Yo he compuesto Romances infinitos
Y el de los Zelos es aquel que estimo
Entre otros, que los tengo par mal ditos.
* * * * * * * * * *
Mi Filena * * * * * * * *
Resonò por las selvas, &c.
[332] Don Vicente de los Rios entertains so little doubt of the reality of the romantic events, recorded in the Captive, that he has interwoven them in his account of the life of Cervantes.
[333] These dramas must not be confounded with the eight well known comedies which Cervantes subsequently wrote. His tragedy of Numantia, and his comedy of Life in Algiers, (Trato de Argel) appear to have been written at an earlier period.
[334] For example, when Don Quixote speaks of the achievements of the old knights, he always uses the antiquated expression:—Las fazañas que han fecho, instead of hazañas que han hecho.
[335] In the original Spanish, the term insula is uniformly employed instead of the common word isla. Sancho probably understood what an isla signified; but an insula was a word which conveyed to his mind the idea of something magical and extraordinary. He accordingly takes a great pleasure in emphatically repeating it.
[336] As one specimen out of many, it will be sufficient to quote the speech of the shepherdess Marcella. It is in the true prose style of Cicero, and it is altogether a composition which has seldom been equalled in any modern language:—
Hizome el Cielo, segun vosotros dezis, hermosa, y de tal manera, que sin ser poderosos à otra cosa, à que me ameys os mueve mi hermosura. Y por al amor que me mostràys, dezis, y aun quereys que estè yo obligada à amaros. Yo conozco con el natural entendimiento, que Dios me ha dado, que todo lo hermoso es amable, mas no alcanço, que por razon de ser amado, esté obligado lo que es amado por hermoso, à amar à quien le ama. Y mas que podria acontecer, que el amador de lo hermoso fuèsse feo; y siendo lo feo digno de ser aborrecido, càe muy mal el dezir: Quièrote por hermosa, hasme de amar, aunque sea feo. Pero puesto caso que corran igualmente las hermosuras, no por esso han de correr iguales los desseos; que no todas las hermosùras enamòran, que algunas alegran la vista, y no riuden la voluntad: que si todas las bellezas enamorassèn, y rindiessèn: serià un andar las voluntades confusas, y descaminadas, sin saber en qual avian de parar; porque siendo infinitos los Sujetos hermosos, infinitos avian de ser los dessèos: y segun yo he oydo dezir, el verdadero Amor no se divide, y ha de ser voluntario, y no forçoso.
[337] From rincon (a corner), and cortar (to shorten or cut). They are merely two humorous names for pick-pockets or purse-cutters. To those who wish to become acquainted with the Novelas Exemplares, I would recommend the edition published at Madrid in 1783, by Antonio Sancha, which as far as I know is the latest.
[338] A new and elegant edition of the Galatea was printed at Madrid in 1784, by Antonio Sancha.
[339] The following is a specimen of Cervantes’s Versos de Arte Mayor:—