Don Zara del Fogo: a mock-romance is a 1656 book in prose and verse by the English author Samuel Holland. The book is a pastiche of Spanish chivalric romances, such as Don Quixote. The main character Don Zara del Fogo considers himself a descendant of Lancelot of the Lake and "Thistram" (Tristan), and desires similar fame for facing eminent dangers. Zara is illiterate, but his squire Soto is tasked with reading to his master inspiring tales about Saint George and the Dragon, Sir Topaz and the elf-queen, and boar hunting for the supposedly famed Boar of Boston. Having the habit of sleeping naked, Zara emerges from his bed to seize his sword and to pose as the legitimate heir to the god Mars.
This English mock-heroic epic introduced the term "Orc" (spelt "Orke") to describe ogre-like monsters. The Oxford English Dictionary quotes a passage of the work where a multi-headed Orke is decapitated by an opponent. In the passage, the Orke is described as the offspring of an unnamed Incubus. "Orc" Oxford English Dictionary: From under the entry "orc": 1656 S. HOLLAND Don Zara (I. i. 6) "Who at one stroke didst pare away three heads from off the shoulders of an Orke, begotten by an Incubus." [seeming "ogre" usage]
Publication history
Don Zara del Fogo was written by Samuel Holland and printed by "T.W." for Thomas Vere in London in 1656. It was subtitled "a mock-romance / written originally in the British tongue, and made English by a person of much honor, Basilius Musophilus; with a marginall comment, expounding the hard things of the history". It is dedicated "to the most Nobly accomplished, ROBERT, THOMAS, and JOHN SPENCER, Esquires".
It was reprinted in 1656 under the title Wit and fancy in a maze. The book was then published in 1660 under the title of Romancio-Mastrix.
Another edition was published in 1719; it was titled The Spaniard: Or, Don Zara del Fogo: Translated From the Original Spanish by Basilius Musophilus. Pastiche of Spanish chivalric romances The text, a pastiche of Spanish chivalric romances such as Don Quixote, is in three "books", each of six chapters, containing a combination of prose and verse. Chapter 3 of the third book consists of "Venus and Adonis: A Masque", with its own epilogue.
Chapter 1 begins with this sentence:
Orcs
Don Zara is an early source for the use of the term "Orc" (spelt "Orke") for an ogre-like monster in English.
References
Sources
– "these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand"
External links
Oxford Text Archive at the Bodleian Library