CHAPTER IX
Henceforward the task of the bibliographer is lighter; for, though Cervantes, Lope, and later writers are the subjects of an enormous mass of literature, and are reprinted in editions out of number, it will only be necessary to name the most important. The twelve quartos which form the Obras Completas (1863-64) of Cervantes are open to much damaging criticism; but they contain all his writings, except the conjectural pieces gathered together by D. Adolfo de Castro in his Varias obras inéditas de Cervantes (1874). For a most exhaustive bibliography of Cervantes' writings (Barcelona, 1895) we are indebted to the late D. Leopoldo Rius y Llosellas: a posthumous volume is to follow, but even in its present incomplete state Rius' book is worth more than all previous attempts put together. Editions of Don Quixote abound, and of these Diego Clemencín's (1833-39) deserves special mention for its very learned commentary. A new edition, in course of issue by Mr. David Nutt (1898), presents a text freed from arbitrary emendations which have crept in without authority. Fernández de Navarrete's biography (1819) is still unequalled. Shelton's early English version (1612-20) has been reprinted by Mr. Henley in his series of Tudor Translations (1896). Of later renderings John Ormsby's (1885) is much the best, and is prefaced by a very judicious account of Cervantes and his work. Duffield (1881) and Mr. H. E. Watts (1894) have translated Don Quixote in a spirit of enthusiasm. The Numancia (1885) and Viaje del Parnaso (1883) were both admirably rendered by the late James Young Gibson. Sr. Menéndez y Pelayo's paper on Avellaneda appeared in Los Lunes de El Imparcial (February 15, 1897).
The Obras of Lope, now printing under the editorship of D. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, will be definitive; but as yet only eight quartos (including Barrera's Nueva Biografía) are available. Lope's Obras sueltas (1776-79) fill twenty-one volumes; but the best reference for readers is to Rivadeneyra, vols. xxiv., xxxv., xxxvii., xli., and xlii., where Lope is incompletely but sufficiently exhibited. M. Arturo Farinelli's Grillparzer und Lope de Vega (Berlin, 1894) is most excellent. Edmund Dorer's Die Lope-de-Vega Litteratur in Deutschland (1877) is a praiseworthy compilation. Ormsby's article in the Quarterly Review (October 1894) is, as might be expected from him, most exact and learned. I am especially indebted to it.
As to the picaresque novels, Guzmán is in Rivadeneyra, vol. iii.; the Pícara Justina in vol. xxxiii., and Marcos de Obregón in vol. xviii. A thoughtful and appreciative study on Mateo Alemán has been privately printed at Seville (1892) by D. Joaquín Hazañas y la Rua. Antonio Pérez and Ginés Pérez de Hita are to be read in Rivadeneyra, vols. xiii. and iii.: Mariana fills vols. xxx. and xxxi., but the two noble folios of 1780 are in every way preferable.