It seems to be generally admitted that in rendering the title of a bookfrom one language into another, the form of the original should beretained, even at the cost of some deviation from ordinary usage.Cicero's work De Officiis is never spoken of as a treatise on MoralDuties, but as Cicero's Offices. Upon the same principle we have notentitled the following collection of tales, Instructive or Moral; thoughit is in this sense that the author applied to them the epithetexemplares, as he states distinctly in his preface. The Spanish wordexemplo, from the time of the archpriest of Hita and Don Juan Manuel,has had the meaning of instruction, or instructive story.
The "Novelas Exemplares" were first published in 1613, three yearsbefore the death of Cervantes. They are all original, and have the airof being drawn from his personal experience and observation. Ticknor, inhis "History of Spanish Literature," says of them, and of the"Impertinent Curiosity," inserted in the first part of Don Quixote:—
"Their value is different, for they are written with different views,and in a variety of style greater than he has elsewhere shown; but mostof them contain touches of what is peculiar in his talent, and are fullof that rich eloquence and of those pleasing descriptions of naturalscenery which always flow so easily from his pen. They have little incommon with the graceful story-telling spirit of Boccaccio and hisfollowers, and still less with the strictly practical tone of Don JuanManuel's tales; nor, on the other hand, do they approach, except in thecase of the 'Impertinent Curiosity,' the class of short novels whichhave been frequent in other countries within the last century. The more,therefore, we examine them, the more we shall find that they areoriginal in their composition and general tone, and that they arestrongly marked with the original genius of their author, as well aswith the more peculiar traits of the national character,—the ground, nodoubt, on which they have always been favourites at home, and lessvalued than they deserve to be abroad. As works of invention, they rank,among their author's productions, next after Don Quixote; in correctnessand grace of style they stand before it.... They are all fresh from theracy soil of the national character, as that character is found inAndalusia, and are written with an idiomatic richness, a spirit, and agrace, which, though they are the oldest tales of their class in Spain,have left them ever since without successful rivals."
The first three tales in this volume have merely undergone the revisionof the editor, having been translated by another before he was engagedon the work. For the rest he alone is responsible.
W.K.K.
TO DON PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE CASTRO, COUNT OF LEMOS, ANDRADE, AND VILLALBA,&c.
Those who dedicate their works to some prince commonly fall into twoerrors. The first is, that in their