Biography of don quixote de la mancha

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA was born at Alcalá de Hènares in Spain in , of a noble Castilian family. Nothing is certainly known of his education, but by the age of twenty-three we find him serving in the army as a private soldier.

He was maimed for life at the battle of Lepanto, shared in a number of other engagements, and was taken captive by the Moors on his way home in After five years of slavery he was ransomed; and two or three years later he returned to Spain, and betook himself to the profession of letters.

From youth he had practised the writing of verse, and now he turned to the production of plays; but, failing of financial success, he obtained an employment in the Government offices, which he held till , when he was imprisoned for a shortage in his accounts due to the dishonesty of an associate.

The imprisonment on this occasion lasted only till the end of the year, and, after a period of obscurity, he iss