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CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE (1547-1...
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CERVANTES See also:SAAVEDRA, See also:MIGUEL DE (1547-1616) , See also:Spanish novelist, playwright and poet, was See also:born at See also:Alcala de Henares in 1547. The attempts of biographers to provide him with an illustrious See also:genealogy are unsuccessful. The See also:family See also:history begins with the author's grandfather, Juan de Cervantes (b. 1490), a lawyer who at one See also:time (1545-6) administered the estates of the See also:duke de See also:Osuna, and resided later at See also:Cordova, where he died about 1555• Cervantes' See also:father was Rodrigo de Cervantes, an See also:apothecary-surgeon, who married Leonor de Cortinas in 1540 or 1541. The See also:children of this See also:marriage were See also:Andres (b. 1543), See also:Andrea (b. 1544), Luisa (b. 1546), Miguel, Rodrigo (b. 1550), Magdalena (b. 1554) and Juan (of whom nothing is known beyond the mention of him in his father's will).
The exact date of Cervantes' See also:birth is not recorded: he was baptized on the 9th of See also:October 1547, in the See also: It may be assumed that his family accompanied him, and it seems likely that either at Valladolid or at Madrid Cervantes saw the famous actor-manager and dramatist, Lope de See also:Rueda, of whose performances he speaks enthusiastically in the See also:preface to his plays. In 1569 a Madrid schoolmaster, Juan See also:Lopez de Hoyos, issued a See also:work commemorative of See also: As the See also:fleet came into See also:action Cervantes See also:lay below, See also:ill with See also:fever; but, despite the remonstrances of his comrades, he vehemently insisted on rising to take his See also:share in the fighting, and was posted with twelve men under him in a See also:boat by the See also:galley's See also:side. He received three gunshot wounds, two in the See also:chest, and one which permanently maimed his right hand—" for the greater See also:glory of the right," in his own phrase. On the 3oth of October the fleet returned to Messina, where Cervantes went into See also:hospital, and during his convalescence received grants-in-aid amounting to eighty-two ducats. On the 2gth of See also:April 1572 he was transferred to Captain See also:Manuel See also:Ponce de See also:Leon's company in Lope de Figueroa's regiment; he shared in the indecisive See also:naval engagement off See also:Navarino on the 7th of October 1572, in the See also:capture of See also:Tunis on the loth of October 1573, and in the unsuccessful expedition to relieve the See also:Goletta in the autumn of 1574. The See also:rest of his military service was spent in See also:garrison at See also:Palermo and See also:Naples, and shortly after the arrival of Don John at Naples on the 18th of See also:June 1575, Cervantes was granted leave to return to See also:Spain; he received a recommendatory See also:letter from Don John to Philip II., and a similar testimonial from the duke de Sessa, See also:viceroy of See also:Sicily. Armed with these See also:credentials, Cervantes embarked on the " Sol " to push his claim for See also:pro-See also:motion in Spain. On the 26th of September 1575, near See also:Les Trois Maries off the See also:coast of See also:Marseilles, the " Sol " and its See also:companion See also:ships the "See also:Mendoza" and the "Higuera" encountered a See also:squadron of See also:Barbary corsairs under Arnaut Mami; Cervantes, his See also:brother Rodrigo and other Spaniards were captured, and were taken as prisoners to See also:Algiers. Cervantes became the slave of a See also:Greek renegade named Dali Mami, and, as the letters found on him were taken to prove that he was a See also:man of importance in a position to pay a high See also:ransom, he was put under special surveillance. With undaunted courage and persistence he organized plans of See also:escape. In 1576 he induced a See also:Moor to See also:guide him and other Christian captives to See also:Oran; the Moor deserted them on the road, the baffled fugitives returned to Algiers, and Cervantes was treated with additional severity. In the See also:spring of 1577 two priests of the See also:Order of See also:Mercy arrived in Algiers with a sum of three See also:hundred crowns entrusted to them by Cervantes' parents; the amount was insufficient to See also:free him, and was spent in ransoming his brother Rodrigo. Cervantes made another See also:attempt to escape in September 1577, but was betrayed by the renegade whose services he had enlisted. On being brought before See also:Hassan See also:Pasha, the viceroy of Algiers, he took the blame on himself, and was threatened with See also:death; struck, however, by the heroic bearing of the prisoner, Hassan remitted the See also:sentence, and bought Cervantes from Dali Mami for five hundred crowns. In 1577 the See also:captive addressed to the Spanish secretary of See also:state, Mateo Vazquez, a versified letter suggesting that an expedition should be fitted out to seize Algiers; the project, though practicable, was not entertained. In 1578 Cervantes was sentenced to two thousand strokes for sending a letter begging help from See also: It seems certain, however, that he visited See also:Portugal soon after his return from Algiers, and in May 1581 he was sent from See also:Thomar on a mission to Oran. Construed literally, a formal statement of his services, signed by Cervantes on the 21st of May 1590, makes it appear that he served in the See also:Azores See also:campaigns of 1582-83; but the wording of the document is involved, the claims of Cervantes are confused with those of his brother Rodrigo (who was promoted See also:ensign at the Azores), and on the whole it is doubtful if he took part in either of the expeditions under Santa Cruz. In any See also:case, the stories of his See also:residence in Portugal, and of his love affairs with a See also:noble Portuguese See also:lady who See also:bore him a daughter, are See also:simple inventions. From 1582-3 to 1587 Cervantes seems to have written copiously for the See also:stage, and in the Adjunta al Parnaso he mentions several of his plays as "worthy of praise"; these were Los Tratos de Argel, La Numancia, La Gran Turquesa, La Batalla naval, La See also:Jerusalem, La Amaranta o la de See also:Mayo, El Bosque amoroso, La Unica y Bizarra Arsinda—" and many others which I do not remember, but that which I most See also:prize and pique myself on was, and is, one called La Confusa which, with all respect to as many See also:sword-and-cloak plays as have been staged up to the See also:present, may take a prominent place as being See also:good among the best." Of these only Los Tratos de Argel (or El Trato de Argel) and La Numancia have survived, and, though La Numancia contains many See also:fine rhetorical passages, both plays go to prove that the author's See also:genius was not essentially dramatic: In See also:February 1584 he obtained a, See also:licence to See also:print a See also:pastoral novel entitled Primera parte de la Galatea, the See also:copyright of which he sold on the 14th of June to Blas de Robles, a bookseller at Alcala de Henares, for 1336'reales. On the 12th of December he married Catalina de Palacios Salazar y Vozmediano of Esquivias,eighteen years his junior. The Galatea was published in the spring of 1585, and is frequently said to relate the See also:story of Cervantes' courtship, and to introduce various distinguished writers under pastoral names. These assertions must be received with See also:great reserve. The birth of an illegitimate daughter, See also:borne to Cervantes by a certain See also:Ana Francisca de Rojas, is referred to 1584, and earlier in that same year the Galatea had passed the See also:censor; with few exceptions, the identifications of the characters in the See also:book with personages in real life are purely conjectural. These circumstances, together with the See also:internal evidence of the work, point to the conclusion that the Galatea was begun and completed before 1583. It was only twice reprinted—once at See also:Lisbon (1590), and once at See also:Paris (1611)—during the author's lifetime; but it won him a measure of repute, it was his favourite among his books, and during the See also:thirty years that remained to him he repeatedly announced the second part which is promised conditionally in the See also:text. However, it is not greatly to be regretted that. the continuation was never published; though the Galatea is interesting as the first deliberate bid for fame on the part of a great genius, it is an exercise in the pseudo-classic literature introduced into Italy by See also:Sannazaro, and transplanted to Spain by the Portuguese Montemor; and, ingenious or eloquent as the See also:Renaissance See also:prose-pastoral may be, its innate artificiality stifles Cervantes' See also:rich and glowing See also:realism. He himself recognized its defects; with all his weakness for the Galatea, he ruefully allows that " it proposes something and concludesnothing." Its See also:comparative failure was a serious See also:matter for Cervantes who had no other resource but his See also:pen; his plays were probably less successful than his See also:account of them would imply, and at any See also:rate See also:play-See also:writing was not at this time a lucrative occupation in Spain. No doubt the death of his father on the 13th of June 1585 increased the See also:burden of Cervantes' responsibilities; and the See also:dowry of his wife, as appears from a document dated the 9th of August 1586, consisted of nothing more valuable than five vines, an See also:orchard, some household See also:furniture, four beehives, See also:forty-five hens and chickens, one See also:cock and a crucible. It had become evident that Cervantes could not gain his See also:bread by literature, and in 1587 he went to Seville to seek employment in connexion with the provisioning of the Invincible Armada. He was placed under the orders of Antonio de See also:Guevara, and before the 24th of February was excommunicated for excessive zeal in See also:collecting See also:wheat at See also:Ecija. During the next few months he was engaged in gathering stores at Seville and the adjacent See also:district, and after the defeat of the Armada he was retained as See also:commissary to the galleys. Tired of the drudgery, and without any prospect of See also:advancement, on the 21st of May 1590 Cervantes See also:drew up a petition to the king, recording his services and applying for one of four posts then vacant in the See also:American colonies: a place in the See also:department of public accounts in New See also:Granada, the governorship of Soconusco in See also:Guatemala, the position of auditor to the galleys at See also:Cartagena, or that of corregidor in the city of La Paz. The petition was referred to the See also:Council of the Indies, and was annotated with the words:—" Let him look for something nearer See also:home." Cervantes perforce remained at his See also:post; the work was hard, uncongenial and ill-paid, and the See also:salary was in See also:constant arrears. In November 1590 he was in such straits that he borrowed money to buy himself a suit of clothes, and in August 1592 his sureties were called upon to make good a deficiency of 795 reales in his accounts. His thoughts turned to literature once more, and on the 5th of September 1592, he signed a See also:contract with Rodrigo See also:Osorio undertaking to write six plays at fifty ducats each, no See also:payment to be made unless Osorio considered that each of these pieces was " one of the best ever produced in Spain." Nothing came of this agreement, and it appears that, between the date of See also:signing it and the 19th of September, Cervantes was imprisoned (for reasons unknown to us) at See also:Castro del Rio. He was speedily released, and continued to perquisition as before in See also:Andalusia; but his See also:literary ambitions were not dead, and in May 1595 he won the first prize—three See also:silver spoons—at a poetical tourney held in See also:honour of St See also:Hyacinth at See also:Saragossa. Shortly afterwards Cervantes found himself in difficulties with the See also:exchequer officials. He entrusted a sum of 7400 reales to a See also:merchant named See also:Simon See also:Freire de See also:Lima with instructions to pay the amount into the See also:treasury at Madrid; the See also:agent became bankrupt and absconded, leaving Cervantes responsible for the deficit. By some means the money was raised, and the See also:debt was liquidated on the 21st of See also:January 1597. But Cervantes' position was shaken, and his unbusinesslike habits See also:lent themselves to misinterpretation. On the 6th of September 1597 he was ordered to find sureties that he would present himself at Madrid within twenty days, and there submit to the-reachequer vouchers for all official moneys collected by him in Grahada and elsewhere. No such sureties being available, he was committed to Seville jail, but was released on the 1st of December on See also:condition that he complied with the See also:original order of the See also:court within thirty days. He was apparently unable to find See also:bail, was dismissed from the public service, and sank into extreme poverty. During a momentary absence from Seville in February 1599, he was again summoned to Madrid by the treasury, but does not appear to have obeyed: it is only too likely that he had not the money to pay for the See also:journey. There is some reason to think that he was imprisoned at Seville in 1602, but nothing See also:positive is known of his existence between 1600 and the 8th of February 1603: at the latter date he seems to have been at Valladolid, to which city Philip III. had removed the court in 16o1. Since the publication of the Galatea in 1585 Cervantes' contributions to literature had been limited to occasional poems. In 1591 he published a ballad in Andres de Villalta's See also:Floe de varies y nuevos romances; in 1595 he composed a paella, already mentioned, to celebrate the See also:canonization of St Hyacinth; in 1596 he wrote a sonnet ridiculing See also:Medina Sidonia's tardy entry into See also:Cadiz after the See also:English invaders had retired, and in the same year his sonnet lauding Santa Cruz was printed in Crist6bal. Mosquera de Figueroa's Comentario en breve compendio de disciplina militar; to 1597 is assigned a sonnet (the authenticity of which is disputed) commemorative of the poet See also:Herrera; in 1598 he wrote two sonnets and a copy of quintillas on the death of Philip II.; and in 1602 a complimentary sonnet from his pen appeared in the second edition of Lope de See also:Vega's Dragontea. Curiously enough, it is by Lope de Vega that Don Quixote is first mentioned. Writing to an unknown correspondent (apparently a physician) on the 14th of August 1604, Lope de Vega says that " no poet is as See also:bad as Cervantes, nor so foolish as to praise Don Quixote," and he goes on to speak of his own plays as being odious to Cervantes. It is obvious that the two men had quarrelled since 1602, and that Lope de Vega smarted under the See also:satire of himself and his See also:works in Cervantes' forthcoming book; Don Quixote may have been circulated in See also:manuscript, or may even have been printed before the official licence was granted on the 26th of September 1604. It was published See also:early in 1605, and was dedicated to the seventh duke de Bejar in phrases largely borrowed from the dedication in Herrera's edition (r58o) of Garcilaso de la Vega, and from Francisco de Medina's preface to that work. The mention of Bernardo de la Vega's Pastor de Iberia shows that the See also:sixth See also:chapter of Don Quixote cannot have been written before 1591. In the See also:prologue Cervantes describes his See also:master-piece as being " just what might be begotten in a jail "; on the strength of this passage, it has been thought that he conceived the story, and perhaps began writing it, during one of his terms of imprisonment at Seville between 1597 and 1602. Within a few See also:weeks of its publication at Madrid, three pirated See also:editions of Don Quixote were issued at Lisbon; a second authorized edition, imperfectly revised, was hurried out at Madrid; and another reprint appeared at Valencia with an aprobaci6n dated 18th July 1605. With the exception of See also:Aleman's Guzman de Alfarache, no Spanish book of the See also:period was more successful. See also:Modern See also:criticism is prone to regard Don Quixote as a symbolic, didactic or controversial work intended to bring about See also:radical reforms in church and state. Such interpretations did not occur to Cervantes' contemporaries, nor to Cervantes himself. There is no reason for rejecting his See also:plain statement that his See also:main See also:object was to ridicule the romances of See also:chivalry, which in their latest developments had become a See also:tissue of tiresome absurdities. It seems clear that his first intention was merely to See also:parody these extravagances in a short story; but as he proceeded the immense possibilities of the subject became more evident to him, and he ended by expanding his work into a brilliant See also:panorama of Spanish society as it existed during the 16th See also:century. Nobles, knights, poets, courtly gentlemen, priests, traders, farmers, barbers, muleteers, scullions and convicts; accomplished ladies, impassioned damsels, Moorish beauties, simple-hearted See also:country-girls and kindly See also:kitchen-wenches of questionable morals —all these are presented with the genial fidelity which comes of sympathetic insight. The immediate See also:vogue of Don Quixote was due chiefly to its variety of incident, to its See also:wealth of See also:comedy bordering on See also:farce, and perhaps also to its keen thrusts at eminent contemporaries; its reticent pathos, its large humanity, and its penetrating criticism of life were less speedily appreciated. Meanwhile, on the 12th of April 1605, Cervantes authorized his publisher to proceed against the Lisbon booksellers who threatened to introduce their piratical reprints into See also:Castile. By June the citizens of Valladolid already regarded Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as proverbial types. Less gratifying experiences awaited the popular author. On the 27th of June 1605 Gaspar de Ezpeleta, a Navarrese See also:gentleman of dissolute life, was wounded outside the lodging-See also:house in which Cervantes and his family lived; he was taken indoors, was nursed by Cervantes' See also:sister Magdalena, and died on the 29th of June. That same See also:day Cervantes, his natural daughter (Isabel de Saavedra), his sister Andrea and her daughter were lodged in jail on suspicion of being indirectly concerned in Ezpeleta's death; one of the witnesses made damaging charges against Cervantes' daughter, but no substantial evidence was produced, and the prisoners were released. Little is known of Cervantes' life between 16os and .16o8. A RelaciOn of the festivities held to celebrate the birth of Philip IV., and a certain Carta d don Diego Astudillo Carrillo have been erroneously ascribed to him; during these three years he apparently wrote nothing beyond three sonnets, and one of these is of doubtful authenticity. The depositions of the Valladolid enquiry show that he was living in poverty five months after the See also:appearance of Don Quixote, and the fact that he borrowed 450 reales from his publisher before November 1607 would convey the See also:idea that his position improved slowly, if at all. But it is difficult to reconcile this view of his circumstances with the details concerning his illegitimate daughter revealed in documents recently discovered. Isabel de Saavedra was stated to be a spinster when arrested at Valladolid in June 16os; the See also:settlement: of her marriage with Luis de See also:Molina in 16o8 describes her as the widow of Diego Sanz, as the mother of a daughter eight months old, and as owning house-See also:property of some value. These particulars are perplexing, and the situation is further complicated by the publication of a See also:deed in which Cervantes declares that he himself is the real owner of this house-property, and that his daughter has merely a life-See also:interest in it. This claim may be regarded as a legal fiction; it cannot easily be reconciled with Cervantes' statement towards the end of his life, that he was dependent on the See also:bounty of the See also:count de Lemos and of Bernardo de Sandoval, cardinal-See also:archbishop of See also:Toledo. In 1609 he joined the newly founded confraternity of the Slaves of the Most Blessed See also:Sacrament; in 1610 Lemos was appointed viceroy of Naples, and Cervantes was keenly disappointed at not being chosen to accompany his See also:patron. In 1611 he lost his sister Magdalena, who was buried by the charity of the See also:Tertiaries of See also:Saint See also:Francis; in 1612 he joined the Academia Selvaje, and there appears to have renewed his former friendly relations with Lope de Vega; in 1613 he dedicated his Novelas exemplares to the count de Lemos, and disposed of his rights for 160o reales and twenty-four copies of the. book. The twelve tales in this volume, some of them written very much later than others, are of unequal merit, but they contain some of the writer's best work, and the two See also:picaresque stories—Rinconete y Cortadillo and the Coloquio. de los perros—are superb examples of their See also:kind, and would alone entitle Cervantes to take See also:rank with the greatest masters of Spanish prose. In 1614 he published the Viage del Parnaso, a See also:burlesque poem suggested by the Viaggio in Parnaso (1582) of the Perugian poet Cesare Caporali. It contains some interesting autobiographical passages, much flattery of See also:con-temporary poetasters, and a few happy satirical touches; but, though it is Cervantes' most serious bid for fame as a poet, it has seldom been reprinted, and would probably have been forgotten but for an admirably humorous postscript in prose which is worthy of the author at his best. In the preface to his Ocho comedias y oche entremeses nuevos (1615) he good-humouredly admits that his dramatic works found no favour with managers, and, when this collection was first reprinted (1749), the editor advanced the fantastic theory that the comedias were deliberate exercises in absurdity, intended to parody the popular dramas of the day. This view cannot be maintained, but a See also:sharp distinction must be drawn between the eight set plays and the eight interludes; with one or two exceptions, the comedias or set plays are unsuccessful experiments in Lope de Vega's manner, while the entremeses or interludes, particularly those in prose, are See also:models of spontaneous gaiety and ingenious wit. In the preface to the Novelas exemplares Cervantes had announced the speedy appearance of the sequel to Don Quixote which he had vaguely promised at the end of the first part. He was at work on the fifty-ninth chapter of his continuation when he learned that he had been anticipated by Alonso See also:Fernandez de Avellaneda of Tordesillas, whose Segundo tome del ingenioso See also:hidalgo don Quixote de to See also:Mancha was published at See also:Tarragona in 1614. On the See also:assumption that Fernandez de Avellaneda is a See also:pseudonym, this See also:spurious sequel has been ascribed to the king's See also:confessor, Luis de See also:Aliaga, to Cervantes' old enemy, Blanco de Paz, to his old friend, Bartolome Leonardo de See also:Argensola, to the three great dramatists, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and See also:Ruiz de See also:Alarcon, to Alonso Fernandez, to Juan Jose See also:Marti, to Alfonso Lamberto, to Luis de Granada, and probably to others. Some of these attributions are manifestly absurd—for example, Luis de Granada died seventeen years before the first part of Don Quixote was published—and all of them are improbable conjectures; if Avellaneda be not the real name of the author, his identity is still undiscovered. His book is not devoid of literary See also:talent and robust See also:humour, and possibly he began it under the impression that Cervantes was no more likely to finish Don Quixote than to finish the Galatea. He should, however, have abandoned his project on See also:reading the announcement in the preface to the Novelas exemplares; what he actually did was to disgrace himself by writing an insolent preface taunting Cervantes with his See also:physical defects, his moral infirmities, his See also:age, loneliness and experiences in jail. He was too intelligent to imagine that his continuation could hold its own against the See also:authentic sequel, and malignantly avowed his intention of being first in the See also: Though failing in See also:health, he worked assiduously at Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, which, as he had jocosely prophesied in the preface to the second part of Don Quixote, would be either the worst or the best book ever written in our See also:tongue." It is the most carefully written of his prose works, and the least animated or attractive of them; signs of fatigue and of waning See also:powers are unmistakably visible. Cervantes was not destined to see it in print. He was attacked by See also:dropsy, and, on the 18th of April 1616, received the sacrament of extreme See also:unction; next day he wrote the dedication of Persiles y Sigismunda to the count de Lemos—the mostmoving and gallant of farewells. He died at Madrid in the Calle del Leon on the 23rd of April; he was borne from his house " with his See also:face uncovered," according to the See also:rule of the Tertiaries of St Francis, and on the 24th of April was buried in the church attached to the See also:convent of the Trinitarian nuns in the Calle de Cantarranas. There he rests—the story of his remains being removed in 1633 to the Calle del Humilladero has no See also:foundation in fact—but the exact position of his See also:grave is unknown. Early in 1617 Persiles y Sigismunda was published, and passed through eight editions within two years; but the interest in it soon died away, and it was not reprinted between 1625 and 1719. Cervantes' wife died without issue on the 31st of October 1626; his natural daughter, who survived both the See also:child of her first marriage and her second See also:husband, died on the loth of September 1652. Cervantes is represented solely by his works. The Novelas exemplares alone would give him the foremost place among Spanish novelists; Don Quixote entitles him to rank with the greatest writers of all time: " children turn its leaves, See also:young See also:people read it, grown men understand it, old folk praise it." It has outlived all changes of literary See also:taste, and is even more popular to-day than it was three centuries ago. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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