Clemencin doubts whether, in painting the burlesque scene in the duke’s court-yard, Cervantes had any intention of ridiculing the Inquisition; but his doubt is grounded merely on the fact that Cervantes, in several of his other works, eulogizes this barbarous tribunal. However, in the chapter of Don Quixote, above commented on, Cervantes pays himself the compliment of saying that all the arrangements for the pretended resurrection of Altisidora were made “so to the life, that there was but little difference between them and reality.” His avowed aim was to exhibit the inquisitors in no less ridiculous a light than Don Quixote and Sancho, for he makes the grave historian, Cid Hamet Benengeli, observe, that “to his thinking the mockers were as mad as the mocked.”—(Afirmando que tiene para si ser tan locos los burladores como los burlados.)
(I).
“Hereupon the bachelor ran into a string of questions worthy of that most indefatigable questioner, the lately defunct Almirante.” (Page 122).
Our author no doubt here alludes to the questions addressed by Don Fadrique Enríquez, who filled the high post of Admiral of Castile, to Luis de Escobar, a Franciscan Monk. Escobar published, at Saragossa, in the year 1543, the first volume of a work, entitled Preguntas del Almirante, (Queries of the Admiral.) The favour with which this volume was received by some of the most learned men of the age, encouraged the author to submit to the press a second part, which terminates with a curious paragraph, of which the following is a translation:—
“To the honour and glory of Our Lord and Saviour, and of his blessed Mother Our Lady, here ends the second part of the four hundred replies to the Admiral of Castile, Don Fadrique Enriques, and other persons answered but not named by the author. To these are added two hundred answers, which, with the four hundred of the first part, and the four hundred of this second part, complete one thousand. This work was printed in the most noble city of Valladolid (anciently called Pincia.) Finished on the second of January of this present year, MDLII.”
This work is a collection of replies, some in verse, some in prose, written in answer to questions addressed to the Padre Escobar by various individuals. One of the principal interrogators is Dr. Céspedes, who is distinguished by the titles of medico famoso, clérigo i catedrátigo in Valladolid. The names of several monks and Spanish grandees are attached to many of the queries, of which, however, the majority emanates from the Almirante de Castilla, and for that reason the book is called, Preguntas del Almirante. These questions relate chiefly to points of religion and history, and some refer to matters connected with medicine and the phenomena of nature. The task of replying to many of them must have put Escobar’s ingenuity and learning to a severe test.
(J).
“Can any one persuade himself into the belief that Palmerius of England, Florindos, and Floriandos are to be seen going about armed cap-à-pie, like the figures in old tapestry on tavern walls?” (Page 123).