Part 11 (1/2)

Unheard-of prowess! and unheard-of verse!

But art new strains invents, new glories to rehea.r.s.e.

If Amadis to Grecia gives renown, Much more her chief does fierce Bellona crown.

Prizing La Mancha more than Gaul or Greece, As Quixote triumphs over Amadis.

Oblivion ne'er shall shroud his glorious name, Whose very horse stands up to challenge fame!

Ill.u.s.trious Rozinante, wondrous steed!

Not with more generous pride or mettled speed, His rider erst Rinaldo's Bayard bore, Or his mad lord, Orlando's Brilladore.

_Burlador, the little Academician of Argamasilla, on Sancho Panza._

SONNET.

See Sancho Panza, view him well, And let this verse his praises tell.

His body was but small, 'tis true, Yet had a soul as large as two.

No guile he knew, like some before him But simple as his mother bore him.

This gentle squire on gentle a.s.s Went gentle Rozinante's pace, Following his lord from place to place.

To be an earl he did aspire, And reason good for such desire; But worth in these ungrateful times, To envied honor seldom climbs.

Vain mortals! give your wishes o'er, And trust the flatterer Hope no more, Whose promises, whate'er they seem, End in a shadow or a dream.

_Cachidiablo, Academician of Argamasilla, on the Sepulture of Don Quixote._

EPITAPH.

Here lies an evil-errant knight, Well bruised in many a fray, Whose courser, Rozinante hight, Long bore him many a way.

Close by his loving master's side Lies b.o.o.by Sancho Panza, A trusty squire of courage tried, And true as ever man saw.

_Tiquitoc, Academician of Argamasilla, on the sepulture of Dulcinea del Toboso._

Dulcinea, fat and fleshy, lies Beneath this frozen stone; But, since to frightful death a prize, Reduced to skin and bone.

Of goodly parentage she came, And had the lady in her; She was the great Don Quixote's flame, But only death could win her.

These were all the verses that could be read: the rest, the characters being worm-eaten, were consigned to one of the Academicians, to find out their meaning by conjectures. We are informed he has done it, after many lucubrations and much pains, and that he designs to publish them, giving us hopes of Don Quixote's third sally.

”Forsi altro cantara con miglior plectro.”

The n.o.ble mind may be clouded by adversity, but cannot be wholly concealed; for true merit s.h.i.+nes by a light of its own, and, glimmering through the rents and crannies of indigence, is perceived, respected, and honored by the generous and the great.

A SHORT STORY OF WHAT HAPPENED ONCE IN SEVILLE.

A certain man, being deranged in his intellects, was placed by his relations in the mad-house of Seville. He had taken his degrees in the canon law at Ossuna; but had it been at Salamanca, many are of opinion he would, nevertheless, have been mad. This graduate, after some years'