The Glass Graduate

Two gentlemen students, walking along the banks of the Tormes, found there, asleep under a tree, a boy of about eleven, dressed like a farmhand. They sent a servant to wake him; he woke, and they asked him where he came from and what he was doing asleep in that lonely place. To which the boy answered that he had forgotten the name of his home, and that he was on his way to the city of Salamanca to look for a master to serve, if only the master would let him study. They asked him whether he could read; he said yes, and write as well.

"In that case," said one of the gentlemen, "it is not for lack of memory that you have forgotten the name of your home."

"Be that as it may," the boy answered, "no one shall know its name, nor my parents' names, until I can bring honour to them and to it."

"And how do you mean to honour them?" asked the other gentleman.

"With my studies," the boy answered, "by becoming famous for them; for I have heard it said that bishops are made out of men."

This answer moved the two gentlemen to take him in and bring him with them, as they did, letting him study in the way that University allows servants to study. The boy said his name was Tomás Rodaja, from which his masters inferred, by the name and by his clothes, that he must be the son of some poor farmer. Within a few days they dressed him in black, and within a few weeks Tomás showed signs of a rare wit, serving his masters with such loyalty, punctuality and diligence that, without neglecting his studies in the least, he seemed to do nothing but serve them; and since good service from the servant moves the master to treat him well, Tomás Rodaja was soon not his masters' servant but their companion. In short, in the eight years he spent with them he became so famous in the University for his fine mind and remarkable skill that he was esteemed and loved by every sort of person. His main study was law, but where he shone most was in the humanities; and he had so happy a memory that it was a thing to marvel at, and he set it off so well with his good understanding that he was no less famous for the one than for the other.

It happened that the time came when his masters finished their studies and went home to their town, which was one of the finest cities in Andalusia. They took Tomás with them, and he stayed with them some days; but since he was worn down by the longing to return to his studies and to Salamanca (which bewitches all who have tasted the pleasantness of living there into wanting to go back), he asked his masters' leave to return. They, courteous and generous, gave it to him, and provided for him so well that what they gave him would have kept him for three years.

Miguel de Cervantes, 1613. An excerpt, translated for Zeitzung from the Spanish text at Ciudad Seva. Public domain.