Chapter 2

1So Irenaeus. According to Hippolytus and Epiphanius it was the Holy Ghost that thus descended.

CERIUM(symbol Ce, atomic weight 140.25), a metallic chemical element which occurs with the rare earths in the minerals cerite, samarskite, euxenite, monazite, parisite and many yttrium minerals. The particular earth containing cerium was discovered by M.H. Klaproth in 1803, whilst J. Berzelius at about the same time also examined it and came to the conclusion that it was the oxide of a new metal, which he termed cerium. The crude oxide of the metal is obtained from cerite, by evaporating the mineral with strong sulphuric acid, removing excess of acid and dissolving the residue in ice-cold water; sulphuretted hydrogen is passed through the solution, which is then filtered, acidified with hydrochloric acid, and precipitated as oxalate by oxalic acid; the oxalate is then converted into oxide by ignition. From the crude oxide so obtained (which contains lanthanum and didymium oxides) the cerium may be separated by conversion into its double sulphate on the addition of potassium sulphate, the sulphates of the cerium group being insoluble in a saturated solution of potassium sulphate. The sulphate is subsequently boiled with water, when a basic sulphate is precipitated. For the preparation of pure cerium compounds see Auer v. Welsbach,Monatshefte, 1884, v. 508.

The metal was first obtained, in an impure state, by C.G. Mosander, by fusing its chloride with sodium. W.F. Hillebrand and T. Norton have prepared it by the electrolysis of the melted chloride (Pogg. Ann., 1875, 156, p. 466); and C. Winkler (Berichte, 1891, xxiv. 884) obtained it by heating the dioxide with magnesium powder. The metal has somewhat the appearance of iron, and has a specific gravity of 6.628, which, after melting, is increased to 6.728. Its specific heat is 0.04479 (W.F. Hillebrand). It is permanent in dry air, but tarnishes in moist air; it can be hammered and rolled; it melts at 623° C. It burns readily on heating, with a brilliant flame; and it also combines with chlorine, bromine, iodine, sulphur, phosphorus and cyanogen. In the case of the two former elements the combination is accompanied by combustion of the metal. With water it is slowly converted into the dioxide. Cold concentrated nitric and sulphuric acids are without action on the metal, but it reacts rapidly with dilute nitric and hydrochloric acids. The dioxide is used in incandescent gas mantles (seeLighting).

Three oxides of cerium are known. The sesquioxide, Ce2O3, is obtained by heating the carbonate in a current of hydrogen. It is a bluish-green powder, which on exposure rapidly combines with the oxygen of the air. By the addition of caustic soda to cerous salts, a white precipitate of cerous hydroxide is formed. Cerium dioxide, CeO2, is produced when cerium carbonate, nitrate, sulphate or oxalate is heated in air. It is a white or pale yellow compound, which becomes reddish on heating. Its specific gravity is 6.739, and its specific heat 0.0877. It is not reduced to the metallic condition on heating with carbon. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolves this oxide, forming a yellowish solution and ozone. By suspending the precipitated cerous hydroxide in water and passing chlorine through the solution, a hydrated form of the dioxide, 2CeO2·3H2O, is obtained, which is readily soluble in nitric and sulphuric acids, forming ceric salts, and in hydrochloric acid, where it forms cerous chloride, with liberation of chlorine. A higher hydrated oxide, CeO3·xH2O, is formed by the interaction of cerous sulphate with sodium acetate and hydrogen peroxide (Lecoq de Boisbaudran,Comptes rendus, 1885, 100, p. 605).Cerous chloride, CeCl3, is obtained when the metal is burned in chlorine; when a mixture of cerous oxide and carbon is heated in chlorine; or by rapid heating of the dioxide in a stream of carbon monoxide and chlorine. It is a colourless substance, which is easily fusible. A hydrated chloride of composition 2CeCl3·15H2O is also known, and is obtained when a solution of cerous oxide in hydrochloric acid is evaporated over sulphuric acid. Double salts of cerous chloride with stannic chloride, mercuric chloride, and platinic chloride are also known. Cerous bromide, 2CeBr3·3H2O, and iodide, CeI3·9H2O, are known. Cerous sulphide, Ce2S3, results on heating cerium with sulphur or cerium oxide in carbon bisulphide vapour. It is a red infusible mass of specific gravity 5.1, and is slowly decomposed by warm water. The sulphate, Ce2(SO4)3, is formed on dissolving the carbonate in sulphuric acid, or on dissolving the basic sulphate in sulphuric acid, in the presence of sulphur dioxide, evaporating the solution, and drying the product obtained, at high temperature (B. Brauner,Monatshefte, 1885, vi. 793). It is a white powder of specific gravity 3.912, easily soluble in cold water. Many hydrated forms of the sulphate are known, as are also double salts of the sulphate with potassium, sodium, ammonium, thallium and cadmium sulphates. Ceric fluoride, CeF4·H2O, is obtained when the hydrated dioxide is dissolved in hydrofluoric acid and the solution evaporated on the water bath (B. Brauner). The sulphate, Ce(SO4)2·4H2O, is formed when the basic sulphate is dissolved in sulphuric acid; or when the dioxide is dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, and evaporatedin vacuoover sulphuric acid. It forms yellow crystals soluble in water; the aqueous solution on standing gradually depositing a basic salt. Double sulphates of composition 2Ce(SO4)2·2K2SO4·2H2O, Ce(SO4)2·3(NH4)2SO4·4H2O areknown. Nitrates of cerium have been described, as have also phosphates, carbonates and a carbide.Cerium compounds may be recognized by the red precipitate of ceric hydroxide, which is formed when sodium hypochlorite is added to a colourless cerous salt. For the quantitative determination of the metal, the salts are precipitated by caustic potash, the precipitate washed, dried and heated, and finally weighed as the dioxide.The atomic weight of cerium has been determined by B. Brauner (Chem. News, 1895, lxxi. 283) from the analysis of the oxalate; the values obtained varying from 140.07 to 140.35.

Cerous chloride, CeCl3, is obtained when the metal is burned in chlorine; when a mixture of cerous oxide and carbon is heated in chlorine; or by rapid heating of the dioxide in a stream of carbon monoxide and chlorine. It is a colourless substance, which is easily fusible. A hydrated chloride of composition 2CeCl3·15H2O is also known, and is obtained when a solution of cerous oxide in hydrochloric acid is evaporated over sulphuric acid. Double salts of cerous chloride with stannic chloride, mercuric chloride, and platinic chloride are also known. Cerous bromide, 2CeBr3·3H2O, and iodide, CeI3·9H2O, are known. Cerous sulphide, Ce2S3, results on heating cerium with sulphur or cerium oxide in carbon bisulphide vapour. It is a red infusible mass of specific gravity 5.1, and is slowly decomposed by warm water. The sulphate, Ce2(SO4)3, is formed on dissolving the carbonate in sulphuric acid, or on dissolving the basic sulphate in sulphuric acid, in the presence of sulphur dioxide, evaporating the solution, and drying the product obtained, at high temperature (B. Brauner,Monatshefte, 1885, vi. 793). It is a white powder of specific gravity 3.912, easily soluble in cold water. Many hydrated forms of the sulphate are known, as are also double salts of the sulphate with potassium, sodium, ammonium, thallium and cadmium sulphates. Ceric fluoride, CeF4·H2O, is obtained when the hydrated dioxide is dissolved in hydrofluoric acid and the solution evaporated on the water bath (B. Brauner). The sulphate, Ce(SO4)2·4H2O, is formed when the basic sulphate is dissolved in sulphuric acid; or when the dioxide is dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, and evaporatedin vacuoover sulphuric acid. It forms yellow crystals soluble in water; the aqueous solution on standing gradually depositing a basic salt. Double sulphates of composition 2Ce(SO4)2·2K2SO4·2H2O, Ce(SO4)2·3(NH4)2SO4·4H2O areknown. Nitrates of cerium have been described, as have also phosphates, carbonates and a carbide.

Cerium compounds may be recognized by the red precipitate of ceric hydroxide, which is formed when sodium hypochlorite is added to a colourless cerous salt. For the quantitative determination of the metal, the salts are precipitated by caustic potash, the precipitate washed, dried and heated, and finally weighed as the dioxide.

The atomic weight of cerium has been determined by B. Brauner (Chem. News, 1895, lxxi. 283) from the analysis of the oxalate; the values obtained varying from 140.07 to 140.35.

CERNUSCHI, HENRI(1821-1896), Italian politician and economist, was born of wealthy parents at Milan in 1821, and was destined for the legal profession. During his studies he became involved in the revolutionary movement. He played a conspicuous part in the insurrection at Milan in 1848, and also at Rome in 1849, where he had a seat in the National Assembly. On the collapse of the revolutionary government he was arrested (1850), but managed to escape to France, where he engaged in commerce and banking, became naturalized, and acquired a large fortune. He took a prominent part in opposing the Socialist movement, and in April 1870, having subscribed a large sum to the funds of a committee formed to combat the Napoleonic plebiscite, had to leave the country. In September the formation of the Third Republic enabled him to return, but he soon left Paris to travel in the East, whence he returned with a fine art collection, particularly of Japanese objects. Cernuschi is best known for his publications on financial questions, more especially bimetallism. Of the latter he was an ardent champion, and the word itself is commonly supposed to have originated with him—at least in its English form it is first found in hisSilver Vindicated(1876). Among his other works may be mentioned:Mécanique de l’échange(1861);Illusion des sociétés coopératives(1886);Le Bimétallisme en Angleterre(1879);Le Grand Procès de l’Union latine(1884). He died at Mentone on the 12th of May 1896.

CEROGRAPHY(from the Gr.κηρός, wax, andγράφειν, to write), the art of painting in wax. (SeeEncaustic Painting.)

CERRO DE PASCO,orPasco, a mining town of Peru, capital of the department of Junin, 107 m. (221 m. by rail, via Oroya) N.E. of Lima. Pop. (1907 est.) 10,000. It is situated on the plateau of Bombon, 14,280 ft. above sea-level, and in the midst of one of the oldest and richest silver-mining districts of Peru. There were 342 silver mines in this district in 1890, and at the end of the 19th century the average annual output since the discovery of the mines in 1630 was estimated at 1,600,000 oz. A decline in the silver production having set in, the American company which had become owners of three-fourths of the mining properties in the district turned its attention to the extensive copper deposits there, built a railway to Oroya 83 m. distant, another, 25 m. long, to the coal-fields of Gollarisquisga, north of Pasco, and then erected large smelting works (in which 2500 men were regularly employed in 1907) 8 m. out of town and 4 m. from limestone beds. The railway to Oroya was completed in 1903, the coal mine branch and smelter later on, and in 1907 the copper output was 20,152,000 ℔ The town of Pasco is badly built and unattractive, and is inhabited chiefly by mining labourers and their families. Its population is increased 50% in times of great mining activity. The name Cerro de Pasco is that of a “knot” of mountains uniting the two great ranges of the Andes at this point.

CERTALDO,a town of Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Florence, 35 m. S.S.W. by rail and 18 m. direct from the town of Florence. Pop. (1901) town, 4552; commune, 9120. It was the home of the family of Giovanni Boccaccio, who died and was buried here in 1375. His house (of red brick, like the other old houses of the town) was restored in 1823 and fitted up with old furniture. A statue of him was erected in the principal square in 1875. The Palazzo Pretorio, or Vicariale, the residence of the Florentine governors, recently restored to its original condition, has a picturesque facade and court adorned with coats of arms, and in the interior are various frescoes dating from the 13th to the 16th century. The town as a whole is picturesque, and lies on a hill 426 ft. above sea-level.

See R. Pantini,S. Gimignano e Certaldo(Bergamo, 1904), p. 101 seq.

CERUSSITE,a mineral consisting of lead carbonate (PbCO3), and an important ore of lead. The name (sometimes erroneously spelt cerusite) is from the Lat.cerussa, “white lead.” “Cerussa nativa” was mentioned by K. Gesner in 1565, and in 1832 F.S. Beudant applied the name céruse to the mineral, whilst the present form, cerussite, is due to W. Haidinger (1845). Popular names in early use were lead-spar and white-lead-ore.

Cerussite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and is isomorphous with aragonite. Like aragonite it is very frequently twinned, the compound crystals being pseudo-hexagonal in form. Three crystals are usually twinned together on two faces of the prismm{110}, producing six-rayed stellate groups (figs, 1 and 2) with the individual crystals intercrossing at angles of nearly 60°. Twinning on the faces of the prismr{130}, the angles of which are also nearly 60°, produces a similar kind of grouping, but is much less common. Crystals are of frequent occurrence, and they usually have very bright and smooth faces. The mineral also occurs in compact granular masses, and sometimes in fibrous forms. It is usually colourless or white, sometimes grey or greenish in tint; it varies from transparent to translucent, and has an adamantine lustre. It is very brittle, and has a conchoidal fracture. Hardness 3-3½; sp. gr. 6.5. A variety containing 7% of zinc carbonate, replacing lead carbonate, is known as iglesiasite, from Iglesias in Sardinia, where it is found.

The mineral may be readily recognized by its characteristic twinning, in conjunction with the adamantine lustre and high specific gravity. It dissolves with effervescence in dilute nitric acid. Before the blow-pipe it fuses very readily, and gives reactions for lead. Cerussite occurs in metalliferous veins in association with galena, and has been formed by the action of carbonated waters on the galena; it is therefore found in the upper parts of the lodes together with other secondary minerals, such as limonite. Finely crystallized specimens have been obtained from the Friedrichssegen mine near Ems in Nassau, Johanngeorgenstadt in Saxony, Mies in Bohemia, Phenixville in Pennsylvania, Broken Hill in New South Wales, and several other localities. Delicate acicular crystals of considerable length were found long ago in the Pentire Glaze mine near St Minver in Cornwall. It is often found in considerable quantities, and contains as much as 77½% of lead.

(L. J. S.)

CERUTTI, GIUSEPPE ANTONIO GIACHIMO(1738-1792), French author and politician, was born at Turin on the 13th of June 1738. He joined the Society of Jesus and became professor at the Jesuit college at Lyons. In 1762, in reply to the attacks on his order, he published anApologie générale de l’institut et de la doctrine des Jésuites, which won him much fame and some exalted patronage; notably that of the ex-king Stanislaus of Poland and of his grandson the dauphin. During the agitations that preceded the Revolution Cerutti took the popular side, and in 1788 published a pamphlet,Mémoire pour le peuple français, in which in a clear and trenchant style he advocated the claims of thetiers état. In May 1789 he presided over the electors of Paris, by whom in January 1791 he was chosen member of the administration of the department and afterwards deputy to the Legislative Assembly. He was a friend of Mirabeau, whose policy he supported and whose funeral oration he pronounced. He himself died on the 3rd of February 1792. Of Cerutti’s literary enterprises the most interesting, and probably the most influential, was the popular newspaper founded by him, on the 30th of September 1790, in collaboration with Rabaut Saint-Étienne and Philippe Antoine Grouvelle. Its character andobjects are explained by its title:La Feuille villageoise, adressée chaque semaine à tous les villages de France pour les instruire des lois, des événements, des découvertes qui interessent tout ban citoyen, &c.It was continued by Grouvelle after Cerutti’s death, the last number appearing on the 2nd of August 1795.

Cerutti’s works were published in 1793 in 3 volumes. On theMémoire pour le peuple français, see F.A. Aulard inLa Révolution française, tom. xv. (1888).

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE(1547-1616), Spanish novelist, playwright and poet, was born at Alcalá de Henares in 1547. The attempts of biographers to provide him with an illustrious genealogy are unsuccessful. The family history begins with the author’s grandfather, Juan de Cervantes (b. 1490), a lawyer who at one time (1545-6) administered the estates of the duke de Osuna, and resided later at Cordova, where he died about 1555. Cervantes’ father was Rodrigo de Cervantes, an apothecary-surgeon, who married Leonor de Cortinas in 1540 or 1541. The children of this marriage were Andrés (b. 1543), Andrea (b. 1544), Luisa (b. 1546), Miguel, Rodrigo (b. 1550), Magdalena (b. 1554) and Juan (of whom nothing is known beyond the mention of him in his father’s will).

The exact date of Cervantes’ birth is not recorded: he was baptized on the 9th of October 1547, in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor at Alcalá. There are indications that Rodrigo de Cervantes resided at Valladolid in 1554, at Madrid in 1561, at Seville in 1564-1565, and at Madrid from 1566 onwards. It may be assumed that his family accompanied him, and it seems likely that either at Valladolid or at Madrid Cervantes saw the famous actor-manager and dramatist, Lope de Rueda, of whose performances he speaks enthusiastically in the preface to his plays. In 1569 a Madrid schoolmaster, Juan Lopez de Hoyos, issued a work commemorative of Philip II.’s third wife, Isabel de Valois, who had died on the 3rd of October 1568. This volume, entitledHistoria y relación verdadera de la enfermedad, felicisimo tránsito y sumptuosas exequias fúnebres de la Serenisima Reyna de Españia Doña Isabel de Valoys, contains six contributions by Cervantes: a sonnet, fourredondillas, and an elegy. Lopez de Hoyos introduces Cervantes as “our dear and beloved pupil,” and the elegy is dedicated to Cardinal Espinosa “in the name of the whole school.” It has been inferred that Cervantes was educated by Lopez de Hoyos, but this conclusion is untenable, for Lopez de Hoyos’ school was not opened till 1567. On the 13th of October 1568, Giulio Acquaviva reached Madrid charged with a special mission to Philip II.; he left for Rome on the 2nd of December, and Cervantes is supposed to have accompanied him. This conjecture is based solely on a passage in the dedication of theGalatea, where the writer speaks of having been “camareroto Cardinal Acquaviva at Rome.” There is, however, no reason to think that Cervantes met Acquaviva in Madrid; the probability is that he enlisted as a supernumerary towards the end of 1568, that he served in Italy, and there entered the household of Acquaviva, who had been raised to the cardinalate on the 17th of May 1570. There exists a warrant (dated September 15, 1569) for the arrest of one Miguel de Cervantes, who had wounded Antonio de Sigura, and had been condemned in absence to have his right hand cut off and to be exiled from the capital for ten years; and it has been sought to identify the offender with the future author ofDon Quixote. No evidence is available. All that is known with certainty is that Cervantes was in Rome at the end of 1569, for on the 22nd of December of that year the fact was recorded in an official information lodged by Rodrigo de Cervantes with a view to proving his son’s legitimacy and untainted Christian descent.

If it is difficult to say precisely when Cervantes was in Acquaviva’s service, it is no less difficult to say when he left it to join the regular army. There is evidence, more or less satisfactory, that his enlistment took place in 1570; in 1571 he was serving as a private in the company commanded by Captain Diego de Urbina which formed part of Miguel de Moncada’s famous regiment, and on the 16th of September he sailed from Messina on board the “Marquesa,” which formed part of the armada under Don John of Austria. At the battle of Lepanto (October 7, 1571) the “Marquesa” was in the thickest of the conflict. As the fleet came into action Cervantes lay below, ill with fever; but, despite the remonstrances of his comrades, he vehemently insisted on rising to take his share in the fighting, and was posted with twelve men under him in a boat by the galley’s side. He received three gunshot wounds, two in the chest, and one which permanently maimed his right hand—“for the greater glory of the right,” in his own phrase. On the 30th of October the fleet returned to Messina, where Cervantes went into hospital, and during his convalescence received grants-in-aid amounting to eighty-two ducats. On the 29th of April 1572 he was transferred to Captain Manuel Ponce de León’s company in Lope de Figueroa’s regiment; he shared in the indecisive naval engagement off Navarino on the 7th of October 1572, in the capture of Tunis on the 10th of October 1573, and in the unsuccessful expedition to relieve the Goletta in the autumn of 1574. The rest of his military service was spent in garrison at Palermo and Naples, and shortly after the arrival of Don John at Naples on the 18th of June 1575, Cervantes was granted leave to return to Spain; he received a recommendatory letter from Don John to Philip II., and a similar testimonial from the duke de Sessa, viceroy of Sicily. Armed with these credentials, Cervantes embarked on the “Sol” to push his claim for promotion in Spain.

On the 26th of September 1575, near Les Trois Maries off the coast of Marseilles, the “Sol” and its companion ships the “Mendoza” and the “Higuera” encountered a squadron of Barbary corsairs under Arnaut Mami; Cervantes, his brother Rodrigo and other Spaniards were captured, and were taken as prisoners to Algiers. Cervantes became the slave of a Greek renegade named Dali Mami, and, as the letters found on him were taken to prove that he was a man of importance in a position to pay a high ransom, he was put under special surveillance. With undaunted courage and persistence he organized plans of escape. In 1576 he induced a Moor to guide him and other Christian captives to Oran; the Moor deserted them on the road, the baffled fugitives returned to Algiers, and Cervantes was treated with additional severity. In the spring of 1577 two priests of the Order of Mercy arrived in Algiers with a sum of three hundred crowns entrusted to them by Cervantes’ parents; the amount was insufficient to free him, and was spent in ransoming his brother Rodrigo. Cervantes made another attempt to escape in September 1577, but was betrayed by the renegade whose services he had enlisted. On being brought before Hassan Pasha, the viceroy of Algiers, he took the blame on himself, and was threatened with death; struck, however, by the heroic bearing of the prisoner, Hassan remitted the sentence, and bought Cervantes from Dali Mami for five hundred crowns. In 1577 the captive addressed to the Spanish secretary of state, Mateo Vazquez, a versified letter suggesting that an expedition should be fitted out to seize Algiers; the project, though practicable, was not entertained. In 1578 Cervantes was sentenced to two thousand strokes for sending a letter begging help from Martín de Córdoba, governor of Oran; the punishment was not, however, inflicted on him. Meanwhile his family were not idle. In March 1578 his father presented a petition to the king setting forth Cervantes’ services; the duke de Sessa repeated his testimony to the captive’s merits; in the spring of 1579 Cervantes’ mother applied for leave to export two thousand ducats’ worth of goods from Valencia to Algiers, and on the 31st of July 1579 she gave the Trinitarian monks, Juan Gil and Antón de la Bella, a sum of two hundred and fifty ducats to be applied to her son’s ransom. On his side Cervantes was indefatigable, and towards the end of 1579 he arranged to secure a frigate; but the plot was revealed to Hassan by Juan Blanco de Paz, a Dominican monk, who appears to have conceived an unaccountable hatred of Cervantes. Once more the conspirator’s life was spared by Hassan who, it is recorded, declared that “so long as he had the maimed Spaniard in safe keeping, his Christians, ships and city were secure.” On the 29th of May 1580 the two Trinitarians arrived in Algiers: they were barely in time, for Hassan’s term of office was drawingto a close, and the arrangement of any ransom was a slow process, involving much patient bargaining. Hassan refused to accept less than five hundred gold ducats for his slave; the available funds fell short of this amount, and the balance was collected from the Christian traders of Algiers. Cervantes was already embarked for Constantinople when the money was paid on the 19th of September 1580. The first use that he made of his liberty was to cause affidavits of his proceedings at Algiers to be drawn up; he sailed for Spain towards the end of October, landed at Denia in November, and made his way to Madrid. He signed an information before a notary in that city on the 18th of December 1580.

These dates prove that he cannot, as is often alleged, have served under Alva in the Portuguese campaign of 1580: that campaign ended with the battle of Alcántara on the 25th of August 1580. It seems certain, however, that he visited Portugal soon after his return from Algiers, and in May 1581 he was sent from Thomar on a mission to Oran. Construed literally, a formal statement of his services, signed by Cervantes on the 21st of May 1590, makes it appear that he served in the Azores campaigns of 1582-83; but the wording of the document is involved, the claims of Cervantes are confused with those of his brother Rodrigo (who was promoted ensign at the Azores), and on the whole it is doubtful if he took part in either of the expeditions under Santa Cruz. In any case, the stories of his residence in Portugal, and of his love affairs with a noble Portuguese lady who bore him a daughter, are simple inventions. From 1582-3 to 1587 Cervantes seems to have written copiously for the stage, and in theAdjunta al Parnasohe mentions several of his plays as “worthy of praise”; these wereLos Tratos de Argel, La Numancia, La Gran Turquesa, La Batalla naval, La Jerusalem, La Amaranta ó la de Mayo, El Bosque amoroso, La Unica y Bizarra Ársinda—“and many others which I do not remember, but that which I most prize and pique myself on was, and is, one calledLa Confusawhich, with all respect to as many sword-and-cloak plays as have been staged up to the present, may take a prominent place as being good among the best.” Of these onlyLos Tratos de Argel(orEl Trato de Argel) andLa Numanciahave survived, and, thoughLa Numanciacontains many fine rhetorical passages, both plays go to prove that the author’s genius was not essentially dramatic. In February 1584 he obtained a licence to print a pastoral novel entitledPrimera parte de la Galatea, the copyright of which he sold on the 14th of June to Blas de Robles, a bookseller at Alcalá de Henares, for 1336reales. On the 12th of December he married Catalina de Palacios Salazar y Vozmediano of Esquivias, eighteen years his junior. TheGalateawas published in the spring of 1585, and is frequently said to relate the story of Cervantes’ courtship, and to introduce various distinguished writers under pastoral names. These assertions must be received with great reserve. The birth of an illegitimate daughter, borne to Cervantes by a certain Ana Francisca de Rojas, is referred to 1584, and earlier in that same year theGalateahad passed the censor; with few exceptions, the identifications of the characters in the book with personages in real life are purely conjectural. These circumstances, together with the internal evidence of the work, point to the conclusion that theGalateawas begun and completed before 1583. It was only twice reprinted—once at Lisbon (1590), and once at Paris (1611)—during the author’s lifetime; but it won him a measure of repute, it was his favourite among his books, and during the thirty years that remained to him he repeatedly announced the second part which is promised conditionally in the text. However, it is not greatly to be regretted that the continuation was never published; though theGalateais interesting as the first deliberate bid for fame on the part of a great genius, it is an exercise in the pseudo-classic literature introduced into Italy by Sannazaro, and transplanted to Spain by the Portuguese Montemõr; and, ingenious or eloquent as the Renaissance prose-pastoral may be, its innate artificiality stifles Cervantes’ rich and glowing realism. He himself recognized its defects; with all his weakness for theGalatea, he ruefully allows that “it proposes something and concludes nothing.” Its comparative failure was a serious matter for Cervantes who had no other resource but his pen; his plays were probably less successful than his account of them would imply, and at any rate play-writing was not at this time a lucrative occupation in Spain. No doubt the death of his father on the 13th of June 1585 increased the burden of Cervantes’ responsibilities; and the dowry of his wife, as appears from a document dated the 9th of August 1586, consisted of nothing more valuable than five vines, an orchard, some household furniture, four beehives, forty-five hens and chickens, one cock and a crucible.

It had become evident that Cervantes could not gain his bread by literature, and in 1587 he went to Seville to seek employment in connexion with the provisioning of the Invincible Armada. He was placed under the orders of Antonio de Guevara, and before the 24th of February was excommunicated for excessive zeal in collecting wheat at Écija. During the next few months he was engaged in gathering stores at Seville and the adjacent district, and after the defeat of the Armada he was retained as commissary to the galleys. Tired of the drudgery, and without any prospect of advancement, on the 21st of May 1590 Cervantes drew up a petition to the king, recording his services and applying for one of four posts then vacant in the American colonies: a place in the department of public accounts in New Granada, the governorship of Soconusco in Guatemala, the position of auditor to the galleys at Cartagena, or that ofcorregidorin the city of La Paz. The petition was referred to the Council of the Indies, and was annotated with the words:—“Let him look for something nearer home.” Cervantes perforce remained at his post; the work was hard, uncongenial and ill-paid, and the salary was in constant arrears. In November 1590 he was in such straits that he borrowed money to buy himself a suit of clothes, and in August 1592 his sureties were called upon to make good a deficiency of 795realesin his accounts. His thoughts turned to literature once more, and on the 5th of September 1592, he signed a contract with Rodrigo Osorio undertaking to write six plays at fifty ducats each, no payment to be made unless Osorio considered that each of these pieces was “one of the best ever produced in Spain.” Nothing came of this agreement, and it appears that, between the date of signing it and the 19th of September, Cervantes was imprisoned (for reasons unknown to us) at Castro del Río. He was speedily released, and continued to perquisition as before in Andalusia; but his literary ambitions were not dead, and in May 1595 he won the first prize—three silver spoons—at a poetical tourney held in honour of St Hyacinth at Saragossa. Shortly afterwards Cervantes found himself in difficulties with the exchequer officials. He entrusted a sum of 7400realesto a merchant named Simón Freire de Lima with instructions to pay the amount into the treasury at Madrid; the agent became bankrupt and absconded, leaving Cervantes responsible for the deficit. By some means the money was raised, and the debt was liquidated on the 21st of January 1597. But Cervantes’ position was shaken, and his unbusinesslike habits lent themselves to misinterpretation. On the 6th of September 1597 he was ordered to find sureties that he would present himself at Madrid within twenty days, and there submit to the exchequer vouchers for all official moneys collected by him in Granada and elsewhere. No such sureties being available, he was committed to Seville jail, but was released on the 1st of December on condition that he complied with the original order of the court within thirty days. He was apparently unable to find bail, was dismissed from the public service, and sank into extreme poverty. During a momentary absence from Seville in February 1590, he was again summoned to Madrid by the treasury, but does not appear to have obeyed: it is only too likely that he had not the money to pay for the journey. There is some reason to think that he was imprisoned at Seville in 1602, but nothing positive is known of his existence between 1600 and the 8th of February 1603: at the latter date he seems to have been at Valladolid, to which city Philip III. had removed the court in 1601.

Since the publication of theGalateain 1585 Cervantes’contributions to literature had been limited to occasional poems. In 1591 he published a ballad in Andrés de Villalta’sFlor de varios y nuevos romances; in 1595 he composed a poem, already mentioned, to celebrate the canonization of St Hyacinth; in 1596 he wrote a sonnet ridiculing Medina Sidonia’s tardy entry into Cadiz after the English invaders had retired, and in the same year his sonnet lauding Santa Cruz was printed in Cristóbal. Mosquera de Figueroa’sComentario en breve compendio de disciplina militar; to 1597 is assigned a sonnet (the authenticity of which is disputed) commemorative of the poet Herrera; in 1598 he wrote two sonnets and a copy ofquintillason the death of Philip II.; and in 1602 a complimentary sonnet from his pen appeared in the second edition of Lope de Vega’sDragontea. Curiously enough, it is by Lope de Vega thatDon Quixoteis first mentioned. Writing to an unknown correspondent (apparently a physician) on the 14th of August 1604, Lope de Vega says that “no poet is as bad as Cervantes, nor so foolish as to praiseDon Quixote,” and he goes on to speak of his own plays as being odious to Cervantes. It is obvious that the two men had quarrelled since 1602, and that Lope de Vega smarted under the satire of himself and his works in Cervantes’ forthcoming book;Don Quixotemay have been circulated in manuscript, or may even have been printed before the official licence was granted on the 26th of September 1604. It was published early in 1605, and was dedicated to the seventh duke de Béjar in phrases largely borrowed from the dedication in Herrera’s edition (1580) of Garcilaso de la Vega, and from Francisco de Medina’s preface to that work.

The mention of Bernardo de la Vega’sPastor de Iberiashows that the sixth chapter ofDon Quixotecannot have been written before 1591. In the prologue Cervantes describes his masterpiece as being “just what might be begotten in a jail”; on the strength of this passage, it has been thought that he conceived the story, and perhaps began writing it, during one of his terms of imprisonment at Seville between 1597 and 1602. Within a few weeks of its publication at Madrid, three pirated editions ofDon Quixotewere issued at Lisbon; a second authorized edition, imperfectly revised, was hurried out at Madrid; and another reprint appeared at Valencia with anaprobacióndated 18th July 1605. With the exception of Alemán’sGuzmán de Alfarache, no Spanish book of the period was more successful. Modern criticism is prone to regardDon Quixoteas a symbolic, didactic or controversial work intended to bring about radical reforms in church and state. Such interpretations did not occur to Cervantes’ contemporaries, nor to Cervantes himself. There is no reason for rejecting his plain statement that his main object was to ridicule the romances of chivalry, which in their latest developments had become a tissue of tiresome absurdities. It seems clear that his first intention was merely to parody these extravagances in a short story; but as he proceeded the immense possibilities of the subject became more evident to him, and he ended by expanding his work into a brilliant panorama of Spanish society as it existed during the 16th century. Nobles, knights, poets, courtly gentlemen, priests, traders, farmers, barbers, muleteers, scullions and convicts; accomplished ladies, impassioned damsels, Moorish beauties, simple-hearted country-girls and kindly kitchen-wenches of questionable morals—all these are presented with the genial fidelity which comes of sympathetic insight. The immediate vogue ofDon Quixotewas due chiefly to its variety of incident, to its wealth of comedy bordering on farce, and perhaps also to its keen thrusts at eminent contemporaries; its reticent pathos, its large humanity, and its penetrating criticism of life were less speedily appreciated.

Meanwhile, on the 12th of April 1605, Cervantes authorized his publisher to proceed against the Lisbon booksellers who threatened to introduce their piratical reprints into Castile. By June the citizens of Valladolid already regarded Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as proverbial types. Less gratifying experiences awaited the popular author. On the 27th of June 1605 Gaspar de Ezpeleta, a Navarrese gentleman of dissolute life, was wounded outside the lodging-house in which Cervantes and his family lived; he was taken indoors, was nursed by Cervantes’ sister Magdalena, and died on the 29th of June. That same day Cervantes, his natural daughter (Isabel de Saavedra), his sister Andrea and her daughter were lodged in jail on suspicion of being indirectly concerned in Ezpeleta’s death; one of the witnesses made damaging charges against Cervantes’ daughter, but no substantial evidence was produced, and the prisoners were released. Little is known of Cervantes’ life between 1605 and 1608. ARelaciónof the festivities held to celebrate the birth of Philip IV., and a certainCarta á don Diego Astudillo Carrillohave been erroneously ascribed to him; during these three years he apparently wrote nothing beyond three sonnets, and one of these is of doubtful authenticity. The depositions of the Valladolid enquiry show that he was living in poverty five months after the appearance ofDon Quixote, and the fact that he borrowed 450realesfrom his publisher before November 1607 would convey the idea that his position improved slowly, if at all. But it is difficult to reconcile this view of his circumstances with the details concerning his illegitimate daughter revealed in documents recently discovered. Isabel de Saavedra was stated to be a spinster when arrested at Valladolid in June 1605; the settlement of her marriage with Luis de Molina in 1608 describes her as the widow of Diego Sanz, as the mother of a daughter eight months old, and as owning house-property of some value. These particulars are perplexing, and the situation is further complicated by the publication of a deed in which Cervantes declares that he himself is the real owner of this house-property, and that his daughter has merely a life-interest in it. This claim may be regarded as a legal fiction; it cannot easily be reconciled with Cervantes’ statement towards the end of his life, that he was dependent on the bounty of the count de Lemos and of Bernardo de Sandoval, cardinal-archbishop of Toledo. In 1609 he joined the newly founded confraternity of the Slaves of the Most Blessed Sacrament; in 1610 Lemos was appointed viceroy of Naples, and Cervantes was keenly disappointed at not being chosen to accompany his patron. In 1611 he lost his sister Magdalena, who was buried by the charity of the Tertiaries of Saint Francis; in 1612 he joined the Academia Selvaje, and there appears to have renewed his former friendly relations with Lope de Vega; in 1613 he dedicated hisNovelas exemplaresto the count de Lemos, and disposed of his rights for 1600realesand twenty-four copies of the book. The twelve tales in this volume, some of them written very much later than others, are of unequal merit, but they contain some of the writer’s best work, and the two picaresque stories—Rinconete y Cortadilloand theColoquio de los perros—are superb examples of their kind, and would alone entitle Cervantes to take rank with the greatest masters of Spanish prose. In 1614 he published theViage del Parnaso, a burlesque poem suggested by theViaggio in Parnaso(1582) of the Perugian poet Cesare Caporali. It contains some interesting autobiographical passages, much flattery of contemporary poetasters, and a few happy satirical touches; but, though it is Cervantes’ most serious bid for fame as a poet, it has seldom been reprinted, and would probably have been forgotten but for an admirably humorous postscript in prose which is worthy of the author at his best. In the preface to hisOcho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos(1615) he good-humouredly admits that his dramatic works found no favour with managers, and, when this collection was first reprinted (1749), the editor advanced the fantastic theory that thecomediaswere deliberate exercises in absurdity, intended to parody the popular dramas of the day. This view cannot be maintained, but a sharp distinction must be drawn between the eight set plays and the eight interludes; with one or two exceptions, thecomediasor set plays are unsuccessful experiments in Lope de Vega’s manner, while theentremesesorinterludes, particularly those in prose, are models of spontaneous gaiety and ingenious wit.

In the preface to theNovelas exemplaresCervantes had announced the speedy appearance of the sequel toDon Quixotewhich he had vaguely promised at the end of the first part. He was at work on the fifty-ninth chapter of his continuation when he learned that he had been anticipated by Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda of Tordesillas, whoseSegunde tamo del ingeniosohidalgo don Quixote de la Manchawas published at Tarragona in 1614. On the assumption that Fernandez de Avellaneda is a pseudonym, this spurious sequel has been ascribed to the king’s confessor, Luis de Aliaga, to Cervantes’ old enemy, Blanco de Paz, to his old friend, Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, to the three great dramatists, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Ruiz de Alarcón, to Alonso Fernandez, to Juan José Martí, to Alfonso Lamberto, to Luis de Granada, and probably to others. Some of these attributions are manifestly absurd—for example, Luis de Granada died seventeen years before the first part ofDon Quixotewas published—and all of them are improbable conjectures; if Avellaneda be not the real name of the author, his identity is still undiscovered. His book is not devoid of literary talent and robust humour, and possibly he began it under the impression that Cervantes was no more likely to finishDon Quixotethan to finish theGalatea. He should, however, have abandoned his project on reading the announcement in the preface to theNovelas exemplares; what he actually did was to disgrace himself by writing an insolent preface taunting Cervantes with his physical defects, his moral infirmities, his age, loneliness and experiences in jail. He was too intelligent to imagine that his continuation could hold its own against the authentic sequel, and malignantly avowed his intention of being first in the field and so spoiling Cervantes’ market. It is quite possible thatDon Quixotemight have been left incomplete but for this insulting intrusion; Cervantes was a leisurely writer and was, as he states, engaged onEl Engaño à los ojos, Las Semanas del JardínandEl Famoso Bernardo, none of which have been preserved. Avellaneda forced him to concentrate his attention on his masterpiece, and the authentic second part ofDon Quixoteappeared towards the end of 1615. No book more signally contradicts the maxim, quoted by the Bachelor Carrasco, that “no second part was ever good.” It is true that the last fourteen chapters are damaged by undignified denunciations of Avellaneda; but, apart from this, the second part ofDon Quixoteis an improvement on the first. The humour is more subtle and mature; the style is of more even excellence; and the characters of the bachelor and of the physician, Pedro Recio de Agüero, are presented with a more vivid effect than any of the secondary characters in the first part. Cervantes had clearly profited by the criticism of those who objected to “the countless cudgellings inflicted on Señor Don Quixote,” and to the irrelevant interpolation of extraneous stories in the text. Don Quixote moves through the second part with unruffled dignity; Sancho Panza loses something of his rustic cunning, but he gains in wit, sense and manners. The original conception is unchanged in essentials, but it is more logically developed, and there is a notable progress in construction. Cervantes had grown to love his knight and squire, and he understood his own creations better than at the outset; more completely master of his craft, he wrote his sequel with the unfaltering confidence of a renowned artist bent on sustaining his reputation.

The first part ofDon Quixotehad been reprinted at Madrid in 1608; it had been produced at Brussels in 1607 and 1611, and at Milan in 1610; it had been translated into English in 1612 and into French in 1614. Cervantes was celebrated in and out of Spain, but his celebrity had not brought him wealth. The members of the French special embassy, sent to Madrid in February 1615, under the Commandeur de Sillery, heard with amazement that the author of theGalatea, theNovelas exemplaresandDon Quixotewas “old, a soldier, a gentleman and poor.” But his trials were almost at an end. Though failing in health, he worked assiduously atLos Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, which, as he had jocosely prophesied in the preface to the second part ofDon Quixote, would be “either the worst or the best book ever written in our tongue.” It is the most carefully written of his prose works, and the least animated or attractive of them; signs of fatigue and of waning powers are unmistakably visible. Cervantes was not destined to see it in print. He was attacked by dropsy, and, on the 18th of April 1616, received the sacrament of extreme unction; next day he wrote the dedication ofPersiles y Sigismundato the count de Lemos—the most moving and gallant of farewells. He died at Madrid in the Calle del León on the 23rd of April; he was borne from his house “with his face uncovered,” according to the rule of the Tertiaries of St Francis, and on the 24th of April was buried in the church attached to the convent of the Trinitarian nuns in the Calle de Cantarranas. There he rests—the story of his remains being removed in 1633 to the Calle del Humilladero has no foundation in fact—but the exact position of his grave is unknown. Early in 1617Persiles y Sigismundawas published, and passed through eight editions within two years; but the interest in it soon died away, and it was not reprinted between 1625 and 1719. Cervantes’ wife died without issue on the 31st of October 1626; his natural daughter, who survived both the child of her first marriage and her second husband, died on the 20th of September 1652. Cervantes is represented solely by his works. TheNovelas exemplaresalone would give him the foremost place among Spanish novelists;Don Quixoteentitles him to rank with the greatest writers of all time: “children turn its leaves, young people read it, grown men understand it, old folk praise it.” It has outlived all changes of literary taste, and is even more popular to-day than it was three centuries ago.

Back to Index Next