Abstract
Original in everything he wrote; penetrating into all the circumstances of life, and foreseeing how the very virtues of the Spaniards of old would show themselves ill-adapted to the new environment in which they were to be transplanted, Cervantes brings before us the pícaro as no one else has done. Ale-man had shown us the beggars’ associations in Italy,97 with their statutes and their chief; Cervantes, familiar with the lowest types in the paradise of Spain, tells us of their fraternity under the leaderships of the gigantic figure of Monipodio.98 So faithful is the portrayal, so accurate his sense of detail, that his character etching has enabled an attentive critic99 to reveal to us, after the lapse of centuries, the place were that iniquitous band used to gather and plan their exploits.
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Notes
I, Libro III, cap. II (Riv., 3, p. 241, b; 242, b); cap. III. Also Mateo Lujan, Libro II, cap. III (Riv., 3, p. 385, b-387, a).
Rinconete y Cortadillo; Coloquio de los perros (Riv., Autores Bsp., vol. 1, p. 212, b). The word monipodio (monopoly) is found in the Crotalon, p. 332: “ambos tienen hecho liga y monipodio en el trato de sus feligreses.” Also in Mateo Lujan (Riv., 3, p. 407, a): “los monipodios que hacen, juntándose dos ó tres á comprar toda la mercaduría que habian de comprar muchos, haciendo entre si alianza de los precios...”
Adolfo de Castro, Varias obras ine’ditas de Cervantes, Madrid, 1874, pp. 375–379.
La tía fingida. The history of the vicissitudes of this story is well-known. Published first, with doubts as to its authenticity, by Arrieta (1814, incomplete), a better edition was made by Franceson and F. A. Wolf (Berlin, 1818). In 1826, Arrieta issued an edition that contained, from the Berlin edition, the parts he had not given in his first publication. Gallardo, in no. 1 of his El Criticon (Madrid, 1835), strives to prove the authenticity of the story, using another reliable manuscript (Bibl. Colomb., AA, 141, 4), giving the variants and showing how they improve the meaning and logical succession of ideas in the text. Printed once more, with these corrections, by Aribau (Riv., Aut. Esp., vol. I, 1846) it has found its final form, and a careful commentator, in the Obras completas de Cervantes (Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 12 vols., vol. 8), and is a remarkably well-written story. The improprieties are in keeping with the subject, and not worse than the various Celestinas, to which the Tía fingida is a running commentary and glosa in prose.
E. T. A. Hoffman wrote a continuation to the Coloquio de los perros: Nachricht von den neuesten Schicksalen des Hundes Berganza; here, however, the author talks with the dog, chiefly about Hoffmann’s experiences in Bamberg (see Georg Ellinger, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Hamburg, 1894, p. 80). The story is found in Hoffmann’s Phantasiestiicke, 4 vols., 1814–1815, vol. 2.
La gitanilla. About the gipsies in Spain there is a vast amount of literature. To mention only the most accessible: Clemencin, in his edition of Don Quijote (1835, 6 vols.), vol. II, pp. 473–478. Juan Hidalgo, Romances de germanía, Madrid, 1779, pp. 201–222. Bataillard, Sur les origines des Bohémiens (Revue Critique, 1875, nos. 39–41). Borrows, The Gypsies of Spain (new edition: London, 1869). Rochas, Les parias de France et d’Espagne, Paris, 1876. Besides this, passages in various Spanish novels; for example, Donado hablador, Part II, ch. II—IV (Riv., 18, pp. 543–553).
Quijote, Part I, cap. 22; Part II, cap. 27.
The ventero: Quijote I, cap. 3. Regarding the venteros, it may be said that no class was of worse repute than they, and it would take a special treatise to show what Spanish and foreign writers have said of them. To mention only a few: Quijote, I. c.; Guzman I, Lib. I, cap. 3–6; Lib. II, cap. 1; Parte II, Lib. II, cap. 8 (Riv., 3, p. 313, b); Justina, Lib. I, cap. 3–4; Suarez de Figueroa, El Pasagero, Alivio 7; Gaspar Ens, Vitae humanae proscenium (Latin Guzman), Pars III, cap. 7; Obregon, Descanso XIII, Relacion 1; Salas Barbadillo, in: La estafeta del dios Momo, the chapter: El ladron convertido á ventero; etc.
La ilustre fregona. Mateo Lujan (Guzman, Riv., 3, p. 374, a) says: “eché de ver en mi vida picaresca, que muchos hijos de buenos padres que la profesaban, aunque despues los quisieron recoger, no hubo remedio: tal es el bebedizo de la libertad y propia voluntad.” In the Nouvelles Espagnoles de Michel de Cervantes, traduction nouvelle avec des notes, etc., par M. Lefebvre de Villebrune (Paris, Defer de Maisonneuve, 1788, 2 vols.), I find (vol. 2, introductory remarks to the Illustre Fregone): “ Ce n’est pas qu’il y eût plus de moeurs en France, en Italie, en Portugal; au moins les désordres n’étaient pas si publics chez nous. Thomas Lansius, dans ses Discours latins sur les moeurs et les usages des différentes nations, en apprendra plus au lecteur que je ne puisse dire ici. Voyez son discours sur l’Espagne, pag. 289, édit. 1637.” I have not succeeded in obtaining a copy of Lansius.
Navarrete, Vida de Cervantes, 1819, p. 87; pp. 435—sqq., especially p. 439, note 158. Gallardo and Aureliano Fernández-Guerra supposed Cervantes to be the author of the Tercera parte de la relación de la cárcel de Sevilla and of the Entreme’s de la cárcel de Sevilla (see Gallardo, Ensayo, vol. I, col. 1336, note 2; 1341, note 1; 1366–1370; 1371, note 1; 1371 – 1384). The entreme’s also in Obras, vol. III of Teatro.
Pedro de Urdemalas, comedia, in Obras, vol. I of Teatro. Emile Chasles, Cervantes (2me éd., Paris, 1866) p. 411: “Cervantes a écrit le roman du gentilhomme et le drame picaresque du rufian. Pedro de Urdemalas, pièce fantastique et oubliée, est l’image de cette destinée perdue.”
Salvá (no. 1816) describes the Gabinete de lectura española, Madrid, Viuda de Ibarra (about 1800), of which he says: “en el cuarto y quinto salieron las novelas de Cervantes, tituladas: Rinconete y Cortadillo, y El celoso estremeno, copiadas de un manuscrito de fines del siglo XVI ó principios del XVII, con variantes importantísimas de los impresos.” No one seems to have paid attention to this version of Rinconete. In vol. IV of the Gabinete, Rinconete has a prólogo, in which it is stated that the text is taken from the Licenciado Fr. Porras de la Cámara (about whom see Gallardo, Criticon, no. I; and Ensayo, I, col. 1246–1247). The prólogo (XVI pages) says: (p. VI): “A cuatro capítulos pueden reducirse las diferencias de la novela impresa de R. y C, si se coteja con la manuscrita de Andalucía que publicamos. 1. Supresion de hechos, ó de circunstancias de ellos; 2. Alteracion de hechos etc.; 3. Añadiduras de expresion; 4. Discrepancia de palabras.” (p. VII): “Monipodio no se contenta con ‘tantas letras tiene un sí como un no’; hace del ojo á Chiquiznaque, quien pega un gran bofeton á Rinconete; los dos muchachos echan mano, pero Monipodio les apacigua, explicándolo como la pescozada de los caballeros. Luego les da noviciado de tres meses.” (p. IX): “ La Cariharta dice: ‘Marinero de Tarpeya’ por Mira Nero de Tarpeya [compare here Duran, Romancero I, p. 393]. Neron entónces se nombraba en Castellano Nero, y aquél verso era en Sevilla tan conocido, que hasta la Cariharta lo sabia aplicar de su modo.” (p. X, XI): “Al fin de ésta novela se promete más larga relacion de la, vida, muerte y milagros de estos ladrones y de su maestro Monipodio. Estas muertes son las que debian hacer ‘exemplares’ la narracion de estos sucesos.” (p. XII): “El primer robado en la Plaza de Sevilla es un Clérigo”. (p. XII): “El cojuelo que se habia disfrazado en hábito de clérigo, y se habia ido á alojar en la Calle de Tintores, en la impresa es judío. Siendo él de la cofradía de Monipodio, es imposible fuese judío, por ser los tales ineptos y repugnantes á la devocion que en casa de Monipodio se inculcaba. Tal judío no hay en la edicion que presentamos.” (p. XV): “El MS. dá á entender que la novela se escribió en Andalucía, el impreso en Castilla. Véase: impreso: Alcudia, como vamos de Castilla á Andalucía; MS.: viniendo de Castilla para Andalucía.” With the corrections, not found elsewhere, the story gains materially, and becomes perfect, except that the second part does not appear, a usual thing in picaresque novels.
For special bibliography of the Novelas Exemplar es, see L. Orellana y Rincón, Ensayo crítico sobre las novelas ejemplares de Cervantes con la bibliografía de sus ediciones. Valencia, 1890, in-80, 46 pp. Also, Ríus, Bibliografía Cervántica, 2 vols, (in press).
In his Historia de las Universidades de Espana, Madrid, 1884–89, 4 vols., vol. III, p. 271.****
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De Haan, F. (1903). Cervantes. In: An Outline of the History of the Novela Picaresca in Spain. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6318-9_6
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