Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda

Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda is the pseudonym of the author of the book known as El Quijote de Avellaneda (whose original title is Second volume of the ingenious hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha), published, according to its false imprint, in Tarragona in the year 1614. So far, there is no agreement on its identity, although a number of possibilities have been proposed.

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In 1614 the Second volume of the ingenious hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha appears as printed in Tarragona, under the care of the bookseller, which contains his third outing: and it is the fifth part of his adventures, composed by the lawyer Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, a native of the town of Tordesillas.

His is not the only imitation of the book in the time of Miguel de Cervantes, but the most important in his time to be quoted in the second part of Don Quixote that appeared published the next year.

To the general surprise (it was always considered a minor work by Cervantes commentators), it has been shown^where that Avellaneda's Quijote achieved success among readers, since it deserved be reprinted the same year of 1614 adding numerous errors to the previous edition. It is this second edition, considered by most to be worse than the original, which has been used for modern editions until recently.^{[citation required]}

In the 18th century, the royal librarian Blas Nasarre considered that Avellaneda's continuation was superior to Cervantes's.

The author's problem

Until now, no Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda has been found, although there was a certain Alonso Fernández de Zapata, priest of Avellaneda (Ávila) between 1597 and 1616. However, with rare unanimity, all Cervantists agree that It is a pseudonym, which is why multiple conjectures and theories have been put forward about the true authorship of the work. finished his work by his friends Baltasar Elisio de Medinilla and Lope de Vega), Bartolomé and Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, Jerónimo de Pasamonte and Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa. But the latter could not justify the abundant Aragonese expressions found in the work.

It has been thought that the prologue was written by an author other than the novel, because from the continuation it would be deduced that it was written by an admirer of Cervantes, while the prologue is a galley and very offensive and militant against the man from Alcalá. In addition, there seem to be discontinuities in the work that would show it would have been left unfinished and could be explained if a second author or authors had finished it. As has already been said, the author of most of it proves to have some Aragoneseisms in his language, he is very devoted to Saint Bernard and the Dominicans and, perhaps, he lived in Toledo, perhaps frequenting the circle of Lope de Vega's friends., who lived there for a long time, fleeing from his wife and with his lover, an actress from La Mancha; In addition, a theatrical piece by Lope is extolled in the play. Nicolás Marín has defended that the author of the prologue, but not of the work, was Lope.

A few years ago, Martín de Riquer opened up a clue based on various clues —writing tics, incorrectness and clumsiness of style, repeated allusions to the rosary— that would denounce Jerónimo de Pasamonte, a soldier and writer who was a contemporary of Cervantes and fought in Lepanto, like him, and author of a "Life", which was never printed, and which is preserved in manuscript. In the first part he may have inspired the character of Ginés de Pasamonte, the galley slave, who in the second metamorphoses into Maese Pedro, the puppeteer.

Of Aragonese origin, Jerónimo de Pasamonte (who felt the same admiration for Saint Bernard and the Dominicans as Avellaneda), would have tried to defend Lope de Vega from the attacks of Cervantes. Edward C. Riley considers that this hypothesis lacks really probative arguments, and it is improbable from the stylistic point of view, if one compares the autobiography, which did not achieve the honors of printing in the seventeenth century, of Pasamonte himself, of very little literary level, and of which Foulché-Delbosc said that "Pasamonte wrote as badly as he spoke, or even worse", with the worked version of Avellaneda, of a correct and Sometimes very successful. On the contrary, Alfonso Martín Jiménez finds a large number of expressive coincidences between the Life and Works of Jerónimo de Pasamonte and the Quijote of Avellaneda, and maintains that Cervantes himself identified Avellaneda with the Aragonese Jerónimo de Pasamonte. Cervantes would have left numerous signs of his conviction in several of his works, in which he would have made numerous joint allusions to Pasamonte's Life and Avellaneda's Quixote to indicate that they had been written by the same author, and, in the second part of his Quijote, he would have suggested his given name and his surname through two characters related to Don Quixote apocryphal (Don Jerónimo and Ginés de Pasamonte), also expressly and clearly indicating that he was from Aragon.

However, whatever the proposed identification, Avellaneda's prologue (attributed by the aforementioned Nicolás Marín to Lope de Vega, although not all authors admit this attribution) deeply hurt Cervantes (who answers with much dignity in the prologue to his "authentic" Second Part), by inviting him to lower his temper and show more modesty, in addition to making fun of his age and accusing him, above all, of having "more tongue than hands", concluding with the following warning: "Be content with your Galatea and comedies in prose, which are the most of your Novels: do not tire us." (Adapted from Jean Canavaggio, Cervantes en su vivir). Another hypothesis maintains that the work was begun by Pedro Liñán de Riaza, and then it was finished jointly among the friends that Lope de Vega had in Toledo at that time, the poet Baltasar Elisio de Medinilla and perhaps Lope himself.

Recently, by lexicon analysis, it has been proposed that Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa would be the true author of this work. It would be a revenge against Cervantes for having interfered in his plans to accompany the Count of Lemos to Naples, from where he had been named viceroy. Figueroa went to Barcelona in a desperate attempt to embark with the viceroy's retinue, but did not get an audience. Enraged by this, he slipped into his book Defended Spain some harsh stanzas against Cervantes. This, in turn, satirized him in the well-known episode of the Barcelona printing press, mocking a certain Italian translator and editor of his books.

In the 2010 edition of Cátedra, Professor Alfredo Rodríguez López-Vázquez has proposed José de Villaviciosa as the author behind the pseudonym Avellaneda. José de Villaviciosa studied in Sigüenza and Alcalá, essential places in the itinerary of the work, in addition to having a religious brother and sister in Toledo, which also reinforces the authorship for the inserted novel of The Two Lovers and the end of the work.

It has also been highlighted that Avellaneda, in chapter 21 of the apocryphal Quijote, shows he knows in detail the brotherhood of the Blessed Rosary of Calatayud, since one of its characters (a canon from Calatayud) intends to enter it and praises it, indicating the number of the 150 members that compose it and the indulgences that were granted in it for the recitation of the rosary. The data may be relevant to rule out almost all the candidates proposed for the authorship of the apocryphal Quixote, since none of them could have known about that brotherhood nor would they have any interest in highlighting it, with the sole exception of Jerónimo de Pasamonte. He indicated in his autobiography that at the age of thirteen he entered that brotherhood, of which he was devoted all his life, and also refers to the indulgences that were offered in it for the recitation of the rosary. If the canon of Avellaneda intends to enter In that brotherhood, Pasamonte was part of it, both praise her and refer to the indulgences she granted. In addition, Jerónimo de Pasamonte was one of the 150 members who were part of that brotherhood, which is why he appears indirectly represented in the apocryphal Quixote. The mention and praise in the apocryphal Quixote of the Rosario Bendito de Calatayud brotherhood would not only reinforce that Avellaneda could have been Jerónimo de Pasamonte, but would also rule out any candidate who could not have known her precisely.

In the film Cervantes contra Lope (Manuel Huerga, 2016), it is shown that the Aragonese soldier Jerónimo de Pasamonte attributed in his autobiography the heroic behavior that Cervantes had had in the battle of Lepanto, which is why Cervantes called him he satirized in the first part of Don Quixote, turning him into the galley slave Ginés de Pasamonte. And, in revenge for Cervantes' satire, Jerónimo de Pasamonte wrote the apocryphal Quixote. Although Pasamonte is presented in the film as the author of the apocryphal work, Cervantes appears convinced that Avellaneda was Lope de Vega. However, Cervantes himself indicated four times and unequivocally in the second part of his Quixote that Avellaneda was Aragonese, indicating that he could not identify him with Lope de Vega, born in Madrid.

Influence on Cervantes

Don Quixote, by chance, discovers in chapter 59 of the Second Part of the work dedicated to him that there already exists a continuation of his "history". From what he learns of her, Don Quixote is more than upset, because he paints him as being out of love with Dulcinea. It is assumed that behind this displeasure of Don Quixote is that of Cervantes, who makes a character from Avellaneda's work, the Granada-born Álvaro Tarfe, appear in his (chapter 72). To record the falsehood of Avellaneda's work, before a notary public and the mayor of the "place" where they are found, legally and "with all the forces that in such cases should be done", Tarfe declares that the Don Quixote of the work of Avellaneda does not correspond to the "authentic" Don Quixote present. Later, in chapter 70, Altisidora recounts that in a vision, she sees that the devils of hell use Avellaneda's book as a ball, commenting on one that is so bad "that if on purpose I myself were to make it worse, it will not hit".

Furthermore, the name "genuine" from Don Quixote: Alonso Quijano. In the First Part the name of the man from La Mancha is never specified. But to further emphasize the falsehood of the continuation of Avellaneda, where the protagonist's name is Martín Quijada, in the last chapter of Cervantes's work we learn his real name.

In his will, Alonso Quijano once again condemns the "author they say he composed" the work of Avellaneda, a & # 34; feigned and tordesillesque writer & # 34;, for which reason it is assumed that Cervantes knew that Avellaneda was a pseudonym, but that he did not manage to identify his true author.

The text also suggests that Cervantes killed Alonso Quijano, who in the "fuesa" (pit) & # 34; really and truly lies stretched out from length to length & # 34;, so that he cannot & # 34; make a new exit & # 34;, according to the last paragraph of the work.

There is speculation that Cervantes's attacks have backfired, drawing modern readers to Avellaneda's work, and that without these comments the work of "Avellaneda" would be almost forgotten.

However, it is quite possible that without the encouragement provided by Avellaneda's continuation, Cervantes would not have finished his, abandoned for years. Simply because the book appears for the first time in chapter II, 59, it cannot be concluded that Cervantes became aware of the book while he was writing said chapter. He may have met you long before.

Translations

Avellaneda's Don Quixote was translated into French by Alain-René Lesage, who published a considerably modified version of the work in Paris in 1704, under the title New adventures of the admirable don Quixote de la Mancha (Nouvelles Aventures de l'Admirable Don Quichotte de la Manche, composed by the graduate Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda). Lesage's version, which deleted passages and episodes and added others, achieved some popularity. However, it was not reprinted until 1828.

Other continuations of Don Quixote in the 17th and 18th centuries

After Fernández de Avellaneda's, the following continuations of Don Quixote were written in French: Historia del admirable don Quixote de la Mancha, in two parts written respectively by Filleau de Saint-Martin and Robert Challe, and New and true continuation of the story and adventures of the incomparable Don Quixote de la Mancha, by an unknown author.