GRACIÁN AND THE POPISH PLOT: THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF EL CRITICÓN

Abstract

Oddly enough, the first translation into a foreign language of volume one of El Criticón by Baltasar Gracián was Paul Rycaut’s English translation, The Critick, published in 1681. England, at the time Europe’s principal Protestant antagonist of the Catholic Monarchy of Spain, would be the last place one would expect to find a translation of such a hypercritical work as El Criticón. In fact, the very title of the book reveals its aim to convey to the reader a persistent critical view of society in all its dimensions. Not only was it a Spanish work published in Protestant England, but it was written, moreover, by a Jesuit. How and why, then, did El Criticón end up being published there? This question will be addressed in the following pages by analysing the unusual circumstances surrounding the publication of The Critick and explaining, where possible, the reasons and goals that Rycaut was pursuing.