I have no more to say, so pray God to keep you, and give me patience to bear all the ill that will be spoken of me by more than one subtle and starched critic. Vale.
CONTENTS.
[PREFACE.]
[DEDICATION]
[AUTHOR'S PREFACE.]
[CONTENTS.]
[THE LADY CORNELIA.]
[RINCONETE AND CORTADILLO:]
[THE LICENTIATE VIDRIERA; OR, DOCTOR GLASS-CASE.]
[THE DECEITFUL MARRIAGE]
[DIALOGUE BETWEEN SCIPIO AND BERGANZE, DOGS OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE RESURRECTION IN THE CITY OF VALLADOLID, COMMONLY CALLED THE DOGS OF MAHUDES]
[THE LITTLE GIPSY GIRL.]
[THE GENEROUS LOVER.]
[THE SPANISH-ENGLISH LADY.]
[THE FORCE OF BLOOD.]
[THE JEALOUS ESTRAMADURAN.]
[THE ILLUSTRIOUS SCULLERY-MAID.]
[THE TWO DAMSELS.]
THE LADY CORNELIA.
Don Antonio de Isunza and Don Juan de Gamboa, gentlemen of high birth and excellent sense, both of the same age, and very intimate friends, being students together at Salamanca, determined to abandon their studies and proceed to Flanders. To this resolution they were incited by the fervour of youth, their desire to see the world, and their conviction that the profession of arms, so becoming to all, is more particularly suitable to men of illustrious race.
But they did not reach Flanders until peace was restored, or at least on the point of being concluded; and at Antwerp they received letters from their parents, wherein the latter expressed the great displeasure caused them by their sons having left their studies without informing them of their intention, which if they had done, the proper measures might have been taken for their making the journey in a manner befitting their birth and station.
Unwilling to give further dissatisfaction to their parents, the young men resolved to return to Spain, the rather as there was now nothing to be done in Flanders. But before doing so they determined to visit all the most renowned cities of Italy; and having seen the greater part of them, they were so much attracted by the noble university of Bologna, that they resolved to remain there and complete the studies abandoned at Salamanca.
They imparted their intentions to their parents, who testified their entire approbation by the magnificence with which they provided their sons with every thing proper to their rank, to the end that, in their manner of living, they might show who they were, and of what house they were born. From the first day, therefore, that the young men visited the schools, all perceived them to be gallant, sensible, and well-bred gentlemen.