Martorell, to judge him by the work that he has produced—unfortunately we know nothing at all concerning him from any other source—gives us the impression that he was a monk or an ecclesiastic. The intensely religious spirit that pervades the book, the sermons and prayers, and the efforts to conquer or crush the enemies of the Holy Catholic Church point strongly in that direction. His high regard for the orders of knighthood and his great admiration for distinguished heroes give some grounds for believing that he was a member of a military order. However, the various documents drawn up in legal form leave the impression that he was a notary. But he has included in his work several features that are not in harmony with a serious and lofty purpose. From these a fair idea of his character and disposition may be obtained. He is jolly, jovial, frivolous, talkative, _malicieux_, and bold even to impertinence. He is queer and eccentric. He has peculiar ideas as to the fitness of things. He shows extremely bad taste from the standpoint of the present time. Sometimes he permits his hero to conduct himself in an undignified manner, or makes him the victim of mishaps that tend to decrease our admiration for him. And then as a climax to these occasional disparaging portrayals, he endows his hero with a low, immoral nature. Tirant lo Blanch is pictured to us as a noble, generous, religious, intrepid, valiant, and invincible military leader. He is admirable in all respects but one—he is morally a weakling. This inconsistency, together with other incongruities, has led a scholarly critic[80] to declare that _Tirant lo Blanch_ is a parody on the romances of chivalry and that “the animus of the whole narrative is satire.” But the romance taken as a whole does not warrant such a conclusion, for the general tone of it is earnest and sincere. Several features of the work seem to be presented in a satirical spirit, but still it is very doubtful that the author intended to hold up certain foibles, follies or vices to reprobation and ridicule. Is it not rather probable that these features are due to the realistic tendencies of the author, or to his whims and humors? Were some of these features perhaps intended as a protest against the immorality of knights in general? Were they to teach a moral lesson? If these questions are answered affirmatively, difficulties will confront us, for Hypolite, the paramour of the empress, is not punished for his sinful liaison; on the contrary he is rewarded, for after the death of the emperor and the princess he becomes the imperial ruler and his reign is a long and glorious one. Nor was he to be punished in the next world, for we are told “... e podeu creure que per lo bon regiment, e per la bona e virtuosa vida fon [Lemperador e la Emperadriu] collocats en la gloria de paradis.”[81] It is impossible to believe that it was Martorell’s purpose to deride and ridicule the deeds of prowess and the noble enterprises of the