THE LIFE OF LAZARILLO DE TOMES. The Los e THE LIFE
OF LAZARILLO DE TOMES. The Lose Lasarillo de Tormes. Translated by Sir Clements
Markham. (A. and C. Black. 5s. net.)—Doubtless this tale is not so well known as it should be, but it is altogether too slight
to bo ranked as high as its latest translator is inclined to rank it. It was written by a Spanish noble, Don Diego Hurtado do Mendoza, during his student days at Salamanca, and is a sharp satire on various classes of the author's countrymen. The probable date is 1523, and one of its noticeable features is the stirring of Reformation feeling. Lazarillo is a poor boy who takes service with various masters, among them a seller of indulgences, who appears as a much more disreputable person than Tetzel. The patron who shows him the way to prosperity, and finds for him a wife, is an archpriest. If the author did not moan to suggest anything against this personage, we can but say that he was not very happy in his way of expressing himself. The first edition appeared in 1554. It was first translated into English in 1586, and reprinted twenty times during the next sixty years. It has had its share of the troubles to which popular books are liable. The Inquisition expurgated, and finally pro- hibited it. And it has had worthless sequels and continuations imposed on it.
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