Don Quixote

It was with considerable reluctance that I abandoned in favour of the present undertaking what had long been a favourite project: that of a new edition of Shelton's "Don Quixote," which has now become a somewhat scarce book. There are some-and I confess myself to be one-for whom Shelton's racy old version, with all its defects, has a charm that no modern translation, however skilful or correct, could possess. Shelton had the inestimable advantage of belonging to the same generation as Cervantes
"Don Quixote" had to him a vitality that only a contemporary could feel
it cost him no dramatic effort to see things as Cervantes saw them
there is no anachronism in his language
he put the Spanish of Cervantes into the English of Shakespeare. Shakespeare himself most likely knew the book
he may have carried it home with him in his saddle-bags to Stratford on one of his last journeys, and under the mulberry tree at New Place joined hands with a kindred genius in its pages.