Online I have often come across the suggestion that it was thanks to the fake Part 2 by Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda that Cervantes started writing his own Part 2. I’ve just come across that idea again in Martin Puchner’s The Written World.
I can tell you with certainty that that’s not the case.
Part 1 of Don Quixote was published in 1605. Avellaneda’s fake Part 2 came out in 1614, then Cervantes’s Part 2 came out in 1615.
In the Prologue of Exemplary Novels, Cervantes wrote “first you will see, and soon, the continuation of the deeds of Don Quixote and the delights of Sancho Panza.” He published Exemplary Novels in 1613.
This is why Cervantes didn’t mention Avellaneda until chapter 59, then for the rest of the book (73 chapters in total), constantly took a dig at it.
PS: I love Cervantes’s wit. The constant digs at Avellaneda in Part 2 are hilarious. But I also like his Hitchcock-style cameos in Part 1. When the priest and the barber go through Don Quixote’s books with the intention of burning them, for example, they come across “La Galatea by Miguel de Cervantes”. Hmm, I wonder who that is.
The priest says:
“For many years that Cervantes has been a great friend of mine, and I know that he’s more versed in misfortunes than verses. His book has some originality—he proposes something but concludes nothing. We have to wait for the second part that he promises. Maybe after he does his penance, he’ll receive the compassion that has been denied him so far. While we wait for this to happen, keep it in seclusion at your house, señor compadre.” (P.1, ch.6)
Later, when the captive tells his tale:
“The only one who fared well with him was a Spanish soldier named So-and-So de Saavedra, whom he never beat, nor had beaten, nor said a harsh word to, even though the Spaniard did things that will stick in people’s memory for many years—and all of them to attain freedom—and for the least of the many things he did, all of us were fearful that he would be impaled, and he feared it himself more than once. If time permitted, I’d say things now that this soldier did that would interest and astonish you much more than the narration of my own story…” (P.1, ch.40)
*cough* Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra *cough*.
I should perhaps pick up a Cervantes biography. His life seems fascinating. Does anyone know any good one?
PPS: The chapter about Don Quixote in The Written World is not very good. Martin Puchner does give you some useful information about piracy (literal and figurative) and printing, but his reading of Don Quixote is rather superficial. Cervantes may have started out writing a book to kill all chivalry romances, featuring a man driven mad by reading, but such a book it does not remain—does Puchner think the author actually agreed with the book burning?—Cervantes complicated things and added different layers just in Part 1, and Part 2 was greater, more complex and profound.
I also don’t like that Puchner writes about the lack of copyright and the fake Don Quixote, but doesn’t talk about the brilliance of Cervantes’s response to Avellaneda. I mean he briefly mentions it, but doesn’t talk about its brilliance. He also doesn’t talk about the meta aspect of Part 2, which gives Don Quixote the reputation as “the first postmodern novel”.
“This is why Cervantes didn’t mention Avellaneda until chapter 59, then for the rest of the book (73 chapters in total), constantly took a dig at it.,” you think.. It sounds very sweet, but you are fooled just as every reader..
ReplyDeleteCervantes didn’t write the DQ, nor the Avellaneda..
I’ll give you some clues.. if you are open minded .. but until now.. no one accepts the truth.. but the Englishman Francis Bacon called ‘truth the daughter of time, not of authority’. This time has now come.
1- When Cide Hamete Benengeli is the fictional name of the writer and Miguel de Cervantes is not mentioned, but is omitted as the writer of this book in the English original edition, then I also omit him in the name. The -H- and the -U- are silent letters, you don’t pronounce them. As mentioned earlier; the -V- you pronounce as the -B-. Cervantes sometimes signed as Cerbantes. What ’s left of Cid Hamete Benengeli minus Miguel de Cervantes = Siren
2- the ‘false’ DQ:
Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda. Let’s say the same method is applied. I’ll try not with omitting Miguel de Cervantes, but his second surname ‘i Saavedra’
Avellaneda minus ‘i Saavedra’= Siren II, Siren two or too, in other words: this is the second written book by Siren or: it is also a book written by Siren.
3- The Siren and the Siren II, as mentioned above, refer to the secret brotherhood of the Sireniacal Gentlemen, also called the Sireniacs, the siren-like gentlemen’s club, who met every first Friday of the month at the Mere-maide in Bread-streete, London. This tavern was located on the corner of Fridaystreet and Breadstreet in Cheapside.
4- ‘El sabio Alisolán, historiador no menos moderno que verdadero..’ The Avellaneda begins: The wise Alisolán, historian no less modern than true..
If there is an indication then it is in this name again: El sa… BIO ALISOLÁN is an anagram of O(H) ISLA ALBIÓN. Albion was the name England had in antiquity, but more or less in a humoristic way, ‘you insolent Albion!
This way I have solved 100 puzzles since 2015, but no one pays attention.
5) “PS: I love Cervantes’s wit,” you say.. but he was just a poor writer who sold his name t survive.. He couldn’t write a masterpiece.. Francis Bacon did with 4 members of the sireniacal gentlemen club: Ben Jonson(=Sancho), John Donne (wrote the poems) and ‘the two friends’. Francis Baumont & John Fletcher.. they wrote the loose stories.. all their names are in pseudonyms in the Avellaneda!!
5- “for the rest of the book (73 chapters in total), constantly took a dig at it,” you say.. I’ll give you another clue.. He mentions don Álvaro Tarfe.. that’s the secret name of Robert Cotton, the best librarian of England.. now his books are the beginning of the British Library.. The writers borrowed his books from which they literally quoted sentences and ideas for the DQ version. Cotton is álgodon in Spanish: Don Álvaro Tarfe minus Algodón; rests -go- ( in those days -goe- but you do not pronounce the -e- that’s why you can erase that letter) You goe – in Spanish is Usted va: just cross off go for va.. leaves us “ro Tarfe, this is an anagram of O FRATER.. The name frater means brot(h)er..
6- “then for the rest of the book (73 chapters in total),” you say, but that’s a mistake: DQII has 74 chapters and a foreword also has such a decorated initial letter. ‘Now God defend!’ then I get the following row: 75 capital letters divided by 5 is 15 letters.
Francis Bacon had invented a secret code.. If you apply this one, you get:
I BACAN CALL V BACK
Jettie H. van den Boom