Tolondron. Speeches to John Bowle about His Edition of Don Quixote, Together with Some Account of Spanish Literature
Journal article by Joseph Baretti; Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America, Vol. 23, 2003
Journal Article Excerpt
Tolondron. Speeches to John Bowle about His Edition of Don Quixote, Together with Some Account of Spanish Literature. by Joseph Baretti Cosa digna de embidia |
Es el consuelo que gastan
Los Bobos en este mundo,
Y aquella gran confianza
De que imaginan, que son
Sentencias las patochadas.
Antonio de Solis. (1)
| London: Printed for R. Foulder, 1786. |
Ad Doctum Milordum
Epistola Cocaiana.
O Macaronei Merlini, care Milorde,
Qui joca fautor armas, capriciosque probas!
Cui, debata inter, Parlamentique facendas,
Gustum est privatis ludere quisquiliis!
Hunc tibi commendo, preclare Milorde, libellum
Scarabochiatum poco labore meo.
Impertinenzas narrat, magnasque bugias
Commentatoris serio-ridiculi;
Qui multas linguas et multa idiomata noscens,
Nescit quam didicit matris ab ore puer:
Qui bravo binas Quixoto praescidit aures,
Nasum Sanchoni sanguinieumque dedit:
Qui, tanquam sutor veteramentarius esset,
Johnsono impegit scommata foeda sopho:
Qui, sine vergognae grano, quasi rana, coaxat,
Innocuas operas vilificando meas.
Hic ego tento suum livorum cotundere iniquam,
Quo mundum totum pestiferare velit:
Tento, si critico randello rumpere dorsum
Mulescum possum, dando, redando bene.
O si Flacceiis mea Musa tocaret iambis,
Et rabies numeris Archilochea foret!
Praecipitem hunc agerem, donec, velut ipse Lycambes,
Fune sibi collum fregerit ante diem!
Anne probent Britones, Scoti, Hibernique libellum
Stregonus tantum vaticinare potest.
At, si Milordum, venesonis instar arostae,
Delectat, bene sit! fin minus, ah, chime! (2)
| Just as Bowle's Letter to Dr. Percy marks the beginning of modern Cervantine scholarship, this book inaugurates Cervantine controversy. It is not the first written about Cervantes or his works--that honor goes to Edmund Gayton's Pleasant Notes on Don Quixot [sic], of 1654 (3)--but it is the first book devoted to a Cervantine scholar or Cervantine scholarship. In it, the lexicographer Baretti, whose life was marked by one controversy after another, to the point that he had to leave Italy and settled in England, damns the peaceful John Bowle and his edition up and down. (4) As stated by Truman in his article in this same issue of Cervantes, (5) Baretti's attack contributed to Bowle's demise. It may be thought strange to reproduce an attack on Bowle, whose accomplishments I have elsewhere praised. That I do so is in part because of its literary quality. In a sense it is also a tribute to Bowle, and allows readers to see for themselves the treatment he received. Its tone is, to be sure, not missing from modern discussions of Cervantine editions, in which we find articles such as "'Por Hepila famosa,' o cómo no editar el Quijote," (6) or "Ahí va otra: Lamentaciones sobre las últimas ediciones quijotescas." (7) It was a harder decision not to reproduce the two shorter documents referred to in it and in Truman's article. These are what Baretti calls his "Spanish Dissertation," (8) and Bowle's Remarks on the Extraordinary Conduct of the Knight of the Ten Stars and his Italian Esquire, in a Letter to the Rev. J. S. D.D., or in Baretti's words, his "Letter to a Divinity-Doctor." Both of these, to my knowledge, exist only in the Bodleian Library. However, the topic of Baretti's "dissertation" is Spanish orthography, and Cervantes is not the right place for it. Bowle's subject is the shortcomings and errors of Baretti, and these are of much less interest than Baretti's attack on Bowle. Since orthography and accentuation are issues in this controversy, they have been left exactly as in the original, except for changes indicated in the footnotes. For their assistance I would like to express my appreciation to R. W. Truman, Nancy Mayberry, Alicia Mongui, Francisco Rico, Eduardo Urbina, and Hilaire Kallendorf. Daniel Eisenberg TOLONDRON. A PREFACE, Which is no Preface.To my indubitable knowledge, there is no Bookmaker in all England, and I might as well say in all France, or any other country you please, but what finds it a very puzzling affair to contrive his first page so cleverly, as to make sure of his Reader's good wishes, when on the eve of going a journey to Scribbleland: and this is punctually my case. Tomorrow, or next day at farthest, I am resolved to set out for it, be the roads ever so bad, the season unpropitious, and the hopes of success uncertain: and to bespeak those good wishes, you may well guess, is what I have now mightily at heart, as it is very uncomfortable on such occasions, not to have a friendly soul to bid you good-bye: but, whether that my Fancy has lost the use of her [4] legs by staying constantly ... |
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