This reference, as Mr. Ormsby noted, "is Cervantes all over in its tone of playful stoicism with a certain quiet self-assertion." Cervantes had, indeed, a special tenderness for the _Galatea_ as being his eldest-born--_estas primicias de mi corto ingenio_--and this is shown by his constant desire to finish it, his persistent renewal of the promise with which the First Part closes. The history of these promises is instructive. In 1585 Cervantes[82] publicly pledged himself to bring out a continuation, if the First Part of the _Galatea_ were a success: it was to follow shortly (_con brevedad_). The work does not seem to have made a great hit; but Cervantes, the only man entitled to an opinion on this particular matter, was satisfied with its reception and, as the Priest's speech shows, in 1605 he held by his intention of publishing the promised sequel. But he dallied and tarried. _Con brevedad_ is, as posterity knows, an expression which Cervantes interprets very liberally. Twenty-eight years after the publication of the _Galatea_, he used the phrase once more in the preface to the _Novelas exemplares_: the sequel to _Don Quixote_, he promises, shall be forthcoming shortly (_con brevedad_). This announcement caught Avellaneda's eye, and drove him into a grotesque frenzy of disappointment. It seems evident that he took the words--_con brevedad_--in their literal sense, imagining that Cervantes had nearly finished the Second Part of _Don Quixote_ in 1613, and that its appearance was a question of a few months more or less. Accordingly, meanly determining to be first in the field, he hurried on with his spurious sequel, penned his abusive preface, and rushed into print. It is practically certain that this policy of sharp practice produced precisely the result which he least desired. Perhaps he hoped that Cervantes, discouraged at being thus forestalled, would abandon his own Second Part in disgust. There was never a more complete miscalculation. Stung to the quick by Avellaneda's insolence, Cervantes, in his turn, made what haste he could with the genuine continuation. Had Avellaneda but known how to wait, the chances are that Cervantes would have devoted his best energies to the composition of _Las Semanas del Jardín_ (promised in the dedication of the _Novelas exemplares_), or of _El Engaño á los ojos_ (promised in the preface to his volume of plays), or of _El famoso Bernardo_ (promised in the dedication of _Persiles y Sigismunda_). Frittering away his diminishing strength on these various works, and enlarging the design of _Don Quixote_ from time to time--perhaps introducing the Knight, the Squire, the Bachelor and the Priest as shepherds--Cervantes might only too easily have left his masterpiece unfinished, were it not for the unintentional stimulus given by Avellaneda's insults.