Personalities of Modern Spain 55
We should remember that there never has been any litera-
ture so inspired by soldiers as the Spanish, for they were
always soldiers, in the army or in the spirit; it is essentially
a military literature. Cervantes is a symbol of the spirit
of Spain—he was a soldier, and he fought in that great
battle of Lepanto in 1571, in which he was seriously
wounded. Afterwards he was captured with his ship by
Algerian corsairs and brought to Africa, and he tells us
how he lived in imprisonment as a slave, and how he made
many attempts to escape, which always failed through the
disloyalty of others. He nevertheless was loyal and would
never tell; but always take the blame, so much so that the
Arabs instead of wrecking him still more by torture, treated
him better, because they respected him as an example of
noble manhood. Then he is ransomed and returns to Spain,
and his story is like that of so many in the Great War. He
returned after having given everything, all the best years of
his life, fighting for this idea of universal Spain, and he finds
that all has been forgotten, and instead of Spain being fit for
heroes to live in, he finds it in a sorry state. Nothing but
picaros, and hungry soldiers wandering about the country
and thronging the streets with beggars. All through life
he fought poverty, and on several occasions it was in the
debtor’s prison that he penned his works. Those are the
conditions under which writes this work, Don Quixote. He
conceived the idea while in prison. In the beginning his idea
was to satirize the Spaniards who tried to put all their be-
liefs in the pageant of Spanish World-Power: he wanted to
attack those who read nought but romances of chivalry and
dreamt of an impossible chivalry. But as soon as he starts to
create his hero, his hero rises and begins to live his own life
contrary to his author. Instead of being a pendant to a
satire, Don Quixote becomes the noblest knight that Spain