From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Notes

The case of Gil Blas is still more remarkable. It was at first alleged that Alain-René Le Sage had borrowed it from the Vida del escudero Marcos de Obregón of Vicente Espinel, a curiously rash assertion, inasmuch as that work exists and is easily accessible, and as a consultation of it proves that, though it furnished Lesage with separate incidents and hints for more than one of his books, Gil Blas as a whole is not in the least indebted to it. Afterwards Father Isla asserted that Gil Blas was a translation from an actual Spanish book, an unprovable assertion, since there is no trace whatever of any such book. A third hypothesis is that Lesage may have worked up some manuscript original in his usual way, in the same way, such as he said he did for the Bachelor of Salamanca. This also is incapable of refutation, though the argument from the Bachelor is strong against it, for why should Lesage acknowledge his source in the one case but not the other? Except, however, for historical reasons, the controversy may be safely neglected, nor is there very much importance in the more impartial indication of sources (chiefly works on the history of Olivares) which has sometimes been attempted. Of course Lesage knew Spanish literature well, but there is as little doubt (with the limitations already laid down) of his real originality as of that of any great writer in the world. Gil Blas remains his property, and is the capital example of its own style.

In the score of his Violin Concerto, Sir Edward Elgar wrote the Spanish inscription, "Aqui está encerrada el alma de ....." ("Herein is enshrined the soul of ....."), a quotation from Gil Blas.