Chapter I: Lazaro Relates the Way of His Birth and Tells Whose Son He Is

Parentage of Lazaro 4
Reason of his surname 4
Death of father. Mother in service 6
Stepfather. Little brown brother 6
Living on stolen goods 7
Helps at the inn 8

FIRST MASTER

HOW LAZARO TOOK SERVICE WITH A BLIND MAN

Service with the blind man 11
Farewell to his mother 11
Cruel trick of the blind man 12
Sagacity of the blind man 15
The blind man’s resources and avarice 16
Inside of the knapsack 17
Contrivance with half blancas 17
Ways of getting at the wine 18
Blind man’s cruel revenge 19
Coolness between them 20
Lazaro beaten. Blind man in the mud 21
Sharing a bunch of grapes 22
Trouble about the sausage 25
Lazaro’s revenge 28

SECOND MASTER

HOW LAZARO TOOK SERVICE WITH A CLERGYMAN, AND OF THE THINGS
THAT HAPPENED TO HIM

Out of the frying-pan into the fire 31
Nothing to eat in the house 31
Lazaro sinking into the silent tomb 32
Stinginess of the clergyman 33
Lazaro longs for the funeral feasts 33
An angel in form of a locksmith 35
Lazaro happy for a time 35
The priest counts the loaves 36
It was the rats 37
Rat-hole boarded up 38
Rat-hole reappears 41
Lazaro undid the repairs at night 41
Rat-trap adds cheese to Lazaro’s meal 42
It must be a snake 42
The key turns traitor 43
Lazaro half killed, and shown the door 44

THIRD MASTER

HOW LAZARO TOOK SERVICE WITH A GENTLEMAN, AND WHAT
HAPPENED TO HIM

Lazaro reaches Toledo and seeks for a master 47
He enters the service of an esquire 48
Taken to the esquire’s house 51
Nothing to eat in the house 51
Trouble ahead about food 52
Shares his bread with his master 53
Philosophical views of starvation 55
A wretched night 55
The esquire’s outward appearance 56
Secrets under the esquire’s cloak 59
Lazaro goes for water. What he sees 60
Lazaro waits for his master and food 61
Successful begging expedition 61
What touches the esquire’s honour 65
The esquire longs to share with Lazaro 65
Lazaro’s kindness and tact 66
Provides a supper for his master 67
Examines the esquire’s clothes 68
Kindly feeling for his master 68
Begging prohibited 69
Kept alive by shop-girls 69
Misery and starvation 70
The esquire bemoans his fate 70
Lazaro’s terror at the dead body coming 71
Lazaro bars the door 72
Door unbarred 73
The esquire’s story 73
His ideas of honour 74
The esquire disappears when asked for the rent 77
Creditors search the house 78
Lazaro taken into custody 81
Lazaro deserted by his master 82

FOURTH MASTER

HOW LAZARO TOOK SERVICE WITH A FRIAR OF THE ORDER
OF MERCY, AND WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM

The fourth master does not suit 83

FIFTH MASTER

HOW LAZARO TOOK SERVICE WITH A SELLER OF PAPAL
INDULGENCES

The seller of Indulgences curries favour with the
parochial clergy 84
Subtle contrivances 85
A sham quarrel 85
The sermon begun 87
Interruption 87
Hypocritical prayer 88
Sham miracle 89
The people taken in 90
The farce continued 91
Lazaro behind the scenes 92

SIXTH MASTER

HOW LAZARO TOOK SERVICE WITH A CHAPLAIN, AND HOW
HE PROSPERED

Lazaro becomes a water-carrier 95
Is able to wear good clothes 96

SEVENTH MASTER

HOW LAZARO TOOK SERVICE WITH A CONSTABLE, AND WHAT
HAPPENED AFTERWARDS

Lazaro’s prosperity continues 97
Gets a Government appointment 97
The archpriest of St. Saviour’s 98
Lazaro married 98
Evil tongues 99
A good understanding 100
Conclusion 103

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BY STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE

PAGE
Lazarillo begging _Frontispiece_
Lazarillo helps at the Inn 9
“He answered that he received me, not as his servant but
as his son” 13
Tailpiece 29
“‘It is the rats,’ he declared” 39
Tailpiece 46
“I followed him over a great part of the city” 49
“What there was we spread out” 57
“Gave me a piece of a cow’s foot and several pieces of
boiled tripe” 63
“They returned in the afternoon” 79
“The news soon spread to the neighbouring villages” 93
Tailpiece 96
“But evil tongues are never wanting” 101

_Sketch Map of Route at end of Volume._

INTRODUCTORY

THE FAMILY OF MENDOZA

[Sidenote: Descent of the author of _Lazarillo de Tormes_.]

The author of _Lazarillo de Tormes_ was a scion of one of the noblest families of Spain, and some account of it should precede a notice of the author’s life.[1]

[1] Doubt has been thrown on the authorship, but without
sufficient reason. See Antonio, _Bib. Nov._ i. 291.

Don Diego Lopez, Lord of Mendoza, in 1170 married Doña Eleanor Hurtado, heiress of Mendibil. She was the daughter of Fernan Perez de Lara called Hurtado, son of Pedro Gonzalez de Lara and of the Queen Urraca of Castille and Leon.

Don Lopez and Eleanor Hurtado had four sons: Inigo, Lord of Mendoza; Diego, Lord of Mendibil; Pedro Diaz, who was ancestor of the Mendozas of Seville; and Fernando, who founded the line in Portugal.

Inigo Lopez de Mendoza married Maria de Haro, and was father of Maria, the wife of her first cousin, Juan de Mendoza, son of her uncle Diego. Their son, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, in the time of Fernando II., married Maria Gonzalez de Aguero, and had a son Gonzalo.

This Gonzalo Hurtado de Mendoza married Juana Fernandez de Orozco, and was the father of a very distinguished son--of Pedro Gonzalez.

[Sidenote: A Mendoza saved the life of King Juan I. of Castille.]

Pedro Gonzalez Hurtado de Mendoza married Aldonza, daughter of Fernan Perez de Ayala. He was with Juan I., of Castille, at the battle of Aljubarrota. In the flight the King’s horse was killed. Mendoza dismounted and said to the King:--

El cavallo vos han muerto,[2]
Subid Rey en mi cavallo.

[2]

They have killed the horse of thine,
Save _thy_ life and mount on mine.

The King rode away. Mendoza was overtaken and slain. The date of the battle was August 14, 1385. His father survived him, dying in 1405.

The son of this chivalrous knight and successor to his grandfather was Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, married first to Maria, daughter of Enrique II., King of Castille, and secondly to Eleanor de la Vega. His son, Inigo Lopez, was by his second wife.

[Sidenote: The Poet Marquis of Santillana.]

Inigo Lopez Hurtado de Mendoza was born in 1396. He served with distinction at the battle of Olmedo, and was created Marquis of Santillana in 1445. He was opposed to Alvaro de Luna, the famous Minister of Juan II.

Born in the Asturias, the Marquis was a poet. Among his writings was a little _Serranilla_.

Moza tan fermosa
No vi en la frontera
Como una vaquera
De la Finojosa.

En un verde prado
De rosas y flores
Guardando ganado
Con otros pastores,

La vi tan fermosa
Que apenas creyera
Que fuese vaquera
De la Finojosa.

TRANSLATION

The sweetest girl without compare
In all my days I’ve ever seen
Was that young maid, so lithe and fair,
On Finojosa’s frontier green.

In pleasant shade of beech and pine
A verdant meadow did appear;
And here she watched the browsing kine
With other girls, but none like her.

By nature deck’d and well arrayed
She looked like some bright Summer Queen;
And not a common village maid
Of Finojosa’s frontier green.

But the chief poetical work of the Marquis of Santillana was the _Comedieta de Ponza_, founded on the story of a great sea-fight, near the island of Ponza, in 1435, between the Aragon fleet and the Genoese. At the request of King Juan II. he also made a _collection of proverbs_ for his son Enrique IV. This was the earliest collection of proverbs made in modern times.

[Sidenote: Children of the Marquis of Santillana.]

The noble poet married Catalina Suarez de Figueroa, daughter of Don Lorenzo Suarez de Figueroa, Lord of Feria and Zafra. The Marquis died in 1454, leaving ten children:--

1. Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, first Duke of Infantado.

2. Don Pedro Laso de Mendoza, married to Ines Carillo, Lady of
Mondejar. They had two daughters:--

1. Maria, married to the second Count of Tendilla.

2. Catalina, married to Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Celi.

3. Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, first Count of Tendilla, of whom we treat.

4. Don Lorenzo de Mendoza, first Count of Coruña.

5. Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Cardinal.

6. Don Juan de Mendoza, Lord of Colmenar.

7. Don Pedro de Mendoza, Lord of Sazedon.

8. Doña Mencia, wife of Don Pedro de Velasco, Count of Haro, Constable of Spain.

9. Doña Maria, married to Don Ajan de Ribero.

10. Doña Eleanor, wife of Gaston de la Cerda, second Count of Medina Celi, representative of the eldest son of Alfonso X. and therefore rightful King of Spain; the reigning family descending from the second son, the usurper Sancho.

Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza was created first Count of Tendilla in 1465. He was Captain-General of Andalusia. [Sidenote: The Counts of Tendilla.] He married Doña Elvira de Quiñones, daughter of Don Diego Fernandez, Lord of Luna. Their children were:--

1. Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, second Count of Tendilla.

2. Don Diego de Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville.

3. Don Pedro de Mendoza, married to Juana Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca.

4. Doña Catalina, wife of Don Diego de Sandoval, Marquis of Denia.

5. Doña Mencia, wife of Don Pedro Carillo, Lord of Toralva.

Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, second Count of Tendilla and first Marquis of Mondejar, Grandee of Spain and Viceroy of Granada. He married his first cousin, Doña Maria Laso de Mendoza, but had no children by her. He married, secondly, Doña Francisca Pacheco, daughter of the Duke of Escalona, by whom he had eight children:--

1. Don Luis de Mendoza, third Count of Tendilla, Viceroy of Navarre, President of the Council of the Indies, second Marquis of Mondejar, Captain-General of Granada.

2. Don Bernardo de Mendoza, slain at St. Quentin, 1557.

3. Don Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of Peru, 1550.

4. Don Francisco de Mendoza, Bishop of Jaen.

5. Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, of whom we treat.

6. Don Bernardino de Mendoza, General of the galleys.

7. Doña Maria de Mendoza, wife of the Count of Monteagudo.

8. Doña Maria Pacheco, married to Don Juan de Padilla.

Veinte y tres generaciones
La prosapia de Mendoza
No hay linage en toda España
De quien conozca
Tan notable antiguedad.
LOPE DE VEGA.

DON DIEGO HURTADO DE MENDOZA, AUTHOR OF “LAZARILLO DE TORMES”

Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza was the fifth son of the Marquis of Mondejar and Count of Tendilla, first Spanish Governor of Granada, by Francisca Pacheco, daughter of the Duke of Escalona.

The Governor had a palace in the Alhambra near the Torre de Picos, which is now demolished. But the smaller house of his esquire, Antasio de Bracamonte, still stands in a garden, built against the exquisite little mosque on the walls. There are three shields of arms carved on the walls of Bracamonte’s house.

The palace and the esquire’s house, both within the walls of the Alhambra, looked across the valley of the Darro to the Albaicín. Both buildings were surrounded by gardens and fruit-trees. [Sidenote: Birth of Don Diego in the Alhambra.] In this romantic spot Diego was born in the year 1503, and he passed his early years with his brothers and sisters there. Pedro Martir de Angleria was his tutor. At an early age he went to the university of Salamanca, where he learnt Latin, Greek, and Arabic, and studied canon and civil law.

[Sidenote: Don Diego at Salamanca.]

While he was a student at Salamanca Don Diego wrote _Lazarillo de Tormes_.

On leaving the university Don Diego went to serve with the Spanish armies in Italy. [Sidenote: His services in Italy.] He also attended lectures at Rome, Bologna, and Padua, and was a profound scholar as well as a statesman and a soldier. Charles V. appreciated his ability and his acquirements. In 1538, at the age of thirty-five, he was appointed Ambassador at Venice. He assisted and patronised the Aldi, and Josephus was first printed complete from his library. Afterwards he was for some time Military Governor of Sienna; and he was sent to the Council of Trent to maintain the imperial interests there. His next employment was at Rome, as special Plenipotentiary to rebuke and overawe Pope Julius III., which he did.

Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza returned to Spain in 1554 at the age of fifty. [Sidenote: The library.] He was not appreciated by Philip II. and seldom came to Court, living, with his splendid library, in his house at Granada.

In his retirement he wrote a good deal of poetry. But his great work was the _Guerra de Granada_, a narrative of the rebellion of the Moors in 1568-1570. [Sidenote: The _Guerra de Granada_.] He did the Moors such impartial justice that his book could not be published until many years after his death. Sallust was his model. The first edition appeared in 1610, and the second more complete edition at Valencia in 1776. It is one of the finest pieces of prose-writing in the Spanish language.

In his last years Don Diego found much pleasant employment in his library. [Sidenote: Last days.] He corresponded with Zurita, the historian of Aragon, telling him how the work of looking over his books reminded him of many long-forgotten things, and supplied him with much food for thought. While in Italy he had been diligent in obtaining Greek MSS., and in other respects his library was quite unique. He bequeathed it to Philip II., and it is now in the Escurial.

[Sidenote: Death of Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza.]

Don Diego died at Madrid in April 1575, aged 72.

THE BOOK, “LAZARILLO DE TORMES”

Ticknor[3] describes _Lazarillo de Tormes_ as “a work of genius unlike anything that had preceded it. [Sidenote: Ticknor’s opinion of the work.] Its object is to give a pungent satire on all classes of society. It is written in a very bold, rich, and idiomatic Castilian style. Some of its sketches are among the most fresh and spirited that can be found in the whole range of prose works of fiction. Those of the friar and the seller of Indulgences were put under the ban of the Church.” They were expurgated by the Inquisition in 1573, when an expurgated edition was published at Madrid, and in the _Index Expurgatorius_ of 1667.

[3] _History of Spanish Literature_, i. 469-71.

The first edition in Spain was published at Burgos in 1554.[4] It is excessively rare. [Sidenote: First edition.] There is a copy at Chatsworth, but none in the British Museum. The Duke of Devonshire allowed the late Mr. H. Butler Clarke to transcribe his copy of the first edition. This was done with great care, exactly as it was printed. In 1897 Mr. Butler Clarke printed 250 copies at Oxford, with a facsimile of the old title-page.

[4] Brunet mentions an Antwerp edition of 1553.

Many other editions followed the first of 1554.[5] In Mr. Grenville’s library there is an Antwerp edition (12mo) of 1555, [Sidenote: Value of copies.] for which he paid seven guineas. Colonel Stanley’s copy fetched £31:10s.; Mr. Hanroth’s, £20:10s. The Paris editor of 1827 could only find a 1595 edition.

[5] At Tarragona, 1586; Zaragoza, 1595; Medina del Campo and
Valladolid, 1603; Zaragoza again, 1652, with Luna’s second part;
Madrid, 1664, without the second part. There was a new edition
published at Paris in 1847, with the second parts.

A second part, by some wretched scribbler, soon appeared, without any merit. It makes Lazarillo go to sea in the Algiers expedition of 1541. The ship founders, he sinks to the bottom, crawls into a cave, and is turned into a tunny fish. [Sidenote: Spurious second parts.] He is then caught in a seine, returns by an effort of will to the human form, and finally goes to live at Salamanca. There was another second part by Juan de Luna, a teacher of Spanish at Paris. It continues the story by making Lazaro serve several other masters, and then become a religious recluse. Both second parts are miserable rubbish, and ought never to be reprinted.

Yet they are included in recent Spanish editions, which is much to be deplored. For the work itself is a classic. In at least two instances the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy refers to _Lazarillo de Tormes_ as an authority for the meaning of words.

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

_Lazarillo de Tormes_ was first translated into English by David Rowlands of Anglesey. He called it _The Pleasant History of Lazarillo de Tormes drawn out of Spanish_. It was published by Abel Jeffes in the Fore Street without Grepell-gate near Groube Street at the sign of the Bell, and dedicated to Sir Thomas Gresham. It contains the Prologue, and a short chapter at the end about Lazaro’s continued prosperity, which is not in the first edition of 1554. This is the best translation. It was published in 1586.

A new edition appeared in 1596, also published by Abel Jeffes, who had then removed to the Blacke Fryers near Puddle Wharfe. There were twenty editions or reprints, and _Lazarillo_ was exceedingly popular with the Elizabethan reading public.

James Blakiston brought out a new edition in 1653 dedicated to Lord Chandos. It consists of the translation by David Rowlands, omitting the Prologue, and of a translation of the spurious second part by Juan de Luna. Another edition appeared in 1669, another in 1677. The title is _The Excellent History of Lazarillo de Tormes, the witty Spaniard_.

In 1726 there appeared _The Life and Adventures of Lazarillo de Tormes, with twenty curious copper cuts_. In 1727 the nineteenth edition was published. This version is a bad translation, omits the Prologue, and includes the spurious second parts.

The worst performance of all was the edition of 1789 in two volumes. The type is better, but it is a very careless reprint of a bad translation. It omits the execrable illustrations of the earlier editions. Spanish names are scarcely recognisable. Gelves is called “the battle of Geleas!” for Escalona we have “Evealona.”

All these translations are from late editions; none from the first edition.

NOTES ON THE CHARACTER OF LAZARO

The conception of the author, Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, was first to portray a boy, with everything against him, rising from the lowest rank of society to a prosperous condition, and to give a humorous account of his adventures; and secondly, to satirise certain types of men, the products of the age in which he wrote, through the medium of his boy hero.

The author himself was a boy at the time, or at least a very young man, a student at Salamanca. He had no model, and the conception was quite original. He makes Lazarillo de Tormes a boy of his own age. [Sidenote: The author made Lazaro’s age coincide with his own.] Don Diego was born in 1503. Assuming Lazarillo to have been born in 1503,[6] he was about 10 years old when he took service with the blind man, three years with his first three masters, and 14 years old when he took service with the seller of Indulgences. He carried on the business of water-carrier from the ages of 15 to 19, and was 20 when he married. That would bring him to 1523. The next year, when the Cortes met at Toledo, is made to be the year when Lazarillo de Tormes wrote the story of his life. Doubtless it was the year when Don Diego really completed his little romance, also aged 21.

[6] Lazarillo was about eight years old when his father went in
the Gelves expedition in 1510.

In conceiving the character of Lazaro it is likely that the young student had in his mind what he himself might have been, if he had been born in the same obscurity. [Sidenote: The author’s conception of the two destinies.] “The two destinies”[7] were framed out of a noble and an ignoble birth, success in the latter case being far more meritorious than in the former. We find this reflection in the last sentence of the Prologue, where Don Diego points out how much more those have done who, not being favoured by noble birth, have, nevertheless, by cleverness and force of character, arrived at a good estate. If this idea of a boy such as the author, but without his noble birth and other advantages, was in Don Diego’s mind, we should expect to find Lazaro portrayed as a boy of a naturally good disposition and fine instincts, whose bad qualities were due to his lowly birth and vicious surroundings. It is just such a boy as this that Don Diego presents to us.

[7] See Sir Francis Doyle’s poem.

Nothing could be worse than poor Lazaro’s home. His mother was a widow who had intimacies with a groom of Moorish blood, had a child by him, and lived on the proceeds of his thieving, while Lazaro was employed to dispose of the stolen goods. [Sidenote: Lazaro’s baneful surroundings as a child. His mother not unfeeling.] When they were found out, the widow’s position became most precarious. Just then the wonderfully clever and plausible blind man appeared on the scene. He offered what, in comparison with the boy’s lot with his mother, seemed to be a decent provision. She is accused of unfeeling conduct in thus parting with her son. I do not think this is intended. The poor woman did what she thought was best for the child, and their parting was sorrowful and affectionate. Don Diego made her a thief and worse, but not a mother without feeling.

The account of the professional cleverness and knowledge of the blind man is very interesting, but, in spite of it all, the little boy seems to have held his own to some extent with the old rascal. [Sidenote: Capital stories most amusingly told.] The trick with the half blancas, the story of the wine, and of the bunch of grapes, are capitally told and very amusing. It is true that the old man was handicapped by his blindness, though his strength, cleverness, and experience made up for it. He treated Lazaro abominably, but it must be acknowledged that, great as the provocation was, the boy’s revenge was cruel and unfeeling. He was sorry afterwards, for he wrote that his understanding was blinded in that hour.

The boy’s ingenious ways of getting at the provisions of his second master, who was starving him, are capitally and most amusingly told. But the funniest and most witty story in the book is the boy’s terror at the coffin he believed to be coming to the house, and the reason he thought so.

With the first two masters it was an incessant fight against starvation. Lazaro’s resourceful ingenuity was conspicuous, and, under the circumstances, he had a perfect right to use all his wits against the wretches who ill-treated him. But there was no opportunity of bringing out his finer qualities.

With the third master it was very different. He was a penniless esquire, starving himself, and so excessively proud that he thought only of concealing his poverty. Lazaro had to resort to begging, and so he kept his poor master, as well as himself, alive. Here Lazaro comes out in an excellent light. [Sidenote: Lazaro’s higher qualities shown in his intercourse with the esquire.] He was not only kind-hearted and generous, but he showed tact and a wish to avoid hurting the poor proud creature’s feelings. Don Diego thus shows his hero in the light of one of nature’s gentlemen. The esquire’s account of himself, and his views of honour and its obligations are interesting, as showing a type of character which was common in Spain in those days. It was more elaborately portrayed by Cervantes.

Lazaro is made to tell the story of the seller of Indulgences, and a very amusing story it is, no doubt true to life. For it aroused the anger of the Inquisition, and was expurgated from future editions. But Lazaro merely appears as a narrator; and his character is not developed; though it is in the rapid sketch of his rise to prosperity. [Sidenote: Development of Lazaro’s character.] He was a lad who was liked. His girl-friends who were kind to him in adversity, as well as the archpriest and many others who were good friends when he rose to prosperity, showed that he was a favourite among those with whom he came in contact.

His marriage brought him great advantages. Critics have called it disgraceful, because we are told that evil tongues suggested that the girl had been the archpriest’s mistress. But there is nothing in the narrative to justify the belief that the evil tongues did not lie. On the contrary, the conclusion is the other way, and the story ends with a defence of his wife by Lazaro himself.

The work is the production of a genius. [Sidenote: Merits of the work.] Its originality, and the admirable way in which the stories in it are told make it deserving of a wider audience, though of course it is well known to students of the literature of Europe. Seldom has so much wit, fun, and wisdom been gathered into so small a compass.