Note 84 — INTRODUCTION TO THE GALATEA.
Herman Oelsner translation
Sr. Asensio y Toledo has suggested (Cervantes y sus obras, pp. 382-386) that Cervantes's reference in Don Quixote to Bernardo González de Bobadilla's Nimphas y Pastores de Henares, a pastoral published at Alcalá in 1587, denotes some irritation against one whom he possibly regarded as a poacher. What really happened was that, during the diverting and important scrutiny of the Knight's library, the Barber came upon González de Bobadilla's book, together with Bernardo de la Vega's Pastor de Iberia and Bartolomé López de Enciso's Desengaño de los celos. The Priest directed the Barber to "hand them over to the secular arm of the housekeeper, and ask me not why, or we shall never have done." On the strength of this, some genial contemporaries seem to have charged Cervantes with being jealous of these obscure writers. Cp. the passage in the Viaje del Parnaso:—
Ni llamado, ni escogido Fué el gran pastor de Iberia, el gran BERNARDO Que DE LA VEGA tiene el apellido. Fuiste envidioso, descuidado y tardo, Y á las ninfas de Henares y pastores, Como á enemigo les tiraste un dardo. Y tienes tu poetas tan peores Que estos en tu rebaño, que imagino Que han de sudar si quieren ser mejores.
(cap. iv. ter. 169-171.)