Lazarillo of Tormes | Page 7

is the
importance Luna gives to descriptive rather than psychological detail.
His minutely detailed descriptions of clothing are especially
noteworthy: the squire's "suit"; the gallant's clothing as he emerges
from the trunk; the costume worn by the girl who became a gypsy.
These are descriptions we do not find in the original Lazarillo because
the author of that work is much more interested in internal motivations
than external description and action.
Let us move on to another point: the social satire in the two novels. We
have seen the satire against the various classes, and particularly against
the church, in the first Lazarillo. And Luna's satire has the same targets.
The essential difference is in the way the two authors handle their darts.
The first Lazarillo is fairly subtle in its attacks: men are avaricious,
materialistic unscrupulous infamous--and these vices are sometimes
only very loosely connected with the church. But Luna wants us to
know definitely that the church is like this, so his satire of the church is
blunt and devastating. The Inquisition, he tells us plainly, is corrupt,
brutal, and feared throughout all of Spain. Priests and friars are always
anxious to accept a free meal, they have mistresses, and they are less
principled than thieves. Lawyers and the entire judicial system are
corrupt. The Spaniards, Luna tells us from his position of exile in Paris,
are too proud to work, and they will become beggars rather than
perform any sort of-manual labor. Lazaro himself is held up to us as a
"mirror of Spanish sobriety." Apparently Luna's anger about having to

leave Spain had no opportunity to mellow before he finished his novel.
Luna's Second Part of Lazarillo of Tormes is not the "First Part." But
even so, it has its merit. Luna liked to tell stories, and he was good at it.
Some scenes are witty and highly entertaining. When Lazaro meets his
old friends, the bawd and the "maiden," at an inn, the action is hardly
dull. The "quarter of kid" becomes the center of attraction from the
time it appears on Lazaro's plate until he falls and ejects it from his
throat, and it is used skillfully and humorously to tell us a great deal
about each of the characters present.
Another scene worth calling to the reader's special attention is the
chapter in which a feast is held that erupts into a brawl, after which the
local constabulary arrives. Luna's account is a very close predecessor of
the modern farce. Many of the elements seem to be present: a lack of
reverence, a situation used for comic effects, the chase through many
rooms to find the guests, the beatings that the constable's men are given
by the pursued, being "breaded" in flour, "fried" in oil, and left out on
the street where they run away, ashamed to be seen. It is as though we
are catching a glimpse of the Keystone Cops, seventeenth-century style.
And the variations from seventeenth to twentieth century do not appear
to amount to a great deal.
University of California at Los Angeles December 1972 ROBERT S.
RUDDER
Translator's Note
My translation of the first Lazarillo follows Foulche Delbosc's edition,
which attempts to restore the editio princeps but does not include the
interpolations of the Alcala de Henares edition. The translation of the
first chapter of the anonymous sequel of 1555 follows at the end of the
first part because it serves as a bridge between the first novel and
Luna's sequel. For Juan de Luna's sequel, the modern edition by Elmer
Richard Sims, more faithful to the manuscript than any other edition,
has been utilized.
A word of thanks is due to Professor Julio Rodriguez Puertolas, whose
own work was so often interrupted by questions from the outer sanctum,
and who nevertheless bore through it all with good humor, and was
very helpful in clearing up certain mysteries in the text.
The seventy-three drawings [not included in this electronic text] were
prepared by Leonard Bramer, a Dutch painter who was born in 1596

and died in 1674. Living most of his life in Delft, he is best known for
his drawings and for his illustrations of Ovid's writings and of other
works of literature. The original drawings are in the keeping of the
Graphische Sammlung in Munich.
R.S.R.

THE LIFE OF LAZARILLO OF TORMES, HIS FORTUNES AND
MISFORTUNES AS TOLD BY HIMSELF
Prologue
I think it is good that such remarkable things as these, which may never
have been heard of or seen before, should come to the attention of
many people instead of being buried away in the tomb of oblivion.
Because it might turn out that someone who reads about them will like
what he reads, and even people who only glance lightly through this
book may