ThePicaroin Fact and Fiction

Abstract

Abstract Lack of opportunity for advancement and religious unrest characterized the lower orders in sixteenth-century Castile. Rather than explore any permanent solutions to these vicissitudes, Charles V, and to an even greater extent Philip II, preferred to give increasing powers to the Inquisition, which attempted to preserve order by prosecuting for many of the minor offenses committed by this class. The anonymous author of the Lazarillo de Tormes, the first entry in the new picaresque literary genre, catalogued the problems, not only of the picaresque or delinquent class, but of that poor as a whole, whom he showed as victims of that society's exclusionary economy and perverted values. Hie author successfully blurs the lines between fact and fiction. In examining the trial records for the inquisitional tribunals for Cuenca, Siguenza and Cordoba, as well as Petitions submitted to various Cortes, I have sought to demonstrate that the heroes and villains of the Lazarillo de Tormes were drawn from real-li...