books of the 'Fortune of Love,' written by Antonio de Lofraso, a Sardinian poet."
"By the orders I have received," said the curate, "since Apollo has been Apollo, and the Muses have been Muses, and poets have been poets, so droll and absurd a book as this has never been written, and in its way it is the best and the most singular of all of this species that have as yet appeared, and he who has not read it may be sure he has never read what is delightful. Give it here, gossip, for I make more account of having found it than if they had given me a cassock of Florence stuff."[1]
He put it aside with extreme satisfaction, and the barber went on, "These that come next are 'The Shepherd of Iberia,' 'The Nymphs of Henares,' and 'The Enlightenment of Jealousy.'"[2]
"Then all we have to do," said the curate, "is to hand them over to the secular arm of the housekeeper, and ask me not why, or we shall never have done."
"This next is the 'Pastor de Fílida.'"
"No Pastor that," said the curate, "but a highly polished courtier; let it be preserved as a precious jewel."[3]
"This large one here," said the barber, "is called 'The Treasury of various Poems.'"
"If there were not so many of them," said the curate, "they would be more relished: this book must be weeded and cleansed of certain vulgarities which it has with its excel-
at Valencia, has been generally preferred. The pun on Polo and Apolo is not so obvious in English. An excellent English translation of all three by Bartholomew Yong was published in 1598.
- ↑ The Fortuna d'Amor, por Antonio de lo Frasso, Militar, Sardo, appeared at Barcelona in 1573. In the Viage del Parnaso Cervantes treats the book in the same bantering strain, which misled Pedro de Pineda, one of the editors of Lord Carteret's Quixote, and induced him to bring out a new edition in 1740. The book is an utterly worthless one, and highly prized by collectors.
- ↑ The books here referred to are the Pastor de Iberia, by Bernardo de la Vega (Seville, 1591); the Nimphas y Pastores de Henares, by Bernardo Gonzalez de Bovadilla (Alcalá de Henares, 1587); and the Desengaño de Zelos, by Bartolme Lopes de Enciso (Madrid, 1586).
- ↑ The Pastor de Filida (Madrid, 1582), one of the best of the pastorals, was by Luis Galvez de Montalvo of Guadalajara, a retainer of the great Mendoza family, and apparently an intimate personal friend of Cervantes, who, under the name of Tirsi, is referred to in the pastoral as a clarissimo ingenio worthy of being mentioned with Ercilla. Montalvo, in return, is introduced under the name of Siralvo into the Galatea of Cervantes, to which he contributed a complimentary sonnet.
