It is plain that Don Quixote was generally regarded at first, and indeed in Spain for a long time, as little more than a queer droll book, full of laughable incidents and absurd situations, very amusing, but not entitled to much consideration or care. All the editions printed in Spain from 1637 to 1771, when the famous printer Ibarra took it up, were mere trade editions, badly and carelessly printed on vile paper and got up in the style of chapbooks intended only for popular use, with, in most instances, uncouth illustrations and claptrap additions by the publisher.
To England belongs the credit of having been the first country to recognise the right of Don Quixote to better treatment than this. The London edition of 1738, commonly called Lord Carteret’s from having been suggested by him, was not a mere edition de luxe. It produced Don Quixote in becoming form as regards paper and type, and embellished with plates which, if not particularly happy as illustrations, were at least well intentioned and well executed, but it also aimed at correctness of text, a matter to which nobody except the editors of the Valencia and Brussels editions had