Summary on Cervantes
A Castilian of refined manners; a gentleman, true to religion, and true to honour.
A scholar and a soldier, and fought under the banners of Don John of Austria, at Lepanto, lost his arm and was captured.
Endured slavery not only with fortitude, but with mirth; and by the superiority of nature, mastered and overawed his barbarian owner.
Finally ransomed, he resumed his native destiny, the awful task of achieving fame; and for that reason died poor and a prisoner, while nobles and kings over their goblets of gold gave relish to their pleasures by the charms of his divine genius. He was the inventor of novels for the Spaniards, and in his
Persilis and Sigismunda
, the English may find the germ of their
Robinson Crusoe