[172] The passage is too long to be conveniently cited, but it is very severe. See Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. pp. 157, 158.
[173] See ante, Vol. I. pp. 249-254. But, besides what is said there, Francisco de Portugal, who died in 1632, tells us in his “Arte de Galantería,” (Lisboa, 1670, 4to, p. 96), that Simon de Silveira (I suppose the Portuguese poet who lived about 1500; Barbosa, Tom. III. p. 722) once swore upon the Evangelists, that he believed the whole of the Amadis to be true history.
[174] Clemencin, in the Preface to his edition of Don Quixote, Tom. I. pp. xi.-xvi., cites many other proofs of the passion for books of chivalry at that period in Spain; adding a reference to the “Recopilacion de Leyes de las Indias,” Lib. I. Tít. 24, Ley 4, for the law of 1553, and printing at length the very curious petition of the Cortes of 1555, which I have not seen anywhere else, and which would probably have produced the law it demanded, if the abdication of the Emperor, the same year, had not prevented all action upon the matter.
[175] Allusions to the fanaticism of the lower classes on the subject of books of chivalry are happily introduced into Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 32, and in other places. It extended, too, to those better bred and informed. Francisco de Portugal, in the “Arte de Galantería,” cited in a preceding note, and written before 1632, tells the following anecdote: “A knight came home one day from the chase and found his wife and daughters and their women crying. Surprised and grieved, he asked them if any child or relation were dead. ‘No,’ they answered, suffocated with tears. ‘Why, then, do you weep so?’ he rejoined, still more amazed. ‘Sir,’ they replied, ‘Amadis is dead.’ They had read so far.” p. 96.
[176] Cervantes himself, as his Don Quixote amply proves, must, at some period of his life, have been a devoted reader of the romances of chivalry. How minute and exact his knowledge of them was may be seen, among other passages, from one at the end of the twentieth chapter of Part First, where, speaking of Gasabal, the esquire of Galaor, he observes that his name is mentioned but once in the history of Amadis of Gaul;—a fact which the indefatigable Mr. Bowle took the pains to verify, when reading that huge romance. See his “Letter to Dr. Percy, on a New and Classical Edition of Don Quixote.” London, 1777, 4to, p. 25.
[177] Clemencin, in his Preface, notes “D. Policisne de Boecia,” printed in 1602, as the last book of chivalry that was written in Spain, and adds, that, after 1605, “no se publicó de nuevo libro alguno de caballerías, y dejaron de reimprimirse los anteriores.” (p. xxi.) To this remark of Clemencin, however, there are exceptions. For instance, the “Genealogía de la Toledana Discreta, Primera Parte,” por Eugenio Martinez, a tale of chivalry in octave stanzas, was reprinted in 1608; and “El Caballero del Febo,” and “Claridiano,” his son, are extant in editions of 1617. The period of the passion for such books in Spain can be readily seen in the Bibliographical Catalogue, and notices of them by Salvá, in the Repertorio Americano, London, 1827, Tom. IV. pp. 29-74. It was eminently the sixteenth century.
[178] See Appendix (E).
[179] Cervantes reproaches Avellaneda with being an Aragonese, because he sometimes omits the article where a Castilian would insert it. (Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 59.) The rest of the discussion about him is found in Pellicer, Vida, pp. clvi.-clxv.; in Navarrete, Vida, pp. 144-151; in Clemencin’s Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 59, notes; and in Adolfo de Castro’s Conde Duque de Olivares, Cadiz, 1846, 8vo, pp. 11, etc. This Avellaneda, whoever he was, called his book “Segundo Tomo del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha,” etc., (Tarragona, 1614, 12mo), and printed it so that it matches very well with the Valencian edition, 1605, of the First Part of the genuine Don Quixote;—both of which I have. There are editions of it, Madrid, 1732 and 1805; and a translation by Le Sage, 1704, in which,—after his manner of translating,—he alters and enlarges the original work with little ceremony or good faith. The edition of 1805, in 2 vols. 12mo, is expurgated.
[180] Avellaneda, c. 26.
[181] “Tiene mas lengua que manos,” says Avellaneda, coarsely.