Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes

THE STORY, continued

CHAPTERS 43-46

Clara hears the singing and bursts into tears. She tells Dorothea that the mule driver is really Don Luis, her sixteen-year-old neighbor. Don Luis and Clara are in love, but since there seems to be no hope that his wealthy father will ever let him court her, he has run away from home. He has been following Clara and her father throughout their journey.

In the meantime, Maritornes and the innkeeper's daughter have decided to play a trick on Don Quixote. The daughter calls the knight to her window. The Don has already convinced himself that the daughter is in love with him. However, he protests that he must keep himself chaste for his true love, Dulcinea. Maritornes convinces the Don to put his hand through the window to comfort the disappointed girl. As soon as the Don does this, Maritornes slips a knotted thong over his wrist. The other end of the strap has already been tied to the bedroom door.

The Don is caught. He has been standing on the back of Rozinante to reach the window. Now he has to remain still all night for fear that his horse will bolt and leave him hanging by one arm. He stays this way until dawn when four men on horseback ride into the courtyard. Their arrival distracts Rozinante, and the Don slips from his perch.

NOTE: You may have noticed that this silly trick parodies the romantic tale of the young captive and his Moorish lady, Zoraida. Why has the author placed this episode here? To make fun of the captive's story? To ridicule Don Quixote or Maritornes? Or for some other reason?

The four horsemen announce that they have been sent by Don Luis' father to bring the boy home. This is the first time that the judge, Clara's father, has heard that the mule driver is really his neighbor's son. He is more sympathetic than Clara expected him to be. Eventually the judge convinces Don Ferdinand to help him work things out with Don Luis' father. Don Ferdinand, now reformed, has sympathy for the young man in love with a girl poorer than he. Since he is even more important and influential than Don Luis' father, we assume Don Ferdinand's advice will be listened to.

By now your head may be spinning. Ever since the Don met Cardenio in the Sierra Morena you have met a series of minor characters whose lives are connected in a web of thwarted love and coincidences. Now, suddenly, all their problems are resolved. More surprising still, Don Ferdinand, the cause of much of the trouble in the first place, seems to be completely reformed. It is important to remember that Cervantes did not expect his readers to take these twists of plot very seriously. No doubt he is parodying the improbable but lovely "goings on" which delighted readers such as Maritornes who were addicted to chivalric romances. Do you think that the public has grown more sophisticated in its expectations over the last four centuries?

Now one final traveler arrives at the inn- the wandering barber whose basin Don Quixote stole in Chapter 21. The barber wants his basin back, along with the ass' pack saddle that Sancho is now using on Dapple. Quixote's friend Nicholas the barber thinks it is very funny that the Don has mistaken a brass basin for "Mambrino's Helmet." He goes along with the joke, swearing to the other barber that the basin is really a helmet and the pack saddle the fine trappings of a horse. The wandering barber thinks the whole world has gone crazy.

Soon the argument begins to get out of hand. Four troopers of the Holy Brotherhood arrive and take the wandering barber's side in the quarrel. Then Don Quixote appears and attacks the barber. The troopers attack Don Quixote. In the course of the fracas you learn that the troopers are carrying a warrant for the arrest of the man who helped Gines de Pasamonte and the other galley slaves escape.

CHAPTERS 47-52

The troopers finally decide that Don Quixote is too crazy to be worth arresting.

The other guests prepare to leave the inn in a very happy mood. All their troubles have been resolved, and the various pairs of lovers are happily reunited.

The priest decides that he had better think of a way to get Don Quixote back home before he gets into any more trouble. He builds a crude wooden cage and hires an oxcart and driver to transport it. Don Quixote, still asleep after his hard night's vigil, is locked inside. When he awakens, Nicholas the barber tricks him into believing that he is under a magic spell. The cage is not really a cage at all, he tells Quixote. It is an enchanted vehicle, a final test of the Don's faith. If the Don behaves with courage he will be transported to a triumphant wedding with the "dove of Toboso," the beautiful Dulcinea.

On the road, the priest meets a canon (a learned churchman) and falls into an earnest conversation about the theater. Sancho, meanwhile, is just beginning to sort out his reactions to the crazy goings-on. He finally decides that the cage really is a cage after all. But his attempts to make his master believe this end in total frustration. Finally, Sancho convinces the priest that it isn't sanitary to keep Don Quixote penned up day and night. The priest agrees to open the door of the cage so the Don can relieve himself in the woods.

While Don Quixote is free, a young goatherd joins the group. He tells another sad, romantic tale. This story concerns Leandra, the most beautiful girl in his village. Leandra could have had her pick of young men. The goatherd, Eugenio, was in love with her himself. But she fell in love with a newcomer in town, a handsome but worthless fellow who did nothing but brag about his past deeds. Leandra agreed to elope with this fellow, only to learn too late that he was interested only in stealing her jewelry. Abandoned and disgraced, she was placed in a convent by her father.

Don Quixote is always alert for stories about damsels in distress. He declares that he's going to find the convent and rescue Leandra. Eugenio the goatherd thinks this is ridiculous. In his opinion, Leandra got exactly what she deserved. He is no longer in love with her himself now that he knows how foolish she is. Soon Eugenio and the Don are involved in a scuffle.

As they are fighting, a religious procession appears. Some of the marchers, or penitents, are carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary on their shoulders. Quixote mistakes the statue for a noble lady and the penitents for kidnappers. He charges into the group, hoping to spear one of the kidnappers on the point of his lance. Instead, one of the penitents knocks the Don senseless.

NOTE: THE DON AND THE VIRGIN MARY
This attack on the sacred image of the Virgin Mary is the Don's most outrageous escapade yet. Some readers feel that Cervantes uses this incident to ridicule the Roman Catholic church's adulation of Mary. Others argue with equal conviction that Quixote, the pure Christian, is moved by Mary's suffering. In any case, these readers say, Cervantes' humor is directed only against the superstitious excesses of the cult of Mary. Which view you agree with will depend to some extent on your view of the Don's character: Is he the champion of religious ideals in an unworthy world? Or is he merely an impractical fool- one who is unable to tell the difference between ordinary lies and the kind of lies sanctioned by the church and society?

For a while, everyone thinks that Don Quixote is dead. Sancho even delivers a tearful eulogy over his master's body. Finally, however, the Don comes to. He is so ashamed of himself that he agrees that he had better get back into his cage and be taken straight home.

As you read these last chapters of Part I, pay special attention to the changing attitude of Sancho Panza. In the beginning of this section, Sancho is completely disillusioned. Then he hears a conversation between Don Quixote and the learned canon. Quixote argues forcefully in defense of chivalric romances. However unrealistic these tales may be, he says, books containing them have been published with the approval of the king and the church. They have not been censored. Therefore, if you attack the books, you undermine religion itself. Quixote also defends Sancho's worthiness to become a nobleman. Although Sancho comes from the lower classes, he has done his best to show courage and loyalty. Doesn't the Bible teach that God rewards the good intentions of the humble? Even the canon has to admit that this is so. By the time he returns to his own house, Sancho is more convinced than ever that his master is a true knight-errant. He tells his amazed and skeptical wife that there is nothing more pleasant than to be a knight's loyal squire.

NOTE: Do you agree with Don Quixote that Sancho has behaved nobly? Remember that Sancho has shown courage time and again by staying and fighting at his master's side- even though, unlike the Don, he sees that they are hopelessly outnumbered. What is the true test of nobility? To be truly noble, must we be winners at everything we do? Or is nobility a matter of style, of doing whatever we do gracefully? Or, as the Don suggests, do good intentions count?

PART II
PROLOGUE

In the dedication to Part II of the novel, Cervantes takes a poke at the ungrateful patrons who have failed to reward him for his literary efforts. He jokes that the Emperor of China has offered to found a school that will use Don Quixote to teach Spanish to the Chinese. Yet the author still prefers to stay at home in Spain where his efforts have so far not brought him any great wealth.

In the prologue proper, Cervantes goes on to launch a bitter attack on the author who has dared to publish a counterfeit sequel to Part I of the adventures of Don Quixote. Not only has this author tried to capitalize on Cervantes' work, he has written insultingly about Cervantes himself.

From the tone of this prologue you may guess that Part II of Don Quixote will not be quite as light-hearted as Part I.

CHAPTERS 1-7

Don Quixote has been back home for a month, convalescing in bed from his adventures in Part I. His friends the priest and the barber pay him a visit to see how he is getting along. They are dismayed to find that the Don, though seemingly more rational, still believes that the knight-errant heroes of his favorite books really exist. He even suggests that the King of Spain would have no trouble defeating the Turks if only he summoned these great heroes to fight under his banner. The Don, his friends conclude, is as mad as ever.

Sancho Panza arrives at the house with very exciting news. A student named Sampson Carrasco has returned home from the university with word that Cide Hamete Benengeli's history of Don Quixote is already being read and enjoyed all over Europe.

NOTE: Here the author is introducing a new twist on the theme of reality vs. fantasy. The Don and Sancho Panza suddenly realize that they are characters in a book. They can't wait to hear what their readers have had to say about them.

The student, Sampson Carrasco, is delighted to come to Don Quixote's house for dinner and discuss the faults that some readers have found with Part I. In fact, the objections he raises reflect actual criticisms that were made of Cervantes' work by his contemporaries. You may have caught one of the mistakes that Carrasco complains about in the course of your own reading. At one point, after Gines de Pasamonte steals Sancho's donkey- and before it is returned- Cervantes describes Sancho as riding on it. If you have been finding the twists and turns of the plot of this novel a bit hard to follow, you may find it comforting to realize that even Cervantes occasionally lost track of what had happened in his own story.

Sampson Carrasco is described as a young man, excessively proud of his own cleverness, who enjoys making fun of others. (Later on, we are told that he longs to become a poet and is jealous of the success of the literary version of Don Quixote's adventures, Part I.) You may well be suspicious, then, when Sampson seems not to notice that Don Quixote is mad. He even mentions a jousting tournament that will be held in the town of Saragossa and suggests that Don Quixote attend.

Sancho Panza, meanwhile, is having trouble convincing his wife Teresa that he ought to continue as Don Quixote's squire. Sancho still believes that Don Quixote will eventually make him a rich man, the governor of his own island. Teresa Panza is not impressed. She is not even sure she wants to be rich. She is a plain person who feels that by putting on airs she would only be making a fool of herself. Sancho disagrees. The whole world, he argues, is impressed by ready money and fine clothes. Appearance is everything. No one cares what people are really like, as long as they can put up a good front.

In Part I, Sancho was a naive country bumpkin. Here, he is not only cynical but able to defend his opinion with a certain eloquence. Whom do you agree with- Sancho or Teresa?

NOTE: You may recall that in Part I you read that Sancho's wife was named Juana. Once again, Cervantes seems to have gotten confused.

Back at Don Quixote's house, his niece Antonia is desperately trying to convince the Don to give up his plan to leave home once more in search of adventure. The Don refutes every one of his niece's practical arguments. No one is too old, too sick, or too poor to do brave deeds, he insists. Antonia turns to Sampson Carrasco, hoping that as an educated man he will have better luck in talking Don Quixote out of his folly. To her surprise, Sampson does nothing of the kind. On the contrary, he even encourages the Don.

CHAPTERS 8-11

At the beginning of Chapter 8, Don Quixote and Sancho take to the road once again. The Don decides that he will first go to Toboso to see the lovely Dulcinea and renew his vows of loyalty to her. Sancho is panic-stricken. He knows very well that Dulcinea is not a princess and does not live in a magnificent castle. Moreover, he only pretended to deliver the letter to Dulcinea that Don Quixote entrusted to him in Part I. Now he is sure to be found out.

Sancho decides to humor his master. He tells the Don that the wicked enchanter has cast a spell over Dulcinea. The Don will not be able to see her as she really is. Instead, she will look like an ordinary country girl. So too, her fine steed will seem to be a humble she-donkey. Just then, three very ordinary girls riding on donkeys come into sight. Look! says Sancho, here come Dulcinea and her attendants now.

Don Quixote is terribly disappointed. All he sees are three peasant girls. The one who is supposed to be Dulcinea even has garlic on her breath. Tearful and confused, the Don begs Sancho to describe the beautiful Dulcinea that he, the Don, has been tricked out of seeing.

You may have noticed that in this scene the Don's and Sancho's roles have been reversed. It is Sancho who claims to be seeing a vision. Don Quixote, for once, sees reality all too clearly. He only believes that the peasant girl is Dulcinea because he trusts Sancho.

You might wonder why suddenly the Don's vivid imagination has failed him. Some readers think it is because he truly loves Dulcinea- or at least the image of her he has created in his mind. The Don might mistake windmills for giants, but he would never wrong his imaginary love by mistaking a rough country girl for her. Suddenly, he is plain old Alonso Quixano again, heartbroken at being deprived of a glimpse of the girl he longs for. Other readers think that it is Sancho's betrayal that has destroyed Quixote's confidence in his own mad delusions. A few readers have another answer. They suggest that the Don has been acting all along. He only pretends to be insane to teach Sancho and the world a moral lesson. Since the Don knows very well that Sancho is trying to trick him, he gets even by refusing to go along with the ruse. How do you assess this situation?

At the end of this section, a wagon comes into view. The passengers are a strange crew, indeed. The wagon driver is the Devil. With him are Death, an angel, and a jester. In reality these creatures are a band of traveling actors, still wearing the costumes from their last performance. Nevertheless, their appearance would seem to be a perfect occasion for Don Quixote to get involved in another of the knock-down battles you saw so often in Part I. This time, with a little prompting from Sancho, Don Quixote sees that the actors are not worth fighting.

CHAPTERS 12-15

Don Quixote and Sancho next meet up with another knight-errant, The Knight of the Wood, and his squire. This knight boasts of the beauty of his true love, Casildea. He even claims to have bested the great Don Quixote himself in single combat. Naturally, the Don is outraged by this lie. "I am Don Quixote," he announces. And he challenges the other knight to fight.

The next morning, at the appointed time, the knight arrives in a glittering suit of armor, covered with mirrors. He tells the Don that his real name is The Knight of the Mirrors. He makes the Don promise that if he is defeated, he will give up knight-errantry for two years. By pure luck, Don Quixote wins the fight. Sancho, meanwhile, has discovered that the other squire, under his false nose, is really Thomas Cecial, Sancho's neighbor. And the Knight of the Mirrors is Sampson Carrasco! The disguises are a trick invented by Sampson, the priest, and the barber to get Don Quixote to come home.

NOTE: When the knight changes his costume, you might guess that the new costume and name are meant to symbolize something. In this case, it isn't very difficult to figure out the symbolism of the mirror suit. Sampson has made himself the mirror image of Don Quixote. Some readers have called him the "false Quixote." Like the Don, Sampson is an ordinary man dressing up as a knight for what is supposedly a good cause- getting the Don safely back home. The difference is that Sampson is sane and the Don is crazy. Or is it the other way around? Since Don Quixote really believes in fair ladies and evil enchanters, you might say that his behavior is logical. Perhaps Sampson, who knows better, is the foolish one. It all depends on your point of view.

CHAPTERS 16-18

Another traveler happens along. This well-to-do, sensible gentleman is at first known only as "the man in green" because he is wearing a green suit of clothes. At first, the traveler takes Don Quixote for a madman. But when they start to discuss poetry, the Don expresses some very sensible opinions. Amazed, the gentleman concludes that Quixote is only half-mad.

Next, a wagon appears carrying two caged lions, gifts to the King of Spain from the Sultan of Oran. Don Quixote insists that the wagon driver open the cage so that he can fight one of the lions. The terrified driver opens the cage and stands aside. Don Quixote confronts the lion bravely. However, the lion takes one look at Don Quixote and lies down inside its cage, totally uninterested in attacking him.

Don Quixote considers this a great victory. From now on he will call himself Knight of the Lions. Do you think he has proved his courage or just given another example of his foolishness?

NOTE: Readers in seventeenth-century Spain would have surely recognized this scene as a parody of a famous confrontation between a lion and El Cid, Spain's great epic hero. In that story, the lion refuses to fight because it is abashed in the presence of El Cid's courage.

CHAPTERS 19-21

Two students whom the Don and Sancho meet on the road invite them to attend a wedding. The bride and groom are the beautiful Quiteria and Camacho the Rich, a wealthy farmer. Their wedding festivities are interrupted by the arrival of Basilio, a young man who loves Quiteria but has been rejected by her family because he is poor. Basilio announces that he is going to kill himself in grief. He falls on his dagger in front of the horrified wedding guests. Apparently dying, he begs to be granted one last wish. He asks that Quiteria marry him. Since he will be dead in a few minutes anyway, she will be free to marry Camacho as planned. The guests decide to humor him.

Of course, it's all a trick. As soon as Quiteria says "I do," Basilio revives. He had only pretended to stab himself. Quiteria, however, is not sorry, for she had wanted to marry Basilio all along and has been in on the plan. Naturally, though, Camacho and his family are furious. For once, Don Quixote plays peacemaker, He points out that in a way Basilio has done Camacho a good turn. Since Quiteria loves Basilio, her marriage to Camacho would have brought misery to all concerned.

CHAPTERS 22-23

Don Quixote now decides to explore the famous Cave of Montesinos, which is supposed to be enchanted. He has Sancho let him down into the cave on a rope to a ledge about sixty feet below ground. There he falls asleep and has a dream.

In his dream the Don sees himself in a castle where he meets the knight Sir Montesinos himself. Montesinos shows the Don the body of Durandarte, one of the greatest knights-errant in history. Durandarte had been "killed" in combat centuries ago. According to legend, his last wish was that his heart be cut out and given to his beloved, Belerma. In the dream, Don Quixote learns that because of the curse of a wicked enchanter, Durandarte cannot really die. He lies on his mortuary slab, weeping and moaning and begging to be released from the burden of life. Belerma, too, is cursed with immortality. She has turned into a yellow-complexioned old crone who wanders around carrying her knight's heart.

NOTE: Durandarte and Belerma were famous characters of medieval legend, celebrated in poems and ballads. The story of Durandarte's last wish, to have his heart cut out and taken to his beloved, was considered exquisitely romantic. Cervantes may be saying that this rather gory example of the chivalric romance has outlived its usefulness and deserves to be killed off.

At the end of his dream, Don Quixote sees the three peasant girls that Sancho told him were Dulcinea and her two ladies-in-waiting. One of the "ladies" approaches the Don and asks him to lend Dulcinea some money. The Don is stunned by this request. Cadging money from a stranger is totally out of character for the Dulcinea of his imagination. Nevertheless, he hands over what little he has. Shortly after this, Sancho hauls Don Quixote out of the cave and he wakes up.

This episode differs from any of Don Quixote's previous adventures. Even the Don is confused by his dream, since it seems to mock the values of chivalry. Also, for the first time you cannot be sure what is real. Is the dream just another of the Don's delusions? Or is it a "real" dream- one which may shock the Don back in the direction of sanity? How might a psychiatrist interpret it?

The uniqueness of the dream is emphasized in the succeeding chapter when the author tells you that even Cide Hamete Benengeli found this dream hard to believe. If the Don were not so truthful, Cide Hamete would have suspected him of lying, of making the whole story up. For this reason, the dream episode is sometimes called "Don Quixote's lie." A few readers, those who think that the Don is only pretending to be mad, take this suggestion literally. The Don concocts this "dream," they say, to repay Sancho for inventing the story of Dulcinea's enchantment. Another view is that it is Alonso Quixano, Don Quixote's sane alter ego, who dreams this dream. Alonso knows that the real Dulcinea is a peasant girl who would be interested in an old man like himself only for his money. If you had to vote for one of the choices, which would it be? Why? Could you suggest another possibility?

CHAPTERS 24-29

On their way to a roadside inn, the Don and Sancho meet a man driving a mule loaded with weapons. The man tells a strange story: Two aldermen from his village went looking for a lost jackass. Each of them brayed loudly, hoping to lure the ass in his direction. The two friends never recovered the ass (which was later found dead) but they brayed so well that they fooled each other. Soon the rest of the village, having heard of the friends' braying contest, started to make fun of them by braying every time the friends appeared in public. The joke got so out of control that people from other villages started to make fun of the jokesters. The village became known as the braying village. Now, to restore their reputation, the villagers are going out to fight those who mocked them.

You might think that the Don would rush to champion the cause of the braying village. Not at all. In Chapter 27 he intervenes as the fight is about to start. He lectures the villagers sternly, telling them that wars should be fought for important causes, not over silly quarrels. Sancho, however, can't resist showing off his own imitation of a jackass. When he starts braying, the villagers think he is making fun of them and beat him up. They didn't have adhesive bandages in Cervantes' time, but does it seem to you that his characters would have purchased them by the car load?

Inside the inn, the Don meets a traveling entertainer, Master Peter. Master Peter has a pet ape who, for money, is supposed to be able to answer any question put to it. This is an obvious fraud, since the ape only "whispers" the answers in his master's ear. It is Peter who relays them to the audience. Nevertheless, the ape seems to perform impressively. He recognizes Don Quixote and Sancho and gives Sancho "news" of his wife Teresa.

Later, Master Peter gives a puppet show depicting a fight between Spanish knights and the Moors. Don Quixote is so carried away that he draws his sword and attacks the puppets, totally destroying them.

Still later, you learn that Peter the puppet master is really Gines de Pasamonte, the rogue whom Don Quixote freed in the episode of the galley slaves (Part I, Chapter 22). This is how Master Peter was able to recognize Quixote and Panza and answer their questions. Perhaps Don Quixote was not so mistaken after all in attacking the puppets. Gines, alias Master Peter, really was making fun of him.

NOTE: This is one of the few times in the novel when Cervantes draws comparisons between art or theater and real life. Cervantes seems to be saying that all authors are, at least in part, swindlers. Writers manipulate their characters in order to deceive their readers into mistaking fiction for real life. In what way could the writing of fiction be a kind of lying? Are the readers of novels, like Sancho Panza, partners in their own deception? If not, why not? Notice that Cervantes goes to great lengths, even inventing the imaginary historian Cide Hamete, to convince you that Don Quixote is a true story. If someone said this is just carrying artistic lying to another level, what would he mean? Is there evidence that he is trying to set his book apart from the frivolous products of popular culture? Where do you find it?

At the end of this section, the Don and Sancho arrive at a flour mill, where a large waterwheel is being used to turn the grindstone. The Don mistakes the mill for an enchanted castle and tries to reach it by boat. His boat is about to be swept into the waterwheel and smashed when the millers run out to save him. Naturally, the Don mistakes the flour-covered workers for demons. He seems to be as crazy as he was in Part I.

CHAPTERS 30-41

Before you can catch your breath, the next series of adventures begins. Don Quixote and Sancho meet a Duke and Duchess out hunting and accept their invitation to be guests at the Duke's castle. The Duke and Duchess have read Part I of Don Quixote, and they arrange to play some very elaborate tricks on Quixote and Sancho, all for their own and their court's amusement. The Duchess decides that Sancho is even funnier than his master, so she convinces the Duke to promise to make Sancho a governor after all.

One trick that the Duke and Duchess play involves getting a servant to dress up as the evil wizard Merlin. This "Merlin" tells Quixote and Sancho that there is only one way that Dulcinea can be transformed back from a peasant girl into a princess: Sancho must promise to give himself 3300 lashes on his own bare buttocks. Of course Sancho is horrified. For one thing, he made up the story of Dulcinea's enchantment himself. For another, he can't see why he should be the one to suffer. Dulcinea is Don Quixote's beloved, not his. The Duchess cleverly persuades Sancho that Dulcinea really is enchanted. She also hints that Sancho will never get an island to rule if he doesn't agree to "save" Dulcinea. After much moaning and groaning, Sancho promises to do what Merlin wants. By the next day, however, he has given himself only five perfunctory spanks. He's still 3295 blows short of his quota.

NOTE: With this incident Sancho becomes thoroughly "quixotized." Through a combination of greed and affection for his master, Sancho has taken on Don Quixote's mad quest as his own. If you've ever been talked into accepting a dare against your own better judgment, perhaps you know how Sancho feels at this point. One compromise has led to another until finally he feels he has no choice but to carry the logic of the enchantment story to its conclusion.

Some readers, however, see a positive moral in Sancho's dilemma. Sancho, they say, represents the miracle of religious faith that inspires people to believe in the existence of God. Sancho's agreeing to whip himself might even be compared with the sufferings of Christ, who died for the sins of mankind. What weaknesses, if any, do you detect in those theories?

A second practical joke played by the Duke and Duchess involves a group of court ladies who dress up as "Countess Trifaldi" and her ladies-in-waiting. They tell Quixote that they have been cursed by an evil giant who has caused them to grow beards. The Don is fooled by the women's false whiskers into believing this, and he gallantly promises to do battle with the giant. But to reach the giant's faraway kingdom, he and Sancho will have to ride on a magical wooden horse that flies through the air. Trembling with fear, the Don and Sancho mount the horse. They are blindfolded, supposedly because the giant does not want them to see where they are going. Of course, the horse, Clavileno, is really a wooden toy stuffed with firecrackers. A servant blows air over the Don and Sancho with a bellows to make them think they are really flying. Then someone sets fire to the horse's tail. The firecrackers explode and Quixote and Sancho are thrown high into the air. After a good laugh at both men's expense, the courtiers convince them that their courage has made the giant relent. The "Countess" and her ladies remove their false beards and pretend to be very grateful.

During the course of these chapters, Sancho loudly expresses his dislike and fear of ladies-in-waiting- an opinion that is easy to understand if you realize that such ladies traditionally served as chaperones. The staunchly forbidding lady-in-waiting was a universally recognized figure of fun, much like the stereotypical interfering mother-in-law today.

But what of the Duke and Duchess' behavior? Some readers have pointed out that elaborate practical jokes such as they play were more acceptable in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than today. Some noblemen even had trick fountains which spewed water at unsuspecting guests. On the other hand, it is one thing to play jokes on one's equals, another to enjoy teasing a crazy man and his peasant servant. The Duke and Duchess are so far removed from the problems of everyday life that they treat the whole world as their playground. In a way, they are living a fantasy just as the Don is. One difference is that their fantasy is the product of boredom and aimlessness. Perhaps you can think of other differences.

CHAPTER 42-53

The Duke keeps his promise and makes Sancho the governor of the town of Baratario. Sancho is so gullible that he even believes Baratario is on an island, although it is actually landlocked.

NOTE: Barato means cheap in Spanish. Sancho has become the ruler of "Cheapsville."

Sancho has achieved his impossible dream. Much to the surprise of the Duke and his steward, Sancho turns out to be an excellent governor. Presented with a series of tricky legal cases to judge, he bases his decisions on common sense and does very well, indeed.

You, however, may feel that a few of Sancho's decisions are sexist, at least by modern standards. For example, he tells a young girl who longs for more freedom that an honest maid should stay at home "as if she had one leg broken." This advice probably represented the majority male opinion of the time.

On a lighter note, Sancho has problems dealing with an overenthusiastic doctor who is so aware of the health dangers of different types of food that he won't let Sancho eat anything at all. The character of the doctor shows that health food fanatics are not just a modern phenomenon.

The Duchess has written a letter to Teresa Panza, who is amazed and delighted to find that her husband has succeeded after all. However, the Duke has no intention of allowing Sancho to keep his island. When Sancho's governorship starts to turn out too well, the Duke is not pleased; he does not enjoy the thought that a mere peasant can rule as wisely as a lord. So he stages a mock invasion that ends Sancho's brief reign.

Don Quixote, meanwhile, has remained at the Duke's castle where he is having problems with women. One young lady of the court, fourteen-year-old Altisidora, has fallen madly in love with him. When the Don tells Altisidora that he is going to remain faithful to Dulcinea, Altisidora takes the rejection angrily. She begins to scheme for revenge.

Another lady, the middle-aged Dona Rodriguez, presents Don Quixote with a different type of problem. She comes to the Don's bedroom late at night and begs him to help her save her daughter's honor. A young man has seduced the daughter but refuses to marry her. The Don will have to fight the young man to force him to do the right thing.

CHAPTERS 54-57

On his way back to meet Don Quixote at the Duke's castle, Sancho runs into a Moor named Ricote, a shopkeeper from his own village. Ricote has been forced to leave the country; however, he has returned in disguise to recover a buried treasure of gold that he left behind. Sancho does not have time to help Ricote recover the treasure, but he promises not to betray his former neighbor to the authorities.

NOTE: The Moors, descendants of Arabs who had once ruled much of Spain, were a despised minority. Between 1609 and 1613, Moriscos- Moors like Ricote who had adopted Christianity- were expelled from the country.

Cervantes is obviously sympathetic to the Moors. He has Ricote note, ironically, that it is easier for a Moor to live as a good Christian in Algeria than in Europe. On the other hand, Cervantes seems to defend the reasoning behind the expulsion of the Moriscos. Passages like this one lead some readers to believe that Cervantes was basically a conservative- he sympathized with downtrodden individuals but did not challenge the system. Other readers think Cervantes merely outwitted the censors by using irony and humor to soften the impact of his social criticisms. You will have to decide for yourself which view is right.

Back at the castle, the Duke has arranged a tournament so that Don Quixote can defend the honor of Dona Rodriguez's daughter. Unfortunately, the young man the Don was supposed to fight has fled the country. (You are told, in passing, that he wanted to escape having Dona Rodriguez for a mother-in-law.) The Duke gets his servant Tosilos to take the young man's place. Tosilos is coached on how to put up a good show without actually hurting the Don, since the Duke wants only to have some fun at Don Quixote's expense. However, when Tosilos sees Dona Rodriguez' daughter, he calls off the fight at the last minute. He has fallen in love with the girl and wants to marry her. Even though Dona Rodriguez and her daughter know that Tosilos is the wrong young man, they are delighted by this turn of events. In the seventeenth century, a young lady who was no longer a virgin considered herself lucky to find a loving husband.

NOTE: In spite of all the tricks the Duke and Duchess have played on them, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza have fared rather well. Sancho Panza was a good governor. He has even overcome the greedy side of his nature in refusing to betray the Moor Ricote. A letter written by Sancho's wife Teresa has revealed her inner dignity and her touching pride in her husband's success. Don Quixote, meanwhile, really has been able to help Dona Rodriguez, though in a roundabout way. He also shows some restraint in refusing to take advantage of the lovesick Altisidora. The Duke and the Duchess, who think they are so smart and sophisticated, have been exposed as petty, rather foolish people. What are these reversals telling you about Cervantes' philosophy?

CHAPTERS 58-60

Don Quixote and Sancho leave the castle, continuing their journey to the jousting tournament described by Sampson Carrasco at the beginning of Part II.

Don Quixote is hiking through a wood when he gets caught in some threads strung between the trees. A young woman appears and explains that the threads are snares set to trap birds. She and her companions introduce themselves as well-to-do ladies who have retired to this part of the countryside to play at being shepherdesses. The young women and their male companions make a big fuss over Don Quixote. He, in turn, offers to stand in the middle of the road and challenge anyone who comes by to acknowledge the shepherdesses' beauty. Unfortunately for Don Quixote, the first "travelers" to come along are a herd of bulls. They stampede right past the Don and Sancho, leaving both men bruised and breathless.

NOTE: The young ladies playing shepherdesses are acting out the fantasies of the pastoral romances that were still quite popular in Cervantes' time. Their modern equivalent would be a group of wealthy young people going to a town in the Old West to play at being cowboys and frontier dwellers. You might also be reminded of the hippie communes of the 1960s and early 1970s that were founded by young people from the cities who tried, often very self-consciously, to "live off the land."

Moving on, Don Quixote is quite depressed to hear two gentlemen at an inn discussing the unauthorized Part II of Don Quixote that has just been published. In fact, it was while writing this chapter of the novel that Cervantes learned that such a sequel, written by another author, had appeared in print. Cervantes took his revenge through the characters in his story. Because the author of the unauthorized Part II supposedly had his characters travel to Saragossa, the "real" Don Quixote- Cervantes' character- decides to prove the sequel false by changing his destination. He and Sancho will go to Barcelona instead.

In the meantime, Don Quixote has another problem. He is upset because Sancho has not yet given himself the 3300 lashes that will free Dulcinea from her magic spell. At night, while the pair are camping out under the stars, the Don creeps up on the sleeping Sancho and tries to deliver the lashes himself. Sancho wakes up and wrestles with his master.

Next, the Don and Sancho meet a band of highway robbers led by a notorious outlaw named Roque Ginart. The knight and his squire are afraid that their end has come. To their surprise, however, Roque turns out to be a gentleman outlaw. Recognizing that the Don is mad, Roque does not rob him. The outlaw treats his other victims with similar courtesy. He takes only from the rich and undeserving, and even then he limits himself to stealing no more than they can afford to lose.

NOTE: Roque Ginart was a real outlaw who operated in eastern Spain during the time Cervantes was writing. You might compare him to the legendary Englishman, Robin Hood. Roque's philosophy of robbing from the rich to give to the poor is a real-life example of "quixotism." Yet Roque does not recognize Don Quixote as a kindred spirit. Why not? One reason might be that Roque knows the score, so to speak. He realizes that in the eyes of the law he is still an outlaw. Unlike Don Quixote, he is in touch with reality. What other differences did you find between the two characters?

CHAPTERS 61-62

The Don and Sancho finally reach Barcelona. Roque has given them a letter of introduction to a gentleman named Don Antonio Moreno who welcomes them as guests in his home. Quixote and Sancho discover that they are now celebrities. The townsfolk recognize them as characters in a famous book. Don Antonio even gives a ball in Quixote's honor.

It does not take Don Quixote and Sancho very long to discover that being famous has as many drawbacks as being poor and unappreciated. The Don wears himself out dancing at the ball. He and Sancho grow weary of being stared at every time they appear in public. Furthermore, the wonders of city life turn out to be greatly overrated. In one scene, Don Antonio shows off a disembodied "talking head." Of course this is just an elaborate parlor trick. The head is made of bronze, and its voice is produced by Don Antonio's nephew, hiding in a room below and shouting through a pipe.

CHAPTERS 63-66

During a visit to a ship docked in the harbor, Don Quixote and Sancho meet a young woman named Anna Felix, who has just escaped from Algeria. Anna Felix turns out to be the daughter of Sancho's Morisco neighbor, Ricote. Anna tells a complicated story about her lover, Don Gaspar, who is still a captive in Algiers. Everyone agrees that if Ricote cannot buy the young man's freedom, Don Quixote will have to rescue him.

Before this can happen, however, Don Quixote meets his last defeat. While he is enjoying a quiet walk on the beach, the Don sees a mounted knight in full armor riding out of the mist. It is the Knight of the Full Moon. The Don challenges him to acknowledge Dulcinea's beauty. In reply, the knight offers to fight one-on-one. If the Don wins, the knight will praise Dulcinea. If the Don loses, he must give up knight-errantry for a full year. Don Quixote accepts the challenge. He charges forward on Rozinante and is promptly knocked to the ground. Defeated, he must now give up his quest.

Does this knight's request sound familiar? This is the same trick that Sampson Carrasco tried to play as the Knight of the Mirrors. You soon learn that the "Knight of the Full Moon" is indeed the persistent Sampson. But this time his plan has worked.

You may find yourself wondering at this point why Sampson has been so persistent. We learned one reason at the beginning of Part II when the author describes Sampson as an arrogant young man out to prove himself cleverer than any small-town hidalgo. It is tempting to suppose that in creating the character of Sampson, Cervantes had in mind the imposter who was arrogant enough to publish a counterfeit sequel to Part I of his novel. At the same time, you may have encountered some real-life counterparts of Sampson. Sampson brings to life the phrase "Too smart for his own good." He plays along with behavior he considers crazy hoping that in the end his superiority will be obvious to all. Instead, he often seems sillier than poor, mad Don Quixote.

CHAPTERS 67-74

On his way home to keep his promise to the knight, Don Quixote encounters Tosilos, the young man he had almost fought at the Duke's castle. Tosilos tells the Don and Sancho that the Duke did not keep his promise to let him marry Dona Rodriguez' daughter after all. So another of Don Quixote's "successful" adventures has turned out to be a failure.

Arriving at the Duke's castle, Quixote and Sancho find a funeral in progress. Altisidora is lying stretched out on the funeral bier. Two black-robed figures appear, supposedly the judges of Hell personified. They announce that Altisidora has died of unrequited love for Don Quixote. Only Sancho can bring her back to life by allowing himself to be pinched, pricked, and slapped by the Duchess' ladies-in-waiting. The ladies fall upon the protesting Sancho. Just then Altisidora sits up, not dead at all.

Don Quixote never quite realizes that Altisidora's resurrection was an act, invented by the Duke and Sampson. Convinced of Sancho's powers of disenchantment, he offers to pay his squire if he will only give himself the lashes necessary to free Dulcinea from her magic spell. That night, Sancho finally agrees. But he only pretends to whip himself, yelling in pain while beating his lash on the tree trunks nearby.

Don Quixote believes that Sancho has kept his promise. Yet he still has not found Dulcinea. He looks for her everywhere, his depression turning to despair. Don Quixote overhears two young boys talking. One of them says to the other, "Thou shalt never see her while thou hast breath in thy body." The Don begins to think that this message is meant for him. He will see Dulcinea only after he dies.

Don Quixote arrives back at his own house. His niece and his friends are overjoyed to see him safe. But the Don knows that he will soon die. He tells his surprised friends that he is now cured of his madness. Don Quixote of La Mancha no longer exists. He is plain Alonso Quixano once again.

Sancho begs his master not to die. In tears, he reminds him that there are still brave deeds to be done, many wrongs that need to be set right. But Alonso Quixano, now sane, cannot see what this has to do with him. His last act is to write into his will the provision that his niece must promise to marry a man who has no interest in reading books about chivalry. After this, he dies.

NOTE: Some years ago, Don Quixote was made into a musical play, Man of La Mancha. In this version of the Quixote story, you are led to believe that Sancho will continue the Don's mission after his master's death. Do you think this is what Cervantes had in mind when he wrote this final scene? Has Sancho been infected permanently with the Don's "madness"- with his idealism? Or, does Don Quixote's advice to his niece represent Cervantes' feelings? Is the author saying that the "quixotic" idealism of Don Quixote belongs only in books, and in rather silly, dangerous books at that? These are only two of a broad spectrum of conclusions that thoughtful readers have drawn from the ending of this novel. Deciding upon the meaning of all that has taken place is now your quest.

A STEP BEYOND

THE STORY

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