| On 26 September 1604, Cervantes was granted a royal privilege to print the first part of his novel The Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha; barely three months later, in January 1605, the work was published. The novel had checquered beginnings and few people believed it would be a success. Since none of the prominent poets of the day was willing to write the laudatory prologue and sonnets that were expected to accompany any work worth its salt, the author himself was obliged to pen the burlesque verses which appear in the introduction. We can gain a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding the publication of what we now regard as one of the great masterpieces of world literature from the opinion of the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, who wrote the following in a letter dated 14 August 1604: “The least said about our poets, the better; in this respect, the new century can hardly be described as auspicious. Of all the budding poets, there is none so bad as Cervantes, nor any so foolish as to praise his Don Quixote.” |
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