EDITOR’S PREFACE
Cervantes’ immortal work—El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha—has been described as at the same time the most cosmopolitan and the most intensely national book in the world.
The first part of it was published in 1605; and almost immediately versions of it began to be made in the principal languages of Europe. Beginning with the first English version by Shelton, published in 1612, there followed in chronological order translations into French (1616), German (1621), Italian (1622), Dutch (1657), Russian (1769), Danish (1776), Polish (1786), Portuguese (1794), Swedish (1802), Hungarian (1848), Modern Greek (1860), Bohemian (1866), Serbian (1882). Not only so, but it has been translated several times into each of the most widely-spoken tongues of Europe; so that, in a sense, it may be said to have been translated more frequently than even the Bible or the Imitatio Christi. So far as I have been able to ascertain, no version has hitherto appeared in any of the Celtic languages; and so, to Irish belongs, in this respect, the glory of precedence among those tongues; and to Canon O’Leary is due the undying gratitude of the Gael. More than twenty years ago, I made the acquaintance of Don Quixote in the original; and I have read it several times since then. I have also, of set purpose, closely compared with it many versions in English and other languages. Accordingly
iii
