." We have the word
"laboureurs" applied to substantial farmers, (1, 2, 7.) This is a
translation of "labradores," to which the French word does not
correspond, as it means properly, men dependent on daily labour for
their daily bread. "J'ai fait elever," says the schoolmaster of Olmedo,
"un theatre, sur lequel, Dieu aidant, je ferai representer par mes
_disciples_ une piece que j'ai composee. Elle a pour titre les jeunes
amours de Muley Bergentuf Roi de Moroi." "_Disciples_" is a translation
of "discipulos." A French writer would have said "eleves." Again, the
title of the Pedant's play is thoroughly Spanish. It was intended to
ridicule the habit which prevailed in Spain, after the expulsion of the
Moriscoes in 1610, of adapting for the stage Moorish habits and
amusements, by making a stupid pedant in an obscure village, select them
as the subject of his tragedy.

Describing the insolence of the actors, Gil Blas says, "Bien loin de
traiter d'excellence les seigneurs, elles ne leur donnoient pas meme _de
la seigneurie_." This would hardly be applicable to the manners of the
French. The principal of Lucinde's creditors, "se nommoit Bernard
Astuto, qui meritoit bien son nom." The signification of the name is
clear in Spanish; but in French the allusion is totally without meaning.
This probably escaped Le Sage in the hurry of composition, or it would
have been easy to have removed so clear a mark of translation. The
following mark is still stronger. Speaking of Simon, the bourgeois of
Chelva, he says--"Certain Juif, qui s'est fait Catholique, mais dans le
fond de l'ame il est encore _Juif comme Pilate_." Now, the lower classes
of Spain perpetually fall into this error of calling Pilate a Jew; and
this is a trait which could hardly have occurred to a foreign writer,
however well acquainted with Spain, much less to a writer who had never
set his foot in that country. Here we cannot help observing, that the
whole scene from which this passage is taken is eminently Spanish. In
Spain only was such a proceeding possible as the scheme for deprecating
Simon, executed by Lucinda and Raphael. The character of the victim, the
nature of the fraud, the absence of all suspicion which such proceedings
would necessarily provoke in any other country, are as conclusive proofs
of Spanish origin as moral evidence can supply. Count Guliano is found
playing with an ape, "pour dormir _la siesta_." Lucretia says to Gil
Blas, "Je vous rends de tre