[3] History of Spanish Literature, i. 469-71.
[4] Brunet mentions an Antwerp edition of 1553.
[5] At Tarragona, 1586; Zaragoza, 1595; Medina del Campo and Valladolid, 1603; Zaragoza again, 1652, with Luna’s second part; Madrid, 1664, without the second part. There was a new edition published at Paris in 1847, with the second parts.
[6] Lazarillo was about eight years old when his father went in the Gelves expedition in 1510.
[7] See Sir Francis Doyle’s poem.
[8] Cervantes knew his Lazarillo well. He copies this quotation and puts it into the mouth of the curate when he was examining the books of Don Quixote.
[9] Tejares is a small village on the left bank of the river Tormes, about two miles from Salamanca. It consists of a church dedicated to San Pedro, and about fifty houses on the skirts of a hill.
[10] The river Tormes rises in the Sierra de Gredos, a range of hills dividing Estremadura from Old Castille, on the confines of the province of Avila. Its chief sources are a large sheet of water called the “Laguna de Gredos,” and a perennial stream called “Tornella.” Receiving several streams from the Gredos hills, the Tormes flows north, passing by Alba de Tormes, where there is a stone bridge; and then turns north-west, passing Salamanca, where there is another fine stone bridge, and Ledesma. Finally, it falls into the Douro, on the Portuguese frontier. The Tormes turns many flour mills.
[11] This expedition against the Moors started from Malaga under the command of Don Garcia de Toledo in 1510, when Lazarillo was seven years old. The fleet first touched at Sicily and then made for the island of Los Gelves, off the African coast, between Tunis and Tripoli, now called Zerbi. With Toledo were Diego de Vera and Count Pedro Navarro. Zerbi was a low sandy island covered with palm-trees, ruled by a Sheikh of its own. The army landed on the 8th of August 1510. But the Spaniards fell into an ambuscade and were defeated, Toledo being among the slain. Four thousand were killed or taken prisoners. The rest escaped to the ships and returned to Sicily. Toledo was a grandson of the first Duke of Alva.
[12] Comendadores were knights of the Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcantara. Each had a title affixed to their knighthood. The Comendador of La Magdalena was a knight of the Order of Alcantara.