41
Riley, pp. 67-70.
42
Both are, in fact, different expressions of the aspiration to regain Paradise. The concept is conventional in the Renaissance; E. M. W. Tilliard notes, for example: «More fundamental than any Aristotelian belief that poetry was more instructive than history or philosophy was the neo-Platonic doctrine that poetry was man's effort to rise above his fallen self and to reach out towards perfection».... «The perfection is at once that of the Platonic Good and of the Garden of Eden..». Cf. The Elizabethan World Picture (New York: Macmillan, 1944), p. 21.
43
Avalle identifies the Bodas de Camacho in Don Quixote II as a realistic version of this episode (La novela pastoril, pp. 257-58). Compared to Basilio's action in Don Quixote, the error of Mireno's choice is especially clear. The two situations are identical, but Basilio counters adverse fortune with industria and ingenio and wins back his beloved Quiteria. Mireno, on the other hand, without faith and hope lacks the fortitude to seek such a remedy. Mireno's attitude and state of mind are similar to Grisóstomo's and Cardenio's in Don Quixote I (cf. Javier Herrero, «Arcadia's Inferno..»., pp. 289-99, and also his article, «Sierra Morena as Labyrinth: From Wilderness to Christian Knighthood», FMLS 17 [1981], 55-67). His attitude toward love also compares to that of the characters in Montemayor's Diana (cf. Solé-Leris, p. 77).
44
Cervantes' position on this point remains consistent in his later works, as shown by Marcel Bataillón, in «Cervantes y el matrimonio cristiano», in Varia lección de clásicos españoles (Madrid: Gredos, 1964), pp. 238-55.
45
The story of Timbrio and Silerio is a version of the traditional story of «los dos amigos». Cf. Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce, Nuevos deslindes cervantinos (Barcelona: Ariel, 1975), pp. 182-89. The theme of conflict between their friendship and their love for the same girl complements the situation in the main plot with Elicio, Erastro, and Galatea. This fact, the length of Silerio's and Timbrio's accounts, and the placement of the ending, near the moment of Elicio's choice, makes it the most important of the interpolated stories.
46
Empson, p. 249.
47
Empson, p. 140.
48
Obras completas II, 1460.
49
Marcel Bataillon, Erasmo y España. Estudios sobre la historia espiritual del siglo XVI (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1966). Segunda edición en español, corregida y aumentada, cap. XIV, IV, 801. 43
50
Antonio Vilanova, Erasmo y Cervantes (Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1949), cap. 2, 22-23.