[46] The fame and the excellence of Le Diable Boiteux of Le Sage entitle the author of El Diablo Cojuelo to notice in this chapter. Luis Velez de Guevara (1572 or 1574-1644) of Ecija was a fertile dramatist. His Diablo Cojuelo, published in 1641, supplied the starting-point, and the matter but not the form, of the two first chapters of Le Diable Boiteux. There is nothing answering to the famous “Après cela on nous réconcilia; nous nous embrassâmes; depuis ce temps là nous sommes ennemis mortels.” The matter of the Diablo Cojuelo is akin to the Visions of Quevedo, and the style is very idiomatic.
[47] This and most of the other works mentioned here will be found in the two volumes of Historiadores de Sucesos Particulares in the Biblioteca de Ribadeneyra, vols. xxi. and xxviii.
[48] The Historiadores Primitevos de Indias fill two volumes—xxii. and xxvi.—in the Biblioteca de Ribadeneyra.
[49] The standard edition of the Historia General y Natural de las Indias, islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano, is that in four volumes folio, edited by Don Amador de los Rios for the Academy of History in 1851-1855.
[50] Coleccion de Documentos inéditos para la Historia de España, vols. lxii.-lxvi.
[51] The commentaries of the Inca Garcilaso were early translated into English, and have been reprinted by the Hakluyt Society.
[52] The works of Mariana are in the Biblioteca de Ribadeneyra, vols. xxx. and xxxi.; but it is much more pleasant to read his history in the edition of Ibarra, 1780, 2 vols. folio, beautifully printed.
[53] There is not, I think, any modern edition of Sandoval, whose life of Charles V. first appeared in 1604-1606, since the second edition of Antwerp, 1681. It was translated and abridged in 1703 by Captain John Stevens, an indefatigable hack to whom we are indebted for many bad versions of Spanish originals.
[54] A very finely printed edition of The Conquest of Mexico, unfortunately disfigured by silly plates, was published at Madrid by Sancha in 1783.
[55] Part of Gracian is in the Biblioteca de Ribadeneyra, vol. lxv. A translation of the Oráculo Manual has been included in The Golden Treasury.