Excerpt from La Ilustre Fregona, Y, El Licenciado Vidriera Cervantes' other claim is just: 'if these stories could suggest evil, I would rather cut off the hand which wrote them than offer them in public.' The Puritan reader may, here and there, be startled as he recalls this promise. But in the age of Shakespeare decency did not mean silence it meant taking the right view of things. It never occurs to, Cervantes to shrink from scenes of violence, brutality, pas sion and roguery. Yet, as he says, the dish which he offers is clean and wholesome. N 0 one can close his book without a sense of gratitude and of healthy refreshment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.