History of Spanish Literature, vol. 2 (of 3)Ticknor, George
History
History of Spanish Literature, vol. 2 (of 3)
Ticknor, George
Spanish literature -- History and criticism
[138] Coarse as it is, however, the “Tia Fingida” was found,
with “Rinconete y Cortadillo,” and several other tales and
miscellanies, in a manuscript collection of stories and trifles
made 1606-10, for the amusement of the Archbishop of Seville,
D. Fernando Niño de Guevara; and long afterwards carefully
preserved by the Jesuits of St. Hermenegild. A castigated copy
of it was printed by Arrieta in his “Espíritu de Miguel de
Cervantes” (Madrid, 1814, 12mo); but the Prussian ambassador in
Spain, if I mistake not, soon afterwards obtained possession of
an unaltered copy and sent it to Berlin, where it was published
by the famous Greek scholar, F. A. Wolf, first in one of the
periodicals of Berlin, and afterwards in a separate pamphlet.
(See his Vorbericht to the “Tia Fingida, Novela inédita de Miguel
de Cervantes Saavedra,” Berlin, 1818, 8vo.) It has since been
printed in Spain with the other tales of Cervantes.
Some of the tales of Cervantes were translated into English as
early as 1640; but not into French, I think, till 1768, and not
well into that language till Viardot published his translation
(Paris, 1838, 2 tom., 8vo). Even he, however, did not venture
on the obscure puns and jests of the “Licenciado Vidriera,” a
fiction of which Moreto made some use in his play of the same
name, representing the Licentiate, however, as a feigned madman
and not as a real one, and showing little of the humor of the
original conception. (Comedias Escogidas, Madrid, 4to, Tom. V.
1653.) Under the name of “Léocadie,” there is a poor abridgment
of the “Fuerza de la Sangre,” by Florian. The old English
translation by Mabbe (London, 1640, folio) is said by Godwin to
be “perhaps the most perfect specimen of prose translation in the
English language.” (Lives of E. and J. Phillips, London, 1815,
4to, p. 246.) The praise is excessive, but the translation is
certainly very well done. It, however, extends only to six of the
tales.
In 1614, the year after they appeared, Cervantes printed his “Journey
to Parnassus”; a satire in _terza rima_, divided into eight short
chapters, and written in professed imitation of an Italian satire, by
Cesare Caporali, on the same subject and in the same measure.[139]
The poem of Cervantes has little merit. It is an account of a summons
by Apollo, requiring all good poets to come to his assistance for the
purpose of driving all the bad poets from Parnassus, in the course
of which Mercury is sent in a royal galley, allegorically built
and rigged with different kinds of verses, to Cervantes, who, being
confidentially consulted about the Spanish poets that can be trusted as
allies in the war against bad taste, has an opportunity of speaking his
opinion on whatever relates to the poetry of his time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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