Jauregui would have given him, to be engraved and put in the first page
of this book, according to custom. By that means he would have gratified
my ambition and the wishes of several persons, who would like to know
what sort of face and figure has he who makes bold to come before the
world with so many works of his own invention. My friend might have
written under the portrait--"This person whom you see here, with an oval
visage, chestnut hair, smooth open forehead, lively eyes, a hooked but
well-proportioned nose, & silvery beard that twenty years ago was
golden, large moustaches, a small mouth, teeth not much to speak of, for
he has but six, in bad condition and worse placed, no two of them
corresponding to each other, a figure midway between the two extremes,
neither tall nor short, a vivid complexion, rather fair than dark,
somewhat stooped in the shoulders, and not very lightfooted: this, I
say, is the author of 'Galatea,' 'Don Quixote de la Mancha,' 'The
Journey to Parnassus,' which he wrote in imitation of Cesare Caporali
Perusino, and other works which are current among the public, and
perhaps without the author's name. He is commonly called MIGUEL DE
CERVANTES SAAVEDRA. He was for many years a soldier, and for five years
and a half in captivity, where he learned to have patience in adversity.
He lost his left hand by a musket-shot in the battle of Lepanto: and
ugly as this wound may appear, he regards it as beautiful, having
received it on the most memorable and sublime occasion which past times
have over seen, or future times can hope to equal, fighting under the
victorious banners of the son of that thunderbolt of war, Charles V., of
blessed memory." Should the friend of whom I complain have had nothing
more to say of me than this, I would myself have composed a couple of
dozen of eulogiums, and communicated them to him in secret, thereby to
extend my fame and exalt the credit of my genius; for it would be absurd
to expect the exact truth in such matters. We know well that neither
praise nor abuse is meted out with strict accuracy.