BOOK III.

In this poet Cervantes describes himself. His first literary compositions were dramas; he was poor; he had returned home from his career as a soldier with the loss of his left hand, and had been five years and a half in slavery at Algiers.

[Note 7.] Page 338.

Cervantes hated the Moors; which was, perhaps, not wonderful after his five years' slavery among them. But he is clearly a courtier, too; and the story seems introduced for the sake of this tirade against their nation; and the apostrophe to the king, Philip III., in whose reign was perpetrated that deed of violence, cruelty, and short-sighted folly, the consequences of which Spain will never recover, and which will ever remain a dark blot in the page of her history.

It also serves as an opportunity for Cervantes to show his zeal for the Roman Catholic religion, which he never loses throughout the whole work. The expulsion of the Moors was determined upon in 1609. Persiles and Sigismunda is the last work Cervantes ever wrote. The dedication is dated 1616.

[Note 8.] Page 377.

The Academy of the Entronadas, properly Intronati, an Italian word which signifies blockheads. The Italian academies, of which almost every town, large and small, had one or more, (and in the sixteenth century especially Italy was remarkable for them,) were distinguished by quaint and humorous names, such as "Insensati," "Stordite," "Confusi," "Politice," "Umorose," "Oziosi," "Gelati." The Intronati, which Cervantes has called Entronadas, were at Sienna.

"Les Intronati mot qu'on ne peut rendre en Francais que par les Abasourdis ou les Stupides, avaient autant d'esprit et de malice, mais plus d'elegance que les Rozze (grossiers, mal gracieux stupides). Leur Academie avait été fondée en 1525 par le Tolommei, Luca Contile, François Piccolomini, qui fut depuis Archevêque de Sienne, et par d'autres hommes distingués dans la Philosophie et dans les lettres. Elle faisoit une étude particulière de la langue Toscane et son Theatre Comique avait une grande celebrité."—Ginguené Hist. Litteraire de l'Italie.

Milan had its Trasformati; Pavia the Affidati, Desiosi; Mantua the Invhagati Intenti; but for further information the reader may consult Ginguené or Triaboschi, who has in his eighth volume an entire chapter upon the academies.