hed his romance--Felipe V. having abolished it, to punish the
holder of that dignity for having embraced the cause of the house of
Austria. Nor are there wanting the names of persons celebrated in their
day among the inhabitants of the Peninsula. Such are Fray Luis Aliago,
confessor of Philip III., Archimandrite of Sicily, and inquisitor-general,
Don Rodrigo Calderon, secretary of the king, Calderon de la Barca,
Antonio Carnero, secretary of the king, Philip IV., Cervantes, Geronimo
de Florencia, Jesuit preacher of Philip IV., Fernando de Gamboa, one of
the gentlemen of his bedchamber, Luis de Gongora, Ana de Guevarra, his
nurse, Maria de Guzman, only daughter of Olivarez, Henry Philip de
Guzman, his adopted son, Baltasar de Zuniga, uncle of Olivarez, Lope de
Vega Carpio, Luis Velez de Guevarra, Juana de Velasco, making in all
nineteen persons. There are the names of not only thirty-one families of
the highest class in Spain, as Guzman, Herrera, Mendoza, Acuna, Avila,
Silva, &c., but twenty-five names belonging to less illustrious, but
still distinguished families; and twenty-nine names really Spanish, but
applied to imaginary characters. This makes a list of eighty-five names,
which it seems impossible for any writer acquainted only with the lighter
parts of Spanish literature to have accumulated. Nor should it be
forgotten that there are forty-five names, intended to explain the
character of those to whom they are given, like Mrs Slipslop and Parson
Trulliber, retained by Gil Blas, notwithstanding the loss of their
original signification. Doctor Andros don Anibal de Chinchilla, Alcacer,
Apuntador, Astuto, Azarini, Padre Alejos y Don Abel, Buenagarra,
Brutandof, Campanario Chilindron, Chinchilla, Clarin, Colifichini, Cordel,
Coscolina, Padre Crisostomo, Doctor Cuchillo, Descomulgado, Deslenguado,
Escipion, Forero, Guyomar, Ligero, Majuelo, Mascarini, Melancia, Mogicon,
Montalban, Muscada, Nisana, Doctor Oloroso, Doctor Oquetos, Penafiel,
Pinares, Doctor Sangrado, Stheimbach, Samuel Simon, Salero, Talego, Touto,
Toribio, Triaquero, Ventolera, Villaviciosa, are all names of this sort.
Who but a Spaniard, then, was likely to invent them? Were there no other
argument, the case for Spain might almost safely be rested on this issue.
But this is not all, since the mistakes, orthographical and geographical,
which abound in the French edition of _Gil Blas_, carry the argument
still further, and place it beyond the reach of reasona