although we regret to perceive from a note to the present work (pp. 220-232) that Miss Ross entertains what we conceive to be not only very strong but very unjust prejudices against our religion, which is the religion of Spain. We do so, too, the more readily, because we find an attempt made to disparage the authenticity of the Buscapié in a weekly literary journal of which it can with truth be said, that its judgment never can be relied upon, and justice must not be expected from it for any work, or any author who may chance to offend the capricious prejudices of a sect, or the envious partialities of a clique. The Buscapié is a work supposed to have been written by De Cervantes, in defence of Don Quixote, to vindicate it from the unjust criticisms with which it had been assailed, and to show that it was worthy especially of being perused by the wise and the learned. Don Quixote was from the first moment it issued from the press universally read, but it was not as universally understood. Even to the present day, it may be said, its fineness, its sweetness, and its delicacy are "caviare to the multitude." They are amused with its incidents, but the noble sentiments, the lofty aspirations, the generous sympathies, the philosophy, the philanthropy, and the loving genuine chivalry of its hero, are all lost upon them. The boy may be amused with Don Quixote; but the real and perfect pleasure to be found in its perusal, can only be enjoyed by the man, and by none so intensely as by the man who can read the book in the language in which it was originally written. Assuredly, it is not in the dry and frigid, although close translation of Jervis, nor in the vulgar, rollicking version of Smollett, that we are to seek for an adequate idea of Don Quixote's panegyric upon the golden age of the world, its disinterestedness, its abstinence, its simplicity, and its virtues.* Don Quixote is not merely that for which * What intelligent reader of Spanish ever yet contented himself with a single perusal of the noble apostrophe commencing: "Dichosa edad, y siglos dichosos aquellos á quien los antiguos pusieron nombre de dorados, y no porque en ellos el oro, que en esta nuestra edad de hierro tanto se estima, se alcanzase en aquella venturosa sin fatiga alguna; sino porque entonces los que en ella vivian, ignoraban estas dos palabras de tuyo y mio! Eran en aquella santa edad todas las cosas comunes : á nadie le era most men now admire it-an amusing book, full of rich and comical incidents; but it is a great, a good, and an instructive book; and still requires a Buscapié to disclose its worth, and make plain its value. When Don Quixote was first published, it is observed by Miss Ross in her 'Life of Cervantes:' "Some individuals of the educated class refrained from reading it, under the supposition that it was merely a narrative of romantic chivalrous adventure. Others, again, and these were the unlearned, perused the book, and were pleased with it, though without perceiving the delicate vein of Satire which constitutes its very essence and spirit. Finding that his book was read by persons who did not understand it, and not read by some who were capable of comprehending it, Cervantes devised a plan for explaining its real nature and purpose, and for rendering it an object of interest to those who had regarded it with indifference. This plan he carried out in a very effective manner in the manuscript oposcule which forms the principal subject of this volume. Alluding to El Buscapié, Navarette, the author's able Spanish biographer, styles it una obra anonima, pero ingeniosa y discreta."* This then, is the work which has been recently discovered, and of it the following account is given by Miss Ross. "The title Buscapié seems to have been suggested by one of those quaint conceits common to the Spanish writers of the sixteenth century. The word etymologically considered, is compounded of busca (seek; from the verb buscar to seek,) and pié (foot); and it signifies in the Spanish language a squib or cracker, which, being thrown down in the streets by boys and mischievous persons, rolls about and gets between the feet of passers-by. Towards the close necesario para alcanzar su ordinario sustento tomar otro trabajo, que alzar la mano y alcanzarle de las robustas encinas, que liberalmente les estaban convidando con su dulce y sazonado fruto. Las claras fuentes y corrientes rios en magnifica abundancia sabrosas y transparentes aguas les ofrecian," - Don Quixote de la Mancha, Parte 1. c. xi. Vol. i. p. iii. (Pellicer's Edition.) In all this there is not merely exquisite beauty, but there is, in our estimation, great pathos. These noble ideas, and this glorious language, are ascribed to an individual whose mind is on one point affected with madness. It is not possible to think of this without the feelings being affected, and our sympathies excited in favour of the poor knight-errant. * Miss Ross, Life of Cervantes, pp. 78, 79. of the work itself, Cervantes thus explains his reason for selecting this title. I call this little book Buscapié,' he says, 'to show to those who seek the foot with which the ingenious Knight of La Mancha limps, that he does not limp with either, but that he goes firmly and steadily on both, and is ready to challenge the grumbling critics who buzz about like wasps.' "Every one acquainted with Spanish literature has regretted the disappearance and supposed total loss of this little work, which was known to have been written by Cervantes after the publication of the First Part of Don Quixote. Whether or not this production ever was submitted to the press by its author is exceedingly doubtful; but, be that as it may, no printed copy of it has been extant for the space of two centuries. Though manuscript copies were supposed to exist among the hidden treasures of the Biblioteca Real in Madrid, or in the unexplored recesses of Simancas, yet the Buscapié has always been alluded to by writers on Spanish literature as a thing inaccessible and known only by tradition. Great interest was consequently excited a short time ago, by the announcement that a copy of the Buscapié had been discovered in Cadiz. It was found among some old books and manuscripts, sold by auction, previously to which they had been the property of an advocate named Don Pascual de Gándara, who resided in the neighbouring town of San Fernando. Some writers on Spanish literature have hazarded the conjecture that the Buscapié was a sort of key to Don Quixote, and that in it were indicated, if not named, the persons whom Cervantes is supposed to have satirized in his celebrated romance.* But such is not the fact. The Buscapié is a vindication of Don Quixote against the unjust critical censure with which that work was assailed on the appearance of its First Part, which was published in 1604. In the same year there is reason to believe that Cervantes wrote the Buscapié. The manuscript copy of this little work, recently discovered in Cadiz, is in the scriptory character commonly in use about the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries. On the title page it is styled : ""El muy donoso Librillo llamado Donde, demas de su mucho y excellente * "It has been conjectured, though without any satisfactory ground, that Cervantes wrote his Don Quixote as a satire upon the Emperor Charles V. and the Duke de Lerma, the favourite of Philip III." VOL. XXVI.-NO. LI. 10 Don Quijote de la Mancha un tal de Cervantes Saavedra.'* "Lower down, and in the same hand-writing, are these words:""Copiose de otra copia el ano de 1606 en Madrid 27 de Ebrero ano dicho. Para el Senor Agustin de Argota, hijo del muy noble senor (que sancta gloria haya) Gonzalo Zatieco de Molina, un caballero de Sevilla.'† "Next are written the following words in the Portuguese language, and in characters, the apparent date of which may be assigned to the beginning of the eighteenth century: "Da Livreria do Senhor Duque de Lafões.‡ "How this manuscript found its way to Portugal, and came back to Spain, there is no evidence to show. It was, however, purchased in Cadiz, (at the sale of the books and manuscripts of the Advocate Gándaro,) by its present possessor, Don Adolfo de Castro, to whom literature is now indebted for its appearance in a printed form, accompanied by some valuable and interesting bibliographic notes. "In the following English version of the Buscapié, care has been taken to adhere with all possible fidelity to the spirit of the original; some occasional redundancy of expression has been compressed, and here and there passages have been abridged, which, if literally rendered, would, in our language, appear prolix and tedious."-Preface, p. 3—10. If the book of which Miss Ross has given a translation were really written by Cervantes, we cannot conceive any literary curiosity of greater value than this must be to an admirer of Don Quixote-and who is not an admirer of that immortal work? There are many probabilities in favour of the authenticity of El Buscapié. First of all, it was consistent with the character of Cervantes to refer to *""The very pleasant little book called Buscapié, in which, besides its excellent doctrine, are unfolded all those things which are hidden, and not declared in the History of the ingenious Knight, Don Quixote de la Mancha, written by one De Cervantes Saavedra.'"” † ""This was copied from another copy in the year 1606, in Madrid, 27th of February of the same year, by the Senor Augustin de Argota, son of the most noble Senor, (now in glory,) Gonzalo Zatieco de Molina, a gentleman of Seville." ""From the library of the Duke de Lafões." " his own compositions, and in the honest sincerity and simplicity of his heart, to express candidly his approbation of them. Thus, in alluding to his comedies he says, " if they were not my own, I should declare that they merit all the praise they have obtained," whilst the Confusa (a comedy now lost,) he declares it to be "good among the best," (buena entre las mejoras.) In his preface to the Novelas Exemplares, he boasts, and with perfect justice, that he is the first who has composed novels in the Spanish language, (yo Soy el primero que he novelado en lengua Castellana,) and of sonnet composed by him upon the obsequies of Philip II, he honestly declares in Viage del Parnaso, cap. 4. that it was the finest thing he ever wrote. a Yo el soneto compuse, que asi empieza The author, who thus referred to himself, may, we can readily suppose, be one who, if he found the object of his book misinterpreted, would feel little hesitation in vindicating its value, and in demonstrating its worth in a pamphlet. There is the tradition that such a work was written by Cervantes. There is no suggestion that any such book was written by any author the contemporary of Cervantes; there is the internal evidence from the first page to the last, that it was written when Don Quixote was a new book to the public and last, and most important of all, there is in the descriptions, the style, and the arguments, the strong resemblance to Cervantes, as an author. Much of all these might have been lost, if not wholly obscured, had the work fallen into the hands of a less able, accomplished and spirited translator than Miss Ross. The following extract will prove her competency to do justice to the original, and will, we trust, be an inducement to the reader to procure the book itself. * Amongst the Sonnets composed by Cervantes, was one upon the sacking of Cadiz by the English, under Queen Elizabeth's Earl of Essex, in the year 1596. The manner in which the queen's favourite conducted himself on this occasion, is told by Cervantes in three lines: Quando lleva robada la riqueza |