or "membre de la cour royale," "escribano"
instead of "notaire," (8, 9.) "Hospital de ninos" instead of "hospice
des enfans orphelins," "olla podrida" three times "marmalada de
berengaria," (9, 4,) and "picaro" instead of "fripon," (4, 10, 12.)
Scipio says, "un jour comme je passois aupres de l'eglise de los reyes."
There is at Toledo a church named "San Juan de los Reyes." How could Le
Sage, who never had been in Spain, know this fact? Gil Blas thus relates
an event at Valencia--"Je m'en approchai pour apprendre pourquoi je
voyois la un si grand concours d'hommes et de femmes, et bientot je fus
au fait, en lisant ces paroles ecrites en lettres d'or sur une table de
marbre noir, qu'il-y avait audessus de la porte, '_La posada de los
representantes_,' et les comediens marquaient dans leur affiche qu'ils
joueraient ce jour-la pour la premiere fois une tragedie nouvelle de Don
Gabriel Triaguero." This passage is an attestation of the fact, that
during the reign of Philip IV. the buildings of the Spanish provinces in
which dramatic performances were represented were at the same time the
residence, "posada," of the actors--a custom even now not altogether
extinguished; but which Le Sage could only know through the medium of a
Spanish manuscript. Gil Blas, imprisoned in the tower of Segovia, hears
Don Gaston de Cavallos sing the following verses--

"Ayde nie un ano _felice_
Parece un soplo ligero
Pero sin duda un instante
Es un siglo de tormento."

Where did Le Sage find these verses, sweet, gracious, and idiomatic as
they are? The use of the word "felice" for "feliz" is a poetical
license, and displays more than a stranger's knowledge of Spanish
composition. It has been said that Smollett has left many French words
in his translation of Gil Blas, and that too strong an inference ought
not to be drawn from the employment of Spanish phrases by Le Sage. But
what are the words? Are they words in the mouth of every one, and such
as a superficial dilettante might easily pick up; or do they, either of
themselves or from the conjunctures in which they are employed, exhibit
a consummate acquaintance with the dialect and habits of the people to
which they refer? Besides, it should be remembered that French is a
language far more familiar to well-educated people in England, than
Spanish ever was to the French, and that Smollett had lived much in
France; whereas Le Sage knew from books alone the language which he has