6 (return)
There are two curious pieces of evidence in proof that Don Quixote was known before it was printed. In the first edition of the Picara Justina, composed by Francisco de Ubeda—the license to print which is dated August, 1604—there are some truncated verses, like those in the beginning of Don Quixote, in which Don Quixote is mentioned by name as already famous (Catalogo de Salva, vol. ii, p. 157). Also in a private letter from Lope de Vega to his patron, the Duke of Sessa, there is a malignant allusion to Cervantes, speaking of poets. "There is none so bad as Cervantes, and none so foolish as to praise Don Quixote." The letter is dated August 4, 1604.

7 (return)
That seems to have been the usual period for which a book was licensed in that age. The sum which Cervantes received for his copyright is not recorded.

8 (return)
The Third Part of Don Florisel de Niquea was dedicated to a former Duque de Bejar. See Salva's Catalogo, vol. ii, p. 14.

9 (return)
Cervantes is supposed to reflect on this meddlesome ecclesiastic in Part II, chap, xxxi, of Don Quixote, where there is a passage against those of the religious profession who "govern the houses of princes," written with a bitterness most unusual in our author.

10 (return)
Those who are fond of dwelling on coincidences may find one here of singular interest. The year during which Don Quixote was being printed was also the year in which, according to the best authorities, Shakespeare was producing his perfected Hamlet. The two noblest works of human wit, their subjects bearing a curious affinity one to another, each the story of a mind disordered by the burden of setting the world right, were thus born in the same year.

11 (return)
Con general aplauso de las gentes—he says in the Second Part of Don Quixote, speaking through the mouth of the Duchess. The legend, revived in the present age, that Don Quixote hung fire on the first publication, and that the author wrote anonymously a tract called El Buscapie (The Search-foot), in order to explain his story and its object, rests only upon the evidence of one Ruidiaz, and is contradicted by all the facts of the case. No such aid was necessary to push the sale of the book, whose purpose had been sufficiently explained by the author in his preface. The so-called Buscapie, published in 1848 by Adolfo de Castro, is an impudent forgery, which has imposed upon no one. It is the composition of Señor de Castro himself, who is a farceur, of some wit and more effrontery. Ticknor is even too serious in the attention which he bestows on Señor de Castro and his work, which an English publisher has thought worthy of a translation.

12 (return)
Señor Gayangos is of opinion that there were other editions of 1605 which have wholly perished; one probably at Barcelona, the press of which city was very active in that year; one at Pamplona, and probably one at Saragossa, which were capitals of old kingdoms. See also Señor Asensio's letter to the Ateneo, No. 23, p. 296; and the Bibliography of Don Quixote at the end of this volume.

13 (return)
The ordinary obrada, or impression, of a book at this period, I am told by Señor Gayangos—and there can be no better authority—was 250 copies. But in the case of a popular book like Don Quixote the impression would be larger—probably 500 copies. Supposing 8 editions to have been issued in 1605, there would thus have been printed 4,000 copies in the first year—a number unprecedently large in an age when readers were few and books a luxury.

14 (return)
The last book of the kind written before Don Quixote, according to Clemencin, was Policisne de Boecia, published in 1602; but La Toledana Discreta, which is a romantic poem in ottava rima, was published in 1604, and a few chap-books and religious romances, of the slighter kind, afterward.

15 (return)
The question is reopened in the España Moderna (1894), by my good friend Asensio, who quotes from one of the histories of Charles V how that as a youth he would draw his sword and lay about him at the figures in the tapestry, and how once he was discovered teasing a caged lion with a stick. This is slender material on which to base the theory of Charles V being the original of Don Quixote.

16 (return)
See the eloquent and judicious prologue to his Romancero General by Don Agustin Duran.

17 (return)

18 (return)
See the account of the Paso Honroso, held at the instance of Suero de Quiñones, before Juan II, in 1434, at the bridge of Orbigo, near Leon, which is contained in Appendix D, vol. i, of my translation of Don Quixote.

19 (return)
See the Viaje del Parnaso, chapter iv:

      Why cannot we believe the author, when he thus plainly and candidly avows his purpose?

20 (return)
See the essay of Salva's in Ochoa, Apuntes para una Biblioteca, vol. ii, pp. 723-740. I know one great Spanish scholar who has never forgiven Cervantes for destroying the books of chivalries. But his anger is rather that of the bibliographer than of the critic or patriot. He has the best collection of those evil books in Europe.

FOUNDING OF QUEBEC

CHAMPLAIN ESTABLISHES FRENCH POWER IN CANADA

1 (return)
About the end of 1610 or early in 1611 Champlain, in Paris, espoused a very youthful lady, named Hélène Boullé, daughter of the King's private secretary. She was a Huguenot, though subsequently converted by her husband. She visited Canada in 1620, and remained about four years.

2 (return)
This nomination of Champlain as lieutenant of the Viceroy of New France was dated October 15, 1612; hence, in lists of official functionaries of Canada, this date is frequently put as that on which the rule of governors commenced, Champlain being set down as the first.

3 (return)
Henceforward the history of the colony, as well as that of the gradual extension of discovery westward, is inseparably associated with the proceedings of the religious missionaries, who were the real pioneers of French influence among the tribes of the interior.

4 (return)
According to the custom of the ladies of that time, Madame Champlain wore a small mirror suspended from her girdle. The untutored natives who approached her were astonished at perceiving themselves reflected from the glass, and circulated among themselves the innocent conceit that she cherished in her heart the recollection of each one of them.

5 (return)
He died in the course of this season. Champlain, in his memoirs, mentions him with approbation and respect.

6 (return)
When Champlain, accompanied by Pontegravé, went on board Louis Kirke's vessel, on the 20th, he demanded to be shown the commission from the King of England in virtue of which the seizure of the country was made. The two, as being persons whose reputation had spread throughout Europe, were received with profound respect; and after Champlain's request relative to the commission had been complied with, it was stipulated that the inhabitants should leave with their arms and baggage, and be supplied with provisions and means of transport to France. About four days were needed to procure the sanction of the admiral, David Kirke, at Tadoussac, and then Champlain, with a heavy heart, attended by his followers, embarked in the English ship. He says in his memoirs—"Since the surrender every day seems to me a month." On the way down the St. Lawrence, Emery de Caën was met, above Tadoussac, in a vessel with supplies for Quebec. Kirke is said to have desired Champlain to use his influence with De Caën to induce him to surrender without resistance, which, however, the noble-minded man declined. Bazilli was reported to be in the gulf with a French fleet, but nevertheless De Caën felt obliged to surrender, as the Kirkes had two ships to oppose his one. De Caën told Champlain that he believed peace was already signed between the two crowns.

7 (return)
A few, by Champlain's advice, accepted the offers of the English to remain under their protection in the possession of their habitations and clearings. They were to enjoy the same privileges as the English themselves. A number of the French traders also remained, but betook themselves to the west and into the Huron country, where they lived with the Indians until the country was restored to France, about three years subsequently. Louis Kirke was left in command at Quebec.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

1 (return)
See 1552.