[1] Bless me, cried the Priest in a low voice, and is _Tirante the White_ here? Give it to me, gossip, for I reckon that I have found herein a treasure of delight and a mine of entertainment. Here you have Don Qurieleison of Montalvan, the valiant cavalier, and his brother Thomas of Montalvan, and the Knight Fonseca, with the fight which the valiant Tirante had with the big mastiff, and the witty conceits of the damsel Placer-de-mi-vida, and the amours and tricks of the widow Reposada, and my Lady the Empress in love with Hippolito, her squire. I tell you truth, good master gossip, that this for its style is the best book in the world. Here the Knights eat and sleep and die in their beds, and make their wills before dying, with other things that are wanting in all other books of this sort. For all this, I say that he who wrote it is well-deserving; for he did not commit follies purposely which should send him to the galleys for the term of his life—_Don Quixote of La Mancha_, translated by Henry Edward Watts, London, 1888.
[2] _Cervantes, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha._ Edited and annotated by Francisco Rodríguez Marín, Madrid, 1911; vol. I, chap. vi, pp. 160-163.
The last sentence of this quotation is not clear. It has become the subject of many comments and discussions, but no wholly satisfactory explanation has resulted. Menéndez y Pelayo intimates that probably the sign of negation should be omitted from the clause “pues no hizo tantas necedades de industria.” If this were done the passage would make good sense. In the second volume, page 76, of his _Introducción a los Orígenes de la Novela_ he suggests another explanation. He quotes a passage from Juan Rufo which reads as follows: “mas a fe que en algo errárades, y yo fuera presidente, que os avia de _echar a galeras pues no_ podiades _hazello de ignorancia_.” He is of the opinion that Cervantes expressed or intended to express the same idea as that contained in the words just quoted, but that in some way “industria” was substituted for “ignorancia.” If Cervantes had used the latter word instead of the former, the sentence in question would be free from obscurity. However that may be, it is evident that the judgment of Cervantes concerning _Tirant lo Blanch_ was expressed in a humorous way. Almost the whole of it consists of words of praise. The only adverse criticism is to be found in the last sentence, whereby Cervantes voices his objections to the nonsense and obscene features of the work.