' To this source, however, I am indebted
for [the main incident only,] the love of the Spanish student for a
Gipsy girl, and the name of the heroine, Preciosa."
The [brackets] are our own, and the [bracketed words] involve an
obvious contradiction. We cannot understand how "the love of the
Spanish student for the Gipsy girl" can be called an "incident," or
even a "main incident," at all. In fact, this love- this discordant
and therefore eventful or incidental love is the true thesis of the
drama of Cervantes. It is this anomalous "love," which originates
the incidents by means of which itself, this "love," the thesis, is
developed. Having based his play, then, upon this "love," we cannot
admit his claim to originality upon our first count; nor has he any
right to say that he has adopted his "subject" "in part." It is
clear that he has adopted it altogether. Nor would he have been
entitled to claim originality of subject, even had he based his
story upon any variety of love arising between parties naturally
separated by prejudices of caste- such, for example, as those which
divide the Brahmin from the Pariah, the Ammonite from the African,
or even the Christian from the Jew. For here in its ultimate analysis,
is the real thesis of the Spaniard. But when the drama is founded, not
merely upon this general thesis, but upon this general thesis in the
identical application given it by Cervantes- that is to say, upon
the prejudice of caste exemplified in the case of a Catholic, and this
Catholic a Spaniard, and this Spaniard a student, and this student
loving a Gipsy, and this Gipsy a dancing-girl, and this dancing-girl
bearing the name Preciosa- we are not altogether prepared to be
informed by Professor Longfellow that he is indebted for an
"incident only" to the "beautiful 'Gitanilla' of Cervantes.
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