>Next came Cervantes Don Quiote to a play by Shakespeare,
One of those fun facts you see a lot is Cervantes and Shakespeare died on the same day. They actually died several days apart, under different calendars. I think a more fun fact is that their being contemporaries puts the lie to the argument that a rapidly growing economy gets you good art, like Shakespeare. Cervantes wrote at the same time as Shakespeare, in a Spain that was on the skids (as Fuentes talked about in the review).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes
Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616. To honor the date that both Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare died, UNESCO established April 23 as the International Day of the Book. However, Shakespeare and Cervantes died on different days: Shakespeare on April 23, 1616 of the Julian calendar that was used in England and Cervantes April 23, 1616 of the Gregorian calendar that was used in Spain. Since the Gregorian calendar was ten days ahead of the Julian, Cervantes actually died ten days earlier than Shakespeare, whose date of death according to the Gregorian calendar was May 3, 1616.