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Miguel de Cervantes

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Writers and critics

   Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( September 29, 1547 – April 23, 1616),
   was a Spanish novelist, poet and playwright. He is best known for his
   novel Don Quijote de la Mancha, which is considered by many to be the
   first modern novel, one of the greatest works in Western literature,
   and the greatest of the Spanish language. It is one of the Encyclopedia
   Britannica's " Great Books of the Western World" and the Russian author
   Fyodor Dostoyevsky called it "the ultimate and most sublime word of
   human thinking". Israel Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion learned the
   Spanish language so that he could read it in the original, considering
   it a prerequisite to becoming an effective statesman.

Biography

Early years

   Cervantes was born at Alcalá de Henares, Spain, on a day not recorded,
   but since he was named Miguel it is guessed he was born on the feast
   day of St. Michael ( September 29) in 1547. He was baptized on October
   9, 1547. Although Cervantes' reputation rests almost entirely on his
   portrait of the gaunt country gentleman, El ingenioso hidalgo, his
   literary production was considerable. Shakespeare, Cervantes' great
   contemporary, had evidently read Don Quixote, but it is most unlikely
   that Cervantes had ever heard of Shakespeare.

   Cervantes lived an unsettled life of hardship and adventure. He was the
   son of a surgeon who presented himself as a nobleman, although
   Cervantes's mother seems to have been a descendant of Jewish converts
   to Christianity. Little is known of his early years, but it seems that
   Cervantes spent much of his childhood moving from town to town, while
   his father sought work. After studying in Madrid (1568-1569), where his
   teacher was the humanist Juan López de Hoyos, Cervantes went to Rome in
   the service of Guilio Acquavita. Once in Italy, he doubtless began
   straightway to familiarize himself with Italian literature, a knowledge
   of which is so readily discernible in his own productions. In 1570, he
   became a soldier, and fought bravely on board a vessel in the great
   battle of Lepanto in 1571, and was shot through the left hand in such a
   way that he never after had the entire use of it.

   When his wound was healed, he engaged in another campaign, one directed
   against the Muslims in Northern Africa, and then after living a while
   longer in Italy, he finally determined to return home in 1575. The ship
   was captured by the Turks, and the brothers were taken to Algiers as
   slaves. There he spent five years, undergoing great sufferings, some of
   which seem to be reflected in the episode of the "Captive" in Don
   Quixote, and in scenes of the play, El trato de Argel. After four
   unsuccessful escape attempts, he was ransomed by the Trinitarians, and
   returned to his family in Madrid in 1580. In 1584, he married the much
   younger Catalina de Salazar y Palacios. During the next 20 years he led
   a nomadic existence, working as a purchasing agent for the Spanish
   Armada, and as a tax collector. He suffered a bankruptcy, and was
   imprisoned at least twice ( 1597 and 1602) because of irregularities in
   his accounts, one due rather to some subordinate than to himself.
   Between the years 1596 and 1600, he lived primarily in Seville. In
   1606, Cervantes settled permanently in Madrid, where he remained for
   the rest of his life.

Literary pursuits

   In 1585, Cervantes published his first major work, La Galatea, a
   pastoral romance, at the same time that some of his plays, now lost
   except for El trato de Argel (where he dealt with the life of Christian
   slaves in Algiers) and El cerco de Numancia, were playing on the stages
   of Madrid. La Galatea received little contemporary notice, and
   Cervantes never wrote the continuation for it, (which he repeatedly
   promised). Cervantes next turned his attention to the drama, hoping to
   derive an income from that source, but the plays which he composed
   failed to achieve their purpose. Aside from his plays, his most
   ambitious work in verse was Viaje del Parnaso ( 1614), an allegory
   which consisted largely of a rather tedious though good-natured review
   of contemporary poets. Cervantes himself realized that he was deficient
   in poetic gifts.

   If a remark which Cervantes himself makes in the prologue of Don
   Quixote is to be taken literally, the idea of the work, though hardly
   the writing of its "First Part", as some have maintained, occurred to
   him in prison at Argamasilla de Alba, in La Mancha. Cervantes' idea was
   to give a picture of real life and manners, and to express himself in
   clear language. The intrusion of everyday speech into a literary
   context was acclaimed by the reading public. The author stayed poor
   until 1605, when the first part of Don Quixote appeared. Although it
   did not make Cervantes rich, it brought him international appreciation
   as a man of letters. Cervantes also wrote many plays, only two of which
   have survived; short novels, and the vogue obtained by Cervantes's
   story led to the publication of a continuation of it by an unknown who
   masqueraded under the name of Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda. In
   self-defence, Cervantes produced his own continuation, or "Second
   Part", of Don Quixote, which made its appearance in 1615.

   For the world at large, interest in Cervantes centers particularly in
   Don Quixote, and this work has been regarded chiefly as a novel of
   purpose. It is stated again and again that he wrote it in order to
   ridicule the romances of chivalry, and to destroy the popularity of a
   form of literature which for much more than a century had engrossed the
   attention of a large proportion of those who could read among his
   countrymen, and which had been communicated by them to the ignorant.

   Don Quixote certainly reveals much narrative power, considerable
   humour, a mastery of dialogue, and a forcible style. Of the two parts
   written by Cervantes, the first has ever remained the favourite. The
   second part is inferior to it in humorous effect; but, nevertheless,
   the second part shows more constructive insight, better delineation of
   character, an improved style, and more realism and probability in its
   action.

   In 1613, he published a collection of tales, the Exemplary Novels, some
   of which had been written earlier. On the whole, the Exemplary Novels
   are worthy of the fame of Cervantes; they bear the same stamp of genius
   as Don Quixote. The picaroon strain, already made familiar in Spain by
   the Lazarillo de Tormes and his successors, appears in one or another
   of them, especially in the Rinconete y Cortadillo, which is the best of
   all. He also published the Viaje del Parnaso in 1614, and in 1615, the
   Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes. At the same time, Cervantes
   continued working on Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, a novel of
   adventurous travel completed just before his death, and which appeared
   posthumously in January, 1617.

Legacy

   He died in Madrid on April 23, 1616; coincidentally William Shakespeare
   also died on that date, though Cervantes died ten days earlier than
   Shakespeare, Spain being on the Gregorian calendar and England being on
   the Julian calendar. In 1850 William Wordsworth died on April 23 and in
   1915 Rupert Brooke died on the same date.

   It is worth mentioning that the Encyclopedia Hispanica claims the date
   widely quoted as Cervantes' date of death, namely April 23, is the date
   on his tombstone which in accordance of the traditions of Spain at the
   time would be his date of burial rather than date of death. If this is
   true, according to Hispanica, then it means that Cervantes probably
   died on April 22 and was buried on April 23

   Cervantes's influence is seen among others in the works of Sir Walter
   Scott, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Herman Melville, Fyodor
   Dostoyevsky, and in the works of James Joyce and Jorge Luis Borges.

Works

Novels

   Cervantes's novels, listed chronologically, are:
     * La Galatea ( 1585), a pastoral romance in prose and verse based
       upon the genre introduced into Spain by Jorge de Montemayor's Diana
       ( 1559). Its theme is the fortunes and misfortunes in love of a
       number of idealized shepherds and shepherdesses, who spend their
       life singing and playing musical instruments.

     * El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha I ( 1605)

     * Novelas ejemplares ( 1613), a collection of twelve short stories of
       varied types about the social, political, and historical problems
       of the Cervantes' Spain:

          + La Gitanilla (The Gypsy Girl)
          + El Amante Liberal (The Generous Lover)
          + Rinconete y Cortadillo
          + La Española Inglesa (The English Spanish Lady)
          + El Licenciado Vidriera (The Glass Vidriera)
          + La Fuerza de la Sangre (The Power of Blood)
          + El Celoso Extremeño (The Jealous Old Man From Extremadura)
          + La Ilustre Fregona (The Illustrious Kitchen-Maid)
          + Novela de las Dos Doncellas (The Two Damsels)
          + Novela de la Señora Cornelia (Lady Cornelia)
          + Novela del Casamiento Engañoso (The Deceitful Marriage)
          + El Diálogo de los Perros (The Dialogue of the Dogs)

     * Segunda parte del ingenioso caballero don Quijote de la Mancha (
       1615)

     * Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda, historia septentrional, The
       Labors of Persiles and Sigismunda: A Northern Story ( 1617).

   Los trabajos is the best evidence not only of the survival of Byzantine
   novel themes but also of the survival of forms and ideas of the Spanish
   novel of the second Renaissance. In this work, published after the
   author's death, Cervantes relates the ideal love and unbelievable
   vicissitudes of a couple who, starting from the Arctic regions, arrive
   in Rome, where they find a happy ending for their complicated
   adventures.

Don Quixote

   Statues of Don Quixote (left) and Sancho Panza (right)
   Enlarge
   Statues of Don Quixote (left) and Sancho Panza (right)

   Don Quixote is universally regarded as Cervantes' masterwork and one of
   the greatest novels of all time, as well as the first novel in the
   Western literary canon.

   The novel is actually two separate books that cover the adventures of
   Don Quixote, also known as the knight or man of La Mancha, a hero who
   carries his enthusiasm and self-deception to unintentional and comic
   ends. On one level, Don Quixote works as a satire of the romances of
   chivalry which ruled the literary environment of Cervantes' time.
   However, the novel also allows Cervantes to illuminate various aspects
   of human nature by using the ridiculous example of the delusional
   Quixote.

   Because the novel - particularly the first part - was written in
   individually published sections, the composition includes several
   incongruities. In the preface to the second part, Cervantes himself
   pointed out some of these errors, but he disdained to correct them,
   because he conceived that they had been too severely condemned by his
   critics.

   Cervantes felt a passion for the vivid painting of character, as his
   successful works prove. Under the influence of this feeling, he drew
   the natural and striking portrait of his heroic Don Quixote, so truly
   noble-minded, and so enthusiastic an admirer of every thing good and
   great, yet having all those fine qualities, accidentally blended with a
   relative kind of madness; and he likewise portrayed with no less
   fidelity, the opposite character of Sancho Panza, a compound of
   grossness and simplicity, whose low selfishness leads him to place
   blind confidence in all the extravagant hopes and promises of his
   master.The subordinate characters of the novel exhibit equal truth and
   decision.

   A translator cannot commit a more serious injury to Don Quixote, than
   to dress that work in a light, anecdotical style. A style perfectly
   unostentatious and free from affectation, but at the same time solemn,
   and penetrated, as it were, with the character of the hero, diffuses
   over this comic romance an imposing air, which, were it not so
   appropriate, would seem to belong exclusively to serious works and
   which is certainly difficult to be seized in a translation. But it is
   precisely this solemnity of language, which imparts a characteristic
   relief to the comic scenes. It is the genuine style of the old romances
   of chivalry, improved and applied in a totally original way; and only
   where the dialogue style occurs is each person found to speak as he
   might be expected to do, and in his own peculiar manner. But wherever
   Don Quixote himself harangues the language re-assumes the venerable
   tone of the romantic style; and various uncommon expressions of which
   the hero avails himself serve to complete the delusion of his covetous
   squire, to whom they are only half intelligible. This characteristic
   tone diffuses over the whole a poetic colouring, which distinguishes
   Don Quixote from all comic romances on the ordinary style; and that
   poetic colouring is moreover heightened by the judicious choice of
   episodes.

   The essential connection of these episodes with the whole has sometimes
   escaped the observation of critics, who have regarded as merely
   parenthetical those parts in which Cervantes has most decidedly
   manifested the poetic spirit of his work. The novel of El Curioso
   Impertinente cannot indeed be ranked among the number of these
   essential episodes but the charming story of the shepherdess Marcella,
   the history of Dorothea, and the history of the rich Camacho and the
   poor Basilio, are unquestionably connected with the interest of the
   whole.
   IV centenary of Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605-2005)
   Enlarge
   IV centenary of Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605-2005)

   These serious romantic parts, which are not, it is true, essential to
   the narrative connexion, but strictly belong to the characteristic
   dignity of the whole picture, also prove how far Cervantes was from the
   idea usually attributed to him of writing a book merely to excite
   laughter. The passages, which common readers feel inclined to pass
   over, are, in general, precisely those in which Cervantes is most
   decidedly a poet, and for which he has manifested an evident
   predilection. On such occasions, he also introduces among his prose,
   episodical verses, for the most part excellent in their kind and no
   translator can omit them without doing violence to the spirit of the
   original.

   Were it not for the happy art with which Cervantes has contrived to
   preserve an intermediate tone between pure poetry and prose, Don
   Quixote would not deserve to be cited as the first classic model of the
   modern romance or novel. It is, however, fully entitled to that
   distinction. Cervantes was the first writer who formed the genuine
   romance of modern times on the model of the original chivalrous romance
   that equivocal creation of the genius and the barbarous taste of the
   Middle Ages. The result has proved that modern taste, however readily
   it may in other respects conform to the rules of the antique,
   nevertheless requires, in the narration of fictitious events, a certain
   union of poetry with prose, which was unknown to the Greeks and Romans
   in their best literary ages. It was only necessary to seize on the
   right tone, but that was a point of delicacy, which the inventors of
   romances of chivalry were not able to comprehend. Diego de Mendoza, in
   his Lazarillo de Tormes, departed too far from poetry. Cervantes, in
   his Don Quixote restored to the poetic art the place it was entitled to
   hold in this class of writing; and he must not be blamed if cultivated
   nations have subsequently mistaken the true spirit of this work,
   because their own novelists had led them to regard common prose as the
   style peculiarly suited to romance composition.

   Don Quixote is, moreover, the undoubted prototype of the comic novel.
   The humorous situations are, it is true, almost all burlesque, which
   was certainly not necessary, but the satire is frequently so delicate,
   that it escapes rather than obtrudes on unpractised attention; as for
   example, in the whole picture of the administration of Sancho Panza in
   his imaginary island. The language, even in the description of the most
   burlesque situations, never degenerates into vulgarity; it is on the
   contrary, throughout the whole work, so noble, correct and highly
   polished, that it would not disgrace even an ancient classic of the
   first rank. This explanation of a part of the merits of a work, which
   has been so often wrongly judged, may perhaps seem belong rather to the
   eulogist than the calm and impartial historian. Let those who may he
   inclined to form this opinion study Don Quixote in the original
   language, and study it rightly, for it is not a book to be judged by a
   superficial perusal. But care must be taken lest the intervention of
   many subordinate traits, which were intended to have only a transient
   national interest, should produce an error in the estimate of the
   whole. By the 20th century it became clear that Don Quixote was the
   first true modern novel, a systemical and structural masterpiece.

La Galatea

   La Galatea, the pastoral romance, which Cervantes wrote in his youth,
   is a happy imitation of the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor, but
   exhibiting a still closer resemblance to Gil Polo's continuation of
   that romance. Next to Don Quixote and the Novelas exemplares, his
   pastoral romance is particularly worthy of attention, as it manifests
   in a striking way the poetic direction in which the genius of Cervantes
   moved even at an early period of life, and from which he never entirely
   departed in his subsequent writings. As, however, the Galatea possesses
   but little originality, it constantly excites the recollection of its
   models, and particularly of the Diana of Gil Polo. Of the invention of
   the fable, likewise, but little can be said, for though the story is
   continued through six books, it is still incomplete.

   In composing this pastoral romance, Cervantes seems to have had no
   other object than to clothe in the popular garb of a tale, a rich
   collection of poems in the old, Spanish and Italian styles, which he
   could not have presented to the public under a more agreeable form. The
   story is merely the thread, which holds the beautiful garland together;
   for the poems are the portion of the work most particularly deserving
   attention. They are as numerous as they are various: and should the
   title of Cervantes to rank among the most eminent poets, whether in
   reference to verse or to prose, or should his originality in versified
   composition be called in question, an attentive perusal of the romance
   of Galatea must vanish every doubt of these points.

   It was remarked by the contemporaries of Cervantes that he was
   incapable of writing poetry, and that he could compose only beautiful
   prose; but that observation referred solely to his dramatic works.
   Every critic sufficiently acquainted with his lyrical compositions has
   rendered justice to their merit. From the romance of Galatea, it is
   obvious that Cervantes composed in all the various kinds of syllabic
   measure, which were used in his time. He even occasionally adopted the
   old dactylic stanza. He appears to have experienced some difficulty in
   the metrical form of the sonnet, and his essays in that style are by no
   means numerous; but his poems in Italian octaves display the utmost
   facility; and among the number, the song of Caliope, in the last book
   of the Galatea, is remarkable for graceful ease of versification.

   In the same manner as Gil Polo in his Diana makes the river Turia
   pronounce the praises of the celebrated Valencians, the poetic fancy of
   Cervantes summoned the muse Calliope before the shepherds and
   shepherdesses, to render solemn homage to those contemporaries whom he
   esteemed worthy of distinction as poets. But the critic can scarcely
   venture to place reliance on praises dealt out with such profuse
   liberality.The most beautiful poems in the Galatea are a few in the
   cancion style, some of which are iambics, and some in trochaic or Old
   Spanish verse. Cervantes has here and there indulged in those
   antiquated and fantastic plays of wit, which at a subsequent period he
   himself ridiculed.

Novelas Exemplares

   It would be scarcely possible to arrange the other works of Cervantes
   according to a critical judgment of their importance; for the merits of
   some consist in the admirable finish of the whole, while others exhibit
   the impress of genius in the invention, or some other individual
   feature.

   A distinguished place must, however, be assigned to the Novelas
   Exemplares (Moral or Instructive Tales). They are unequal in merit as
   well as in character. Cervantes doubtless intended that they should be
   to the Spaniards nearly what the novels of Boccaccio were to the
   Italians, some are mere anecdotes, some are romances in miniature, some
   are serious, some comic, and all are written in a light, smooth,
   conversational style.

   Four of them are perhaps of less interest than the rest: El Amante
   Liberal, La Señora Cornelia, Las Dos Doncellas and La Española Inglesa.
   The theme common to these is basically the traditional one of the
   Byzantine novel: pairs of lovers separated by lamentable and
   complicated happenings are finally reunited and find the happiness they
   have longed for. The heroines are all of most perfect beauty and of
   sublime morality; they and their lovers are capable of the highest
   sacrifices, and they exert their souls in the effort to elevate
   themselves to the ideal of moral and aristocratic distinction which
   illuminates their lives.

   In El Amante Liberal, to cite an example, the beautiful Leonisa and her
   lover Ricardo are carried off by Turkish pirates; both fight against
   serious material and moral dangers; Ricardo conquers all obstacles,
   returns to his homeland with Leonisa, and is ready to renounce his
   passion and to hand Leonisa over to her former lover in an outburst of
   generosity; but Leonisa's preference naturally settles on Ricardo in
   the end.

   Another group of "exemplary" novels is formed by La Fuerza de la
   Sangre, La Ilustre Fregona, La Gitanilla, and El Celoso Extremeño. The
   first three offer examples of love and adventure happily resolved,
   while the last unravels itself tragically. Its plot deals with the old
   Felipe Carrizales, who, after traveling widely and becoming rich in
   America, decides to marry, taking all the precautions necessary to
   forestall being deceived. He weds a very young girl and isolates her
   from the world by having her live in a house with no windows facing the
   street; but in spite of his defensive measures, a bold youth succeeds
   in penetrating the fortress of conjugal honor, and one day Carrizales
   surprises his wife in the arms of her seducer. Surprisingly enough he
   pardons the adulterers, recognizing that he is more to blame than they,
   and dies of sorrow over the grievous error he has committed. Cervantes
   here deviated from literary tradition, which demanded the death of the
   adulterers, but he transformed the punishment inspired by the social
   ideal of honour into a criticism of the responsibility of the
   individual.

   Rinconete y Cortadillo, El Casamiento Engañoso, El Licenciado Vidriera
   and El Diálogo de los Perros, four works of art which are concerned
   more with the personalities of the characters who figure in them than
   with the subject matter, form the final group of these stories. The
   protagonists are two young vagabonds, Rincón and Cortado; Lieutenant
   Campuzano; a student, Tomás Rodaja, who goes mad and believes himself
   to have been changed into a man of glass; and finally two dogs, Cipión
   and Berganza, whose wandering existence serves as a mirror for the most
   varied aspects of Spanish life. Rinconete y Cortadillo is one of the
   most delightful of Cervantes' works. Its two young vagabonds come to
   Seville attracted by the riches and disorder that the sixteenth-century
   commerce with the Americas had brought to that metropolis. There they
   come into contact with a brotherhood of thieves led by the
   unforgettable Monipodio, whose house is the headquarters of the
   Sevillian underworld. Under the bright Andalusian sky persons and
   objects take form with the brilliance and subtle drama of a Velazquez,
   and a distant and discreet irony endows the figures, insignificant in
   themselves, as they move within a ritual pomp that is in sharp contrast
   with their morally deflated lives. When Monipodio appears, serious and
   solemn among his silent subordinates, "all who were looking at him
   performed a deep, protracted bow." Rincón and Cortado had initiated
   their mutual friendship beforehand "with saintly and praiseworthy
   ceremonies." The solemn ritual of this band of ruffians is all the more
   comic for being concealed in Cervantes' drily humorous style.

'Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda

   The romance of Persiles and Sigismunda, which Cervantes finished
   shortly before his death, must be regarded as an interesting appendix
   to his other works. The language and the whole composition of the story
   exhibit the purest simplicity, combined with singular precision and
   polish. The idea of this romance was not new, and scarcely deserved to
   be reproduced in a new manner. But it appears that Cervantes, at the
   close of his glorious career, took a fancy to imitate Heliodorus. He
   has maintained the interest of the situations, but the whole work is
   merely a romantic description of travels, rich enough in fearful
   adventures, both by sea and land. Real and fabulous geography and
   history are mixed together in an absurd and monstrous manner; and the
   second half of the romance, in which the scene is transferred to Spain
   and Italy, does not exactly harmonize with the spirit of the first
   half.

Poetry

   Some of his poems are found in La Galatea. He also wrote Dos canciones
   a la armada invencible. His best work, however, is found in the
   sonnets, particularly Al túmulo del rey Felipe en Sevilla. Among his
   most important poems, Canto de Calíope, Epístola a Mateo Vázquez, and
   the Viaje del Parnaso (Journey to Parnassus), ( 1614) stand out. The
   latter is his most ambitious work in verse , an allegory which consists
   largely of reviews of contemporary poets.

   Compared to the novelist, Cervantes is often considered a mediocre
   poet.If we cast a glance on the collected works of Cervantes, in order
   to ascertain what their author was entitled to claim as his original
   property, independently of his contemporaries and predecessors, we
   shall find that the genius of that poet, who is in general only
   partially estimated, shines with the finer lustre the longer it is
   contemplated. That kind of criticism that is to be learned, contributed
   but little to the development and formation of his genius. A critical
   tact, which is a truer guide than any rule, but which abandons genius
   when it forgets itself, secured the fancy of Cervantes against the
   aberrations of common minds, and his sportive wit was always subject to
   the control of solid judgement. The vanity, which occasionally made him
   mistake the true bent of his talent, must be confessed to have been
   pardonable, considering how little he was known to his contemporaries.
   He did not even know himself, though he felt the consciousness of his
   genius. From the mental height to which he had raised himself, he
   might, without too highly rating his own abilities, look down on all
   the writers of his age. More than one poet of great, of immortal
   genius, might be placed beside him in his own country; but of all the
   Spanish poets, Cervantes alone belongs to the whole world.

Viaje al Parnaso

   The prose of the Galatea, which is in other respects so beautiful, is
   also occasionally overloaded with epithet. Cervantes displays a totally
   different kind of poetic talent in the Viaje al Parnaso, a work which
   cannot properly be ranked in any particular class of literary
   composition, but which, next to Don Quixote, is the most exquisite
   production of its extraordinary author.

   The chief object of the poem is to satirize the false pretenders to the
   honours of the Spanish Parnassus, who lived in the age of the writer.
   But this satire is of a peculiar character: it is a most happy effusion
   of sportive humour, and yet it remains a matter of doubt whether
   Cervantes intended to praise or to ridicule the individuals whom he
   points out as being particularly worthy of the favour of Apollo. He
   himself says :"Those whose names do not appear in this list may be just
   as well pleased as those who are mentioned in it".

   To characterise true poetry according to his own poetic feelings, to
   manifest in a decided way his enthusiasm for the art even in his old
   age, and to hold up a mirror for the conviction of those who were only
   capable of making rhymes and inventing extravagances, seem to have been
   the objects which Cervantes had principally in view when he composed
   this satirical poem.

   Concealed satire, open jesting, and ardent enthusiasm for the
   beautiful, are the boldly combined elements of this noble work. It is
   divided into eight chapters, and the versification is in tercets.

   The composition is half comic and half serious. After many humorous
   incidents, Mercury appears to Cervantes, who is represented as
   travelling to Parnassus in the most miserable condition; and the god
   salutes him with the title of the "Adam of poets." Mercury, after
   addressing to him many flattering compliments, conducts him to a ship
   entirely built of different kinds of verse, and which is intended to
   convey a cargo of Spanish poets to the kingdom of Apollo. The
   description of the ship is an admirable comic allegory. Mercury shows
   him a list of the poets with whom Apollo wishes to become acquainted
   and this list, owing to the problematic nature of its half ironical and
   half serious praises, has proved a stumbling block to commentators. In
   the midst of the reading, Cervantes suddenly drops the list. The poets
   are now described as crowding on board the ship in numbers as countless
   as drops of rain in a shower, or grains of sand on the seacoast; and
   such a tumult ensues, that, to save the ship from sinking by their
   pressure, the sirens raise a furious storm. The flights of imagination
   become more wild as the story advances. Thy storm subsides, and is
   succeeded by a shower of poets, that is to say poets fall from the
   clouds. One of the first who descends on the ship is Lope de Vega, on
   whom Cervantes seizes this opportunity of pronouncing an emphatic
   praise. The remainder of the poem, a complete analysis of which would
   occupy too much space, proceeds in the same spirit.

   One of the most beautiful pieces of verse ever written by Cervantes, is
   his description of the goddess Poesy, whom he sees in all her glory in
   the kingdom of Apollo. To this fine picture the portrait of the goddess
   Vain-Glory, who afterwards appears to the author in a dream, forms an
   excellent companion. Among the passages, which for burlesque humour vie
   with Don Quixote is the description of a second storm, in which Neptune
   vainly endeavours to plunge the poetasters to the bottom of the deep.
   Venus prevents them from sinking, by changing them into gourds and
   leather flasks. At length a formal battle is fought between the real
   poets and some of the poetasters. The poem is throughout interspersed
   with singularly witty and beautiful ideas; and only a very few passages
   can be charged with feebleness or languor. It has never been equalled,
   far less surpassed by any similar work, and it had no prototype. The
   language is classical throughout; and it is only to be regretted that
   Cervantes has added to the poem a comic supplement in prose, in which
   he indulges a little too freely in self-praise.

Plays

   Comparisons have also diminished the reputation of his plays, but two
   of them, El Trato de Argel and La Numancia, ( 1582), made a big impact
   and were not surpassed until Lope de Vega appeared.

   The first of these is written in five acts; based on his experiences as
   a Moorish captive, Cervantes dealt with the life of Christian slaves in
   Algiers. The other play, Numancia is is a description of the siege of
   Numantia by the Romans stuffed with horrors and described as utterly
   devoid of the requisites of dramatic art.

   Cervantes's later production consists of 16 dramatic works, among which
   eight full-length plays:

   El Gallardo Español, Los Baños de Argel, La Gran Sultana, Doña Catalina
   de Oviedo, La Casa de los Celos, El Laberinto del Amor, the cloak and
   dagger play La Entretenida, El Rufián Dichoso and Pedro de Urdemalas, a
   sensitive play about a pícaro who joins a group of gypsies for love of
   a girl.

   He also wrote eight short farces (entremeses) : El Juez de los
   Divorcios, El Rufián Viudo llamado Trampagos, La Elección de los
   Alcaldes de Daganzo, La Guarda Cuidadosa (The Vigilant Sentinel), El
   Vizcaíno Fingido, El Retablo de las Maravillas, La Cueva de Salamanca,
   and El Viejo Celoso (The Jealous Old Man).

   These plays and entremeses made up Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses
   nuevos, nunca representados (Eight comedies and Eight New Interludes) ,
   which appeared in 1615. Cervantes's entremeses, whose dates and order
   of composition are not known, must not have been performed in their
   time. Faithful to the spirit of Lope de Rueda, Cervantes endowed them
   with novelistic elements such as simplified plot, the type of
   description normally associated with the novel, and character
   development. The dialogue is sensitive and agile.

   Cervantes includes some of his dramas among those productions with
   which he was himself most satisfied; and he seems to have regarded them
   with the greater self-complacency in proportion as they experienced the
   neglect of the public.This conduct has sometimes been attributed to a
   spirit of contradiction, and sometimes to vanity. That the penetrating
   and profound Cervantes should have so mistaken the limits of his
   dramatic talent, would not be sufficiently accounted for, had he not
   unquestionably proved by his tragedy of Numantia how pardonable was the
   self-deception of which he could not divest himself.

   Cervantes was entitled to consider himself endowed with a genius for
   dramatic poetry; but he could not preserve his independence in the
   conflict he had to maintain with the conditions required by the Spanish
   public in dramatic composition; and when he sacrificed his
   independence, and submitted to rules imposed by others, his invention
   and language were reduced to the level of a poet of inferior talent.
   The intrigues, adventures and surprises, which in that age
   characterized the Spanish drama, were ill suited to the genius of
   Cervantes. His natural style was too profound and precise to be
   reconciled to fantastical ideas, expressed in irregular verse. But he
   was Spaniard enough to be gratified with dramas, which, as a poet, he
   could not imitate; and he imagined himself capable of imitating them,
   because he would have shone in another species of dramatic composition,
   had the public taste accommodated itself to his genius.

La Numancia

   This play is a dramatization of the long and brutal siege of the
   Celtiberian town Numantia, Hispania, by the Roman forces of Scipio
   Africanus.

   Cervantes invented along with the subject of his piece a peculiar style
   of tragic composition, in doing which he did not pay much regard to the
   theory of Aristotle. His object was to produce a piece full of tragic
   situations, combined with the charm of the marvellous. In order to
   accomplish this goal, Cervantes relied heavily on allegory and on
   mythological elements.

   The tragedy is written in conformity with no rules save those which the
   author prescribed to himself; for he felt no inclination to imitate the
   Greek forms. The play is divided into four acts, (jornadas) and no
   chorus is introduced. The dialogue is sometimes in tercets and
   sometimes in redondillas, and for the most part in octaves without any
   regard to rule.

Cervantes' historical importance and influence

   Cervantes' novel Don Quixote has had a tremendous influence on the
   development of prose fiction; it has been translated into all modern
   languages and has appeared in 700 editions. The first translation in
   English, and also in any language, was made by Thomas Shelton in 1608,
   but not published until 1612.

   Don Quixote has been the subject of a variety of works in other fields
   of art, including operas by the Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello,
   the French Jules Massenet, and the Spanish Manuel de Falla; a tone poem
   by the German composer Richard Strauss; a German film (1933) directed
   by G. W. Pabst and a Soviet film (1957) directed by Grigori Kozintzev;
   a ballet (1965) by George Balanchine; and an American musical, Man of
   La Mancha (1965), by Mitch Leigh.

   Its influence can be seen in the work of Smollett, Defoe, Fielding, and
   Sterne, as well as in the classic 19th-century novelists Scott,
   Dickens, Flaubert, Melville, and Dostoyevsky. The theme also inspired
   the 19th-century French artists Honoré Daumier and Gustave Doré.

Selected criticism

English

     * Passing for Spain: Cervantes and the Fictions of Identity / Barbara
       Fuchs, 2003
     * Cervantes, the Novel, and the New World / Diana De Armas Wilson,
       2001
     * Cervantes for the 21st Century / Edward J. Dudley, 2000
     * Miguel de Cervantes (Twayne Series) / Manuel Duran, 1999
     * Cervantes, Don Quixote (Norton Critical Editions), 1999
     * Cervantes: Essays on Social and Literary Polemics / Dominick L.
       Finello, 1998
     * Studies on Cervantes / Karl-Ludwig Selig, 1993
     * Through the Shattering Glass: Cervantes / Nicholas Spadaccini, 1993
     * Cervantine Journeys / Steven D. Hutchinson, 1992
     * On Cervantes: Essays for L.A. Murillo / James A. Parr, 1991
     * In the Margins of Cervantes / John G. Weiger, 1988
     * Critical Essays on Cervantes / Ruth S. El Saffar, 1986
     * A Study of Don Quixote / Daniel Eisenberg, 1985
     * The Substance of Cervantes / John G. Weiger, 1985
     * The Romantic Approach to Don Quixote / A. J. Close, 1978
     * Don Quixote: or, The Critique of Reading / Carlos Fuentes, 1976
     * Cervantes; A Critical Trajectory / Raymond E. Barbera, 1971
     * Cervantes ( 20th Century Views) / Lowry Nelson, 1970
     * Cervantes Across the Centuries / Angel Flores, 1969

Spanish

     * Discordancias Cervantinas / Julio Baena, 2003
     * Estudios Sobre Cervantes y la Edad de Oro / Alberto Porqueras Mayo,
       2003
     * El Mundo como Escritura: Estudios Sobre Cervantes / Ines Carrasco
       Cantos, 2003
     * Cervantes / Rosa Navarro Duran, 2003
     * El Pensamiento de Cervantes y Otros Estudios Cervantinos / Americo
       Castro, 2002
     * Para Leer el Quijote / Alicia Parodi, 2001
     * La Rara Invencion: Estudios Sobre Cervantes / E. C. Riley, 2001
     * Don Quijote, el Lector Por Excelencia / Asun Bernardez, 2000
     * Nuevas Visiones del Quijote / Felipe Benitez Reyes, 2000
     * Don Quijote, Ciudadano del Mundo, y Otros Ensayos / Alberto
       Sanchez, 1999
     * El Quijote y la Critica Contemporanea / Jose Montero Reguera, 1997
     * Cervantes y la Melancolia: Ensayos/ Javier Garcia Gibert, 1997
     * Cervantes / A. J. Close, 1995
     * Cervantes y las Puertas del Sueno / Aurora Egido, 1994
     * Cervantes: Estudios en la Vispera de su Centenario, 1994
     * Cervantes: Novelar Del Mundo Desintegrado / Georges Guntert, 1993
     * Estudios Cervantinos / Daniel Eisenberg, 1991
     * Cervantismos y Quijoterias / Carlos E. Mesa, 1985
     * Lecciones Cervantinas / Alberto Blecua, 1985
     * Cervantes / Angel Basanta, 1981
     * Nuevos Deslindes Cervantinos / Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce, 1975
     * Cervantes / Juan Luis Alborg, 1966
     * Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho / Miguel de Unamuno, 1905

Trivia

     * Cervantes and Shakespeare both died on the same date, but not on
       the same day. Britain was still using the Julian calendar, whereas
       Spain had already adopted the Gregorian calendar. April 23 is
       UNESCO's International Day of the Book in honour of this
       co-incidence.

     * There is no surviving portrait of Cervantes. It is common to find
       pictures claiming to represent Cervantes' likeness, but none of
       them has been authenticated.

     * Cerventes is the name of a character in the "Soulcalibur" video
       game series, first appearing as an arcade game then moving to
       Sega's Dreamcast console and most recently to Nintendo's Gamecube,
       Microsoft's Xbox, and Sony's Playstation 2. The character in the
       video games shares nothing in common with the author save their
       name, unless Cervantes was in reality a particularly deadly demon
       pirate.

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