Some external evidence, such as it is, tells against the common belief, Leopoldo Rius in his _Bibliografía crítica de las obras de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra_ (Madrid, 1895-1899) notes (vol. ii. p. 300) a German work entitled _Angenehmes Passetems_ (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1734): in the preface to this publication it is stated as a piece of news that the Spanish Ambassador in London, the Conde de Montijo, has ordered a copy of _Don Quixote_ to be handsomely bound for Queen Caroline. We do not know if Montijo gave her the book, but it seems certain that _Don Quixote_ was in her library. A copy of the Antwerp edition of 1719, bearing her name and the royal crown, passed into the possession of my friend, the late Mr. Henry Spencer Ashbee: see his pamphlet, _Some Books about Cervantes_ (London, 1900), pp. 29-30. Possibly the interview with Carteret took place before 1734, or before Queen Caroline possessed the Antwerp edition. But it is worth noting that the Queen died on November 20, 1737, and that Tonson's edition appeared next spring. If Carteret were so deeply engaged in the undertaking as we are assured, and if his chief motive were (as reported) to pay a courtly compliment to Queen Caroline, it is strange that he should not have caused the edition to be dedicated to the Queen's memory, and it is still stranger that the preliminaries should not contain the least allusion to her. As it happens, the Dedication, dated March 26, 1738, is addressed to the Condesa de Montijo, wife of the ex-Ambassador above-named. It would be a small but useful service if one of Cervantes's many English admirers should establish what share Carteret actually had in an enterprise for which, hitherto, he has received the whole credit. [3] See _El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha...._ Nueva edición corregida por la Real Academia Española (Madrid, 1780), vol. i., p. xii. [4] See Juan Antonio Pellicer's edition of _Don Quixote_ (Madrid, 1797-1798), vol. i. pp. lxxv.-lxxvi.: "Restituido pues Cervantes á España en la primavera del año de 1581 fixó su residencia en Madrid.... Hizo también lugar para escribir y publicar el año de 1584 _La Galatea_." It appears that all the assertions here made by Pellicer are mistaken. (1) Cervantes did not return to Spain in the spring of 1581, but late in 1580; (2) he did not reside permanently in Madrid during 1581, for we find him at Tomar on May 21 of that year; (3) if we are to understand that the _Galatea_ was composed in 1684, this is disproved by the fact that the manuscript was passed by the censor on February 1, 1584, and must naturally have been in his possession for some time previously; (4) it will be shewn that the _Galatea_ was not published in 1584, but in 1585. Pellicer is not to be blamed for not knowing the real facts. The pity is that he should give his guesses as though they were certainties. Yet, in a sense, events have justified his boldness; for no man's guesses have been more widely accepted.