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[Pg lvi][Pg lvii]

For the present edition a new translation has been prepared. It proceeds on the one sound principle of translating from the original as faithfully as possible, without either omission or addition. The task of rendering the Galatea into English is less trying, and therefore less tempting, than the task of rendering Don Quixote or the Novelas exemplares; but the Galatea offers numerous difficulties, and it will be found that these have been very satisfactorily overcome by Dr. Oelsner and Mr. A. Baker Welford. They have the distinction of producing the first really adequate translation of the Galatea in any language.

JAS. FITZMAURICE-KELLY.

February, 1903.

FOOTNOTES:

ssss1 The article on Cervantes in Nicolás Antonio's Bibliotheca Hispana (Roma, 1672), vol. ii., p. 105, is bibliographical rather than biographical. In Antonio's time practically nothing was known concerning the details of Cervantes's life. It is curious that the first writer to attempt a biography of Cervantes was a foreigner—possibly Peter Motteux, whose English translation dates from 1700: a biographical sketch, entitled An Account of the Author, was included in the third volume (London, 1703). The following sentences, which I quote from the first volume of the third edition (London, 1712), are not without interest:—