[337] Voltaire, Œuvres, ed. Beaumarchais, Tom. XX. p. 155. Le Sage, Œuvres, Paris, 1810, 8vo, Tom. I. p. xxxix., where Voltaire is said to have been attacked by Le Sage, in one of his dramas; besides which it is supposed Le Sage ridiculed him under the name of Triaquero, in Gil Blas, Lib. X. c. 5. But the most important and curious discussion concerning the authorship of Gil Blas is the one that was carried on, between 1818 and 1822, by François de Neufchâteau and Antonio de Llorente, the author of the History of the Inquisition. It began with a memoir, by the first, read to the French Academy, (1818,) and an edition of Gil Blas, (Paris, 1820, 3 tom. 8vo,) in both of which he maintains Le Sage to be the true author of that romance. To both Llorente replied by a counter memoir, addressed to the French Academy, and by his “Observations sur Gil Blas,” (Paris, 1822, 12mo,) and his “Observaciones sobre Gil Blas” (Madrid, 1822, 12mo); two works not exactly alike, but substantially so, and equally maintaining that Gil Blas is Spanish in its origin, and probably the work of Solís, the historian, who, as Llorente conjectures, wrote a romance in Spanish, entitled, “El Bachiller de Salamanca,” the manuscript of which coming into the possession of Le Sage, he first plundered from it the materials for his Gil Blas, which he published in 1715-35, and then gave the world the remainder as the “Bachelier de Salamanque,” in 1738. This theory of Llorente is explained, with more skill than is shown in its original framing, by the late accomplished scholar, Mr. A. H. Everett, in an article which first appeared in the North American Review, for October, 1827, when its author was Minister of the United States in Spain, and afterwards in his pleasant “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays,” published in Boston, 1845, 12mo.
[338] “Le Point d’Honneur” is from “No hay Amigo para Amigo,” which is the first play in the Comedias de Roxas, 1680;—and “Don Cesar Ursino” is from “Peor esta que estaba,” in Calderon, Comedias, 1763, Tom. III. The errors of Gil Blas in Spanish geography and history are constantly pointed out by Llorente as blunders of Le Sage in the careless use of his original; while, on the other hand, Fr. de Neufchâteau points out its allusions to Parisian society in the time of Le Sage. But of his free use of Spanish fictions, which he took no pains to conceal, the proof is abundant. I have already noticed, when speaking of Espinel, (ante, [pp. 67-70],) how much Le Sage took from “Marcos de Obregon”; but, besides this, the adventures of Don Rafael with the Seigneur de Moyadas in Gil Blas (Lib. V. c. 1) are taken from “Los Empeños del Mentir” of Mendoza (Fenix Castellano, 1690, p. 254);—the story of the Marriage de Vengeance in Gil Blas (Lib. IV. c. 4) is from the play of Roxas, “Casarse por Vengarse”;—the story of Aurora de Guzman in Gil Blas (Lib. IV. c. 5 and 6) is from “Todo es enredos Amor,” by Diego de Córdoba y Figueroa;—and so on. See Tieck’s Vorrede to his translation of Marcos de Obregon (1827); Adolfo de Castro’s Poesías de Calderon y Plagios de Le Sage, (Cadiz, 1845, 18mo, a curious little pamphlet); and the fourth book of the same author’s “Conde Duque de Olivares” (Cadiz, 1846, 8vo). In his “Bachelier de Salamanque,” Le Sage goes one step further. On the title-page of this romance, first printed three years after the last volume of Gil Blas appeared, he says expressly, that “it is translated from a Spanish manuscript,” and yet the story of Doña Cintia de la Carrera, in the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth chapters, is taken from Moreto’s “Desden con el Desden”; a play as well known as any in Spanish literature.
[339] “Poesías de Don Vicente Garcia de la Huerta,” Madrid, 1778, 12mo, and a second edition, 1786. “La Perromachia,” a mock-heroic on the loves and quarrels of sundry dogs, by Francisco Nieto Molina, (Madrid, 1765, 12mo,) is too poor to deserve notice, though it is an attempt to give greater currency to the earlier national verse,—the redondillas.
[340] J. J. Lopez de Sedano, “Parnaso Español,” (Madrid, Sancha, 1768-78, 9 tom. 12mo,) was the subject, of a good deal of criticism soon after it appeared. The club of the elder Moratin—to be noticed immediately—was much dissatisfied with it (Obras Póstumas de N. F. Moratin, Londres, 1825, 12mo, p. xxv.);—Yriarte in 1778 printed a dialogue on it, “Donde las dan las toman,” full of severity (Obras, 1805, Tom. VI.);—and in 1785 Sedano replied, under the name of Juan Maria Chavero y Eslava de Ronda, in four volumes, 12mo, published at Málaga and called the “Colóquios de Espina.”
[341] T. A. Sanchez (born 1732, died 1798) published his “Poesías Anteriores al Siglo XV.” at Madrid, in 4 tom. 8vo, 1779-90, but printed very little else.
[342] Martin Sarmiento, “Memorias para la Historia de la Poesía y Poetas Españoles,” Madrid, 1775, 4to. He was born in 1692, and wrote a great deal, but published little. His defence of his master, Feyjoó, (1732,) generally goes with the “Teatro Crítico”; and some of his tracts are to be found in the Seminario Erudito, Tom. V., VI., XIX., and XX. His “Historia de la Poesía,” printed as the first volume of his Works, which were not further continued, is the more valuable, because, making his inquiries quite independently of Sanchez, he often comes to the same results.
[343] Besides the poems noted in the text, I have, by Moratin the elder, an Ode on account of an act of mercy and pardon by Charles III., in 1762, and the “Egloga á Velasco y Gonzalez,” printed on occasion of their portraits being placed in the Academy, in 1770; both of little consequence, but not, I believe, noticed elsewhere. His “Obras Póstumas” were printed at Barcelona, in 1821, 4to, and reprinted at London, in 1825, 12mo. Moratin’s “Carta Sobre las Fiestas de Toros,” (Madrid, 1777, 12mo,) which is a slight prose tract, is intended to prove historically that the amusement of bull-fighting is Spanish in its origin and character;—a point concerning which those who have read the Chronicles of Muntaner and the Cid can have little doubt. Moratin had the power of improvisating with great effect. Obras, 1825, pp. xxxiv.-xxxix.
[344] N. F. Moratin, Obras Póstumas, 1821, pp. xxiv.-xxxi.
[345] Sempere, Biblioteca, Tom. II. p. 21. Puybusque, Tom. II. p. 493. His name, I believe, was originally spelt Cadalso; but as that is a recognized word, meaning “scaffold,” it is softened in the recent Madrid editions of his Works into Cadahalso, which means “cottage” or “shanty.” Both these words, however, are regarded as one and the same, in the first edition of the Dictionary of the Academy, so that perhaps not much is gained by the change.
[346] His “Eruditos á la Violeta,” and his poetry, “Ocios de mi Juventud,” were printed at Madrid, 1772 and 1773, 4to, under the assumed name of Joseph Vasquez. An edition of his Works, with an excellent Life by Navarrete, appeared at Madrid, in 1818, in 3 tom. 12mo, and has been reprinted more than once since. For the contemporary opinion of Cadahalso, see Sempere, loc. cit.