Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote
even in the midst of all his own sufferings, he found ways of aiding his
fellow-victims and inspiring them with the hopes denied to himself.
Roderigo had escaped long before, and from that time was making constant
exertion to raise the needful amount to redeem Miguel from the Dey, but
not till September, 1580, did he succeed in effecting his release; some
biographers making it a still later date.
His father had long been dead, and his mother and sisters gathered what
they could, but the combined family efforts were insufficient. There was
a society of pious and generous monks, who made special exertions to
assist in the liberation of Christian captives, and they finally made up
the amount demanded by Azan for Cervantes' release.
Worn down in spirit, broken in health, crushed at heart, who may venture
to speak of the effect upon him when he once more found himself at home
and in the embraces of his family? He himself says: "What transport in
life can equal that which a man feels on the restoration of his
liberty?" There is probably no more thrilling or exact an account of the
Algerine slavery than he has given in "Don Quixote." Whether his love
for a military life still pursued him, whether he desired an opportunity
for revenge upon his persecutors, or whether it was fatality,--maimed
and ruined as he was he once more entered the army. We cannot analyze
his motive. He makes his bachelor Sampson say, "The historian must pen
things not as they ought to have been but as they really were, without
adding to or diminishing aught from the truth." The lives of literary
men are not always devoid of stirring incidents. M. Viardot says of
him: "Cervantes was an illustrious man before he became an illustrious
author; the doer of great deeds before he produced an immortal book."
Don Lope de Figueras then commanded a regiment of tried and veteran
soldiers in the army of the Duke of Alva, in Portugal. His brother
Roderigo was serving in it when he joined it; and as Figueras had known
Cervantes in former campaigns, it is most probable he was in his
regiment. Later on, we find Cervantes accompanying the Marquis de Santa
Cruz on an expedition to the Azores, serving long and bravely under him.
The conquest of the Azores is described as a fiercely won but brilliant
victory over all the islands; and Cervantes immortalized the genius and
gallantry of the admiral in a sonnet.
The spirit of adventure ran high among the Castilians, while the whole
nation was at the same time in course of mental as well as moral
development. We are obliged to acknowledge that Spain in many ways was
far behind Italy, though hardly as some would have it, at the distance
of half a century. We must remember that, in 1530, there were only two
hundred printing-presses in the whole of Europe, and that when the first
one was set up in London, the Westminster abbot exclaimed, "Brethren,
this is a tremendous engine! We must control it, or it will conquer us."
The first press in Spain was set up in Valencia, in 1474, and Clemencin
says that more printing-presses in the infancy of the art were probably
at work in Spain than there are at the present day.
A change seemed to have crept gradually over the whole national
character of Spain after the brilliant and prosperous reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella, commencing with the severity of the Inquisition and
continuing under the tyranny of Philip II., predisposing the army to
savage deeds, till even the women and children were infected and the
literature of the period slightly tinged.
Cervantes is too often merged into Don Quixote as if he had no separate
existence. He accomplished more for the improvement of Spanish
literature with his well-timed satire than all the laws or sermons could
effect. His remarkable mind seems to have escaped the influence of the
times, unless we make an exception of his drama "Numancia," which, while
it excites the imagination, fills us with horror at its details, and
fails to touch our hearts, but is full of historical truths. Schlegel,
however, reviews it with enthusiasm. He calls his "Life in Algiers" a
comedy, but undoubtedly it is a true picture of his own captivity. We
are touched and filled with gloom at its perusal, and only remember it
as a tragedy. These two dramas were lost sight of till the end of the
eighteenth century, and they are superior to later dramatic efforts. He
was proud of his original conception of a tragedy composed of ideal and
allegorical characters which he permitted to have part in the "Life in
Algiers," as well as in "Numancia." Of the thirty plays spoken of as
given to the stage but few now remain; but others may yet be found. The
Spaniards say the faults of a great writer are not left in the
ink-stand. Spain, in Cervantes' day, had passed the chivalric age,
though many relics of it still remained in its legends, songs, and
proverbs. Cervantes becomes his own critic in his "Supplement to a
Journey to Parnassus," and speaking of his dramas, says: "I should
declare them worthy the favor they have received were they not my own."
Unfortunately, his comedy of "La Confusa" is among the lost ones. He
alludes to it as a good one among the best.
We have known Cervantes as a student, a soldier, a captive, and an
author, and now we have to imagine our maimed and bronzed soldier-poet,
after his many fortunes of war, in the new character of a lover. In
thought we trace his noble features, his intelligent look and expressive
eye, combined with his dignified bearing and thoughtful manner, and in
so tracing we find it congenial to imagine him as being well dressed and
enveloped in the ample Spanish cloak thrown gracefully over his breast
and left shoulder, concealing the poor mutilated arm, and at the same
time making it all the more difficult to believe that the right one had
ever wielded a "Toledo blade" or sworn that very strongest vow of
loyalty, "A fe de Rodrigo."[1]
We find him much interested in the quaint old-fashioned town of
Esquivias, making many friends therein, and sometimes gossiping with the
host of the _fonda_, so famed for the generous wines of Esquivias that
it needed no "bush;" and while enjoying his cigarito and taking an
occasional morsel from the dish of _quisado_ before him, he is learning
from the same gossiping host many items of interest about the very
illustrious families of Esquivias,--for it was famed for its chivalrous
prowess and its "claims of long descent." He had commenced his
"Galatea," and in it he was painting living portraits, and with great
delicacy he was, as the shepherd Elicio, portraying his passion for
Catalina, the daughter of Fernando de Salazar y Voxmediano and Catalina
de Palacios, both of illustrious families. Her father was dead, and she
had been educated by her uncle, Francisco de Salazar, who left her a
legacy in his will.
The fair Catalina, like other Spanish senoritas, was under the espionage
of a strict duena, and his opportunities of seeing her were very
limited. Sometimes we fancy him awaiting the passing of the hour of the
siesta and knocking at the grating of the heavy door of the house of the
Salazars, and in reply to the porter's question of _Quien es_?
answering, in his melodious tones, _Gente de paz_ (literally, "a
friend"),--a precaution which still continues in Spain. Meanwhile, his
romance of "Galatea" and of his own life are both growing. The occasion
inspires him. He is still in Esquivias, wandering through the olive
groves and by the river side, sometimes resting, and drinking in the
fragrance from an orange-tree while his untold wealth of brain was
seeking for its exit. Sometimes he had Catalina for a companion, the
duena lingering slightly behind. Sometimes he saw her at the church like
a fair saint, kneeling; but oftener he wandered alone with his now happy
thoughts, scarce knowing that the night was closing about him, or scarce
heeding the watchman who cried, "All hail, Mary, mother of Jesus! half
past twelve o'clock and a cloudy morning!" and thus, to this day, are
the Spaniards warned of the hour and the weather. His "Galatea" remains
unfinished. He had not meant that all this song should be for the public
ear. The end was for his love alone!
On the 12th of December, 1584, he was married to Catalina. Not many
years ago, the marriage contract was found in the public registry of
Esquivias. It contains an inventory of the marriage-dowry promised by
the bride's mother, of "lands, furniture, utensils, and live-stock."
Then follows the details, "several vineyards, amounting to twelve acres,
beds, chairs, brooms, brushes, poultry, and sundry sacks of flour." It
is spoken of as a very respectable dowry at a time when sacks of wheat
were worth eight reals. Then follows, in the same document, his own
settlement upon his wife, which is stated to be one hundred ducats. By
the custom of the time that was one-tenth of his whole property, or to
quote again, which "must have amounted to a thousand ducats, which at
present would be equivalent to about four hundred and fifty pounds
sterling." Gladly would we find some pleasant items of happy home life,
though, for the next four years, he lived quietly at Esquivias, and
cared for the vineyards like any landholder, till, perhaps, he tired and
went on to Seville, where he took up some mercantile business, though
never entirely giving up the pen; but from 1598 till 1605, there are no
real traces of him, when it would appear that he had removed to
Valladolid.
There is little doubt but that he suffered both in purse and feeling
from want of appreciation; but the Spanish proverb says, "An author's
work who looks to money is the coat of a tailor who works late on the
vespers of Easter Sunday." He had too noble a mind to harbor so mean a
sentiment as jealousy, and was far in advance of his age. His
countrymen, with characteristic indolence, were ready to cry, _manana,
manana_ (to-morrow, to-morrow), and so it was left for later generations
to honor his memory, for his power of invention and purity of
imagination can never be rivalled. While acting as clerk in Seville to
Antonio de Guevara, the Commissary-General to the Indian and American
dependencies, he must have been sadly disappointed, particularly as,
during that time, he had been unjustly thrown into prison on the plea of
not accounting for trust-money with satisfaction. Mr. Ticknor gives the
following interesting account: "During his residence at Seville,
Cervantes made an ineffectual application to the king for an appointment
in America, setting forth by the exact documents a general account of
his adventures, services, and sufferings while a soldier in the Levant,
and of the miseries of his life while a slave in Algiers; but no other
than a formal answer seems to have been returned to his application, and
the whole affair leaves us to infer the severity of that distress which
could induce him to seek relief in exile to a colony of which he has
elsewhere spoken as the great resort for rogues." The appointment he
desired was either corregidor (or mayor) of the city of Paz or the
auditorship of New Grenada, the governorship of the province of
Socunusco or that of the galleys of Carthagena. His removal to
Valladolid seems to have been by command of the revenue authorities,
where he still collected taxes for public and private persons. While
collecting for the prior of the order of St. John, he was again
ill-treated and thrown into prison.
Not till he was fifty-eight years old did he give to the world his
master-piece, and thus immortalizes La Mancha, in return for his
inhospitable and cruel treatment. "Don Quixote" was licensed at
Valladolid in 1604, and printed at Madrid in 1605. Its success was so
great that, during his lifetime, thirty thousand volumes were printed,