Lazarillo of Tormes appeared in sixteenth-century Spain like a breath of fresh air among hundreds of insipidly sentimental novels of chivalry.With so many works full of knights who were manly and brave enough to fight any adversary,but prone to become weak in the knees when they saw their fair lady nearby,was it any wonder that Lazarillo,whose only goal was to fill a realistically hungry stomach,should go straight to the hearts of all Spain.The little novel sold enough copies for three different editions to be issued in 1554,and then was quickly translated into several languages.It initiated a new genre of writing called the "picaresque."
It seems certain that other editions,or at least other manus,of_Lazarillo_were circulating previously,but the earliest we know of were the three published in 1554.One of these was printed at Burgos,another at Antwerp,and the third at Alcala de Henares.They all differ somewhat in language,but it is the one from Alcala de Henares that departs most radically from the other two.It adds some episodes,not in the other editions,which were probably written by a second author.
Because Lazarillo was so critical of the clergy,it was put on the Index Purgatorius in 1559and further editions were prohibited inside Spain.Then,in 1573,an abridged version was printed that omitted Chapters four and five,along with other items displeasing to a watchful Inquisition;later additional episodes were suppressed.This mutilated version was reprinted until the nineteenth century,when Spain finally allowed its people to read the complete work once again.
The identity of the author of this novel has always been a mystery.A few names have been suggested over the years:Juan de Ortega,a Jeronymite monk;Sebastian de Horozco,a dramatist and collector of proverbs.But probably the most widely accepted theory was the attribution to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza,a famous humanist.Many early editions of Lazarillo carried his name as author,even though there has never been any real proof of his authorship.Some critics,following Americo Castro's lead,think the author was a Jewish convert to Christianity because of certain phrases which point in that direction.And some think he was a follower of Erasmus,despite the French critic Marcel Bataillon's emphatic statements to the contrary.
One of the first relationships we become aware of as we read this novel is the link of the name Lazaro (Lazarillo:little Lazaro)with the biblical Lazarus:either the figure who died and was brought back to life (John 16)or the beggar (Luke 16:20-31).This "historical"relationship is further compounded by the fact that many episodes of the novel are versions of material traditional in European folklore.There is,for instance,a thirteenth century French theatrical farce,Le garcon et l'aveugle ,in which a servant plays tricks on a blind man.And the British Museum manu of the Decretals of Gregory IX contains an illustration of a boy drinking through a straw from a blind man's bowl.The episode in which Lazarillo thinks a corpse is being brought to his house appears in the Liber facetiarum et similitudinum Ludovici de Pinedo,et amicorum and may be a folktale.And the story of the constable and the pardoner is to be found in the fourth novel of Il novellino by Masuccio Salernitano,and may also be a folktale.
It has long been said that this novel is an accurate reflection of society in sixteenth-century Spain.And to some extent,this does seem to be true.The king of Spain,Charles I,became involved in several foreign wars,and had gone deeply into debt to German and Italian bankers in order to finance those wars.Soon the quantities of gold and silver coming from Spain's mines in the New World were being sent directly to the foreign bankers.The effects of inflation were to be seen everywhere,as were other social ills.Beggars and beggars'guilds were numerous.Men of all classes were affixing titles to their names,and refusing any work--especially any sort of manual labor--unless it suited their new "rank."The clergy was sadly in need of reform.And pardoners were--often unscrupulously--selling indulgences that granted the forgiveness of sins in return for money to fight the infidel in North Africa and the Mediterranean.All these things are to be found in Lazarillo of Tormes .
But is the book really an accurate reflection of all of Spanish society?
If there were avaricious priests,and priests who had mistresses,were there none with strong moral principles?If poverty was felt so keenly by Lazarillo and others,was there no one who enjoyed a good meal?As another writer has suggested,the Spanish conquerors did not come to the New World on empty stomachs,nor was the Spanish Armada ill supplied.It is obvious,then,that while Lazarillo reflects Spanish society,it mirrors only one segment of that society.Its writer ignored uncorrupted men of generosity and high moral principles who surely existed alongside the others.So just as the chivalresque novels distorted reality upward,this novel distorts reality downward and almost invariably gives us only the negative traits of society.
