Miguel CervantesMiguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare, two authors at the height of Europe's cultural renaissance during the 1500s, ironically died on the same date (this fact is a bit confusing by the distinction between the Julian order and the Gregorian calendar Indeed, they both died on the date of April 23, 1616, but England had not converted to the Gregorian calendar, so they did not die on. same day, but on the same date, as the Spanish Julian calendar correlated Death of Cervantes to that of Shakepseare). Shakespeare even read Cervantes' masterpiece, The Delightful History of the Most Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, but it is likely that Cervantes has never heard of Shakespeare, let alone read one of his plays or one of his poems. This distinction between two men of equal literary merit can be seen as an allegory of Miguel Cervantes' entire life: he lived in obscurity, while receiving much posthumous praise. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that the whereabouts of Don Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra were discovered. born. The setting is located in the small Spanish town of Alcalá de Henares, near the capital Madrid. Miguel was born as the fourth child of seven, but the second son of Don Rodrigo de Cervantes y Saavedra in 1547. The date of Miguel's birth remains as nebulous as the conditions of his death. It was common in Spain, at the time of Miguel's birth, to name a child after the saint named after the date the child was born. St. Michael's Day is September 29, although it has been confirmed that Miguel was baptized on October 7 (in the same document that confirmed his birthplace), so he could have been born anywhere what day in early October or late September. After his birth Migue...... middle of paper ......the darkness that Cervantes embodied during his.Works CitedBusoni, Rafaello. The man who was Don Quixote. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Cervantes De Saavedra, Miguel. The first part of the delicious story of the very ingenious knight Don Quixote of La Mancha. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Corp., 1969. Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the world. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2004. Nelson, Lowry, ed. Cervantes. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969. Palmer, R.R. and Joel Colton. A history of the modern world. 8th ed. New York: Mc-Graw Hill, Inc., 1995. Sandy, Clare. “Fiametta.” Decameron Web. Brown University. October 3, 2006. Ticknor, George. History of Spanish literature. 6th ed. Flight. 2. New York: Gordian P, Inc., 1965. Tyers, Francis. “Miguel De Cervantes.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. November 15, 2001. September 27. 2006 .