El picaro' (Was: Boring holes)

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

On Tue, 12 Sep 1995, Ted Samsel wrote:

> Don Quixote the archetype for the picaro'? I think not. The picaro tale
> predates Cervantes. Try Lazarillo del Tormes, etc.
> 

Yes, that holds, but only narrowly. While it's true that the anonymous
_Lazarillo del Tormes_ was first published as early as 1554, it really
broke thru only in 1599, when it was re-published in Madrid together with
_Guzman de Alfarache_ by Mateo Aleman, who coined the term *picaresco*.
_Don Quijote_, Part I, came out just six years after that occasion. 
Something was in the air in Spain, a bit the same way as in the U.S. in
the 1970s, when _GR_, _JR_, and _The Public Burning_ came out in short 
intervals.

Heikki