wreckers were busy upon _Don Quixote_
from its very earliest appearance; and its quick and plentiful
reproduction in all the chief cities, not only of Spain but of the
outside Spanish dominions, though highly flattering to the author,
could not have greatly helped to lighten his life of toil and penury.

[12] Senor Gayangos is of opinion that there were other editions
of 1605 which have wholly perished; one probably at Barcelona,
the press of which city was very active in that year; one at
Pamplona, and probably one at Saragossa, which were capitals of
old kingdoms. See also Senor Asensio's letter to the _Ateneo_,
No. 23, p. 296; and the Bibliography of _Don Quixote_ at the end
of this volume.

[13] The ordinary _obrada_, or impression, of a book at this
period, I am told by Senor Gayangos--and there can be no better
authority--was 250 copies. But in the case of a popular book like
_Don Quixote_ the impression would be larger--probably 500 copies.
Supposing 8 editions to have been issued in 1605, there would thus
have been printed 4,000 copies in the first year--a number
unprecedently large in an age when readers were few and books a
luxury.

Taking the object of _Don Quixote_ to be, what Cervantes declared
it--"the causing of the false and silly books of chivalries to be
abhorred by mankind"--no book was ever so successful. The doughtiest
knight of romance never achieved an adventure so stupendous as that which
Miguel de Cervantes undertook and accomplished. With his pen, keener than
the lance of Esplandian or Felixmarte, he slew the whole herd of puissant
cavaliers, of very valiant and accomplished lovers. Before him went down
the Florisandros and Florisels, the Lisuartes and Lepolemos, the
Primaleons and the Polindos, and the whole brood of the invincible.
Scarcely a single romance was printed, and not one was written, after the
date of the publication of _Don Quixote_.[14] Such a revolution in
taste was never accomplished by any single writer, in any age or country.

[14] The last book of the kind written before _Don Quixote_,
according to Clemencin, was _Policisne de Boecia_, published in
1602; but _La Toledana Discreta_, which is a romantic poem in
_ottava rima_, was published in 1604, and a few chap-books and
religious romances, of the slighter kind, afterward.

A few words only are here ne