Life after the army

(1547-1616)
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the great Spanish humanist writer of the “tragic” Renaissance, was born in 1547 in the small but flourishing town of Alcala de Henares, twenty miles from Madrid. He was the youngest member of a poor but noble hidalgo family.

His father's name was Rodrigo Cervantes, his mother's name was Leonora Cortinas. In addition to Miguel, the family had two daughters, Andrea and Louise, and a son, Rodrigo. The most famous Spanish writer was the fourth of seven children in the family of a barber and chiropractor. He was baptized on October 9, and September 29 is supposed to be his birthday, since it is the day of St. Miguel.

The Cervantes family already had five centuries of chivalry and public service and was not only widespread in Spain, but had representatives in Mexico and other parts of the Americas. “This family,” says the historian, “appears in the Spanish chronicles for five centuries surrounded by such splendor and glory that regarding its origin there is no reason to envy any of the most noble families of Europe.” Through marriage, the Saavedra surname was united in the 15th century with the Cervantes surname, which fell into extreme decline in the 16th century. Using the example of the Cervantes family, one can easily trace the history of the impoverishment of the Spanish nobility and the growth of the so-called “hidalgia” - nobles “deprived of their fortunes, seigneuries, rights of jurisdiction and high public positions.”

If the writer's grandfather Juan occupied a fairly prominent position in Andalusia, was at one time the senior alcalde of the city of Cordoba and had a well-known fortune, then Cervantes' father, Rodrigo, who suffered from deafness, did not hold any judicial or administrative posts and did not go beyond a free practicing doctor, that is, he was a man even from the point of view of “hidalgia” it is quite insignificant. The writer's mother also belonged to the circle of poor nobles.

Rodrigo de Cervantes was forced to move from place to place in search of income. The family followed him. Judging by the heroic efforts that Cervantes' parents later spent to raise the necessary amount to ransom Miguel and his younger brother Rodrigo from Algerian captivity, the family was friendly and strong.

The wandering doctor Rodrigo de Cervantes and his family finally settled in Valladolid, then the official capital of the kingdom, in 1551. But even here he did not live long. Less than a year later, Rodrigo was arrested for failing to pay a debt to a local moneylender; As a result of the arrest, the family's already meager property was sold at auction.

The life of a vagabond began again, leading Cervantes first to Cordoba, then returning him to Valladolid, from there to Madrid and, finally, to Seville. Miguel's school years date back to the Valladolid period. As a ten-year-old teenager, he entered the Jesuit college, where he remained for four years (1557-1561). Miguel completed his education in Madrid with one of the best Spanish teachers of that time, the humanist Juan Lopez de Hoyos, who later became his godfather in literature.

By the end of the sixties of the 16th century, the Cervantes family entered a period of final ruin. In this regard, Miguel and his younger brother Rodrigo had to think about earning their own bread, choosing one of the three opportunities open to middle-class Spanish nobles - to seek happiness in the church, at court or in the army. Miguel, taking advantage of the recommendation of his teacher Juan Lopez de Hoyos, who proclaimed him “his dear and beloved student,” chose the second option. He entered the service of the extraordinary ambassador of Pope Pius the Fifth, Monsignor Julio Acquaviva y Aragon, who arrived in Madrid in 1568.

The same period saw the publication of Cervantes’s first poem, dedicated to the death of the young wife of King PHILIP II of Spain, Elizabeth of Valois, in 1568. Together with the ambassador, Cervantes left Madrid and arrived in Rome at the beginning of 1569. Under Acquaviva, he held the position of camerario (key holder), that is, a close person.

Cervantes spent about a year in the service of Acquaviva, who became a cardinal in the spring of 1570. In the second half of 1570, he entered the Spanish army stationed in Italy, in the regiment of Miguel de Moncada.

The five years Cervantes spent in the ranks of the Spanish troops in Italy were a very important period in his life. They gave him the opportunity to visit the largest Italian cities: Rome, Milan, Bologna, Venice, Palermo - and become thoroughly acquainted with the way of Italian life. No less important than close contact with the life of Italy in the 16th century, with the life of its cities, was for Cervantes acquaintance with the rich Italian culture, especially literature. Cervantes's long stay in Italy allowed him not only to master the Italian language, but also to expand the humanitarian knowledge he acquired at the Madrid school.

To a thorough acquaintance with ancient literature and mythology, Cervantes added a wide acquaintance with all the best that created the Italian Renaissance both in literature and in the field of philosophy - with the poetry of Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, with Boccaccio’s “Decameron”, with the Italian short story and pastoral novel, with the Neoplatonists. Although Cervantes half-jokingly called himself “talented, not experienced in science,” he was, by his own admission, a passionate reader.

Along with the greatest representatives of ancient literature - Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid and others, as well as the above-mentioned writers of the Italian Renaissance, the list includes characters from the Holy Scriptures and Eastern (Arabic) writing. If we supplement this list with an indication that Cervantes’ worldview was influenced by the ideas of Erasmus of Rotterdam and that he was a remarkable expert on national Spanish literature, folk poetry (romances) and national folklore in general.

Just at the beginning of the 70s, a war broke out between the Holy League, which was formed by Spain, Venice and the Pope, and the Ottoman Empire. Cervantes distinguished himself in the famous naval battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, when the Turkish fleet was defeated. Which meant the end of Turkish expansion in the eastern Mediterranean. That day, Cervantes was sick with a fever, but demanded that he be allowed to participate in the battle: thanks to the testimony of one of his comrades, the words he said came down to us: “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." Cervantes' request was granted: at the head of twelve soldiers, he guarded the boat ladder during the battle and received three gunshot wounds: two in the chest and one in the forearm. This last wound turned out to be fatal: Cervantes has since lost control of his left hand, as he himself said, “to the greater glory of his right.”

Severe wounds brought the writer to a hospital in Messina, from where he only emerged at the end of April 1572. But the injury did not prompt him to leave military service. Enlisted in the Lope de Figueroa regiment, Cervantes spent some time on the island of Corfu, where the regiment was stationed. On October 2, 1572, he participated in the naval battle of Navarino, and the following year he became part of the expeditionary force sent under the command of Don Juan of Austria to North Africa to strengthen the fortresses of Goleta and Tunisia. In 1573, Cervantes's regiment was returned to Italy to perform garrison service, first in Sardinia, and somewhat later (in 1574) in Naples.

On September 20, 1575, the writer, together with his brother Rodrigo, who also served in the army, left Naples for Spain on board the galley "Sun". The ship on which Cervantes was sailing was captured by corsairs, who sold Miguel and his brother Rodrigo into slavery in Algeria. The letters of recommendation to the king that Cervantes carried with him raised his authority as an important captive, which led to an increase in the amount of the ransom and accordingly increased the period of his slavery, and on the other hand, saved him from death and punishment.
Cervantes was released only five years later, three years later than his brother. A stormy, adventurous life gave way to the routine of civil service, a constant lack of funds and attempts at writing. Once he even won first prize in a poetry competition in Zaragoza - three silver spoons.

Meanwhile, the financial situation of the family during this time not only did not improve, but became more and more difficult every year; the family was replenished with Cervantes’s illegitimate daughter, Isabella de Saavedra. Miguel’s marriage (1584) with a native of the city of Esquivias, nineteen-year-old Catalina de Salazar y Palacios, who brought him a very small dowry, did not help the family’s rise. In the fall of 1587, Cervantes managed to get the position of commissioner for urgent supplies for the “Invincible Armada” in towns and villages located in the vicinity of Seville.

Negligence in reporting led Cervantes to the Royal Prison of Seville on September 15, 1597, where he spent about three months. A new prison sentence for the same case of concealing sums befell him in 1602. In November 1608, that is, ten to eleven years after the lawsuit was filed, they again called Cervantes to testify.

In 1604, Cervantes parted with Seville and settled in the temporary capital of Spain - the city of Valladolid, where members of his family then moved (with the exception of his wife, who continued to live in Esquivias).

The beginning of a truly great period in the work of Cervantes, a period that gave the world his immortal novel in two parts “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”, his wonderful short stories, the collection “Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes”, the poem “Journey to Parnassus” and “The Wanderings of Persiles” and Sikhismunds", the year 1603 should be considered, to which, apparently, the beginning of the writing of "Don Quixote" dates back to.

These dates are established on the basis of the words of Cervantes himself that his novel was born “in a dungeon, the location of all kinds of interference, the abode of only dull sounds.” The writer was referring to his imprisonment in Seville prison in 1602. “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha” (1605-1615) is a parody of a chivalric romance, a kind of encyclopedia of Spanish life in the 17th century, a work with deep social and philosophical content. The name Don Quixote became a byword for noble but fruitless efforts.

The second part of the novel was written by Cervantes ten years later than the first. Between both parts there are other works by Cervantes, namely: “Edifying Novellas” (1613) and “Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes, which made up the collection of 1615.

The novel “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote La Manche” appeared in Madrid bookstores in January 1605. The author was famous more for his suffering in Algerian captivity than for literary fame, an already elderly man, and also a disabled person.

Works written by him in the first years after his return to his homeland from Algerian captivity are also being published: the shepherd's novel "Galatea" and up to thirty dramatic works, "comedies", most of which have not reached us.

Information about the dramaturgy of Cervantes in the “Seville” period of his work is limited to what Cervantes himself says about his early dramas in the preface to the collection “Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes” that he published in 1615. He reports that his “Algerian Manners,” as well as “The Destruction of Numancia” and “Sea Battle,” were performed in the theaters of Madrid, and acknowledges himself as the author of twenty or thirty plays written by him at that time. The “Naval Battle,” which has not reached us, as far as we can guess from the title of the play, glorified the famous victory at Lepanto, which played such a fatal role in the life of Cervantes.

The second part of Don Quixote was apparently written in 1613 and went on sale in November 1615.

In the interval between the publication of the first and second parts of Don Quixote, in 1613, Cervantes's second most important literary work, namely his Edifying Novellas, was published. Translated soon after their appearance into French, English, Italian and Dutch, the short stories served as the source for a number of stage adaptations. The warm welcome given by Spanish writers to the Edifying Novels is an indisputable recognition of the truth of Cervantes’s words that “he was the first to write short stories in Castilian, for all the numerous short stories published in Spain were translated from foreign languages.”

The final period in the life of Cervantes, very rich in creative terms, took place mainly in Madrid, where Cervantes moved after the proclamation of this city as the capital of the kingdom in 1606.

In Madrid, he lived in poor neighborhoods, and his family's financial situation did not improve. But, without improving Cervantes' position, the enormous success of his novel prompted the writer to continue working on prose, of which he was an unsurpassed master.

These years were overshadowed for him by the death of both of his sisters, who had become nuns before their death, and by the second marriage of his daughter Esaveli de Saavedra, which increased the writer’s financial constraints due to the groom’s demand to guarantee a dowry. The example of Cervantes' sisters was followed by his wife, who also took monastic vows. And Cervantes himself joined the Brotherhood of the Slaves of the Most Holy Sacrament in 1609, whose members were not only high-ranking persons, but also a number of major Spanish writers (including Lope de Vega and Quevedo). Later, in 1613, Cervantes became a tertiary (member of the semi-monastic religious Fraternity of the Laity) of the Franciscan Order and, on the eve of his death, took “full initiation.”

Cervantes died on April 23, 1616. He was buried in the monastery he himself indicated at the expense of the charitable sums of the Brotherhood.

The long-suffering but noble life of the writer and citizen has ended. "Sorry, joy! Sorry, fun! Sorry, cheerful friends! I am dying in the hope of a quick and joyful meeting in another world." With these words the brilliant Spaniard addressed his readers in the preface to his latest creation.

But even several centuries later, Cervantes is alive in the memory of people, just as his immortal heroes are alive - the knight and the squire, still wandering in search of goodness, justice and beauty across the vast plains of their homeland.

In Spain, 1605 was an exceptionally prosperous year for culture. As for politics and economics, he did not promise anything new to the Spanish people. The empire of Charles V, where “the sun never set,” continued to occupy a leading position on the world stage. However, the basis for an economic crisis has already begun to be created. But it was still very far from its peak.

The Spanish kingdom waged endless wars on land and sea. They had one goal - to preserve and further expand their vast possessions in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. Those increased significantly after 1581, when Portugal joined Spain and transferred all its colonies to it.

During this period of time, victories were won over the rebellious inhabitants of Flanders and German troops. There was a successful struggle for power in the colonies with England, Holland and France. But all these high-profile events could not compare in importance with an event that at first glance was modest and insignificant.

In January 1605, a novel by a little-known elderly writer, and also a disabled person, appeared in bookstores in Madrid. This work was called "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha." More than 400 years have passed since the appearance of this book. Who now remembers Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, other kings and generals? These people are lost in the centuries, but the immortal work continues to live a full life and finds more and more fans.

Who was the author of the great creation? His name was Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra(1547-1616). This man is notable for the fact that need haunted him from his birth to his grave. The writer himself, in his poem “Journey to Parnassus,” speaks of himself as a man tormented by damned poverty. Even when he was already at the zenith of his fame, they said about him that he was an old man, a soldier, a hidalgo and a poor man.

Having learned about this, the French exclaimed in bewilderment: “And Spain did not enrich such a great writer and does not support him at the state expense?” To which the Spaniards replied: “Necessity forces him to write great creations. Therefore, praise be to God that he never lived in wealth, for with his masterpieces, being a beggar, he enriches the whole world.”

Biography of Cervantes

Childhood

According to the baptismal record in one of the churches in the city of Alcala de Henares, on September 29, 1547, a boy was born to the free practicing physician Rodrigo de Cervantes and his wife Leonora de Cortinas - the future creator of Don Quixote. He was the 4th child in the family. There were six children in total. Three girls and three boys.

According to his father, the future great writer had a noble noble origin. But in the 16th century the family became poor and fell into decline. Rodrigo suffered from deafness and never held any judicial or administrative positions. He became just a doctor, which from the point of view of hidalgia meant practically nothing. The writer's mother also belonged to a poor noble family.

Financially, the family lived very poorly. Rodrigo constantly moved from city to city in search of work, and his wife and children followed him. But eternal need did not bring discord and scandals into family life. Rodrigo and Leonora loved each other, and their children lived as a friendly, united group.

Constant moving had more of a positive side than a negative side for little Miguel. Thanks to them, from an early age he became acquainted with the genuine, and not ostentatious, life of ordinary people.

In 1551, the doctor and his family settled in Valladolid. At that time, this city was considered the capital of the kingdom. But a year passed, and Rodrigo was arrested for non-payment of debts to a local loan shark. The family's meager property was sold under the hammer, and the vagabond life began again. The family went to Cordoba, then returned to Valladolid, and after that moved to Madrid and finally settled in Seville.

At the age of 10, Miguel entered the Jesuit College. He remained there for 4 years from 1557 to 1561 and received a secondary education. Further studies took place in Madrid with the famous Spanish teacher and humanist Juan Lopez de Hoyos. Meanwhile, the young man’s family was completely ruined. In this regard, Miguel had to think about how to earn his own bread and help his impoverished family.

Youth

Poor nobles at that time had 3 roads: go to church, serve at court or in the army. The future great writer chose the 2nd path. Juan Lopez de Hoyos gave his student a letter of recommendation, and he took a job with the Ambassador Extraordinary of Pope Pius V, Monsignor Julio Acquaviva y Aragon. In 1569, together with the ambassador, Cervantes left Madrid for Rome as a chamberlain (key keeper).

The future writer spent a year in the service of Acquaviva, and in 1570 he entered service in a Spanish regiment stationed in Italy. This gave him the opportunity to visit Milan, Venice, Bologna, Palermo and thoroughly get acquainted with the Italian way of life, as well as the rich culture of this country.

On October 7, 1571, the naval battle of Lepanto took place. In it, the fleet of the Holy League (Spain, Vatican and Venice) completely defeated the Turkish squadron, which put an end to Turkish expansion into the Eastern Mediterranean. However, for Miguel this battle ended sadly. He received 3 gunshot wounds: two in the chest and one in the left forearm.

The last wound turned out to be fatal. The young man practically ceased to control his left hand “to the greater glory of his right” - as he himself later said. After this, the future great writer ended up in the hospital, where he stayed until the beginning of May 1572. But, after being discharged from the hospital, he did not leave military service. He expressed a desire to serve further, and was enlisted in a regiment stationed on the island of Corfu. On October 2, 1572, he already participated in the Battle of Navarino, and a year later he was sent to North Africa, from where he returned to Italy and continued military service in Sardinia, and then in Naples.

On September 20, 1575, Miguel, along with his younger brother Rodrigo, who also served in the army, boarded the galley "Sun" and departed for Spain. But this trip ended tragically. The ship was boarded by pirates and the captured brothers were taken to Algeria. Miguel had letters of recommendation with him, and the pirates considered him an important and rich person. They asked for a huge ransom of 500 gold escudos for him.

To make the prisoner compliant, they kept him in chains and with an iron ring around his neck. He wrote letters to his homeland, and the greedy Algerians were waiting for a ransom. So 5 long years passed. During this time, the young man showed himself to be a noble, honest and persistent person. With his courageous behavior, he even earned the respect of such a thug as Hassan Pasha.

In 1577, relatives saved up money and bought Rodrigo. Miguel had to wait another 3 long years. The king refused to ransom his faithful soldier, and the family, through incredible efforts, collected the amount of 3,300 reais. This money was transferred to Hassan Pasha, and he was apparently glad to get rid of the dangerous man. On September 19, 1580, Cervantes was released from Algerian captivity, and on October 24, he left Algeria to set foot on his native Spanish soil a few days later.

Life after captivity

Spain did not greet its compatriot kindly. At home, no one needed him, and his family was in a terrible state. My father became completely deaf and gave up medical practice. He died in 1585. But even before his death, Miguel became the head of the family. To feed himself and his loved ones, he again returned to military service. In 1581, he traveled to North Africa as a military courier and at one time was at the Duke of Alba's headquarters in Tomar.

At this time, Miguel had an illegitimate daughter, Isabel de Saavedra. In 1584, the future writer married 19-year-old Catalina de Salazar y Palacios. The girl had a small dowry, and the family's financial situation did not improve.

In 1587, Miguel went to the south of the country to Andalusia. It was the center of trade relations with the American colonies. It opened up wide opportunities for commercial initiatives. The writer settled in Seville and received the position of commissar for supplies for the Invincible Armada. It was a Klondike for bribe takers and unscrupulous individuals. Other food commissioners made a fortune in a year, but Miguel lived on a modest salary and tried to conduct all his affairs honestly.

As a result, he made a bunch of enemies and was accused of hiding money. It all ended with a 3-month imprisonment in 1592. In 1594, he was sent as a tax collector to the kingdom of Granada. Miguel eagerly took on a new business. He collected a sum of 7,400 reais and transferred the money to a Seville bank. But he declared himself bankrupt, and the tax collector was sued for money. Cervantes failed to prove that he gave all the money collected to the state. In 1597 he was again sent to prison for 3 months. In 1604, the writer parted ways with Seville and moved to Valladolid. Soon his family joined him.

Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza

Creation

The first large and unfinished novel in prose and verse, Galatea, was begun in 1582 and was published in 1585. In the 18th century, this work enjoyed the same success as Don Quixote. Nowadays, for some reason, the novel is unfairly forgotten. This is a story about the love of 2 shepherds, Elisio and Erastro, for the beautiful Galatea. The first part of the novel, which was published, consists of 6 chapters. Each chapter describes 1 day of rivalry between 2 young men in love. But the author wanted to show Galatea’s marriage with one of the shepherds in the 2nd part, which he never wrote.

The novel is interesting not because of its sharp plot line, but because of its inserted episodes. The best of them is the story of the adventures of Nishida, Timbrio, Blanca and Silerio. This is one of the central places of the work.

As for dramaturgy, Miguel de Cervantes wrote about 30 plays. Among them are “Algerian Manners”, “The Destruction of Numancia” and “Sea Battle”. Numancia is considered the pinnacle of Spanish theater during the Golden Age. Two stories were also written: “Rinconete and Cortadillo” and “The Jealous Extremadurian”. They were published in 1613 in the collection of "Edifying Stories".

At the beginning of the 17th century, the writer created the poem “Journey to Parnassus,” as well as “The Wanderings of Persiles and Sikhismunda” and the collection “Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes.” In 1602, work began on the immortal creation Don Quixote.

The novel about the noble knight Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza consists of 2 parts. The second part was written 10 years later than the first and was completed in 1613. It went on sale in November 1615, and the first part, as already mentioned, in January 1605.

But the second volume was preceded by a forged volume written by a certain Alonso Fernandez Avellaneda. He saw the light in the summer of 1614. The real name of the author of the fake is unknown to this day. Miguel himself learned about the fake Don Quixote when he was writing chapter 59. This news irritated him and most likely hastened his death. However, it should be noted that the false second part, although it was written in glib literary language, was not successful among readers and went, in general, unnoticed.

Between the first and second parts of the great novel, the second most literary work of importance was created - “Edifying Novels”. They were so brilliant that even Cervantes' literary enemies praised them. The collection includes 12 stories with various plots. Here we can name love stories: “The Power of Blood”, “Two Maidens”, “Senora Cornelia”. Sharply satirical: “About the conversation of dogs”, “Deceitful marriage”. Psychological: "Jealous extremadure."

Monument to Cervantes

The end of life's journey

The last years of his life, the great writer lived in Madrid. He moved to this city in 1608. He lived with his family in a poor neighborhood. "Don Quixote" did not improve the financial situation. Miguel's sisters died in 1609 and 1611. The wife took monastic vows. The daughter divorced her first husband and entered into a second marriage.

The last was the already mentioned novel “The Journey of Persiles and Sikhismunda”. It was finished on April 16, 1616. Appeared in bookstores in April 1617, and the writer died on April 23, 1616. Cervantes was buried at the expense of the Brotherhood of Slaves of the Most Holy Sacrament, of which he had been a member since 1609.

In the preface to his latest creation, the brilliant Spaniard addressed the readers with the following words: “Forgive me, joy! Forgive me, fun! Forgive me, cheerful friends! I am dying in the hope of a quick and joyful meeting with you in the other world.” Thus ended the long-suffering, but filled with greatness and nobility, life of the great writer and citizen.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the famous Spanish writer, author of Don Quixote, was born in 1547. It is known that he was baptized on October 9; perhaps the date of birth was September 29, St. Miguel. His family, noble but poor, lived in the town of Alcala de Henares. When Miguel grew up, his parents were close to ruin, so he entered the service of Giulio Acquaviva y Aragon, the ambassador of the Pope, and worked for him as a housekeeper. Together they left Madrid for Rome in 1569.

Cervantes stayed under Acquaviva for about a year, and in the second half of 1570 he became a soldier in the Spanish army, a regiment stationed in Italy. This period of his biography took him 5 years and had a significant impact on his future life, since Cervantes had the opportunity to become closely acquainted with Italy, its rich culture, and social order. The famous naval battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 became significant for Cervantes as well. he was wounded, as a result of which only his right hand remained active. He left the hospital in Messina only in the spring of 1572, but continued his military service.

In 1575, Miguel and his brother Rodrigo, also a soldier, were captured by pirates on a ship heading from Naples to Spain. They were sold into slavery and ended up in Algeria. The presence of letters of recommendation to the king helped Cervantes avoid heavy punishments and death. Four attempts to escape ended in failure, and only 5 years later, in 1580, Christian missionaries helped him gain freedom.

A life full of misadventures was replaced by the monotony of civil service and the constant search for a means of livelihood. The beginning of literary activity also dates back to this period. Almost 40-year-old Cervantes wrote in 1585 the pastoral novel Galatea and about 30 plays, which did not make much of an impression on the public. The income from writing was too small, and the writer moved from Madrid to Seville, where he took a job as a food supply commissioner. During the 6-year period of service, he had to be arrested three times: such consequences were caused by negligence in record keeping.

In 1603, Cervantes retired and the following year he moved from Seville to Valladolid, which was the temporary capital of Spain. In 1606, Madrid was proclaimed the main city of the kingdom - Cervantes moved there, and the most successful creative period is associated with this city in his biography. In 1605, the first part of Cervantes’ greatest novel was published - “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”, which, being a parody of chivalric romances, became a real encyclopedia of the life of Spain in the 17th century, a literary work filled with the deepest philosophical and social content. The name of its main character has long become a household name. World fame did not come to Cervantes immediately; the author of Don Quixote was known more as a person with rich life experience who survived Algerian captivity.

The second part of the novel was written only 10 years later, and during this period a number of works were published that strengthened his fame as a writer: the second most important work is “Edifying Novels” (1613), a collection of “8 Comedies and 8 Interludes”. At the end of his creative path, a love adventure novel appeared called “The Wanderings of Persilius and Sikhismunda.” Despite his fame, Cervantes remained a poor man, living in a low-income area of ​​Madrid.

In 1609 he became a member of the Confraternity of the Slaves of the Most Holy Sacrament; his two sisters and wife took monastic vows. Cervantes himself did the same thing - he became a monk - literally on the eve of his death. On April 22, 1616, while in Madrid, the author of the “knight of the sad image” died of dropsy. An interesting detail: on the same day, the life of another famous writer, W. Shakespeare, ended. Bad luck followed Cervantes even after his death: the lack of an inscription on his grave led to the fact that the burial place remained unknown for a very long time.

Spanish literature

Saavedra Miguel Cervantes

Biography

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547−1616), Spanish writer. Born in Alcala de Henares (Province of Madrid). His father, Rodrigo de Cervantes, was a modest surgeon, and his large family constantly lived in poverty, which did not leave the future writer throughout his sorrowful life. Very little is known about his childhood, other than that he was baptized on October 9, 1547; the next documentary account of him, some twenty years later, names him as the author of a sonnet addressed to Queen Isabella of Valois, third wife of Philip II; Soon after this, while studying at the City College of Madrid, he is mentioned in connection with several poems on the death of the queen (October 3, 1568).

Cervantes probably studied in fits and starts and did not reach an academic degree. Not finding a means of subsistence in Spain, he went to Italy and in 1570 decided to serve under Cardinal G. Acquaviva. In 1571 he was listed as a soldier in the naval expedition that the Spanish king, pope and lord of Venice were preparing against the Turks. Cervantes fought bravely at Lepanto (7 October 1571); one of the wounds he received crippled his hand. He went to Sicily to recuperate and remained in southern Italy until 1575, when he decided to return to Spain, hoping to be rewarded for his service with a captain's post in the army. On September 26, 1575, the ship on which he sailed was captured by Turkish pirates. Cervantes was taken to Algiers, where he stayed until September 19, 1580. In the end, with money raised by Cervantes’ family, he was redeemed by Trinitarian monks. He expected a decent reward upon returning home, but his hopes were not justified.

In 1584, 37-year-old Cervantes married 19-year-old Catalina de Palacios in Esquivias (province of Toledo). But family life, like everything else for Cervantes, proceeded in fits and starts; he spent many years away from his wife; Isabel de Saavedra, his only child, was born from an extramarital affair.

In 1585, Cervantes became commissioner for the purchase of wheat, barley and olive oil in Andalusia for the "Invincible Armada" of Philip II. This unremarkable job was also thankless and dangerous. On two occasions Cervantes had to requisition wheat that belonged to the clergy, and although he carried out the king's orders, he was excommunicated. To add insult to injury, he was put on trial and then imprisoned because his reports were found to have irregularities. Another disappointment came with an unsuccessful petition for office in Spain's American colonies in 1590.

It is assumed that during one of his imprisonments (1592, 1597 or 1602) Cervantes began his immortal work. However, in 1602 judges and courts stopped pursuing him over his alleged debt to the crown, and in 1604 he moved to Valladolid, where the king was staying at that time. From 1608 he lived permanently in Madrid and devoted himself entirely to writing and publishing books. In the last years of his life he supported himself mainly by pensions from the Count of Lemos and the Archbishop of Toledo. Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616.

The above facts give only a fragmentary and approximate idea of ​​Cervantes’s life, but, in the end, the greatest events in it were the works that brought him immortality. Sixteen years after the publication of the school poems, the First Part of Galatea (La primera parte de la Galatea, 1585), a pastoral romance in the spirit of Diana H. Montemayor (1559), appeared. Its content consists of the vicissitudes of love between idealized shepherds and shepherdesses. In Galatea, prose alternates with poetry; there are no main characters or unity of action here; the episodes are connected in the most simple way: the shepherds meet each other and talk about their joys and sorrows. The action takes place against the backdrop of conventional pictures of nature - these are unchanging forests, springs, clean streams and eternal spring, which allows you to live in the lap of nature. Here the idea of ​​divine grace, sanctifying the souls of the elect, is humanized, and love is likened to a deity whom the lover worships and who strengthens his faith and will to live. Faith, born of human desires, was thus equated with religious beliefs, which probably explains the constant attacks by Catholic moralists on the pastoral romance, which flourished and faded in the second half of the 16th century. Galatea is undeservedly forgotten, because already in this first significant work, the characteristic idea of ​​life and the world for the author of Don Quixote was outlined. Cervantes repeatedly promised to release a second part, but a sequel never appeared. In 1605, the first part of the Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha) was published, and the second part appeared in 1615. In 1613, Edifying Novels (Las novelas exemplares) were published; in 1614 the Journey to Parnassus (Viaje del Parnaso) was published; in 1615 - Eight comedies and eight interludes (Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos). The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda (Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda) were published posthumously in 1617. Cervantes also mentions the titles of several works that have not reached us - the second part of Galatea, The Week in the Garden (Las semanas del jardn), The Deception of the Eyes (El engao los ojos) and others. Edifying short stories unite twelve stories, and the edifying nature of the title (otherwise their “exemplary” character) is associated with the “moral” contained in each short story. Four of them - The Magnanimous Suitor (El Amante liberal), Senora Cornelia (La Seora Cornelia), Two Maidens (Las dos donzellas) and the English Spaniard (La Espaola inglesa) - are united by a common theme, traditional for the Byzantine novel: a pair of lovers separated unfortunate and capricious circumstances, in the end he is reunited and finds long-awaited happiness. The heroines are almost all ideally beautiful and highly moral; they and their loved ones are capable of the greatest sacrifices and with all their souls are drawn to the moral and aristocratic ideal that illuminates their lives. Another group of “edifying” short stories is formed by The Power of Blood (La fuerza de la sangre), The High-born Scullery Maid (La ilustre fregona), The Gypsy Girl (La Gitanilla) and The Jealous Estremadure (El celoso estremeo). The first three offer stories of love and adventure with a happy ending, while the fourth ends tragically. In Rinconete and Cortadillo, El casamiento engaoso, El licenciado vidriera and A Conversation between Two Dogs, more attention is paid to the characters involved than to the action - this is the last group of short stories. Rinconete and Cortadillo is one of Cervantes' most charming works. Two young tramps get involved with a brotherhood of thieves. The comedy of the solemn ceremony of this gang of thugs is emphasized by the dryly humorous tone of Cervantes. Among his dramatic works, the Siege of Numancia (La Numancia) stands out - a description of the heroic resistance of the Iberian city during the conquest of Spain by the Romans in the 2nd century. BC. - and funny interludes such as the Divorce Judge (El Juez de los divorcios) and the Theater of Miracles (El retablo de las maravillas). Cervantes's greatest work is the one-of-a-kind book Don Quixote. Briefly, its content boils down to the fact that hidalgo Alonso Quihana, having read books about chivalry, believed that everything in them was true, and he himself decided to become a knight errant. He takes the name Don Quixote of La Mancha and, accompanied by the peasant Sancho Panza, who serves as his squire, goes in search of adventure.

Cervantes Saavedra Miguel de was born into the family of a poor Spanish surgeon in 1547. He lived with his large family in the province of Madrid, Alcala de Henares. Cervantes was baptized on October 9, 1547. Due to the poverty of the family, the guy studied in fits and starts. Being broke, he moved to Italy in 1570 and went to serve. From 1570 he joined the ranks of the navy until October 7, 1571, when he was commissioned due to a hand injury received in battle. He goes to Italy, where he lives until 1575. He is captured by pirates on September 26, 1575, while sailing to Spain, who take Cervantes to Algeria until September 19, 1580. Miguel met Esquivias in the province of Toledo, whom he married in 1584. Their family life did not work out, Cervantes was often not around, he even had an illegitimate daughter, Isabel de Saavedra. From 1585, Miguel goes to work as a commissioner for the purchase of provisions for the army of Philip II, but soon ends up in prison due to violations in his reports. While imprisoned, Cervantes begins to write. He combines prose and poetry, taking as a basis the relationship between a shepherd and a shepherdess. The First Part of Galatea was born in 1585. In 1604 he was released, and Miguel moved to Valladolid, and in 1608 to permanent residence in Madrid. He begins to diligently study literature. Grandiose masterpieces come from his pen. In 1605, Don Quixote was published, in 1613 - Edifying Stories, Journey to Parnassus in 1614, and in 1615 the author released the continuation of Don Quixote, the second part, and Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes. Cervantes took up writing another book, “The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda,” which he never managed to publish during his lifetime. It was published in 1617.

The poet became the author of many publications and books that, of course, did not find such fame as “Don Quixote”, but were still published: “The Generous Admirer”, “The English Spaniard”, “Two Maidens” and “Senora Cornelia” and many others .