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Miguel de Cervantes Saaverda's (1547-1616) life was occupied with a struggle to earn a livelihood from literature and humble government employment. As well as Don Quixote, he wrote a number of plays and a collection of highly accomplished short stories, Exemplary Tales (1613). John Rutherford is a Fellow of the Queen's College Oxford and a Senior Lecturer in Spanish and Spanish American literature. He has translated Leopoldo's La Regenta for Penguin Classics.
==
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedr
[
(Spanish:
[
29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616)
[2]
was a
Spanish
novelist
,
poet
, and
playwright
. His
magnum opus
,
Don Quixote
, considered to be the first modern European
novel
,
[3]
is a classic of
Western literature
, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written.
[4]
His influence on the
Spanish language
has been so great that the language is often called
la lengua de Cervantes
("the language of Cervantes").
[5]
He was dubbed
El Príncipe de los Ingenios
("The Prince of Wits").
[6]
In 1569, Cervantes moved to Rome, where he served as a
valet
to Giulio Acquaviva, a wealthy
priest
who was elevated to
cardinal
the next year. By then, Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a
Spanish Navy infantry
regiment and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by
Algerian
corsairs. After five years of slavery he was released on
ransom
from his captors by his parents and the
Trinitarians
, a
Catholic
religious order
. He subsequently returned to his family in
Madrid
.
In 1585, Cervantes published a
pastoral
novel named
La Galatea
. Because of financial problems, Cervantes worked as a
purveyor
for the
Spanish Armada
, and later as a
tax collector
. In 1597, discrepancies in his accounts of three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of
Seville
. In 1605, he was in
Valladolid
, just when the immediate success of the first part of his
Don Quixote
, published in Madrid, signaled his return to the literary world. In 1607, he settled in Madrid, where he lived and worked until his death. During the last nine years of his life, Cervantes solidified his reputation as a writer; he published the
Novelas ejemplares
(
Exemplary Novels
) in 1613, the
Journey to Parnassus
(
Viaje al Parnaso
) in 1614, and in 1615, the
Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses
and the second part of
Don Quixote
.
Carlos Fuentes
noted that, "Cervantes leaves open the pages of a book where the reader knows himself to be written."
Birth and early life
It is assumed that Cervantes was born in
Alcalá de Henares
, a
Castilian
city about 15 miles from
Madrid
, probably on 29 September (the feast day of
Saint Michael the Archangel
) 1547.
The probable date of his birth was determined from records in the church register and given the tradition to name a child with the name of the feast day of his birth. He was
baptized
in Alcalá de Henares on 9 October 1547 at the parish church of
Santa María la Mayor
. The baptismal act read: "Sunday, the ninth day of the month of October, the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred forty and seven years, Miguel is crowned and baptized, son of Rodrigo Cervantes and his wife
doña
Leonor. Baptized by the reverend sir Bartolomé Serrano, priest of Our Lady. baptized him and signed this in my name. — Bachelor Serrano"
Miguel's father Rodrigo was a
barber-surgeon
of
Galician
descent, who set bones, performed bloodlettings, and attended "lesser medical needs"; at that time, it was common for barbers to do surgery, as well. His paternal grandfather, Juan de Cervantes, was an influential lawyer who held several administrative positions. His uncle was mayor of Cabra for many years.
His mother, Leonor de Cortinas, was a native of
Arganda del Rey
and the third daughter of a nobleman, who lost his fortune and had to sell his daughter into matrimony in 1543. This led to a very awkward marriage and several affairs by Rodrigo.
[10]
Leonor died on 19 October 1593.
Little is known of Cervantes' early years. It seems he spent much of his childhood moving from town to town with his family. During this time, he met a young barmaid named Josefina Catalina de Parez. The couple fell madly in love and plotted to run away together. Sadly, her father discovered their plans and forbade Josefina from ever seeing Cervantes again.
It seems that, much like
Charles Dickens
' father, Miguel's father was embargoed for debt. The court records of the proceedings show a very poor household. While some of his biographers argue that he studied at the
University of Salamanca
, there is no solid evidence for supposing that he did so.
[c]
There has been speculation also that Cervantes studied with the
Jesuits
in
Córdoba
or
Seville
.
[11]
His siblings were Andrés (1543), Andrea (1544), Luisa (1546), Rodrigo (1550), Magdalena (1554) and Juan - known solely because he is mentioned in his father's will.
Military service and captivity
The reasons that forced Cervantes to leave
Castile
remain uncertain. Whether he was a "student" of the same name, a "sword-wielding fugitive from justice", or fleeing from a royal warrant of arrest, for having wounded a certain Antonio de Sigura in a duel, is another mystery. In any event, in going to Italy, Cervantes was doing what many young Spanish of the time did to further their careers in one way or another. Rome would reveal to the young artist its ecclesiastic pomp,
ritual
, and majesty. In a city teeming with ruins Cervantes could focus his attention on
Renaissance
art, architecture, and poetry (knowledge of
Italian literature
is readily discernible in his own productions), and on rediscovering antiquity. He could find in the ancients "a powerful impetus to revive the contemporary world in light of its accomplishments".
[13]
[14]
Thus, Cervantes' continuing desire for Italy, as revealed in his later works, was in part a desire for a return to an earlier period of the Renaissance.
[15]
By 1570, Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a regiment of the
Spanish Navy Marines
,
Infantería de Marina
, stationed in
Naples
, then a possession of the Spanish crown. He was there for about a year before he saw active service. In September 1571 Cervantes sailed on board the
Marquesa
, part of the
galley
fleet of the
Holy League
(a coalition of the
Pope
, Spain, the
Republic of Venice
, the
Republic of Genoa
, the
Duchy of Savoy
, the
Knights Hospitaller
based in
Malta
, and others, under the command of
King Philip II's
illegitimate half brother,
John of Austria
) that defeated the
Ottoman
fleet on October 7 in the
Battle of Lepanto
, in the
Gulf of Patras
. Though taken down with fever, Cervantes refused to stay below, and begged to be allowed to take part in the battle, saying that he would rather die for his God and his king than keep under cover. He fought bravely on board a vessel, and received three gunshot wounds – two in the chest, and one which rendered his left arm useless. In
Journey to Parnassus
he was to say that he "had lost the movement of the left hand for the glory of the right" (he was thinking of the success of the first part of
Don Quixote
). Cervantes always looked back on his conduct in the battle with pride: he believed that he had taken part in an event that would shape the course of
European history
.
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