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Immediately after returning home penniless, Cervantes spent four years as a playwright to support himself, writing as many as 30 unsuccessful plays. After becoming married, he became a food provisioner for the Spanish navy to support the increased burden of feeding another person The occupation was rife with opportunity for accounting fraud. Cervantes found himself at ends with the Treasury Department many times during his years as a food provisioner, and found himself in jail as many times because of it.

Immediately after returning home penniless, Cervantes spent four years as a playwright to support himself, writing as many as 30 unsuccessful plays. After becoming married, he became a food provisioner for the Spanish navy to support the increased burden of feeding another person The occupation was rife with opportunity for accounting fraud. Cervantes found himself at ends with the Treasury Department many times during his years as a food provisioner, and found himself in jail as many times because of it.

During Cervantes' time in jail, he wrote the first half of one of the most famous literary works in world history in 1605, [[Don Quixote]]. [[Don Quixote]] became so popular that it went through ten editions from 1605-1615, and inspired fan-written sequels, most notably that of [[Alonzo Fernandez de Avellandea]], whose sequel is believed to have inspired Cervantes to write the second half of [[Don Quixote]] in 1615.

During Cervantes' time in jail, he wrote the first half of one of the most famous literary works in world history in 1605. [[Don Quixote]](Don Quijote in modern Spanish). [[Don Quixote]] became so popular that it went through ten editions from 1605-1615, and inspired fan-written sequels, most notably that of [[Alonzo Fernandez de Avellaneda]], whose sequel is believed to have inspired Cervantes to write the second half of [[Don Quixote]] in 1615.

Cervantes died on April 23, 1615, the same day as [[William Shakespeare]].

Cervantes died on April 23, 1615, the same day as [[William Shakespeare]].

It was once a popular belief that Shakespeare was in fact a [[pen name]] of Cervantes, but this idea was discredited in the 19th century, due to, among other reasons, a letter that surfaced indicating that Cervantes had a rather poor grasp of the [[English]] language.

It was once a popular belief that Shakespeare was in fact a [[pen name]] of Cervantes, but this idea was discredited in the 19th century, due to, among other reasons, a letter that surfaced indicating that Cervantes had a rather poor grasp of the [[English]] language.