SAAVEDRA, Michael de Cervantes, a celebrated Spanish writer, and the inimitable author of Don Quixote, was born at Madrid in the year 1541. From his infancy he was very fond of books; but he applied himself wholly to books of entertainment, such as novels and poetry of all kinds, especially Spanish and Italian authors. From Spain he went to Italy, either to serve Cardinal Aquaviva, to whom he was chamberlain at Rome, or else to follow the profession of a soldier, as he did for some years under the victorious banners of Marco Antonio Colonna. He was present at the battle of Lepanto, in the year 1571; in which he either lost his left hand by the shot of an harquebus, or had it so maimed that he lost the use of it. After this he[7:19:595] was taken by the Moors, and carried to Algiers, where he continued a captive five years and a half. Then he returned to Spain, and applied himself to the writing of comedies and tragedies; and he composed several, all of which were well received by the public, and acted with great applause. In the year 1584 he published his Galatea, a novel in six books, which he presented to Ascanio Colonna, a man of high rank in the church, as the first fruits of his wit. But the work which has done him the greatest honour, and will immortalize his name, is the history of Don Quixote, the first part of which was printed at Madrid in the year 1605. This is a satire upon books of knight-errantry, and the principal if not the sole end of it was to destroy the reputation of those books which had so infatuated the greater part of mankind, and especially those of the Spanish nation. This work was universally read; and the most eminent painters, tapestry-workers, engravers, and sculptors, have been employed in representing the history of Don Quixote. Cervantes, even in his lifetime, obtained the glory of having his work receive a royal approbation. As Philip III. was standing in a balcony of his palace at Madrid, viewing the country, he observed a student on the banks of the river Manzanares reading in a book, and from time to time breaking off, and beating his forehead with extraordinary tokens of pleasure and delight; upon which the king remarked to those about him, “That scholar is either mad or is reading Don Quixote.” The latter proved to be the case. But virtus laudatur et alget. Notwithstanding the vast applause his book everywhere met with, he had not interest enough to procure a small pension, for he could scarcely keep himself from starving. In the year 1615 he published a second part; to which he was partly moved by the presumption of some scribbler, who had the year before published a continuation of this work. He wrote also several novels, and amongst the rest the Troubles of Persiles and Sigismunda. He had employed many years in writing this novel, and finished it just before his death; for he did not live to see it published. His sickness was of such a nature that he himself was able to be, and actually was, his own historian. At the end of the preface to the Troubles of Persiles and Sigismunda, he represents himself on horseback upon the road, and a student, who had overtaken him, engaged in conversation with him. “And happening to talk of my illness,” says he, “the student soon let me know my doom, by saying it was a dropsy I had got; the thirst attending which, all the water of the ocean, though it were not salt, would not suffice to quench. Therefore Señor Cervantes, says he, you must drink nothing at all, but do not forget to eat; for this alone will recover you without any other physic. I have been told the same by others, answered I; but I can no more forbear tippling, than if I were born to do nothing else. My life is drawing to an end; and from the daily journal of my pulse, I shall have finished my course by next Sunday at the farthest. But adieu, my merry friends all, for I am going to die; and I hope to see you ere long in the other world, as happy as heart can wish.” His dropsy increased, and at last proved fatal to him; yet he continued to say and to write bon mots. He received the last sacrament on the l8th of April 1616; yet the day after, he wrote a dedication of the Troubles of Persiles and Sigismunda to the Conde de Lemos. The particular day of his death is not known.