to taste; yet the thieves, the bullies, the _bona robas_, and the other delightful but most improper people, move and breathe and talk as _full of life as if they lived indeed_. In others of his books, Cervantes has shown his wide and profound knowledge--doubtless born of actual experience--of this lower order of humanity, as in his _Rufian Dichoso_, the _Fortunate Bully_, and in some of his plays and interludes. It is needless to follow in detail the history of the later experiments in the _gusto picaresco_. As we approach later times the stories become duller and more respectable. The _Marcos de Obregon_ of Vicente Espinel appeared in 1618. It is a story of adventure abroad rather than of low life at home, not wanting in spirit, and with a more regular construction than most stories of this class, from which Le Sage has stolen very largely and boldly in his _Gil Blas_, even appropriating the name of the hero, and giving it to one of his characters. In 1624 came another of the _picaresque_ brood, called _Alonso, Mozo de Muchos Amos_ (_Alonso, Servant of Many Masters_), by one Yanez y Rivera, which deals with the humours of domestic service. We need not occupy ourselves with the long string of lesser works of this character, which are rather romances of real life than _picaresque_ tales--the _Niña de los Embustes_ (the _Child of Tricks_) and the _Garduña de Sevilla_ (the _She-Marten of Seville_) of Solorzano; the _Diablo Cojuelo_ (the _Lame Devil_) of Guevara, and _Estevanillo Gonzalez_, attributed to the same author, which is the pretended autobiography of a buffoon, better known by Le Sage's French version than in the original. Last of all, we come to that which by some is reckoned to be the _picaresque_ novel _par excellence_--the well-known work of Le Sage himself, in collaboration with many others, called _Gil Blas_. This, with all its merits, is no _picaresque_ novel at all, except in an oblique sense as being the work of a _picaroon_--a clever theft by an adept in literary conveyance, the very Autolycus of authors. While the matter is Spanish, the form and, oddly enough, a great deal of the spirit, is French. I will not go into the question of what were the sources from which Le Sage drew his story. That very Spanish and yet curiously French work (_Spanish bricks in French mortar_) is a wonderful piece of literary craft, showing a genius in the art of stealing which is equal to that of original composition, and even more rare. But _Gil Blas_, when all is said, is not a true _picaroon_, of the breed of _Lazarillo_ and _Rinconete_. He is an impostor, but in another than the true sense. He is a fortune-hunter, who looks closely to the main chance, who descends to be respectable, who aims at a social position, like _Jerome Paturot_. He marries twice, and lives comfortably in a fine house--a prosperous gentleman, after bidding hope and fortune farewell. He is no more a _picaro_ than _Ruy Blas_ is a Spaniard or Djalma an Indian prince.