The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes

Lazaro makes his way to the city of Toledo, where people give him alms when he begs because he is injured. However, when his wounds heal people are no longer as generous, telling him to go find a job instead of begging. Lazaro meets his third master, the squire, while begging on the street. Lazaro notes the squire’s decent appearance and dress. The squire asks Lazaro if he is looking for a master and Lazaro replies that he is.

Lazaro spends the entire morning following the squire around town and through the market, where Lazaro is surprised to see that the squire does not buy anything. Lazaro goes with the squire to church and watches him, noting that his demeanor is very devout. Lazaro gets hungrier and hungrier as the day progresses but the clock strikes 1:30 and still the squire has not stopped to buy food. This puzzles Lazaro, who thinks the squire seems to be the kind of person who provides well for himself.

Finally, Lazaro and the squire arrive at the squire’s home. Once inside, the squire questions Lazaro about his past. Lazaro does his best to take his time and tell a detailed story, despite the fact that he is very hungry. He is careful to leave out any details he thinks the squire might find disagreeable.

Lazaro notices that the squire’s house seems completely empty of furniture or food. The squire asks Lazaro is he has eaten, and Lazaro says that he has not. The squire says that he ate breakfast just before meeting in the street that morning, and then he explains that he never eats lunch, so he encourages Lazaro to be patient until dinner. Lazaro is on the verge of fainting from hunger when he hears this and it reminds him of his past suffering. Lazaro begins to cry over his bad luck, but he hides his feelings from the squire and instead tells the squire that he doesn’t need to eat much. The squire commends Lazaro, saying that moderation is an important virtue.

Lazaro takes out a piece of bread he had saved from begging and begins eating it. When the squire sees Lazaro eating, he becomes excited and says the bread looks delicious. The squire takes the largest of Lazaro’s three loaves for himself and begins eating it quickly. Lazaro, realizing that the squire is hungry enough to eat whatever he can get his hands on, finishes eating the rest of the bread as fast as he can. After they are finished eating, the squire offers Lazaro a drink from his jug and Lazaro refuses, explaining that he doesn’t drink wine, but the squire explains that it’s just water.

Lazaro and the squire go into the squire’s bedroom, where Lazaro sees that the bed is made up of some tattered, old bedclothes lying on top a mattress that has lost its shape. Nonetheless, the squire teaches Lazaro how to make the bed, and afterwards the squire says to Lazaro that they may as well go without dinner because it’s late and there is no food in the house and the town plaza is far away. The squire lies down to go to sleep, and instructs Lazaro to sleep at his feet. Lazaro, uncomfortable and starving, doesn’t sleep all night but makes an effort to lie still so as not to disturb the squire.

In the morning, the squire dresses himself very slowly. He shows Lazaro his sword, which is very finely crafted. Then, as the squire is leaving to go to church, he instructs Lazaro to make the bed and fill the jug of water at the river. The squire tells Lazaro to leave the house key in a crack outside so he will be able to let himself in when he returns. As the squire walks away Lazaro takes note of how proudly the poor squire walks and says a silent prayer, asking God how many proud men there must be in the world who suffer to protect their honor.

After Lazaro has made the bed, he leaves the house to fetch water from the river. While he is out he sees the squire in a garden talking to two women. The women ask the squire for lunch, but the squire makes different excuses, at which point the women quickly lose interest and wander off. Lazaro returns to the house without being noticed by the squire.

Lazaro becomes hungry while waiting for the squire to return and leaves the house again to beg for some bread. The townspeople are generous and he returns with four pounds of bread, a piece of cow’s foot, and a few pieces of tripe (cow’s stomach). When he returns, he finds the squire is already home. The squire says he has already eaten lunch but asks Lazaro to share the food with him, which Lazaro does. The squire asks Lazaro not to tell any of the townspeople that they live together, wishing to protect the squire’s honor, and Lazaro consents. The squire tells Lazaro that the house must be cursed, explaining that nothing has gone well for him since he moved in. After they are finished eating, Lazaro fetches the water jug and notices that it is still full, taking it as a sign that the squire had lied about having eaten lunch earlier. For more than a week things continue this way between the squire and Lazaro, the squire going out in the mornings while Lazaro takes care of things around the house and begs for food in the town.

One night when the squire gets out of bed to use the bathroom, Lazaro decides to see whether the squire is as poor as he seems and digs through the pockets of the squire’s trousers. He finds a small purse without a single blanca inside it and understands that the squire is only concerned with mainlining appearances. Lazaro pities the squire, thinking to himself that while he was right to leave his other masters, the squire deserves compassion.

Meanwhile, the city council decides to throw all the poor people out of Toledo who are not from there because of a crop failure that left the city with a short supply of food. Four days after the announcement is made, Lazaro sees long lines of poor people leaving the city and becomes so afraid of being discovered that he doesn’t go begging anymore. During this time, he is fed by the women who live next door, who spin cotton for a living.

One day the squire comes home with a real (the equivalent of around 68 blancas) and tells Lazaro that they will be moving away from the cursed house. He sends Lazaro to the market to fetch some bread, wine, and meat. As Lazaro is walking down the street, he encounters a funeral procession. The dead man’s widow is crying loudly, shouting out that they are taking her husband to a dark and gloomy house “where they neither eat nor drink.” Lazaro becomes afraid, thinking that they are bringing the dead man to the squire’s house, and he runs back to alert the squire. The squire sees the mistake Lazaro has made and thinks it is very funny, though Lazaro remains shaken by the incident for days.

In the days that follow, Lazaro and the squire eat very well. One day, when the squire is in a good mood, Lazaro decides to ask the squire about his life story and how he came to be living this way in Toledo. The squire explains that he is from Old Castile (a region in Spain), where he still owns some land. The squire had left his home after insulting a knight by refusing to remove his hat for the knight. Lazaro asks the squire why he would not remove his hat and the squire replies that the knight had greeted him using a common salutation (“God keep your excellency”) rather than one of the salutations reserved for people of a higher class. Lazaro remarks to himself that this must be why God doesn’t help the squire—because “he won’t let anybody ask Him to.” The squire then gives a long speech about his tarnished honor and the hypocrisy of those of high class in society.

A man and woman come to the door who turn out to be creditors, seeking payment for the rent for the house and for the old mattress. The amount they ask for is more than the squire makes in a year, but the squire responds that it’s not a problem and that he just needs to go to the market to get change for a doubloon. The squire instructs the creditors to return in the afternoon. When the man and woman come back later, the squire still has not returned. By night time, Lazaro becomes afraid of sleeping in the house alone so he goes to the house of the neighbors who fed him before and he explains everything to them. They invite Lazaro to spend the night.

In the morning, the man and woman return with a notary and an officer of the law. Upon entering the house and finding it empty, they accuse Lazaro of stealing the squire’s valuables and hiding them elsewhere. Lazaro begins to cry and explains that the squire had no possessions beyond his cloak and sword, and a small plot of land back in Old Castile. The neighbors testify to Lazaro’s innocence and beg for his pardon. Seeing that Lazaro is innocent, the creditors let Lazaro go without punishing him. The constable and the notary take the old mattress as payment for their services, though in the end their “services” had amounted to nothing. Lazaro remarks at how strange it is to have been abandoned by his master, since usually it is the master who is abandoned by his servant.