1615

1615 was the year Cervantes’s Second Part of Don Quixote finally appeared in print, turning a slow, long-postponed continuation into a completed work. Its publication followed the appearance of Avellaneda’s rival continuation: the challenge prompted Cervantes to set other projects aside, finish the book, and close Don Quixote’s story rather than leave it open to further continuation.

The delayed continuation

Cervantes had reached Chapter LIX by late 1614, after working on the continuation at a leisurely pace and attending to other writing. The sudden arrival of Avellaneda’s book changed that course. Cervantes’s own earlier ending had left room for another writer to continue Don Quixote’s adventures, but Avellaneda’s volume appeared after an interval of eight and a half years and, in Cervantes’s view, gave him grounds for grievance. The rival publication transformed an unfinished literary project into an urgent contest over who could claim authority over the characters.

The Second Part was ready for the press in February 1615, but did not appear until the very end of the year. Cervantes used the intervening months to publish plays and interludes that had not found a market with theatrical managers. Their preface also looked back on the early Spanish stage and his own dramatic work. He still had a comedy, Engano a los ojos, in hand; its intended future was cut short by his death in April 1616.

A book answering another book

The Second Part makes the dispute over authorship part of its own subject. In its dedication to the Count of Lemos, Cervantes presents Don Quixote as already on his way to pay homage, while turning the rival continuation into a source of public disgust. A fanciful letter from the Emperor of China asks Cervantes to send the book for a college where Spanish would be taught and invites him to serve as rector. The joke turns quickly to material circumstances: the emperor offers no travel money, while the Count of Lemos is praised as a real protector and supporter.

Inside the novel, characters also discuss the earlier history and its reception. The Bachelor points to the insertion of The manuscript of “The Ill-Advised Curiosity,” objecting that the tale is well told but has little connection to Don Quixote’s adventures. Sancho responds with a joke about mixing cabbages and baskets, while Don Quixote questions the author’s judgment and the inclusion of irrelevant stories. The exchange makes questions of structure and literary truth part of the fiction rather than matters confined to its preface.

Readers and literary reputation

The Bachelor counters Don Quixote’s criticism by describing the history’s broad readership: children turn its pages, young people read it, adults understand it, and older readers praise it. He depicts copies passing from hand to hand in noble households and says that even the sight of a lean hack calls Rocinante to mind. The book’s reach is presented not only as popularity but as a shared language through which readers recognize its characters and images.

Closure and consequence

Avellaneda’s intervention had a lasting consequence for the shape of Cervantes’s work. Without it, the Second Part might have ended by promising another installment, including further adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as shepherds. Instead, Cervantes concentrated on completing the volume and protecting his characters from another continuation by bringing Don Quixote’s life to an end. The close may have been hurried, but the decision made the 1615 publication more than a sequel: it fixed the story’s ending while turning the struggle over literary ownership into part of the book itself.