The Libros plúmbeos were false documents, purported lost Biblical scripture dictated by the Virgin Mary to St. James, who took them to Spain in the first century. The purpose of the «Leaden Books» was to show that the first Christians in Spain were Arabs, with the hope of preventing the impending expulsion of the Moriscos, which nevertheless occurred in 1609. While they were obvious fakes to most, many people, especially in Granada, wanted to believe in their authenticity. Through the creation of Cide Hamete Benengeli, the author of the «verdadera historia» of Don Quijote in a found manuscript, written in Arabic characters, Cervantes parodies the events surrounding the «Leaden Books» in the creation of his immortal work.
«Las dos doncellas» explores the use of language as a mediating instrument in the complex interplay of reason and appetite in human love. Cervantes employs confessional discourse as a major structural component in this fugue-like story, and as an exemplary model of how language can be used constructively as a vehicle of love, peace, harmony, and reconciliation within the social community, and between humans and God. The pilgrimage at the end of «Las dos doncellas», one of the least appreciated aspects of this underappreciatednovela, plays an integral part in widening the exemplary focus of the tale from the level of the individual to that of collective experience, and in expanding its exemplarity beyond the confines of the pages and into readers' lives.
Desde el comienzo de su reinado de obispo de locos hasta la restauración de su entendimiento, el protagonista de «El licenciado Vidriera» es incapaz de hablar por su cuenta. Lo que parece una peripatética conversación con el público que le tiene acorralado es más bien un torturado monólogo con el que Vidriera no hace más que reflejar los nocivos valores recibidos de la comunidad lingüística a la que forzosamente sirve de lengua.
La ingratitud vengada, praised by Cervantes inDon QuijoteI, 48, was written by his archenemy Lope de Vega. It treats the same subject as Lope's La Dorotea, that is, his love affair with Elena Osorio. What has not been appreciated is that Cervantes' reason for praising this bad play is that it portrays Lope in a very negative light. By citing it, Cervantes indulges in the irony of having his adversary condemn himself.