In answer to the question of "MELANION" (in No. 5 p. 73.), it may be
sufficient to refer him to the Spanish editions with notes, viz. that of
Pellicer in 1800; the 4th edition of the Spanish Academy in 1819; and
that of D. Diego Clemencin in 1833, where he will find the discrepancies
he mentions pointed out. In the first edition of 1605 there was another
instance in the same chapter, which Cervantes corrected in the edition
of 1608, but overlooked the other two. It was one of those lapses, _quas
incuria fudit_, which great writers as well as small are subject to.
Clemencin laughs at De los Rios for thinking it a chracteristic of great
geniuses so to mistake; and at the enthusiasm of some one else, who said
that he preferred the Don Quixote with the defects to the Don Quixote
without them.
Having answered one query, I presume I may be permitted to propose one,
in which I feel much interested.
Is the recently published BUSCAPIÉ the work of Cervantes? We have now
been favoured with two translations, one by Thomasina Ross, the other by
a member of the University of Cambridge, under the title of _The Squib,
or Searchfoot_; the latter I have read with some attention, but not
having been able to procure the Spanish original, I should be glad to
have the opinion of some competent Spanish scholar who has read it, as
to its genuineness. My own impression is that it will prove an ingenious
(perhaps innocent?) imposture. The story of its discovery in a
collection of books sold by auction at Cadiz, and its publication
_there_ by Don Adolfo de Castro, in the first place, rather excites
suspicion. My impression, however, is formed from the evident artificial
structure of the whole. Still, not having seen the original, I confess
myself an imperfect judge, and hope that this may meet the eye of one
competent to decide.