1. MIGUEL DE
CERVANTES
JOURNEY
TO
PARNASSUS
By Hugo & Juan

2. Miguel de Cervantes 29 September 1547 – 22 April 1616, is widely
regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and the world's pre-
eminent novelist. His best work is Don Quixote considered to be the first
modern European novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded
amongst the best works of fiction ever written. His influence on the
Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called "the
language of Cervantes“.
He has also been dubbed "The Prince of Wits". In 1569, Cervantes moved
to Rome, where he worked as chamber assistant of a cardinal.. In 1571, he
decided to join the Spanish fleet at the battle of Lepanto. In 1585,
Cervantes published a pastoral novel named La Galatea. He worked as a
purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada, and later as a tax collector for
the government.
BIOGRAPHY

3. In 1597, discrepancies in his accounts for three years previous landed him in
the Crown Jail of Seville. In 1605, he was in Valladolid when the immediate
success of the first part of his Don Quixote, published in Madrid, signalled
his return to the literary world.
In 1607, he settled in Madrid, where he lived and worked until his death.
During the last nine years of his life, Cervantes solidified his reputation as a
writer; he published the Exemplary Novels in 1613, the Journey to Parnassus)
in 1614, and the Eight Comedies and Eight Starters and the second part of
Don Quixote in 1615. His last work The Works of Persiles and Sigismunda
was published posthumously, in 1617.
BIOGRAPHY

4. Journey to Parnassus is a poetic work by Miguel de Cervantes. It was first
published in 1614, two years before the author's death. The chief object of
the poem is to satirize those among the author's contemporaries who are false
pretenders to the honours of the Spanish Parnassus. This satire is of a
peculiar character: an effusion of sportive humour, leaving it a matter of
doubt whether Cervantes intended to praise or to ridicule the individuals
whom he points out as being particularly worthy of the favour of Apollo. He
himself says: "Those whose names do not appear in this list may be just as
well pleased as those who are mentioned in it." Cervantes' aims in composing
the poem seem to have been to characterise true poetry according to his own
poetic feelings, to manifest in a decided way his enthusiasm for the art even in
his old age, and to hold up a mirror for the conviction of those who were
only capable of making rhymes and inventing extravagances. Concealed satire
and open jesting are the combined elements of this work.
JOURNEY TO PARNASSUS

5. The poem is divided into eight chapters, and the versification is in tercets. The
composition is half comic and half serious. After many humorous incidents,
Mercury appears to Cervantes, saluting him with the title of the "Adam of
poets". Mercury, after addressing to him many flattering compliments,
conducts him to a ship entirely built of different kinds of verse, which is
intended to convey a cargo of Spanish poets to the kingdom of Apollo.
Mercury shows him a list of the poets with whom Apollo wishes to become
acquainted and this list, owing to the problematic nature of its half ironical
and half serious praises, has proved a stumbling block to commentators. In
the midst of the reading, Cervantes suddenly drops the list.
JOURNEY TO PARNASSUS

6. The poets are now described as crowding on board the ship in numbers as
countless as drops of rain in a shower, or grains of sand on the seacoast; and
such a tumult ensues, that, to save the ship from sinking by their pressure, the
sirens raise a furious storm. The flights of imagination become more wild as
the story advances. Thy storm subsides, and is succeeded by a shower of
poets, that is to say poets fall from the clouds. One of the first who descends
on the ship is Lope de Vega, on whom Cervantes seizes this opportunity of
pronouncing an emphatic praise. The remainder of the poem, a complete
analysis of which would occupy too much space, proceeds in the same spirit.
JOURNEY TO PARNASSUS