Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda and the Crossed Paths of Alonso de Castillo Solorzano, Blanco de Paz, the Bracamonte and the Duke of Benavente in the Apocryphal "Quixote"

Abstract

This study proposes Alonso de Castillo Solórzano as the author of the apocryphal second part of Don Quixote for three reasons. Firstly, because of his vindication of Juan Blanco de Paz, a probable relative of his and a declared enemy of Cervantes, who –he believed– had mocked him in his first part (1605) and also a member of the Bracamonte family, valiant captains of the Spanish tercios. Secondly, because of his relationship with his master, the Duke of Benavente, an enemy of Cervantes’ protector, the Count of Lemos, the latter an important protagonist of the Avellanesque continuation as author of the opening sonnet or as ’archipampano de las Indias’. And, thirdly, Castillo Solórzano’s early militancy in the school of Lope de Vega, after a first contact in the Duke of Alba’s house during the exile of the writer from Madrid (1588-1595), when his father served as a waiter to Antonio Álvarez de Toledo. I add several onomastic clues for a better understanding of the novel, I give an account of Castillo’s relationship with the Dominican convent of the Virgen Rosario de Tordesillas and I analyse the references to this town by Cervantes and in the apocryphal text.