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To England belongs the credit of having been the first country to

recognise the right of "Don Quixote" to better treatment than this The

London edition of 1738, coested by him, was not aforards paper and type, and embellished with

plates which, if not particularly happy as illustrations, were at least

well intentioned and well executed, but it also aimed at correctness of

text, a matter to which nobody except the editors of the Valencia and

Brussels editions had given even a passing thought; and for a first

atteh soood many of them have been adopted by all subsequent

editors

The zeal of publishers, editors, and annotators brought about a

reard to "Don Quixote" A vast

nu over it It

became almost a crime to treat it as a humorous book The hu to the ne, it was rated as an

altogether secondary quality, a -horse under the presentation of which Cervantes shot his

philosophy or his satire, or whatever it was he meant to shoot; for on

this point opinions varied All were agreed, however, that the object he

aimed at was not the books of chivalry He said emphatically in the