"In the city of Algiers, on the 19th of September, 1580, in presence of
me, the said notary, the rev. father friar Juan Gil, the above named
redeemer, ransomed Miguel de Cervantes, a native of Alcalà de Henares,
aged thirty-three, son of Rodrigo de Cervantes and of donna Leonora de
Cortinas, and an inhabitant of Madrid; of a middle size, much beard,
maimed of the left arm and hand, taken captive in the galley el Sol,
bound from Naples to Spain, where he had been a long time in the service
of H. M. He was taken 26th September, 1575, being in the power of Hassan
Pacha, king: his ransom cost 500 crowns of gold in Spanish gold;
because, if not, he was to be sent to Constantinople; and, therefore, on
account of this necessity, and that this Christian should not be lost in
a Moorish country, 220 crowns were raised among the traders and the
remaining 250 collected from the charities of the redemption. Three
hundred ducats were given in aid; and they were assisted by the charity
of Francisco de Caramanchel, of whom is the patron the very illustrious
Señor Domingo de Cardenas Zapata, of the council of H. M., with fifty
doubloons, and by the general charity of the order they were assisted by
fifty more; and the remainder of the sum, the said order engaged to
repay, being money belonging to other captives, who gave pledges in
Spain for their ransom; and, net being at present in Algiers, they are
not ransomed; and the said order are under obligation to return the
money to the parties, the captives not being ransomed; and besides were
given nine doubloons to the officers of the galley of the said king
Hassan Pacha, who asked it as their fees: in faith of which sign their
names, &c."]
[Footnote 63: It is usually said, and Viardôt repeats it, that
Cervantes was driven from his theatrical labours by the success of Lope
de Vega. This is not the fact. Lope sailed with the Invincible Armada,
and it was not until his return that he began his dramatic career. The
fact seems simply to have been that Cervantes, feeling the animation of
genius within him, yet not having discovered its proper expression, was,
to a certain degree, successful as a dramatist, though he could not
originate a style which should give new life to the modern drama: thus
his gains were moderate, and he found himself unable to support those
dependant on him. The place of commissary offered itself to rescue him
from this state of poverty. Afterwards, when Lope began his career,
Cervantes found indeed, that, he filled the public eye, and had hit its
taste; and that his dramas, with their jéjune plots and uninterwoven
incidents, however, adorned by poetry and the majesty of passion, were
thrown aside and forgotten.]
[Footnote 64: This monument excited attention in the capital--Lope de
Vega in his comedy of "La Esclava de su Galan," "The slave of her Lover"
makes a lady living in great retirement in this country, say, "I visited
Seville but twice: once to see the king, whom heaven guard! and a second
time to see the wondrous edifice of the monument; so that I was only to
be tempted out by the grandest objects which heaven or earth contains."]
[Footnote 65: "AL TUMULO DEL REY EN SEVILLA.
'Voto á Dios que me espanta esta grandeza,
y que diera un doblon por describilla,
porque ¿ á quien no suspende y maravilla
esta maquina insigne, esta braveza?
Por Jesu Christo vivo, cada pieza
vale mas que un millon, que es mancilla
que esto no duré un siglo.--O gran Sevilla;
Roma triunfante en animo y riqueza.
Apostare que el anima del muerto,
por gozar esto sitio, hoy ha dexado
el Cielo de que goza eternamente!'
Esto oyo un valenton, y dixo: 'Es cierto
lo que dice voace, seor soldado,
y quien dixere lo contrario miente.'
Y luego en continente
caló el chapeo, requirio la espada,
miro al soslayo, fuese, y no hubo nada."]
[Footnote 66: Los Rios--Pruebas de la Vida.]
[Footnote 67: "When I was at Valladolid, a letter was brought to my
house which cost a rial. It contained a bad, silly discourteous sonnet,
without wit or point, speaking ill of 'Don Quixote,'--so that I grudged
the rial infinitely."--_Postcript to the "Voyage to Parnassus._"]
[Footnote 68: Torres Marquez, master of the pages to the archbishop of
Toledo, was a friend of Cervantes, and took every occasion to proclaim
his genius and worth. It was through him, probably, that the archbishop
bestowed a pension on him.]
[Footnote 69: The Argensolas were men much esteemed in their day, and
are so often mentioned by Cervantes and Lope de Vega, that they must not
be passed over in silence. But as there is nothing very original in
their writings, we shall take the liberty of dismissing them in a note.
The elder, Lupercio, the historiographer for Aragon, secretary to the
empress Maria of Austria, and secretary of state to the count of Lemos
when viceroy of Naples, died in that city in 1613, at the age of
forty-eight. He founded an academy at Naples, and was a studious and
laborious man. He burned a considerable portion of his poems just before
his death, as not worthy to survive him. Bartolomé was an ecclesiastic.
He followed his brother to Naples. On his death he quitted Italy. He
continued the "Annals of Aragon," and wrote a history of the conquest of
the Molucca islands; a work written with judgment and elegance. His
secular poetry is so similar to his brother's that they cannot be
distinguished one from the other. Following the same school, adopting
the same tastes, and neither of them original, it is not surprising that
their productions bore a close resemblance. The best works, however, of
Bartolomé are his sacred Canzoni. He died at Saragossa, in the year
1531, at the age of sixty-five.]
[Footnote 70: Coleridge's summary of the character and life of
Cervantes, though not correct in letter, is admirable in spirit: "A
Castilian of refined manners; a gentleman true to religion, and true to
honour. A scholar and a soldier; he fought under the banners of don John
of Austria, at Lopanto, and lost his arm, and was captured. Endured
slavery, not only with fortitude, but with mirth; and, by the
superiority of nature, mastered and overawed his barbarian owner.
Finally ransomed, he resumed his native destiny--the awful task of
achieving fame; and for that reason died poor, and a prisoner, while
nobles and kings, over their goblets of gold, gave relish to their
pleasures by the charms of his divine genius. He was the inventor of
novels for the Spaniards; and in his "Persiles and Sigismunda" the
English may find the germ of their "Robinson Crusoe."
"The world was a drama to him. His own thoughts, in spite of poverty and
sickness, perpetuated for him the feelings of youth. He painted only
what he knew, and had looked into; but he knew, and had looked into much
indeed; and his imagination was ever at hand to adapt and modify the
world of his experience. Of delicious love he fabled, yet with stainless
virtue."]
[Footnote 71: Quarterly Review, vol. XXV.]
[Footnote 72: There is an excellent translation of ten from among them;
we may also mention that there is an admirable old English translation
of Don Quixote, by Shelton.]
[Footnote 73: "De la quilla á la gavia, ó estraña cosa!
toda de versos era fabricada,
sin que se entremiese alguna prosa.
Las ballesteras eran de ensalada
de glosas, todas hechas á la boda,
de la que se llamó Malmaridada:
era la chusma de romances toda
gente atrevida, empero necesaria
pues á todas acciones se acomoda.
La popa de materia extraordinaria,
bastarda, y de legitimos sonetos,
de labor peregrina en todo y varia.
Eran dos valentisimos tercetos
los espaldares de la izquierda y diestra,
para dar boga larga muy perfetos.
Hecha ser la cruxia se me muestra
de una luenga y tristisima elegia,
que no en cantar, sino en llorar es diestra.
Por esta entiendo yo que se diria
lo que suele, decirse á un desdichado,
quando lo pasa mal, pasó cruxia.
El árbol hasta el cielo levantado
de una dura cancion prolixa estaba
de canto de seis dedos embreado.
El y la entena que por el cruxaba
de duros estrambotes--la madera
de que eran hechos claro se mostraba.
La racamenta, que es siempre parlera,
Toda la componian de redondillas,
Con que ella se mostraba mas ligera,
las xarcias parecian seguidillas,
de disparates mil y mas compuestas
Que suelen en el alma hacer cosquillas.
las rumbadas, fortisimas y honestas
estancias, eran tablas ponderosas,
que llevan un poema y otro á cuestas.
Era cosa de ver las bulliciosas
vanderillas que a ayre tremolaban,
De varias rimas algo licenciosas.
Los grumetes, que aqui y alli cruxaban
de encadenados versos parecian,
puesto que como libres trabajaban,
todas las obras muertas componian
O versos sueltos, ó sextinas graves
que la galera mas gallarda hacian."]