Note 51 — LIFE OF CERVANTES.

The delusion of the student, in respect to the merits of his horse, would seem intended to have some reference to the hallucinations and mistakes of the Knight of La Mancha. It may be mentioned, that minute descriptions of animals, such as that here given above, are of frequent occurrence in the works of Spanish writers, especially the poets. Lope de Vega, in one of his comedies, describes in detail a fish caught in the net of a fisherman on the bank of the Guadalquivir. Another beautiful specimen of this kind of animal painting is given by Antonio Mira Amescua, in his Acteon i Diana: the subject is a pack of hounds, weary with the chase. Villaviciosa, in his Mosquea, pourtrays with eloquent poetic colouring the death of a fly; and there is a celebrated description of a horse by Pablo de Céspedes.