, aant, wise on all points save the trifling one which annihilates time and space and changes the aspects of the universe; and he attaches to him Sancho. self-seeking. cautions. practical in presence of vulgar opportunities. The types are eternal. But it were too notch to assume that there exists any conscious symbolic• or esoteric purpose in the dual presentation." Carlyle, with curious ineptitude. calls Don Quixote "our joy fullest modern book." lle 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 Though received with enthusiasm, Don Quixote brought no pecuniary reward to the author. After a silence of several years, he produced. in 1613. his twelve iVorelas exempla-es (Exemplary Tale-) ; in 1614 his Tinge nl P•t•naso (Voyage 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, Cervantes learned that a certain Alonzo Fernandez de Avellaneda, at Tarragona. had published a spuri ous continuation, a cynieal and amusing volume, which had the effect of spurring on Cervantes to the completion of the true continuation, which otherwise might never have been finished. Cer vantes died April 23. 1616, just after complet his last novel. Persile.s Siyismundir, which was published of the many editions of Don Quixote, the fol lowing may be mentioned: The first edition (Madrid, 1603: second part. that by Pelliver (Madrid. 1797-9A) : that of Diego Cle mencia (Madrid, 1S33-39), containing an excel lent commentary; a photographic reproduction of the first edition ( Barcelona, 1871-74) : and a recent eritieal text, edited by Fitzmanrice Kelly. in course of publication (London. 18.89 et seq.). Cervantes, 01(rns Cwnpletns (in 12 vols.). appeared in ISO-tit The earliest Eng lish ver-ion is that of Sheldon (London, 1612 20; latest reprint, by Henley., 1896). Later tendering, deserving mention are : Ormsby's London, 1555), Dutlield's I London. 15:11. Watts', (London. 189-I). The latter a lengthy biography, :Mr. Watts has also eontrib liti.d a short "Life of Cervantes" to the great fir r•eR, which includes a brief but con venient bibliography.