Biography of Miguel Cervantes. Childhood and youth
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Short biography of Miguel Cervantes
Miguel Cervantes is an outstanding Spanish writer of the 16th century, the author of the world-famous novel about Don Quixote of Laman. Born September 29, 1547 in Alcala de Henares in a poor noble family. The father of the future writer was a surgeon. Miguel was the fourth child in a large family. There are suggestions that in his youth Cervantes studied at the University of Salamanca, as well as with the Jesuits of Seville or Cordoba. In 1569, after a serious street skirmish, he fled to Rome, where he worked for some time in the retinue of Cardinal Acquaviva.
In 1571, Cervantes took part in a naval battle and was seriously wounded in the forearm. After that, his left arm remained forever inactive. He took part in many sea expeditions, visited Tunisia, Spain and even in Algerian captivity for five years. In 1580, he was finally able to return to his homeland. In December 1584 he married Catalina de Palacios. In the same year, an illegitimate daughter was born to him by another woman. As a retired soldier, he decided to devote himself to the literary arts. Cervantes' first plays were not very successful on the stage. Recognition came with the pastoral novel Galatea (1585).
However, there was not much income from writing, so Cervantes moved to Seville and took a job as a food procurement commissioner. He kept the documentation carelessly, for which he was arrested more than once. During one of his stays in prison, an image of a man capable of chivalrous deeds appeared in his head. This was the intention of Don Quixote. He worked on his main book over the years, opening up new perspectives for the plot. From 1600 to 1604 he worked diligently on the creation of the first part of the novel. In 1604 he moved to Valladolid, from where he negotiated with a Madrid bookseller.
At the end of 1604, "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of Laman" came out in a small edition. The novel was undoubtedly a success. This is evidenced at least by the fact that soon a second edition appeared in Madrid. The author himself has twice republished his book with author's corrections. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza became national heroes and participants in carnival processions in the cities of Spain. The financial situation of the writer, however, did not improve in any way, but on the contrary, a hostile attitude towards him manifested itself with greater force. For the last decade of his life, he worked hard and published new works. Miguel Cervantes died of dropsy on April 23, 1616, the same day as the great Shakespeare.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spanish: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra). Born presumably September 29, 1547 in Alcala de Henares - died April 23, 1616 in Madrid. Famous Spanish writer. First of all, he is known as the author of one of the greatest works of world literature - the novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha.
Miguel Cervantes was born into a family of impoverished nobles, in the city of Alcala de Henares. His father, Hidalgo Rodrigo de Cervantes, was a modest doctor, his mother, Doña Leonor de Cortina, was the daughter of a nobleman who had lost his fortune. There were seven children in their family, Miguel became the fourth child. Very little is known about Cervantes' early life. The date of his birth is September 29, 1547 (the day of the Archangel Michael). This date was established approximately on the basis of the records of the church book and the tradition that existed then to give the child a name in honor of the saint whose feast falls on his birthday. It is authentically known that Cervantes was baptized on October 9, 1547 in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor in the city of Alcala de Henares.
Some biographers claim that Cervantes studied at the University of Salamanca, but there is no convincing evidence for this version. There is also an unconfirmed version that he studied with the Jesuits in Cordoba or Seville.
The reasons that prompted Cervantes to leave Castile remain unknown. Whether he was a student, or a fugitive from justice, or a royal arrest warrant for wounding Antonio de Sigur in a duel, is another mystery of his life. In any case, when he left for Italy, he did what other young Spaniards did for their careers in one way or another.
Rome revealed its church rituals and grandeur to the young writer. In a city teeming with ancient ruins, Cervantes discovered ancient art and also concentrated on Renaissance art, architecture and poetry (his knowledge of Italian literature can be seen in his writings). He was able to find in the achievements of the ancient world a powerful impetus for the revival of art. Thus, the enduring love for Italy, which is visible in his later work, was a kind of desire to return to the early period of the Renaissance.
By 1570, Cervantes was enrolled as a soldier in the Spanish Marine Regiment stationed in Naples. He stayed there for about a year before entering active service. In September 1571, Cervantes sailed aboard the Marquise, part of the galley fleet of the Holy League, which on October 7 defeated the Ottoman flotilla at the Battle of Lepanto in the Gulf of Patras.
Despite the fact that Cervantes had a fever that day, he refused to stay in bed and asked to fight. According to eyewitnesses, he said: "I prefer, even when sick and in the heat, to fight, as befits a good soldier ... and not hide under the protection of the deck." He fought bravely on board the ship and received three gunshot wounds - two in the chest and one in the forearm. The last wound deprived his left arm of mobility. In his poem Journey to Parnassus, he had to say that he "lost the capacity of his left hand for the glory of his right" (he thought about the success of the first part of Don Quixote). Cervantes always recalled with pride his participation in this battle: he believed that he had taken part in an event that would determine the course of European history.
There is another, unlikely, version of the loss of a hand. Due to the poverty of his parents, Cervantes received a meager education and, unable to find a livelihood, was forced to steal. Allegedly, it was for stealing that he was deprived of his hand, after which he had to leave for Italy. However, this version does not inspire confidence - if only because the hands of thieves at that time were no longer chopped off, as they were sent to the galleys, where both hands were required.
After the Battle of Lepanto, Miguel Cervantes remained in the hospital for 6 months until his wounds had healed enough to allow him to continue his service. From 1572 to 1575 he continued his service, being mainly in Naples. In addition, he participated in expeditions to Corfu and Navarino, witnessed the capture of Tunisia and La Goulette by the Turks in 1574. In addition, Cervantes was in Portugal and also carried out business trips to Oran (1580s); served in Seville.
The Duke de Sesse, presumably in 1575, gave Miguel letters of introduction (lost by Miguel during his capture) for the king and ministers, as he reported in his certificate of July 25, 1578. He also asked the king to provide mercy and help to the brave soldier.
In September 1575, Miguel Cervantes and his brother Rodrigo were returning from Naples to Barcelona aboard the galley "Sun" (la Galera del Sol). On the morning of September 26, on the way to the Catalan coast, the galley was attacked by Algerian corsairs. The attackers were resisted, as a result of which many members of the Sun team were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner and taken to Algeria. Letters of recommendation found in Cervantes' possession led to an increase in the amount of the required ransom. In Algerian captivity, Cervantes spent 5 years (1575-1580), tried to escape four times and was only miraculously not executed. In captivity, he was often subjected to various torments.
Father Rodrigo de Cervantes, according to his petition of March 17, 1578, indicated that his son "was captured in the galley Sun, under the command of Carrillo de Quesada", and that he "was wounded by two shots from an arquebus in the chest, and was injured in his left hand, which he cannot use. The father did not have the funds to ransom Miguel due to the fact that he had previously ransomed his other son, Rodrigo, who was also on that ship, from captivity. The witness to this petition, Mateo de Santisteban, noted that he had known Miguel for eight years, and met him when he was 22 or 23 years old, on the day of the battle of Lepanto. He also testified that Miguel "was sick and had a fever on the day of the battle" and was advised to stay in bed, but he decided to take part in the battle. For distinction in battle, the captain rewarded him with four ducats on top of his usual pay.
The news (in the form of letters) about Miguel's stay in Algerian captivity was brought by the soldier Gabriel de Castañeda, a resident of the Carriedo mountain valley from the village of Salazar. According to his information, Miguel was in captivity for about two years (that is, since 1575) with a Greek converted to Islam, captain Arnautriomami.
In a petition from Miguel's mother dated 1580, it was reported that she asked "to give permission for the export of 2000 ducats in the form of goods from the kingdom of Valencia" for the ransom of her son.
On October 10, 1580, a notarial deed was drawn up in Algiers in the presence of Miguel Cervantes and 11 witnesses in order to redeem him from captivity. On October 22, a monk from the Order of the Holy Trinity (Trinitarian) Juan Gil "The Liberator of Captives" compiled a report based on this notarial act confirming Cervantes' merits before the king.
After being released from captivity, Miguel served with his brother in Portugal, as well as with the Marquis de Santa Cruz.
By order of the king, Miguel made a trip to Oran in the 1580s.
In Seville, he handled the affairs of the Spanish fleet on the orders of Antonio de Guevara.
On May 21, 1590, in Madrid, Miguel petitions the Council of the Indies for a vacant seat in the American colonies, in particular in the "Auditing Office of the New Kingdom of Granada or the Governorate of the Province of Soconusco in Guatemala, or the Accountant on the Galleys of Cartagena, or the Corregidor of the City of La Paz" , and all because he still has not received favors for his long (22 years) service to the Crown. The Chairman of the Council of the Indies, on June 6, 1590, left a note on the petition that the bearer "deserved to be given any service and could be trusted."
On December 12, 1584, Miguel Cervantes married a nineteen-year-old native of the city of Esquivias, Catalina Palacios de Salazar, from whom he received a small dowry. He had one illegitimate daughter - Isabel de Cervantes.
The best of Cervantes' biographers, Schall, characterized him thus: “The poet, windy and dreamy, lacked worldly skill, and he did not benefit either from his military campaigns or from his works. It was an unselfish soul, incapable of gaining fame or counting on success, alternately enchanted or indignant, irresistibly surrendering to all its impulses ... He was seen naively in love with everything beautiful, generous and noble, indulging in romantic dreams or love dreams, ardent on the battlefield, then immersed in deep reflection, then carefree cheerful ... From the analysis of his life, he comes out with honor, full of generous and noble activity, an amazing and naive prophet, heroic in his disasters and kind in his genius.
Miguel's literary activity began quite late, when he was 38 years old. The first work, Galatea (1585), was followed by a large number of dramatic plays, which enjoyed poor success.
In order to earn his daily bread, the future author of Don Quixote enters the commissary service; he is assigned to buy provisions for the Invincible Armada. In the performance of these duties, he suffers great setbacks, even gets on trial and spends some time in prison. His life in those years was a whole chain of severe hardships, hardships and disasters.
In the midst of all this, he does not stop his writing activity until he prints anything. The wanderings prepare the material for his future work, serving as a means for studying Spanish life in its various manifestations.
From 1598 to 1603 there is almost no news of the life of Cervantes. In 1603, he appeared in Valladolid, where he was engaged in small private affairs that gave him a meager income, and in 1604 the first part of the novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha was published, which was a huge success in Spain (the first part sold out in a few weeks). edition and 4 others in the same year) and abroad (translations into many languages). However, it did not improve the author's financial situation in the least, but only increased the hostile attitude towards him, expressed in ridicule, slander, and persecution.
From that time until his death, Cervantes' literary activity did not stop: between 1604 and 1616, the second part of Don Quixote appeared, all the short stories, many dramatic works, the poem Journey to Parnassus, and the novel printed after the death of the author was written. Persiles and Sikhismund.
Almost on his deathbed, Cervantes did not stop working; a few days before his death, he took the vows as a monk. On April 23, 1616, life ended (he died of dropsy), which the carrier himself in his philosophical humor called “long imprudence” and, leaving which, he “carried away a stone on his shoulders with an inscription in which the destruction of his hopes was read.”
Cervantes died in Madrid, where he had moved from Valladolid shortly before his death. The irony of fate pursued the great humorist behind the coffin: his grave remained lost, since there was not even an inscription on his tomb (in one of the churches). The remains of the writer were discovered and identified only in March 2015 in one of the crypts in the monastery de las Trinitarias. A monument to him was erected in Madrid only in 1835 (sculptor Antonio Sola); on the pedestal are two inscriptions in Latin and Spanish: "To Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, king of the Spanish poets, year M.D.CCC.XXXV."
The world significance of Cervantes rests mainly on his novel Don Quixote, a full, comprehensive expression of his diverse genius. Conceived as a satire on the chivalric novels that flooded all literature at that time, which the author definitely declares in the Prologue, this work little by little, perhaps even regardless of the will of the author, turned into a deep psychological analysis of human nature, two sides of mental activity - noble, but crushed by the reality of idealism and realistic practicality.
Both of these sides found a brilliant manifestation in the immortal types of the hero of the novel and his squire; in their sharp contrast, they - and this is the deep psychological truth - constitute, however, one person; only the fusion of these two essential aspects of the human spirit constitutes a harmonious whole. Don Quixote is ridiculous, his adventures depicted by a brilliant brush - if you do not think about their inner meaning - cause uncontrollable laughter; but it is soon replaced in the thinking and feeling reader by another kind of laughter, "laughter through tears," which is the essential and indispensable condition of every great humorous creation.
In the novel of Cervantes, in the fate of his hero, it was precisely the world irony that was reflected in a high ethical form. In beatings and all sorts of other insults to which a knight is subjected - despite their somewhat anti-artistic in literary terms - is one of the best expressions of this irony. Turgenev noted another very important moment in the novel - the death of his hero: at this moment, all the great significance of this person becomes available to everyone. When his former squire, wanting to console him, tells him that they will soon go on knightly adventures, “no,” the dying man answers, “all this has gone forever, and I ask everyone for forgiveness.”
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is a world-famous writer, from whose pen came the stories of the "heroic" exploits of Don Quixote and the wanderings of Persiles and Sichismunda. All his works succinctly combine realism and romance, lyricism and comedy.
The beginning of life
The biography of Cervantes began on September 29, 1547. His parents were not particularly wealthy. Father's name was Rodrigo de Cervantes, he was a surgeon. Mother's name is Leonor de Cortinas.
Young Miguel first received education in his hometown of Alcale de Henares, then, due to numerous moves, he studied at schools in several other cities, such as Madrid, Salamanca. In 1569, he became an accidental participant in a street fight and was persecuted by the authorities. Because of this, Cervantes was forced to flee the country. First, he ended up in Italy, where for several years he was a member of the retinue of Cardinal Acquaviva. It is known that after some time he enlisted in the army. Among other fighters, he took part in the fiercest naval battle near Lepanto (October 7, 1571). Cervantes survived, but was seriously wounded in the forearm, as a result of which his left arm remained immobilized for life. Having recovered from his wound, he repeatedly visited other sea expeditions, including being a participant in the assault on Navarino.
Captivity
It is known for certain that in 1575 Cervantes left Italy and went to Spain. The commander-in-chief in Italy, Juan of Austria, presented the valiant fighter with whom the future writer hoped to get a good place in the ranks of the Spanish army. But this was not destined to happen. Algerian pirates attacked the galley on which Cervantes was sailing. The entire crew and passengers were taken prisoner. Among the unfortunates was Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. He was in the harsh conditions of slavery for five years. Together with other prisoners, he made more than one attempt to escape, but each time they ended unsuccessfully. These five years left an indelible imprint on the writer's worldview. Mentions of torment and torture are found more than once in his works. So, in the novel "Don Quixote" there is a short story, which tells about a prisoner who was kept in chains for a long time and tortured with unbearable torture. In it, the writer illustrates his own life in slavery.
Liberation
Cervantes' mother, who by that time had already been widowed, sold all her small property in order to ransom her son. In 1580 he returned to his native city. Many of his comrades, who remained in captivity, lamented that the adviser and comforter, who supported everyone in the most difficult moments, had left them. It was his human qualities, the ability to convince and console, that made him the patron of the unfortunate people who were in slavery.
First works
After spending several years in Madrid, Toledo and Esquivias, he managed to marry Catalina de Palacios (December 1584) and acquire an illegitimate daughter from Ana Franca de Rojas.
Cervantes had no livelihood, so there was nothing left to do but go back to military service. During this period, the future Spanish writer was one of the participants in the campaign to Lisbon, participated in the military campaign to conquer the Azov Islands.
After leaving the service, he came to grips with poetry. And before that, being in Algerian captivity, he began to write poetry and compose plays, but now this occupation has become the meaning of his life. His first works were not successful. Some of the earliest works of Cervantes were the tragedy "Numancia" and the comedy "Algerian manners". The novel "Galatea", which was published in 1585, brought fame to Miguel, but he did not become richer. The financial situation remained deplorable.
10 years in Seville
Under the yoke of poverty, Miguel Cervantes leaves for Seville. There he gets a position in the financial department. The salary was small, but the writer hoped that in the near future he would receive a position in America. However, this did not happen. After living in Seville for 10 years, he was unable to make a fortune. First, being a food commissar, he received a meager salary. Secondly, some of it went to the maintenance of his sister, who gave her part of the inheritance in order to ransom her brother from Algerian captivity. The works of that time include the short stories "The Spanish Woman in England", "Rinconet and Cortadilla", as well as single poems and sonnets. It should be noted that it was the cheerful disposition of the indigenous inhabitants of Seville that led to the appearance of some kind of comic and playfulness in his works.
Birth of Don Quixote
The biography of Cervantes continued in Valladolid, where he moved at the beginning of the 17th century. At that time there was the residence of the court. Livelihoods were still lacking. Miguel made money by running business errands for private individuals and by doing literary work. There is information that once he became an unwitting witness to a duel that took place near his house, during which one of the courtiers died. Cervantes was summoned to court, he was even arrested, as he was suspected of complicity and withholding from the investigation information about the causes and course of the quarrel. He spent some time in prison while the trial was going on.
One of the memoirs contains information that it was under arrest, while in prison, that the Spanish writer decided to write a humorous work about a man who “went crazy” from reading novels about knights and went to perform knightly deeds in order to be like the heroes of his favorite books. .
Initially, the work was conceived as a novella. When Cervantes, released from custody, began work on his main creation, new ideas about the development of the plot appeared, which he put into practice. So Don Quixote became a novel.
Edition of the main novel
In the middle of 1604, having finished work on the book, Cervantes began to fuss about its publication. To do this, he contacted the bookseller Robles, who became the first publisher of the great work. "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha" was printed at the end of 1604.
The circulation was small and sold out almost immediately. And in the spring months of 1605, the second edition came out, which was a resounding success. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza became one of the most beloved characters of the entire Spanish people, and they were also known in other countries, as the novel was translated and published in other languages. These heroes became participants in carnival processions in all
last decade of life
1606 will be marked for the writer by moving to Madrid. Despite the overwhelming success of Don Quixote, Cervantes continued to be in need. Under his care were his wife, sister and illegitimate daughter Isabel, who, after the death of her mother, began to live with her father.
Many of Cervantes' works were written during this period. This and most of the stories that were included in the collection "Instructive Novels" (1613) and poetic literary satire "Journey to Parnassus" (1614). Also in the last decade of his life, he composed many new and revised several old pieces. They are collected in the book "Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes". The "Wanderings of Persiles and Sihismunda" were also begun during this period.
The biography of Cervantes is not fully known. It has a lot of dark spots. In particular, there is no information about when he began work on the second part of Don Quixote. Most likely, the creation of the writer was inspired by the writing by a certain A. Fernandez de Avellaned of the false Don Quixote, which continued the storyline of Cervantes' novel. This fake contained a lot of rude obscene statements about the author himself and the characters in the book, presenting them in a bad light.
The present second part of the novel was published in 1615. And in 1637, both parts of a brilliant literary creation for the first time come out under one cover.
Already at death, the writer dictates the prologue to the novel "The Wanderings of Persiles and Sikhismunda", which was published after his death in 1617.
A few days before his death, Cervantes took monastic vows. He died on 23 April 1616 in Madrid. The burial was made at the expense of The exact place of burial is unknown, but most researchers believe that he was buried on the territory of one of the Spanish monasteries. The monument to the great writer was erected in 1835 in Madrid.
The biography of Cervantes proves how selfless a person's desire to fulfill his calling can be. Despite the fact that literary creativity never brought him large incomes, this great writer continued to create all his life. As a result, his works became part of the cultural heritage of those distant centuries. And now, after so much time, his novels, short stories and plays are relevant and popular.
The very next year, he retrained as a sailor, began to participate in expeditions organized by the King of Spain together with the Senoria of Venice and the Pope. The campaign against the Turks ended sadly for Cervantes. On October 7, 1571, the Battle of Lepanto took place, where a young sailor was seriously wounded in the hand.In 1575, Cervantes remained in Sicily for medical treatment. After recovery, it was decided to return to Spain, where it was possible to get the rank of captain in the army. But on September 26, 1575, the future writer was captured by Turkish pirates, who transported him to Algiers. The captivity lasted until September 19, 1580, until the family collected the amount necessary for ransom. Hopes for a reward in Spain did not materialize.
Life after the army
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In 1585, the former soldier received the position of commissioner for the purchase of olive oil and cereals for the Invincible Armada in Andalusia. The work was hard and thankless. When Cervantes, on the orders of the king, requisitioned the wheat of the clergy, he was excommunicated. For errors in reporting, the unfortunate commissioner was put on trial and imprisoned.
Attempts to find happiness in Spain were unsuccessful, and the writer applied for a position in America. But in 1590 he was refused. In the future, Cervantes survived three more imprisonments, in 1592, 1597, 1602. It was then that the immortal work known to everyone began to crystallize.
In 1602, the court cleared the writer of all charges of alleged debts. In 1604, Cervantes moved to Valladolid, which was then the residence of the king. Only in 1608 did he permanently settle in Madrid, where he seriously took up writing and publishing books. In recent years, the author lived on a pension appointed by the Archbishop of Toledo and the Count of Lemos. The famous Spaniard died of dropsy on April 23, 1616, having taken monastic vows a few days before.
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The first school poems were published in 1569. Only 16 years later, in 1585, the first part of the pastoral novel "Galatea" was published. Creation tells about the vicissitudes of the relationship of idealized characters, shepherdesses and shepherds. Some pieces are written in prose, some in verse. There is no single storyline and main characters here. The action is very simple, the shepherds simply tell each other about troubles and joys. The writer was going to write a sequel all his life, but never did it.
In 1605, a novel about "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha" was published. The second part was published in 1615. In 1613, the Instructive Novels saw the light of day. In 1614, Journey to Parnassus was born, and in 1615, Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes were written. In 1617, The Wanderings of Persiles and Sihismunda were published posthumously. Not all works have come down to us, but Cervantes mentioned them: Weeks in the Garden, the second volume of Galatea, Deception of the Eyes.
The famous "Instructive Novels" are 12 stories in which the instructive part is indicated in the title and is associated with morality, which is prescribed at the end. Some of them share a common theme. So, in "The Magnanimous Admirer", "Señor Cornelia", "Two Maidens" and "English Spaniard" we are talking about lovers separated by the vicissitudes of fate. But by the end of the story, the main characters are reunited and find their long-awaited happiness.
Another group of short stories is devoted to the life of the central character, more attention is paid to characters, rather than unfolding actions. This can be traced in Rinconet and Cortadillo, Fraudulent Marriage, Widrière's Licentiate, Conversation of Two Dogs. It is generally accepted that Rinconete and Cortadillo is the most charming work of the author, which tells in a comical form about the life of two vagabonds who have become associated with a brotherhood of thieves. In the novel, one senses the humor of Cervantes, who describes the ceremonial adopted in the gang with solemn comicality.
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The book of a lifetime is the one and only Don Quixote. It is believed that Cervantes wrote off the rustic hidalgo Alonso Quihan. The hero was imbued with the idea of chivalry from books and believed that he himself was a knight-errant. The search for the adventures of Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful companion, the peasant Sancho Panso, was a huge success then, and is now, four centuries later.
Life of Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) was born in early October 1547 in Alcala de Henares. His parents were poor, but gave him a good upbringing. Young Cervantes studied first in his hometown, then in Madrid and Salamanca, attracted the attention of teachers with his curiosity and poetic talent. In the preface to Journey to Parnassus, he says: "From childhood I loved the sweet art of beautiful poetry." Poverty forced him to seek his fortune abroad. Cardinal Acquaviva, who came to Madrid on behalf of the pope, took him into his service. Through Catalonia and Provence, Cervantes went with Acquaviva to Rome, stayed there for some time in his service, and then entered the Spanish army, which was supposed to sail from Italy to the war with the Turks. He fought bravely in the famous sea Battle of Lepanto, lost his left hand there, which he often mentions with pride in his works. In his novel "Persiles and Sigismunda" he says that the best warriors are those people who go to the battlefield from the field of science: whoever became a warrior from a scientist has always been a brave soldier.
Before recovering from his wound, Cervantes lived in Messina, then again went under the command of Marcantonio Colonna to the war with the Turks and participated in the assault on Navarino. After that, he served in the Spanish squadron, which sailed under the command of Don Juan to Tunisia, then a year remained in one of the detachments that were garrisoned in Sicily and Naples. In 1575 he went to Spain with a letter of recommendation from don Juan to the king. But the ship on which he sailed was captured by corsairs and taken to Algiers. There Cervantes spent five years as a slave to harsh masters. Several times he, with other Spaniards taken as slaves, tried to escape, showing in these attempts unshakable courage and high nobility. But they all ended in failure, and each time the position of Cervantes became worse; he was put in chains and taken to interrogations. The Muslim mob scolded and beat him; from interrogations they took him to the dungeon. Memories of experiences experienced during the years of military service and slavery are quite common in the works of Cervantes. Persiles and Sigismund reflects the impressions of his wanderings in Spain, Portugal, Italy; in Don Quixote, the episode recounted in the short story about the prisoner depicts his life in slavery.
Portrait of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. 1600
Cervantes' mother, who was already a widow at that time, donated her small property to ransom her son, and he (in 1580) returned to his homeland. His comrades in slavery were sad when they parted from him, because he was their adviser and comforter. Having neither money nor patrons, he did not find himself any other way to live, except for entering military service again. Cervantes was in the Spanish army, who went to Lisbon, participated in an expedition that sailed to conquer the Azores; he always had a love for Portugal.
Returning to Spain, he chose poetry as his main occupation; Cervantes wrote from his youth, he even wrote in Algerian dungeons, but only now literary activity has become his profession. Under the influence of Montemayor and "Diana" Gil Polo, he wrote a shepherd's novel "Galatea" and dedicated this "first fruit of his feeble mind" to the son of the Column under whose command he fought in the East. This work is rich in reminiscences from the life of the author and inserts of poems in Spanish and Italian tastes; but it met with little success. In Don Quixote, when the barber reads the title of this book, the priest says: "Cervantes has been my friend for a long time, and I know that he is more skilled at enduring adversity than at writing poetry." The novel was left unfinished; but it has a close relation to the life of the author. Under the name of Galatea, it is believed that the girl whom Cervantes loved and whom he married soon after (in 1584) is depicted. She was from a good family who lived in Esquivias (near Madrid) and always remained a loving wife. But she had no dowry, so Cervantes and she endured poverty.
He began to write for the theater, hoping to receive a livelihood through this; wrote, as we know from him, 20 or 30 plays. But only two of them have come down to us; not even the comedy Lost, which he called his best drama in Journey to Parnassus, has survived. Those two plays that have come down to us were found and printed only two hundred years after his death. One of them, "Life in Algiers" (El trato de Argel), is borrowed from the personal life of the author; another depicting doom of Numantia, imbued with a patriotic feeling; both have good pathetic scenes, but on the whole neither has artistic merit. Cervantes could not be Lope de Vega's rival.
Oppressed by poverty, he left for Seville, where he received a position with a small salary in the financial department. He applied for a position in America, but to no avail. Cervantes lived in Seville for ten years, and we have little information about him over the years. He was probably still in need, because the income from his position as Provisional Commissioner of the Indian Navy was meager and unreliable, and besides himself and his wife, he had to support his sister, who gave her small share of her father's inheritance to ransom him from African slavery. He wrote at this time several sonnets and other poems: perhaps then he wrote the short stories "The Spanish Woman in England" and "Rinconet and Cortadilla". But if this is so, after all, he wrote very little in these ten years. But he, in all likelihood, made many observations on the characters of people in Seville, the center of relations between Spain and America; adventurers gathered there from all over Western Europe, and one could hear from them about many different adventures. At the same time, Cervantes studied Andalusian customs, the descriptions of which are found in his following works. Life with the cheerful citizens of Seville, who loved jokes, probably contributed to the development of jocularity in his works. At the beginning of the 17th century, we find Cervantes living in Valladolid, where the court was then seated. He seems to be in need. His sources of income were business errands for private individuals and literary work. Once, a night duel took place near his house, in which one of the courtiers who fought with each other was killed. Cervantes was interrogated at the trial in this case, and he spent some time under arrest, as suspected of some kind of complicity or withholding information about the course of the quarrel.
The first part of Don Quixote
At this time, he began to write a great novel, which gave immortality to his name. In 1605, the first part of Don Quixote was printed in Madrid, and the public liked it so much that in the same year several new editions of it appeared in Madrid and some provincial cities. (See articles Cervantes "Don Quixote" - summary and analysis, Image of Don Quixote, Image of Sancho Panza.) In the next five years, 11 more editions appeared, and during the life of Cervantes, translations into other Western languages \u200b\u200bappeared. But, despite the brilliant success of Don Quixote, Cervantes spent the last ten years of his life in poverty, although fame brought him the patronage of the Count of Lemos and the Archbishop of Toledo. Lope de Vega, who was then the object of admiration of the Spanish public, apparently looked with contempt on the poor Cervantes, although he did not stand on ceremony to make many borrowings from his dramatic works. Cervantes was probably offended by Lope de Vega's arrogance; but in his good nature and nobility never expressed hostility towards him. Lope de Vega, for his part, was careful not to speak disrespectfully of him. When they mention one another, they always express themselves kindly, although coldly.
"Instructive Novels" by Cervantes
In 1613, Cervantes published his Instructive Novels, the contents of which, as he himself says, are borrowed from his own memoirs. They are less fascinating than The Decameron, but rich in fine descriptions of manners and nature; in the liveliness of these images, Cervantes is superior to all Spanish writers. The short story "Gypsy of Madrid", the content of which served as material for the libretto of Weber's famous opera Preziosa, depicts the life of nobles and common people with charming liveliness. There are many songs inserted in this novella; "The Magnanimous Lover" reproduces the impressions of the Algerian slavery of Cervantes; the action of this novel has been transferred to Cyprus. "Rinconet and Cortadilla" - a series of paintings from the life of itinerant people in southern Spain. Such is the content of "A Conversation of Two Dogs," a short story that represents the Spanish combination of fraudulent tricks with the diligent performance of religious rites. "The Spanish Woman in England" is a story about a Spanish girl captured by the British during the capture and robbery of Cadiz by Admiral Howard and the Count Essex. These short stories are exactly the same as The Jealous Extremaduran. The Power of the Blood, The False Marriage, Vidrier's Lucentiate, and all the other stories in Cervantes's collection are excellent depictions of popular life in Andalusia. They were the best Spanish novels and are still unparalleled in Spanish literature.
Poems, dramas and sideshows by Cervantes
After a collection of short stories, Cervantes published Journey to Parnassus, a satirical poem written by tercines; its content is an assessment of the works of contemporary poets. Cervantes speaks of himself with cheerful humor and judges his works very correctly. Mercury, who judges him, rightly mentions that the dignity of his dramas and novels was not sufficiently appreciated by the public. Cervantes wanted to prove to her that in vain she remained indifferent to his former plays, addicted exclusively to Lope de Vega; he has now published eight new dramas and eight interludes. Almost all dramas have three acts (Jornadas), in each there are many characters, among them there is certainly a jester or some other amusing person. Particularly good are "Life in Algiers", "The Brave Spaniard", "Sultana", "Happy Villain" (repentant of those bad deeds), "Labyrinth of Love", they have many fascinating scenes. Sideshows are small merry pieces played during intermissions. The best of them are "Attentive sentry" and "Jealous old man" (an adaptation of the short story "Jealous Extremadurian"), "Salamanca Cave"; but all other sideshows are very funny and realistic. But for all the merits of his plays, Cervantes did not gain fame among his contemporaries as a playwright.
Second part of Don Quixote
In the preface to the collection of short stories, Cervantes says that he is publishing the second part of Don Quixote; but while he was writing it, a book appeared under the title The Second Part of Don Quixote, Knight of La Mancha. Its author disappeared under the pseudonym Alonso Fernando de Avellaneda. There are good passages in Avellaneda's book, but it is far inferior in merit to Cervantes' novel. In the preface, Avellaneda rudely mocks Cervantes, speaks with vulgar mockery about his old age and poverty, even laughs at the wounds he received in the war with the infidels. The appearance of Avellaneda's book forced Cervantes to hasten the finishing of the second part of his novel. He published it in 1615. The remarks made by Sancho Panza about the book of Avelland indicate that Cervantes was indignant at this forgery. Written by a sick old man, the second part of Don Quixote equals the freshness and strength of the brilliant creativity of the first. The old man who wrote this story, in which there are so many jokes and gaiety, suffered from illness and poverty, felt the closeness of death.
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Monument in Plaza de España in Madrid, 1930
The meaning of "Don Quixote" in world literature
More than two and a half centuries have passed since the appearance of Don Quixote by Cervantes, and to this day it remains one of the favorite books of all civilized nations; there is hardly any other novel that has received such a strong and wide popularity. Morals have completely changed since that time, and Don Quixote still retains the interest of living modernity. This is because, under the form of a joke, it contains a picture of the eternal passions of the human heart and eternal wisdom. In order to understand the form of this book, we must remember that chivalric ideas, long dead in other countries, were still alive in Cervantes' Spain, that conquests in the New World kept the Spaniards inclined towards fantastic aspirations, that the Amadis novels were still the favorite reading of the Spaniards. that not only the Spaniards, but also other peoples still believed the tales of Eldorado and the source that gives eternal youth. Novels of Amadis and other heroes fighting giants and evil wizards were so well liked in Spain that Kings Charles V and Philip II saw fit to ban these books. Castilian Cortes(Parliament) in 1555 decided that the "Amadis" and similar "false books, which young men and women deal with, considering the absurdities told in them to be true, so that they speak and write in the style of these books" should be destroyed. Don Quixote was needed to stop this medieval fantasy. And indeed he stopped it. New novels in the style of Amadis did not appear after him. The former ones were still being reprinted, but this too soon ended.
"The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismund" by Cervantes
Shortly after the second part of Don Quixote, Cervantes finished his novel The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismund. In the dedication of this book to Count Lemos, Cervantes says that he expects an imminent death, and the playful preface ends with the words: “Fare the jokes, farewell the merry friends; I feel like I'm dying; and my only wish is to see you happily in another life.” Four days after he wrote these words, he died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 69. By the digit of the date and month, this seems to be the same day that Shakespeare died; but the English then still held to the old style, and in Spain a new one had already been introduced. In the 17th century, the style difference was 10 days; so the English poet died ten days later than the Spanish.
"Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismund" - a series of adventures taking place in different countries and at sea; geography and history in this novel is a mixture of fantasy and truth. The book was published after the death of the author (in 1517). “The wanderings of Persiles and Sigismund,” says the literary critic Rosencrantz, “a series of stories about the amazing adventures of these individuals. Persiles, second son of the king of Iceland; Sigismund is the only daughter and heiress of the Queen of Friesland. She was betrothed to Persiles' brother Maximinus, a rude man. He could not please a meek, noble beauty; she fell in love with Persiles. They run away, they want to go to Rome, to beg the pope to release Sigismund from the promise she made to her former fiancé. Persiles calls himself Periander, Sigismund - Avristela, so that the chase would not find them by their true names. They pretend to be brother and sister; their true names and relationships are only revealed to the reader at the end of the book. On the way to Rome, they suffer all sorts of troubles, fall into different lands; more than once they are taken prisoner by savages and want to devour them; villains try to kill or poison. They are shipwrecked several times, many times fate separates them. But the kidnappers quarrel among themselves for possession of them, fight and die. Finally, the lovers reach Rome and receive permission from the pope to marry. The fabulous geography and fantastic history that served as the setting for the adventures of Persiles and Sigismund gave reason to reproach Cervantes for having written a book similar to knightly novels about Amadis which he laughed at. But it's not fair. The fantastic setting in his novel is a secondary element. The true content consists in depicting the feelings of the human heart, and it is true.
