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HE biography of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, and of several other works once esteemed and popular, is less known, perhaps, than it ought to be to the people of this country. In his own day he met, properly speaking, with no reward. Towards the close of his life, indeed, the Spaniards may be said to have exhibited some inclination, in a certain degree, to recognise his merits, though not by any means to do him justice; but death interposed to deprive him of the fruit, whatever it might have been, of their tardy recognition, and from that time to the present the world has been more disposed to enjoy his invention and his humour than solicitous to acquaint itself with the sad story of his life. Through this it has happened that most of the materials which might have thrown a light on his career have been suffered

No. 55.

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to perish. He stands, consequently, in nearly the same category with Shakspeare, whose life was never attempted to be written till it had become impossible to write it. Considerably more, however, is known of Cervantes, though of the years which he devoted to study and to the acquisition of experience we can be said to possess no knowledge whatever.

Don Quixote has been so completely naturalised in all parts of Europe, that people almost forget its author was a foreigner. He is the only Spanish writer, however, who has been so naturalised out of Spain. There was, nevertheless, a time when the literature of that country was the most popular in Christendom; when to be ignorant of it, was almost considered to be a proof of boorish origin; and when, consequently, its principal writers formed the delight of courts and all polite circles, and were everywhere regarded as models for imitation. Arms, in that case, did a service to letters. The pen followed in the wake of the sword, and the victories of Charles V. and Philip II. gave a currency and influence to the Spanish language which, like our own in the present day, was looked upon as an imperial dialect. As the limits of the Spanish monarchy shrank, the literature of Spain likewise relinquished one by one its conquests over public taste, until it might at length be doubted whether the compositions of the Hindoos and Chinese did not exercise a greater sway over the populations of the west than Garcilaso, Boscan, Caldron, and Lope de Vega.

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That this is a fact our readers, we think, will concede to us. They will probably acknowledge with equal readiness, that pity 'tis 'tis true.' No doubt the genius of Spain gave birth to a gloomy phantom, which, almost constantly overshadowing the minds both of writers and people, scared them from the study of pure literature, to wander and be lost in the mazes of casuistry, theology, pedantry, and superstition. But all the intellects of the country did not bow the knee to these grotesque idols. A certain number, of whom Cervantes was one, cultivated the study of genuine learning, which they adorned with a profusion of wit and fancy. Even now, therefore, it might be profitable to study the literature of Spain, which amidst vast mountains of rubbish contains many veins of pure gold. It is true there exists no second Don Quixote in the Peninsula; yet there are several productions which, though of inferior merit in comparison with this master-piece, may still be read with considerable pleasure by all who take delight in an original and exciting literature.

Miguel de Cervantes, descended from an ancient and noble family, was born at Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, in the month of October 1547. Fortune, however, did not smile upon his birth. His father had already fallen into adverse circumstances, so that it would appear to have been with much difficulty he provided for his education. How this was conducted in his early years we are not informed, for the fact that he amused himself

with reading the ballads in the streets, and occasionally frequented the theatre to witness the performances of the celebrated Lopez de Rueda, affords us no light. At a later period he was sent to Salamanca, where he studied grammar and general literature, under Juan Lopez de Hoyos. During his stay in this city, which does not seem to have exceeded two years, he resided in the Calle de los Moros; but respecting the nature of his pursuits, we know little more than may be inferred from the character of his writings. It seems extremely probable that, instead of applying himself diligently to classical learning, he devoted much of his time to the reading of books of chivalry, upon which he afterwards revenged himself by the most merciless satire. He soon began to exhibit a leaning towards literature, though what was the character of his earliest compositions he has nowhere told us. In the year 1568, when he was already twenty-one, he united with many friends and disciples of Juan Lopez de Hoyos in producing a miscellaneous volume of prose and verse. His contributions consisted of a sonnet, an elegy, and four redondillas, in which he celebrated the merits, graces, and sudden death of Doña Isabella de Valois, to whose memory the whole volume was consecrated.

These royal obsequies were celebrated at the end of October, at which time Julio Aquaviva, afterwards cardinal, arrived from the pope with orders to condole with Philip II. on the loss of his queen, as well as that of the Prince Don Carlos, who had died in prison in the preceding July. The Spanish monarch was probably little grateful to his holiness for reminding him of what history must regard as a crime, since it can scarcely be doubted that his son fell a victim to his suspicious cruelty. The real object of the pope's nuncio was political, and connected with the affairs of northern Italy, where certain Roman ecclesiastics had taken great offence at some proceedings of the Spanish ministers. Philip II. brooked but ill the haughty message of the pope, and ordered his ambassador to quit the territories of Spain within sixty days.

In the suite of this learned prelate, who delighted in the society of authors-in which he exhibited good taste-Cervantes is supposed to have quitted Madrid and proceeded to Rome, where he spent some time as a chamberlain, though in whose service is not stated. Shortly afterwards he entered the Spanish army as a common soldier, and travelled up and down the Italian peninsula, observing the manners of its inhabitants, and admiring the opulence and grandeur of its cities. The most formidable danger at that time threatened the Christian nations of the west. The Ottoman sultan, collecting together the strength of his nation, and appropriating its resources to the preparation of a vast armament, sailed down the Mediterranean, exciting everywhere the utmost terror and dismay. To protect Christendom from this implacable foe, the united fleets of Spain and Venice, under the command of

Philip II.'s natural brother, Don Juan of Austria, encountered the Turkish power at Lepanto, in the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf. Victory declared in favour of the Christians, and the Moslem combatants, amazed and humiliated at their defeat, fled, panic-stricken, into the several ports and harbours of the Levant. In this famous battle, Cervantes lost the use of his left hand, or rather through the unskilful manner in which his wound was treated at Messina, whither a portion of the Spanish fleet retired after the victory. He was not, however, considered by this accident to have been completely disabled, since he continued some years longer in the service. At length he obtained leave to return to Spain, with the strongest letters of recommendation to the principal ministers and courtiers, who, it was expected, would obtain for him from their sovereign a suitable reward. While on this homeward Voyage, it cannot be doubted that Cervantes entertained his imagination with brilliant pictures of success in gallantry and literature. He was then full of hope and vitality, and glowed with the consciousness of the laurels he had won by his own intrepidity in the battle of Lepanto.

But the Mediterranean, in those days, was not to be navigated even by ships of war with impunity. From every harbour, bay, and creek on its southern shores, galleys, under the Ottoman flag, darted forth in quest of plunder and captives, which were then so numerous that they constituted a large class of the population on the Barbary coast. Fifteen thousand Christian slaves, who had been chained to the oar in the Turkish fleet, are said to have been liberated by the victory of Don Juan of Austria; and the business of redeeming slaves was so extensive and important, as to give rise to the institution of a particular order of monks, called The Fathers of Redemption, who stationed themselves in the various cities on the coast of Africa, where they negotiated for the ransom of Christian captives.

The ship which bore Cervantes towards Spain, was attacked in the open sea by a squadron of Algerine pirates, which, after a long and bloody conflict, succeeded in capturing it. All the persons on board were of course carried to Algiers, and sold for slaves. Travellers in the East at the present day, who observe the manners and treatment of the servile population in the Turkish empire, can draw from what they see no conclusions respecting the manner in which persons in the same condition were treated in the sixteenth century. Difference of colour and religion greatly aggravated the evils naturally inherent in slavery. The masters knew that their slaves despised and detested them; that they believed them to be condemned to eternal perdition; and that when they had no other consolation, they derived some semblance of it from this article of their creed. On the other hand, the Moslems of those days united the utmost ferocity of manners with the relentless cruelty inherent in fanaticism. Their muftis and ulemas re-echoed the anathemas of the Catholic priests; and with

an earnestness which certainly yielded in no respect to theirs, consigned the enemies of their faith to perdition in another world. The feelings may, therefore, be somewhat understood with which Cervantes and his companions sailed in chains towards Algiers, where he arrived in the autumn of 1575.

The piratical system, which had been established in those ages on the Barbary coast, may be regarded as one of the most curious phenomena of which any account is given in the history of modern times out of what circumstances it arose, has never been exactly explained. When the Osmanlies were in the zenith of their power, their victorious fleets and armies swept along the whole face of the Mediterranean, and subdued nearly the entire extent of its shores. Greece became a province of the Turkish Empire; attempts had been made at the reduction of Italy; and Spain had only recently escaped from the Mohammedan yoke. On the south, from the Pillars of Hercules to the foot of Mount Taurus, the protracted coast of Africa and Asia had submitted to the sceptre of the sultan; and Ottoman governors, under the name of Bey, Dey, or Prince, exercised the sovereignty in the name of the padishah or chief of El Islam.

These military satraps, though acknowledging the authority of the Porte, and paying their tribute punctually, were, during the continuance of their government, possessed of absolute and despotic power. The persons immediately surrounding them were, like themselves, Turks; but their subjects for the most part consisted of a strange mixed multitude—Moors, Arabs, Kabyles, with renegades from all nations, fierce, profligate, addicted to every species of atrocity by which money could be made. Living along a coast of difficult approach, with harbours scattered at great distances, they were tempted by circumstances to become wreckers, from which the step to piracy is short and easy. This manner of life they led long before the Turkish invasion; and when they bowed their necks before the new conquerors from the East, who had compelled many prouder nations to succumb, they preserved their ancient habits, and soon discovered the means of reconciling them to their sceptred chiefs.

The bey of Tunis, the dey of Algiers, the sultan of Fez, with the numerous inferior governors who held maritime commands in the western part of Morocco, made common cause with the lawless sailors who lived under their sway. The Sallee rovers have been rendered familiar to the public by De Foe in the early part of Robinson Crusoe; and several historians of Spain and Italy, together with a long list of travellers, have celebrated the exploits of those Moslem banditti, who brought disgrace on the Koran and the civil institutions of El Islam. From every port in the territories of the Barbary states, galleys, stoutly built and well armed, put forth continually to lie in wait for the honest traders who sailed up and down the Mediterranean from England, France, or Spain, to or from Egypt, Syria, Greece, and the Archipelago.

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