ven before it was printed, jealousy
evidently existed in the hearts of rival writers, for in one of Lope's
letters he refers to it, and spitefully hints that no poet could be
found to write commendatory verses on it.

He recognized the fact of universal selfishness when he makes Sancho
Panza refuse to learn the Don's love-letter and say, "Write it, your
worship, for it's sheer nonsense to trust anything to my memory."

Spain is so full of rich material for romance that from it his mature
mind seemed to inaugurate a new age in Spanish literature. After the
gloomy intolerance of Philip II., the advent of Philip III. added much
to the literary freedom of Spain, which still belonged to the "Age of
Chivalry," and to this day the true Spaniard nourishes the lofty and
romantic qualities which, combined with a tone of sentiment and gravity
and nobility of conversation, embellishes the legitimate grandee.
Sismondi de Sismondi says the style of "Don Quixote" is inimitable.
Montesquieu says: "It is written to prove all others useless." To some
it is an allegory, to some a tragedy, to some a parable, and to others a
satire. As a satirist we think him unrivalled, and this spirit found a
choice opportunity for vent when the troops of Don Carlos I. marched
upon Rome, taking Pope Clement VII. prisoner, while at the same time the
king was having prayers said in the churches of Madrid for the
deliverance of the Pope, on the plea that "he was obliged to make war
against the _temporal_ sovereign of Rome, but not upon the spiritual
head of the Church!" No wonder the king, after proving himself so good a
Catholic, should end his days in a monastery, or that he should mortify
himself by lying in a coffin, wrapped in a shroud, while funeral
services were performed over him. What, again, could have appealed more
to his sense of the ridiculous than the contest between the priests and
the authorities over the funeral obsequies of Philip II., so intolerant
a tyrant that he caused every Spaniard to breathe more freely as he
ceased so to do. He used his people as

"Broken tools, that tyrants cast away
By myriads, when they dare to pave their way
With human hearts."

We can easily believe in the greater freedom during the reign of Philip
III. "Viva el Rey."

The Count de Lemos was his near friend and protector when he brought out
the second part of "Don Quixote," and ridiculed his rival imitator. He
was a pioneer of so elevated a char