uent
neglect of the author.[9] The dedication which now does duty at the
opening of the First Part of _Don Quixote_ I have shown to have been
tampered with by someone bearing no good-will to Cervantes.

[6] There are two curious pieces of evidence in proof that _Don
Quixote_ was known before it was printed. In the first edition of
the _Picara Justina_, composed by Francisco de Ubeda--the license
to print which is dated August, 1604--there are some truncated
verses, like those in the beginning of _Don Quixote_, in which _Don
Quixote_ is mentioned by name as already famous (_Catalogo de
Salva_, vol. ii, p. 157). Also in a private letter from Lope de
Vega to his patron, the Duke of Sessa, there is a malignant
allusion to Cervantes, speaking of poets. "There is none so bad as
Cervantes, and none so foolish as to praise _Don Quixote_." The
letter is dated August 4, 1604.

[7] That seems to have been the usual period for which a book was
licensed in that age. The sum which Cervantes received for his
copyright is not recorded.

[8] The Third Part of _Don Florisel de Niquea_ was dedicated to a
former Duque de Bejar. See Salva's _Catalogo_, vol. ii, p. 14.

[9] Cervantes is supposed to reflect on this meddlesome ecclesiastic
in Part II, chap, xxxi, of _Don Quixote_, where there is a passage
against those of the religious profession who "govern the houses
of princes," written with a bitterness most unusual in our author.

The privilege of publication is dated September 26th, and the _Tasa_
December 20,1604. The book itself, the First Part of _Don Quixote_ (it
was not so called in the first edition, of course), was printed by Juan
de la Cuesta during 1604, and published at Madrid in January, 1605.[10]
The impression was very carelessly made, and swarms with blunders,
typographical and otherwise, showing that it was not corrected or revised
by the author. The press-work, however, is quite equal in execution to
that of most books of that age.

[10] Those who are fond of dwelling on coincidences may find one
here of singular interest. The year during which _Don Quixote_ was
being printed was also the year in which, according to the best
authorities, Shakespeare was producing his perfected _Hamlet_. The
two noblest works of human wit, their subjects bearing a curious
affinity