In presenting the BuscapiÉ to the English public, it may not be superfluous, first to explain the title of this literary curiosity, and next to offer a few observations relative to its nature and origin.

The title BuscapiÉ seems to have been suggested by one of those quaint conceits common to the Spanish writers of the sixteenth century. The word etymologically considered, is compounded of busca (seek; from the verb buscar to seek), and pie (foot); and it signifies in the Spanish language a squib or cracker, which, being thrown down in the streets by boys and mischievous persons, rolls about and gets between the feet of passers-by. Towards the close of the Work itself Cervantes thus explains his reason for selecting this title. “I call this little book BuscapiÉ,” he says, “to show to those who seek the foot with which the ingenious Knight of La Mancha limps, that he does not limp with either, but that he goes firmly and steadily on both, and is ready to challenge the grumbling critics who buzz about like wasps.”

Everyone acquainted with Spanish literature has regretted the disappearance and supposed total loss of this little Work, which was known to have been written by Cervantes after the publication of the First Part of Don Quixote. Whether or not this production ever was submitted to the press by its author is exceedingly doubtful; but, be that as it may, no printed copy of it has been extant for the space of two centuries. Though manuscript copies were supposed to exist among the hidden treasures of the Biblioteca Real in Madrid, or in the unexplored recesses of Simancas, yet the BuscapiÉ has always been alluded to by writers on Spanish literature as a thing inaccessible and known only by tradition. Great interest was consequently excited a short time ago, by the announcement that a copy of the BuscapiÉ had been discovered in CÁdiz. It was found among some old books and manuscripts, sold by auction, previously to which they had been the property of an advocate named Don Pascual de GÁndara, who resided in the neighbouring town of San Fernando. Some writers on Spanish literature have hazarded the conjecture that the BuscapiÉ was a sort of key to Don Quixote, and that in it were indicated, if not named, the persons whom Cervantes is supposed to have satirized in his celebrated romance.[1] But such is not the fact. The BuscapiÉ is a vindication of Don Quixote against the unjust critical censure with which that Work was assailed on the appearance of its First Part, which was published in 1604. In the same year there is reason to believe that Cervantes wrote the BuscapiÉ. The manuscript copy of this little Work, recently discovered in CÁdiz, is in the scriptory character commonly in use about the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries. On the title page it is styled:—

“El muy donoso Librillo llamado BuscapiÉ
Donde, demas de su mucho y excellente Dotrina, van declaradas
Todas Aquellas Cosas Escondidas y no Declaradas en el
Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Que compuso un tal de Cervantes Saavedra.”[2]

Lower down, and in the same handwriting, are these words:—

Next are written the following words in the Portuguese language, and in characters, the apparent date of which may be assigned to the beginning of the eighteenth century:—

How this manuscript found its way to Portugal, and came back to Spain, there is no evidence to show. It was, however, purchased in CÁdiz, (at the sale of the books and manuscripts of the Advocate GÁndara), by its present possessor, Don Adolfo de Castro, to whom literature is now indebted for its appearance in a printed form, accompanied by some valuable and interesting bibliographic notes.

In the following English version of the BuscapiÉ, care has been taken to adhere with all possible fidelity to the spirit of the original; some occasional redundancy of expression has been compressed, and here and there passages have been abridged, which, if literally rendered, would in our language appear prolix and tedious.

With the highly curious bibliographical notes of Don Adolfo de Castro, (appended to the Volume), the translator has used the freedom of embodying additional illustrative matter, derived from sources furnished by her own acquaintance with Spanish literature. In notes affixed to the text, she has supplied information on some points, with which the Spanish reader, being presumed to be acquainted, were very naturally passed over unnoticed by Don Adolfo de Castro. It is, however, hoped that these notes may not appear superfluous to the English reader.

It has been thought desirable that the publication of this curious Work should be accompanied by some account of the author. The universal celebrity of Cervantes, and the biographical sketches prefixed to the various English editions of Don Quixote, have long since made the reader acquainted with some particulars of the life of that great writer. Nevertheless, it has been deemed advisable to attempt a new narrative of his life. That prefixed to the present Volume has been carefully compiled from the most authentic sources. The writer has drawn largely from the Spanish lives of Navarrete, Pellicer and De los RÍos: she has also attentively perused several German works of high authority; and by carefully comparing and collating the facts recorded by various writers, she has endeavoured to produce a more complete account of the great Spanish writer than has hitherto been offered to the English public.

A more skilful pen would, doubtless, have invested the narrative with that graceful colouring which its subject so well deserves; but, whilst fully conscious of her own deficiencies, the writer of the following Life feels that she may claim the merit of having industriously put together a number of curious and well authenticated facts relative to Cervantes;—facts the more interesting, inasmuch as they have hitherto been only very partially known.

London,
December 1, 1848.

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