HISTORY

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) was born in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). In 1571 he participated, ill, in the battle of Lepanto, where he lost the use of his left hand. Even so, I continue on other naval expeditions. When he decided to return to Spain in 1575, he was captured, along with his brother Rodrigo, and imprisoned in the prisons of Algiers. When his sisters and the trinitarian friars rescue him in 1580, Miguel finds himself confused in his own country, of which he was absent twelve years earlier. In 1584 he married Catalina Salazar. A year later he published Galatea (1585), a pastoral novel, with success, which I do not achieve in the theater. The unstable fortune in the game takes him in 1597 to the prison of Seville, where he had to meet characters that portray in his works. Already in 1605 the first part of The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha had appeared. His success was overwhelming and encouraged Cervantes to publish other writings: in 1613, the exemplary novel, the first work in Spanish attributed to the genre of the novel. Immediately, his poem travels from Parnassus and his eight comedies and eight canapés never before represented, both from 1614. The publication in 1615 of the second part of the ingenious knight "Don Quixote de la Mancha" confirms the success obtained with the first. He died on April 22. The work Don Quixote de la Mancha begins by describing Alonso Quijano, who by reading books on medieval cavalry went mad, and believing he was a knight-errant, Don Quixote de la Mancha was placed this July morning. He leaves his house, like a knight-errant, to undo the complaints. But he is assailed by the concern that he is not armed and that, for this reason, he can not and should not enter into combat with any knight. That day does not happen any adventure. He arrives at night to a sale, which he thinks is a castle, where he dines in the company of two prostitutes and the innkeeper, whom he imagines as two ladies and governor of the castle. After dinner, Don Quixote asks the governor of the castle to name him knight. This innkeeper, making sure of his lack of judgment, mocks him by making him believe that he is also a gentleman and telling him that if he put it together and advised him to provide himself with money and other indispensable things. Don Quixote believes that they take a captive lady and rush to the disciplinary. One of them receives the answer in the same way and knocks down Don Quixote. Sancho played to help him; and believing that he is dead praises him. They decide to return to the village of both in the charmed carriage (with the priest and the barber). They are received in his village: Sancho, for his wife, and Don Quixote for his mistress and niece. After a few days some dukes want to laugh at Don Quixote and Sancho and tell them that a princess is delighted and to disenchant her they have to climb a flying wooden horse. After this to make fun of Sancho they give him an island to govern called Barataria, and Don Quixote, to help him, recommends that he not say proverbs since they are nonsense, that he is clean and does not eat garlic or onions. The first thing they do to Sancho is to preside over a trial and then they take him to the palace to eat, but a doctor who takes care of his health does not allow him to eat any of the dishes because they can harm him, and humiliate him even more. Sancho is told that his island is going to be attacked, but since he is tired of being governor, he decides to leave and look for his master. When he has found his teacher, he goes to Zaragoza and they rest in a sale where they listen to the second part of Don Quixote written by Avellaneda. Don Quixote is very angry because the book says that he is no longer in love with Dulcinea and decides that he will not go to Zaragoza but to Barcelona. When he is in Barcelona he meets the knight of the white moon and challenges him, Don Quixote loses and is condemned to retire for a year, the knight of the white moon turns out to be the single Carrasco (great friend of Don Quixote) who returns to his house, trying for the second time. The first time you made him think that he was the knight of the forest, where he lost; At home, Don Quixote gets sick and says he was crazy and thought he was a gentleman and criticized the books of chivalry, his last words were: now I am not Don Quixote, now I am Alonso Quijano.