had
a mind to see what it was, and found it to be the history of the
renowned knight Tirante the White. "Heaven save me!" quoth the priest,
with a loud voice, "is Tirante the White there? Give him to me,
neighbor; for in him I shall have a treasure of delight, and a mine of
entertainment. Here we have Don Kyrie-Eleison of Montalvan, a valorous
knight, and his brother Thomas of Montalvan, with the knight Fonseca,
and the combat which the valiant Tirante fought with the bull-dog, and
the witticisms of the damsel Plazerdemivida; also the amours and
artifices of the widow Reposada; and madam the Empress in love with her
squire Hypolito. Verily, neighbor, in its way it is the best book in the
world: here the knights eat and sleep, and die in their beds, and make
their wills before their deaths; with several things which are not to be
found in any other books of this kind. Notwithstanding this I tell you,
the author deserved, for writing so many foolish things seriously, to be
sent to the galleys for the whole of his life: carry it home, and read
it, and you will find all I say of him to be true."

"I will do so," answered the barber: "but what shall we do with these
small volumes that remain?"

"Those," said the priest, "are, probably, not books of chivalry, but of
poetry." Then opening one he found it was the 'Diana' of George de
Montemayor, and, concluding that all the others were of the same kind,
he said, "These do not deserve to be burnt like the rest; for they
cannot do the mischief that those of chivalry have done; they are works
of genius and fancy, and do injury to none."

"O sir," said the niece, "pray order them to be burnt with the rest; for
should my uncle be cured of this distemper of chivalry, he may possibly,
by reading such books, take it into his head to turn shepherd, and
wander through the woods and fields, singing and playing on a pipe; and
what would be still worse, turn poet, which, they say, is an incurable
and contagious disease."

"The damsel says true," quoth the priest, "and it will not be amiss to
remove this stumbling-block out of our friend's way. And, since we begin
with the 'Diana' of Montemayor, my opinion is that it should not be
burnt, but that all that part should be expunged which treats of the
sage Felicia, and of the enchanted fountain, and also most of the longer
poems; leaving him, in God's name, the prose and also the honor of being
the first in that kind of writing."

"The ne