[8] In El Licenciado Vidriera, and in La Tía fingida.
[9] “Relacion de la muerte y exequias de la Reyna Doña Isabel de Valois,”—(Published in Madrid in 1569). It is worthy of notice that the first poetic essays of Cervantes were dedicated to the memory of a princess, whose marriage with Phillip II., after having been the affianced bride of his son, forms a romantic episode in history, and is the subject of Schiller’s tragedy of Don Carlos.
[10] “No había mejores soldados, que los que se transplantaban de la tierra de los estudios en los campos de la guerra, y ninguno salió de estudiante para soldado, que no lo fuese por estremo; porque quando se avienen y se juntan las fuerzas con el ingenio, y el ingenio con las fuerzas, hacen un compuesto milagroso en quien Marte se alegre.”
[11] At the period here alluded to, the rank of a private soldier was far from being considered degrading. Young men of birth and fortune, on entering the army, frequently served for some time as private soldiers, before they attained a rank which invested them with any authority or importance.
[12] Cervantes does not here overrate the importance of the Battle of Lepanto, the consequences of which were for a time very fatal to the Turks, and threatened to shake to its foundation the throne of Selim II. When Pope Pius V. heard of the victory, he held up his hands and exclaimed in Ecstasy,—“There was a man sent from God, and his name was John,”—alluding to Don John of Austria.
Arrojóse mi vista a la campaña
Rasa del mar, que trujo a mi memoria
Del heroica Don Juan, la heroica hazaña
Donde con alta de saldados gloria.
I con proprio valor, I curado pecho
Tuve (aunque humilde) parte en la Victoria.
Viaje del Parnaso, Cap. I.
[14] Piso sus rúas más de un año.
[15] Prólogo to the Novelas Exemplares.