“Inasmuch as it has been my wish to exempt mankind from the prescription of the physician, the spatula of the apothecary, and the tape of the barber, I have deemed it expedient to write this book in my mother tongue, to render it more useful to my nation, in which though there are many latinists, yet there are many more romancistas;[69] and there is no reason why the latter should not enjoy the benefit of those old Spanish aphorisms on which I have commented. These maxims coming as they do from our forefathers ought to be venerated instead of being despised; and to show that this book is derived therefrom, I have given it the title of Medecina Española. If among my readers there should be any who despise their genuine native language, they will find on the margin in Latin, the substance of what is written in the text, together with references to the works of learned authors who have written on the subject.”
(H).
“He presented himself after the victory to the illustrious emperor, who was at that moment engaged in dictating to his Maestre de Campo, Alonzo Vivas, the three notable words of Julius Cæsar, altering the third as became a Christian prince, &c.” (Page 120).
In the commentary on the war in Flanders, by Luis de Ávila y Zuñiga,[70] the following passage occurs:—
“This great victory (which terminated the battle fought on the river Albis, on the 24th of August, 1547), his Majesty attributed to God, as a thing wrought by God’s hand, and therefore he repeated those three words of Cæsar, changing the third as became a Christian prince, acknowledging the favour which God conferred on him, Vine, vi y Dios venció.”
This and other allusions to Charles V., would seem to have given rise to the idea that the Buscapié contained the avowal of Cervantes that his principal object in writing Don Quixote, had been to satirize certain acts of the renowned emperor, no less extravagant than those which are recorded of the knights-errant of old. This idea, though wholly unfounded, received some degree of confirmation from a letter of Don Antonio Ruidiaz, published by Vicente de los Ríos, in his Life of Cervantes. In that letter Ruidiaz mentions having had an opportunity of perusing a copy of the Buscapié,[71] and that it appeared to him to be merely a satire on several celebrated individuals, among whom were the Emperor Charles V., and the Duke de Lerma. Cervantes, doubtless means to censure the taste cherished by those personages for chivalrous entertainments, when, in allusion to the famous festivities at Binche, he says in the Buscapié:—“The knights actually performed these feats or rather these fooleries, and they were approved by the Emperor and the Prince Don Philip, who derived therefrom much entertainment. And will it be said that there are not other madmen in the world besides the ingenious Knight of La Mancha, when such madness finds favour in the eyes of emperors and kings?”
But because Cervantes has here censured Charles V.’s taste for chivalrous diversions, by what process of reasoning is it to be inferred that he intended Don Quixote as a satire on that monarch? It may also be asked what acts in the life of Charles V. bear any resemblance to the achievements of the Knight of La Mancha? Certainly none! yet, nevertheless, some able critics have racked their ingenuity in endeavouring to discover allusions where none exist.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that in Don Quixote there is no lack of ridicule and censure on many customs and abuses which prevailed in the time of Cervantes. An amusing satire on the Inquisition occurs in vol. iv., where Don Quixote and Sancho are overtaken and made prisoners by the duke’s servants, who ever and anon address them thus:—“Go on, ye Troglodytes! peace, ye barbarians! pay, ye Anthropophagi! complain not, ye Scythians! open not your eyes, ye muttering Polyphemuses! ye carnivorous lions!” &c. Thereby imitating the language which the ministers of the holy tribunal were wont to address to criminals, or presumed criminals. Then follows the description of the auto de fe which takes place when Don Quixote and Sancho are conducted to the court-yard of the castle, “around which about a hundred torches were placed in sockets, and in the galleries of the court there were more than five hundred lights, insomuch that in spite of the night, which was somewhat dark, there seemed to be no want of the day.”
The arrangement of the place is minutely described, and the seats allotted to the different personages present at the auto are specified thus: “On one side of the court a sort of stage or platform was erected, and on it were two chairs. On these chairs were seated two personages (Minos and Rhadamanthus, the presiding judges in Pandemonium), whose crowns on their heads and sceptres in their hands denoted them to be kings, either real or feigned. And now, two great persons ascended the platform with a numerous attendance whom Don Quixote presently knew to be the Duke and Duchess whose guest he had been:”—The following passage is intended as a parody on the cruel threats which the inquisitors held out to criminals. “At this juncture an officer crossed the place, and coming to Sancho, threw over him a robe of black buckram, all painted over with flames, and taking off his cap, put on his head a pasteboard mitre three feet high, like those used by penitents, and whispering in his ear bade him not to open his lips because if he did they would put a gag in his mouth or kill him.” A little further on is depicted the refinement of cruelty with which the Inquisition excited the merriment as well as the terror of the populace, by showing the criminals dressed up in masquerade, and covered with fantastic emblems and devices. “Sancho viewed himself from top to toe, and saw himself all covered with flames, but finding that they did not burn him he cared not two ardites. He took off his mitre and saw it all painted over with devils; he then put it on again saying within himself, well these flames do not burn me, nor do these demons carry me away. Don Quixote also surveyed him, and though dismay suspended his senses, he could not but smile to behold Sancho’s figure.” And in the conclusion of the chapter, the scene descriptive of the resurrection of Altisidora, Cervantes evidently ridicules the fatuity of the inquisitorial judges, who after having tormented a prisoner into the confession of a crime of which he was innocent, would gravely congratulate themselves on having effected a conversion.
Those who wish to verify the truthfulness of the satire dealt out by Cervantes on the Autos de fe, may be referred to a work by a learned Spanish writer, better known to foreigners than to the author’s own countrymen. It is entitled La Inquisicion sin Mascara, by the late Don Antonio Puigblanch, published at Cádiz, in the year 1811; the author screening himself under the fictitious name of Natanael Jomtob.[72]