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The Court of Dolls. Alcazar. Seville.
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SPANISH PAPERS.
BY
WASHINGTON IRVING.
EDITED BY
PIERRE M. IRVING.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1872.
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
G. P. Putnam and Son,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
A limitededition of the “Legends of the Conquest of Spain,” withwhich this volume commences, was published in 1835. These Legends,consisting of the “Legend of Don Roderick,” the “Legend of theSubjugation of Spain,” the “Legend of Count Julian and his Family,”formed No. III. of the “Crayon Miscellany.” For the Chronicleswhich follow them, with the exception of “Abderahman” and “SpanishRomance,” which have appeared in the “Knickerbocker Magazine,” I havedrawn upon the unpublished manuscripts of Mr. Irving, bequeathedto me by his will. This portion of the volume is illustrative ofthe wars between the Spaniards and the Moors, and consists of the“Legend of Pelayo,” the “Chronicle of Count Fernan Gonzalez,” themost illustrious hero of his epoch, who united the kingdoms of Leonand Castile; and the “Chronicle of Fernando the Saint,” that renownedchampion of the faith, under whom the greater part of Spain wasrescued from the Moors. I have selected these themes from a massof unpublished manuscript that came into my hands at[Pg vi] the death ofMr. Irving, because they bore the impress of being most nearly,though not fully, prepared for the press, and because they had forhim a special fascination, arising in part, perhaps, from his longresidence in that romantic country. “These old Morisco-Spanishsubjects”—is the language of one of his published letters—“have acharm that makes me content to write about them at half price. Theyhave so much that is high-minded, and chivalrous, and quaint, andpicturesque, and at times half comic, about them.”