The clear and satisfactory reply that "MELANION" received in No. 11.
to his query on the contradictions in _Don Quixote_, tempts me to
ask for some information respecting another standard work of Spanish
literature, written by a cotemporary of the great Cervantes.
How is it, that in the _Visions of Don Quevedo_, a work which passes
in review every amusement and occupation of the Spanish people, _the
national sport of bull-fighting_ remains _entirely unnoticed_?
The amusement was, I presume, in vogue during the 16th and 17th
centuries; and the assignations made, and the intrugues carried
on, within the walls of the amphitheatre would have supplied many
an amusing, moralising penitent, male and female, to the shades
below--the "fabulæ manes" with whom Quevedo held converse. As my copy
of the _Visions_ is an anonymous translation, and evidently far from
being a first-rate one, I shall not be surprised if I receive as an
answer,--"_Mistaken as to your fact, read a better translation_:"
but as in spite of its manifold, glaring defects, I have no reason to
suspect that the text is _garbled_, I think I may venture to send the
query.
In "Vision 7." I find Nero accusing Seneca of having had the insolence
to use the words, "I and my king." I have often heard of Henry VIII.,
Wolsey, and "Ego et rex meus;" but as I never heard Quevedo quoted as
an illustration, I look upon this as one of the suspicious passages in
my copy of his work.