Shakespeare, Cervantes and Inca de la Vega

William Shakespeare is widely considered as the greatest writer in the English language. He is often called England's national poet. His works mainly consist of about thirty eight plays, one hundred fifty four sonnets, two long narrative poems and several other poems. Shakespeare's early plays consisted comedies and historical play, genres that he raised to the peak of sophistication by the end of the sixteenth century. He then began to write tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth, which are considered some of the finest works in the English language. He was a respected poet and Playwright in his day, however his reputation did not rise to current heights until the nineteenth century.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet and playwright. His greatest work, Don Quixote, is considered the first modern novel. Don Quixote is a classic of western literature and it is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever. This work was originally conceived as a comic satire against chivalric romances. Don Quixote has been seen as an attack on the Catholic Church or on contemporary Spanish Politics. It could also be seen as Symbolizing the duality of the Spanish character. His influence on the Spanish language is so great it is often called the language of Cervantes. According to himself, he wrote twenty to thirty plays, but only two copies have survived. As with most authors in their time, Cervantes never became wealthy as a result of his work.
Garcilaso de la Vega was a historian and writer from the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. He was the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman. Vega is recognized primarily for his contributions to Inca history, culture, and society. His writings provide eloquent testimony to the intellectual and emotional struggles faced by this unique hybrid of the Old and New worlds. Vega's first venture was a Spanish translation of a masterpiece of the Italian renaissance, the neo-Platonic Dialogue de amore written by Leon Hebreo. His focus then shifted toward the New World with the publication of Florida, which gave an epic account of the voyage of Gonzalo Silvestre. Garcilaso's historical perspective became more pronounced in his final piece which was his monumental two-volume history of Peru.