The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-06-06
THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION
Strange Ell Greco Goes to SPAIN
Written for The Times By Will Duramt

A FTER every defeat the Don be-
"A gins to talk Of the coming vic
tory, like Americans after an cleo
ton. He is full of hallucinatiOns,
seeing knights and armies every
where, like a young columnist Wis
ioning a revolution in Main Street;
he cannot believe it when Sancho
assures him it is only a flock Of
sheep, like the people of Main
Street. He is all passion without
knowledge, as Hamlet is all knowl-
edge without passion.
Yet our hearts go out to Quixote
There is something beautiful even
in this warm uninformed desire, as
the look Of a hungry man will
touch us more than a flawless argu-
ment; suffering cannot be refuted
And the world moves on as much
by this thoughtless passion as by
science without love.
This is the secret of the fascina-
ton exercised upon three centuries
by this artless tale; idealism lures
us, however we may kill it in our
lives. And though every literature
has initiated Cervantes - from lie
Sage to Fielding and Laurence
Sterne-and half of modern fiction
comes out Of "Quixote," as the other
half comes from the romantic
stream which he never quite stopped
not one of these others has ever
equalled their prototype, because
not one of them felt, beneath the
riotous story which he initiated, the
profound and melancholy philoso-
ply which makes this simple tale
reveal the essential comedy and
tragedy of human life.
When Don Quixote" appeared, it
struck the temper of the age, and
ran into several editions; it was OBJ
viously the book of its generation,
and was soon to be recognized as
the great book of Spain. King
Philip III, standing one day on the
balcony of his palace in Madrid, OBJ
served a student seated on the OPP
posite bank Of the ManzanareS
River.
The student was reading, but
every now and then he interrupted
his reading, and gave himself vio-
lent blows on the head, accom-
panied with outbursts of ecstasy
and mirth. "That student" said the
King, sis either out of his wits, or
he is reading Don QuiXote. "
II II
NEVERTHELESS the publishers
IN arranged that very little profit
should come to Cervantes from his
book; the world likes to think that
genius should be content with
genius, and not ask for bread. And
lust as the author was setting to
work on a second part, hoping that
this would bring him comfort, an
other author, Avellaneda, brazenly
brought out a continuation.
Cervantes ragged, but kept his
courage, working all the harder to
surpass the thief; and when part
two appeared in 1915 all agreed that
mo second part was ever good, "
except this one. But the effort had
exhausted the author. He describes
himself whimsically, at the age of Sc.
A man of acquiline visage, with
chestnut hair, smooth and I'M
ruff1ed brow, with sparkling brow
and a nose arched though well
proportioned, silver beard,
though twenty years ago it was
golden, large moustache, small
mouth, teeth not important, for
he had six of them, and those in
ill condition, and worse, placed
because they do not correspond
one with the other; the body be-
tween the ewo extremes, neither
large nor small, the complexion
bright, rather white than brown,
somewhat heavy shouldered, and
not very nimble on his feet.
Two years later he was taken
severely i'll from dropsy. His physi-
clan advised him to give up liquor;
IT replied, that many had told me
the same story; but that as for CIV
ing over drinking, they might as
well desire a man to give up the
, sole purpose of his being" He died
in April, 1916, within week of the
death of Shakespeare.
And now we shall pass without
hiatus from CervanteS to Ell Greco
when there is hardly any relation
ship between them except that
they were both Spaniards-and one
of them was not? For the great
iritiator of the Spanish Renaissance
in painting, as his name tells us,
was a Greek, Ell Greco; originally
Domenico Teatocopuli.
He had been born in Crete Ono