bookssland.com » Poetry » Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (speed reading book TXT) 📗

Book online «Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (speed reading book TXT) 📗». Author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 43
Go to page:
href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@24754@24754-h@24754-h-5.htm.html#Page_124" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">124. Brevity pleasing, 60. Building on impossibilities, 74. By-and-by, the streets of, 162.   Cats, by night all are gray, 180. Church, the, the court, the sea, 83. Clergyman, a, what he should be to be beloved, 33. Companions, a man known by his, 124. Comparisons offensive, 104. Course, the middle, the one of valor, 104. Customs not all invented at once, 6.   Death, a remedy for everything but, 210. Delay breeds danger, 86, 281. Devil, the, assumes an angel form, 74. Diligence, the mother of success, 86. Disquietude designed for knights, 34. Drinker, a good, covered by a bad cloak, 186.   Enemy, an, the merits of his cause, 209. Epics, prose, 88. Ermine, an, a modest woman compared to, 73. Fables, analysis of, 87. Fast bind, fast find, 120. Fear, the effect of, 49. Fiction, better as it resembles truth, 87. Finger, a, between two eye-teeth, 215. Flattery, the sway of, 145. Forewarned, forearmed, 132. Fortune, good, seldom comes single, 83. Fortune like a mill-wheel, 87. Friend, a, consolation, 62. Frying-pan, out of, 50.   God's mercy more glorious than His justice, 210. Good in every book, 109. Gold, all that glitters is not, 244. Governing pleasant, 203. Gratitude, a compensation, 271; a duty, 61. Grievance, no, can keep the sufferer from kindness, 70. Handle, the right one of things, 56. Happiness as reckoned by sages, 130. History, a sacred subject, 108. History, faithful, will survive, 280. Holy days to be kept peacefully, 122. Hope and love coincident, 74. Host, to reckon without the, 104. Hypocrite, a, less dangerous than the open transgressor, 173.   Jest, a painful, no jest, 272. Jesting, a time for, 123. Judge, a, should lean toward compassion, 209.   King, serving the, in war, 173. Knights, all, not courteous, 118.   Lance, the, never blunted the pen, 49. Learned men among mountains. 93. Leap, a, better than a prayer, 60. Liberality, the blessings of, 288. Liberty, the blessings of, 2. Light, the, shines upon all, 245. Lineages, two kinds of, 60. Liver, the good, the best preacher, 166. Love, a leveller, 29. Love, the eyes of, 70. Love, unconstrained, 49. Love, uncompromising, 56. Love, conquered by flight, 74. Love, vanities of, 76. Love, wears spectacles, 163.   Lovers, external actions of, 124. Madness, the followers of, 129. Maiden, a, her reserve her defence, 104. Many littles make a mickle, 121. Man, a dishonored, 71. Manners, good, cheap, 202. Master, a, judged by his servants, 176. Mayor, he whose father is a, 214. Might overcomes, 86. Mischance, one, invites another, 70. Misfortunes never single, 70. Money willingly lent to officials, 118. Music, the effect of, 70.   Nail, a, in Fortune's wheel, 162. Nature is like a potter, 176. Nobility, true, 76.   Pains, those of others are easy to bear, 176. Patience, and shuffle the cards, 168. Paymaster, a good, needs no security, 176. Peace, no, in scruples of conscience, 104. Philosophers in cottages, 93. Purpose, the honest, favored, 76.   Railing is neighbor to forgiveness, 281. Remedy, a, for everything but death, 210. Retreat sometimes wise, 61. Riches, two roads to, 120. Riches, of little avail against trouble, 62. Rome, when in, 264. Rules for obtaining excellence, 62.   Seeing is believing, 128. Severity is not disdain, 50. Sleep, a cure for trouble, 280. Soldier, a covetous, a monster, 82. Soldier, equal to a captain, 34. Song, the relief of, 61. Sorrow, concealed, 73. Sorrow, a blessing, 128.   Thing, a, begun is half finished, 202. Thing, a, the right handle of, 56. To-day here, to-morrow gone, 121. Tongues as weapons, 177. Tricks of a town, 86. Truffles, to look for, in the sea, 105. Truth, the mother of history, 29. Truth may bend, 124.   Virtue more persecuted than beloved, 86.   Walls have ears, 244. Wealth, its gratification is a right application, 119. Wise, a word to the, 202. Wit and humor, attributes of genius, 108. Woman, varieties of, 70. Woman, the burden to which she is born, 118. Woman, her advice, to be taken, 120.   Yes or no of a woman, between the, 162.

DON QUIXOTE.

 

CERVANTES. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

The most trivial act of the daily life of some men has a unique interest, independent of idle curiosity, which dissatisfies us with the meagre food of date, place, and pedigree. So in the "Cartas de Indias" was published, two years ago, in Spain, a facsimile letter from Cervantes when tax-gatherer to Philip II., informing him of the efforts he had made to collect the taxes in certain Andalusian villages.

It is difficult, from the slight social record that we have of Cervantes, to draw the line where imagination begins and facts end.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the contemporary of Shakspeare, Galileo, Camoens, Rubens, Tasso, and Lope de Vega, was born obscurely and in poverty, but with good antecedents. His grandfather, Juan de Cervantes, was the corregidor, or mayor, of Ossuna, and our poet was the youngest son of Rodrigo and Leonora de Cortiños, of the Barajas family. On either side he belonged to illustrious houses. He speaks of his birthplace as the "famous Henares,"—"Alcala de Henares," sometimes called Alcala de San Justo, from the saint San Justo having there suffered martyrdom under the traitor Daciamos. The town is beautifully situated on the borders of the Henares River, two thousand feet above the level of the sea.

He was born on Sunday, October 9, 1547, and was baptized in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor, receiving his name on the fête day of his patron Saint Miguel, which some biographers have confounded with that of his birthday.

We may be forgiven for a few words about Alcala de Henares, since, had it only produced so rare a man as was Cervantes, it would have had sufficient distinction; but it was a town of an eventful historical record. It was destroyed about the year 1000, and rebuilt and possessed by the Moors, was afterwards conquered by Bernardo, Archbishop of Toledo. Three hundred years later it was the favorite retreat of Ximenes, then Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, who returned to it, after his splendid conquests, laden with gold and silver spoil taken from the mosques of Oran, and with a far richer treasure of precious Arabian manuscripts, intended for such a university as had long been his ambition to create, and the corner-stone of which he laid with his own hands in 1500. There was a very solemn ceremonial at the founding of this famous university, and a hiding away of coins and inscriptions under its massive walls, and a pious invocation to Heaven for a special blessing on the archbishop's design! At the end of eight years the extensive and splendid buildings were finished and the whole town improved. With the quickening of literary labor and the increase of opportunities of acquiring knowledge, the reputation of the university was of the highest.

The cardinal's comprehensive mind included in its professorships all that he considered useful in the arts. Emulation was encouraged, and every effort was made to draw talent from obscurity. To this enlightened ecclesiastic is the world indebted for the undertaking of the Polyglot Bible, which, in connection with other learned works, led the university to be spoken of as one of the greatest educational establishments in the world. From far and near were people drawn to it. King Ferdinand paid homage to his subject's noble testimonial of labor, by visiting the cardinal at Alcala de Henares, and acknowledging that his own reign had received both benefit and glory from it. The people of Alcala punningly said, the church of Toledo had never had a bishop of greater edification than Ximenes; and Erasmus, in a letter to his friend Vergara, perpetrates a Greek pun on the classic name of Alcala, intimating the highest opinion of the state of science there. The reclining statue of Ximenes, beautifully carved in alabaster, now ornaments his sepulchre in the College of St. Ildefonso.

Cervantes shared the honor of the birthplace with the Emperor Ferdinand; he of "blessed memory," who failed to obtain permission from the Pope for priests to marry, but who, in spite of turbulent times, maintained religious peace in Germany, and lived to see the closing of the Council of Trent, marking his reign as one of the most enlightened of the age.

Alcala also claims Antonio de Solis, the well-known historian, whose "Conquest of Mexico" has been translated into many languages, as well as Teodora de Beza, a zealous Calvinistic reformer and famous divine, a sharer of Calvin's labors in Switzerland and author of the celebrated manuscripts known as Beza's manuscripts.

Judging from the character of the town and the refining educational influence that so grand a university must have had over its inhabitants, we have a right to believe that Cervantes was early imbued with all that was noble and good, and it is difficult to understand why, with all the advantages which the College of St. Ildefonso opened to him, he should have been sent away from it to that of Salamanca. Even allowing that the supposition of early poverty was correct, it would have appeared an additional reason for his being educated in his native town, particularly as liberal foundations were made for indigent students. The fact of his being sent to Salamanca would seem to disprove the supposition of pecuniary necessity. In its early days, the university of Salamanca was justly celebrated for its progress in astronomy and familiarity with Greek and Arabian writers; but, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it seems to have remained very stationary, little attention being paid to aught beside medicine and dogmatic theology.

After being two years at Salamanca he changed to Madrid, where he is supposed to have made great progress, under the care of Juan Lopez de Hoyos, a professor of belles lettres, who spoke of Cervantes as "our dear and beloved pupil." Hoyos was himself a poet, and occasionally published collections to which Cervantes contributed his pastoral "Filena," which was much admired at the time. He also wrote several ballads; but ballads generally belong to their own age, and those that remain to us of his have lost much of their poignancy. Two poems, written on the death of Isabella of Valois, wife of Philip II., specially pleased Hoyos, who at the time gave full credit to his promising pupil. That eighth wonder of the world,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 43
Go to page:

Free e-book «Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (speed reading book TXT) 📗» - read online now

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet. You can be the first!
Add a comment