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ModernPhilologyVOL. V July,1906 No.

STUDIES IN CERVANTESI. "PERSILES Y SIGISMUNDA"

I. INTRODUCTIONWhen, on September 9, 1616, but a few monthsafter thedeath of Cervantes,el Maestro Josefde Valdiviesso1penned thenecessaryaprobacion prefixed o the first ditionof thePersilesy Sigismunda, he perhaps unconsciouslygave to his opinion ofthe worka personal note which lends it a charm and value sel-dom or never founi in the usually perfunctoryfficial pproval.The cheerful and buoyantspirit of the aged romancerwas nowno more,but he had leftto posterityworkswhich were destinedto become thenceforward part of the national life of Spain.Addressing his official pproval to the king, Valdiviesso says:Por mandadode VuessaAlteza,he vistoel librode los trabajosdePersiles de Miguel de CeruantesSaauedra,illustrehijo de nuestranacion,ypadre llustre e tantos uenoshijos, onque dichosamenteaenoblezib;no halloen el cosac6tranuestra antaFACatolica,ybuenascostumbres,ntesmuchasde honesta, apaziblerecreacion, porel sepodriadezir,o que san Geronimo e Origines orel comentarioobrelosCantares: Cumin omnibus mnes,n hoc se ipsumsuperauitOri-

genes; pues de quantosnos dexbescritos, inguno s mas ingenioso,1AlsowrittenValdivielso; an account of his life and writingsmaybe found nTicknor'sHistoryof Spanish Literature (London, 1863),Vol. II, p. 331; the single volume which con-tains his dramatic works is veryrare,but the Imperial Library at Vienna has a copy. Thetitlereads: Doce actos sacramnentales dos comedias divinas por el Maestro JosephdeValdi-vielso (Toledo, 1622). Cf. Schack, Geschichteder dramnatischen itteratur und Kunst inSpanien (Frankfurt,1854),Vol. II, pp. 491, 97, 51, nd Obras de Francisco de Quevedo Vi-Ilegas, edited byDon A. FernAndez-Guerra Orbe (Madrid, 1876),Vol. II, p. 467.1] 1 [MODERNPHILOLOGY,July, 906

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2 RUDOLPHSCHEVILLmasculto,nimasentretenido,n fin isnede su buenavegez:casientrlosaprietos e la muertecantb stepartode su venera(n)dongenio.To us, no doubt, this exaggerated appreciation has little valuebeyond that of a friendly ribute; after a lapse of threehundredyears its praise findsno echo, forno workby Cervantes has beenso thoroughly onsigned to an oblivionwhich,according to mostcritics,would appear to be well deserved. Yet the verdict ofthe aprobacion was justified,for a time at least, by an unusualdemandforthe book immediately fter ts publication.' Withinthe same year of the firstedition (1617) six others appeared,2and by 1629 ten editionshad seen the light. Thus the Persiles1A complete list of all the editions of the Persiles may be found in the BibliografiaCritica de las Obras de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, por D. Leopoldo Rius (Madrid,1895-1905; vols.) ; cf.Vol. I, pp. 160ff. The first dition was printed byJuan de la Cuesta,who had issued the Don Quixote. After hat of 1629 herewas no other until the eighteenthcentury,wheneight new issues appeared. The romance,however,had been used byFran-cisco de Roxas Zorrilla in his comedia Persiles y Sigismunda, of which the earliest printedcopyknown s dated 1636 cf. Barrera's catalogue, p. 685). In the nineteenthcenturytherewere twelveeditions,ofwhich one saw the light in New York (1827), nd one in Paris (1835).Translations of the storywere made almost immediately after its appearance (cf. Vol. I,p. 363, f Rius); two in French appeared in Paris, 1618, he firstbyFrancois de Rosset, andthe second by le Sieur D'Audiguier; and one in English, in London, 1619, y an unknownperson. The title is of interest: "The Travels of Persiles and Sigismunda. A northernhistory: Whereinamongstthe variable Fortunes of the Prince ofThule, and this Princesseof Frisland, are interlaced many wittydiscourses, morall, politicall, and delightfull. Thefirstcopie was written n Spanish; translated afterward into French; and now last intoEnglish. London. Printed byH. L. forM. L., etc., 1619." Upon this English versionJohnFletcher based his play, The Customof the Country,one of the vilest ever put upon thestage. WhenAlex. Dyce edited it (Vol. IV, p. 385) n the Worksof Beaumont and Fletcher(11vols., London, 1844),he was unaware that Cervantes' Persiles was the source,thoughthefact had been pointed out as early as 1818by F. W. V. Schmidt, in his Beitrage zurGeschichteder romantischenPoesie (Berlin), p. 180 (cf. p. 5,n. 3). Ticknor,Vol. II, p. 133,n. 2 (cf. p. 9, n. 2) mentions some of the ideas and episodes which were taken from Cer-vantes byFletcher, making it clear, at the same time,that the indecency s all Fletcher'sown. I am not aware that any thoroughgoing omparison ofthe romancewith the play hasyetbeen made. Leo Bahlsen, "Spanische Quellen der dramatischen Litteratur,besondersEnglands zu Shakespeares Zeit" (Zeitschrift ir vergleichende itteraturgeschichteBerlin,1893],Vol. VI, p. 155),repeats the gist of Ticknor's comparison. Cf. also Dunlop-Liebrecht,Geschichte er Prosadichtung,pp. 278, 93, 11; also Englische Studien,Vol. IX, p. 24,No. 37," On the Chronologyof the Plays of Fletcher and Massinger" (Fleay), and A. W. Ward, AHistoryofEnglish Dramatic Literature (London, 1899),Vol. II, p. 722. Here Ward says thatthe actual originof the play was first ointed out in 1875! Cf. also Fraser's Magazine, Vol.II, New Series, p. 592; Koeppel, Quellen-Studienzu den Dramen Ben Jonson's, tc. Erlangenund Leipzig, 1895),p. 65; The Worksof Beaumont and Fletcher,Variorum edition (London,1904),Vol. I, p. 480.A translation of thePersiles into Italian appeared in Venice in 1626. Various transla-tions have followed since. The first dition of the Persiles ySigismunda maybe consultedin the Ticknor library n Boston and in Mr.Huntington's library n New York. The firstEnglish version is in the British Museum. In referringhereafterto the romance, I shallgive the page according to the edition of Rivadeneyra, Biblioteca de Autores Espafloles,Vol. I, Obras de Miguel de Cervantes.2No. 346of Rius' catalogue is considered a counterfeit; cf. also the catalogue of Tick-nor's library,that ofthe BritishMuseum,and that ofSalvA,No. 1753.2



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4 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLhave justifiedstill anotheredition,for in 1734 the Persiles waspublished again in Barcelona. Moreover, n the important di-tionof Don Quixotepublished in London in 1738 (4 vols. printedby J. & R. Tonson), to which was prefixed he first cholarly ifeof Cervantes (dated 1737), by D. GregorioMayans y Siscar, thelatter does not hesitate to give Persiles y Sigismunda the pref-erence over Don Quixote. This is an eloquent testimony o thehigh position which the formerheld at the time.' As late as

1 f. p. 101of the Vida de Cervantes; seeing that this first mportant udgmentpassedupon the romance is inaccessible to most students, quote from t the following,much ofwhich has been so frequentlyrepeated, but without any reference to the source: "Cer-vantes dijo, que su Persiles y Sigismunda se atrevia a competir con Heliodoro. La mayoralabanza que podemos darle, es decir, que es cierto. Los amores que refiere oncastisimos,la fecundidad de la invencionmaravillosa; en tanto grado, que pr6digo su ingenio,excediben la multitud de Episodios. Los sucesos son muchos i mui varios. En unos se descubre laimitacion de Heliodoro, i de otros,mui mejorada; en los demhscampea la novedad. Todosesthndispuestos con arte, i bien explicados, con circunstancias casi siempre verosimiles.Quanto mas se interna el Letor en esta Obra, tanto es mayor el gusto de leerla, siendo elTercero i Quarto Libro mucho mejores que el Primero i Segundo. Los continuos trabajosIlevados en paciencia acaban en descanso, sin mdquina alguna: porque un hombre comoCervantes,seria milagro que acabasse con algun milagro,para manifestar a felicidad de suraro ingenio. En las descripciones excedib a Heliodoro. Las deste suelen ser sobrado fre-quentes, i mui pomposas. Las de Cervantes a su tiempo, i mui naturales. Aventaj6letambien en el estilo; porque aunque el de Heliodoro es elegantisimo, es algo afectado,demasiamente figurado, mas Poetico de lo que permite a Prosa .... Pero el de Cervanteses propio, proporcionadamente sublime, modestamentefigurado, templadamente Poeticoen tal qual descripcion. En suma, esta Obra es de mayor invencion,artificio, de estilomas sublime que la de Don Quijote de la Mancha. Pero no ha tenido igual acetacion:porque la invencionde la Historia de Don Quijote es mas popular, i contiene Personas masgraciosas; i como son menos en numero,el Letor retienemejor la memoria de las costum-bres,hechos i caracteres de cada una. Fuera de esso el estilo es mas natural, i tanto masdescansado, quanto menossublime." Cf. also Clemencin's edition of Don Quixote Madrid,1894),Vol. I, p. liv. The favorable opinion of Mayans y Siscar probablybecame known inEngland chiefly hroughTheLife and Exploits of .... Don Quixote .... translated ....byCharles Jarvis (London, 1742). Vol. I contains the life of Cervantesby Mayans y Siscar,translated by Ozell. Subsequent editions of Jarvis' translation, however, substitutedanother biographyof Cervantes. The testimonyof this upon the standing of the Persilesduringthe latter half of the eighteenthcentury s ofinterest. "[The Persiles] is a romanceof the grave sort writtenafter the manner of Heliodorus' Ethiopics with which Cervantessays it dared to vie. It is in such esteem with the Spaniards, that they generally prefer tto Don Quixote,which can onlybe owing to their not being sufficientlyured of their fond-ness for romance." (From ed. London, 1821,Vol. I, p. xlviii.) Smollett, in his translation,1755 cf. prefatory ife ofCervantes), merelycopies from he Spanish biographyofMayans ySiscar, whenhe speaks of the elegance of diction,entertaining ncidents,and fecundity finvention to be noted in the Persiles (p. xxvi of Life of Cervantes,Vol. I, 2d ed., London,1761). J. G. Lockhart, in the biography of Cervantes which he prefixedto his edition ofMotteux's translation of Don Quixote, 1822, tands at the parting of the ways. What hesays of the Persiles combines the appreciation of the eighteenthcenturywith the indiffer-ence of the nineteenth. He says: " This performance [the Persiles] is an elegant andelaborate imitation of the style and manner of Heliodorus. It displays felicityof inven-tion and power of description,and has always been considered as one of the purest speci-mens of Castilian writing; nevertheless, t has not preservedany verydistinguished popu-larity nor been classed (except in regard to style) by any intelligentcritic of more recenttimes with the best of Cervantes' works." (P. xxx of Life, Edin., 1879.) Coleridge, in a4



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 51811 Sismondi felt justifiedin telling hearers of the lectureswhich he deliveredat Geneva, that the Spaniards rated the storyofPersiles as the equal ofDon Quixote.1 He unfortunatelyoesnot say fromwhat evidence he reaches this conclusion,but it isnot likelythat the large numberof the editions of the Persileswhich were published during the eighteenthcenturywas suffi-cient to accountforsuch a view; Sismondi,no doubt,was familiarwith hehigh regard nwhich thePersiles was heldbyseveralcon-temporary panish writers.2 On the otherhand, a search amongGerman men of letters,especially such as were under the in-fluenceof the Romantic movement t the time,reveals an enthu-siasm forthe last workofCervanteswhich,while limitedtothosein sympathywith the peculiar tenetsof a school of fiction,wasapparentlyunqualified.3lecture on Don Quixote and Cervantes, says the latter "was the inventorof novels fortheSpaniards, and in his Persiles and Sigismunda the English may find the germ of theirRobinsonCrusoe" (p. 274,Vol. IV, of Complete Works New York,1871]). It is too bad thatColeridge did not enlarge upon this rathervague assertion.

1"Le jugement des Espagnols place en effetce roman A cOt6 de Don Quichotte,audessus de tout le reste de ce qu'a 6crit Cervantes." (Printed in Vol. III, p. 419,of De lalittdrature u midi de l'Europe, par J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi [Paris, 1813]).2 . Vicente de los Rios (1780)and D. Juan A. Pellicer (1797) say nothingworthy fnotein the introductorymatter to their respective editions of Don Quixote. In the prologue toSancha's excellent edition of the Persiles, however Madrid, 1802),maybe found an expres.sion of the opinion then current n Spain: "No son pocos los sabios, que, no obstante elnotoriom6ritode todas las obras del famoso Espafiol Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, ysinembargo de los repetidos elogios prodigados principalmente A la Vida y Hechos de DonQuixote de la Mancha, que ha corrido siemprecon la primeraestimacion,dan la preferenciasobre todas ellas A os Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda," etc. Then the editor goes on topraise, as others had done, the excellence in style and plan of the work ("Prologo delEditor"). Sismondi must have known this edition. Only a few years later Navarrete, inhis Vida de Cervantes which was prefixedto the Spanish Academy's fourthedition of DonQuixote (1819), aysof the Persiles: " El [estilo] de este [Cervantes] es siemprepropio conigualdad, y sublime con templanza y proporcion . ... De aqui resulta que esta obra deCervantes sea de mayor nvenciony artificio,yde estilo mas igual yelevado que el Quixote,pues corrigi6 en ella las faltas de lenguaje y construccion," etc. (p. 190). Thus it maybeseen how writerswho came afterMayans y Siscar did little more than adopt his view (cf.p. 4,n. 1), and even his words.3As an excellent example, the words of so noted a Spanish scholar as Fried. Wilh. Val.Schmidt may be cited; they might have been written by Aug. Wilh. or Fried. Schlegel:"Das letzte Werk des grossen Cervantes, Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, scheintntberallungebtirlichwenig bekannt. Und dennoch kennen wir keinen geistlichenRoman,der sich mit diesem vergleichendtirfte. Die himmlischeLiebe, vermahltmitder zartestenirdischen,durch tausendfache Noth gelautert, mmerwie derKarfunkelstrahlenddurchdieNacht dergemeinenUmgebung,endlich zum Schauen des langersehntengelangend,das istdie Axe um welche herum die verschiedenstenErscheinungen des Lebens, Bestrebungenund Gesinnungen sich schwingen." Cf. Beitrdge zur Geschichteder romnantischenoesie.(Berlin, 1818; [small] 8vo), p. 179. The interest which August W. Schlegel took in thePersiles was apparently limited chiefly o the romantic or poetic featuresof the novel, as5



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6 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLIn the face of this highly commendatoryttitudetoward thePersiles in the past,what adequate, or even tentative,apprecia-tion can we turn to in our own times Could this creationbyCervantes have been treatedwith greater indifferencef it hadbeen turned out by someunrememberediterarydrudge? Whatcorrespondinglymportant roductionsby the world's trulygreatwriters-even though theybe classed among their"minorworks"-have been so consistentlyaid upon the shelfby either iterarycriticand historian, r by the modernanalytic scholar In thisconnection t will be necessaryto summarize the verdictspassedon Persiles y Sigismunda during the nineteenth entury,nade-quate and repetitional houghtheybe.The first riticismworthy f consideration s naturallythat ofthe German scholar, Friedrich Bouterwek, whose history ofSpanish literature' is the earliest systematicpresentation f thesubject in German.2 Bouterwek'sjudgment s of interestbecause

can be inferred rom he three translations which he made of two sonnets and an ode to befoundtherein pp. 665, 33, 83of thePersiles, which is the order in which Schlegel's trans-lations are printed, p. 189,Vol. IV, of Aug. Wilh. Schlegel's Sdmmtliche Werke [Leipzig,1846]). An unimportantwork by Edmund Dorer, entitled Cervantesund seine WerkenachdeutschenUrtheilen Leipzig, 1881),contains a collection of opinions expressed byGermannovelists, poets, and philosophers,whose verdicts are, forthe most part, imbued with thespirit of the Romantic School of Germany, nd are consequentlyhighlyappreciative of allof the writingsof Cervantes. For, in accordance with the theories proclaimed by theschool, he had become one oftheir standards of excellence in fiction. Many of the opinionshave rather the interest of a novel point of view than the value of critical discrimination.But Dorer's book deserves to be cited, if onlybecause it adduces further vidence that thePersiles was one of the hobbies of almost everyone of thenoted writersof the RomanticSchool. Among the most importantopinions is that of Ludwig Tieck (p. 45), taken fromhis introductionto Dorothea Tieck's translation of the Persiles (Leipzig, 1837). He says:"Dieses bunte, seltsame Werk,Reiseabenteuer zweier Liebenden, ist wie eine Abzweigungjener prosaischen Ritterpoesie,oder jener steifen und unwahrscheinlichen Heldenromaneanzusehen. Cervantes ftthrt ie wunderbare Geschichte in die vertrauliche Nahe seinerLeser; Spanien, das Vaterland, wird geschildert,berahmte Namen werden genannt undmerkwairdige egebenheitenangedeutet .... Die Erfindung st oft so seltsam, .... dasses der launige Cervantes nichtunterlassenkann,sein Gedicht selbst ironisch zu betrachtenund itberdie Unmoglichkeit der Begebenheit zu scherzen .... Ton und Sprache sindhochstmannigfaltig, tc." From the pen of A. W. Schlegel there is a sonnet (p. 55) extoll-ing the excellence of the Persiles, while the opinion of Friedr. Schlegel mightbe taken tovoice the enthusiasm of the whole school (p. 60): "Es ist die spateste, fast zu reife,aberdoch noch frisch und gewfirzhaftduftende Frucht dieses liebenswtrdigen Geistes [i. e.Cervantes] der noch im letztenHauch Poesie und ewige Jugendathmete."

1Geschichte der schOnenWissenschaften with subtitle), " Geschichte der spanischenund portugiesischenPoesie und Beredsamkeit." Von Fried. Bouterwek (1804). Being Vol.III of a work entitled: Geschichteder Poesie und Beredsamkeit seit dem Ende des drei-zehntenJahrhunderts(G6ttingen,1801-19).2Cf. Ferd. Wolf, Studien zur Geschichteder spanischen und portugiesischenNational-Litteratur (Berlin, 1859),p. 1. 6



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 7it contains in a nutshellpracticallyall that has been said of theromancesince his day. He regards the Persiles as "ein inte-ressanterNachtrag zu seinen [i. e., Cervantes'] tibrigenWerken;"and he adds:

SpracheundDarstellung aben n diesemRomanbesonders,eiderreinstenimplicitat,ine seltenePricisionund Politur. Aberdie Ideeeines olchenRomanswar keinerneuenAusfiihrung erth.Cervanteswollte m Ende seinerglorreichenaufbahnnochdenHeliodornach-ahmen.1Bouterwek ums up thework as a romanticdescription f fearfuladventures with a sustained interest in the situations,but anabsurd mixture f the real and fabulous,whilethe ast half,wherethe scene is Spain and Italy, does not harmonizewith the spiritofthefirst.To whatextent Bouterwekwas influenced y Mayans y Siscarand subsequent critics of the eighteenth entury,whenhe com-mends especially the simplicityof compositionas well as theexcellencein styleof the Persiles, cannot be determined, nd isunimportant. But this criticism, uch as it is,has constitutedhechief, if not the only, praisewhichthe workhas metwithsincehis day. In statinghis opinion, however, that the idea of theromance was old and did not deserve to be reproduced n a newmanner, hatCervantes had taken it into his head to imitateHeliodorus, Bouterwek made a most insufficientnd misleadingstatement. He has becomeresponsiblefor hesweepinggenerali-ties patternedafterhis own by other writers, y notmaking tclear that the Persiles, thoughit is but an old theme in a newform,has none the less the meritsofan originalcreation, ust asdoes a new play though it be based upon an old plot. Asregards the imitationofHeliodorus,whatfollows aterwill showhow feware the reminiscences f the Greek romance,especiallyinsubstance,whencomparedwiththe rest of thematerialgleanedfrom he storehouse of Cervantes' reading. The remainderofBouterwek's udgment s fair and to the point, but, being un-favorable o the Persiles, it could nothave made the book attrac-tive to the ordinaryreader.1 outerwek, p. 359; cf. also the English translation of Thomasina Ross, History ofSpanish Literature,byFrederick Bouterwek (London, 1847),p. 252.7



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8 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLWhen in 1814 JohnC. Dunlop publishedhisHistoryofProse

Fiction,1he appears to have been unaware ofanyrelationbetweenHeliodorus and Cervantes. The omissionis, however,suppliedby Felix Liebrecht, who translatedDunlop's work ntoGermanwith the addition ofnumerous valuable notes.2 The former awfit,nevertheless, o repeatmerelythe unqualified statement thatthe Persiles is an imitation fHeliodorus,whichhe took,perhaps,as muchfromTicknoras fromBouterwek. In 1822 the sameidea had emanated from the pen of the noted Calderon scholar,Friederich W. V. Schmidt,which s all themoreremarkable incehe was an enthusiastic admirer of the Persiles, and musthaverecognized n it somethingmore than a mere imitation f Helio-dorus. Whereas we have extravagant praise in his Beitragereferred o above (p. 5, n. 3), we are now told merelythat "dieberfihmtesteachahmung [des Heliodor] bei den Spaniern istdienordischeGeschichtePersiles und Sigismunda von Cervantes."3In 1857 Schmidt's early studies on Calderon's plays were incor-poratedin his importantwork on that poet, so we have the sameidea unchanged,after lapse of thirty-five ears.'

I This work,of the utmost importance for a study of the genre to which the Persilesbelongs,was entitled: TheHistoryofFiction: Being a Critical AccountoftheMost Celebra-ted Prose WorksofFiction from the Earliest Greek Romances to theNovels of the PresentDay (Edinburgh, 1814; 3 vols., 8vo; 4thEngl. ed., 2 vols., London, 1888,fromwhich I shallquote from imeto time).2The title reads: J. Dunlop's Geschichte der Prosadichtungen oder Geschichte derRomane,Novellen,Mdrchen .... aus demEnglischen ibertragen ... vermehrt ... mitAnmerkungen ersehenBerlin,1851 of.pp. 458 nd 511). Liebrecht's notes were ncorporatedinto thefourthEnglish edition. The remarkreferred o is on p. 404,Vol. II, n. 3, of latter

work. Erwin Rohde, in his excellentwork,Der griechischeRoman und seine Vorlaufer (2ded., Leipzig, 1900), ites Liebrecht's note without comment (p. 472,n. 1). In the Englishedition ofDunlop's workthe Persiles is called bythe peculiar title of The SorrowsofPer-siles and Sigismunda, and inGermanDie Leidensgeschichte es Persiles und der Sigismun-da, a title which Liebrecht may have taken from Dorothea Tieck's translation called DieLeiden des Persiles und der Sigismunda (cf. p. 5, n. 3). A better rendition of Trabajoswould be "Wanderings," since theplural Trabajos is used in this connection to signify hehardshipsof adventure.3WienerJahrbticher er Litteratur, Vol. XVIII, 1822. Cf.Anzeige-Blattffir Wissen-schaftund Kunst, No. XVIII, p. 8.4Die Schauspiele Calderon's dargestellt und erldutertvonFried. Wilh. Val. Schmidt(Elberfeld,1857),p. 290. Even Gervinus, n his Geschichte erpoetischenNational-Litteraturder Deutschen (2d ed., Leipzig, 1840), eft the opinion of his predecessorsunchallenged. Hesays (Vol. I, p. 263): " Es ist aber zu vermuthen,dass, wie spater Tasso den Heliodor be-nutzte,wie den italienischen und spanischen SchaferdichternLongus vorschwebt,wie Cer-vantes' ernsterRoman [i. e., Persiles ySigismunda] den ganzen Zuschnitt der griechischenRomane tragt,so auch in frftherereit vielerlei Griechisches in die neue romanischePoesieEingang gefunden haben mag." This view was modified in the fifthedition, entitled8



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 9I have dweltthus far only upon the appreciationwhich thePersiles met in Germany,wherescientific esearchand scholarlycriticism n the fieldof Spanish made practically the-only prog-ress achievedduringthe first alf ofthenineteenthcentury.1 Wecome now to the judgment passed upon the Persiles by GeorgeTicknor, which is the most importantofall, inasmuchas it hasbeen unhesitatinglyaccepted and repeated up to the presenttime.2 Ticknor'scriticism s, as usual, a thoroughly ndependentone, and will to a large extent-at least,where common-sense rwhat is rational forms the only criterion-remain irrefutable.But while,generally speaking, t is impossiblefor historianwhocovers a nation'swhole literature o do justice to every mportantwork, t will also be admitted, n the particular case of Ticknor,that, great as is his history s a whole,he was temperamentallyless fitted o judge some worksthan he was others. Amongthosewhichsuffered n his clear, unemotionaltreatmentwe mustplacethePersiles; whose importanceies in the factthat it is a charac-teristicproductionof its epoch, a creation not only typical ofSpanish temperament, ut one indispensable in any final wordon thegenius of Cervantes. This neitherTicknor nor any criticwhofollowedhimhas duly recognized.Ticknorbegins by saying that the purposeof Cervantes eemstohave been to write serious novelwhenhe undertook he Per-

Geschichte erdeutschenDichtung,Vol. II (Leipzig, 1872), . 206: "In Persiles undSigismundaging er [Cervantes] bis auf die Quelle der ernstenRitterdichtungenzurack, auf den alex-andrinischenRoman, schildertuns gleichsam zur ErkenntnissdenTypus dieser ganzen Lit-teratur, ndem er uns ein liebendes Paar, das durchein stetigesGeffthlneinander geknftpftist, von dem wunderlichstenWechsel der Dinge ergriffen nd als Spielball einer gatnstigenGOttin,Fortuna, zeigt." The latter idea is importaut and will be considered in connectionwithCervantes' theoryoffiction. O. L. B. Wolff,AllgemeineGeschichte es Romans (Jena;2d ed. 1850, . 119),adds nothingto our knowledge. J. L. Klein, Geschichtedes spanischenDramas (Vol. IX of Geschichtedes Dramas; Leipzig, 1872; p. 274),sees no saving qualitieswhatsoever in thePersiles.1To be convinced of theinterest and activity n behalfofSpanish literature nGermanyat this time,one need but consult the notes inFerd. Wolf'swork on Spanish and Portugueseliterature (1859),or such works as Schack's history of the Spanish drama, or Lemcke'sHandbuch derspanischenLitteratur; and as regards the interesttaken in Cervantes alone,the long list oftranslations as well as of editions in the original Spanish printed in Ger-many (given byRius, Bibliografia, Vol. I) is an ample testimony.2History of Spanish Literature, by George Ticknor (3 vols.; London, 1863),Vol. II, pp.133 f. The edition fromwhich I quote differs ut little from he German versionofJulius,or the Spanish editionbyGayangos. Ticknor himself aid, referring o all thescholars whocompletedhis work: "From the results of their labors, carefullyprosecuted .... I havetaken . . . . everything hat, as it has seemed to me,could add value, interest,or complete-ness to the presentrevisededition." (Preface, p. x.)9



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10 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLsiles, and thenhe casts about to see what modelsCervantescouldhave foundforserious romanticfiction. All thatthe lattersays,however, s thathe hopes toproduce an excellent libro de entre-tenimiento,'nd nothing ould havebeen farther rom is thoughtsthan Ticknor's "serious"-that is, "modern"--conceptionof fic-tion. What Cervantes meant to produce was simply a tale ofadventure extended beyond the ordinarylength of the currentnovela. That this is all he impliedcan be seen from hecommonmeaningofentretenimienton his day. Near the beginning ofthe novela,"Las fortunas de Diana, written shortly after thedeath ofCervantes,Lope de Vega tells of his hesitancy n under-taking this genre in literature,which he had leftuntriedup tothattime,and which seemed to him more at home in Italy andFrance than in Spain. He admits hesuccessofCervantes n thisfield, nd thenadds:Confieso ue son ibros e grande ntretenimiento,quepodrian erejemplares,omo lgunasde las historias eBandelo.... Y habiendohallado tantas invenciones ara milcomedias ... servir6 vuestramerced on esta.This, however,was addressedtohismistress,whowasprobablynotexpecting anyserious psychologicaltreatment n a talewritten orher pleasure and entertainment. Moreover,the large majorityof the reading public, especially thewomen,considered a book offiction s a pleasantmeans ofpassing an hour of leisure, and noteven a limited circle of the educated classes was trained to lookupon a novela or a comedia as an accuratereproduction f societyand its environment. All thatthe public demanded of a libro deentretenimientos voiced in thedesire so often xpressed,namely,that the events described therein be verosimiles or credible.Characters and sentimentswere not subjected to scrutiny, ro-videdtheywerepleasingoramusing. Therefore, vensuchproduc-

1Cf. "Dedicatoria al Conde de Lemos," Don Quixote,Part II. "Con esto me despido,ofreciendo a V. Ex. los Trabajos de Persiles ySigismunda, libro a quien dare findentro dequatro meses,Deo volente; el qual ha de ser,o elmas malo, o el mejorque ennuestra enguase haya compuesto: quiero dezir de los de entretenimiento; digo que mearrepientode auerdicho el mas malo, porque segun la opinion de mis amigos, ha de legar al estremo de bon-dad possible."2Printed in La Filemena, con otras diversas Rimas, Prosas y Versos,de Lope de VegaCarpio (Madrid, 1621); accessible in "Biblioteca de Autores Espafloles" (Rivadeneyra),obras no dramaticas de Lope de Vega (Madrid, 1872),p. 1.10



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 11tionsin Spanish literature s maybe said to give a good pictureof contemporaryife mustbe carefully xamined, fdefinite esultsregardingthe customs nd cultureofthe timesare to be reached.This is especiallytruein the case ofthetheater fCervantes'day.To be sure,the comedia is one of themost mportantourcesthatwe have for hestudyofSpanish culture,but its value is frequentlyvitiatedby the playwright'sfailure to differentiateufficientlythe spiritoffiction n comedyfrom hat of the novela. In thelatter, bsence ofpsychologicaltruthfulness nd an excess of ro-mantic or imaginativeelements re pardonableand even ogical;but the farther comedia gets from hat which s simplynaturaland actually representative, he less it can be used as a reliabledocumenton contemporaryife. The powerof appreciatingthedistinctionsbetween fact and fiction, owever, s a matter ftrain-ing, and playwrightswere indifferent o them even when theywereostensiblywalkingupon the solid ground of history. Notinfrequently o we find the claim of a historia verdadera' madefora comedia which, thoughdrawn from germof truth odgedin some chronicle or popular ballad, is in its ultimateform, orthe mostpart,an imaginarycreation. Such being the spirit ofeverykindof fiction, novelist would notfeeltempted olookfor"serious" modelsforhis work; he would be guided by the spiritand practiceofcontemporarywriters. It is thereforeplain thatCervantes was merelyin need of some frameworkwhich wouldenable himtodrawout indefinitelyhemannerof thenovela,andthereby reate a book forgeneral entertainment,"ongerthantheordinary ale. That was all he could have intended to do. ButTicknoris troubled ofind guide forthePersiles, and all thathecan hit upon is "the imaginarytravelsofLucian, threeor fourGreek romances,and the romances of chivalry." I have been1 or a fulldiscussion of the termhistoria verdadera in connection with the comediacf.Max Krenkel,Klassische Bilhnendichtungen erSpanier, Vol. III (Leipzig, 1887), p. 21ff.

"2Theterm libro de entretenimientor libros entretenidos cf. p. 3, n. 1) had come toinclude all prose creations of fiction, ust as the termcomedia included both tragedyandcomedy. It was applied to trifles ike patraiias, and didlogos (cf. those de apacible entre-tenimiento, yGaspar Lucas Hidalgo), as well as to a long history ike that ofPersiles (theaprobacion of the Spanish version of Tatius [cf. p. 14,n. 1] says it was worthyof beingprinted "para apacible entretenimientoy exemplo de artificiosasy utiles ficciones"). Orwe find it replaced bypasatiempo and recreo (cf. El Patrafuelo, byTimoneda, epistola alamantisimo lector),or byapacible recreacion,as in Valdiviesso's aprobacion, cited above.11



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12 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLable to discoverno evidence from he Persiles itself hatCervantesever saw Lucian's True History. Moreover, t would be a diffi-cult task to proveeither fromhis life or his writings hat he couldread Greek-or had the time to do it. I hope to show in whatfollows aterthat the knowledgewhich he had of Latin authorscould have been obtained throughthe medium of translations;and I see no reason to believe thathe could read French. On theotherhand,bothhis long sojournin Italy as wellas thetestimonyderivedfromhisworksustify heconclusionthathe was thorough-ly acquainted with talian.' I have been unable tofind nymen-tion of a completeSpanish translation f Lucian2 printedwithinthe lifetimeof Cervantes,but at least seven editions in Italianappeared in the first alf of thesixteenthcentury.3One of the at-ter he could therefore ave seen duringhissojourn nItaly. Butthe idea ofTicknor is at bottomsomewhatillogical. The TrueHistory of Lucian is a wild extravaganza,' a satireon previousbooks of travel; and, notwithstandinghis fact, Cervantes, whohad planned a "serious romance," according to Ticknor, is sup-posed to have had it among thefewbooks which erved s a guidefor the Persiles. Lucian may thereforebe dismissed withoutfurther hought.The influence of three or fourGreek romances,"as Ticknorrathervaguelyputs it, is, on the otherhand, worthy f the mostcareful consideration. In the absence of any specificnames,we

1It is possible that Cervantes knew theworksofTeofiloFolengo (1491-1544), hichmayhave suggestedto him the originofDon Quixote's madness. The firstmpulse to write hisgreat workwould thus have comefrom taly. Cf.B. Zumbini,Studi diLetteratura Italiana(Firenze, 1894),p. 165.2SalvA's catalogue No. 1879mentions a Historia verdadera de Luziano traduzida deGriego en lengua Castellana (Argentina, 1551); but this contains onlyBook I. Lucian'sDialogues, however, ppeared in Spanish in 1550 anonymously),and again in1621, ranslatedby Franc. de Herrera Maldonado. Both are mentioned by SalvA (Nos. 3934,3935 of hiscatalogue), and byGraesse, Trdsorde livresrares etpricieux (Dresden, 1863; underLucian,Vol. IV, p. 277). Lucian's works were first translated into French in 1583 (Paris); cf.Graesse; anotheredition, 1634 Paris), is mentioned n Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, Vol.III, p. 507 Hamburg, 1726).3Cf.Graesse, Trdsorde livresrares etprbcieux.4 t will be remembered hat among the various experiences throughwhichLucian andhis companions go in theirtravels,are shipwrecksupon islands wherethe rivers are ofwineand the treeswomenfrom he waist upward; a tripto themoon,wheretheymeet men car-ried bygreat vultures; a battle between the hosts of the Sun and the Moon, in which thesoldiers fromthe Great Bear are mountedon fleas as large as elephants; a sojourn in thebellyof a whale large enoughtohold forests nd great cities,etc. Cf.Rohde, Der griechischeRoman, op. cit., pp. 204ff. 12



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 13maytake it forgrantedthat TicknormeantHeliodorus, AchillesTatius, and possibly Longus, or whoeverwas the authorof thepastoral romanceofDaphnis and Chloe. The atmosphere s wellas the entiremake-upof the last, however,are so different romthoseof the other two that it can more easily be disposed offirst.' Whatever nfluence t exertedupon Spanish literaturewasmost ikelythroughthe channel of the Italian pastoral,and thenin an attenuatedform; for,owingto the similarityof its natureto thatof the eclogues ofTheocritusandVirgil,its nfluencemustat an earlydate have become indistinguishably usedwiththeirs.The Daphnis and Chloe has consequentlynothingto do withthegenre to which the Persiles belongs, and thoughit will be clearlater thatsome influencewas exertedupon the latterby the pas-toral novel, such influence will be found to be only in the man-nerism which distinguishes the Spanish prose pastoral of theRenaissance epoch. This leaves the works of Heliodorus andAchilles Tatius to be dealt with. I shall treat the question ofHeliodorus at length in mynext article,and shall consequentlyspeak ofTatius first.If theromanceof thefaithfuloves ofKlitophonand Leucippe,by Tatius, had been favored by fortunewith a great translatorlike Amyot, s was the case with the Theagenes and Chariklea ofHeliodorus, its influenceupon literatureduring the Renaissancemighthave been as great as thatof the latternovel. Two trans-lations2of Tatius into French appeared withina few decades ofthe publicationofAmyot'sHeliodorus;3but theymusthave made1The romance of Daphnis and Chloewas first ranslated into French in 1559by Amyot,but itwas not printed n Italian before1643, ccording tonumerouscatalogues which I haveconsulted. It first ppeared in a Spanish garb anonymously n our own times (1880), n atranslation made byJuanValera. It is not ikelythat Cervantes ever read thestory. NotedGreek romances which were unknown in the seventeenth century are the romance ofChaereas and Kallirrhoe, by Chariton, firstprinted at Amsterdam in 1750; and that ofHabrokormesnd Antheia,byXenophon the Ephesian, published in 1726 at London, follow-ing a translation into Italian also published there,1723. (Cf. Dunlop, Vol. I, pp. 58 and 61;Graesse, Tr6sor; British Museum catalogue; and Rohde, op. cit., pp. 517ff., 09 ff. I havefound no reason fortouching upon the Byzantine imitations,such as the storyof Hysmineand Hysminias byEustathius, Rohde, pp. 556ff.

2Fabricius (Bibliotheca Graeca, Vol. VI, p. 797) gives them the dates of 1568,1575(Paris).3The firstedition of Amyot's Heliodorus, with the title Histoire Aethiopique d'Heli-odorus traitant des loyales et pudiques amours de Thdagnes et de Charicle appeared in1547 Paris; fol.). 13



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14 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLcomparativelyfar less impression,for I cannot find a recordofanytranslationntoSpanish' earlier thantheseventeenth entury.But Cervantes could have seen some Italian version,forduringthe latter half of the sixteenthcenturyno less than six editionsofTatius appeared in thatlanguage.2 The characterof the attertale, however, s so similar to that of Heliodorus that the influ-ence of bothbecomesmoreor less identical in those elementsofthe Persiles where t maybe noted,namely n thebare outlineorframeworkfa storyof adventure. In a fewunimportant etailsit is possible thatthehistoryof Klitophon and Leucippe lurkedin thememory f Cervantes, s will appear in anotherpaper,butit cannotbe definitely roven,thatsuch was the case.As regards the Theagenes and Chariklea, we have the state-mentofCervantes himself hat he was competingwithHeliodoruswhen he wrote the Persiles and he had ample opportunity fbecoming acquaintedwith the former omance n his owntongue,forup to the time of his death there s a record of at least foureditionsin Spanish.3 But in orderthatthe natureand substance1 he list of Alonso de Padilla cited above (p. 3,n. 1) includes a novel,called Los masfielesamantes Leucipe y Clitofonte. I cannot find nymentionofit in the catalogues of rarebooks, but the prologue to Fernando de Mena's translation of Heliodorus (1787,Madrid)cites it in a footnote: " Los mas fielesamantes, Leucipe y Clitophonte: historia Griega porAchiles Tacio Alexandrino: Traducida, censurada y parte compuesta por D. Diego AgredayVargas, vecino ynatural de la villa deMadrid, etc., En Madrid por Juan de la Cuesta,Aflode 1617." The romance,whichappeared inVenice 1552,withthe title ofHistoria de 108 moresde Clareo y Florisea y de los trabajos de Isea, byAlonso Nuflezde Reinoso, has one or twoepisodes reminiscentof Tatius (cf. p. 17,n. 1); printed n Bibl. de Aut. Esp. (Rivadeneyra),Vol. III, p. 431, Novelistas anterioresACervantes," edited by D. Buenaventura C. Aribau(3d ed., Madrid, 1858).2Graesse (cf. supra), Vol. I, p. 13,gives the dates 1546,1550,1598 for Italian versions,while the BritishMuseum catalogue mentions fourwiththe dates 1560, 563, 598, 608.3The original romance 'HALto8pov AiOLtortKiecrropiasPtAXia86ca was first printed in 1534(4to Basileae, Hervag.), and translated into French in 1547, yAmyot cf. p. 13,n. 3); thenintoLatin, 1552 fol. Bas.). A Spanish versionappeared at Antwerp n1554; one in Italian atVenice in 1556; and one in English at London in 1587. Onlythe Spanish version concernsus here. Its title reads: "Historia Ethiopica de Heliodoro trasladada de frances envulgarCastellano por un segreto migo de su patria y corregido egun el Griegopor el mismo, nAnvers 1554. En casa de Martin Nucio (12moBritishMuseum) (8vo SalvA)." It is an anony-mous translation and not byF. de Mena, as is well proven bythe aprobacion and prologoofa new translation which followed in 1587 with the title: " La historia de los dos lealesamantes Theagenes y Chariclea, trasladada agora de nuevo de Latin en romance por Fer-nando de Mena Vezino de Toledo, AlcalA de Henares (Juan Gracian) 1587,8vo." Theaprobacion speaks of a previous translationbyanother author,while the prologue byMenasays that a translation of Heliodorus made from French version had come intohis hands,and that thenumerouserrors and suppressions to be noted therein ustifiedthe newversionwhichwas made from he Latin and then compared withthe Greek. In spite of this testi-mony, he British Museum catalogue attributes the edition of 1554to Mena, and Graesse(cf. his Tr6sor under " Heliod.") makes the same mistake. Nicolas Antonio confuses the14



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 15of the influenceof Heliodorus on Cervantes may be perfectlyclear when we are ready to take it up, it will be necessary todwell at lengthon the latter's statement ust mentioned. Whatdid he mean,when in the prologue to his Novelas exemplares,he characterizesthe Persiles as a libroque se atreve d competircon Heliodoro? Cervantes would undoubtedly have admittedthat he had imitated the Greek writer, ut whatwould he havemeant by "imitation,"and how does the term,when baldly ap-plied to a storynowadays,differn meaningfrom hatgiven it inthe lifetime of Cervantes? Upon this differencehinges myobjection to the unqualifieddicta uttered all throughthe nine-teenthcentury, fwhich I have given specimensabove.There can be no doubt that the admissionquoted from heprologue to the novelas has been the first nd chief cause of allthegeneralities nd vague opinionsuttered bout thePersiles, andyetCervantes cannot be blamed forconfessingto a competitionor imitation n the sense in which he would have used the word.In the first lace,itwas employedbynovelists to contrastwith heterm to translate" romanzar orromancear),though he atter idnot,generally speaking, mean a close and faithfulrenderingofthe original. Thus in the first edicatoria to hisHistoria de losamores de Clareo y Florisea y de los trabajos de Isea,' AlonsoNunez de Reinoso says that,having found in a certain bookstorea fragment f a Greek story,he was greatlytakenwith ts livelyand pleasing invention. "Por lo cual," he adds "acord6 de,imritando no romanzando, escrebir esta mi obra;" that is, hisintentionwas to be originaland not to copy his model; and as afurthertestimony o the factthat he is standingon his own feethe says, "no uso mas que de la invencion,y algunas palabras deaquellos razonamientos" (i. e., of the fragmentary ook he hadtwo translations (Biblioteca, Nov., 1783,Vol. I, p. 380), saying that Mena's versionwas madefrom he French and not from he Latin or the Greek. Owing to the growingdemand forromantic novels ofadventure,Mena's versionwas reprinted 1) Barcelona (Ger. Margarit),1614 Colophon 1615),8vo; (2) Madrid (Alonso Martin), 1615,8vo; and (3) Paris (" Vista ycorregia por Cesar Oudin"), 1616, 2mo. In 1722 . M. de Castillejo published a new transla-tion (Madrid, 4to); and (4) in 1787Mena's version was reprintedbyA. de Sotos (Madrid,2 vols., small 8vo). Of these versions,the last two are in the Ticknorlibrary. The prologueto the edition of 1787 peaks of an anonymoustranslationpublished at Salamanca in 1581,8vo,ofwhich I have not seen mentionelsewhere.1 f. op. cit., p. 14,n. 3. 15



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16 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLfound). Consequently,such imitation, ince it followedmerelythe invencionor framework f some otherfiction,ould in no waybe considered open to censure. If, however, nyone should beunreasonable enough to blame such a procedure,the commonpracticeof the age, as he goes on to say,would be foundsufficientto justify t:Cuanto nesta miobraenprosahaber mitadoAOvidio n los librosde Tristibus, Seneca en las tragedias, aquellosrazonamientosmo-rososy A otros utoresatinos, o tengo pena; porquenotuvieronmasprivilegioos que hicierono mismode lo que yo tengo, iendo llostodoshartomas sabiose ingeniosose lo que yosoy.'And just as Nunez de Reinoso applies theword nvencionin averybroad way to the skeleton or framework f a romance, oalso does Lope2 use it to designatethe plot or outlineof any oneof the thousandcomedias whichhe has invented. In the secondplace, in a moregeneral sense, he word mitar as well as invencion,would imply merelyan effort n the part of the novelist to pro-duce another libro de entretenimientoor the idle reader,onesimilar n genreto its model. Thus, as the Theagenes and Chari-klea belongs to the class of the roman d'aventure, o also does thePersiles. And the latterconception of imitationexplains Cer-vantes' substitution f thewordcompetirfor mitar,since he wasnot imitatingHeliodorus so muchin substanceas he was compet-ing with himin popularity mong the lovers ofromance.!The plea oforiginalitywould therefore e based largelyupontheway in which the framework ad been filledout withoriginalmaterial,withepisodes and adventuresnewly imagined; at least,borrowedelements would have to assume a new garb or somekind of effectivedisguise-before theycould be placed to thecredit of the man who reinventedthem. Naturallyenough, inmost cases the readingpublic was not acquainted with the innu-merablesourcesopen to a writer f romances, nd so thetendencyto call that whichwas not exactlya translation n original story

I Second dedicatoria, p. 432.2Cf. the passage in his novela, Las fortunas de Diana, cited above, p. 10,n. 2.3Pellicer, it seems to me,misunderstands the meaning of Cervantes entirely,when hecalls competir strongerword than intitar; he thinks of both in a modern sense,when hesays: "ni el mismo Cervantes creyb desayrar su ingenio original, proponiendose en suPersiles no solo imitar, sino competircon Heliodoro" (p. xxx of "discurso preliminar" tohis edition ofDon Quixote [Madrid, 1797]). 16



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 17was no doubt frequently bused. But it is hazardous to applyour word "imitation" to thesenovels in too general and off-handa way, est the implied imitation be takento mean a copy of itsmodel throughout. Close studyreveals the absorptionofnumer-ous ideas or episodes fromvarious unacknowledgedsources,andthe inclinationwhich critics have had in the past to hit uponsome one writer,who representsthe limit of theirvision,andmust therefore e made entirelyresponsible forthe invention fthe story,eads to woefully nadequate results,notably n the caseof such a genre as that to which the Persiles belongs.' To say,therefore,hatCervantes mitated Heliodorus is to say little ornothing of significance. Besides, it must be rememberedn thisconnection that the mentionof Heliodorus was, in part at least,promptedby a certain iterary ffectation ommon n thosetimes.It was the fashion to mentionthe source of your inspiration nthe formof some worthy nd popularwriter,who, if he were anancientone,would be a further estimonyo yourerudition.2Butanother nd moreurgentreason for"daring tocompetewithHeli-odorus" willbegiven nmynextpaper. Beforegoingfurtherfieldin this matter, t will be necessaryto completethe studyofTick-nor's appreciation, nd thatof some of thosewhocame afterhim.It maybe rememberedhat, n planninghisPersiles, Cervanteshad, according to Ticknor,only Lucian, some Greek romances,and the romancesofchivalry oguide him. The influence f thelattertyperemains to be considered, o that it maybe clear withwhatqualifications hewords of Ticknorcan be accepted. If welook upon the romances of chivalryas a "serious" part of the1hus Dunlop (supra, Vol. II, p. 404)calls theabove-mentionedromance ofFlorizel (sic)Clareo and theUnfortunateYsea (p. 14,n. 1) a close imitation (in its firstpart) of the storyby Tatius. This characterization will hardly hold, for the storyis patterned after thenovels ofchivalry. In the same off-handmanner Ticknor (Vol. II, p. 134,n. 5) quotes Sainte-Beuve in part: " des naufrages,des d6serts,des descentes par nier, et des ravissements,c'est done toujours plus ou moins l'ancien roman d'Heliodore [celui de d'Urf6, le genreromanesque espagnol, celui des nouvelles de Cervantes] " (Critiques etportraits littiraires[Paris, 1839],p. 173); and then unjustlyadds, "these wordsdescribe morethan half of thePersiles and Sigismunda."

2This affectation, nce commonupon the title pages of manyof the romances of chiv-alry,was hard to eradicate. Braunfels says of t: " Die Romanschreiberwollten durchdasVorgebenauslAndischer und meistensentlegenerQuellen, ihrenDichtungeneinengrosserenAnschein der Wahrheit und mehr Autoritatverleihen" (KritischerVersuch uber en RomanAmadis von Gallien [Leipzig, 1876],p. 83). (Cf. also " Biblioteca de Autores Espafioles,'Libros de Caballerias, edited byGayangos [Madrid, 1857], CatAlogo," pp. 1xiii if.)17



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18 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLgenre of adventure,as models capable of suggesting possibleevents in a worldsupposedly contemporarywith the reader,andbelieve that theywere taken seriouslyby Cervantes,we mayfol-low Ticknor's suggestionand put them nto the same typewiththe Persiles. But it is not likely that Cervanteswould havebeen pleased to see his libro de entretenimiento lassed withbooks which were almost wholly a tissue of extravagant andimpossible adventures. For, whatevermodicum of truththeremaybe in the criticismmade in some quarters,'thatPersiles vieswithAmadis in strange nd fantastical xperiences,t may,never-theless,be said that Cervantesgenerallystroveto remainwithinthe bounds of whatto him seemedperfectly ossible. Occasion-ally,wherehe has accepted a legend or incorporated miracu-lous event,2 e does so apologetically. Much of whatto us seemsso impossible n his Persiles can be accounted for f we take intoconsiderationthe absolute ignorance of the times in mattersofclimate,geography,plant and animal distribution,nd finally fthe customswhichprevailed amongdistant and scarcelyheard-ofpeoples. The age ofdiscoverywas now n fullswing, nd Europewas constantly hrilledby the unsubstantiated eportson the onehand, or by extendedprintednarrativeson the other,ofwonder-fuleventswhich had come to pass in someunknownpartsoftheworld. Even among the sober historianstheir narrative has atwhiles the style of romance.3 Unscrupulous travelers whoreturnedhome afteryears of wanderingno doubt foundwillingears fortheirbiggest tales,and so Cervantes mustunquestionablyhave taken the accounts about the northern ountrieswhichhedescribes in the Persiles frompossible eyewitnesseswithout henecessary grain ofsalt.' In what, hen, ould Cervantes'story f

1Cf. Schack, Geschichteder dramatischenLitteraturund Kunst in Spanien (Frankfurt,1854),Vol. II, p. 29.2Cf.the werwolf ncident,chap. 8 of Book I, pp. 571 f.,and chap. 18,pp. 583 f.and theepisode of the capsized boat, chap. 2 of Book II, pp. 591 f. I shall speak of Cervantes'apparent amusement over the extravagant possibilities of his romance,when I treat of hisconception offiction.3Cf.Garcilasso de la Vega, Historia de la Florida (1605),which is a historyof the con-quest of Florida written in the spirit of a romance of chivalry, or a storyof Moorishconquest.4The increase in commercial relations between southernEurope and the countries ofthe far North was a steady one after the rise of the mercantile class in the fourteenthand fifteenthenturies; in addition to the informationbroughthome bymerchants,how-18



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 19adventure have been influencedby the romances of chivalry?Perhaps here and there hisway of stringing ogetheradventureswas promptedby his remembranceof the many tales whichhehad read years before. While, therefore,he mannerismof thelattermayhave lefta trace,nevertheless f the spiritand princi-ples of the age of chivalrythere is nowhere the slightestsign.The chaste love and lofty ideals which characterizeCervantes'hero and heroine are part of the invenciontaken over fromtheGreekromance; nasmuchas theyform he principlesuponwhichthe Persiles was founded, heycould not be greatlymodified, omatterhow far the romance deviated fromthe prototypewhichinspired t. But in spite of thewide breachwhichseparatestheromancesofchivalryfrom hePersiles, we must not lose sightofthe continuitywhichcharacterizes he transmission ftheromand'aventure fromancient times throughthe Middle Ages to theRenaissance. The Persiles is a descendant-in a greatlymodi-fiedform-of a typewhichflourishedintermittentlyn Byzantineliterature(inspired bythe Greek romances), in mediaevalFrenchliterature (where we find the loves and adventures of devotedcouples described, as in Floire et Blanchefleur, Aucassin etNicolette,Partdnopeus de Blois, etc.),' and in the offspringfthe latter class, the romance of chivalry,which flourished ot-ably in Spain. While, then, t is logical to place thePersiles inthegenre of adventureafterthe storiesof Amadis, neverthelessit must be remembered,n the firstplace, that Cervantes' novelstandswithout he pale ofanydirect nfluence rom heromancesof chivalry, s thesewere no longerin keepingwiththe spiritoftheRenaissance; second,thatit was subject to the influence fthecontemporary ove-story,affected n its turn by the Italiannovella and the revivedGreek romance; and, third, o the cor-recting influence of contemporary ealism reflectedfrom therogue-story. If, therefore, comparisonbetween the romancesever,othersources of knowledgewere the foreignpilgrimswho visitedSpanish shrines,orthe soldiers who returnedfromcampaigns in distant lands. Cf. Gabriel Marcel, "Lesoriginesde la carte d'Espagne," Revue hispanique,Vol. VI,p. 164;Konrad HAbler,Die wirth-schaftlicheBliatheSpaniens int echzehntenJahrhundert nd ihr Verfall (Berlin, 1888), hap.4, "Industrie und Handel;" H. F. Helmolt, History of theWorld,Vol. VII, Part I, WesternEurope, chap. 1 (New York,1902).1Cf. Gaston Paris, "Le roman d'aventure," Cosmopolis, September, 1898,pp. 760 f.;as well as, La littiraturefranqaise au moyen ge (Paris, 1890),pp. 81ff.19



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20 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLof chivalry nd the Persiles is admissible, it is so onlybecauseboth are looselyconstructed toriesof adventure; and even thenthe comparisonholds only with the firsthalf of the Persiles,whichhas an imaginaryworldas a background,while the secondpart moves entirely among known customs and peoples. Asregards occasional episodes, an examinationof all the books ofchivalryknownto Cervanteswouldprobablybring to lightmoreresemblancesthan I have been able to find hitherto. But thetendency o detectthesewithfrequencymustbe guarded againstuntil substantiatedby a morethorough nvestigation.But therewere other seriousworkswhichTicknoroverlooked,and withwhich Cervanteswas acquainted as one is withall stand-ard creationswhichform artof one's educationand blood. First,there were theGreek and Latin classics; and if we examinethePersiles, we shall detect an occasional reminiscencefromthem,and among the first rom he great Latin roman d'aventure,theA.neid. Herein also we have as themain thememanifold xperi-ence of travel by land and sea, a machineryof adventure n thegerm,whichhad come downfromHomer and which,by growingwiththe succeeding ages,had been incorporatedn variousguisesinto many a literarycreation before the epoch of Cervantes.'The influence f themachinery f adventure, pecifically manat-ing from the AXneid,had thereforegrownto be a potent, venthough frequently rather ndirect,factor n the long career ofthe roman d'aventure. In the case of the Persiles, however,the influence f the A.neid is marked, nd quite direct,and willthereforebe treated in a separate chapter. It is, of course,notlikely that the theme of adventure would be exhausted by awriter f the Renaissancewithoutample reminiscences rom therancientworks, nd this will be shownto be thefact n a treatmentof some ofCervantes'classical sources.

Apartfrom the classics,however,Cervantes could have foundfurtheruggestionsforthemake-upof a libro de entretenimientoIIn these earliest storiesof adventure,such as the Odyssey, Sinbad the Sailor" (prob-ably of ancient Indian or Persian origin; of.Rohde, Der griechischeRoman, pp. 191ff.), ndthe .Eneid, the themeof love plays only an insignificantrole compared with the action ofthe whole, into which it onlyentersfrom ime to time. In the case of the Eneid, however,it is noteworthy hat the occasional episodes in which love plays an important part leavethe strongestimpression,and theycertainlyaffectedthe writersof the Renaissance most.20



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 21of the adventuretype,among thenovelistsof his ownpeople andcentury. There was, for instance,the Peregrino en su patria,'by Lope de Vega, published only some ten years before thePersiles, and belonging to the same kind of story,though of alowerdegree in the quality of imaginationbetrayed. For it isalso thehistory f a youngcouplewho reach theirgoal onlyafternumerous hipwrecks,miraculousescapes, and strangechance re-unions. Indeed, Lope mayhave takenhis themefromHeliodorusas well as Cervantes; only he did not say so, and consequentlyany possible similarityhas been overlooked. In addition to theserious vein of the Peregrino, there was the lighter and morerealistic rogue-story, otablythe various parts of Lazarillo deTormes and the Guzman de Alfarache, whichrepresent typeofadventurestory he spiritofwhich is reflected n no small partofthe worksofCervantes. To what extentthe adventuregenre inSpanish was influencedby Moorish tales-which Cervantes musthave knownbetterthan anyoneelse,owingto his long and forcedsojourn in an orientalenvironment-is more difficult o deter-mine; yet the Moors,not onlyof Africa,but those ofAndalusiaalso, probablynarrated stories of travel and adventureafter themannerof "Sinbad's Voyages," and othertales incorporated ntothe Arabian Nights.2 Moreover, the numerous contemporaryhistories about thevariousvoyages ofdiscoveryare ofvalue in a1Cf. Groeber, Grundriss der romanischen Philologie (Strassburg, 1897), chapter byBaist, on Spanish Literature, p. 461,par. 62.2That the close contact oforiental and Christian civilizations in Spain during manycenturieswas ofenormous nfluence pon the latter,must be evidenttoeveryone cquaintedwithSpain and herhistory. It is manifesteven today, n manypeculiarities of her socialand family life that such was the case. In the field of fiction,however, the residue ofMoorish influence s most difficult o determine,because of the complete lack of satisfac-torydocumentary vidence. Most writersof authority re consequently agreed in believingin the communicationof a large numberoforiental storiesthroughoral transmission,fromearliest times throughthe Renaissance. Cf.Warton, History of English Poetry,ed. Hazlitt(London, 1871),Vol. II, p. 108; Schack, Poesie und Kunst der Araber (Stuttgart, 1877),Vol.II, chaps. 13 and 14; Aug. Miiller,"Die Marchen 1001Nacht," DeutscheRundschau, Vol. LII(1887), p. 92; Gast. Paris, La litteraturefrangaise au moyen dge (Paris, 1890),pp. 81, 111;Men6ndezyPelayo, Estudios de critica literaria, 2a serie (Madrid, 1895), Influencias semi-ticas," pp. 381if; Joseph B6dier, Les fabliaux, 9tude de litt6raturepopulaire, etc. (Paris,1893), ntroduction; on the versionsof a single tale carried byArabs into Spain and thenceinto France, Gaston Paris, Romania, Vol. XXVII, p. 325. The main difficulty, owever, iesnot onlyin establishing the character of the original germs of stories,but in findingthetime as well as the channels oftheir transmissionfrom ne people to another. The ways bywhich oriental tales and bits of folklore could penetrate into Europe were many. Take,forexample, the storyof "Sinbad the Sailor." If we are to adopt Rohde's view (p. 20,n. 1),here is a tale which might have come fromIndia through a Persian intermediary nto21



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22 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLstudy of Cervantes' learning,and appear to have formeda part,small though it be, of the sourcewhich inspired the Persiles.Thus much thenmaybe said in behalfof some additionalguides,especiallyforthe outline of the Persiles. As regardsthe largebody of materialwhich Cervantes gleaned fromeverywhere ofill out the framework f his storyof adventure,its numeroussourceswill be discussed in due time.

Finally, the verdictofTicknorcan be summedup in a generaldisapprobation,qualified by a measureofpraise forthe astonish-ing imaginationdisplayed by Cervantes n this romanceofhis oldage, foran occasional graceful story, amidstthe multitude withwhichthiswild work s crowded," and finally,as usual, for thecarefulfinish f the style. When all is said and done, therefore,Ticknorhardlyadvances the studyof the Persiles much beyondthe position in whichit was leftby his predecessors. He men-tions,withhis customary obriety, ome of the apparent charac-teristicsof theromance,but he fails to see that thePersiles is aninexhaustible ource from which may be derived valuable bio-graphical details,hints about the natureof Cervantes' travel ex-periences,his manifoldreading,his finalattitudeon varioussub-jects,eitherof a literary, olitical, or social nature-all ofwhichis so indispensablein the studyofhis peculiar typeofgenius.Since Ticknor'sday nothinghas been done which makes fora worthier ppreciation of the Persiles.' If we were to select,among latter-daybooks on Cervantes, one read with some fre-quency, in the hope that it, at least, might present somethingGreece,whence it would be easy to believe that thewhole or a part could have been carriedinto Europe at various periods of the Middle Ages. It was also adopted intoArabic litera-ture,and mighthave been communicated bythe Arabs to theirneighbors in southern talyand Sicily, or to the Spaniards in the Peninsula. No early Spanish version, however,ofeithertheArabian Nights or Sinbad's travels has yetbeen discovered,while such worksasI have been able to consult (mentioned in V. Chauvin, Bibliographie des ceuvres arabes[Libge, 1903],Vol. VII, pp. 1ff.) ay nothing satisfactoryon this interesting uestion ofSin-bad's travels and their nfluence n European literature. Cf.also Rohde, op. cit.,pp. 568, 78.1To give an example of thepersistencewithwhichhis opinions are copied bythosewhoknownothingof Spanish at firsthand, mentionmaybe made of a study by Michael Oefter-ing,printed n Vol. XVIII of the Litterarhistorische orschungen, herausg. von Schick undWaldberg (Berlin, 1901). In this uncritical work,entitled "Heliodor und seine Bedeutungffar ie Litteratur," a fewpages are devoted to the Spanish side of the question (pp. 101ff.),but without any originality whatsoever,forall that is said of the Persiles is taken almostverbatimfromTicknor and Bouterwek, or Wolff'sGeschichte des Romans. H. Koerting,GeschichtedesfranzOsischenRomans imsiebzehnten ahrhundert Oppeln und Leipzig, 1891),Vol. I, p. 25, says practically what Bouterwek had said. In the latest edition of his history22



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STUDIES IN CERVANTES 23worthy f so important n efforts the Persiles, the biographyofCervantesby Henry Edward Watts wouldperhaps suggest itselffirst;for it is a work writtenby one who has devotedlygivenmanyyears to the studyand translation f the Spanish novelist.How does Watts view the Persiles after lapse of threehundredyears, n whose long perspectivethe romance has had the timeto find ts properplace? The biographer of Cervantes' beginswith the uncritical statementthat "of theworks about which nhis last days Cervantesshowedso muchanxiety, ll but one haveperished, probablywithout ny great loss to the author'sreputa-tion." Withoutdiscussingthe difference etweenreputation,orpopularity-in whichsense theword s used here-and ultimateposition in literature,which is but the measureof immortalitygrantedto the childrenoffame,one mayask how the latter canbe duly metedout, and the trueplace of a greatmanbe establish-ed, if we are willingto overlook suchworksofhis as have had nosustained popularity. Watts continues: "written in Cervantes'old age, [the Persiles] bears on its face but too palpable tracesof its birth. The only interest t has is a pathetic one, ratherpersonalthan literary." And yet no workof Cervantesshows amorevigorousgiftof imagination; none,accordingto all critics,includingWattshimself, isplaysa greaterfinish n style, ndonlythe Don Quixote has an interest, pecifically iterary, f greatervalue than the Persiles. Or are we, indeed, to look upon it asthe last "pathetic" performance f a dodderingold man? Wehear, furthermore,hat"the story s in professed mitationoftheTheagenes and Chariklea," and that"it is only ust to say thatitis equal to its model-quite as dull and tedious." We are toldalso thatthe book is a return to the style of artificialromancewhichCervantes had exploded in the Don Quixote, since it dealsof Spanish literaturein French (Littrature espagnole, par J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly; traduc-tion de H-D. Davray; Paris, 1904)Mr. F.-K. says, speaking of the Galatea: "sauf peut-Otredans le Persiles y Sigismunda Cervantes n'6crivit amais avec un plus conscient effortversla perfection" (p. 228); and of the Persiles he says: "cette oeuvre de manibre et de vis6esambitieuses n'a pas reussi h int6ressermalgr6ses aventures et ses boutades," etc. (p. 249).Cf. also English edition (New York, 1898), p. 219, 40.

1Miguel de Cervantes: His Life and Works,by Henry Edward Watts; a new edition,revised and enlarged (London: Ad. and Ch. Black, 1895),pp. 221ff. The reviewof thebookin the Revue hispanique for the same year is byFitzmaurice-Kellyand, while just, is some-what severe. 23



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24 RUDOLPH SCHEVILLwitha life thatwas neverled, by peoplewhocould notexist,1 ndseveral othersweeping generalities, he modicumof the truthofwhich is concealed or distortedby a failure to see the virtues orthe shortcomings fthe Persiles in theirproperrelationswiththeage, as well as the genreof romance n the midst ofwhich tgrew.Watts closesby expressinghis astonishment hatthismost nsipidof Cervantes' works hould have come from he same hand whichwroteDon Quixote-a circumstance lmost ncredible, had we notample proof f theextraordinaryangeanddiversity fhispowers."

In viewof the monotonous epetitions fthecriticisms lreadygiven,it would be of no value to add to their generalities theopinionsof various Spanish writers2whose uncriticalenthusiasmforDon Quixotehas leftno roomforany scholarlyconsiderationof the literary mportance f the Persiles. A r6sum6 f what hasbeen said and done to further n adequate appreciation fthelastlong workofCervantes, ells us hardlymore,therefore,han thatit is at best an imitationofHeliodorus writtenna polishedstyle,while the mostunfavorableverdictwould seem tocall it a gratui-tous contribution o a typeof romancewhich had longbefore eenits day. Consequently,to one who realizes the innumerable ele-mentswhichmusthave contributed o the make-upof the mindof a Cervantes, t cannot but appear unusually strangethat anyknowledgewhatsoever,which can aid us to understand he geniusof the foremost f Spaniards, should have been so persistentlydisregarded. RUDOLPH SCHEVILL

YALE UNIVERSITY1Watts,forexample, laughs at Cervantes forgivingthe name " Mauricio" (Maurice) toa family prung" from n island in the neighborhoodofIbernia " (p. 577 f thePersiles). Ifwemake due allowance, however, for a wholly fictitiousromance, in which all charactersgo underan absurd nomenclature, Spanish as well as foreign, he name " Mauricio" is notbad foran Irishman. Cervantes,no doubt, had heard ofJames Fitzmaurice, among othersof that name, Count Desmond's nephew,who perished (1579) n the Irish Rebellion in whichPhilip II of Spain played an importantpart. Cf.Hume, Espaffoles Inglesesen el siglo xvi(Madrid and London, 1903),pp. 235ff. Cf. also Dictionary of National Biography under"James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald;" incidentally it will become evident from his article howcommon the name "Maurice" was in that family.2The latest life ofCervantes,the monstroustomeof D. Ram6n L. Mainez, Cervantesy

su 6poca (J6rez y Madrid, 1901-3; huge 4to), is a specimen of the more unfortunate type.This ponderous work is an indigesta moles,of little scientificvalue, in which authenticdocuments alternate with uncontrolled bursts of extravagant praise. Especially fromVol.III ofthe Bibliografia critica, op. cit.,byRius maybe gatheredhow few and how unimpor-tant are the criticisms and opinions which have been expressed on the Persiles duringseveral centuries. Cf. especially pp. 64, 46, 59,107, 40, 07, 82, 95.24

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