[226] Chrónica General, 1604, Parte III. f. 61, and Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 7.
[227] For example: “Ayudad vos, y Dios ayudarvos ha,”—“Help yourself and God will help you,”—near the end; and “El Bien nunca muere,”—“Good never dies,”—which is in the first tale.
[228] “Quien en l’arenal sembra, non trilla pegujares,”—“He that sows on the sea-beach reaps little for himself.” Stanza 160. Pegujares, a singular word, which occurs once in Don Quixote, is said by Clemencin (Tom. IV. p. 34) to come from peculio. See, also, Partida IV. Título xvii. Ley 7.
[229] Reprinted in Mayans, Orígenes, Tom. II. pp. 179-210. See also, the Proverbs from Seneca by Pero Diaz, mentioned in note 33 to Period I. chap. 19, and pp. 376, 377, of Vol. I.
[230] I have never seen the Proverbs collected by Pedro Valles, the Aragonese, but Mayans y Siscar had in his library a copy of them, which is described in the “Specimen Bibliothecæ Hispano-Majansianæ, etc., ex Musæo Davidis Clementis,” Hannoveræ, 1753, 4to, p. 67. The “Cartas de Blasco de Garay” have been often printed; but the oldest and most complete edition I have seen is that of Venice, 1553, 12mo; probably not the first. The second of the letters of Garay is not in proverbs, and, in this edition, is followed by a devout prayer; the whole being intended, as the author says, “to win the attention not so much of the wise as of those who are wont to read nothing but Celestina and such like books.” The “Proverbios” of Francisco de Castilla, in the volume with his “Theórica de Virtudes,” (1552, ff. 64-69,) are not proverbs, but an exhortation in verse to a wise and holy life.
[231] “Refranes, etc., que coligio y gloso, el Comendador, Hernan Nuñez, Profesor de Retórica en la Universidad de Salamanca,” Madrid, 1619, 4to. The preface, by Leo de Castro, implies that the volume was printed during the life of Nuñez, who died in 1553; but I find no edition older than that of 1555. See the note of Pellicer to Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 34.
[232] “La Filosofía Vulgar de Juan de Mal Lara, Vezino de Sevilla,” (Sevilla, 1558, Madrid, 1618, 4to, etc.,)—a person of note in his time, whom we have mentioned (ante, II. 26) among the dramatic poets, and who died in 1571, forty-four years old. (Seman. Pintoresco, 1845, p. 34.) The collection of Lorenzo Palmireno is reprinted in the fourth volume of Nuñez, ed. Madrid, 1804, 12mo. Oudin’s collection was reprinted at Brussels in 1611, 12mo. Juan Sorapan de Rieros, “Medecina Española, en Proverbios Vulgares de Nuestra Lengua,” was printed at Granada, 1616-17, 4to, in two parts. “Refranes Castellanos con Latinos, etc., por el Licenciado Gerónimo Martin Caro y Cejudo,” Madrid, 1675, 4to; reprinted 1792. I do not notice the “Apotegmas” of Juan Rufo, (1596,) nor the “Floresta de Apotegmas of Santa Cruz,” (first printed in 1574, and often afterwards; e. g. Bruselas, 1629,)—the last of which is a pleasant hook, praised by Lope de Vega in his first tale,—because both of them are rather jest-books than collections of proverbs. The “Proverbios Morales” of Christ. Perez de Herrera (Madrid, 1618, 4to) are in rhyme, and too poor to deserve notice, even if they had been in prose.
[233] Vargas y Ponce, Declamacion, Madrid, 1793, 4to, App., p. 93.
[234] Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. I. pp. 188-191, and the Diálogo de las Lenguas, p. 12, where the author says, “In our proverbs, you see the purity of the Castilian language”; and p. 170, where he says, “The purest Castilian we have is in our proverbs.” The “Don Quixote” will occur to every body as a book that proves how much proverbs enter into Spanish literature; but I should rather cite the “Celestina,” where their number is, I think, equally great in proportion, and their serious application more effective.
[235] “Jardin de Flores Curiosas, etc., por Ant. de Torquemada,” 1570, 1573, 1587, 1589. The edition of Anveres, 1575, 18mo, fills 536 pages. “The Spanish Mandeville of Miracles, or the Garden of Curious Flowers,” (London, 1600, 4to,) is a translation into good old English, by Ferdinand Walker. The original is strictly prohibited in the Index Expurgatorius of 1667, p. 68. The “Coloquios Satíricos,” by the same author, (1553,) I have never seen.