Lazarillo de Tormes

Tratados 1, 2, 3, 7
Autor: Anonimo


Resumen: The novel is a letter to "Vuestra Merced" (Your Honor).  
In tratado 1, Lazarillo explains where he was born: River Tormes, close to Salamanca.  He was born to a miller and his wife.  The miller was killed in war, and Lazarillo and his mother move.  The mother has a relationship with a black man (not allowed at the time) and, as she cannot afford to care for Lazarillo, sends the boy to be a guide for a blind man. The blind man is a master beggar who makes money by reciting prayers.  Lazarillo tries to trick the old, unkind man, stealing from his wine jar, eating more than his share of grapes, replacing a juicy sausage with a turnip, but continuously gets caught.  Lazarillo convinces the old man to jump over a rainy gutter, but he crashes into a pole and Lazarillo leaves him there, half dead.
In tratado 2, Lazarillo meets a priest who neglects to feed him; he convinces a locksmith to make him a key so that he can steal bread from a eucharist chest.  When the priest begins to be suspicious, Lazarillo starts nibbling on it each night, pretending that it is a mouse.  The priest falls for the trick, and then Lazarillo drills small holes in the side of the chest, pretending that the culprit is a snake.  Lazarillo sleeps with the key inside his mouth so that the priest will not find it, but ironically, while Lazarillo is sleeping the key in his mouth makes a whistling sound.  The priest thinks that it is a snake inside of Lazarillo, so he beats him unconscious.  Lazarillo wakes up three days later and is dismissed.
In tratrado 3, Lazarillo is employed by an "escudero" (squire).  The escudero holds a pretense of being wealthy, while Lazarillo ends up feeding him.  The man is kind, but impoverished, and when he cannot afford to pay rent on his home, he runs away.  Lazarillo is taken in by kind neighbors.
In tratado 7, Lazaro (since he's older, it's no longer Lazarillo) becomes a town crier.  He is content, and marries a maid of the Archpriest.  When it is suggested that the maid does "more than make the bed of the Archpriest," Lazaro accepts the denials of the Archpriest.  The three are happy with the arrangement, and Lazaro does not allow anybody to speak poorly of his wife.


Temas: The poor treatment of children, social classes, religious inequality


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