contained in 10th book,
-- Rafael and Lucinda, contained in 5th book, 1st chapter,
-- Samuel Simon en Chelva, contained in 6th book, 1st
chapter,
-- Laura, contained in 7th book, 7th chapter,
-- Don Anibal de Chinchilla, contained in 7th book, 12th
chapter,
-- Valerio de Luna and Inesilla Cantarilla, contained in
8th book, 1st chapter,
-- Andres de Tordesillas, Gaston de Cogollos, and Elena de
Galisteo, contained in 9th book, 4th, 11th, and 13th
chapters,
-- Scipio, contained in 10th book, 10th, 11th, and 12th
chapters,
-- Laura and Lucrecia, contained in 12th book, 1st chapter,
-- And the Histories of Lerma and Olivarez, contained in
11th book, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th; and
2d book, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th,
12th, and 13th chapters.
Composing more than two-thirds of _Gil Blas_--are taken from the
Spanish. Such are the admissions of Le Sage's advocates.
Even after these important deductions, there remains enough to found a
brilliant reputation. To this remainder, however, Le Sage is not
entitled. It is, we trust, proved to every candid reader, that, with the
exception of one anecdote, entertaining in itself, but betraying the
greatest ignorance of Spanish manners, two or three allusions to the
current scandal and topics of the day, and the insertion of several
novels avowedly translated from other Spanish writers; all the merit of
Le Sage consists in dividing a manuscript placed by his friend, the Abbe
de Lyonne, in his possession, into two stories--one of which was _Gil
Blas_, and the other, confessed by himself to be a translation and
published long after the former, was the _Bachelier de Salamanque_. To
the argument of chronological error, the sole answer which M.
Neufchateau condescends to give is, that they are incomprehensible; and
on his hypothesis he is right. As to the Spanish words and phrases
employed in _Gil Blas_, the names of villages, towns, and families which
occur in it, he observes that these are petty circumstances--so they
are, and for that very reason the argument they imply is irresistible.
The story of the examination of Gaspar, the s
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