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this unparalleled popularity, increasing year by year for well-nigh three

centuries? One explanation, no doubt, is that of all the books in the

world, "Don Quixote" is thein it for

every sort of reader, young or old, sage or sih or low As

Cervantes himself says with a touch of pride, "It is thuot by heart by people of all sorts; the children turn its leaves, the

young people read it, the grown men understand it, the old folk praise

it"

But it would be idle to deny that the ingredient which, more than its

hue of

human nature it displays, has insured its success with the h it It was the attack upon the sheep,

the battle with the wine-skins, Mambrino's helmet, the balsam of

Fierabras, Don Quixote knocked over by the sails of the windmill, Sancho

tossed in the blanket, the inally the great attraction, and perhaps are so still to

some extent with the enerally regarded at first, and indeed in Spain for a long tihable incidents and

absurd situations, very a, but not entitled to much consideration

or care All the editions printed in Spain from 1637 to 1771, when the

famous printer Ibarra took it up, were mere trade editions, badly and

carelessly printed on vile paper and got up in the style of chap-books

intended only for popular use, with, in most instances, uncouth

illustrations and clap-trap additions by the publisher