CERUSSITE

mineral consisting of lead carbonite; found in Devon, Cornwall, and Cumber land, as right prismatic twin-crystals; transparent or se colorle , yellow, brown, or ack, DE (1547-1616), Span. novelist, dramatist, and poet; b. Alcal&é de Henares; s. of studied under Juan Lopez de Hoyos, a Madrid prof. of belles-lettres. In 1568 C. entered the service of Cardinal Acquaviva, who had been sent on a mi ion to Philip Il. at Madrid, returning with him to Rome. In 1570 he enlisted as a private soldier, serving under Don John of Austria and other great military leaders. He was severely wounded at the battle of Lepanto, 1571; took part in the naval battle off Navarino, 1572; and was at the capture of Tunis, 1573. In 1575 C. was granted leave to return to Spain, but the fleet in which he sailed was captured off Marseilles, by Algerine pirates. The captives, including C. and his younger bro., Rodrigo, were all disposed of as slaves, C. becoming the property of a many attempts to escape, but it was not until five years had elapsed that his family were able to secure his freedom by ransom. After his return he devoted several years to further military service, but finally abandoned arms for lit. His first publication was a pastoral romance, Galatea, 1585, which apparently did not attract much attention. At this time he was married. He now turned his attention to the stage, and produced between twenty and thirty plays, but without achieving any substantial succe . He was made deputy-purveyor to the fleet at Seville, 1587, a post which he exchanged for that of collector of revenues in Granada, 1594. One may a ume that he gave more attention to poetry than to accounts, for in 1597 he was cast into prison at Seville because of a monetary deficiency. He was eventually released upon finding security for the restoration of the money, but was not reinstated. Little is known of the events of his life from this period until 1603, when he is known to have been living at Valladolid, but it is believed that during his imrisonment his world-famous romance, on Quixote, was begun. The first part of this great work was pub. at Madrid, 1605. It was intended as a satire upon the ultra-chivalric romances of the period, and met with instant succe . The second part of the book appeared in 1615, and contains the author’s most mature work. Had C. never written this masterpiece he would have secured a high place in Span. lit. by virtue of his Novel as Extemplares, to name only one hase of his work. Of the immortal Don t may safely be said that it is much more widely read at the present time than it was three hundred years ago. TOPETE (1839-1909), Span. admiral; commanded a squadron of four ships in the Span.-Amer. War, 1898, which being opposed to a greatly superior force, was destroyed at Santiago de Cuba. He was afterwards tried, but acquitted of blame. ancient city, Italy; has Etruscan rock tombs.