Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra[b] (IPA: [miˈɣel ðe θerˈβantes saaˈβeðra] in modern Spanish; September 29, 1547 – April 23,
1616) was a Spanish novelist,
poet, and playwright. Cervantes was one of the most important
and influential persons in literature and the leading figure associated with the cultural
flourishing of sixteenth century Spain (the Siglo de Oro). His novel
Don Quixote is considered as a founding classic of Western literature and regularly figures among the best novels ever written; it has been translated
into more than sixty-five languages, while editions continue regularly to be printed, and critical discussion of the work has
persisted unabated since the 18th century. His work is considered among the most important
in the universal literature[1]. He has been dubbed el Príncipe de los Ingenios (the Prince of Wits).
Cervantes, born in Alcalá de Henares, was the fourth of seven children in a family
whose origins may have been of the minor gentry. The family moved from town to town, and little
is known of Cervantes's early years. Cervantes made his literary début in 1568. By 1570 he had enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish
infantry regiment and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by barbary
pirates on his return home. He was ransomed by his parents and the Trinitarians
and returned to his family in Madrid.
In 1585, Cervantes published a pastoral novel, La Galatea. Because of financial
problems, Cervantes worked as a purveyor for the Spanish
Armada, and later as a tax collector. In 1597 discrepancies in his accounts of
three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of Seville. In 1605 he was in Valladolid,
just when the immediate success of the first part of his Don Quixote, published in Madrid, signaled his return to the literary
world. In 1607, he settled in Madrid, where he lived and worked until his death. During the last nine years of his life,
Cervantes solidified his reputation as a writer; he published the Exemplary Novels (Novelas ejemplares) in 1613,
the Journey to Parnassus (Viaje del Parnaso) in 1614, and in 1615, the Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses and
the second part of Don Quixote. Carlos Fuentes noted that, "Cervantes leaves open
the pages of a book where the reader knows himself to be written. "[2]
Biography
Family and Early Life
Miguel de Cervantes was born at Alcalá de Henares, a Castilian city about 20 miles
from Madrid, probably on September 29 (the feast day of St. Michael) 1547. He was
baptized on October 9.[1] Miguel's paternal great-grandfather was Ruy Díaz de Cervantes, a prosperous draper who was born most
probably in the 1430s. He married a Catalina de Cabrera about whom nothing at all is known. Their son, Miguel's grandfather Juan
studied law at University of Salamanca, for most of his life he served as a
minor magistrate, ended his career as a specialist in fiscal law for the Spanish
Inquisition and was a well-to-do man. He married Leonor Fernández de Torreblanca; she was probably Juan's cousin. She was
a daughter of Cordoban physician. Miguel's father, Ruy (Rodrigo), was a barber-surgeon
who set bones, performed bloodlettings, and attended "lesser medical needs". He presented himself as a nobleman and liked to act
as a gentleman, which was not easy because of his low income.[3] Little is known of Cervantes' early years and education, but it seems that he spent much of his
childhood moving from town to town with his family. While some of his biographers argue that he studied at the University of Salamanca, there is no solid evidence for supposing that he did so.[c] There has been speculation also that
Cervantes studied with the Jesuits in Córdoba
or Sevilla.[4]
All that we know positively about his education is that humanist Juan López de
Hoyos called him his "dear and beloved pupil." This was in a little collection of verses by different hands on the death
of Isabel de Valois, second queen of Philip II of
Spain, published by López de Hoyos in 1569, to which Cervantes contributed four pieces, including an elegy, and an epitaph
in the form of a sonnet.[5] That same year he left
Spain for Italy;[6] it seems that for a time he served as
chamberlain in the household of Cardinal Giulio Acquaviva in Rome.
Soldier and captive
The reasons that forced Cervantes to leave Castilia remain unclear. Whether he was the "student" of the same name, a
"sword-wielding fugitive from justice", fleeing from the royal warrant of arrest for having wounded a certain Antonio de Sigura
in a duel is another mystery. This fugitive was condemned "by default to having his right hand publicly cut off and to banishment
from the realm for ten years".[7] In any
event, in going to Italy Cervantes was doing what many young Spaniards of the time did to further their careers in one way or
another. Rome would reveal to the young artist its ecclesiastic pomp, ritual and majesty. In a
city teeming with ruins, Cervantes could focus his attention on Renaissance art,
architecture and poetry (knowledge of Italian literature is so readily discernible in
his own productions), and on rediscovering antiquity; he could find in the ancients "a powerful impetus to revive the
contemporary world in light of its accomplishments".[8] Thus, Cervantes' continuing desire for Italy, as revealed in his later works, was in part a desire
for a return to Renaissance.[9]
By 1570 Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a Castilia infantry regiment stationed in Naples, then a possession of the Castilian crown. He was there for about a year before he saw active service. In
September 1571, Cervantes sailed on board the Marquesa, part of the galley fleet of the
Holy League (a coalition of the Pope,
Spain, Venice, Republic of Genoa, Duchy of Savoy, the Knights of Malta and others under the command of John of
Austria) that defeated the Ottoman fleet on October
7 in the Gulf of Lepanto near Corinth.
Though taken down with fever, Cervantes refused to stay below, and begged to be allowed to take part in the battle, saying that
he would rather die for his God and his king than keep under cover. He fought bravely on board a vessel, and received three
gunshot wounds – two in the chest and one which rendered his left hand useless for the rest of his life. In Journey to
Parnassus, he was to say that he "had lost the movement of the left hand for the glory of the right" (he was thinking of the
success of the first part of Don Quixote). Cervantes always looked back on his conduct in the battle with pride: he
believed that he had taken part in an event that would shape the course of European
history.[6]
| "What I cannot help taking amiss is that he[d] charges me with being old and one-handed, as if it had been in my power to keep time
from passing over me, or as if the loss of my hand had been brought about in some tavern, and not on the grandest occasion the
past or present has seen, or the future can hope to see. If my wounds have no beauty to the beholder's eye, they are, at least,
honourable in the estimation of those who know where they were received; for the soldier shows to greater advantage dead in
battle than alive in flight." |
| Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quixote - Part II, "The Author's Preface" translated by
John Ormsby) |
After the battle of Lepanto Cervantes remained in hospital for nearly six months, before his wounds were sufficiently healed
to allow his joining the colors again.[10] From 1572
to 1575, based mainly in Naples, he continued his soldier's life; he participated in expeditions to Corfu and Navarino, and saw the fall of Tunis and
La Goleta to the Turks in 1574.[11]
On September 6 or 7 1575 Cervantes set sail on the galley Sol from Naples to Barcelona, Spain, with letters of commendation to the king from the duke de Sessa and Don Juan himself.[12] On the
morning of September 26, as the Sol approached the Catalan coast, it was attacked by
Algerian corsairs. After significant resistance, in which the captain and many crew members
were killed, the surviving passengers were taken to Algiers as captives.[13] After five years spent as a slave in Algiers, and four unsuccessful
escape attempts, he was ransomed by his parents and the Trinitarians and returned to
his family in Madrid. Not surprisingly, this period of Cervantes' life supplied subject matter for several of his literary works,
notably the Captive's tale in Don Quixote and the two Algiers plays, El trato de Argel (The Treaty of
Algiers) and Los baños de Argel (The Baths of Algiers), as well as episodes in a number of other writings,
although never in straight autobiographical form.[1]
"The pen is the language of the soul; as the concepts that in it are generated, such will be its writings." - Miguel de Cervantes
at the National Library, Spain -
Literary pursuits
-
In 1584, he married the much younger Catalina de Salazar y Palacios. During the next 20 years he
led a nomadic existence, working as a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada, and as a
tax collector. He suffered a bankruptcy, and was imprisoned at least twice (1597 and
1602) because of irregularities in his accounts, one due rather to some subordinate than to
himself. Between the years 1596 and 1600, he lived primarily in Seville. In 1606, Cervantes
settled permanently in Madrid, Spain; where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1585, Cervantes published his first major
work, La Galatea, a pastoral romance, at the same time that some of his plays, now lost except for El trato de
Argel (where he dealt with the life of Christian slaves in Algiers) and El cerco de Numancia, were playing on the
stages of Madrid. La Galatea received little contemporary notice, and Cervantes never wrote the continuation for it,
(which he repeatedly promised). Cervantes next turned his attention to the drama, hoping to derive an income from that source,
but the plays which he composed failed to achieve their purpose. Aside from his plays, his most ambitious work in verse was
Viaje del Parnaso (1614), an allegory which consisted largely of a rather tedious though
good-natured review of contemporary poets. Cervantes himself realized that he was deficient in poetic gifts.
If a remark which Cervantes himself makes in the prologue of Don Quixote is to be taken literally, the idea of the
work, though hardly the writing of its "First Part", as some have maintained, occurred to him in prison at Argamasilla de Alba, in La Mancha. Cervantes' idea was to give a picture of real life and manners,
and to express himself in clear language. The intrusion of everyday speech into a literary context was acclaimed by the reading
public. The author stayed poor until 1605, when the first part of Don Quixote appeared. Although it did not make Cervantes
rich, it brought him international appreciation as a man of letters. Cervantes also wrote many plays, only two of which have
survived; short novels, and the vogue obtained by Cervantes's story led to the publication of a continuation of it by an unknown
who masqueraded under the name of Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda. In
self-defence, Cervantes produced his own continuation, or "Second Part", of Don Quixote, which made its appearance in
1615.
For the world at large, interest in Cervantes centers particularly in Don Quixote, and this work has been regarded
chiefly as a novel of purpose. It is stated again and again that he wrote it in order to ridicule the romances of chivalry, and to destroy the popularity of a form of literature which for much more than a
century had been a fad with the general public, similar to today's modern obsession
among younger viewers with special effects films and science fiction movies.
Don Quixote certainly reveals much narrative power, considerable humor, a mastery of dialogue, and a forcible style. Of the
two parts written by Cervantes, the first is the more popular with the general public - containing the famous episodes of the
tilting at windmills, the attack on the flock of sheep, the vigil in the courtyard of the inn, and the episode with the barber
and the shaving basin. The second part is inferior to it in humorous effect; but, nevertheless, the second part shows more
constructive insight, better delineation of character, an improved style, and more realism and probability in its action.
In 1613, he published a collection of tales, the Exemplary Novels, some of which had been written earlier. On the whole, the
Exemplary Novels are worthy of the fame of Cervantes; they bear the same stamp of genius as Don Quixote. The picaroon strain, already made familiar in Spain by the Lazarillo de
Tormes and his successors, appears in one or another of them, especially in the Rinconete y Cortadillo, which is
the best of all. He also published the Viaje del Parnaso in 1614, and in 1615, the Eight Comedies and Eight New
Interludes. At the same time, Cervantes continued working on Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, a novel of adventurous travel completed just before his death, and which appeared posthumously in January,
1617.
Death
Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616; coincidentally
William Shakespeare also died on that date, but not on the same day; Britain was
still using the Julian calendar, whereas Spain had already adopted the Gregorian calendar.[14] In
honour of this coincidence UNESCO established April 23 as the International Day of the Book.[15] It is worth mentioning that the Encyclopedia Hispanica claims the date widely quoted as Cervantes'
date of death, namely April 23, is the date on his tombstone
which in accordance of the traditions at the time would be his date of burial rather than date of death. If this is true,
according to Hispanica, then it means that Cervantes probably died on April 22 and was buried
on April 23.
The statue of
Miguel de Cervantes at the harbor of Nafpactos by Vaggelis Vlahos
Works
Novels
Cervantes's novels, listed chronologically, are as follows:
- La Galatea (1585), a pastoral romance in prose and verse based upon the genre introduced
into Spain by Jorge de Montemayor's Diana (1559). Its theme is the fortunes and misfortunes in love of a number of idealized shepherds and shepherdesses, who
spend their life singing and playing musical instruments.
- El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha I (1605)
- Novelas ejemplares (1613), a collection of twelve short
stories of varied types about the social, political, and historical problems of the Cervantes' Spain:
- La gitanilla (The Gypsy Girl)
- El amante liberal (The Generous Lover)
- Rinconete y Cortadillo
- La española inglesa (The English Spanish Lady)
- El licenciado Vidriera (Vidriera, the Lawyer)
- La fuerza de la sangre (The Power of Blood)
- El celoso extremeño (The Jealous Old Man From Extremadura)
- La ilustre fregona (The Illustrious Kitchen-Maid)
- Novela de las dos doncellas (The Two Damsels)
- Novela de la señora Cornelia (Lady Cornelia)
- Novela del casamiento engañoso (The Deceitful Marriage)
- El coloquio de los perros (The Dialogue of the Dogs)
- Segunda parte del ingenioso caballero don Quijote de la Mancha (1615)
- Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda, historia septentrional, The Labours of Persiles
and Sigismunda: A Northern Story (1617).
- Los trabajos is the best evidence not only of the survival of Byzantine novel
themes but also of the survival of forms and ideas of the Spanish novel of the second Renaissance. In this work, published after the author's death, Cervantes relates the ideal love and
unbelievable vicissitudes of a couple who, starting from the Arctic regions, arrive in Rome, where they find a happy ending for
their complicated adventures.
Don Quixote
-
Statues of Don Quixote (left) and Sancho Panza (right)
Don Quixote (sometimes spelled "Quijote") is actually two separate books that cover the adventures of Don
Quixote, also known as the knight or man of La Mancha, a hero who carries his enthusiasm
and self-deception to unintentional and comic ends. On one level, Don Quixote works as a satire of the romances of chivalry which ruled the literary environment of
Cervantes' time. However, the novel also allows Cervantes to illuminate various aspects of human nature by using the ridiculous
example of the delusional Quixote.
Because the novel - particularly the first part - was written in individually published sections, the composition includes
several incongruities. In the preface to the second part, Cervantes himself pointed out some of these errors, but he disdained to
correct them, because he conceived that they had been too severely condemned by his critics.
Cervantes felt a passion for the vivid painting of character, as his successful works prove. Under the influence of this
feeling, he drew the natural and striking portrait of his heroic Don Quixote, so truly noble-minded, and so enthusiastic
an admirer of everything good and great, yet having all those fine qualities, accidentally blended with a relative kind of
madness; and he likewise portrayed with no less fidelity, the opposite character of Sancho
Panza, a compound of grossness and simplicity, whose low self-esteem leads him to place blind confidence in all the
extravagant hopes and promises of his master. The subordinate characters of the novel exhibit equal truth and decision.
A translator can not commit a more serious injury to Don Quixote than to dress that work in a light, anecdotal
style[citation needed]. A style perfectly
unostentatious and free from affectation, but at the same time solemn, and penetrated, as it were, with the character of the
hero, diffuses over this comic romance an imposing air, which, were it not so appropriate, would seem to belong exclusively to
serious works and which is certainly difficult to capture in a translation. Yet it is precisely this solemnity of language which
imparts a characteristic relief to the comic scenes[citation needed]. It is the genuine style of the old romances of chivalry, improved and
applied in a totally original way; and only where dialogue style occurs is each person found to speak as he might be expected to
do, and in his own peculiar manner. But wherever Don Quixote himself harangues, the language re-assumes the venerable tone of the
romantic style; and various uncommon expressions used by the hero serve to complete the delusion of his covetous squire, to whom
they are only half intelligible. This characteristic tone diffuses over the whole a poetic colouring, which distinguishes Don
Quixote from all comic romances of the ordinary style; and that poetic colouring is moreover heightened by the judicious
choice of episodes.
The essential connection of these episodes with the whole has sometimes escaped the observation of critics, who have regarded
as merely parenthetical those parts in which Cervantes has most decidedly manifested the poetic spirit of his work. The novel of
El curioso impertinente cannot indeed be ranked among the number of these essential episodes, but the charming story of
the shepherdess Marcella, the history of Dorothea, and the history of the rich Camacho and the poor Basilio,
are unquestionably connected with the interest of the whole.
IV centenary of Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605-2005)
These serious romantic parts, which are not, it is true, essential to the narrative connexion, but strictly belong to the
characteristic dignity of the whole picture[citation needed], also prove how far Cervantes was from the idea usually attributed to him
of writing a book merely to excite laughter. The passages, which common readers feel inclined to pass over[citation needed], are, in general, precisely those in
which Cervantes is most decidedly a poet, and for which he has manifested an evident predilection. On such occasions, he also
introduces among his prose, episodical verses, for the most part excellent in their kind and no translator can omit them without
doing violence to the spirit of the original.
Were it not for the happy art with which Cervantes has contrived to preserve an intermediate tone between pure poetry and
prose, Don Quixote would not deserve to be cited as the first classic model of the modern romance or novel. It is,
however, fully entitled to that distinction. Cervantes was the first writer who formed the genuine romance of modern times on the
model of the original chivalrous romance that equivocal creation of the genius and the barbarous taste of the Middle Ages. The result has proved that modern taste, however readily it may in other respects conform to
the rules of the antique, nevertheless requires, in the narration of fictitious events, a certain union of poetry with prose,
which was unknown to the Greeks and Romans in their best
literary ages[citation needed]. It was only necessary to seize on the right tone, but that was a point of
delicacy, which the inventors of romances of chivalry were not able to comprehend. Diego de
Mendoza, in his Lazarillo de Tormes, departed too far from poetry. Cervantes, in his Don Quixote restored to the
poetic art the place it was entitled to hold in this class of writing; and he must not be blamed if cultivated nations have
subsequently mistaken the true spirit of this work, because their own novelists had led them to regard common prose as the style
peculiarly suited to romance composition.
Don Quixote is, moreover, the undoubted prototype of the comic novel. The humorous situations are, it is true, almost
all burlesque, which was certainly not necessary, but the satire is frequently so delicate, that it escapes rather than obtrudes
on unpractised attention; as for example, in the whole picture of the administration of Sancho Panza in his imaginary island. The
language, even in the description of the most burlesque situations, never degenerates into vulgarity; it is on the contrary,
throughout the whole work, so noble, correct and highly polished, that it would not disgrace even an ancient classic of the first
rank[citation needed]. This explanation of a part of
the merits of a work, which has been so often wrongly judged, may perhaps seem belong rather to the eulogist than the calm and
impartial historian. Let those who may be inclined to form this opinion study Don Quixote in the original language, and
study it rightly, for it is not a book to be judged by a superficial perusal[citation needed]. But care must be taken lest the intervention of many subordinate traits,
which were intended to have only a transient national interest, should produce an error in the estimate of the whole. By the
20th century it became clear that Don Quixote was the first true modern novel, a systemical
and structural masterpiece.
Don Quixote is one of the Encyclopedia Britannica's "Great Books of the
Western World" and the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky called it "the
ultimate and most sublime word of human thinking".
La Galatea
La Galatea, the pastoral romance, which Cervantes
wrote in his youth, is an imitation of the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor, and
bears an even closer resemblance to Gil Polo's continuation of that romance. Next to Don
Quixote and the Novelas exemplares, it is particularly worthy of attention, as it manifests in a striking way the
poetic direction in which the genius of Cervantes moved even at an early period of life.
Novelas ejemplares
It would be scarcely possible to arrange the other works of Cervantes according to a critical judgment of their importance;
for the merits of some consist in the admirable finish of the whole, while others exhibit the impress of genius in the invention,
or some other individual feature.
A distinguished place must, however, be assigned to the Novelas[16] ejemplares ("Moral or Instructive Tales"). They are unequal in merit as well as in
character. Cervantes doubtless intended that they should be to the Spaniards nearly what the novellas of Boccaccio were to the Italians, some are mere anecdotes,
some are romances in miniature, some are serious, some comic, and all are written in a light, smooth, conversational style.
Four of them are perhaps of less interest than the rest: El amante liberal, La señora Cornelia, Las dos
doncellas and La española inglesa. The theme common to these is basically the traditional one of the Byzantine novel: pairs of lovers separated by lamentable and complicated happenings are finally reunited
and find the happiness they have longed for. The heroines are all of most perfect beauty and of sublime morality; they and their
lovers are capable of the highest sacrifices, and they exert their souls in the effort to elevate themselves to the ideal of
moral and aristocratic distinction which illuminates their lives.
In El amante liberal, to cite an example, the beautiful Leonisa and her lover Ricardo are carried off by Turkish
pirates; both fight against serious material and moral dangers; Ricardo conquers all obstacles, returns to his homeland with
Leonisa, and is ready to renounce his passion and to hand Leonisa over to her former lover in an outburst of generosity; but
Leonisa's preference naturally settles on Ricardo in the end.
Another group of "exemplary" novels is formed by La fuerza de la sangre, La ilustre fregona, La
gitanilla, and El celoso extremeño. The first three offer examples of love and adventure happily resolved, while the
last unravels itself tragically. Its plot deals with the old Felipe Carrizales, who, after traveling widely and becoming rich in
America, decides to marry, taking all the precautions necessary to forestall being deceived. He weds a very young girl and
isolates her from the world by having her live in a house with no windows facing the street; but in spite of his defensive
measures, a bold youth succeeds in penetrating the fortress of conjugal honor, and one day Carrizales surprises his wife in the
arms of her seducer. Surprisingly enough he pardons the adulterers, recognizing that he is more to blame than they, and dies of
sorrow over the grievous error he has committed. Cervantes here deviated from literary tradition, which demanded the death of the
adulterers, but he transformed the punishment inspired by the social ideal of honour into a
criticism of the responsibility of the individual.
Rinconete y Cortadillo, El casamiento engañoso, El licenciado Vidriera and El coloquio de los
perros, four works of art which are concerned more with the personalities of the characters who figure in them than with the
subject matter, form the final group of these stories. The protagonists are two young vagabonds, Rincón and Cortado; Lieutenant
Campuzano; a student, Tomás Rodaja, who goes mad and believes himself to have been changed into a witty man of glass, offering
Cervantes the opportunity to chain witty jokes; and finally two dogs, Cipión and Berganza, whose wandering existence serves as a
mirror for the most varied aspects of Spanish life. Rinconete y Cortadillo is one of the most delightful of Cervantes' works. Its
two young vagabonds come to Seville attracted by the riches and disorder that the
sixteenth-century commerce with the Americas had brought to that metropolis. There they come into contact with a brotherhood of
thieves led by the unforgettable Monipodio, whose house is the headquarters of the Sevillian underworld. Under the bright
Andalusian sky, persons and objects take form with the brilliance and subtle drama of a Velazquez, and a distant and discreet irony endows the figures, insignificant in themselves, as they
move within a ritual pomp that is in sharp contrast with their morally deflated lives. When Monipodio appears, serious and solemn
among his silent subordinates, "all who were looking at him performed a deep, protracted bow." Rincón and Cortado had initiated
their mutual friendship beforehand "with saintly and praiseworthy ceremonies." The solemn ritual of this band of ruffians is all
the more comic for being concealed in Cervantes' drily humorous style.
Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda
Frontispiece of Persiles and Segismunda.
The romance of Persiles and Sigismunda, which Cervantes finished shortly before his death, must be regarded as an
interesting appendix to his other works. The language and the whole composition of the story exhibit the purest simplicity,
combined with singular precision and polish. The idea of this romance was not new, and scarcely deserved to be reproduced in a
new manner. But it appears that Cervantes, at the close of his glorious career, took a fancy to imitate Heliodorus. He has maintained the interest of the situations, but the whole work is merely a
romantic description of travels, rich enough in fearful adventures, both by sea and land. Real and fabulous geography and history
are mixed together in an absurd and monstrous manner; and the second half of the romance, in which the scene is transferred to
Spain and Italy, does not exactly harmonize with the spirit of the first half.
Poetry
Some of his poems are found in La Galatea. He also wrote Dos canciones a la
armada invencible. His best work, however, is found in the sonnets, particularly
Al túmulo del rey Felipe en Sevilla. Among his most important poems, Canto de
Calíope, Epístola a Mateo Vázquez, and the Viaje del Parnaso
(Journey to Parnassus), (1614) stand out. The latter is his most ambitious work in verse, an
allegory which consists largely of reviews of contemporary poets.
Compared to his ability as a novelist, Cervantes is often considered a mediocre poet, although he himself always harbored a
hope that he would be recognized for having poetic gifts.
Viaje del Parnaso
Frontispiece of the
Viaje (1614).
The prose of the Galatea, which is in other respects so beautiful, is occasionally overloaded with epithet. Cervantes
displays a totally different kind of poetic talent in the Viaje del Parnaso, a
work which cannot properly be ranked in any particular class of literary composition, but which, next to Don Quixote, is
considered by afew the most exquisite production of its author. Many critics, however, would argue with that, citing the
Novelas ejemplares and the Entemeses as the finest examples of his work next to Don Quixote.
Plays
Comparisons have also diminished the reputation of his plays, but two of them, El trato de
Argel and La Numancia, (1582),
made a big impact and were not surpassed until Lope de Vega appeared.
The first of these is written in five acts; based on his experiences as a Moorish captive,
Cervantes dealt with the life of Christian slaves in Algiers. The other play, Numancia is a description of the siege of
Numantia by the Romans stuffed with horrors and described as utterly devoid of the requisites of dramatic art.
Cervantes's later production consists of 16 dramatic works, among which are eight full-length plays:
El gallardo español, Los baños de Argel, La gran sultana, Doña Catalina de Oviedo, La casa de
los celos, El laberinto del jamon, the cloak and dagger play La Entretenida, El rufián dichoso, and
finally, Pedro de Urdemalas, a sensitive play about a picaro who joins a group of Gypsies for love of a girl.
He also wrote eight short farces (entremeses) : El juez de los divorcios, El rufián viudo llamado
Trampagos, La elección de los alcaldes de Daganzo, La guarda cuidadosa (The Vigilant Sentinel), El vizcaíno
fingido, El retablo de las maravillas, La cueva de Salamanca, and El viejo celoso (The Jealous Old
Man).
These plays and entremeses made up Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos, nunca
representados (Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes, Never Before Acted) , which appeared in 1615. Cervantes's entremeses, whose dates and order of composition are not known, must not have been performed in
their time. Faithful to the spirit of Lope de Rueda, Cervantes endowed them with novelistic elements such as simplified plot, the
type of description normally associated with the novel, and character development. The dialogue is sensitive and agile.
Cervantes includes some of his dramas among those productions with which he was himself most satisfied; and he seems to have
regarded them with self-complacency in proportion to their neglect by the public. This conduct has sometimes been attributed to a
spirit of contradiction, and sometimes to vanity. That the penetrating and profound Cervantes should have so mistaken the limits
of his dramatic talent, would not be sufficiently accounted for, had he not unquestionably proved by his tragedy of
Numantia how pardonable was the self-deception of which he could not divest himself.
Cervantes was entitled to consider himself endowed with a genius for dramatic poetry; but he could not preserve his
independence in the conflict he had to maintain with the conditions required by the Spanish public in dramatic composition; and
when he sacrificed his independence, and submitted to rules imposed by others, his invention and language were reduced to the
level of a poet of inferior talent. The intrigues, adventures and surprises, which in that age characterized the Spanish drama,
were ill suited to the genius of Cervantes. His natural style was too profound and precise to be reconciled to fantastical ideas,
expressed in irregular verse. But he was Spaniard enough to be gratified with dramas, which, as a poet, he could not imitate; and
he imagined himself capable of imitating them, because he would have shone in another species of dramatic composition, had the
public taste accommodated itself to his genius.
La Numancia
-
This play is a dramatization of the long and brutal siege of the Celtiberian town
Numantia, Hispania, by the Roman forces of Scipio
Africanus.
Cervantes invented along with the subject of his piece a peculiar style of tragic composition, and in doing so, he did not pay
much regard to the theory of Aristotle. His object was to produce a piece full of tragic situations, combined with the charm of
the marvellous. In order to accomplish this goal, Cervantes relied heavily on allegory and on mythological elements.
The tragedy is written in conformity with no rules save those which the author prescribed to himself; for he felt no
inclination to imitate the Greek forms. The play is divided into four acts, (jornadas) and no chorus is introduced. The
dialogue is sometimes in tercets and sometimes in redondillas, and for the most part in
octaves without any regard to rule.
Cervantes' historical importance and influence
Cervantes' novel Don Quixote has had a tremendous influence on the development of prose fiction; it has been translated
into all modern languages and has appeared in 700 editions. The first translation in English, and also in any language, was made
by Thomas Shelton in 1608, but not published until 1612.
.png)
