Rosalva and the adventures of Don Quixote, has led me away from the chronological arrangement of the comic romances, to which I now return.1

About the period of the publication of Don Quixote, the Spaniards, whose works of fiction fifty years before were entirely occupied with Soldans of Babylon and Emperors of Trebizond, entertained themselves chiefly with the adventures of their swindlers and beggars. All works of the sixteenth century, which treat of the Spanish character and manners, particularly the Letters of Clenardus,2 represent, in the strongest colours, the indolence of the lower classes, which led them to prefer mendicity and pilfering to the exercise of any trade or profession; and the ridicu lous pride of those hidalgos, who, while in want of provisions and every necessary of life at home, strutted with immense whiskers, long rapiers, and ruffles without a shirt, through the streets of Madrid or Toledo. The miserable inns, the rapacity of officers of justice, and ignorance of medical practitioners, also afforded ample scope for the satire contained in the romances of this period, most of which are perhaps a little overcharged, but, like every other class of fiction, only present a highly-coloured picture of the manners of the age.

The work which first led the way to those compositions which were written in the Gusto Picaresco, or style of Rogues, as it has been called, was the

1 Between the appearances of the first and second parts of Don Quixote, Cervantes published a collection of stories, Novelas ejemplares, which won for him the epithet of the "Spanish Boccaccio," and several of which would doubtless now be better known had they not been eclipsed by his celebrated romance. Among these tales Leocadia has repeatedly furnished a theme for dramatists. The two maidens, The tender Cornelia, The English Spaniard, and The Gipsy of Madrid have been much praised. The Jealous Estramadurian seems to have largely inspired Molière in the Ecole des Femmes, and Beaumarchais in the Barbier de Seville. Persiles and Sigismunda, which appeared after the author's death, is an imitation of the Theagenes and Chariclea of Heliodorus: it is inferior to most of Cervantes' productions.

2 Nic. Clenardi. Epist. lib. duo. These are letters addressed to his friends in Holland and Germany by a Dutch scholar, who visited Spain in the middle of the sixteenth century for the purpose of making researches in Arabian literature.

LAZARILLO DE TORMES,

attributed to Diego Hurtado de Mendoça, who, as governor of Sienna and ambassador to the Pope from Spain, became the head of the imperial party in Italy during the reign of Charles V. Stern, tyrannical, and unrelenting, he was the counterpart of the Duke of Alva in his political character; but as an amatory poet, he was the most tender and elegant versifier of his country, and every line of his sonnets breathes a sigh for repose and domestic felicity. After his recall from Sienna he retired to Granada, where he wrote a history of the revolt of the Moors in that province, which, next to the work of Mariana, is the most valuable which has appeared in Spain: he also employed himself in collecting vast treasures of oriental MSS. which at his death he bequeathed to the king, and which still form the most precious part of the library of the Escurial.

Lazarille de Tormes was written by him in his youth, while studying at Salamanca, and was first printed in 1553. The hero of this work was the son of a miller, who dwelt on the banks of the Tormes. When eight years of age, he is presented by his mother as a guide to a blind beggar, whom he soon contrives to defraud of the money and provisions which were given to him by the charitable [tratado, i.] After this he enters into the service of an ecclesiastic, who kept his victuals locked up in a chest, and a long chapter is occupied with the various stratagems to which Lazarillo resorted in order to extract from it a few crusts of bread. When in the last extremity of hunger, he leaves the ecclesiastic [tratado, 2] to serve a hidalgo of Old Castile. This new master is in such want of the necessaries of life, that Lazarillo is compelled to beg for him at convents and the gates of churches, while the hidalgo hears mass [tr. 3], or stalks along the chief promenades with all the dignity of a Duke D'Infantado." He subsequently

1 The object of the work is under the character of a servant with an acuteness that is never at fault, and so small a stock of honesty and truth that neither of them stands in the way of success-to give a pungent satire on all classes of society, whose condition Lazarillo well com

enters the service of various other masters, finally that of an Arch-priest, whose maidservant he marries, wherewith the narrative concludes [trat. 4-7].

This work seems to have been left incomplete by its original author, but a second part has been added by H. de Luna, who in his preface says, that his chief inducement to write was the appearance of an absurd continuation,' in which Lazaro was said to have been changed to a Tunny fish. In De Luna's continuation, Lazaro, having embarked for Algiers, is picked up at sea by certain fishermen, and exhibited as a sea monster through the different towns of Spain, till having at length escaped, he arrives, after experiencing some adventures, at a hermitage. The recluse by whom it was inhabited dying soon after, he equips himself in the garb of the deceased, and subsists by the contributions of the charitable in the neighbourhood, -an incident which resembles part of the history of Don Raphael in Gil Blas.

Of those Spanish romances which were composed in imitation of Lazaro de Tormes, the most celebrated is the Life of

...

prehends, because he sees them in undress and behind the scenes. It is written in a very bold, rich, and idiomatic Castilian style, that reminds us of the Celestina [a dramatic story in prose in twenty-one acts or parts, originally called The Comedy of Calisto and Melibea. The first act was written about 1480 by Rodrigo Cota, of Toleda, and the remainder by Fernando Rojas of Montalvan]. Its sketches are among the most fresh and spirited that can be found in the whole class of prose fiction. The whole work is short; but its easy gay temper, its happy adaptation to Spanish life and manners, and the contrast of the light, good-humoured, flexible audacity of Lazarillo himself a perfectly original conception-with the solemn and unyielding dignity of the old Castilian character, gave it from the first a great popularity. From 1553, when the earliest edition appeared of which we have any knowledge, it was often reprinted, both at home and abroad, and has been more or less a favourite in all languages down to our own time.TICKNOR.

1 This was published with the edition of the first part issued at Amberes, 1554. The work is wanting in inventiveness. Towards the end Lazarillo recovers his human form. Emanuel, a Dominican monk of Oporto, is mentioned by Ric. Antonio (Bibl. Nova, i. p. 340) as the author of this continuation.-LIEB.

Another second part, now long forgotten, was written by Juan Cortés de Tolosa, and printed in 1620.

GUZMAN DE ALFARACHE,

which was written by Mateo Aleman,' and was first printed in 1599, at Madrid. This impression was followed by twenty-five Spanish editions, and two [or rather four] French translations, one of which is by Le Sage.2

Guzman de Alfarache was the son of a Genoese merchant, who had settled in Spain. After the death of his father, the affairs of the family having fallen into disorder, young Guzman eloped from his mother, and commenced the career in which he met with those comical adventures, which form the subject of the romance. At a short distance from Seville, the place whence he set out, he falls in with a muleteer, with whom he lodges at different inns, the description of which gives us a very unfavourable impression of the posadas of Andalusia.

On his arrival at Madrid, Guzman fits himself out as a mendicant; he fixes on a station at the corner of a street, and the persons of all ranks who pass before him, officers, judges, ecclesiastics, and courtezans, give the author an opportunity of moralizing and commenting on the manners of his countrymen, during the reign of the Austrian Phillipps. Our hero speedily grafts the practices of a sharper on his present vocation, and is in consequence forced to fly to Toledo, where he assumes the character of a man of fashion, and engages in various intrigues. As long as his money lasts Guzman is well received, but when it is expended he obtains some insight into the nature of the friendship of sharpers, and the love of courtezans. He accordingly sets out for Barcelona, whence he embarks for Genoa in order to present himself to his father's relations, by whom he is very harshly treated. From Genoa he is forced to beg his way to Rome, which, it seems, is the paradise of mendicants. There he attains great perfection

1Of Aleman little is known; he was a native of Seville, wrote several other works, was long in the employ of the treasury, underwent a vexatious lawsuit, retired to private life, and visited Mexico in 1609. -TICK NOR.

2 There have also been several English translations, and Roscoe, in the account of Aleman prefixed to his version, says, "the work has been translated into every European language.”

in his art, by studying the rules of a society into which he is admitted. Among other devices, he so happily counterfeits an ulcer, that a Roman cardinal takes him home, and has him cured. He then becomes the page of his eminence, and rises into high favour, which continues till, being detected in various thefts, he is driven from the house with disgrace. Guzman seeks refuge with the French ambassador, who, being easily convinced of his innocence, takes him into his service. His master employs him to propitiate a Roman lady, of whom he was enamoured, but Guzman manages matters so unfortunately, that the intrigue becomes public. In despair at his bad success, Guzman asks leave to return to Spain. In his progress through Tuscany he meets with a person of the name of Saavedra, a man of similar dispositions with himself, by whom he is at first duped, but who afterwards assists him in duping others, while they pass through the different towns in the north of Italy. On his return to the capital of his native country, Guzman marries a woman with whom he expected to obtain a large fortune. This alliance proves very unfortunate; his affairs go into disorder, and after his wife's death he enters as a student at Alcala, in order to obtain a benefice.

While at this university, our hero becomes acquainted with three sisters who were great musicians, but of suspected virtue; he marries the eldest, renounces the ecclesiastical profession, and arrives with his wife at Madrid. For some time the ménage goes on prosperously, in consequence of her beauty and accommodating disposition, but having quarrelled with an admirer of some political importance, she and her husband are banished from Madrid, and retire to Seville, where the lady soon decamps with the captain of a Neapolitan vessel. By the interest of a Dominican confessor, Guzman is introduced into the house of an old lady, as her chamberlain, but manages the affairs intrusted to him with such villainy, that he is arrested and sent to the gallies. His fellow-slaves attempt to engage. him in a plot, to deliver the vessels into the power of the corsairs. He reveals the conspiracy, and, having obtained his freedom for this service, employs himself afterwards in writing his history.