Seventh Master
How Lazaro Took Service With a Constable and What Happened Afterwards
Having taken leave of the chaplain, I entered the service of a constable, but stayed a very short time with him, for my occupation appeared to me to be dangerous, especially one night when we were attacked with stones and sticks. They treated my master badly, but they could not catch me. This business made me retire from the constable’s service.
Lazaro gets a Government appointment, and is married.
Thinking how I should live so as to find some rest and save a little for my old age, it pleased God to enlighten me, and to put me on a profitable road. With the favour of friends and patrons all my labours and hardships, up to that time, were repaid, on reaching what I sought and obtained. This was a Government appointment such as enabled no one to thrive except those who occupied it. In it I live and reside to this day, in the service of God and your Honour. My duty is to have charge of the inspection of wine that is sold in this city, as well at public sales as elsewhere, also to accompany those who are condemned for default, and to cry out their transgressions, being a crier speaking in good Castilian. It has happened also that almost everything appertaining to the office passes through my hands, throughout the whole city. He who wants to draw wine for sale may reckon on deriving little profit, unless Lazaro de Tormes is consulted in the matter.
At this time his Honour the Archpriest of St. Saviour’s,28 my lord and the friend of your worship, seeing my cleverness and noticing my presentable appearance when employed by him in announcing his wines, made an arrangement that I should marry one of his servant girls. Seeing myself that this would bring me benefits and favours, I gave my consent. I was married to her, and to this day I have had no reason to repent it, for I found her to be a good girl and diligent in service. I have favour and help from my lord the Archpriest. He always gives us during the year a load of wheat, meat on festivals, sometimes loaves of fine bread, and the shoes he has left off wearing. He arranged for us to rent a small house near his own. On almost every Sunday and on feast days we dine in his house.
Evil tongues.
But evil tongues are never wanting, and never let people live in peace. They said I know not what about my wife, because she went to make the bed and cook the dinner, and in this they spoke the truth, but she was not a woman who would give occasion for their scoffing. My lord the Archpriest had promised what I think he will perform, and one day he spoke to me fully on the subject. “Lazaro de Tormes,” he said, “he who listens to evil tongues will never prosper. I say this because your wife may be seen entering my house and leaving it. She comes with honour to herself and to you, and this I promise you. Do not attend to what they say, and be assured that what I tell you is for your good.” I replied that I was determined to care for and preserve my honesty. “It is true,” I said, “that some of my friends have spoken to me about this, and have even certified to me that before I was married to my wife she had borne a child three times, speaking with reverence to your Worship.” My wife took such oaths on the subject that I thought the house would come down upon us, and then she began to weep and to curse the day she had married me. She went on in such a way that I wished I had died before I let such words out of my mouth.
A good understanding.
I on one side and the Archpriest on the other entreated her to leave off crying, and I swore that never in all my life would I refer to the matter again. I declared that I should rejoice to see her go in and out of our patron’s house whenever she liked, as I was convinced of her honesty. So we all three continued to have a good understanding as to this, and have never heard more about it. When any one tries to say anything I stop him by saying: “Look here! if you are a friend do not say anything that will annoy me, for I do not look upon him as my friend who causes me sorrow, more especially if he tries to make trouble between me and my wife, for she is the thing in the world that I care for most. I love her, and may God show favour to her. She is a far better wife than I deserve, and I swear before the consecrated host that she is as good a woman as can be found within the gates of Toledo. He who says the contrary shall answer to me for it.” By this means I manage that they shall say nothing, and I have peace in my house.
Conclusion.
This was in the same year that our victorious Emperor entered into this famous city of Toledo, and held the Cortes here,29 and there were great rejoicings as your Worship will have heard. At this time I was prosperous and at the summit of all good fortune.
Footnotes
1 Doubt has been thrown on the authorship, but without sufficient reason. See Antonio, Bib. Nov. i. 291.
2 They have killed the horse of thine,
Save thy life and mount on mine.
3 History of Spanish Literature, i. 469-71.
4 Brunet mentions an Antwerp edition of 1553.
5 At Tarragona, 1586; Zaragoza, 1595; Medina del Campo and Valladolid, 1603; Zaragoza again, 1652, with Luna’s second part; Madrid, 1664, without the second part. There was a new edition published at Paris in 1847, with the second parts.
6 Lazarillo was about eight years old when his father went in the Gelves expedition in 1510.
7 See Sir Francis Doyle’s poem.
8 Cervantes knew his Lazarillo well. He copies this quotation and puts it into the mouth of the curate when he was examining the books of Don Quixote.
9 Tejares is a small village on the left bank of the river Tormes, about two miles from Salamanca. It consists of a church dedicated to San Pedro, and about fifty houses on the skirts of a hill.
10 The river Tormes rises in the Sierra de Gredos, a range of hills dividing Estremadura from Old Castille, on the confines of the province of Avila. Its chief sources are a large sheet of water called the “Laguna de Gredos,” and a perennial stream called “Tornella.” Receiving several streams from the Gredos hills, the Tormes flows north, passing by Alba de Tormes, where there is a stone bridge; and then turns north-west, passing Salamanca, where there is another fine stone bridge, and Ledesma. Finally, it falls into the Douro, on the Portuguese frontier. The Tormes turns many flour mills.
11 This expedition against the Moors started from Malaga under the command of Don Garcia de Toledo in 1510, when Lazarillo was seven years old. The fleet first touched at Sicily and then made for the island of Los Gelves, off the African coast, between Tunis and Tripoli, now called Zerbi. With Toledo were Diego de Vera and Count Pedro Navarro. Zerbi was a low sandy island covered with palm-trees, ruled by a Sheikh of its own. The army landed on the 8th of August 1510. But the Spaniards fell into an ambuscade and were defeated, Toledo being among the slain. Four thousand were killed or taken prisoners. The rest escaped to the ships and returned to Sicily. Toledo was a grandson of the first Duke of Alva.
12 Comendadores were knights of the Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcantara. Each had a title affixed to their knighthood. The Comendador of La Magdalena was a knight of the Order of Alcantara.
13 See note, p. 5.
14 There was a huge mass of granite rudely carved in the shape of an animal, which had been on the bridge from time immemorial; and which Lazarillo thought was like a bull. Its great weight was considered a danger, and it was removed about thirty years ago. It is now in the vestibule of the cloister of San Domingo at Salamanca, but without a head.
15 The copper maravedi was a coin the value of which varied. It may be taken as a penny. The blanca was so called from the whiteness of the metal of which it was made. In the time of Alonso XI. there were three blancas to the maravedi. From 1497 the maravedi was worth two blancas. The great dictionary of the Spanish Academy quotes Lazarillo de Tormes as the authority for the value of the blanca and half blanca, or farthing.
16 Almorox is a village with three hundred houses formed in irregular streets and an open square. The church of San Cristoval has a fine north door. The place belonged to the Duke of Escalona. Its vineyards produce wine like Valdepeñas. It is about twelve miles from the town of Escalona.
17 The Duke of Escalona was the maternal grandfather of the author. The town of Escalona is on the right bank of the river Alberche, and about one hundred feet above it. Escalona is twenty-five miles north-west of Toledo. It was surrounded by a wall ten feet thick and thirty feet high, with two gates. In the principal square there were arcades and a stone cross. Juan II. gave Escalona to the Constable Alvaro de Luna in 1424, who built a great palace there, which was demolished by the French under Marshal Soult. King Henry IV. gave Escalona to Juan Pacheco, the Master of Santiago. In Lazarillo’s time it belonged to Don Diego Lopez de Pacheco, second Duke of Escalona and Marquis of Villena. He distinguished himself in the last Moorish war in Granada, and died in 1529. He resided in the old palace built by the Constable Alvaro de Luna, where he dispensed hospitality, among many others to Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman (see translation of that young adventurer’s life and acts, p. 71, Hakluyt Society, 1862). Madoz states that, in his time, Escalona consisted of 190 houses, population 580.
18 Nabo, called colewort in the Neuman and Baretti dictionary. More likely what Gervase Markham (Country Farm, p. 185) calls “navet,” a sort of small turnip.
19 See p. 98.
20 The “pillar” was a stone cross which still stands in the plaza of Escalona.
21 Torrijos is sixteen miles north-west of Toledo, and eight miles from the Tagus, in a valley on the road from Maqueda to Toledo. It was walled, and still has two old gateways. Madoz gives it 480 houses, and in the plaza is the palace of the Count of Altamira, built of stone. The church is dedicated to San Gil. Here Beatriz, the daughter of King Pedro by Maria de Padilla, was born in 1353. The country round yields abundant oil, and the place is sometimes called Torrijos de los Olivares.
22 Maqueda is six leagues north-west of Toledo, built on a hill, on the margin of a stream of the same name which falls into the Alberche, a tributary of the Tagus. It has 112 houses, scattered along badly paved dirty streets. There is an old castle, and two churches, San Juan Bautista and San Domingo. Water is abundant. Maqueda was taken from the Moors by Alfonso VI. in 1083, and in 1177 it was granted to the knights of Calatrava. Ferdinand and Isabella made Diego de Cardenas Duke of Maqueda.
23 Small loaves made of the finest flour, offered to the Church. The Dictionary of the Spanish Academy quotes Lazarillo de Tormes as the authority for the meaning of this word.
24 Escudero. The English equivalent is esquire; Latin, armiger. Selden says that the original of this title was the office or function of armiger or scutifer. Our esquire and the French escuyer are derived from Scutarius. In Froissart we have knights and esquires, in Spain cavalleros (knights) and escuderos (esquires).
25 The Duke of Arcos was a very grand nobleman. The title belonged to the family of Ponce de Leon, but before this was written the head of the family had become Duke of Cadiz, a title which was afterwards changed to that of Duke of Arcos. The second Duke was flourishing at this time, and died in 1590. Count, in the text, is a mistake. It should be Duke.
26 The “Pardoner,” or seller of Indulgences, was also caricatured in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a century and a half earlier.
27 A pardoner always had a sergeant or constable with him, to help him in such houses as refused to pay for their pardons at the appointed time.
28 Formerly there were two kinds of parishes in Toledo. Those of the Muzarabes, founded by the Gothic King Athanagild, the grandfather of St. Ildefonso, continued through Moorish times. They were existing when Alfonso VI. took Toledo in 1085. Their number was six, reduced to two. The others were called Latinas, formed afterwards, of which there were twenty reduced to nine. St. Saviour’s was one of the latter. It has been joined to that of San Pedro since Lazarillo’s time.
29 In 1525, at the time when Francis I. arrived as a prisoner at Madrid, Charles held a General Cortes of Castille at Toledo. There were present most of the Grandees, and all the foreign Ambassadors. The Viceroy Carlos de Lannoy arrived at Toledo, and was cordially received by the Emperor, after having brought Francis to Madrid. The Cortes petitioned Charles to marry Isabel, the Infanta of Portugal; while the English Ambassadors proposed to him his cousin, Mary Tudor. The Cortes sat until the end of August.—Sandoval, i. 664 (2).
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