Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes

THE STORY

PART I
PROLOGUE

In his prologue, the author explains that he has written this book in order to parody "books of chivalry."

NOTE: Books of chivalry were very popular in Cervantes' day. The plots typically concerned a pair of star-crossed lovers, a knight and his fair lady. Often, but not always, such loves were platonic. When the lovers did actually make love, however, they had to suffer a great deal for their sin. Chivalric romances also included elements of magic, myths, and fairy tales, and were written in stilted, absurdly flowery prose. In the story that follows, Cervantes makes fun of all of these characteristics. The chivalric romance best known to Cervantes' readers was Amadis of Gaul, which is mentioned many times in Don Quixote. You may be more familiar with the story of Tristan and Iseult, or of the various tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. However, modern versions of these stories may not give you an accurate conception of the florid, overwrought prose which was enjoyed by readers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

CHAPTER 1

In the opening chapter of the story you are introduced to a middle-aged gentleman who lives in the district known as La Mancha in southern Spain. Like many of his social class, this gentleman has to stretch his pennies. He eats beef stew and beans and an occasional meal of bacon and eggs. His diet may be plain, but his head is stuffed with rich fantasies. In fact, the gentleman has read so many romances about knights and their adventures that he finally goes completely mad. Imagining that he is living in the bygone days of chivalry, he decides that he himself will become a knight-errant!

The gentleman begins by polishing an old, rickety suit of armor that once belonged to his great-grandfather. Unfortunately, the helmet is broken, but he fixes it with a makeshift visor made of pasteboard. Next, he decides to give his broken-down old horse a high-class name- Rozinante. He also decides to change his own name from Alonso Quixano to Don Quixote de la Mancha.

NOTE: In taking the title "Don," Quixano is promoting himself to a higher grade of the nobility- from gentleman (hidalgo) to knight (caballero). In the seventeenth century, there were still Spanish noblemen who called themselves knights, just as there are still men in England today who use the knightly title "Sir." However, such knights bore little resemblance to the knights-errant of the Middle Ages- knights who took to the road in search of adventures that would enable them to put their ideals of courage and honor into practice.

In all the stories Don Quixote has read, the knight-errant is always in love with a fair and noble lady. It is love, however hopeless, that inspires the knight to do so many brave deeds. Don Quixote has no sweetheart of his own, but a certain farm girl in the nearby town of Toboso is reputed to be very good-looking. (She, however, has no idea that he even exists.) The Don decides to dedicate his adventures to this girl. And since she, too, will need a more romantic name than her real one, he will call her Dulcinea of El Toboso.

CHAPTERS 2-4

Ready at last, Don Quixote takes to the road on his old nag, Rozinante. His head is full of day-dreams. He is going to have such great adventures! He is going to set right the wrongs of the world! Don Quixote has read so many romantic stories that he is already mentally composing a book that will be based on his own magnificent saga.

The first order of business, however, is to find someone who can perform the ceremony that will make Don Quixote a true knight.

Just before nightfall Don Quixote reaches a roadside inn. His feverish brain imagines that the inn is a magnificent castle. He mistakes two prostitutes he meets there for beautiful maidens and the innkeeper for the lord of the castle. Everyone is amused by Don Quixote's flowery speeches and by his odd helmet, which is tied on with ribbons and so cumbersome to remove that he has to keep it on even when he is eating and sleeping. When Don Quixote asks to be knighted, the innkeeper decides to humor him.

Don Quixote prepares for the all night vigil which the future knight must keep before the ceremony. He sets out his armor on an "altar" in the inn's courtyard. Unfortunately, the altar is really a water trough and when two mule drivers move his things so their mules can have some water, Don Quixote attacks them both. In a hurry to get rid of his crazy guest, the innkeeper stages a mock ceremony and declares Don Quixote a true knight.

It does not take the new knight long to find adventure. He comes upon a rich farmer who is whipping a poor shepherd boy, Andrew, for losing some sheep. Don Quixote makes the farmer promise to stop beating the boy and to pay him the back wages he owes. Then he rides away, very satisfied with his good deed. But the farmer has no intention of keeping his word. As soon as Don Quixote is out of sight he starts beating the boy again, twice as hard as before.

Next Don Quixote meets six merchants from Toledo. Planting his horse in the middle of the road, he challenges the merchants to agree with him that his Dulcinea is the most beautiful woman in the world. The merchants know they're dealing with a madman and they start to tease him. Show me her picture, one demands, and then I'll decide for myself. Angered by this lack of respect, Don Quixote spurs his horse to a charge, but Rozinante stumbles and Don Quixote falls to the ground. One of the merchants gives the Don a good drubbing with his broken lance.

NOTE: Much of the action in Don Quixote is pure slapstick. The Don is always getting involved in pointless, silly battles. If you think that some of these fights would not be out of place in a Three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy comedy, you are absolutely right. This is exactly the spirit in which generations of readers have enjoyed them. Notice, however, that even when Don Quixote is making a fool of himself, there is something strangely moving about his character. He always means to do good. Often, when he tries hardest, he fails completely. But he can also succeed by accident. When Don Quixote mistakes the prostitutes for ladies, they treat him with kindness, almost as if they really were ladies. The innkeeper even behaves like a lord, letting Don Quixote leave the inn without paying for his food and lodging, as if he were an invited guest and not a paying customer.

CHAPTERS 5-7

A poor man from Don Quixote's village finds the Don on the road, battered and delirious, and brings him home.

The Don has been missing for three days, and his niece, Antonia, and his housekeeper are frantic. After putting him to bed, the women consult his best friends, the local priest and Nicholas the barber. Together they decide that Don Quixote's madness has been caused by too much reading. The solution, therefore, is to burn his library.

Before throwing the books into the fire, the priest and the barber go through them, making comments on individual titles. Many of their remarks will mean nothing to you because the books are no longer read today. But one book, Galatea, is an earlier work by Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote! The barber and the priest agree that this particular book is worth saving. "That Cervantes has been a friend of mine for years," says the priest. But after the two men leave, the housekeeper burns even the few books they have decided to save.

NOTE: Who is the crazier in this scene? Don Quixote? Or his friends, who think that books have evil powers and that by burning them, they can destroy the ideas the books contain?

When Don Quixote recovers from his wounds he finds his books gone and the door to his study walled up. His niece is afraid to tell him what really happened. Instead, she claims that an evil enchanter came riding out of the clouds on a dragon and destroyed his library. The Don believes this.

During the next fifteen days, Don Quixote manages to talk a poor workingman, Sancho Panza, into leaving home to become his squire. The simpleminded Sancho believes Don Quixote's promise that they will have great adventures and win rich prizes. Sancho even believes Quixote's prediction that he will conquer enough land to make his squire governor of a province- or an entire island! Late one night, the two men sneak out of town- Don Quixote on Rozinante and Sancho on his jackass, Dapple.

CHAPTER 8

Don Quixote sees thirty or forty large windmills in the distance and imagines that they are evil giants. He attacks at full speed. Suddenly, the mechanical arm of the windmill he is charging shifts position, dragging the Don and his horse along the ground. Sancho tries to reason with his master. You're having hallucinations, the squire says. But Don Quixote refuses to concede that he was wrong. He claims that the evil enchanter Freston changed the giants into windmills just to embarrass him. Don Quixote's belief that the powerful enchanter Freston is playing tricks on him is another crazy delusion. Remember, however, that this idea did not originate with him. It was his niece Antonia who came up with the idea because she did not want to tell her uncle the truth about the destruction of his library. At times like this Quixote's insanity is hard to separate from his intrinsic goodness. It never occurs to the poor man that his beloved niece would deliberately lie to him. Are white lies, such as Antonia's, ever justified? Or is it always best to be strictly truthful? What significance do you see in the fact that the Don, the most consistently honest person in the novel, is also completely out of his mind? Cervantes seems to be saying here that it is impossible to be truly sane by the world's standards without also being at least a little corrupt. Do you believe this?

NOTE: This is perhaps the most famous of all Don Quixote's adventures. We even use the expression "tilting at windmills" to refer to misdirected and futile idealism. You may be surprised to find that this very well-known episode takes up only a few pages in the novel. Why, then, do you think it is well remembered? One reason is that the image of the skinny, poorly dressed knight attacking a group of enormous windmills has been a favorite subject of painters and illustrators. Perhaps you have seen the well-known print by the nineteenth-century French artist Honore Daumier that captures this moment of the story. Another reason this episode is remembered so fondly may be that, for once, Quixote is attacking inanimate objects, not human beings. Therefore, you can picture the scene without being tempted to sympathize with his victims.

The next day, Quixote and Sancho meet a Basque (Biscayan) lady on her way to Seville. Don Quixote thinks that the two monks escorting the lady are kidnappers. He attacks one and knocks him to the ground. Sancho Panza then steals the man's clothes, calling them the "spoils of war." Now one of the lady's Basque servants comes to her defense. The chapter ends in mid-fight.

CHAPTERS 9-10

Chapter 9 begins with the author interrupting his tale to deliver an apology and explanation. The old manuscript he's been following, he says, ended right in the middle of the previous chapter. For a while, he feared that he would never be able to tell his readers how the fight came out. But you are in luck! Another tattered manuscript that the author found in a secondhand bookstore picks up the Don's story at just this point. The author tells us that this second manuscript was written by an Arab historian named Cide Hamete Benengeli. From now on, the story will be based on Benengeli's version of the facts.

NOTE: PREJUDICE
Why does Cervantes invent this imaginary historian? He tells us one reason: If his readers doubt the truth of the rest of the story, he says, they should remember that the Arabs and the Spanish are enemies. Besides, he adds, everyone knows that all Arabs are liars. If you don't like this novel, he goes on, blame "this dog of an author, not me." There are always a few readers who feel that Cervantes' comments about Arabs, Jews, and other minorities are evidence of prejudice. Most readers, however, feel sure that the author is actually making fun of bigoted attitudes. Like the other writers of his time, Cervantes often relies on stereotypes- a person's class, sex, and occupation were believed to be reliable guides to character. But at the same time, Cervantes had no use for hypocrisy in any form. Again and again, he portrays prejudice as shallow and self-serving.

You now pick up the action of the Don's fight with the Basque. Don Quixote is wounded: His ear is nearly cut off. He wins the fight, however. In the flush of victory, he gives Sancho a long lecture on the glories of knight-errantry. Sancho, meanwhile, is wondering how all this foolishness will lead to his becoming ruler of an island. But his master tells him that he has something better than an island, a magic balm (medicine) that will cure all ills.

CHAPTERS 11-14

Don Quixote and Sancho meet a group of goatherds who politely offer to share their simple lunch. This hospitality sets the Don off into another speech. Long ago, he says, mankind lived in innocence. There was no private property and no crime. The goatherds are skeptical. They doubt that such a Golden Age ever existed.

NOTE: In the pastoral romances familiar to Cervantes' readers, shepherds were invariably portrayed unrealistically, as noble innocents who lived in a society free of crime and greed. The goatherds that you meet in this scene are obviously meant as a contrast with these fictitious creatures.

Of course, the Golden Age that Cervantes is describing existed only in the Garden of Eden (or in the realm of the idealized pastoral novel). It has nothing to do with the so-called Golden Age of Spain, an era that was at its height as Cervantes wrote. Nevertheless, the Don's comments in this scene may remind you of the way some people sound when they talk about "the good old days" of their youth. Since Cervantes lived during a time when Spanish power was beginning to decline, he no doubt heard many such conversations.

A young boy enters with news that a local student turned shepherd named Chrysostom has just died. The cause- unrequited love! Sancho and his master attend the funeral, where a friend reads Chrysostom's flowery farewell poem. Its subject is the pain and suffering of loving a woman who does not return that love.

Now Chrysostom's beloved, Marcela, arrives to tell her side of the story. Beauty may be lovable, she says, but it doesn't follow that a beautiful woman can return the love of every man who falls for her. Men say they like women who are modest and chaste. Yet they are always trying to get the women they desire to make an exception for their sakes and give up their modesty. And when a woman turns them down, they resent her.

All the men reluctantly agree that Marcela is right.

NOTE: Again, this incident is a parody of the pastoral romances, a type of literature very popular during Cervantes' time. These tales usually involved the soulful love affair of a shepherd and a shepherdess. But the characters in pastorals bore no resemblance to the simple country folk they were supposed to be. They talked and acted more like the bored sophisticates who enjoyed such stories. Regardless of the original point of the parody, Marcela's complaint still makes sense today. Many young men still see seducing a beautiful young woman as a challenge, a way to demonstrate their machismo. A young woman can not afford to say yes too often if she wants to keep a good reputation. On the other hand, when she says no, she risks seeing her suitor's interest turn to anger.

Cervantes would not have necessarily understood or sympathized with the arguments of women's liberation. However, he had a sharp eye for all sorts of social hypocrisy. As you read notice that the author is often sympathetic to young people in love. However, characters who are in love with the abstract idea of love usually do not fare very well.

Some readers feel that this whole episode is a pointless digression. They see it as an example of the author's bad habit of getting bogged down in long-winded and irrelevant side plots. They find Marcela's speech as tedious and self-serving as Chrysostom's poem. Other readers disagree. They claim that Cervantes is illustrating an important point. In literature and in real life, we are all expected to play certain roles. Marcela wants only to be free and independent. But like Don Quixote, she is out of step with her world. With which group of readers do you agree? Why?

CHAPTERS 15-17

Quixote and his squire camp in a meadow near a group of carriers from the province of Galicia (Yanguas). When Rozinante shows a romantic interest in the carriers' mares, a fight starts. Not surprisingly, Don Quixote and Sancho lose the fight.

NOTE: The carrier, or teamster, was the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century equivalent of the long-haul truck driver. Such men had the reputation of being big, burly, and not likely to tolerate an insult.

The Don and his sidekick return to the inn. There they are placed in an attic bedroom which they are to share with a stranger, another carrier. Once again, Don Quixote is under the impression that he is in a castle. The inn has a poor, ugly servant girl named Maritornes, who has agreed to spend the night in the bed of the stranger. But when she tries to sneak into the attic, Don Quixote wakes up. He has been dreaming of Dulcinea, and he grabs the girl, thinking that she is his beloved. Even when he realizes his error, he thinks the girl must have been coming to visit him. Mistaking her attempts to get away for hysterical disappointment, he tries to explain that he must keep himself pure for Dulcinea. By now, the carrier is awake. Thinking that Don Quixote has stolen his girl, he starts to beat him up. This is the beginning of a free-for-all. The innkeeper arrives to see what the commotion is about and ends up getting drawn into the fight. The police are called. The inn is in total confusion. The only person not confused is Don Quixote, who tells Sancho that they must have wandered into an enchanted castle.

When things finally quiet down, Don Quixote insists on leaving the inn without paying. Knights-errant are too pure to deal with sordid matters like money. He rides off, leaving Sancho to face the innkeeper's wrath. Some local pranksters hanging around the inn courtyard grab the poor squire and toss him roughly in a blanket.

CHAPTERS 18-21

By now Sancho Panza is beginning to become disillusioned. He is especially unhappy when he learns that his master was just outside the inn courtyard throughout his ordeal but did not come to his aid. Don Quixote's excuse is that the enchanter must have cast a magic spell over him. He just couldn't get himself moving!

The knight's next series of adventures leave Sancho even more disgusted: First, Sancho and the Don see two dust clouds in the distance. Quixote is sure that they are caused by two armies, marching to battle. He spins a wild fantasy, making up a saga of the feud between two imaginary kingdoms. He can even envision the knights on both sides. One has a cat on his shield with the motto Meeow (Miau). Another knight has as his symbol the droopy asparagus plant. His motto is "My Fortune Trails." (This might also be translated "my fortune droops"- not a very inspiring motto!) Carried away by his own fantasy, the Don rides off to join the battle. But the "armies" turn out to be two flocks of sheep. The shepherds pelt the intruders with stones. Quixote gives Sancho some of his "magic balm," but the medicine makes the poor squire vomit violently.

Next, Don Quixote sees a funeral procession passing on the road. He imagines that the mourners, who are dressed in black or white robes and carrying flaming torches, are ghosts. Charging the procession, the Don manages to knock one of the mourners to the ground, only to discover that his victim is not a ghost at all but a terrified young student. Although he regrets having frightened the young man, it does not occur to Don Quixote that he may have been at fault. He explains, with twisted logic, that it was really the mourners' own fault for looking so much like "something sinister from the other world" that he, Quixote, was duty bound to attack them.

Quixote and Sancho then spend a sleepless night in a meadow, terrified by a loud clanking sound nearby. In the morning they learn that the noise was only some large wooden hammers used by nearby villagers for manufacturing cloth. Finally, Don Quixote sees a barber (not his friend Nicholas but another man) carrying a brass basin on his head to protect himself from the rain. Quixote mistakes the basin for the "golden helmet of Mambrino"- a legendary treasure. He frightens the barber into running away and takes the "helmet" for himself.

NOTE: By this time, Sancho is starting to fight back. When he wants to keep his master from investigating the horrible clanking noises, he ties Rozinante's hind legs together and tells Quixote that the horse is immobilized by a magic spell. Sancho Panza is still being portrayed as a buffoon. Although at times he sees through his master's delusions, minutes later he can be totally taken in by them. However, a note of mutual admiration is beginning to creep into the two men's conversations.

CHAPTER 22

Quixote and Sancho Panza meet up with a chain gang of prisoners on their way to serve as galley slaves. The Don is outraged that the king would take away these men's freedom. How can anyone be sure that some of the men are not really innocent? Maybe they are victims of mistaken identity. Or perhaps some horrible misfortune drove them to commit crimes.

One by one, the men give their excuses for being in trouble with the law. The first man claims that his only crime was falling in love. (His jailer explains that he "fell in love" with a basket of linen and stole it.) Another man says his only crime was singing. (It turns out that the only "singing" he has done is to confess to cattle rustling.) A third man is a pimp. (Don Quixote excuses this by observing that a pimp only arranges entertainment for respectable citizens.)

NOTE: Some readers assume this passage represents Cervantes' attempt to defend pimping and are very offended. Others feel that Don Quixote sees nothing wrong with pimps only because he is too naive to understand what they actually do. It is worth reading this passage carefully to make your own decision about what the author had in mind.

The most hardened criminal of all, a rogue named Gines de Pasamonte, refuses to tell his story. He is already writing his autobiography, which he intends to sell for a good price.

NOTE: The idea of a criminal cashing in on his notoriety by writing a book sounds very modern. Nowadays, this happens all the time. Some laws have even been passed to keep criminals from profiting from their misdeeds by selling their stories to magazines and book publishers.

When the guard refuses to free the prisoners, Don Quixote starts a fight. In the confusion the prisoners escape. How do they show their gratitude for being rescued? Gines de Pasamonte promptly steals Sancho Panza's ass, Dapple.

Don Quixote's argument with the guard may remind you of the debate about crime that is still going on today. Should we be tough on criminals to teach them a lesson? Or should we try to discover what makes people commit crimes in order to eliminate the causes of crime? Do people break the law because they are just plain bad? Or are they victims of a bad environment who can be changed by rehabilitation and a chance to live a productive life? Or are they "sick" individuals in need of therapy? (The Don's reasoning is a little different from these modern arguments. He says that any use of force, even by the king, is wrong.) The author purposely makes Don Quixote look foolish by having him take a very extreme and naive position. But you may remember that Cervantes himself was thrown into jail more than once for crimes he did not commit. So perhaps he is in sympathy with Quixote's ideas. What do you think?

CHAPTERS 23-30

This section of the novel concerns Don Quixote's adventures in the Sierra Morena, or Black Mountain.

The Don and Sancho meet up with a strange hermit who acts like a wild man and lives on handouts from the local shepherds. The hermit explains that his real name is Cardenio. He has been driven to his present state by the disloyalty of his former best friend, Don Ferdinand. Originally, Don Ferdinand was in love with the daughter of a rich farmer. He promised to marry the girl. But as soon as she gave in and slept with him, he lost interest in her. Cardenio helped Don Ferdinand escape the trouble he'd caused by inviting him to visit his own hometown. There, Don Ferdinand immediately started a campaign to steal Cardenio's own fiancee, Lucinda.

Don Quixote is impressed with Cardenio's decision to live as a hermit. He decides that he, too, will spend some time in retreat from the world. In the meantime, he sends Sancho Panza to deliver a love letter to Dulcinea, vowing that he has not forgotten her and begging her to wait for him.

Suddenly it dawns on Sancho that "Dulcinea" is none other than the daughter of one of his close neighbors. He knows the girl! "She can pitch the iron bar better than the strongest lad in the village," he says approvingly. "God, what a woman she is! What a pair of lungs..." Don Quixote cuts Sancho off angrily. Like many lovers, he is not interested in the true strengths and weaknesses of his sweetheart. He is in love with his own fantasy.

Sancho leaves on his errand, but he gets no farther than the same inn where he had been tossed in the blanket. There he runs into Quixote's friends, the priest and the barber. Sancho now discovers that he has forgotten the letter that his master took so much time writing. The priest and the barber promise to write a replacement letter. In the meantime, they convince Sancho to help them with their plan to trick Don Quixote into returning home with them.

The priest predicts that if Don Quixote doesn't stop acting like a crazy hermit, he will end up being made an Archbishop. This scares Sancho since he is counting on Don Quixote to win fame and fortune for both of them. He doesn't see much profit in a church career.

Sancho returns with the Don's friends to where his master is keeping vigil. On the way they meet Cardenio who now tells the rest of his tale of woe. Don Ferdinand tricked him into leaving town and then got his father to arrange for his (Don Ferdinand's) marriage to Lucinda. Cardenio returned home just in time to find the wedding under way. This is what drove him mad.

No sooner is this story finished than a young girl in boy's clothing comes on the scene. She turns out to be Dorothea, the farmer's daughter whom Don Ferdinand had seduced. But she has good news for Cardenio. Lucinda did not marry Don Ferdinand after all. In the middle of the wedding ceremony, Lucinda fainted. A letter found stuffed into her dress explained that she was secretly pledged to marry Cardenio and was planning to commit suicide if forced to wed Don Ferdinand. Cardenio is overjoyed to hear that Lucinda is not married. In gratitude he promises to help Dorothea get justice from Don Ferdinand. Cardenio will force him to keep his promise and marry the girl he seduced, whether he wants to or not.

NOTE: Cardenio's tale is long, complicated, and full of impossible coincidences. In this sense it may remind you of the plot of a television soap opera. Remember that readers in the seventeenth century were not surrounded by instant entertainment, as you are today. They wanted an author to give them their money's worth, and they were likely to be more tolerant of complicated detours from the main plot. Of course, no one expected such tales to be entirely believable. Improbable coincidences and unlikely cases of mistaken identity were all part of the fun. It is interesting to see that Cervantes uses many of the same devices- coincidence, disguise, and multiple cases of mistaken identification- throughout the novel. Why do these same devices seem more artificial in this section of the story than they do elsewhere? One possible reason is that Don Quixote and Sancho are more fully drawn characters than Dorothea, Cardenio, and Ferdinand.

Before leaving with Cardenio, Dorothea agrees to help the priest and the barber with their plan to trick Don Quixote into coming home. Back at the inn, the priest had disguised himself as a young maiden while the barber put on a false beard so that he could pretend to be the maiden's servant. The men decide, however, that Dorothea will be better cast in the role of the damsel in distress. The barber keeps his disguise but the priest will now pretend that he has just run into Don Quixote by accident.

Dorothea will act the part of the Princess Micomicona. The men are a little worried that a farmer's daughter will not be able to pass herself off as a princess. She tells them not to worry, for she's read plenty of chivalric romances!

"Princess Micomicona" tells Don Quixote that her father, the king, is dead. A giant named Pandafilando has usurped the throne and forced her to flee the country. The Don promises to go back to the princess' kingdom and slay the giant. Of course, the whole story is just a ruse to get Don Quixote on the road to his home village. But you may wonder who really understands Dorothea best. The priest and the barber see only a farmer's daughter, a girl of the lower classes. They're amazed that she can play a princess so convincingly. Don Quixote at least knows a damsel in distress when he sees one. Dorothea is the victim of a selfish young man, not an evil giant. But in real life she is as deserving of help as any princess.

The whole group sets out together. Cardenio and the barber are still in disguise, posing as the princess' servants. The priest will do his best to flatter Don Quixote to make him more cooperative.

At the very end of this section, Sancho sees Gines de Pasamonte, disguised as a gypsy and riding on Dapple. Sancho grabs his donkey and Gines flees. The squire is so happy to have Dapple back again that he weeps tears of joy.

CHAPTER 31

Don Quixote still believes that Sancho Panza has delivered his letter to Dulcinea. Afraid to admit that he lost the letter, Sancho invents ridiculous answers to the Don's questions about Dulcinea and her reactions to the letter. Fortunately, something happens to distract Don Quixote's attention. At a roadside fountain the travelers meet up with Andrew (Andres), the shepherd Don Quixote saved from a whipping in Chapter 4. Andrew tells everyone that his master was so angry at the Don's interference that he took out his rage by beating him all the harder. He has only recently left the hospital. Once again, Don Quixote looks like a fool and a meddler in the eyes of his friends. The story of Andrew illustrates the moral that good intentions alone are not enough. Often, naive and ill-considered interferences only make a bad situation worse. In this case, the Don is sincerely sorry to learn that Andrew had to suffer for his bad judgment. But, do his sincere regrets atone for the mistake? Some readers feel they do. It is inevitable, they say, that some attempts to do good will not succeed. If we worry too much about results we will end up as cynics, who stand by doing nothing while evil takes its course. Other readers disagree. This group sometimes compares the Don's attempts to help Andrew with the visionary program of Marxist revolutionaries or other varieties of political crusaders. It is not enough, these readers say, to have a vision of the perfect society. Unless we are also thoughtful enough to foresee how such visions will work out in practice, we may wind up doing more harm than good. What do you think?

CHAPTERS 32-35

The next day the travelers reach the inn. While Don Quixote is put to bed in a loft room, the others are served dinner by Maritornes, the innkeeper, and his wife. (The innkeeper considers the Don's madness amusing, and since he's been promised that this time his guests will pay for their lodging, he holds no grudge.) During the meal, the innkeeper admits that he, too, is a great fan of books of chivalry. "When I hear tell of those furious and terrible blows that the knights hand out," he confesses, "I long to be doing the same myself." Maritornes adds that she, too, enjoys the "lovely goings on" in these romantic stories. The only thing she can't understand is why the female characters are so coy. How could any woman let a man pine away and die for want of a little affection?

Like many who are addicted to romance novels or soap operas today, Maritornes wants to escape the depressing realities of her own situation. Even while he makes fun of the silly invention of chivalric romances, Cervantes shows in this scene that he understands why some people have a need for escapist entertainment. Notice, however, that while Maritornes is in some ways pathetic, her attitude toward these romantic stories is basically sensible. She knows that she cannot afford to be as aloof as the heroines of the stories she enjoys. You may find it interesting to compare her attitude with that of Altisidora- a young girl who is more cynical when her fantasy of romantic love fails to work out as planned.

Dorothea remarks that the innkeeper, who literally believes many of the fantastic stories told in these romances, is almost as crazy as Don Quixote. But there is a difference between the two kinds of belief. The innkeeper will never actually try to become a knight-errant because he knows that "it's not the fashion today." Because the innkeeper is content to pay lip service to the high ideals found in his favorite books, the world considers him sane. Since Don Quixote tries to put those ideals into practice, he is considered crazy. What do you think of this definition of craziness? Does it make you sympathize with Don Quixote? Or is the innkeeper right to take such a practical attitude?

Quixote's friend, the priest, remarks that he still thinks that books of chivalry are a bad influence and ought to be burned. To prove him wrong the innkeeper invites him to read a manuscript left behind by a traveler who recently stayed at the inn. Most of the next three chapters of the novel concern the priest's reading of the story.

The story is entitled "The Man Who Was Too Curious For His Own Good." (In some translations it is called "The Tale of Ill-Advised Curiosity" or "The Novel of the Curious Impertinent.") The main characters are two good friends named Anselmo and Lothario. Anselmo has a beautiful wife, Camilla. Unfortunately, he is the type of person who can never let well enough alone. He wants to test Camilla to see if she is really faithful to him. Anselmo, who is going out of town, makes Lothario promise to try to seduce Camilla, just so he can report on her reactions. The plan backfires. Lothario finds himself falling in love with Camilla. Camilla has been a faithful wife so far. But when Anselmo refuses to come home and help her deal with the lovesick Lothario, Camilla decides that her husband doesn't love her. She gives in to Lothario after all.

After Anselmo returns home, Camilla and Lothario resort to all kinds of ruses to keep Anselmo from finding out what is going on. Eventually, however, their guilty consciences catch up with them. Convinced that her maid is going to tell Anselmo the truth, Camilla flees to a convent. Lothario joins the army. Anselmo dies of a broken heart, regretting his foolish curiosity that caused so much trouble. Lothario is killed in battle soon after, and Camilla dies as well.

NOTE: Anselmo presents another contrast to the character of Don Quixote. The Don has an idealistic view of what the world should be like, and if the evidence of his own senses doesn't conform to that view, he simply assumes that an evil enchanter has been deceiving him. Anselmo is just the opposite. He can't take anything on faith- not even the love of his own wife. He needs continual proof in the form of reports from his friend Lothario. By constantly trying to test reality, he ends up changing it. Once again, readers disagree about whether this story serves a purpose in the novel. Some argue that it is out of place and distracting. Others feel that it sheds new light on the character of Don Quixote- and on the nature of quixotism. What is your opinion? If you were editing the novel, would you omit this story about Anselmo?

While the priest is reading downstairs, something strange is going on up in the loft. At one point Sancho Panza interrupts the reading to announce that his master is doing battle with giants. Rushing upstairs, the innkeeper finds that the "giants" are large pigskin sacks filled with wine which have been stored in the loft. Half asleep, the Don has mistaken the winesacks for his enemies and slashed away at them with a knife. When the wine came gushing out he was sure he had drawn blood! For the innkeeper this "battle of the wineskins" makes him lose his patience. He agrees to let Don Quixote stay on only because the priest promises to pay for the damages.

CHAPTERS 36-42

No sooner has the priest finished reading the story of Anselmo than a party of strangers arrives at the inn. The group consists of a lady in white, heavily veiled, and her escort of four men in black masks. It turns out that the lady is Lucinda, Cardenio's fiancee. And one of the masked men is Don Ferdinand. Lucinda, brokenhearted over Cardenio's disappearance, is on her way to enter a convent. Now she and Cardenio rush into each other's arms, happily reunited. Even Don Ferdinand, after being confronted by the rest of the company about his past behavior, has a change of heart. He is impressed by Dorothea's faithfulness to him and decides that he loves her and wants to marry her after all.

Sancho Panza is very disappointed to learn that Dorothea is not really the Princess Micomicona. However, when Sancho tries to break this news to Don Quixote, the Don simply refuses to believe that the "Princess" was not real.

NOTE: SANCHO'S CONTRADICTIONS
Sancho's behavior over the last several chapters has been very inconsistent. At times he seems to believe that the wineskins are human attackers; at other times he seems quite aware that they are not. He listened to Dorothea and her friends at dinner discussing the fact that knight-errantry is no longer in fashion and seemed to understand what they were saying. Yet now he is back to believing that Dorothea was a real princess. Some readers try to find logical explanations for Sancho's contradictory statements. Some have even suggested that Sancho is only trying to humor Don Quixote at this point. However, there is another possibility to consider. In real life, people who are quite sane often subscribe to contradictory beliefs. Some people do this quite consciously. For example, they may accept the biblical story of creation on one level and at the same time accept the scientific truth of evolution. If you read Don Quixote as a novel about the quest for faith, then you may see Sancho's changing opinions as an attempt to reconcile the mystical teachings of religion with everyday reality. Of course, a less sympathetic view of Sancho is that he simply believes the last thing he hears. According to this interpretation Sancho is the eternal follower- ready to be led by any strong personality who comes along.

Soon another party of travelers arrives at the inn. They are a young man named Ruy Perez de Viedma and a Moorish (Arab) lady called Lela Zoraida. This young man, too, tells an amazing story: Twenty-two years ago, the young man's father decided to divide his estate among his three sons. Each brother chose a different profession. One became a merchant, one a scholar, and the young man himself decided to make his fortune as a soldier. Unfortunately, his luck was not good. He was captured and sold into slavery in the North African city of Algiers. The lady Zoraida happened to live in a house overlooking the young man's prison yard. One day she dropped from her window a package containing some money and a note. The note explained that she was the daughter of a wealthy family. She wished to become a Christian and would be willing to escape from Algiers with the young man if he would promise to marry her. After many complications, the pair managed to arrange their flight from the city. But on their way back to Spain, their ship was attacked by pirates who robbed Zoraida of her fortune.

NOTE: This story, called "The Captive's Tale," draws to some extent on Cervantes' experiences as a captive in Algiers. At one point the young man even mentions a certain fellow prisoner called "something de Saavedra." You may find more evidence of the author's attitude toward this period of his life in Chapter 38, which is devoted to a long speech by Don Quixote, comparing the rewards and difficulties of a soldier's career and those of a life devoted to learning. The Don concludes that the soldier, while exposed to much hardship, has the nobler calling. Although Don Quixote is insane, his speech here is rational, even eloquent. You will have to decide for yourself whether you agree with his conclusion.

A third party arrives at the inn, which by now is becoming very crowded. These travelers are an influential judge and his lovely young daughter Clara. The judge eventually recognizes the young man (the captive) as his long lost brother. Another happy reunion follows.

Everyone except Don Quixote retires to bed for a well-earned night's rest. The Don decides that he had better stand guard all night in case the concentration of so many fair ladies in one place encourages a "giant" to attack the inn.

In the middle of the night, the sweet singing of a young mule driver awakens some of the guests.

THE STORY, continued

THE NOVEL

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