Posted by michael sympson
on 7/9/2009, 12:36:17
82.45.90.49
It is a little known fact. One of the best lovedbest loved novels, in fact the mother of all European novels and the father of literary escapism, was published under the explicit patronage of the Spanish Inquisition Inquisition. In 1608, Don Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas (1546 – 1618), Archbishop of Toledo, Primate of Spain and President of the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, not only prevented the Holy Office from intervening against the publication of the 2nd edition of the Don Quixote, he also provided the author with a small pension, virtually the only regular income Cervantes would receive in his final years.
The Grand Inquisitor did not lend his support entirely out of human kindness. Already in 1553, Emperor Charles V had prohibited by law the shipping of chivalrous romances into the Americas; five years later the Cortes of Castile followed suit for Spain itself and threatened to penalize any publication of books of chivalry. With approval, the legislator noted the long-standing attack of scholars, preachers and mystics against the uncounted adaptations in the vein of Amadis de Gaul. Yet even among the Spanish grandees many continued to keep this kind of literature in vogue, and were just as ardent readers as the innkeeper in the first part of Cervantes’ novel. After fifty years of dissolutely prosecuting novels of knight-errantry, Juan de Silva thought it still worthwhile to publish his Don Policisne de Beocia in 1602. The book was placed on the index of forbidden books within days. Three years later appeared the first part of the Don Quixote, apparently a satire on the chivalrous romance, of which the reprint was to receive explicit approbation by the highest authority. Hardly a coincidence! De Silva’s book was to remain the last of its kind, but the Don Quixote was not the cause of it.
In other words, Cervantes’ publication appeared to be strictly toeing the line of existing law. The satirical gripe was more than a frivolous license of the author. Yet notice the curate’s defense of some of the forbidden books in Part 1, Chapter VI. The Amadis of Gaul is given a stay of execution, the Palmin of England honorably exiled to the upper shelf and the curate even praises the History of the famous Knight Tirante el Blanco as “a treasury of enjoyment and a mine of recreation.” Either the chief inquisitor of Spain was in a generous mood, or he already considered the whole affair as a nonissue, willing to overlook the faux pas. Cervantes used to refer to his novelistic endeavor with condescension, almost negligence; his ambition was to be a playwright, a reformer of the stage. So it is not entirely beyond conjecture, that the Don Quixote might initially have been commissioned work.
Cervantes had every reason to tread with care. The Inquisition had set her sight on him since the year 1580. As “a soldier for many years and a prisoner of war for six and a half years, which has taught him patience, if nothing else” (Cervantes, Exemplary Novellas), he was exposed to an inquiry after his return. The capture had occurred in 1575, when he and his brother embarked on the galley “El Sol.” Pirates boarded the ship and the brothers were held for ransom in Algiers.
Rodrigo was ransomed in 1577 while Miguel spent another three years in the slave pens until his family could raise 500 escudos. He returned to Madrid to a life in poverty and trumped up accusations in the typical fashion of the Inquisition, assuming guilt before proven innocent.
At his arrival, Cervantes – perhaps not entirely unexpected – found himself at the sharp edge of an inquest in his conduct during captivity. He would not have been the first, who after years of imprisonment, might have fallen from the true faith and converted to Islam. The name of the turd framing the accusation – Blanco de Paz – is still a matter of record. Cervantes was forced to produce an elaborate deposition with testimonies of eleven of his fellow prisoners.
michael sympson
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