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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5911-h.zip b/5911-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d981f08 --- /dev/null +++ b/5911-h.zip diff --git a/5911-h/5911-h.htm b/5911-h/5911-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a24fd1a --- /dev/null +++ b/5911-h/5911-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2522 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE, By Cervantes, Vol. I., Part 9.</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {background:#faebd7; margin:10%; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; } + .figleft {float: left;} + .figright {float: right;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + PRE { font-family: Times; font-size: 97%; margin-left: 15%;} + // --> +</style> + + +</head> +<body> + +<h2>THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE, Vol. I., Part 9.</h2> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Don Quixote, Vol. I., Part 9. +by Miguel de Cervantes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The History of Don Quixote, Vol. I., Part 9. + +Author: Miguel de Cervantes + +Release Date: July 18, 2004 [EBook #5911] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DON QUIXOTE, PART 9 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<br> +<hr> +<br><br><br><br><br><br> + + + +<center> +<h1>DON QUIXOTE</h1> +<br> +<h2>by Miguel de Cervantes</h2> +<br> +<h3>Translated by John Ormsby</h3> +</center> + +<br><br> + +<center><h3> +Volume I., Part 9. +<br><br> +Chapters 24-27 +</h3></center> + +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="bookcover.jpg (230K)" src="images/bookcover.jpg" height="842" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/bookcover.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"> +</a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center> +<img alt="spine.jpg (152K)" src="images/spine.jpg" height="842" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/spine.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"> +</a> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<center> +<h3>Ebook Editor's Note</h3> +</center> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p>The book cover and spine above and the images which follow were not part of the original Ormsby +translation—they are taken from the 1880 edition of J. W. Clark, illustrated by +Gustave Dore. Clark in his edition states that, "The English text of 'Don Quixote' +adopted in this edition is that of Jarvis, with occasional corrections from Motteaux." +See in the introduction below John Ormsby's critique of +both the Jarvis and Motteaux translations. It has been elected in the present Project Gutenberg edition +to attach the famous engravings of Gustave Dore to the Ormsby translation instead +of the Jarvis/Motteaux. The detail of many of the Dore engravings can be fully appreciated only +by utilizing the "Enlarge" button to expand them to their original dimensions. Ormsby +in his Preface has criticized the fanciful nature of Dore's illustrations; others feel +these woodcuts and steel engravings well match Quixote's dreams. + + D.W.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<br><br><br><br> +<center> +<img alt="p003.jpg (307K)" src="images/p003.jpg" height="813" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p003.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"> +</a> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<center><h2>CONTENTS</h2></center> + + +<pre> + +<a href="#ch24">CHAPTER XXIV</a> +IN WHICH IS CONTINUED THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIERRA MORENA + +<a href="#ch25">CHAPTER XXV</a> +WHICH TREATS OF THE STRANGE THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THE +STOUT KNIGHT OF LA MANCHA IN THE SIERRA MORENA, AND OF +HIS IMITATION OF THE PENANCE OF BELTENEBROS + +<a href="#ch26">CHAPTER XXVI</a> +IN WHICH ARE CONTINUED THE REFINEMENTS WHEREWITH DON +QUIXOTE PLAYED THE PART OF A LOVER IN THE SIERRA MORENA + +<a href="#ch27">CHAPTER XXVII</a> +OF HOW THE CURATE AND THE BARBER PROCEEDED WITH THEIR +SCHEME; TOGETHER WITH OTHER MATTERS WORTHY OF RECORD IN +THIS GREAT HISTORY + +</pre> + +<br><br><br><br> + + + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch24"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>IN WHICH IS CONTINUED THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIERRA MORENA +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="c24a"></a><img alt="c24a.jpg (151K)" src="images/c24a.jpg" height="423" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/c24a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>The history relates that it was with the greatest attention Don +Quixote listened to the ragged knight of the Sierra, who began by +saying:</p> + +<p>"Of a surety, senor, whoever you are, for I know you not, I thank +you for the proofs of kindness and courtesy you have shown me, and +would I were in a condition to requite with something more than +good-will that which you have displayed towards me in the cordial +reception you have given me; but my fate does not afford me any +other means of returning kindnesses done me save the hearty desire +to repay them."</p> + +<p>"Mine," replied Don Quixote, "is to be of service to you, so much so +that I had resolved not to quit these mountains until I had found you, +and learned of you whether there is any kind of relief to be found for +that sorrow under which from the strangeness of your life you seem +to labour; and to search for you with all possible diligence, if +search had been necessary. And if your misfortune should prove to be +one of those that refuse admission to any sort of consolation, it +was my purpose to join you in lamenting and mourning over it, so far +as I could; for it is still some comfort in misfortune to find one who +can feel for it. And if my good intentions deserve to be +acknowledged with any kind of courtesy, I entreat you, senor, by +that which I perceive you possess in so high a degree, and likewise +conjure you by whatever you love or have loved best in life, to tell +me who you are and the cause that has brought you to live or die in +these solitudes like a brute beast, dwelling among them in a manner so +foreign to your condition as your garb and appearance show. And I +swear," added Don Quixote, "by the order of knighthood which I have +received, and by my vocation of knight-errant, if you gratify me in +this, to serve you with all the zeal my calling demands of me, +either in relieving your misfortune if it admits of relief, or in +joining you in lamenting it as I promised to do."</p> + +<p>The Knight of the Thicket, hearing him of the Rueful Countenance +talk in this strain, did nothing but stare at him, and stare at him +again, and again survey him from head to foot; and when he had +thoroughly examined him, he said to him:</p> + +<p>"If you have anything to give me to eat, for God's sake give it +me, and after I have eaten I will do all you ask in acknowledgment +of the goodwill you have displayed towards me."</p> + +<p>Sancho from his sack, and the goatherd from his pouch, furnished the +Ragged One with the means of appeasing his hunger, and what they +gave him he ate like a half-witted being, so hastily that he took no +time between mouthfuls, gorging rather than swallowing; and while he +ate neither he nor they who observed him uttered a word. As soon as he +had done he made signs to them to follow him, which they did, and he +led them to a green plot which lay a little farther off round the +corner of a rock. On reaching it he stretched himself upon the +grass, and the others did the same, all keeping silence, until the +Ragged One, settling himself in his place, said:</p> + +<p>"If it is your wish, sirs, that I should disclose in a few words the +surpassing extent of my misfortunes, you must promise not to break the +thread of my sad story with any question or other interruption, for +the instant you do so the tale I tell will come to an end."</p> + +<p>These words of the Ragged One reminded Don Quixote of the tale his +squire had told him, when he failed to keep count of the goats that +had crossed the river and the story remained unfinished; but to return +to the Ragged One, he went on to say:</p> + +<p>"I give you this warning because I wish to pass briefly over the +story of my misfortunes, for recalling them to memory only serves to +add fresh ones, and the less you question me the sooner shall I make +an end of the recital, though I shall not omit to relate anything of +importance in order fully to satisfy your curiosity."</p> + +<p>Don Quixote gave the promise for himself and the others, and with +this assurance he began as follows:</p> + +<p>"My name is Cardenio, my birthplace one of the best cities of this +Andalusia, my family noble, my parents rich, my misfortune so great +that my parents must have wept and my family grieved over it without +being able by their wealth to lighten it; for the gifts of fortune can +do little to relieve reverses sent by Heaven. In that same country +there was a heaven in which love had placed all the glory I could +desire; such was the beauty of Luscinda, a damsel as noble and as rich +as I, but of happier fortunes, and of less firmness than was due to so +worthy a passion as mine. This Luscinda I loved, worshipped, and +adored from my earliest and tenderest years, and she loved me in all +the innocence and sincerity of childhood. Our parents were aware of +our feelings, and were not sorry to perceive them, for they saw +clearly that as they ripened they must lead at last to a marriage +between us, a thing that seemed almost prearranged by the equality +of our families and wealth. We grew up, and with our growth grew the +love between us, so that the father of Luscinda felt bound for +propriety's sake to refuse me admission to his house, in this +perhaps imitating the parents of that Thisbe so celebrated by the +poets, and this refusal but added love to love and flame to flame; for +though they enforced silence upon our tongues they could not impose it +upon our pens, which can make known the heart's secrets to a loved one +more freely than tongues; for many a time the presence of the object +of love shakes the firmest will and strikes dumb the boldest tongue. +Ah heavens! how many letters did I write her, and how many dainty +modest replies did I receive! how many ditties and love-songs did I +compose in which my heart declared and made known its feelings, +described its ardent longings, revelled in its recollections and +dallied with its desires! At length growing impatient and feeling my +heart languishing with longing to see her, I resolved to put into +execution and carry out what seemed to me the best mode of winning +my desired and merited reward, to ask her of her father for my +lawful wife, which I did. To this his answer was that he thanked me +for the disposition I showed to do honour to him and to regard +myself as honoured by the bestowal of his treasure; but that as my +father was alive it was his by right to make this demand, for if it +were not in accordance with his full will and pleasure, Luscinda was +not to be taken or given by stealth. I thanked him for his kindness, +reflecting that there was reason in what he said, and that my father +would assent to it as soon as I should tell him, and with that view +I went the very same instant to let him know what my desires were. +When I entered the room where he was I found him with an open letter +in his hand, which, before I could utter a word, he gave me, saying, +'By this letter thou wilt see, Cardenio, the disposition the Duke +Ricardo has to serve thee.' This Duke Ricardo, as you, sirs, +probably know already, is a grandee of Spain who has his seat in the +best part of this Andalusia. I took and read the letter, which was +couched in terms so flattering that even I myself felt it would be +wrong in my father not to comply with the request the duke made in it, +which was that he would send me immediately to him, as he wished me to +become the companion, not servant, of his eldest son, and would take +upon himself the charge of placing me in a position corresponding to +the esteem in which he held me. On reading the letter my voice +failed me, and still more when I heard my father say, 'Two days +hence thou wilt depart, Cardenio, in accordance with the duke's +wish, and give thanks to God who is opening a road to thee by which +thou mayest attain what I know thou dost deserve; and to these words +he added others of fatherly counsel. The time for my departure +arrived; I spoke one night to Luscinda, I told her all that had +occurred, as I did also to her father, entreating him to allow some +delay, and to defer the disposal of her hand until I should see what +the Duke Ricardo sought of me: he gave me the promise, and she +confirmed it with vows and swoonings unnumbered. Finally, I +presented myself to the duke, and was received and treated by him so +kindly that very soon envy began to do its work, the old servants +growing envious of me, and regarding the duke's inclination to show me +favour as an injury to themselves. But the one to whom my arrival gave +the greatest pleasure was the duke's second son, Fernando by name, a +gallant youth, of noble, generous, and amorous disposition, who very +soon made so intimate a friend of me that it was remarked by +everybody; for though the elder was attached to me, and showed me +kindness, he did not carry his affectionate treatment to the same +length as Don Fernando. It so happened, then, that as between +friends no secret remains unshared, and as the favour I enjoyed with +Don Fernando had grown into friendship, he made all his thoughts known +to me, and in particular a love affair which troubled his mind a +little. He was deeply in love with a peasant girl, a vassal of his +father's, the daughter of wealthy parents, and herself so beautiful, +modest, discreet, and virtuous, that no one who knew her was able to +decide in which of these respects she was most highly gifted or most +excelled. The attractions of the fair peasant raised the passion of +Don Fernando to such a point that, in order to gain his object and +overcome her virtuous resolutions, he determined to pledge his word to +her to become her husband, for to attempt it in any other way was to +attempt an impossibility. Bound to him as I was by friendship, I +strove by the best arguments and the most forcible examples I could +think of to restrain and dissuade him from such a course; but +perceiving I produced no effect I resolved to make the Duke Ricardo, +his father, acquainted with the matter; but Don Fernando, being +sharp-witted and shrewd, foresaw and apprehended this, perceiving that +by my duty as a good servant I was bound not to keep concealed a thing +so much opposed to the honour of my lord the duke; and so, to +mislead and deceive me, he told me he could find no better way of +effacing from his mind the beauty that so enslaved him than by +absenting himself for some months, and that he wished the absence to +be effected by our going, both of us, to my father's house under the +pretence, which he would make to the duke, of going to see and buy +some fine horses that there were in my city, which produces the best +in the world. When I heard him say so, even if his resolution had +not been so good a one I should have hailed it as one of the +happiest that could be imagined, prompted by my affection, seeing what +a favourable chance and opportunity it offered me of returning to +see my Luscinda. With this thought and wish I commended his idea and +encouraged his design, advising him to put it into execution as +quickly as possible, as, in truth, absence produced its effect in +spite of the most deeply rooted feelings. But, as afterwards appeared, +when he said this to me he had already enjoyed the peasant girl +under the title of husband, and was waiting for an opportunity of +making it known with safety to himself, being in dread of what his +father the duke would do when he came to know of his folly. It +happened, then, that as with young men love is for the most part +nothing more than appetite, which, as its final object is enjoyment, +comes to an end on obtaining it, and that which seemed to be love +takes to flight, as it cannot pass the limit fixed by nature, which +fixes no limit to true love—what I mean is that after Don Fernando +had enjoyed this peasant girl his passion subsided and his eagerness +cooled, and if at first he feigned a wish to absent himself in order +to cure his love, he was now in reality anxious to go to avoid keeping +his promise.</p> + +<p>"The duke gave him permission, and ordered me to accompany him; we +arrived at my city, and my father gave him the reception due to his +rank; I saw Luscinda without delay, and, though it had not been dead +or deadened, my love gathered fresh life. To my sorrow I told the +story of it to Don Fernando, for I thought that in virtue of the great +friendship he bore me I was bound to conceal nothing from him. I +extolled her beauty, her gaiety, her wit, so warmly, that my praises +excited in him a desire to see a damsel adorned by such attractions. +To my misfortune I yielded to it, showing her to him one night by +the light of a taper at a window where we used to talk to one another. +As she appeared to him in her dressing-gown, she drove all the +beauties he had seen until then out of his recollection; speech failed +him, his head turned, he was spell-bound, and in the end love-smitten, +as you will see in the course of the story of my misfortune; and to +inflame still further his passion, which he hid from me and revealed +to Heaven alone, it so happened that one day he found a note of hers +entreating me to demand her of her father in marriage, so delicate, so +modest, and so tender, that on reading it he told me that in +Luscinda alone were combined all the charms of beauty and +understanding that were distributed among all the other women in the +world. It is true, and I own it now, that though I knew what good +cause Don Fernando had to praise Luscinda, it gave me uneasiness to +hear these praises from his mouth, and I began to fear, and with +reason to feel distrust of him, for there was no moment when he was +not ready to talk of Luscinda, and he would start the subject +himself even though he dragged it in unseasonably, a circumstance that +aroused in me a certain amount of jealousy; not that I feared any +change in the constancy or faith of Luscinda; but still my fate led me +to forebode what she assured me against. Don Fernando contrived always +to read the letters I sent to Luscinda and her answers to me, under +the pretence that he enjoyed the wit and sense of both. It so +happened, then, that Luscinda having begged of me a book of chivalry +to read, one that she was very fond of, Amadis of Gaul-"</p> + +<p>Don Quixote no sooner heard a book of chivalry mentioned, than he +said:</p> + +<p>"Had your worship told me at the beginning of your story that the +Lady Luscinda was fond of books of chivalry, no other laudation +would have been requisite to impress upon me the superiority of her +understanding, for it could not have been of the excellence you +describe had a taste for such delightful reading been wanting; so, +as far as I am concerned, you need waste no more words in describing +her beauty, worth, and intelligence; for, on merely hearing what her +taste was, I declare her to be the most beautiful and the most +intelligent woman in the world; and I wish your worship had, along +with Amadis of Gaul, sent her the worthy Don Rugel of Greece, for I +know the Lady Luscinda would greatly relish Daraida and Garaya, and +the shrewd sayings of the shepherd Darinel, and the admirable verses +of his bucolics, sung and delivered by him with such sprightliness, +wit, and ease; but a time may come when this omission can be remedied, +and to rectify it nothing more is needed than for your worship to be +so good as to come with me to my village, for there I can give you +more than three hundred books which are the delight of my soul and the +entertainment of my life;—though it occurs to me that I have not +got one of them now, thanks to the spite of wicked and envious +enchanters;—but pardon me for having broken the promise we made not +to interrupt your discourse; for when I hear chivalry or +knights-errant mentioned, I can no more help talking about them than +the rays of the sun can help giving heat, or those of the moon +moisture; pardon me, therefore, and proceed, for that is more to the +purpose now."</p> + +<p>While Don Quixote was saying this, Cardenio allowed his head to fall +upon his breast, and seemed plunged in deep thought; and though +twice Don Quixote bade him go on with his story, he neither looked +up nor uttered a word in reply; but after some time he raised his head +and said, "I cannot get rid of the idea, nor will anyone in the +world remove it, or make me think otherwise—and he would be a +blockhead who would hold or believe anything else than that that +arrant knave Master Elisabad made free with Queen Madasima."</p> + +<p>"That is not true, by all that's good," said Don Quixote in high +wrath, turning upon him angrily, as his way was; "and it is a very +great slander, or rather villainy. Queen Madasima was a very +illustrious lady, and it is not to be supposed that so exalted a +princess would have made free with a quack; and whoever maintains +the contrary lies like a great scoundrel, and I will give him to +know it, on foot or on horseback, armed or unarmed, by night or by +day, or as he likes best."</p> + +<p>Cardenio was looking at him steadily, and his mad fit having now +come upon him, he had no disposition to go on with his story, nor +would Don Quixote have listened to it, so much had what he had heard +about Madasima disgusted him. Strange to say, he stood up for her as +if she were in earnest his veritable born lady; to such a pass had his +unholy books brought him. Cardenio, then, being, as I said, now mad, +when he heard himself given the lie, and called a scoundrel and +other insulting names, not relishing the jest, snatched up a stone +that he found near him, and with it delivered such a blow on Don +Quixote's breast that he laid him on his back. Sancho Panza, seeing +his master treated in this fashion, attacked the madman with his +closed fist; but the Ragged One received him in such a way that with a +blow of his fist he stretched him at his feet, and then mounting +upon him crushed his ribs to his own satisfaction; the goatherd, who +came to the rescue, shared the same fate; and having beaten and +pummelled them all he left them and quietly withdrew to his +hiding-place on the mountain. Sancho rose, and with the rage he felt +at finding himself so belaboured without deserving it, ran to take +vengeance on the goatherd, accusing him of not giving them warning +that this man was at times taken with a mad fit, for if they had known +it they would have been on their guard to protect themselves. The +goatherd replied that he had said so, and that if he had not heard +him, that was no fault of his. Sancho retorted, and the goatherd +rejoined, and the altercation ended in their seizing each other by the +beard, and exchanging such fisticuffs that if Don Quixote had not made +peace between them, they would have knocked one another to pieces.</p> + +<p>"Leave me alone, Sir Knight of the Rueful Countenance," said Sancho, +grappling with the goatherd, "for of this fellow, who is a clown +like myself, and no dubbed knight, I can safely take satisfaction +for the affront he has offered me, fighting with him hand to hand like +an honest man."</p> + +<p>"That is true," said Don Quixote, "but I know that he is not to +blame for what has happened."</p> + +<p>With this he pacified them, and again asked the goatherd if it would +be possible to find Cardenio, as he felt the greatest anxiety to +know the end of his story. The goatherd told him, as he had told him +before, that there was no knowing of a certainty where his lair was; +but that if he wandered about much in that neighbourhood he could +not fail to fall in with him either in or out of his senses.</p> + + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="c24e"></a><img alt="c24e.jpg (69K)" src="images/c24e.jpg" height="435" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/c24e.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch25"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>WHICH TREATS OF THE STRANGE THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THE STOUT KNIGHT +OF LA MANCHA IN THE SIERRA MORENA, AND OF HIS IMITATION OF THE PENANCE +OF BELTENEBROS +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="c25a"></a><img alt="c25a.jpg (168K)" src="images/c25a.jpg" height="424" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/c25a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>Don Quixote took leave of the goatherd, and once more mounting +Rocinante bade Sancho follow him, which he having no ass, did very +discontentedly. They proceeded slowly, making their way into the +most rugged part of the mountain, Sancho all the while dying to have a +talk with his master, and longing for him to begin, so that there +should be no breach of the injunction laid upon him; but unable to +keep silence so long he said to him:</p> + +<p>"Senor Don Quixote, give me your worship's blessing and dismissal, +for I'd like to go home at once to my wife and children with whom I +can at any rate talk and converse as much as I like; for to want me to +go through these solitudes day and night and not speak to you when I +have a mind is burying me alive. If luck would have it that animals +spoke as they did in the days of Guisopete, it would not be so bad, +because I could talk to Rocinante about whatever came into my head, +and so put up with my ill-fortune; but it is a hard case, and not to +be borne with patience, to go seeking adventures all one's life and +get nothing but kicks and blanketings, brickbats and punches, and with +all this to have to sew up one's mouth without daring to say what is +in one's heart, just as if one were dumb."</p> + +<p>"I understand thee, Sancho," replied Don Quixote; "thou art dying to +have the interdict I placed upon thy tongue removed; consider it +removed, and say what thou wilt while we are wandering in these +mountains."</p> + +<p>"So be it," said Sancho; "let me speak now, for God knows what +will happen by-and-by; and to take advantage of the permit at once, +I ask, what made your worship stand up so for that Queen Majimasa, +or whatever her name is, or what did it matter whether that abbot +was a friend of hers or not? for if your worship had let that +pass—and you were not a judge in the matter—it is my belief the madman +would have gone on with his story, and the blow of the stone, and +the kicks, and more than half a dozen cuffs would have been escaped."</p> + +<p>"In faith, Sancho," answered Don Quixote, "if thou knewest as I do +what an honourable and illustrious lady Queen Madasima was, I know +thou wouldst say I had great patience that I did not break in pieces +the mouth that uttered such blasphemies, for a very great blasphemy it +is to say or imagine that a queen has made free with a surgeon. The +truth of the story is that that Master Elisabad whom the madman +mentioned was a man of great prudence and sound judgment, and served +as governor and physician to the queen, but to suppose that she was +his mistress is nonsense deserving very severe punishment; and as a +proof that Cardenio did not know what he was saying, remember when +he said it he was out of his wits."</p> + +<p>"That is what I say," said Sancho; "there was no occasion for +minding the words of a madman; for if good luck had not helped your +worship, and he had sent that stone at your head instead of at your +breast, a fine way we should have been in for standing up for my +lady yonder, God confound her! And then, would not Cardenio have +gone free as a madman?"</p> + +<p>"Against men in their senses or against madmen," said Don Quixote, +"every knight-errant is bound to stand up for the honour of women, +whoever they may be, much more for queens of such high degree and +dignity as Queen Madasima, for whom I have a particular regard on +account of her amiable qualities; for, besides being extremely +beautiful, she was very wise, and very patient under her +misfortunes, of which she had many; and the counsel and society of the +Master Elisabad were a great help and support to her in enduring her +afflictions with wisdom and resignation; hence the ignorant and +ill-disposed vulgar took occasion to say and think that she was his +mistress; and they lie, I say it once more, and will lie two hundred +times more, all who think and say so."</p> + +<p>"I neither say nor think so," said Sancho; "let them look to it; +with their bread let them eat it; they have rendered account to God +whether they misbehaved or not; I come from my vineyard, I know +nothing; I am not fond of prying into other men's lives; he who buys +and lies feels it in his purse; moreover, naked was I born, naked I +find myself, I neither lose nor gain; but if they did, what is that to +me? many think there are flitches where there are no hooks; but who +can put gates to the open plain? moreover they said of God-"</p> + +<p>"God bless me," said Don Quixote, "what a set of absurdities thou +art stringing together! What has what we are talking about got to do +with the proverbs thou art threading one after the other? for God's +sake hold thy tongue, Sancho, and henceforward keep to prodding thy +ass and don't meddle in what does not concern thee; and understand +with all thy five senses that everything I have done, am doing, or +shall do, is well founded on reason and in conformity with the rules +of chivalry, for I understand them better than all the world that +profess them."</p> + +<p>"Senor," replied Sancho, "is it a good rule of chivalry that we +should go astray through these mountains without path or road, looking +for a madman who when he is found will perhaps take a fancy to +finish what he began, not his story, but your worship's head and my +ribs, and end by breaking them altogether for us?"</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="c25b"></a><img alt="c25b.jpg (330K)" src="images/c25b.jpg" height="817" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/c25b.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>"Peace, I say again, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "for let me tell +thee it is not so much the desire of finding that madman that leads me +into these regions as that which I have of performing among them an +achievement wherewith I shall win eternal name and fame throughout the +known world; and it shall be such that I shall thereby set the seal on +all that can make a knight-errant perfect and famous."</p> + +<p>"And is it very perilous, this achievement?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied he of the Rueful Countenance; "though it may be in the +dice that we may throw deuce-ace instead of sixes; but all will depend +on thy diligence."</p> + +<p>"On my diligence!" said Sancho.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Don Quixote, "for if thou dost return soon from the +place where I mean to send thee, my penance will be soon over, and +my glory will soon begin. But as it is not right to keep thee any +longer in suspense, waiting to see what comes of my words, I would +have thee know, Sancho, that the famous Amadis of Gaul was one of +the most perfect knights-errant—I am wrong to say he was one; he +stood alone, the first, the only one, the lord of all that were in the +world in his time. A fig for Don Belianis, and for all who say he +equalled him in any respect, for, my oath upon it, they are +deceiving themselves! I say, too, that when a painter desires to +become famous in his art he endeavours to copy the originals of the +rarest painters that he knows; and the same rule holds good for all +the most important crafts and callings that serve to adorn a state; +thus must he who would be esteemed prudent and patient imitate +Ulysses, in whose person and labours Homer presents to us a lively +picture of prudence and patience; as Virgil, too, shows us in the +person of AEneas the virtue of a pious son and the sagacity of a brave +and skilful captain; not representing or describing them as they were, +but as they ought to be, so as to leave the example of their virtues +to posterity. In the same way Amadis was the polestar, day-star, sun +of valiant and devoted knights, whom all we who fight under the banner +of love and chivalry are bound to imitate. This, then, being so, I +consider, friend Sancho, that the knight-errant who shall imitate +him most closely will come nearest to reaching the perfection of +chivalry. Now one of the instances in which this knight most +conspicuously showed his prudence, worth, valour, endurance, +fortitude, and love, was when he withdrew, rejected by the Lady +Oriana, to do penance upon the Pena Pobre, changing his name into that +of Beltenebros, a name assuredly significant and appropriate to the +life which he had voluntarily adopted. So, as it is easier for me to +imitate him in this than in cleaving giants asunder, cutting off +serpents' heads, slaying dragons, routing armies, destroying fleets, +and breaking enchantments, and as this place is so well suited for a +similar purpose, I must not allow the opportunity to escape which +now so conveniently offers me its forelock."</p> + +<p>"What is it in reality," said Sancho, "that your worship means to do +in such an out-of-the-way place as this?"</p> + +<p>"Have I not told thee," answered Don Quixote, "that I mean to +imitate Amadis here, playing the victim of despair, the madman, the +maniac, so as at the same time to imitate the valiant Don Roland, when +at the fountain he had evidence of the fair Angelica having +disgraced herself with Medoro and through grief thereat went mad, +and plucked up trees, troubled the waters of the clear springs, slew +destroyed flocks, burned down huts, levelled houses, dragged mares +after him, and perpetrated a hundred thousand other outrages worthy of +everlasting renown and record? And though I have no intention of +imitating Roland, or Orlando, or Rotolando (for he went by all these +names), step by step in all the mad things he did, said, and +thought, I will make a rough copy to the best of my power of all +that seems to me most essential; but perhaps I shall content myself +with the simple imitation of Amadis, who without giving way to any +mischievous madness but merely to tears and sorrow, gained as much +fame as the most famous."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," said Sancho, "that the knights who behaved in this +way had provocation and cause for those follies and penances; but what +cause has your worship for going mad? What lady has rejected you, or +what evidence have you found to prove that the lady Dulcinea del +Toboso has been trifling with Moor or Christian?"</p> + +<p>"There is the point," replied Don Quixote, "and that is the beauty +of this business of mine; no thanks to a knight-errant for going mad +when he has cause; the thing is to turn crazy without any provocation, +and let my lady know, if I do this in the dry, what I would do in +the moist; moreover I have abundant cause in the long separation I +have endured from my lady till death, Dulcinea del Toboso; for as thou +didst hear that shepherd Ambrosio say the other day, in absence all +ills are felt and feared; and so, friend Sancho, waste no time in +advising me against so rare, so happy, and so unheard-of an imitation; +mad I am, and mad I must be until thou returnest with the answer to +a letter that I mean to send by thee to my lady Dulcinea; and if it be +such as my constancy deserves, my insanity and penance will come to an +end; and if it be to the opposite effect, I shall become mad in +earnest, and, being so, I shall suffer no more; thus in whatever way +she may answer I shall escape from the struggle and affliction in +which thou wilt leave me, enjoying in my senses the boon thou +bearest me, or as a madman not feeling the evil thou bringest me. +But tell me, Sancho, hast thou got Mambrino's helmet safe? for I saw +thee take it up from the ground when that ungrateful wretch tried to +break it in pieces but could not, by which the fineness of its +temper may be seen."</p> + +<p>To which Sancho made answer, "By the living God, Sir Knight of the +Rueful Countenance, I cannot endure or bear with patience some of +the things that your worship says; and from them I begin to suspect +that all you tell me about chivalry, and winning kingdoms and empires, +and giving islands, and bestowing other rewards and dignities after +the custom of knights-errant, must be all made up of wind and lies, +and all pigments or figments, or whatever we may call them; for what +would anyone think that heard your worship calling a barber's basin +Mambrino's helmet without ever seeing the mistake all this time, but +that one who says and maintains such things must have his brains +addled? I have the basin in my sack all dinted, and I am taking it +home to have it mended, to trim my beard in it, if, by God's grace, +I am allowed to see my wife and children some day or other."</p> + +<p>"Look here, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "by him thou didst swear by +just now I swear thou hast the most limited understanding that any +squire in the world has or ever had. Is it possible that all this time +thou hast been going about with me thou hast never found out that +all things belonging to knights-errant seem to be illusions and +nonsense and ravings, and to go always by contraries? And not +because it really is so, but because there is always a swarm of +enchanters in attendance upon us that change and alter everything with +us, and turn things as they please, and according as they are disposed +to aid or destroy us; thus what seems to thee a barber's basin seems +to me Mambrino's helmet, and to another it will seem something else; +and rare foresight it was in the sage who is on my side to make what +is really and truly Mambrine's helmet seem a basin to everybody, +for, being held in such estimation as it is, all the world would +pursue me to rob me of it; but when they see it is only a barber's +basin they do not take the trouble to obtain it; as was plainly +shown by him who tried to break it, and left it on the ground +without taking it, for, by my faith, had he known it he would never +have left it behind. Keep it safe, my friend, for just now I have no +need of it; indeed, I shall have to take off all this armour and +remain as naked as I was born, if I have a mind to follow Roland +rather than Amadis in my penance."</p> + +<p>Thus talking they reached the foot of a high mountain which stood +like an isolated peak among the others that surrounded it. Past its +base there flowed a gentle brook, all around it spread a meadow so +green and luxuriant that it was a delight to the eyes to look upon it, +and forest trees in abundance, and shrubs and flowers, added to the +charms of the spot. Upon this place the Knight of the Rueful +Countenance fixed his choice for the performance of his penance, and +as he beheld it exclaimed in a loud voice as though he were out of his +senses:</p> + +<p>"This is the place, oh, ye heavens, that I select and choose for +bewailing the misfortune in which ye yourselves have plunged me: +this is the spot where the overflowings of mine eyes shall swell the +waters of yon little brook, and my deep and endless sighs shall stir +unceasingly the leaves of these mountain trees, in testimony and token +of the pain my persecuted heart is suffering. Oh, ye rural deities, +whoever ye be that haunt this lone spot, give ear to the complaint +of a wretched lover whom long absence and brooding jealousy have +driven to bewail his fate among these wilds and complain of the hard +heart of that fair and ungrateful one, the end and limit of all +human beauty! Oh, ye wood nymphs and dryads, that dwell in the +thickets of the forest, so may the nimble wanton satyrs by whom ye are +vainly wooed never disturb your sweet repose, help me to lament my +hard fate or at least weary not at listening to it! Oh, Dulcinea del +Toboso, day of my night, glory of my pain, guide of my path, star of +my fortune, so may Heaven grant thee in full all thou seekest of it, +bethink thee of the place and condition to which absence from thee has +brought me, and make that return in kindness that is due to my +fidelity! Oh, lonely trees, that from this day forward shall bear me +company in my solitude, give me some sign by the gentle movement of +your boughs that my presence is not distasteful to you! Oh, thou, my +squire, pleasant companion in my prosperous and adverse fortunes, +fix well in thy memory what thou shalt see me do here, so that thou +mayest relate and report it to the sole cause of all," and so saying +he dismounted from Rocinante, and in an instant relieved him of saddle +and bridle, and giving him a slap on the croup, said, "He gives thee +freedom who is bereft of it himself, oh steed as excellent in deed +as thou art unfortunate in thy lot; begone where thou wilt, for thou +bearest written on thy forehead that neither Astolfo's hippogriff, nor +the famed Frontino that cost Bradamante so dear, could equal thee in +speed."</p> + +<p>Seeing this Sancho said, "Good luck to him who has saved us the +trouble of stripping the pack-saddle off Dapple! By my faith he +would not have gone without a slap on the croup and something said +in his praise; though if he were here I would not let anyone strip +him, for there would be no occasion, as he had nothing of the lover or +victim of despair about him, inasmuch as his master, which I was while +it was God's pleasure, was nothing of the sort; and indeed, Sir Knight +of the Rueful Countenance, if my departure and your worship's +madness are to come off in earnest, it will be as well to saddle +Rocinante again in order that he may supply the want of Dapple, +because it will save me time in going and returning: for if I go on +foot I don't know when I shall get there or when I shall get back, +as I am, in truth, a bad walker."</p> + +<p>"I declare, Sancho," returned Don Quixote, "it shall be as thou +wilt, for thy plan does not seem to me a bad one, and three days hence +thou wilt depart, for I wish thee to observe in the meantime what I do +and say for her sake, that thou mayest be able to tell it."</p> + +<p>"But what more have I to see besides what I have seen?" said Sancho.</p> + +<p>"Much thou knowest about it!" said Don Quixote. "I have now got to +tear up my garments, to scatter about my armour, knock my head against +these rocks, and more of the same sort of thing, which thou must +witness."</p> + +<p>"For the love of God," said Sancho, "be careful, your worship, how +you give yourself those knocks on the head, for you may come across +such a rock, and in such a way, that the very first may put an end +to the whole contrivance of this penance; and I should think, if +indeed knocks on the head seem necessary to you, and this business +cannot be done without them, you might be content—as the whole +thing is feigned, and counterfeit, and in joke—you might be +content, I say, with giving them to yourself in the water, or +against something soft, like cotton; and leave it all to me; for +I'll tell my lady that your worship knocked your head against a +point of rock harder than a diamond."</p> + +<p>"I thank thee for thy good intentions, friend Sancho," answered +Don Quixote, "but I would have thee know that all these things I am +doing are not in joke, but very much in earnest, for anything else +would be a transgression of the ordinances of chivalry, which forbid +us to tell any lie whatever under the penalties due to apostasy; and +to do one thing instead of another is just the same as lying; so my +knocks on the head must be real, solid, and valid, without anything +sophisticated or fanciful about them, and it will be needful to +leave me some lint to dress my wounds, since fortune has compelled +us to do without the balsam we lost."</p> + +<p>"It was worse losing the ass," replied Sancho, "for with him lint +and all were lost; but I beg of your worship not to remind me again of +that accursed liquor, for my soul, not to say my stomach, turns at +hearing the very name of it; and I beg of you, too, to reckon as +past the three days you allowed me for seeing the mad things you do, +for I take them as seen already and pronounced upon, and I will tell +wonderful stories to my lady; so write the letter and send me off at +once, for I long to return and take your worship out of this purgatory +where I am leaving you."</p> + +<p>"Purgatory dost thou call it, Sancho?" said Don Quixote, "rather +call it hell, or even worse if there be anything worse."</p> + +<p>"For one who is in hell," said Sancho, "nulla est retentio, as I +have heard say."</p> + +<p>"I do not understand what retentio means," said Don Quixote.</p> + +<p>"Retentio," answered Sancho, "means that whoever is in hell never +comes nor can come out of it, which will be the opposite case with +your worship or my legs will be idle, that is if I have spurs to +enliven Rocinante: let me once get to El Toboso and into the +presence of my lady Dulcinea, and I will tell her such things of the +follies and madnesses (for it is all one) that your worship has done +and is still doing, that I will manage to make her softer than a glove +though I find her harder than a cork tree; and with her sweet and +honeyed answer I will come back through the air like a witch, and take +your worship out of this purgatory that seems to be hell but is not, +as there is hope of getting out of it; which, as I have said, those in +hell have not, and I believe your worship will not say anything to the +contrary."</p> + +<p>"That is true," said he of the Rueful Countenance, "but how shall we +manage to write the letter?"</p> + +<p>"And the ass-colt order too," added Sancho.</p> + +<p>"All shall be included," said Don Quixote; "and as there is no +paper, it would be well done to write it on the leaves of trees, as +the ancients did, or on tablets of wax; though that would be as hard +to find just now as paper. But it has just occurred to me how it may +be conveniently and even more than conveniently written, and that is +in the note-book that belonged to Cardenio, and thou wilt take care to +have it copied on paper, in a good hand, at the first village thou +comest to where there is a schoolmaster, or if not, any sacristan will +copy it; but see thou give it not to any notary to copy, for they +write a law hand that Satan could not make out."</p> + +<p>"But what is to be done about the signature?" said Sancho.</p> + +<p>"The letters of Amadis were never signed," said Don Quixote.</p> + +<p>"That is all very well," said Sancho, "but the order must needs be +signed, and if it is copied they will say the signature is false, +and I shall be left without ass-colts."</p> + +<p>"The order shall go signed in the same book," said Don Quixote, "and +on seeing it my niece will make no difficulty about obeying it; as +to the loveletter thou canst put by way of signature, 'Yours till +death, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance.' And it will be no +great matter if it is in some other person's hand, for as well as I +recollect Dulcinea can neither read nor write, nor in the whole course +of her life has she seen handwriting or letter of mine, for my love +and hers have been always platonic, not going beyond a modest look, +and even that so seldom that I can safely swear I have not seen her +four times in all these twelve years I have been loving her more +than the light of these eyes that the earth will one day devour; and +perhaps even of those four times she has not once perceived that I was +looking at her: such is the retirement and seclusion in which her +father Lorenzo Corchuelo and her mother Aldonza Nogales have brought +her up."</p> + +<p>"So, so!" said Sancho; "Lorenzo Corchuelo's daughter is the lady +Dulcinea del Toboso, otherwise called Aldonza Lorenzo?"</p> + +<p>"She it is," said Don Quixote, "and she it is that is worthy to be +lady of the whole universe."</p> + +<p>"I know her well," said Sancho, "and let me tell you she can fling a +crowbar as well as the lustiest lad in all the town. Giver of all +good! but she is a brave lass, and a right and stout one, and fit to +be helpmate to any knight-errant that is or is to be, who may make her +his lady: the whoreson wench, what sting she has and what a voice! I +can tell you one day she posted herself on the top of the belfry of +the village to call some labourers of theirs that were in a ploughed +field of her father's, and though they were better than half a +league off they heard her as well as if they were at the foot of the +tower; and the best of her is that she is not a bit prudish, for she +has plenty of affability, and jokes with everybody, and has a grin and +a jest for everything. So, Sir Knight of the Rueful Countenance, I say +you not only may and ought to do mad freaks for her sake, but you have +a good right to give way to despair and hang yourself; and no one +who knows of it but will say you did well, though the devil should +take you; and I wish I were on my road already, simply to see her, for +it is many a day since I saw her, and she must be altered by this +time, for going about the fields always, and the sun and the air spoil +women's looks greatly. But I must own the truth to your worship, Senor +Don Quixote; until now I have been under a great mistake, for I +believed truly and honestly that the lady Dulcinea must be some +princess your worship was in love with, or some person great enough to +deserve the rich presents you have sent her, such as the Biscayan +and the galley slaves, and many more no doubt, for your worship must +have won many victories in the time when I was not yet your squire. +But all things considered, what good can it do the lady Aldonza +Lorenzo, I mean the lady Dulcinea del Toboso, to have the vanquished +your worship sends or will send coming to her and going down on +their knees before her? Because may be when they came she'd be +hackling flax or threshing on the threshing floor, and they'd be +ashamed to see her, and she'd laugh, or resent the present."</p> + +<p>"I have before now told thee many times, Sancho," said Don +Quixote, "that thou art a mighty great chatterer, and that with a +blunt wit thou art always striving at sharpness; but to show thee what +a fool thou art and how rational I am, I would have thee listen to a +short story. Thou must know that a certain widow, fair, young, +independent, and rich, and above all free and easy, fell in love +with a sturdy strapping young lay-brother; his superior came to know +of it, and one day said to the worthy widow by way of brotherly +remonstrance, 'I am surprised, senora, and not without good reason, +that a woman of such high standing, so fair, and so rich as you are, +should have fallen in love with such a mean, low, stupid fellow as +So-and-so, when in this house there are so many masters, graduates, +and divinity students from among whom you might choose as if they were +a lot of pears, saying this one I'll take, that I won't take;' but she +replied to him with great sprightliness and candour, 'My dear sir, you +are very much mistaken, and your ideas are very old-fashioned, if +you think that I have made a bad choice in So-and-so, fool as he +seems; because for all I want with him he knows as much and more +philosophy than Aristotle.' In the same way, Sancho, for all I want +with Dulcinea del Toboso she is just as good as the most exalted +princess on earth. It is not to be supposed that all those poets who +sang the praises of ladies under the fancy names they give them, had +any such mistresses. Thinkest thou that the Amarillises, the +Phillises, the Sylvias, the Dianas, the Galateas, the Filidas, and all +the rest of them, that the books, the ballads, the barber's shops, the +theatres are full of, were really and truly ladies of flesh and blood, +and mistresses of those that glorify and have glorified them? +Nothing of the kind; they only invent them for the most part to +furnish a subject for their verses, and that they may pass for lovers, +or for men valiant enough to be so; and so it suffices me to think and +believe that the good Aldonza Lorenzo is fair and virtuous; and as +to her pedigree it is very little matter, for no one will examine into +it for the purpose of conferring any order upon her, and I, for my +part, reckon her the most exalted princess in the world. For thou +shouldst know, Sancho, if thou dost not know, that two things alone +beyond all others are incentives to love, and these are great beauty +and a good name, and these two things are to be found in Dulcinea in +the highest degree, for in beauty no one equals her and in good name +few approach her; and to put the whole thing in a nutshell, I persuade +myself that all I say is as I say, neither more nor less, and I +picture her in my imagination as I would have her to be, as well in +beauty as in condition; Helen approaches her not nor does Lucretia +come up to her, nor any other of the famous women of times past, +Greek, Barbarian, or Latin; and let each say what he will, for if in +this I am taken to task by the ignorant, I shall not be censured by +the critical."</p> + +<p>"I say that your worship is entirely right," said Sancho, "and +that I am an ass. But I know not how the name of ass came into my +mouth, for a rope is not to be mentioned in the house of him who has +been hanged; but now for the letter, and then, God be with you, I am +off."</p> + +<p>Don Quixote took out the note-book, and, retiring to one side, +very deliberately began to write the letter, and when he had +finished it he called to Sancho, saying he wished to read it to him, +so that he might commit it to memory, in case of losing it on the +road; for with evil fortune like his anything might be apprehended. To +which Sancho replied, "Write it two or three times there in the book +and give it to me, and I will carry it very carefully, because to +expect me to keep it in my memory is all nonsense, for I have such a +bad one that I often forget my own name; but for all that repeat it to +me, as I shall like to hear it, for surely it will run as if it was in +print."</p> + +<p>"Listen," said Don Quixote, "this is what it says:</p> + +<pre> +"DON QUIXOTE'S LETTER TO DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO + +"Sovereign and exalted Lady,—The pierced by the point of absence, +the wounded to the heart's core, sends thee, sweetest Dulcinea del +Toboso, the health that he himself enjoys not. If thy beauty +despises me, if thy worth is not for me, if thy scorn is my +affliction, though I be sufficiently long-suffering, hardly shall I +endure this anxiety, which, besides being oppressive, is protracted. +My good squire Sancho will relate to thee in full, fair ingrate, +dear enemy, the condition to which I am reduced on thy account: if +it be thy pleasure to give me relief, I am thine; if not, do as may be +pleasing to thee; for by ending my life I shall satisfy thy cruelty +and my desire. + +"Thine till death, + +"The Knight of the Rueful Countenance." +</pre> + + + +<p>"By the life of my father," said Sancho, when he heard the letter, +"it is the loftiest thing I ever heard. Body of me! how your worship +says everything as you like in it! And how well you fit in 'The Knight +of the Rueful Countenance' into the signature. I declare your worship +is indeed the very devil, and there is nothing you don't know."</p> + +<p>"Everything is needed for the calling I follow," said Don Quixote.</p> + +<p>"Now then," said Sancho, "let your worship put the order for the +three ass-colts on the other side, and sign it very plainly, that they +may recognise it at first sight."</p> + +<p>"With all my heart," said Don Quixote, and as he had written it he +read it to this effect:</p> + +<p>"Mistress Niece,—By this first of ass-colts please pay to Sancho +Panza, my squire, three of the five I left at home in your charge: +said three ass-colts to be paid and delivered for the same number +received here in hand, which upon this and upon his receipt shall be +duly paid. Done in the heart of the Sierra Morena, the +twenty-seventh of August of this present year."</p> + +<p>"That will do," said Sancho; "now let your worship sign it."</p> + +<p>"There is no need to sign it," said Don Quixote, "but merely to +put my flourish, which is the same as a signature, and enough for +three asses, or even three hundred."</p> + +<p>"I can trust your worship," returned Sancho; "let me go and saddle +Rocinante, and be ready to give me your blessing, for I mean to go +at once without seeing the fooleries your worship is going to do; I'll +say I saw you do so many that she will not want any more."</p> + +<p>"At any rate, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "I should like—and there +is reason for it—I should like thee, I say, to see me stripped to the +skin and performing a dozen or two of insanities, which I can get done +in less than half an hour; for having seen them with thine own eyes, +thou canst then safely swear to the rest that thou wouldst add; and +I promise thee thou wilt not tell of as many as I mean to perform."</p> + +<p>"For the love of God, master mine," said Sancho, "let me not see +your worship stripped, for it will sorely grieve me, and I shall not +be able to keep from tears, and my head aches so with all I shed +last night for Dapple, that I am not fit to begin any fresh weeping; +but if it is your worship's pleasure that I should see some +insanities, do them in your clothes, short ones, and such as come +readiest to hand; for I myself want nothing of the sort, and, as I +have said, it will be a saving of time for my return, which will be +with the news your worship desires and deserves. If not, let the +lady Dulcinea look to it; if she does not answer reasonably, I swear +as solemnly as I can that I will fetch a fair answer out of her +stomach with kicks and cuffs; for why should it be borne that a +knight-errant as famous as your worship should go mad without rhyme or +reason for a—? Her ladyship had best not drive me to say it, for by +God I will speak out and let off everything cheap, even if it +doesn't sell: I am pretty good at that! she little knows me; faith, if +she knew me she'd be in awe of me."</p> + +<p>"In faith, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "to all appearance thou art no +sounder in thy wits than I."</p> + +<p>"I am not so mad," answered Sancho, "but I am more peppery; but +apart from all this, what has your worship to eat until I come back? +Will you sally out on the road like Cardenio to force it from the +shepherds?"</p> + +<p>"Let not that anxiety trouble thee," replied Don Quixote, "for +even if I had it I should not eat anything but the herbs and the +fruits which this meadow and these trees may yield me; the beauty of +this business of mine lies in not eating, and in performing other +mortifications."</p> + +<p>"Do you know what I am afraid of?" said Sancho upon this; "that I +shall not be able to find my way back to this spot where I am +leaving you, it is such an out-of-the-way place."</p> + +<p>"Observe the landmarks well," said Don Quixote, "for I will try +not to go far from this neighbourhood, and I will even take care to +mount the highest of these rocks to see if I can discover thee +returning; however, not to miss me and lose thyself, the best plan +will be to cut some branches of the broom that is so abundant about +here, and as thou goest to lay them at intervals until thou hast +come out upon the plain; these will serve thee, after the fashion of +the clue in the labyrinth of Theseus, as marks and signs for finding +me on thy return."</p> + +<p>"So I will," said Sancho Panza, and having cut some, he asked his +master's blessing, and not without many tears on both sides, took +his leave of him, and mounting Rocinante, of whom Don Quixote +charged him earnestly to have as much care as of his own person, he +set out for the plain, strewing at intervals the branches of broom +as his master had recommended him; and so he went his way, though +Don Quixote still entreated him to see him do were it only a couple of +mad acts. He had not gone a hundred paces, however, when he returned +and said:</p> + +<p>"I must say, senor, your worship said quite right, that in order +to be able to swear without a weight on my conscience that I had +seen you do mad things, it would be well for me to see if it were only +one; though in your worship's remaining here I have seen a very +great one."</p> + + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="c25c"></a><img alt="c25c.jpg (261K)" src="images/c25c.jpg" height="814" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/c25c.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<p>"Did I not tell thee so?" said Don Quixote. "Wait, Sancho, and I +will do them in the saying of a credo," and pulling off his breeches +in all haste he stripped himself to his skin and his shirt, and +then, without more ado, he cut a couple of gambados in the air, and +a couple of somersaults, heels over head, making such a display +that, not to see it a second time, Sancho wheeled Rocinante round, and +felt easy, and satisfied in his mind that he could swear he had left +his master mad; and so we will leave him to follow his road until +his return, which was a quick one.</p> + + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="c25e"></a><img alt="c25e.jpg (20K)" src="images/c25e.jpg" height="327" width="411"> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> + + + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch26"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>IN WHICH ARE CONTINUED THE REFINEMENTS WHEREWITH DON QUIXOTE +PLAYED THE PART OF A LOVER IN THE SIERRA MORENA +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="c26a"></a><img alt="c26a.jpg (111K)" src="images/c26a.jpg" height="353" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/c26a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>Returning to the proceedings of him of the Rueful Countenance when +he found himself alone, the history says that when Don Quixote had +completed the performance of the somersaults or capers, naked from the +waist down and clothed from the waist up, and saw that Sancho had gone +off without waiting to see any more crazy feats, he climbed up to +the top of a high rock, and there set himself to consider what he +had several times before considered without ever coming to any +conclusion on the point, namely whether it would be better and more to +his purpose to imitate the outrageous madness of Roland, or the +melancholy madness of Amadis; and communing with himself he said:</p> + +<p>"What wonder is it if Roland was so good a knight and so valiant +as everyone says he was, when, after all, he was enchanted, and nobody +could kill him save by thrusting a corking pin into the sole of his +foot, and he always wore shoes with seven iron soles? Though cunning +devices did not avail him against Bernardo del Carpio, who knew all +about them, and strangled him in his arms at Roncesvalles. But putting +the question of his valour aside, let us come to his losing his +wits, for certain it is that he did lose them in consequence of the +proofs he discovered at the fountain, and the intelligence the +shepherd gave him of Angelica having slept more than two siestas +with Medoro, a little curly-headed Moor, and page to Agramante. If +he was persuaded that this was true, and that his lady had wronged +him, it is no wonder that he should have gone mad; but I, how am I +to imitate him in his madness, unless I can imitate him in the cause +of it? For my Dulcinea, I will venture to swear, never saw a Moor in +her life, as he is, in his proper costume, and she is this day as +the mother that bore her, and I should plainly be doing her a wrong +if, fancying anything else, I were to go mad with the same kind of +madness as Roland the Furious. On the other hand, I see that Amadis of +Gaul, without losing his senses and without doing anything mad, +acquired as a lover as much fame as the most famous; for, according to +his history, on finding himself rejected by his lady Oriana, who had +ordered him not to appear in her presence until it should be her +pleasure, all he did was to retire to the Pena Pobre in company with a +hermit, and there he took his fill of weeping until Heaven sent him +relief in the midst of his great grief and need. And if this be +true, as it is, why should I now take the trouble to strip stark +naked, or do mischief to these trees which have done me no harm, or +why am I to disturb the clear waters of these brooks which will give +me to drink whenever I have a mind? Long live the memory of Amadis and +let him be imitated so far as is possible by Don Quixote of La Mancha, +of whom it will be said, as was said of the other, that if he did +not achieve great things, he died in attempting them; and if I am +not repulsed or rejected by my Dulcinea, it is enough for me, as I +have said, to be absent from her. And so, now to business; come to +my memory ye deeds of Amadis, and show me how I am to begin to imitate +you. I know already that what he chiefly did was to pray and commend +himself to God; but what am I to do for a rosary, for I have not got +one?"</p> + +<p>And then it occurred to him how he might make one, and that was by +tearing a great strip off the tail of his shirt which hung down, and +making eleven knots on it, one bigger than the rest, and this served +him for a rosary all the time he was there, during which he repeated +countless ave-marias. But what distressed him greatly was not having +another hermit there to confess him and receive consolation from; +and so he solaced himself with pacing up and down the little meadow, +and writing and carving on the bark of the trees and on the fine +sand a multitude of verses all in harmony with his sadness, and some +in praise of Dulcinea; but, when he was found there afterwards, the +only ones completely legible that could be discovered were those +that follow here:</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<pre>Ye on the mountain side that grow, + Ye green things all, trees, shrubs, and bushes, +Are ye aweary of the woe + That this poor aching bosom crushes? +If it disturb you, and I owe + Some reparation, it may be a +Defence for me to let you know +Don Quixote's tears are on the flow, + And all for distant Dulcinea + Del Toboso. + +The lealest lover time can show, + Doomed for a lady-love to languish, +Among these solitudes doth go, + A prey to every kind of anguish. +Why Love should like a spiteful foe + Thus use him, he hath no idea, +But hogsheads full—this doth he know— +Don Quixote's tears are on the flow, + And all for distant Dulcinea + Del Toboso. + +Adventure-seeking doth he go + Up rugged heights, down rocky valleys, +But hill or dale, or high or low, + Mishap attendeth all his sallies: +Love still pursues him to and fro, + And plies his cruel scourge—ah me! a +Relentless fate, an endless woe; +Don Quixote's tears are on the flow, + And all for distant Dulcinea + Del Toboso. +</pre> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p> +The addition of "Del Toboso" to Dulcinea's name gave rise to no +little laughter among those who found the above lines, for they +suspected Don Quixote must have fancied that unless he added "del +Toboso" when he introduced the name of Dulcinea the verse would be +unintelligible; which was indeed the fact, as he himself afterwards +admitted. He wrote many more, but, as has been said, these three +verses were all that could be plainly and perfectly deciphered. In +this way, and in sighing and calling on the fauns and satyrs of the +woods and the nymphs of the streams, and Echo, moist and mournful, +to answer, console, and hear him, as well as in looking for herbs to +sustain him, he passed his time until Sancho's return; and had that +been delayed three weeks, as it was three days, the Knight of the +Rueful Countenance would have worn such an altered countenance that +the mother that bore him would not have known him: and here it will be +well to leave him, wrapped up in sighs and verses, to relate how +Sancho Panza fared on his mission.</p> + +<p>As for him, coming out upon the high road, he made for El Toboso, +and the next day reached the inn where the mishap of the blanket had +befallen him. As soon as he recognised it he felt as if he were once +more living through the air, and he could not bring himself to enter +it though it was an hour when he might well have done so, for it was +dinner-time, and he longed to taste something hot as it had been all +cold fare with him for many days past. This craving drove him to +draw near to the inn, still undecided whether to go in or not, and +as he was hesitating there came out two persons who at once recognised +him, and said one to the other:</p> + +<p>"Senor licentiate, is not he on the horse there Sancho Panza who, +our adventurer's housekeeper told us, went off with her master as +esquire?"</p> + +<p>"So it is," said the licentiate, "and that is our friend Don +Quixote's horse;" and if they knew him so well it was because they +were the curate and the barber of his own village, the same who had +carried out the scrutiny and sentence upon the books; and as soon as +they recognised Sancho Panza and Rocinante, being anxious to hear of +Don Quixote, they approached, and calling him by his name the curate +said, "Friend Sancho Panza, where is your master?"</p> + +<p>Sancho recognised them at once, and determined to keep secret the +place and circumstances where and under which he had left his +master, so he replied that his master was engaged in a certain quarter +on a certain matter of great importance to him which he could not +disclose for the eyes in his head.</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay," said the barber, "if you don't tell us where he is, +Sancho Panza, we will suspect as we suspect already, that you have +murdered and robbed him, for here you are mounted on his horse; in +fact, you must produce the master of the hack, or else take the +consequences."</p> + +<p>"There is no need of threats with me," said Sancho, "for I am not +a man to rob or murder anybody; let his own fate, or God who made him, +kill each one; my master is engaged very much to his taste doing +penance in the midst of these mountains;" and then, offhand and without +stopping, he told them how he had left him, what adventures had +befallen him, and how he was carrying a letter to the lady Dulcinea +del Toboso, the daughter of Lorenzo Corchuelo, with whom he was over +head and ears in love. They were both amazed at what Sancho Panza told +them; for though they were aware of Don Quixote's madness and the +nature of it, each time they heard of it they were filled with fresh +wonder. They then asked Sancho Panza to show them the letter he was +carrying to the lady Dulcinea del Toboso. He said it was written in +a note-book, and that his master's directions were that he should have +it copied on paper at the first village he came to. On this the curate +said if he showed it to him, he himself would make a fair copy of +it. Sancho put his hand into his bosom in search of the note-book +but could not find it, nor, if he had been searching until now, +could he have found it, for Don Quixote had kept it, and had never +given it to him, nor had he himself thought of asking for it. When +Sancho discovered he could not find the book his face grew deadly +pale, and in great haste he again felt his body all over, and seeing +plainly it was not to be found, without more ado he seized his beard +with both hands and plucked away half of it, and then, as quick as +he could and without stopping, gave himself half a dozen cuffs on +the face and nose till they were bathed in blood.</p> + +<p>Seeing this, the curate and the barber asked him what had happened +him that he gave himself such rough treatment.</p> + +<p>"What should happen me?" replied Sancho, "but to have lost from +one hand to the other, in a moment, three ass-colts, each of them like +a castle?"</p> + +<p>"How is that?" said the barber.</p> + +<p>"I have lost the note-book," said Sancho, "that contained the letter +to Dulcinea, and an order signed by my master in which he directed his +niece to give me three ass-colts out of four or five he had at +home;" and he then told them about the loss of Dapple.</p> + +<p>The curate consoled him, telling him that when his master was +found he would get him to renew the order, and make a fresh draft on +paper, as was usual and customary; for those made in notebooks were +never accepted or honoured.</p> + +<p>Sancho comforted himself with this, and said if that were so the +loss of Dulcinea's letter did not trouble him much, for he had it +almost by heart, and it could be taken down from him wherever and +whenever they liked.</p> + +<p>"Repeat it then, Sancho," said the barber, "and we will write it +down afterwards."</p> + +<p>Sancho Panza stopped to scratch his head to bring back the letter to +his memory, and balanced himself now on one foot, now the other, one +moment staring at the ground, the next at the sky, and after having +half gnawed off the end of a finger and kept them in suspense +waiting for him to begin, he said, after a long pause, "By God, +senor licentiate, devil a thing can I recollect of the letter; but +it said at the beginning, 'Exalted and scrubbing Lady.'"</p> + +<p>"It cannot have said 'scrubbing,'" said the barber, "but +'superhuman' or 'sovereign.'"</p> + +<p>"That is it," said Sancho; "then, as well as I remember, it went on, +'The wounded, and wanting of sleep, and the pierced, kisses your +worship's hands, ungrateful and very unrecognised fair one; and it +said something or other about health and sickness that he was +sending her; and from that it went tailing off until it ended with +'Yours till death, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance."</p> + +<p>It gave them no little amusement, both of them, to see what a good +memory Sancho had, and they complimented him greatly upon it, and +begged him to repeat the letter a couple of times more, so that they +too might get it by heart to write it out by-and-by. Sancho repeated +it three times, and as he did, uttered three thousand more +absurdities; then he told them more about his master but he never said +a word about the blanketing that had befallen himself in that inn, +into which he refused to enter. He told them, moreover, how his +lord, if he brought him a favourable answer from the lady Dulcinea del +Toboso, was to put himself in the way of endeavouring to become an +emperor, or at least a monarch; for it had been so settled between +them, and with his personal worth and the might of his arm it was an +easy matter to come to be one: and how on becoming one his lord was to +make a marriage for him (for he would be a widower by that time, as +a matter of course) and was to give him as a wife one of the damsels +of the empress, the heiress of some rich and grand state on the +mainland, having nothing to do with islands of any sort, for he did +not care for them now. All this Sancho delivered with so much +composure—wiping his nose from time to time—and with so little +common-sense that his two hearers were again filled with wonder at the +force of Don Quixote's madness that could run away with this poor +man's reason. They did not care to take the trouble of disabusing +him of his error, as they considered that since it did not in any +way hurt his conscience it would be better to leave him in it, and +they would have all the more amusement in listening to his +simplicities; and so they bade him pray to God for his lord's +health, as it was a very likely and a very feasible thing for him in +course of time to come to be an emperor, as he said, or at least an +archbishop or some other dignitary of equal rank.</p> + +<p>To which Sancho made answer, "If fortune, sirs, should bring +things about in such a way that my master should have a mind, +instead of being an emperor, to be an archbishop, I should like to +know what archbishops-errant commonly give their squires?"</p> + +<p>"They commonly give them," said the curate, some simple benefice +or cure, or some place as sacristan which brings them a good fixed +income, not counting the altar fees, which may be reckoned at as +much more."</p> + +<p>"But for that," said Sancho, "the squire must be unmarried, and must +know, at any rate, how to help at mass, and if that be so, woe is +me, for I am married already and I don't know the first letter of +the A B C. What will become of me if my master takes a fancy to be +an archbishop and not an emperor, as is usual and customary with +knights-errant?"</p> + +<p>"Be not uneasy, friend Sancho," said the barber, "for we will +entreat your master, and advise him, even urging it upon him as a case +of conscience, to become an emperor and not an archbishop, because +it will be easier for him as he is more valiant than lettered."</p> + +<p>"So I have thought," said Sancho; "though I can tell you he is fit +for anything: what I mean to do for my part is to pray to our Lord +to place him where it may be best for him, and where he may be able to +bestow most favours upon me."</p> + +<p>"You speak like a man of sense," said the curate, "and you will be +acting like a good Christian; but what must now be done is to take +steps to coax your master out of that useless penance you say he is +performing; and we had best turn into this inn to consider what plan +to adopt, and also to dine, for it is now time."</p> + +<p>Sancho said they might go in, but that he would wait there +outside, and that he would tell them afterwards the reason why he +was unwilling, and why it did not suit him to enter it; but he +begged them to bring him out something to eat, and to let it be hot, +and also to bring barley for Rocinante. They left him and went in, and +presently the barber brought him out something to eat. By-and-by, +after they had between them carefully thought over what they should do +to carry out their object, the curate hit upon an idea very well +adapted to humour Don Quixote, and effect their purpose; and his +notion, which he explained to the barber, was that he himself should +assume the disguise of a wandering damsel, while the other should +try as best he could to pass for a squire, and that they should thus +proceed to where Don Quixote was, and he, pretending to be an +aggrieved and distressed damsel, should ask a favour of him, which +as a valiant knight-errant he could not refuse to grant; and the +favour he meant to ask him was that he should accompany her whither +she would conduct him, in order to redress a wrong which a wicked +knight had done her, while at the same time she should entreat him not +to require her to remove her mask, nor ask her any question touching +her circumstances until he had righted her with the wicked knight. And +he had no doubt that Don Quixote would comply with any request made in +these terms, and that in this way they might remove him and take him +to his own village, where they would endeavour to find out if his +extraordinary madness admitted of any kind of remedy.</p> + + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="c26e"></a><img alt="c26e.jpg (48K)" src="images/c26e.jpg" height="501" width="631"> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> + + + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch27"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>OF HOW THE CURATE AND THE BARBER PROCEEDED WITH THEIR SCHEME; +TOGETHER WITH OTHER MATTERS WORTHY OF RECORD IN THIS GREAT HISTORY +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="c27a"></a><img alt="c27a.jpg (169K)" src="images/c27a.jpg" height="437" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/c27a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>The curate's plan did not seem a bad one to the barber, but on the +contrary so good that they immediately set about putting it in +execution. They begged a petticoat and hood of the landlady, leaving +her in pledge a new cassock of the curate's; and the barber made a +beard out of a grey-brown or red ox-tail in which the landlord used to +stick his comb. The landlady asked them what they wanted these +things for, and the curate told her in a few words about the madness +of Don Quixote, and how this disguise was intended to get him away +from the mountain where he then was. The landlord and landlady +immediately came to the conclusion that the madman was their guest, +the balsam man and master of the blanketed squire, and they told the +curate all that had passed between him and them, not omitting what +Sancho had been so silent about. Finally the landlady dressed up the +curate in a style that left nothing to be desired; she put on him a +cloth petticoat with black velvet stripes a palm broad, all slashed, +and a bodice of green velvet set off by a binding of white satin, +which as well as the petticoat must have been made in the time of king +Wamba. The curate would not let them hood him, but put on his head a +little quilted linen cap which he used for a night-cap, and bound +his forehead with a strip of black silk, while with another he made +a mask with which he concealed his beard and face very well. He then +put on his hat, which was broad enough to serve him for an umbrella, +and enveloping himself in his cloak seated himself woman-fashion on +his mule, while the barber mounted his with a beard down to the +waist of mingled red and white, for it was, as has been said, the tail +of a clay-red ox.</p> + +<p>They took leave of all, and of the good Maritornes, who, sinner as +she was, promised to pray a rosary of prayers that God might grant +them success in such an arduous and Christian undertaking as that they +had in hand. But hardly had he sallied forth from the inn when it +struck the curate that he was doing wrong in rigging himself out in +that fashion, as it was an indecorous thing for a priest to dress +himself that way even though much might depend upon it; and saying +so to the barber he begged him to change dresses, as it was fitter +he should be the distressed damsel, while he himself would play the +squire's part, which would be less derogatory to his dignity; +otherwise he was resolved to have nothing more to do with the +matter, and let the devil take Don Quixote. Just at this moment Sancho +came up, and on seeing the pair in such a costume he was unable to +restrain his laughter; the barber, however, agreed to do as the curate +wished, and, altering their plan, the curate went on to instruct him +how to play his part and what to say to Don Quixote to induce and +compel him to come with them and give up his fancy for the place he +had chosen for his idle penance. The barber told him he could manage +it properly without any instruction, and as he did not care to dress +himself up until they were near where Don Quixote was, he folded up +the garments, and the curate adjusted his beard, and they set out +under the guidance of Sancho Panza, who went along telling them of the +encounter with the madman they met in the Sierra, saying nothing, +however, about the finding of the valise and its contents; for with +all his simplicity the lad was a trifle covetous.</p> + +<p>The next day they reached the place where Sancho had laid the +broom-branches as marks to direct him to where he had left his master, +and recognising it he told them that here was the entrance, and that +they would do well to dress themselves, if that was required to +deliver his master; for they had already told him that going in this +guise and dressing in this way were of the highest importance in order +to rescue his master from the pernicious life he had adopted; and they +charged him strictly not to tell his master who they were, or that +he knew them, and should he ask, as ask he would, if he had given +the letter to Dulcinea, to say that he had, and that, as she did not +know how to read, she had given an answer by word of mouth, saying +that she commanded him, on pain of her displeasure, to come and see +her at once; and it was a very important matter for himself, because +in this way and with what they meant to say to him they felt sure of +bringing him back to a better mode of life and inducing him to take +immediate steps to become an emperor or monarch, for there was no fear +of his becoming an archbishop. All this Sancho listened to and fixed +it well in his memory, and thanked them heartily for intending to +recommend his master to be an emperor instead of an archbishop, for he +felt sure that in the way of bestowing rewards on their squires +emperors could do more than archbishops-errant. He said, too, that +it would be as well for him to go on before them to find him, and give +him his lady's answer; for that perhaps might be enough to bring him +away from the place without putting them to all this trouble. They +approved of what Sancho proposed, and resolved to wait for him until +he brought back word of having found his master.</p> + +<p>Sancho pushed on into the glens of the Sierra, leaving them in one +through which there flowed a little gentle rivulet, and where the +rocks and trees afforded a cool and grateful shade. It was an August +day with all the heat of one, and the heat in those parts is +intense, and the hour was three in the afternoon, all which made the +spot the more inviting and tempted them to wait there for Sancho's +return, which they did. They were reposing, then, in the shade, when a +voice unaccompanied by the notes of any instrument, but sweet and +pleasing in its tone, reached their ears, at which they were not a +little astonished, as the place did not seem to them likely quarters +for one who sang so well; for though it is often said that shepherds +of rare voice are to be found in the woods and fields, this is +rather a flight of the poet's fancy than the truth. And still more +surprised were they when they perceived that what they heard sung were +the verses not of rustic shepherds, but of the polished wits of the +city; and so it proved, for the verses they heard were these:</p> + + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<pre>What makes my quest of happiness seem vain? + Disdain. +What bids me to abandon hope of ease? + Jealousies. +What holds my heart in anguish of suspense? + Absence. + If that be so, then for my grief + Where shall I turn to seek relief, + When hope on every side lies slain + By Absence, Jealousies, Disdain? + +What the prime cause of all my woe doth prove? + Love. +What at my glory ever looks askance? + Chance. +Whence is permission to afflict me given? + Heaven. + If that be so, I but await + The stroke of a resistless fate, + Since, working for my woe, these three, + Love, Chance and Heaven, in league I see. + +What must I do to find a remedy? + Die. +What is the lure for love when coy and strange? + Change. +What, if all fail, will cure the heart of sadness? + Madness. + If that be so, it is but folly + To seek a cure for melancholy: + Ask where it lies; the answer saith + In Change, in Madness, or in Death. +</pre> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p> +The hour, the summer season, the solitary place, the voice and skill +of the singer, all contributed to the wonder and delight of the two +listeners, who remained still waiting to hear something more; finding, +however, that the silence continued some little time, they resolved to +go in search of the musician who sang with so fine a voice; but just +as they were about to do so they were checked by the same voice, which +once more fell upon their ears, singing this</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<pre> +SONNET + +When heavenward, holy Friendship, thou didst go + Soaring to seek thy home beyond the sky, + And take thy seat among the saints on high, +It was thy will to leave on earth below +Thy semblance, and upon it to bestow + Thy veil, wherewith at times hypocrisy, + Parading in thy shape, deceives the eye, +And makes its vileness bright as virtue show. +Friendship, return to us, or force the cheat + That wears it now, thy livery to restore, + By aid whereof sincerity is slain. +If thou wilt not unmask thy counterfeit, + This earth will be the prey of strife once more, + As when primaeval discord held its reign. + </pre> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +The song ended with a deep sigh, and again the listeners remained +waiting attentively for the singer to resume; but perceiving that +the music had now turned to sobs and heart-rending moans they +determined to find out who the unhappy being could be whose voice +was as rare as his sighs were piteous, and they had not proceeded +far when on turning the corner of a rock they discovered a man of +the same aspect and appearance as Sancho had described to them when he +told them the story of Cardenio. He, showing no astonishment when he +saw them, stood still with his head bent down upon his breast like one +in deep thought, without raising his eyes to look at them after the +first glance when they suddenly came upon him. The curate, who was +aware of his misfortune and recognised him by the description, being a +man of good address, approached him and in a few sensible words +entreated and urged him to quit a life of such misery, lest he +should end it there, which would be the greatest of all misfortunes. +Cardenio was then in his right mind, free from any attack of that +madness which so frequently carried him away, and seeing them +dressed in a fashion so unusual among the frequenters of those +wilds, could not help showing some surprise, especially when he +heard them speak of his case as if it were a well-known matter (for +the curate's words gave him to understand as much) so he replied to +them thus:</p> + +<p>"I see plainly, sirs, whoever you may be, that Heaven, whose care it +is to succour the good, and even the wicked very often, here, in +this remote spot, cut off from human intercourse, sends me, though I +deserve it not, those who seek to draw me away from this to some +better retreat, showing me by many and forcible arguments how +unreasonably I act in leading the life I do; but as they know, that if +I escape from this evil I shall fall into another still greater, +perhaps they will set me down as a weak-minded man, or, what is worse, +one devoid of reason; nor would it be any wonder, for I myself can +perceive that the effect of the recollection of my misfortunes is so +great and works so powerfully to my ruin, that in spite of myself I +become at times like a stone, without feeling or consciousness; and +I come to feel the truth of it when they tell me and show me proofs of +the things I have done when the terrible fit overmasters me; and all I +can do is bewail my lot in vain, and idly curse my destiny, and +plead for my madness by telling how it was caused, to any that care to +hear it; for no reasonable beings on learning the cause will wonder at +the effects; and if they cannot help me at least they will not blame +me, and the repugnance they feel at my wild ways will turn into pity +for my woes. If it be, sirs, that you are here with the same design as +others have come wah, before you proceed with your wise arguments, I +entreat you to hear the story of my countless misfortunes, for perhaps +when you have heard it you will spare yourselves the trouble you would +take in offering consolation to grief that is beyond the reach of it."</p> + +<p>As they, both of them, desired nothing more than to hear from his +own lips the cause of his suffering, they entreated him to tell it, +promising not to do anything for his relief or comfort that he did not +wish; and thereupon the unhappy gentleman began his sad story in +nearly the same words and manner in which he had related it to Don +Quixote and the goatherd a few days before, when, through Master +Elisabad, and Don Quixote's scrupulous observance of what was due to +chivalry, the tale was left unfinished, as this history has already +recorded; but now fortunately the mad fit kept off, allowed him to +tell it to the end; and so, coming to the incident of the note which +Don Fernando had found in the volume of "Amadis of Gaul," Cardenio +said that he remembered it perfectly and that it was in these words:</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> +"Luscinda to Cardenio.</p> + +<p> +"Every day I discover merits in you that oblige and compel me to +hold you in higher estimation; so if you desire to relieve me of +this obligation without cost to my honour, you may easily do so. I +have a father who knows you and loves me dearly, who without putting +any constraint on my inclination will grant what will be reasonable +for you to have, if it be that you value me as you say and as I +believe you do."</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p> +"By this letter I was induced, as I told you, to demand Luscinda for +my wife, and it was through it that Luscinda came to be regarded by +Don Fernando as one of the most discreet and prudent women of the day, +and this letter it was that suggested his design of ruining me +before mine could be carried into effect. I told Don Fernando that all +Luscinda's father was waiting for was that mine should ask her of him, +which I did not dare to suggest to him, fearing that he would not +consent to do so; not because he did not know perfectly well the rank, +goodness, virtue, and beauty of Luscinda, and that she had qualities +that would do honour to any family in Spain, but because I was aware +that he did not wish me to marry so soon, before seeing what the +Duke Ricardo would do for me. In short, I told him I did not venture +to mention it to my father, as well on account of that difficulty, +as of many others that discouraged me though I knew not well what they +were, only that it seemed to me that what I desired was never to +come to pass. To all this Don Fernando answered that he would take +it upon himself to speak to my father, and persuade him to speak to +Luscinda's father. O, ambitious Marius! O, cruel Catiline! O, wicked +Sylla! O, perfidious Ganelon! O, treacherous Vellido! O, vindictive +Julian! O, covetous Judas! Traitor, cruel, vindictive, and perfidious, +wherein had this poor wretch failed in his fidelity, who with such +frankness showed thee the secrets and the joys of his heart? What +offence did I commit? What words did I utter, or what counsels did I +give that had not the furtherance of thy honour and welfare for +their aim? But, woe is me, wherefore do I complain? for sure it is +that when misfortunes spring from the stars, descending from on high +they fall upon us with such fury and violence that no power on earth +can check their course nor human device stay their coming. Who could +have thought that Don Fernando, a highborn gentleman, intelligent, +bound to me by gratitude for my services, one that could win the +object of his love wherever he might set his affections, could have +become so obdurate, as they say, as to rob me of my one ewe lamb +that was not even yet in my possession? But laying aside these useless +and unavailing reflections, let us take up the broken thread of my +unhappy story.</p> + +<p>"To proceed, then: Don Fernando finding my presence an obstacle to +the execution of his treacherous and wicked design, resolved to send +me to his elder brother under the pretext of asking money from him +to pay for six horses which, purposely, and with the sole object of +sending me away that he might the better carry out his infernal +scheme, he had purchased the very day he offered to speak to my +father, and the price of which he now desired me to fetch. Could I +have anticipated this treachery? Could I by any chance have +suspected it? Nay; so far from that, I offered with the greatest +pleasure to go at once, in my satisfaction at the good bargain that +had been made. That night I spoke with Luscinda, and told her what had +been agreed upon with Don Fernando, and how I had strong hopes of +our fair and reasonable wishes being realised. She, as unsuspicious as +I was of the treachery of Don Fernando, bade me try to return +speedily, as she believed the fulfilment of our desires would be +delayed only so long as my father put off speaking to hers. I know not +why it was that on saying this to me her eyes filled with tears, and +there came a lump in her throat that prevented her from uttering a +word of many more that it seemed to me she was striving to say to +me. I was astonished at this unusual turn, which I never before +observed in her. for we always conversed, whenever good fortune and my +ingenuity gave us the chance, with the greatest gaiety and +cheerfulness, mingling tears, sighs, jealousies, doubts, or fears with +our words; it was all on my part a eulogy of my good fortune that +Heaven should have given her to me for my mistress; I glorified her +beauty, I extolled her worth and her understanding; and she paid me +back by praising in me what in her love for me she thought worthy of +praise; and besides we had a hundred thousand trifles and doings of +our neighbours and acquaintances to talk about, and the utmost +extent of my boldness was to take, almost by force, one of her fair +white hands and carry it to my lips, as well as the closeness of the +low grating that separated us allowed me. But the night before the +unhappy day of my departure she wept, she moaned, she sighed, and +she withdrew leaving me filled with perplexity and amazement, +overwhelmed at the sight of such strange and affecting signs of +grief and sorrow in Luscinda; but not to dash my hopes I ascribed it +all to the depth of her love for me and the pain that separation gives +those who love tenderly. At last I took my departure, sad and +dejected, my heart filled with fancies and suspicions, but not knowing +well what it was I suspected or fancied; plain omens pointing to the +sad event and misfortune that was awaiting me.</p> + +<p>"I reached the place whither I had been sent, gave the letter to Don +Fernando's brother, and was kindly received but not promptly +dismissed, for he desired me to wait, very much against my will, eight +days in some place where the duke his father was not likely to see me, +as his brother wrote that the money was to be sent without his +knowledge; all of which was a scheme of the treacherous Don +Fernando, for his brother had no want of money to enable him to +despatch me at once.</p> + +<p>"The command was one that exposed me to the temptation of disobeying +it, as it seemed to me impossible to endure life for so many days +separated from Luscinda, especially after leaving her in the sorrowful +mood I have described to you; nevertheless as a dutiful servant I +obeyed, though I felt it would be at the cost of my well-being. But +four days later there came a man in quest of me with a letter which he +gave me, and which by the address I perceived to be from Luscinda, +as the writing was hers. I opened it with fear and trepidation, +persuaded that it must be something serious that had impelled her to +write to me when at a distance, as she seldom did so when I was +near. Before reading it I asked the man who it was that had given it +to him, and how long he had been upon the road; he told me that as +he happened to be passing through one of the streets of the city at +the hour of noon, a very beautiful lady called to him from a window, +and with tears in her eyes said to him hurriedly, 'Brother, if you +are, as you seem to be, a Christian, for the love of God I entreat you +to have this letter despatched without a moment's delay to the place +and person named in the address, all which is well known, and by +this you will render a great service to our Lord; and that you may +be at no inconvenience in doing so take what is in this handkerchief;' +and said he, 'with this she threw me a handkerchief out of the +window in which were tied up a hundred reals and this gold ring +which I bring here together with the letter I have given you. And then +without waiting for any answer she left the window, though not +before she saw me take the letter and the handkerchief, and I had by +signs let her know that I would do as she bade me; and so, seeing +myself so well paid for the trouble I would have in bringing it to +you, and knowing by the address that it was to you it was sent (for, +senor, I know you very well), and also unable to resist that beautiful +lady's tears, I resolved to trust no one else, but to come myself +and give it to you, and in sixteen hours from the time when it was +given me I have made the journey, which, as you know, is eighteen +leagues.'</p> + +<p>"All the while the good-natured improvised courier was telling me +this, I hung upon his words, my legs trembling under me so that I +could scarcely stand. However, I opened the letter and read these +words:</p> + +<p> +"'The promise Don Fernando gave you to urge your father to speak +to mine, he has fulfilled much more to his own satisfaction than to +your advantage. I have to tell you, senor, that he has demanded me for +a wife, and my father, led away by what he considers Don Fernando's +superiority over you, has favoured his suit so cordially, that in +two days hence the betrothal is to take place with such secrecy and so +privately that the only witnesses are to be the Heavens above and a +few of the household. Picture to yourself the state I am in; judge +if it be urgent for you to come; the issue of the affair will show you +whether I love you or not. God grant this may come to your hand before +mine shall be forced to link itself with his who keeps so ill the +faith that he has pledged.'</p> + +<p> +"Such, in brief, were the words of the letter, words that made me +set out at once without waiting any longer for reply or money; for I +now saw clearly that it was not the purchase of horses but of his +own pleasure that had made Don Fernando send me to his brother. The +exasperation I felt against Don Fernando, joined with the fear of +losing the prize I had won by so many years of love and devotion, lent +me wings; so that almost flying I reached home the same day, by the +hour which served for speaking with Luscinda. I arrived unobserved, +and left the mule on which I had come at the house of the worthy man +who had brought me the letter, and fortune was pleased to be for +once so kind that I found Luscinda at the grating that was the witness +of our loves. She recognised me at once, and I her, but not as she +ought to have recognised me, or I her. But who is there in the world +that can boast of having fathomed or understood the wavering mind +and unstable nature of a woman? Of a truth no one. To proceed: as soon +as Luscinda saw me she said, 'Cardenio, I am in my bridal dress, and +the treacherous Don Fernando and my covetous father are waiting for me +in the hall with the other witnesses, who shall be the witnesses of my +death before they witness my betrothal. Be not distressed, my +friend, but contrive to be present at this sacrifice, and if that +cannot be prevented by my words, I have a dagger concealed which +will prevent more deliberate violence, putting an end to my life and +giving thee a first proof of the love I have borne and bear thee.' I +replied to her distractedly and hastily, in fear lest I should not +have time to reply, 'May thy words be verified by thy deeds, lady; and +if thou hast a dagger to save thy honour, I have a sword to defend +thee or kill myself if fortune be against us.'</p> + +<p>"I think she could not have heard all these words, for I perceived +that they called her away in haste, as the bridegroom was waiting. Now +the night of my sorrow set in, the sun of my happiness went down, I +felt my eyes bereft of sight, my mind of reason. I could not enter the +house, nor was I capable of any movement; but reflecting how important +it was that I should be present at what might take place on the +occasion, I nerved myself as best I could and went in, for I well knew +all the entrances and outlets; and besides, with the confusion that in +secret pervaded the house no one took notice of me, so, without +being seen, I found an opportunity of placing myself in the recess +formed by a window of the hall itself, and concealed by the ends and +borders of two tapestries, from between which I could, without being +seen, see all that took place in the room. Who could describe the +agitation of heart I suffered as I stood there—the thoughts that came +to me—the reflections that passed through my mind? They were such +as cannot be, nor were it well they should be, told. Suffice it to say +that the bridegroom entered the hall in his usual dress, without +ornament of any kind; as groomsman he had with him a cousin of +Luscinda's and except the servants of the house there was no one +else in the chamber. Soon afterwards Luscinda came out from an +antechamber, attended by her mother and two of her damsels, arrayed +and adorned as became her rank and beauty, and in full festival and +ceremonial attire. My anxiety and distraction did not allow me to +observe or notice particularly what she wore; I could only perceive +the colours, which were crimson and white, and the glitter of the gems +and jewels on her head dress and apparel, surpassed by the rare beauty +of her lovely auburn hair that vying with the precious stones and +the light of the four torches that stood in the hall shone with a +brighter gleam than all. Oh memory, mortal foe of my peace! why +bring before me now the incomparable beauty of that adored enemy of +mine? Were it not better, cruel memory, to remind me and recall what +she then did, that stirred by a wrong so glaring I may seek, if not +vengeance now, at least to rid myself of life? Be not weary, sirs, +of listening to these digressions; my sorrow is not one of those +that can or should be told tersely and briefly, for to me each +incident seems to call for many words."</p> + +<p>To this the curate replied that not only were they not weary of +listening to him, but that the details he mentioned interested them +greatly, being of a kind by no means to be omitted and deserving of +the same attention as the main story.</p> + +<p>"To proceed, then," continued Cardenio: "all being assembled in +the hall, the priest of the parish came in and as he took the pair +by the hand to perform the requisite ceremony, at the words, 'Will +you, Senora Luscinda, take Senor Don Fernando, here present, for +your lawful husband, as the holy Mother Church ordains?' I thrust my +head and neck out from between the tapestries, and with eager ears and +throbbing heart set myself to listen to Luscinda's answer, awaiting in +her reply the sentence of death or the grant of life. Oh, that I had +but dared at that moment to rush forward crying aloud, 'Luscinda, +Luscinda! have a care what thou dost; remember what thou owest me; +bethink thee thou art mine and canst not be another's; reflect that +thy utterance of "Yes" and the end of my life will come at the same +instant. O, treacherous Don Fernando! robber of my glory, death of +my life! What seekest thou? Remember that thou canst not as a +Christian attain the object of thy wishes, for Luscinda is my bride, +and I am her husband!' Fool that I am! now that I am far away, and out +of danger, I say I should have done what I did not do: now that I have +allowed my precious treasure to be robbed from me, I curse the robber, +on whom I might have taken vengeance had I as much heart for it as I +have for bewailing my fate; in short, as I was then a coward and a +fool, little wonder is it if I am now dying shame-stricken, +remorseful, and mad.</p> + +<p>"The priest stood waiting for the answer of Luscinda, who for a long +time withheld it; and just as I thought she was taking out the +dagger to save her honour, or struggling for words to make some +declaration of the truth on my behalf, I heard her say in a faint +and feeble voice, 'I will:' Don Fernando said the same, and giving her +the ring they stood linked by a knot that could never be loosed. The +bridegroom then approached to embrace his bride; and she, pressing her +hand upon her heart, fell fainting in her mother's arms. It only +remains now for me to tell you the state I was in when in that consent +that I heard I saw all my hopes mocked, the words and promises of +Luscinda proved falsehoods, and the recovery of the prize I had that +instant lost rendered impossible for ever. I stood stupefied, wholly +abandoned, it seemed, by Heaven, declared the enemy of the earth +that bore me, the air refusing me breath for my sighs, the water +moisture for my tears; it was only the fire that gathered strength +so that my whole frame glowed with rage and jealousy. They were all +thrown into confusion by Luscinda's fainting, and as her mother was +unlacing her to give her air a sealed paper was discovered in her +bosom which Don Fernando seized at once and began to read by the light +of one of the torches. As soon as he had read it he seated himself +in a chair, leaning his cheek on his hand in the attitude of one +deep in thought, without taking any part in the efforts that were +being made to recover his bride from her fainting fit.</p> + +<p>"Seeing all the household in confusion, I ventured to come out +regardless whether I were seen or not, and determined, if I were, to +do some frenzied deed that would prove to all the world the +righteous indignation of my breast in the punishment of the +treacherous Don Fernando, and even in that of the fickle fainting +traitress. But my fate, doubtless reserving me for greater sorrows, if +such there be, so ordered it that just then I had enough and to +spare of that reason which has since been wanting to me; and so, +without seeking to take vengeance on my greatest enemies (which +might have been easily taken, as all thought of me was so far from +their minds), I resolved to take it upon myself, and on myself to +inflict the pain they deserved, perhaps with even greater severity +than I should have dealt out to them had I then slain them; for sudden +pain is soon over, but that which is protracted by tortures is ever +slaying without ending life. In a word, I quitted the house and +reached that of the man with whom I had left my mule; I made him +saddle it for me, mounted without bidding him farewell, and rode out +of the city, like another Lot, not daring to turn my head to look back +upon it; and when I found myself alone in the open country, screened +by the darkness of the night, and tempted by the stillness to give +vent to my grief without apprehension or fear of being heard or +seen, then I broke silence and lifted up my voice in maledictions upon +Luscinda and Don Fernando, as if I could thus avenge the wrong they +had done me. I called her cruel, ungrateful, false, thankless, but +above all covetous, since the wealth of my enemy had blinded the +eyes of her affection, and turned it from me to transfer it to one +to whom fortune had been more generous and liberal. And yet, in the +midst of this outburst of execration and upbraiding, I found excuses +for her, saying it was no wonder that a young girl in the seclusion of +her parents' house, trained and schooled to obey them always, should +have been ready to yield to their wishes when they offered her for a +husband a gentleman of such distinction, wealth, and noble birth, that +if she had refused to accept him she would have been thought out of +her senses, or to have set her affection elsewhere, a suspicion +injurious to her fair name and fame. But then again, I said, had she +declared I was her husband, they would have seen that in choosing me +she had not chosen so ill but that they might excuse her, for before +Don Fernando had made his offer, they themselves could not have +desired, if their desires had been ruled by reason, a more eligible +husband for their daughter than I was; and she, before taking the last +fatal step of giving her hand, might easily have said that I had +already given her mine, for I should have come forward to support +any assertion of hers to that effect. In short, I came to the +conclusion that feeble love, little reflection, great ambition, and +a craving for rank, had made her forget the words with which she had +deceived me, encouraged and supported by my firm hopes and +honourable passion.</p> + +<p>"Thus soliloquising and agitated, I journeyed onward for the +remainder of the night, and by daybreak I reached one of the passes of +these mountains, among which I wandered for three days more without +taking any path or road, until I came to some meadows lying on I +know not which side of the mountains, and there I inquired of some +herdsmen in what direction the most rugged part of the range lay. They +told me that it was in this quarter, and I at once directed my +course hither, intending to end my life here; but as I was making my +way among these crags, my mule dropped dead through fatigue and +hunger, or, as I think more likely, in order to have done with such +a worthless burden as it bore in me. I was left on foot, worn out, +famishing, without anyone to help me or any thought of seeking help: +and so thus I lay stretched on the ground, how long I know not, +after which I rose up free from hunger, and found beside me some +goatherds, who no doubt were the persons who had relieved me in my +need, for they told me how they had found me, and how I had been +uttering ravings that showed plainly I had lost my reason; and since +then I am conscious that I am not always in full possession of it, but +at times so deranged and crazed that I do a thousand mad things, +tearing my clothes, crying aloud in these solitudes, cursing my +fate, and idly calling on the dear name of her who is my enemy, and +only seeking to end my life in lamentation; and when I recover my +senses I find myself so exhausted and weary that I can scarcely +move. Most commonly my dwelling is the hollow of a cork tree large +enough to shelter this miserable body; the herdsmen and goatherds +who frequent these mountains, moved by compassion, furnish me with +food, leaving it by the wayside or on the rocks, where they think I +may perhaps pass and find it; and so, even though I may be then out of +my senses, the wants of nature teach me what is required to sustain +me, and make me crave it and eager to take it. At other times, so they +tell me when they find me in a rational mood, I sally out upon the +road, and though they would gladly give it me, I snatch food by +force from the shepherds bringing it from the village to their huts. +Thus do pass the wretched life that remains to me, until it be +Heaven's will to bring it to a close, or so to order my memory that +I no longer recollect the beauty and treachery of Luscinda, or the +wrong done me by Don Fernando; for if it will do this without +depriving me of life, I will turn my thoughts into some better +channel; if not, I can only implore it to have full mercy on my +soul, for in myself I feel no power or strength to release my body +from this strait in which I have of my own accord chosen to place it.</p> + +<p>"Such, sirs, is the dismal story of my misfortune: say if it be +one that can be told with less emotion than you have seen in me; and +do not trouble yourselves with urging or pressing upon me what +reason suggests as likely to serve for my relief, for it will avail me +as much as the medicine prescribed by a wise physician avails the sick +man who will not take it. I have no wish for health without +Luscinda; and since it is her pleasure to be another's, when she is or +should be mine, let it be mine to be a prey to misery when I might +have enjoyed happiness. She by her fickleness strove to make my ruin +irretrievable; I will strive to gratify her wishes by seeking +destruction; and it will show generations to come that I alone was +deprived of that of which all others in misfortune have a +superabundance, for to them the impossibility of being consoled is +itself a consolation, while to me it is the cause of greater sorrows +and sufferings, for I think that even in death there will not be an +end of them."</p> + +<p>Here Cardenio brought to a close his long discourse and story, as +full of misfortune as it was of love; but just as the curate was going +to address some words of comfort to him, he was stopped by a voice +that reached his ear, saying in melancholy tones what will be told +in the Fourth Part of this narrative; for at this point the sage and +sagacious historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli, brought the Third to a +conclusion.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="c27e"></a><img alt="c27e.jpg (65K)" src="images/c27e.jpg" height="679" width="495"> +</center> + + +<br> +<br> +<hr> +<br><br> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Don Quixote, Vol. I., +Part 9., by Miguel de Cervantes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DON QUIXOTE, PART 9 *** + +***** This file should be named 5911-h.htm or 5911-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/9/1/5911/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The History of Don Quixote, Vol. I., Part 9. + +Author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra + +Release Date: July 18, 2004 [EBook #5911] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DON QUIXOTE, PART 9 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + DON QUIXOTE + + by Miguel de Cervantes + + Translated by John Ormsby + + + Volume I. + + Part 9. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +IN WHICH IS CONTINUED THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIERRA MORENA + + +The history relates that it was with the greatest attention Don Quixote +listened to the ragged knight of the Sierra, who began by saying: + +"Of a surety, senor, whoever you are, for I know you not, I thank you for +the proofs of kindness and courtesy you have shown me, and would I were +in a condition to requite with something more than good-will that which +you have displayed towards me in the cordial reception you have given me; +but my fate does not afford me any other means of returning kindnesses +done me save the hearty desire to repay them." + +"Mine," replied Don Quixote, "is to be of service to you, so much so that +I had resolved not to quit these mountains until I had found you, and +learned of you whether there is any kind of relief to be found for that +sorrow under which from the strangeness of your life you seem to labour; +and to search for you with all possible diligence, if search had been +necessary. And if your misfortune should prove to be one of those that +refuse admission to any sort of consolation, it was my purpose to join +you in lamenting and mourning over it, so far as I could; for it is still +some comfort in misfortune to find one who can feel for it. And if my +good intentions deserve to be acknowledged with any kind of courtesy, I +entreat you, senor, by that which I perceive you possess in so high a +degree, and likewise conjure you by whatever you love or have loved best +in life, to tell me who you are and the cause that has brought you to +live or die in these solitudes like a brute beast, dwelling among them in +a manner so foreign to your condition as your garb and appearance show. +And I swear," added Don Quixote, "by the order of knighthood which I have +received, and by my vocation of knight-errant, if you gratify me in this, +to serve you with all the zeal my calling demands of me, either in +relieving your misfortune if it admits of relief, or in joining you in +lamenting it as I promised to do." + +The Knight of the Thicket, hearing him of the Rueful Countenance talk in +this strain, did nothing but stare at him, and stare at him again, and +again survey him from head to foot; and when he had thoroughly examined +him, he said to him: + +"If you have anything to give me to eat, for God's sake give it me, and +after I have eaten I will do all you ask in acknowledgment of the +goodwill you have displayed towards me." + +Sancho from his sack, and the goatherd from his pouch, furnished the +Ragged One with the means of appeasing his hunger, and what they gave him +he ate like a half-witted being, so hastily that he took no time between +mouthfuls, gorging rather than swallowing; and while he ate neither he +nor they who observed him uttered a word. As soon as he had done he made +signs to them to follow him, which they did, and he led them to a green +plot which lay a little farther off round the corner of a rock. On +reaching it he stretched himself upon the grass, and the others did the +same, all keeping silence, until the Ragged One, settling himself in his +place, said: + +"If it is your wish, sirs, that I should disclose in a few words the +surpassing extent of my misfortunes, you must promise not to break the +thread of my sad story with any question or other interruption, for the +instant you do so the tale I tell will come to an end." + +These words of the Ragged One reminded Don Quixote of the tale his squire +had told him, when he failed to keep count of the goats that had crossed +the river and the story remained unfinished; but to return to the Ragged +One, he went on to say: + +"I give you this warning because I wish to pass briefly over the story of +my misfortunes, for recalling them to memory only serves to add fresh +ones, and the less you question me the sooner shall I make an end of the +recital, though I shall not omit to relate anything of importance in +order fully to satisfy your curiosity." + +Don Quixote gave the promise for himself and the others, and with this +assurance he began as follows: + +"My name is Cardenio, my birthplace one of the best cities of this +Andalusia, my family noble, my parents rich, my misfortune so great that +my parents must have wept and my family grieved over it without being +able by their wealth to lighten it; for the gifts of fortune can do +little to relieve reverses sent by Heaven. In that same country there was +a heaven in which love had placed all the glory I could desire; such was +the beauty of Luscinda, a damsel as noble and as rich as I, but of +happier fortunes, and of less firmness than was due to so worthy a +passion as mine. This Luscinda I loved, worshipped, and adored from my +earliest and tenderest years, and she loved me in all the innocence and +sincerity of childhood. Our parents were aware of our feelings, and were +not sorry to perceive them, for they saw clearly that as they ripened +they must lead at last to a marriage between us, a thing that seemed +almost prearranged by the equality of our families and wealth. We grew +up, and with our growth grew the love between us, so that the father of +Luscinda felt bound for propriety's sake to refuse me admission to his +house, in this perhaps imitating the parents of that Thisbe so celebrated +by the poets, and this refusal but added love to love and flame to flame; +for though they enforced silence upon our tongues they could not impose +it upon our pens, which can make known the heart's secrets to a loved one +more freely than tongues; for many a time the presence of the object of +love shakes the firmest will and strikes dumb the boldest tongue. Ah +heavens! how many letters did I write her, and how many dainty modest +replies did I receive! how many ditties and love-songs did I compose in +which my heart declared and made known its feelings, described its ardent +longings, revelled in its recollections and dallied with its desires! At +length growing impatient and feeling my heart languishing with longing to +see her, I resolved to put into execution and carry out what seemed to me +the best mode of winning my desired and merited reward, to ask her of her +father for my lawful wife, which I did. To this his answer was that he +thanked me for the disposition I showed to do honour to him and to regard +myself as honoured by the bestowal of his treasure; but that as my father +was alive it was his by right to make this demand, for if it were not in +accordance with his full will and pleasure, Luscinda was not to be taken +or given by stealth. I thanked him for his kindness, reflecting that +there was reason in what he said, and that my father would assent to it +as soon as I should tell him, and with that view I went the very same +instant to let him know what my desires were. When I entered the room +where he was I found him with an open letter in his hand, which, before I +could utter a word, he gave me, saying, 'By this letter thou wilt see, +Cardenio, the disposition the Duke Ricardo has to serve thee.' This Duke +Ricardo, as you, sirs, probably know already, is a grandee of Spain who +has his seat in the best part of this Andalusia. I took and read the +letter, which was couched in terms so flattering that even I myself felt +it would be wrong in my father not to comply with the request the duke +made in it, which was that he would send me immediately to him, as he +wished me to become the companion, not servant, of his eldest son, and +would take upon himself the charge of placing me in a position +corresponding to the esteem in which he held me. On reading the letter my +voice failed me, and still more when I heard my father say, 'Two days +hence thou wilt depart, Cardenio, in accordance with the duke's wish, and +give thanks to God who is opening a road to thee by which thou mayest +attain what I know thou dost deserve; and to these words he added others +of fatherly counsel. The time for my departure arrived; I spoke one night +to Luscinda, I told her all that had occurred, as I did also to her +father, entreating him to allow some delay, and to defer the disposal of +her hand until I should see what the Duke Ricardo sought of me: he gave +me the promise, and she confirmed it with vows and swoonings unnumbered. +Finally, I presented myself to the duke, and was received and treated by +him so kindly that very soon envy began to do its work, the old servants +growing envious of me, and regarding the duke's inclination to show me +favour as an injury to themselves. But the one to whom my arrival gave +the greatest pleasure was the duke's second son, Fernando by name, a +gallant youth, of noble, generous, and amorous disposition, who very soon +made so intimate a friend of me that it was remarked by everybody; for +though the elder was attached to me, and showed me kindness, he did not +carry his affectionate treatment to the same length as Don Fernando. It +so happened, then, that as between friends no secret remains unshared, +and as the favour I enjoyed with Don Fernando had grown into friendship, +he made all his thoughts known to me, and in particular a love affair +which troubled his mind a little. He was deeply in love with a peasant +girl, a vassal of his father's, the daughter of wealthy parents, and +herself so beautiful, modest, discreet, and virtuous, that no one who +knew her was able to decide in which of these respects she was most +highly gifted or most excelled. The attractions of the fair peasant +raised the passion of Don Fernando to such a point that, in order to gain +his object and overcome her virtuous resolutions, he determined to pledge +his word to her to become her husband, for to attempt it in any other way +was to attempt an impossibility. Bound to him as I was by friendship, I +strove by the best arguments and the most forcible examples I could think +of to restrain and dissuade him from such a course; but perceiving I +produced no effect I resolved to make the Duke Ricardo, his father, +acquainted with the matter; but Don Fernando, being sharp-witted and +shrewd, foresaw and apprehended this, perceiving that by my duty as a +good servant I was bound not to keep concealed a thing so much opposed to +the honour of my lord the duke; and so, to mislead and deceive me, he +told me he could find no better way of effacing from his mind the beauty +that so enslaved him than by absenting himself for some months, and that +he wished the absence to be effected by our going, both of us, to my +father's house under the pretence, which he would make to the duke, of +going to see and buy some fine horses that there were in my city, which +produces the best in the world. When I heard him say so, even if his +resolution had not been so good a one I should have hailed it as one of +the happiest that could be imagined, prompted by my affection, seeing +what a favourable chance and opportunity it offered me of returning to +see my Luscinda. With this thought and wish I commended his idea and +encouraged his design, advising him to put it into execution as quickly +as possible, as, in truth, absence produced its effect in spite of the +most deeply rooted feelings. But, as afterwards appeared, when he said +this to me he had already enjoyed the peasant girl under the title of +husband, and was waiting for an opportunity of making it known with +safety to himself, being in dread of what his father the duke would do +when he came to know of his folly. It happened, then, that as with young +men love is for the most part nothing more than appetite, which, as its +final object is enjoyment, comes to an end on obtaining it, and that +which seemed to be love takes to flight, as it cannot pass the limit +fixed by nature, which fixes no limit to true love--what I mean is that +after Don Fernando had enjoyed this peasant girl his passion subsided and +his eagerness cooled, and if at first he feigned a wish to absent himself +in order to cure his love, he was now in reality anxious to go to avoid +keeping his promise. + +"The duke gave him permission, and ordered me to accompany him; we +arrived at my city, and my father gave him the reception due to his rank; +I saw Luscinda without delay, and, though it had not been dead or +deadened, my love gathered fresh life. To my sorrow I told the story of +it to Don Fernando, for I thought that in virtue of the great friendship +he bore me I was bound to conceal nothing from him. I extolled her +beauty, her gaiety, her wit, so warmly, that my praises excited in him a +desire to see a damsel adorned by such attractions. To my misfortune I +yielded to it, showing her to him one night by the light of a taper at a +window where we used to talk to one another. As she appeared to him in +her dressing-gown, she drove all the beauties he had seen until then out +of his recollection; speech failed him, his head turned, he was +spell-bound, and in the end love-smitten, as you will see in the course +of the story of my misfortune; and to inflame still further his passion, +which he hid from me and revealed to Heaven alone, it so happened that +one day he found a note of hers entreating me to demand her of her father +in marriage, so delicate, so modest, and so tender, that on reading it he +told me that in Luscinda alone were combined all the charms of beauty and +understanding that were distributed among all the other women in the +world. It is true, and I own it now, that though I knew what good cause +Don Fernando had to praise Luscinda, it gave me uneasiness to hear these +praises from his mouth, and I began to fear, and with reason to feel +distrust of him, for there was no moment when he was not ready to talk of +Luscinda, and he would start the subject himself even though he dragged +it in unseasonably, a circumstance that aroused in me a certain amount of +jealousy; not that I feared any change in the constancy or faith of +Luscinda; but still my fate led me to forebode what she assured me +against. Don Fernando contrived always to read the letters I sent to +Luscinda and her answers to me, under the pretence that he enjoyed the +wit and sense of both. It so happened, then, that Luscinda having begged +of me a book of chivalry to read, one that she was very fond of, Amadis +of Gaul-" + +Don Quixote no sooner heard a book of chivalry mentioned, than he said: + +"Had your worship told me at the beginning of your story that the Lady +Luscinda was fond of books of chivalry, no other laudation would have +been requisite to impress upon me the superiority of her understanding, +for it could not have been of the excellence you describe had a taste for +such delightful reading been wanting; so, as far as I am concerned, you +need waste no more words in describing her beauty, worth, and +intelligence; for, on merely hearing what her taste was, I declare her to +be the most beautiful and the most intelligent woman in the world; and I +wish your worship had, along with Amadis of Gaul, sent her the worthy Don +Rugel of Greece, for I know the Lady Luscinda would greatly relish +Daraida and Garaya, and the shrewd sayings of the shepherd Darinel, and +the admirable verses of his bucolics, sung and delivered by him with such +sprightliness, wit, and ease; but a time may come when this omission can +be remedied, and to rectify it nothing more is needed than for your +worship to be so good as to come with me to my village, for there I can +give you more than three hundred books which are the delight of my soul +and the entertainment of my life;--though it occurs to me that I have not +got one of them now, thanks to the spite of wicked and envious +enchanters;--but pardon me for having broken the promise we made not to +interrupt your discourse; for when I hear chivalry or knights-errant +mentioned, I can no more help talking about them than the rays of the sun +can help giving heat, or those of the moon moisture; pardon me, +therefore, and proceed, for that is more to the purpose now." + +While Don Quixote was saying this, Cardenio allowed his head to fall upon +his breast, and seemed plunged in deep thought; and though twice Don +Quixote bade him go on with his story, he neither looked up nor uttered a +word in reply; but after some time he raised his head and said, "I cannot +get rid of the idea, nor will anyone in the world remove it, or make me +think otherwise--and he would be a blockhead who would hold or believe +anything else than that that arrant knave Master Elisabad made free with +Queen Madasima." + +"That is not true, by all that's good," said Don Quixote in high wrath, +turning upon him angrily, as his way was; "and it is a very great +slander, or rather villainy. Queen Madasima was a very illustrious lady, +and it is not to be supposed that so exalted a princess would have made +free with a quack; and whoever maintains the contrary lies like a great +scoundrel, and I will give him to know it, on foot or on horseback, armed +or unarmed, by night or by day, or as he likes best." + +Cardenio was looking at him steadily, and his mad fit having now come +upon him, he had no disposition to go on with his story, nor would Don +Quixote have listened to it, so much had what he had heard about Madasima +disgusted him. Strange to say, he stood up for her as if she were in +earnest his veritable born lady; to such a pass had his unholy books +brought him. Cardenio, then, being, as I said, now mad, when he heard +himself given the lie, and called a scoundrel and other insulting names, +not relishing the jest, snatched up a stone that he found near him, and +with it delivered such a blow on Don Quixote's breast that he laid him on +his back. Sancho Panza, seeing his master treated in this fashion, +attacked the madman with his closed fist; but the Ragged One received him +in such a way that with a blow of his fist he stretched him at his feet, +and then mounting upon him crushed his ribs to his own satisfaction; the +goatherd, who came to the rescue, shared the same fate; and having beaten +and pummelled them all he left them and quietly withdrew to his +hiding-place on the mountain. Sancho rose, and with the rage he felt at +finding himself so belaboured without deserving it, ran to take vengeance +on the goatherd, accusing him of not giving them warning that this man +was at times taken with a mad fit, for if they had known it they would +have been on their guard to protect themselves. The goatherd replied that +he had said so, and that if he had not heard him, that was no fault of +his. Sancho retorted, and the goatherd rejoined, and the altercation +ended in their seizing each other by the beard, and exchanging such +fisticuffs that if Don Quixote had not made peace between them, they +would have knocked one another to pieces. + +"Leave me alone, Sir Knight of the Rueful Countenance," said Sancho, +grappling with the goatherd, "for of this fellow, who is a clown like +myself, and no dubbed knight, I can safely take satisfaction for the +affront he has offered me, fighting with him hand to hand like an honest +man." + +"That is true," said Don Quixote, "but I know that he is not to blame for +what has happened." + +With this he pacified them, and again asked the goatherd if it would be +possible to find Cardenio, as he felt the greatest anxiety to know the +end of his story. The goatherd told him, as he had told him before, that +there was no knowing of a certainty where his lair was; but that if he +wandered about much in that neighbourhood he could not fail to fall in +with him either in or out of his senses. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +WHICH TREATS OF THE STRANGE THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THE STOUT KNIGHT OF +LA MANCHA IN THE SIERRA MORENA, AND OF HIS IMITATION OF THE PENANCE OF +BELTENEBROS + + +Don Quixote took leave of the goatherd, and once more mounting Rocinante +bade Sancho follow him, which he having no ass, did very discontentedly. +They proceeded slowly, making their way into the most rugged part of the +mountain, Sancho all the while dying to have a talk with his master, and +longing for him to begin, so that there should be no breach of the +injunction laid upon him; but unable to keep silence so long he said to +him: + +"Senor Don Quixote, give me your worship's blessing and dismissal, for +I'd like to go home at once to my wife and children with whom I can at +any rate talk and converse as much as I like; for to want me to go +through these solitudes day and night and not speak to you when I have a +mind is burying me alive. If luck would have it that animals spoke as +they did in the days of Guisopete, it would not be so bad, because I +could talk to Rocinante about whatever came into my head, and so put up +with my ill-fortune; but it is a hard case, and not to be borne with +patience, to go seeking adventures all one's life and get nothing but +kicks and blanketings, brickbats and punches, and with all this to have +to sew up one's mouth without daring to say what is in one's heart, just +as if one were dumb." + +"I understand thee, Sancho," replied Don Quixote; "thou art dying to have +the interdict I placed upon thy tongue removed; consider it removed, and +say what thou wilt while we are wandering in these mountains." + +"So be it," said Sancho; "let me speak now, for God knows what will +happen by-and-by; and to take advantage of the permit at once, I ask, +what made your worship stand up so for that Queen Majimasa, or whatever +her name is, or what did it matter whether that abbot was a friend of +hers or not? for if your worship had let that pass--and you were not a +judge in the matter--it is my belief the madman would have gone on with +his story, and the blow of the stone, and the kicks, and more than half a +dozen cuffs would have been escaped." + +"In faith, Sancho," answered Don Quixote, "if thou knewest as I do what +an honourable and illustrious lady Queen Madasima was, I know thou +wouldst say I had great patience that I did not break in pieces the mouth +that uttered such blasphemies, for a very great blasphemy it is to say or +imagine that a queen has made free with a surgeon. The truth of the story +is that that Master Elisabad whom the madman mentioned was a man of great +prudence and sound judgment, and served as governor and physician to the +queen, but to suppose that she was his mistress is nonsense deserving +very severe punishment; and as a proof that Cardenio did not know what he +was saying, remember when he said it he was out of his wits." + +"That is what I say," said Sancho; "there was no occasion for minding the +words of a madman; for if good luck had not helped your worship, and he +had sent that stone at your head instead of at your breast, a fine way we +should have been in for standing up for my lady yonder, God confound her! +And then, would not Cardenio have gone free as a madman?" + +"Against men in their senses or against madmen," said Don Quixote, "every +knight-errant is bound to stand up for the honour of women, whoever they +may be, much more for queens of such high degree and dignity as Queen +Madasima, for whom I have a particular regard on account of her amiable +qualities; for, besides being extremely beautiful, she was very wise, and +very patient under her misfortunes, of which she had many; and the +counsel and society of the Master Elisabad were a great help and support +to her in enduring her afflictions with wisdom and resignation; hence the +ignorant and ill-disposed vulgar took occasion to say and think that she +was his mistress; and they lie, I say it once more, and will lie two +hundred times more, all who think and say so." + +"I neither say nor think so," said Sancho; "let them look to it; with +their bread let them eat it; they have rendered account to God whether +they misbehaved or not; I come from my vineyard, I know nothing; I am not +fond of prying into other men's lives; he who buys and lies feels it in +his purse; moreover, naked was I born, naked I find myself, I neither +lose nor gain; but if they did, what is that to me? many think there are +flitches where there are no hooks; but who can put gates to the open +plain? moreover they said of God-" + +"God bless me," said Don Quixote, "what a set of absurdities thou art +stringing together! What has what we are talking about got to do with the +proverbs thou art threading one after the other? for God's sake hold thy +tongue, Sancho, and henceforward keep to prodding thy ass and don't +meddle in what does not concern thee; and understand with all thy five +senses that everything I have done, am doing, or shall do, is well +founded on reason and in conformity with the rules of chivalry, for I +understand them better than all the world that profess them." + +"Senor," replied Sancho, "is it a good rule of chivalry that we should go +astray through these mountains without path or road, looking for a madman +who when he is found will perhaps take a fancy to finish what he began, +not his story, but your worship's head and my ribs, and end by breaking +them altogether for us?" + +"Peace, I say again, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "for let me tell thee it +is not so much the desire of finding that madman that leads me into these +regions as that which I have of performing among them an achievement +wherewith I shall win eternal name and fame throughout the known world; +and it shall be such that I shall thereby set the seal on all that can +make a knight-errant perfect and famous." + +"And is it very perilous, this achievement?" + +"No," replied he of the Rueful Countenance; "though it may be in the dice +that we may throw deuce-ace instead of sixes; but all will depend on thy +diligence." + +"On my diligence!" said Sancho. + +"Yes," said Don Quixote, "for if thou dost return soon from the place +where I mean to send thee, my penance will be soon over, and my glory +will soon begin. But as it is not right to keep thee any longer in +suspense, waiting to see what comes of my words, I would have thee know, +Sancho, that the famous Amadis of Gaul was one of the most perfect +knights-errant--I am wrong to say he was one; he stood alone, the first, +the only one, the lord of all that were in the world in his time. A fig +for Don Belianis, and for all who say he equalled him in any respect, +for, my oath upon it, they are deceiving themselves! I say, too, that +when a painter desires to become famous in his art he endeavours to copy +the originals of the rarest painters that he knows; and the same rule +holds good for all the most important crafts and callings that serve to +adorn a state; thus must he who would be esteemed prudent and patient +imitate Ulysses, in whose person and labours Homer presents to us a +lively picture of prudence and patience; as Virgil, too, shows us in the +person of AEneas the virtue of a pious son and the sagacity of a brave +and skilful captain; not representing or describing them as they were, +but as they ought to be, so as to leave the example of their virtues to +posterity. In the same way Amadis was the polestar, day-star, sun of +valiant and devoted knights, whom all we who fight under the banner of +love and chivalry are bound to imitate. This, then, being so, I consider, +friend Sancho, that the knight-errant who shall imitate him most closely +will come nearest to reaching the perfection of chivalry. Now one of the +instances in which this knight most conspicuously showed his prudence, +worth, valour, endurance, fortitude, and love, was when he withdrew, +rejected by the Lady Oriana, to do penance upon the Pena Pobre, changing +his name into that of Beltenebros, a name assuredly significant and +appropriate to the life which he had voluntarily adopted. So, as it is +easier for me to imitate him in this than in cleaving giants asunder, +cutting off serpents' heads, slaying dragons, routing armies, destroying +fleets, and breaking enchantments, and as this place is so well suited +for a similar purpose, I must not allow the opportunity to escape which +now so conveniently offers me its forelock." + +"What is it in reality," said Sancho, "that your worship means to do in +such an out-of-the-way place as this?" + +"Have I not told thee," answered Don Quixote, "that I mean to imitate +Amadis here, playing the victim of despair, the madman, the maniac, so as +at the same time to imitate the valiant Don Roland, when at the fountain +he had evidence of the fair Angelica having disgraced herself with Medoro +and through grief thereat went mad, and plucked up trees, troubled the +waters of the clear springs, slew destroyed flocks, burned down huts, +levelled houses, dragged mares after him, and perpetrated a hundred +thousand other outrages worthy of everlasting renown and record? And +though I have no intention of imitating Roland, or Orlando, or Rotolando +(for he went by all these names), step by step in all the mad things he +did, said, and thought, I will make a rough copy to the best of my power +of all that seems to me most essential; but perhaps I shall content +myself with the simple imitation of Amadis, who without giving way to any +mischievous madness but merely to tears and sorrow, gained as much fame +as the most famous." + +"It seems to me," said Sancho, "that the knights who behaved in this way +had provocation and cause for those follies and penances; but what cause +has your worship for going mad? What lady has rejected you, or what +evidence have you found to prove that the lady Dulcinea del Toboso has +been trifling with Moor or Christian?" + +"There is the point," replied Don Quixote, "and that is the beauty of +this business of mine; no thanks to a knight-errant for going mad when he +has cause; the thing is to turn crazy without any provocation, and let my +lady know, if I do this in the dry, what I would do in the moist; +moreover I have abundant cause in the long separation I have endured from +my lady till death, Dulcinea del Toboso; for as thou didst hear that +shepherd Ambrosio say the other day, in absence all ills are felt and +feared; and so, friend Sancho, waste no time in advising me against so +rare, so happy, and so unheard-of an imitation; mad I am, and mad I must +be until thou returnest with the answer to a letter that I mean to send +by thee to my lady Dulcinea; and if it be such as my constancy deserves, +my insanity and penance will come to an end; and if it be to the opposite +effect, I shall become mad in earnest, and, being so, I shall suffer no +more; thus in whatever way she may answer I shall escape from the +struggle and affliction in which thou wilt leave me, enjoying in my +senses the boon thou bearest me, or as a madman not feeling the evil thou +bringest me. But tell me, Sancho, hast thou got Mambrino's helmet safe? +for I saw thee take it up from the ground when that ungrateful wretch +tried to break it in pieces but could not, by which the fineness of its +temper may be seen." + +To which Sancho made answer, "By the living God, Sir Knight of the Rueful +Countenance, I cannot endure or bear with patience some of the things +that your worship says; and from them I begin to suspect that all you +tell me about chivalry, and winning kingdoms and empires, and giving +islands, and bestowing other rewards and dignities after the custom of +knights-errant, must be all made up of wind and lies, and all pigments or +figments, or whatever we may call them; for what would anyone think that +heard your worship calling a barber's basin Mambrino's helmet without +ever seeing the mistake all this time, but that one who says and +maintains such things must have his brains addled? I have the basin in my +sack all dinted, and I am taking it home to have it mended, to trim my +beard in it, if, by God's grace, I am allowed to see my wife and children +some day or other." + +"Look here, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "by him thou didst swear by just +now I swear thou hast the most limited understanding that any squire in +the world has or ever had. Is it possible that all this time thou hast +been going about with me thou hast never found out that all things +belonging to knights-errant seem to be illusions and nonsense and +ravings, and to go always by contraries? And not because it really is so, +but because there is always a swarm of enchanters in attendance upon us +that change and alter everything with us, and turn things as they please, +and according as they are disposed to aid or destroy us; thus what seems +to thee a barber's basin seems to me Mambrino's helmet, and to another it +will seem something else; and rare foresight it was in the sage who is on +my side to make what is really and truly Mambrine's helmet seem a basin +to everybody, for, being held in such estimation as it is, all the world +would pursue me to rob me of it; but when they see it is only a barber's +basin they do not take the trouble to obtain it; as was plainly shown by +him who tried to break it, and left it on the ground without taking it, +for, by my faith, had he known it he would never have left it behind. +Keep it safe, my friend, for just now I have no need of it; indeed, I +shall have to take off all this armour and remain as naked as I was born, +if I have a mind to follow Roland rather than Amadis in my penance." + +Thus talking they reached the foot of a high mountain which stood like an +isolated peak among the others that surrounded it. Past its base there +flowed a gentle brook, all around it spread a meadow so green and +luxuriant that it was a delight to the eyes to look upon it, and forest +trees in abundance, and shrubs and flowers, added to the charms of the +spot. Upon this place the Knight of the Rueful Countenance fixed his +choice for the performance of his penance, and as he beheld it exclaimed +in a loud voice as though he were out of his senses: + +"This is the place, oh, ye heavens, that I select and choose for +bewailing the misfortune in which ye yourselves have plunged me: this is +the spot where the overflowings of mine eyes shall swell the waters of +yon little brook, and my deep and endless sighs shall stir unceasingly +the leaves of these mountain trees, in testimony and token of the pain my +persecuted heart is suffering. Oh, ye rural deities, whoever ye be that +haunt this lone spot, give ear to the complaint of a wretched lover whom +long absence and brooding jealousy have driven to bewail his fate among +these wilds and complain of the hard heart of that fair and ungrateful +one, the end and limit of all human beauty! Oh, ye wood nymphs and +dryads, that dwell in the thickets of the forest, so may the nimble +wanton satyrs by whom ye are vainly wooed never disturb your sweet +repose, help me to lament my hard fate or at least weary not at listening +to it! Oh, Dulcinea del Toboso, day of my night, glory of my pain, guide +of my path, star of my fortune, so may Heaven grant thee in full all thou +seekest of it, bethink thee of the place and condition to which absence +from thee has brought me, and make that return in kindness that is due to +my fidelity! Oh, lonely trees, that from this day forward shall bear me +company in my solitude, give me some sign by the gentle movement of your +boughs that my presence is not distasteful to you! Oh, thou, my squire, +pleasant companion in my prosperous and adverse fortunes, fix well in thy +memory what thou shalt see me do here, so that thou mayest relate and +report it to the sole cause of all," and so saying he dismounted from +Rocinante, and in an instant relieved him of saddle and bridle, and +giving him a slap on the croup, said, "He gives thee freedom who is +bereft of it himself, oh steed as excellent in deed as thou art +unfortunate in thy lot; begone where thou wilt, for thou bearest written +on thy forehead that neither Astolfo's hippogriff, nor the famed Frontino +that cost Bradamante so dear, could equal thee in speed." + +Seeing this Sancho said, "Good luck to him who has saved us the trouble +of stripping the pack-saddle off Dapple! By my faith he would not have +gone without a slap on the croup and something said in his praise; though +if he were here I would not let anyone strip him, for there would be no +occasion, as he had nothing of the lover or victim of despair about him, +inasmuch as his master, which I was while it was God's pleasure, was +nothing of the sort; and indeed, Sir Knight of the Rueful Countenance, if +my departure and your worship's madness are to come off in earnest, it +will be as well to saddle Rocinante again in order that he may supply the +want of Dapple, because it will save me time in going and returning: for +if I go on foot I don't know when I shall get there or when I shall get +back, as I am, in truth, a bad walker." + +"I declare, Sancho," returned Don Quixote, "it shall be as thou wilt, for +thy plan does not seem to me a bad one, and three days hence thou wilt +depart, for I wish thee to observe in the meantime what I do and say for +her sake, that thou mayest be able to tell it." + +"But what more have I to see besides what I have seen?" said Sancho. + +"Much thou knowest about it!" said Don Quixote. "I have now got to tear +up my garments, to scatter about my armour, knock my head against these +rocks, and more of the same sort of thing, which thou must witness." + +"For the love of God," said Sancho, "be careful, your worship, how you +give yourself those knocks on the head, for you may come across such a +rock, and in such a way, that the very first may put an end to the whole +contrivance of this penance; and I should think, if indeed knocks on the +head seem necessary to you, and this business cannot be done without +them, you might be content--as the whole thing is feigned, and +counterfeit, and in joke--you might be content, I say, with giving them +to yourself in the water, or against something soft, like cotton; and +leave it all to me; for I'll tell my lady that your worship knocked your +head against a point of rock harder than a diamond." + +"I thank thee for thy good intentions, friend Sancho," answered Don +Quixote, "but I would have thee know that all these things I am doing are +not in joke, but very much in earnest, for anything else would be a +transgression of the ordinances of chivalry, which forbid us to tell any +lie whatever under the penalties due to apostasy; and to do one thing +instead of another is just the same as lying; so my knocks on the head +must be real, solid, and valid, without anything sophisticated or +fanciful about them, and it will be needful to leave me some lint to +dress my wounds, since fortune has compelled us to do without the balsam +we lost." + +"It was worse losing the ass," replied Sancho, "for with him lint and all +were lost; but I beg of your worship not to remind me again of that +accursed liquor, for my soul, not to say my stomach, turns at hearing the +very name of it; and I beg of you, too, to reckon as past the three days +you allowed me for seeing the mad things you do, for I take them as seen +already and pronounced upon, and I will tell wonderful stories to my +lady; so write the letter and send me off at once, for I long to return +and take your worship out of this purgatory where I am leaving you." + +"Purgatory dost thou call it, Sancho?" said Don Quixote, "rather call it +hell, or even worse if there be anything worse." + +"For one who is in hell," said Sancho, "nulla est retentio, as I have +heard say." + +"I do not understand what retentio means," said Don Quixote. + +"Retentio," answered Sancho, "means that whoever is in hell never comes +nor can come out of it, which will be the opposite case with your worship +or my legs will be idle, that is if I have spurs to enliven Rocinante: +let me once get to El Toboso and into the presence of my lady Dulcinea, +and I will tell her such things of the follies and madnesses (for it is +all one) that your worship has done and is still doing, that I will +manage to make her softer than a glove though I find her harder than a +cork tree; and with her sweet and honeyed answer I will come back through +the air like a witch, and take your worship out of this purgatory that +seems to be hell but is not, as there is hope of getting out of it; +which, as I have said, those in hell have not, and I believe your worship +will not say anything to the contrary." + +"That is true," said he of the Rueful Countenance, "but how shall we +manage to write the letter?" + +"And the ass-colt order too," added Sancho. + +"All shall be included," said Don Quixote; "and as there is no paper, it +would be well done to write it on the leaves of trees, as the ancients +did, or on tablets of wax; though that would be as hard to find just now +as paper. But it has just occurred to me how it may be conveniently and +even more than conveniently written, and that is in the note-book that +belonged to Cardenio, and thou wilt take care to have it copied on paper, +in a good hand, at the first village thou comest to where there is a +schoolmaster, or if not, any sacristan will copy it; but see thou give it +not to any notary to copy, for they write a law hand that Satan could not +make out." + +"But what is to be done about the signature?" said Sancho. + +"The letters of Amadis were never signed," said Don Quixote. + +"That is all very well," said Sancho, "but the order must needs be +signed, and if it is copied they will say the signature is false, and I +shall be left without ass-colts." + +"The order shall go signed in the same book," said Don Quixote, "and on +seeing it my niece will make no difficulty about obeying it; as to the +loveletter thou canst put by way of signature, 'Yours till death, the +Knight of the Rueful Countenance.' And it will be no great matter if it +is in some other person's hand, for as well as I recollect Dulcinea can +neither read nor write, nor in the whole course of her life has she seen +handwriting or letter of mine, for my love and hers have been always +platonic, not going beyond a modest look, and even that so seldom that I +can safely swear I have not seen her four times in all these twelve years +I have been loving her more than the light of these eyes that the earth +will one day devour; and perhaps even of those four times she has not +once perceived that I was looking at her: such is the retirement and +seclusion in which her father Lorenzo Corchuelo and her mother Aldonza +Nogales have brought her up." + +"So, so!" said Sancho; "Lorenzo Corchuelo's daughter is the lady Dulcinea +del Toboso, otherwise called Aldonza Lorenzo?" + +"She it is," said Don Quixote, "and she it is that is worthy to be lady +of the whole universe." + +"I know her well," said Sancho, "and let me tell you she can fling a +crowbar as well as the lustiest lad in all the town. Giver of all good! +but she is a brave lass, and a right and stout one, and fit to be +helpmate to any knight-errant that is or is to be, who may make her his +lady: the whoreson wench, what sting she has and what a voice! I can tell +you one day she posted herself on the top of the belfry of the village to +call some labourers of theirs that were in a ploughed field of her +father's, and though they were better than half a league off they heard +her as well as if they were at the foot of the tower; and the best of her +is that she is not a bit prudish, for she has plenty of affability, and +jokes with everybody, and has a grin and a jest for everything. So, Sir +Knight of the Rueful Countenance, I say you not only may and ought to do +mad freaks for her sake, but you have a good right to give way to despair +and hang yourself; and no one who knows of it but will say you did well, +though the devil should take you; and I wish I were on my road already, +simply to see her, for it is many a day since I saw her, and she must be +altered by this time, for going about the fields always, and the sun and +the air spoil women's looks greatly. But I must own the truth to your +worship, Senor Don Quixote; until now I have been under a great mistake, +for I believed truly and honestly that the lady Dulcinea must be some +princess your worship was in love with, or some person great enough to +deserve the rich presents you have sent her, such as the Biscayan and the +galley slaves, and many more no doubt, for your worship must have won +many victories in the time when I was not yet your squire. But all things +considered, what good can it do the lady Aldonza Lorenzo, I mean the lady +Dulcinea del Toboso, to have the vanquished your worship sends or will +send coming to her and going down on their knees before her? Because may +be when they came she'd be hackling flax or threshing on the threshing +floor, and they'd be ashamed to see her, and she'd laugh, or resent the +present." + +"I have before now told thee many times, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "that +thou art a mighty great chatterer, and that with a blunt wit thou art +always striving at sharpness; but to show thee what a fool thou art and +how rational I am, I would have thee listen to a short story. Thou must +know that a certain widow, fair, young, independent, and rich, and above +all free and easy, fell in love with a sturdy strapping young +lay-brother; his superior came to know of it, and one day said to the +worthy widow by way of brotherly remonstrance, 'I am surprised, senora, +and not without good reason, that a woman of such high standing, so fair, +and so rich as you are, should have fallen in love with such a mean, low, +stupid fellow as So-and-so, when in this house there are so many masters, +graduates, and divinity students from among whom you might choose as if +they were a lot of pears, saying this one I'll take, that I won't take;' +but she replied to him with great sprightliness and candour, 'My dear +sir, you are very much mistaken, and your ideas are very old-fashioned, +if you think that I have made a bad choice in So-and-so, fool as he +seems; because for all I want with him he knows as much and more +philosophy than Aristotle.' In the same way, Sancho, for all I want with +Dulcinea del Toboso she is just as good as the most exalted princess on +earth. It is not to be supposed that all those poets who sang the praises +of ladies under the fancy names they give them, had any such mistresses. +Thinkest thou that the Amarillises, the Phillises, the Sylvias, the +Dianas, the Galateas, the Filidas, and all the rest of them, that the +books, the ballads, the barber's shops, the theatres are full of, were +really and truly ladies of flesh and blood, and mistresses of those that +glorify and have glorified them? Nothing of the kind; they only invent +them for the most part to furnish a subject for their verses, and that +they may pass for lovers, or for men valiant enough to be so; and so it +suffices me to think and believe that the good Aldonza Lorenzo is fair +and virtuous; and as to her pedigree it is very little matter, for no one +will examine into it for the purpose of conferring any order upon her, +and I, for my part, reckon her the most exalted princess in the world. +For thou shouldst know, Sancho, if thou dost not know, that two things +alone beyond all others are incentives to love, and these are great +beauty and a good name, and these two things are to be found in Dulcinea +in the highest degree, for in beauty no one equals her and in good name +few approach her; and to put the whole thing in a nutshell, I persuade +myself that all I say is as I say, neither more nor less, and I picture +her in my imagination as I would have her to be, as well in beauty as in +condition; Helen approaches her not nor does Lucretia come up to her, nor +any other of the famous women of times past, Greek, Barbarian, or Latin; +and let each say what he will, for if in this I am taken to task by the +ignorant, I shall not be censured by the critical." + +"I say that your worship is entirely right," said Sancho, "and that I am +an ass. But I know not how the name of ass came into my mouth, for a rope +is not to be mentioned in the house of him who has been hanged; but now +for the letter, and then, God be with you, I am off." + +Don Quixote took out the note-book, and, retiring to one side, very +deliberately began to write the letter, and when he had finished it he +called to Sancho, saying he wished to read it to him, so that he might +commit it to memory, in case of losing it on the road; for with evil +fortune like his anything might be apprehended. To which Sancho replied, +"Write it two or three times there in the book and give it to me, and I +will carry it very carefully, because to expect me to keep it in my +memory is all nonsense, for I have such a bad one that I often forget my +own name; but for all that repeat it to me, as I shall like to hear it, +for surely it will run as if it was in print." + +"Listen," said Don Quixote, "this is what it says: + + +"DON QUIXOTE'S LETTER TO DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO + +"Sovereign and exalted Lady,--The pierced by the point of absence, the +wounded to the heart's core, sends thee, sweetest Dulcinea del Toboso, +the health that he himself enjoys not. If thy beauty despises me, if thy +worth is not for me, if thy scorn is my affliction, though I be +sufficiently long-suffering, hardly shall I endure this anxiety, which, +besides being oppressive, is protracted. My good squire Sancho will +relate to thee in full, fair ingrate, dear enemy, the condition to which +I am reduced on thy account: if it be thy pleasure to give me relief, I +am thine; if not, do as may be pleasing to thee; for by ending my life I +shall satisfy thy cruelty and my desire. + +"Thine till death, + +"The Knight of the Rueful Countenance." + + +"By the life of my father," said Sancho, when he heard the letter, "it is +the loftiest thing I ever heard. Body of me! how your worship says +everything as you like in it! And how well you fit in 'The Knight of the +Rueful Countenance' into the signature. I declare your worship is indeed +the very devil, and there is nothing you don't know." + +"Everything is needed for the calling I follow," said Don Quixote. + +"Now then," said Sancho, "let your worship put the order for the three +ass-colts on the other side, and sign it very plainly, that they may +recognise it at first sight." + +"With all my heart," said Don Quixote, and as he had written it he read +it to this effect: + +"Mistress Niece,--By this first of ass-colts please pay to Sancho Panza, +my squire, three of the five I left at home in your charge: said three +ass-colts to be paid and delivered for the same number received here in +hand, which upon this and upon his receipt shall be duly paid. Done in +the heart of the Sierra Morena, the twenty-seventh of August of this +present year." + +"That will do," said Sancho; "now let your worship sign it." + +"There is no need to sign it," said Don Quixote, "but merely to put my +flourish, which is the same as a signature, and enough for three asses, +or even three hundred." + +"I can trust your worship," returned Sancho; "let me go and saddle +Rocinante, and be ready to give me your blessing, for I mean to go at +once without seeing the fooleries your worship is going to do; I'll say I +saw you do so many that she will not want any more." + +"At any rate, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "I should like--and there is +reason for it--I should like thee, I say, to see me stripped to the skin +and performing a dozen or two of insanities, which I can get done in less +than half an hour; for having seen them with thine own eyes, thou canst +then safely swear to the rest that thou wouldst add; and I promise thee +thou wilt not tell of as many as I mean to perform." + +"For the love of God, master mine," said Sancho, "let me not see your +worship stripped, for it will sorely grieve me, and I shall not be able +to keep from tears, and my head aches so with all I shed last night for +Dapple, that I am not fit to begin any fresh weeping; but if it is your +worship's pleasure that I should see some insanities, do them in your +clothes, short ones, and such as come readiest to hand; for I myself want +nothing of the sort, and, as I have said, it will be a saving of time for +my return, which will be with the news your worship desires and deserves. +If not, let the lady Dulcinea look to it; if she does not answer +reasonably, I swear as solemnly as I can that I will fetch a fair answer +out of her stomach with kicks and cuffs; for why should it be borne that +a knight-errant as famous as your worship should go mad without rhyme or +reason for a--? Her ladyship had best not drive me to say it, for by God +I will speak out and let off everything cheap, even if it doesn't sell: I +am pretty good at that! she little knows me; faith, if she knew me she'd +be in awe of me." + +"In faith, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "to all appearance thou art no +sounder in thy wits than I." + +"I am not so mad," answered Sancho, "but I am more peppery; but apart +from all this, what has your worship to eat until I come back? Will you +sally out on the road like Cardenio to force it from the shepherds?" + +"Let not that anxiety trouble thee," replied Don Quixote, "for even if I +had it I should not eat anything but the herbs and the fruits which this +meadow and these trees may yield me; the beauty of this business of mine +lies in not eating, and in performing other mortifications." + +"Do you know what I am afraid of?" said Sancho upon this; "that I shall +not be able to find my way back to this spot where I am leaving you, it +is such an out-of-the-way place." + +"Observe the landmarks well," said Don Quixote, "for I will try not to go +far from this neighbourhood, and I will even take care to mount the +highest of these rocks to see if I can discover thee returning; however, +not to miss me and lose thyself, the best plan will be to cut some +branches of the broom that is so abundant about here, and as thou goest +to lay them at intervals until thou hast come out upon the plain; these +will serve thee, after the fashion of the clue in the labyrinth of +Theseus, as marks and signs for finding me on thy return." + +"So I will," said Sancho Panza, and having cut some, he asked his +master's blessing, and not without many tears on both sides, took his +leave of him, and mounting Rocinante, of whom Don Quixote charged him +earnestly to have as much care as of his own person, he set out for the +plain, strewing at intervals the branches of broom as his master had +recommended him; and so he went his way, though Don Quixote still +entreated him to see him do were it only a couple of mad acts. He had not +gone a hundred paces, however, when he returned and said: + +"I must say, senor, your worship said quite right, that in order to be +able to swear without a weight on my conscience that I had seen you do +mad things, it would be well for me to see if it were only one; though in +your worship's remaining here I have seen a very great one." + +"Did I not tell thee so?" said Don Quixote. "Wait, Sancho, and I will do +them in the saying of a credo," and pulling off his breeches in all haste +he stripped himself to his skin and his shirt, and then, without more +ado, he cut a couple of gambados in the air, and a couple of somersaults, +heels over head, making such a display that, not to see it a second time, +Sancho wheeled Rocinante round, and felt easy, and satisfied in his mind +that he could swear he had left his master mad; and so we will leave him +to follow his road until his return, which was a quick one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +IN WHICH ARE CONTINUED THE REFINEMENTS WHEREWITH DON QUIXOTE PLAYED THE +PART OF A LOVER IN THE SIERRA MORENA + + +Returning to the proceedings of him of the Rueful Countenance when he +found himself alone, the history says that when Don Quixote had completed +the performance of the somersaults or capers, naked from the waist down +and clothed from the waist up, and saw that Sancho had gone off without +waiting to see any more crazy feats, he climbed up to the top of a high +rock, and there set himself to consider what he had several times before +considered without ever coming to any conclusion on the point, namely +whether it would be better and more to his purpose to imitate the +outrageous madness of Roland, or the melancholy madness of Amadis; and +communing with himself he said: + +"What wonder is it if Roland was so good a knight and so valiant as +everyone says he was, when, after all, he was enchanted, and nobody could +kill him save by thrusting a corking pin into the sole of his foot, and +he always wore shoes with seven iron soles? Though cunning devices did +not avail him against Bernardo del Carpio, who knew all about them, and +strangled him in his arms at Roncesvalles. But putting the question of +his valour aside, let us come to his losing his wits, for certain it is +that he did lose them in consequence of the proofs he discovered at the +fountain, and the intelligence the shepherd gave him of Angelica having +slept more than two siestas with Medoro, a little curly-headed Moor, and +page to Agramante. If he was persuaded that this was true, and that his +lady had wronged him, it is no wonder that he should have gone mad; but +I, how am I to imitate him in his madness, unless I can imitate him in +the cause of it? For my Dulcinea, I will venture to swear, never saw a +Moor in her life, as he is, in his proper costume, and she is this day as +the mother that bore her, and I should plainly be doing her a wrong if, +fancying anything else, I were to go mad with the same kind of madness as +Roland the Furious. On the other hand, I see that Amadis of Gaul, without +losing his senses and without doing anything mad, acquired as a lover as +much fame as the most famous; for, according to his history, on finding +himself rejected by his lady Oriana, who had ordered him not to appear in +her presence until it should be her pleasure, all he did was to retire to +the Pena Pobre in company with a hermit, and there he took his fill of +weeping until Heaven sent him relief in the midst of his great grief and +need. And if this be true, as it is, why should I now take the trouble to +strip stark naked, or do mischief to these trees which have done me no +harm, or why am I to disturb the clear waters of these brooks which will +give me to drink whenever I have a mind? Long live the memory of Amadis +and let him be imitated so far as is possible by Don Quixote of La +Mancha, of whom it will be said, as was said of the other, that if he did +not achieve great things, he died in attempting them; and if I am not +repulsed or rejected by my Dulcinea, it is enough for me, as I have said, +to be absent from her. And so, now to business; come to my memory ye +deeds of Amadis, and show me how I am to begin to imitate you. I know +already that what he chiefly did was to pray and commend himself to God; +but what am I to do for a rosary, for I have not got one?" + +And then it occurred to him how he might make one, and that was by +tearing a great strip off the tail of his shirt which hung down, and +making eleven knots on it, one bigger than the rest, and this served him +for a rosary all the time he was there, during which he repeated +countless ave-marias. But what distressed him greatly was not having +another hermit there to confess him and receive consolation from; and so +he solaced himself with pacing up and down the little meadow, and writing +and carving on the bark of the trees and on the fine sand a multitude of +verses all in harmony with his sadness, and some in praise of Dulcinea; +but, when he was found there afterwards, the only ones completely legible +that could be discovered were those that follow here: + +Ye on the mountain side that grow, + Ye green things all, trees, shrubs, and bushes, +Are ye aweary of the woe + That this poor aching bosom crushes? +If it disturb you, and I owe + Some reparation, it may be a +Defence for me to let you know +Don Quixote's tears are on the flow, + And all for distant Dulcinea + Del Toboso. + +The lealest lover time can show, + Doomed for a lady-love to languish, +Among these solitudes doth go, + A prey to every kind of anguish. +Why Love should like a spiteful foe + Thus use him, he hath no idea, +But hogsheads full--this doth he know-- +Don Quixote's tears are on the flow, + And all for distant Dulcinea + Del Toboso. + +Adventure-seeking doth he go + Up rugged heights, down rocky valleys, +But hill or dale, or high or low, + Mishap attendeth all his sallies: +Love still pursues him to and fro, + And plies his cruel scourge--ah me! a +Relentless fate, an endless woe; +Don Quixote's tears are on the flow, + And all for distant Dulcinea + Del Toboso. + +The addition of "Del Toboso" to Dulcinea's name gave rise to no little +laughter among those who found the above lines, for they suspected Don +Quixote must have fancied that unless he added "del Toboso" when he +introduced the name of Dulcinea the verse would be unintelligible; which +was indeed the fact, as he himself afterwards admitted. He wrote many +more, but, as has been said, these three verses were all that could be +plainly and perfectly deciphered. In this way, and in sighing and calling +on the fauns and satyrs of the woods and the nymphs of the streams, and +Echo, moist and mournful, to answer, console, and hear him, as well as in +looking for herbs to sustain him, he passed his time until Sancho's +return; and had that been delayed three weeks, as it was three days, the +Knight of the Rueful Countenance would have worn such an altered +countenance that the mother that bore him would not have known him: and +here it will be well to leave him, wrapped up in sighs and verses, to +relate how Sancho Panza fared on his mission. + +As for him, coming out upon the high road, he made for El Toboso, and the +next day reached the inn where the mishap of the blanket had befallen +him. As soon as he recognised it he felt as if he were once more living +through the air, and he could not bring himself to enter it though it was +an hour when he might well have done so, for it was dinner-time, and he +longed to taste something hot as it had been all cold fare with him for +many days past. This craving drove him to draw near to the inn, still +undecided whether to go in or not, and as he was hesitating there came +out two persons who at once recognised him, and said one to the other: + +"Senor licentiate, is not he on the horse there Sancho Panza who, our +adventurer's housekeeper told us, went off with her master as esquire?" + +"So it is," said the licentiate, "and that is our friend Don Quixote's +horse;" and if they knew him so well it was because they were the curate +and the barber of his own village, the same who had carried out the +scrutiny and sentence upon the books; and as soon as they recognised +Sancho Panza and Rocinante, being anxious to hear of Don Quixote, they +approached, and calling him by his name the curate said, "Friend Sancho +Panza, where is your master?" + +Sancho recognised them at once, and determined to keep secret the place +and circumstances where and under which he had left his master, so he +replied that his master was engaged in a certain quarter on a certain +matter of great importance to him which he could not disclose for the +eyes in his head. + +"Nay, nay," said the barber, "if you don't tell us where he is, Sancho +Panza, we will suspect as we suspect already, that you have murdered and +robbed him, for here you are mounted on his horse; in fact, you must +produce the master of the hack, or else take the consequences." + +"There is no need of threats with me," said Sancho, "for I am not a man +to rob or murder anybody; let his own fate, or God who made him, kill +each one; my master is engaged very much to his taste doing penance in +the midst of these mountains;" and then, offhand and without stopping, he +told them how he had left him, what adventures had befallen him, and how +he was carrying a letter to the lady Dulcinea del Toboso, the daughter of +Lorenzo Corchuelo, with whom he was over head and ears in love. They were +both amazed at what Sancho Panza told them; for though they were aware of +Don Quixote's madness and the nature of it, each time they heard of it +they were filled with fresh wonder. They then asked Sancho Panza to show +them the letter he was carrying to the lady Dulcinea del Toboso. He said +it was written in a note-book, and that his master's directions were that +he should have it copied on paper at the first village he came to. On +this the curate said if he showed it to him, he himself would make a fair +copy of it. Sancho put his hand into his bosom in search of the note-book +but could not find it, nor, if he had been searching until now, could he +have found it, for Don Quixote had kept it, and had never given it to +him, nor had he himself thought of asking for it. When Sancho discovered +he could not find the book his face grew deadly pale, and in great haste +he again felt his body all over, and seeing plainly it was not to be +found, without more ado he seized his beard with both hands and plucked +away half of it, and then, as quick as he could and without stopping, +gave himself half a dozen cuffs on the face and nose till they were +bathed in blood. + +Seeing this, the curate and the barber asked him what had happened him +that he gave himself such rough treatment. + +"What should happen me?" replied Sancho, "but to have lost from one hand +to the other, in a moment, three ass-colts, each of them like a castle?" + +"How is that?" said the barber. + +"I have lost the note-book," said Sancho, "that contained the letter to +Dulcinea, and an order signed by my master in which he directed his niece +to give me three ass-colts out of four or five he had at home;" and he +then told them about the loss of Dapple. + +The curate consoled him, telling him that when his master was found he +would get him to renew the order, and make a fresh draft on paper, as was +usual and customary; for those made in notebooks were never accepted or +honoured. + +Sancho comforted himself with this, and said if that were so the loss of +Dulcinea's letter did not trouble him much, for he had it almost by +heart, and it could be taken down from him wherever and whenever they +liked. + +"Repeat it then, Sancho," said the barber, "and we will write it down +afterwards." + +Sancho Panza stopped to scratch his head to bring back the letter to his +memory, and balanced himself now on one foot, now the other, one moment +staring at the ground, the next at the sky, and after having half gnawed +off the end of a finger and kept them in suspense waiting for him to +begin, he said, after a long pause, "By God, senor licentiate, devil a +thing can I recollect of the letter; but it said at the beginning, +'Exalted and scrubbing Lady.'" + +"It cannot have said 'scrubbing,'" said the barber, "but 'superhuman' or +'sovereign.'" + +"That is it," said Sancho; "then, as well as I remember, it went on, 'The +wounded, and wanting of sleep, and the pierced, kisses your worship's +hands, ungrateful and very unrecognised fair one; and it said something +or other about health and sickness that he was sending her; and from that +it went tailing off until it ended with 'Yours till death, the Knight of +the Rueful Countenance." + +It gave them no little amusement, both of them, to see what a good memory +Sancho had, and they complimented him greatly upon it, and begged him to +repeat the letter a couple of times more, so that they too might get it +by heart to write it out by-and-by. Sancho repeated it three times, and +as he did, uttered three thousand more absurdities; then he told them +more about his master but he never said a word about the blanketing that +had befallen himself in that inn, into which he refused to enter. He told +them, moreover, how his lord, if he brought him a favourable answer from +the lady Dulcinea del Toboso, was to put himself in the way of +endeavouring to become an emperor, or at least a monarch; for it had been +so settled between them, and with his personal worth and the might of his +arm it was an easy matter to come to be one: and how on becoming one his +lord was to make a marriage for him (for he would be a widower by that +time, as a matter of course) and was to give him as a wife one of the +damsels of the empress, the heiress of some rich and grand state on the +mainland, having nothing to do with islands of any sort, for he did not +care for them now. All this Sancho delivered with so much +composure--wiping his nose from time to time--and with so little +common-sense that his two hearers were again filled with wonder at the +force of Don Quixote's madness that could run away with this poor man's +reason. They did not care to take the trouble of disabusing him of his +error, as they considered that since it did not in any way hurt his +conscience it would be better to leave him in it, and they would have all +the more amusement in listening to his simplicities; and so they bade him +pray to God for his lord's health, as it was a very likely and a very +feasible thing for him in course of time to come to be an emperor, as he +said, or at least an archbishop or some other dignitary of equal rank. + +To which Sancho made answer, "If fortune, sirs, should bring things about +in such a way that my master should have a mind, instead of being an +emperor, to be an archbishop, I should like to know what +archbishops-errant commonly give their squires?" + +"They commonly give them," said the curate, some simple benefice or cure, +or some place as sacristan which brings them a good fixed income, not +counting the altar fees, which may be reckoned at as much more." + +"But for that," said Sancho, "the squire must be unmarried, and must +know, at any rate, how to help at mass, and if that be so, woe is me, for +I am married already and I don't know the first letter of the A B C. What +will become of me if my master takes a fancy to be an archbishop and not +an emperor, as is usual and customary with knights-errant?" + +"Be not uneasy, friend Sancho," said the barber, "for we will entreat +your master, and advise him, even urging it upon him as a case of +conscience, to become an emperor and not an archbishop, because it will +be easier for him as he is more valiant than lettered." + +"So I have thought," said Sancho; "though I can tell you he is fit for +anything: what I mean to do for my part is to pray to our Lord to place +him where it may be best for him, and where he may be able to bestow most +favours upon me." + +"You speak like a man of sense," said the curate, "and you will be acting +like a good Christian; but what must now be done is to take steps to coax +your master out of that useless penance you say he is performing; and we +had best turn into this inn to consider what plan to adopt, and also to +dine, for it is now time." + +Sancho said they might go in, but that he would wait there outside, and +that he would tell them afterwards the reason why he was unwilling, and +why it did not suit him to enter it; but he begged them to bring him out +something to eat, and to let it be hot, and also to bring barley for +Rocinante. They left him and went in, and presently the barber brought +him out something to eat. By-and-by, after they had between them +carefully thought over what they should do to carry out their object, the +curate hit upon an idea very well adapted to humour Don Quixote, and +effect their purpose; and his notion, which he explained to the barber, +was that he himself should assume the disguise of a wandering damsel, +while the other should try as best he could to pass for a squire, and +that they should thus proceed to where Don Quixote was, and he, +pretending to be an aggrieved and distressed damsel, should ask a favour +of him, which as a valiant knight-errant he could not refuse to grant; +and the favour he meant to ask him was that he should accompany her +whither she would conduct him, in order to redress a wrong which a wicked +knight had done her, while at the same time she should entreat him not to +require her to remove her mask, nor ask her any question touching her +circumstances until he had righted her with the wicked knight. And he had +no doubt that Don Quixote would comply with any request made in these +terms, and that in this way they might remove him and take him to his own +village, where they would endeavour to find out if his extraordinary +madness admitted of any kind of remedy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +OF HOW THE CURATE AND THE BARBER PROCEEDED WITH THEIR SCHEME; TOGETHER +WITH OTHER MATTERS WORTHY OF RECORD IN THIS GREAT HISTORY + + +The curate's plan did not seem a bad one to the barber, but on the +contrary so good that they immediately set about putting it in execution. +They begged a petticoat and hood of the landlady, leaving her in pledge a +new cassock of the curate's; and the barber made a beard out of a +grey-brown or red ox-tail in which the landlord used to stick his comb. +The landlady asked them what they wanted these things for, and the curate +told her in a few words about the madness of Don Quixote, and how this +disguise was intended to get him away from the mountain where he then +was. The landlord and landlady immediately came to the conclusion that +the madman was their guest, the balsam man and master of the blanketed +squire, and they told the curate all that had passed between him and +them, not omitting what Sancho had been so silent about. Finally the +landlady dressed up the curate in a style that left nothing to be +desired; she put on him a cloth petticoat with black velvet stripes a +palm broad, all slashed, and a bodice of green velvet set off by a +binding of white satin, which as well as the petticoat must have been +made in the time of king Wamba. The curate would not let them hood him, +but put on his head a little quilted linen cap which he used for a +night-cap, and bound his forehead with a strip of black silk, while with +another he made a mask with which he concealed his beard and face very +well. He then put on his hat, which was broad enough to serve him for an +umbrella, and enveloping himself in his cloak seated himself +woman-fashion on his mule, while the barber mounted his with a beard down +to the waist of mingled red and white, for it was, as has been said, the +tail of a clay-red ox. + +They took leave of all, and of the good Maritornes, who, sinner as she +was, promised to pray a rosary of prayers that God might grant them +success in such an arduous and Christian undertaking as that they had in +hand. But hardly had he sallied forth from the inn when it struck the +curate that he was doing wrong in rigging himself out in that fashion, as +it was an indecorous thing for a priest to dress himself that way even +though much might depend upon it; and saying so to the barber he begged +him to change dresses, as it was fitter he should be the distressed +damsel, while he himself would play the squire's part, which would be +less derogatory to his dignity; otherwise he was resolved to have nothing +more to do with the matter, and let the devil take Don Quixote. Just at +this moment Sancho came up, and on seeing the pair in such a costume he +was unable to restrain his laughter; the barber, however, agreed to do as +the curate wished, and, altering their plan, the curate went on to +instruct him how to play his part and what to say to Don Quixote to +induce and compel him to come with them and give up his fancy for the +place he had chosen for his idle penance. The barber told him he could +manage it properly without any instruction, and as he did not care to +dress himself up until they were near where Don Quixote was, he folded up +the garments, and the curate adjusted his beard, and they set out under +the guidance of Sancho Panza, who went along telling them of the +encounter with the madman they met in the Sierra, saying nothing, +however, about the finding of the valise and its contents; for with all +his simplicity the lad was a trifle covetous. + +The next day they reached the place where Sancho had laid the +broom-branches as marks to direct him to where he had left his master, +and recognising it he told them that here was the entrance, and that they +would do well to dress themselves, if that was required to deliver his +master; for they had already told him that going in this guise and +dressing in this way were of the highest importance in order to rescue +his master from the pernicious life he had adopted; and they charged him +strictly not to tell his master who they were, or that he knew them, and +should he ask, as ask he would, if he had given the letter to Dulcinea, +to say that he had, and that, as she did not know how to read, she had +given an answer by word of mouth, saying that she commanded him, on pain +of her displeasure, to come and see her at once; and it was a very +important matter for himself, because in this way and with what they +meant to say to him they felt sure of bringing him back to a better mode +of life and inducing him to take immediate steps to become an emperor or +monarch, for there was no fear of his becoming an archbishop. All this +Sancho listened to and fixed it well in his memory, and thanked them +heartily for intending to recommend his master to be an emperor instead +of an archbishop, for he felt sure that in the way of bestowing rewards +on their squires emperors could do more than archbishops-errant. He said, +too, that it would be as well for him to go on before them to find him, +and give him his lady's answer; for that perhaps might be enough to bring +him away from the place without putting them to all this trouble. They +approved of what Sancho proposed, and resolved to wait for him until he +brought back word of having found his master. + +Sancho pushed on into the glens of the Sierra, leaving them in one +through which there flowed a little gentle rivulet, and where the rocks +and trees afforded a cool and grateful shade. It was an August day with +all the heat of one, and the heat in those parts is intense, and the hour +was three in the afternoon, all which made the spot the more inviting and +tempted them to wait there for Sancho's return, which they did. They were +reposing, then, in the shade, when a voice unaccompanied by the notes of +any instrument, but sweet and pleasing in its tone, reached their ears, +at which they were not a little astonished, as the place did not seem to +them likely quarters for one who sang so well; for though it is often +said that shepherds of rare voice are to be found in the woods and +fields, this is rather a flight of the poet's fancy than the truth. And +still more surprised were they when they perceived that what they heard +sung were the verses not of rustic shepherds, but of the polished wits of +the city; and so it proved, for the verses they heard were these: + +What makes my quest of happiness seem vain? + Disdain. +What bids me to abandon hope of ease? + Jealousies. +What holds my heart in anguish of suspense? + Absence. + If that be so, then for my grief + Where shall I turn to seek relief, + When hope on every side lies slain + By Absence, Jealousies, Disdain? + +What the prime cause of all my woe doth prove? + Love. +What at my glory ever looks askance? + Chance. +Whence is permission to afflict me given? + Heaven. + If that be so, I but await + The stroke of a resistless fate, + Since, working for my woe, these three, + Love, Chance and Heaven, in league I see. + +What must I do to find a remedy? + Die. +What is the lure for love when coy and strange? + Change. +What, if all fail, will cure the heart of sadness? + Madness. + If that be so, it is but folly + To seek a cure for melancholy: + Ask where it lies; the answer saith + In Change, in Madness, or in Death. + +The hour, the summer season, the solitary place, the voice and skill of +the singer, all contributed to the wonder and delight of the two +listeners, who remained still waiting to hear something more; finding, +however, that the silence continued some little time, they resolved to go +in search of the musician who sang with so fine a voice; but just as they +were about to do so they were checked by the same voice, which once more +fell upon their ears, singing this + +SONNET + +When heavenward, holy Friendship, thou didst go + Soaring to seek thy home beyond the sky, + And take thy seat among the saints on high, +It was thy will to leave on earth below +Thy semblance, and upon it to bestow + Thy veil, wherewith at times hypocrisy, + Parading in thy shape, deceives the eye, +And makes its vileness bright as virtue show. +Friendship, return to us, or force the cheat + That wears it now, thy livery to restore, + By aid whereof sincerity is slain. +If thou wilt not unmask thy counterfeit, + This earth will be the prey of strife once more, + As when primaeval discord held its reign. + +The song ended with a deep sigh, and again the listeners remained waiting +attentively for the singer to resume; but perceiving that the music had +now turned to sobs and heart-rending moans they determined to find out +who the unhappy being could be whose voice was as rare as his sighs were +piteous, and they had not proceeded far when on turning the corner of a +rock they discovered a man of the same aspect and appearance as Sancho +had described to them when he told them the story of Cardenio. He, +showing no astonishment when he saw them, stood still with his head bent +down upon his breast like one in deep thought, without raising his eyes +to look at them after the first glance when they suddenly came upon him. +The curate, who was aware of his misfortune and recognised him by the +description, being a man of good address, approached him and in a few +sensible words entreated and urged him to quit a life of such misery, +lest he should end it there, which would be the greatest of all +misfortunes. Cardenio was then in his right mind, free from any attack of +that madness which so frequently carried him away, and seeing them +dressed in a fashion so unusual among the frequenters of those wilds, +could not help showing some surprise, especially when he heard them speak +of his case as if it were a well-known matter (for the curate's words +gave him to understand as much) so he replied to them thus: + +"I see plainly, sirs, whoever you may be, that Heaven, whose care it is +to succour the good, and even the wicked very often, here, in this remote +spot, cut off from human intercourse, sends me, though I deserve it not, +those who seek to draw me away from this to some better retreat, showing +me by many and forcible arguments how unreasonably I act in leading the +life I do; but as they know, that if I escape from this evil I shall fall +into another still greater, perhaps they will set me down as a +weak-minded man, or, what is worse, one devoid of reason; nor would it be +any wonder, for I myself can perceive that the effect of the recollection +of my misfortunes is so great and works so powerfully to my ruin, that in +spite of myself I become at times like a stone, without feeling or +consciousness; and I come to feel the truth of it when they tell me and +show me proofs of the things I have done when the terrible fit +overmasters me; and all I can do is bewail my lot in vain, and idly curse +my destiny, and plead for my madness by telling how it was caused, to any +that care to hear it; for no reasonable beings on learning the cause will +wonder at the effects; and if they cannot help me at least they will not +blame me, and the repugnance they feel at my wild ways will turn into +pity for my woes. If it be, sirs, that you are here with the same design +as others have come wah, before you proceed with your wise arguments, I +entreat you to hear the story of my countless misfortunes, for perhaps +when you have heard it you will spare yourselves the trouble you would +take in offering consolation to grief that is beyond the reach of it." + +As they, both of them, desired nothing more than to hear from his own +lips the cause of his suffering, they entreated him to tell it, promising +not to do anything for his relief or comfort that he did not wish; and +thereupon the unhappy gentleman began his sad story in nearly the same +words and manner in which he had related it to Don Quixote and the +goatherd a few days before, when, through Master Elisabad, and Don +Quixote's scrupulous observance of what was due to chivalry, the tale was +left unfinished, as this history has already recorded; but now +fortunately the mad fit kept off, allowed him to tell it to the end; and +so, coming to the incident of the note which Don Fernando had found in +the volume of "Amadis of Gaul," Cardenio said that he remembered it +perfectly and that it was in these words: + +"Luscinda to Cardenio. + +"Every day I discover merits in you that oblige and compel me to hold you +in higher estimation; so if you desire to relieve me of this obligation +without cost to my honour, you may easily do so. I have a father who +knows you and loves me dearly, who without putting any constraint on my +inclination will grant what will be reasonable for you to have, if it be +that you value me as you say and as I believe you do." + +"By this letter I was induced, as I told you, to demand Luscinda for my +wife, and it was through it that Luscinda came to be regarded by Don +Fernando as one of the most discreet and prudent women of the day, and +this letter it was that suggested his design of ruining me before mine +could be carried into effect. I told Don Fernando that all Luscinda's +father was waiting for was that mine should ask her of him, which I did +not dare to suggest to him, fearing that he would not consent to do so; +not because he did not know perfectly well the rank, goodness, virtue, +and beauty of Luscinda, and that she had qualities that would do honour +to any family in Spain, but because I was aware that he did not wish me +to marry so soon, before seeing what the Duke Ricardo would do for me. In +short, I told him I did not venture to mention it to my father, as well +on account of that difficulty, as of many others that discouraged me +though I knew not well what they were, only that it seemed to me that +what I desired was never to come to pass. To all this Don Fernando +answered that he would take it upon himself to speak to my father, and +persuade him to speak to Luscinda's father. O, ambitious Marius! O, cruel +Catiline! O, wicked Sylla! O, perfidious Ganelon! O, treacherous Vellido! +O, vindictive Julian! O, covetous Judas! Traitor, cruel, vindictive, and +perfidious, wherein had this poor wretch failed in his fidelity, who with +such frankness showed thee the secrets and the joys of his heart? What +offence did I commit? What words did I utter, or what counsels did I give +that had not the furtherance of thy honour and welfare for their aim? +But, woe is me, wherefore do I complain? for sure it is that when +misfortunes spring from the stars, descending from on high they fall upon +us with such fury and violence that no power on earth can check their +course nor human device stay their coming. Who could have thought that +Don Fernando, a highborn gentleman, intelligent, bound to me by gratitude +for my services, one that could win the object of his love wherever he +might set his affections, could have become so obdurate, as they say, as +to rob me of my one ewe lamb that was not even yet in my possession? But +laying aside these useless and unavailing reflections, let us take up the +broken thread of my unhappy story. + +"To proceed, then: Don Fernando finding my presence an obstacle to the +execution of his treacherous and wicked design, resolved to send me to +his elder brother under the pretext of asking money from him to pay for +six horses which, purposely, and with the sole object of sending me away +that he might the better carry out his infernal scheme, he had purchased +the very day he offered to speak to my father, and the price of which he +now desired me to fetch. Could I have anticipated this treachery? Could I +by any chance have suspected it? Nay; so far from that, I offered with +the greatest pleasure to go at once, in my satisfaction at the good +bargain that had been made. That night I spoke with Luscinda, and told +her what had been agreed upon with Don Fernando, and how I had strong +hopes of our fair and reasonable wishes being realised. She, as +unsuspicious as I was of the treachery of Don Fernando, bade me try to +return speedily, as she believed the fulfilment of our desires would be +delayed only so long as my father put off speaking to hers. I know not +why it was that on saying this to me her eyes filled with tears, and +there came a lump in her throat that prevented her from uttering a word +of many more that it seemed to me she was striving to say to me. I was +astonished at this unusual turn, which I never before observed in her. +for we always conversed, whenever good fortune and my ingenuity gave us +the chance, with the greatest gaiety and cheerfulness, mingling tears, +sighs, jealousies, doubts, or fears with our words; it was all on my part +a eulogy of my good fortune that Heaven should have given her to me for +my mistress; I glorified her beauty, I extolled her worth and her +understanding; and she paid me back by praising in me what in her love +for me she thought worthy of praise; and besides we had a hundred +thousand trifles and doings of our neighbours and acquaintances to talk +about, and the utmost extent of my boldness was to take, almost by force, +one of her fair white hands and carry it to my lips, as well as the +closeness of the low grating that separated us allowed me. But the night +before the unhappy day of my departure she wept, she moaned, she sighed, +and she withdrew leaving me filled with perplexity and amazement, +overwhelmed at the sight of such strange and affecting signs of grief and +sorrow in Luscinda; but not to dash my hopes I ascribed it all to the +depth of her love for me and the pain that separation gives those who +love tenderly. At last I took my departure, sad and dejected, my heart +filled with fancies and suspicions, but not knowing well what it was I +suspected or fancied; plain omens pointing to the sad event and +misfortune that was awaiting me. + +"I reached the place whither I had been sent, gave the letter to Don +Fernando's brother, and was kindly received but not promptly dismissed, +for he desired me to wait, very much against my will, eight days in some +place where the duke his father was not likely to see me, as his brother +wrote that the money was to be sent without his knowledge; all of which +was a scheme of the treacherous Don Fernando, for his brother had no want +of money to enable him to despatch me at once. + +"The command was one that exposed me to the temptation of disobeying it, +as it seemed to me impossible to endure life for so many days separated +from Luscinda, especially after leaving her in the sorrowful mood I have +described to you; nevertheless as a dutiful servant I obeyed, though I +felt it would be at the cost of my well-being. But four days later there +came a man in quest of me with a letter which he gave me, and which by +the address I perceived to be from Luscinda, as the writing was hers. I +opened it with fear and trepidation, persuaded that it must be something +serious that had impelled her to write to me when at a distance, as she +seldom did so when I was near. Before reading it I asked the man who it +was that had given it to him, and how long he had been upon the road; he +told me that as he happened to be passing through one of the streets of +the city at the hour of noon, a very beautiful lady called to him from a +window, and with tears in her eyes said to him hurriedly, 'Brother, if +you are, as you seem to be, a Christian, for the love of God I entreat +you to have this letter despatched without a moment's delay to the place +and person named in the address, all which is well known, and by this you +will render a great service to our Lord; and that you may be at no +inconvenience in doing so take what is in this handkerchief;' and said +he, 'with this she threw me a handkerchief out of the window in which +were tied up a hundred reals and this gold ring which I bring here +together with the letter I have given you. And then without waiting for +any answer she left the window, though not before she saw me take the +letter and the handkerchief, and I had by signs let her know that I would +do as she bade me; and so, seeing myself so well paid for the trouble I +would have in bringing it to you, and knowing by the address that it was +to you it was sent (for, senor, I know you very well), and also unable to +resist that beautiful lady's tears, I resolved to trust no one else, but +to come myself and give it to you, and in sixteen hours from the time +when it was given me I have made the journey, which, as you know, is +eighteen leagues.' + +"All the while the good-natured improvised courier was telling me this, I +hung upon his words, my legs trembling under me so that I could scarcely +stand. However, I opened the letter and read these words: + +"'The promise Don Fernando gave you to urge your father to speak to mine, +he has fulfilled much more to his own satisfaction than to your +advantage. I have to tell you, senor, that he has demanded me for a wife, +and my father, led away by what he considers Don Fernando's superiority +over you, has favoured his suit so cordially, that in two days hence the +betrothal is to take place with such secrecy and so privately that the +only witnesses are to be the Heavens above and a few of the household. +Picture to yourself the state I am in; judge if it be urgent for you to +come; the issue of the affair will show you whether I love you or not. +God grant this may come to your hand before mine shall be forced to link +itself with his who keeps so ill the faith that he has pledged.' + +"Such, in brief, were the words of the letter, words that made me set out +at once without waiting any longer for reply or money; for I now saw +clearly that it was not the purchase of horses but of his own pleasure +that had made Don Fernando send me to his brother. The exasperation I +felt against Don Fernando, joined with the fear of losing the prize I had +won by so many years of love and devotion, lent me wings; so that almost +flying I reached home the same day, by the hour which served for speaking +with Luscinda. I arrived unobserved, and left the mule on which I had +come at the house of the worthy man who had brought me the letter, and +fortune was pleased to be for once so kind that I found Luscinda at the +grating that was the witness of our loves. She recognised me at once, and +I her, but not as she ought to have recognised me, or I her. But who is +there in the world that can boast of having fathomed or understood the +wavering mind and unstable nature of a woman? Of a truth no one. To +proceed: as soon as Luscinda saw me she said, 'Cardenio, I am in my +bridal dress, and the treacherous Don Fernando and my covetous father are +waiting for me in the hall with the other witnesses, who shall be the +witnesses of my death before they witness my betrothal. Be not +distressed, my friend, but contrive to be present at this sacrifice, and +if that cannot be prevented by my words, I have a dagger concealed which +will prevent more deliberate violence, putting an end to my life and +giving thee a first proof of the love I have borne and bear thee.' I +replied to her distractedly and hastily, in fear lest I should not have +time to reply, 'May thy words be verified by thy deeds, lady; and if thou +hast a dagger to save thy honour, I have a sword to defend thee or kill +myself if fortune be against us.' + +"I think she could not have heard all these words, for I perceived that +they called her away in haste, as the bridegroom was waiting. Now the +night of my sorrow set in, the sun of my happiness went down, I felt my +eyes bereft of sight, my mind of reason. I could not enter the house, nor +was I capable of any movement; but reflecting how important it was that I +should be present at what might take place on the occasion, I nerved +myself as best I could and went in, for I well knew all the entrances and +outlets; and besides, with the confusion that in secret pervaded the +house no one took notice of me, so, without being seen, I found an +opportunity of placing myself in the recess formed by a window of the +hall itself, and concealed by the ends and borders of two tapestries, +from between which I could, without being seen, see all that took place +in the room. Who could describe the agitation of heart I suffered as I +stood there--the thoughts that came to me--the reflections that passed +through my mind? They were such as cannot be, nor were it well they +should be, told. Suffice it to say that the bridegroom entered the hall +in his usual dress, without ornament of any kind; as groomsman he had +with him a cousin of Luscinda's and except the servants of the house +there was no one else in the chamber. Soon afterwards Luscinda came out +from an antechamber, attended by her mother and two of her damsels, +arrayed and adorned as became her rank and beauty, and in full festival +and ceremonial attire. My anxiety and distraction did not allow me to +observe or notice particularly what she wore; I could only perceive the +colours, which were crimson and white, and the glitter of the gems and +jewels on her head dress and apparel, surpassed by the rare beauty of her +lovely auburn hair that vying with the precious stones and the light of +the four torches that stood in the hall shone with a brighter gleam than +all. Oh memory, mortal foe of my peace! why bring before me now the +incomparable beauty of that adored enemy of mine? Were it not better, +cruel memory, to remind me and recall what she then did, that stirred by +a wrong so glaring I may seek, if not vengeance now, at least to rid +myself of life? Be not weary, sirs, of listening to these digressions; my +sorrow is not one of those that can or should be told tersely and +briefly, for to me each incident seems to call for many words." + +To this the curate replied that not only were they not weary of listening +to him, but that the details he mentioned interested them greatly, being +of a kind by no means to be omitted and deserving of the same attention +as the main story. + +"To proceed, then," continued Cardenio: "all being assembled in the hall, +the priest of the parish came in and as he took the pair by the hand to +perform the requisite ceremony, at the words, 'Will you, Senora Luscinda, +take Senor Don Fernando, here present, for your lawful husband, as the +holy Mother Church ordains?' I thrust my head and neck out from between +the tapestries, and with eager ears and throbbing heart set myself to +listen to Luscinda's answer, awaiting in her reply the sentence of death +or the grant of life. Oh, that I had but dared at that moment to rush +forward crying aloud, 'Luscinda, Luscinda! have a care what thou dost; +remember what thou owest me; bethink thee thou art mine and canst not be +another's; reflect that thy utterance of "Yes" and the end of my life +will come at the same instant. O, treacherous Don Fernando! robber of my +glory, death of my life! What seekest thou? Remember that thou canst not +as a Christian attain the object of thy wishes, for Luscinda is my bride, +and I am her husband!' Fool that I am! now that I am far away, and out of +danger, I say I should have done what I did not do: now that I have +allowed my precious treasure to be robbed from me, I curse the robber, on +whom I might have taken vengeance had I as much heart for it as I have +for bewailing my fate; in short, as I was then a coward and a fool, +little wonder is it if I am now dying shame-stricken, remorseful, and +mad. + +"The priest stood waiting for the answer of Luscinda, who for a long time +withheld it; and just as I thought she was taking out the dagger to save +her honour, or struggling for words to make some declaration of the truth +on my behalf, I heard her say in a faint and feeble voice, 'I will:' Don +Fernando said the same, and giving her the ring they stood linked by a +knot that could never be loosed. The bridegroom then approached to +embrace his bride; and she, pressing her hand upon her heart, fell +fainting in her mother's arms. It only remains now for me to tell you the +state I was in when in that consent that I heard I saw all my hopes +mocked, the words and promises of Luscinda proved falsehoods, and the +recovery of the prize I had that instant lost rendered impossible for +ever. I stood stupefied, wholly abandoned, it seemed, by Heaven, declared +the enemy of the earth that bore me, the air refusing me breath for my +sighs, the water moisture for my tears; it was only the fire that +gathered strength so that my whole frame glowed with rage and jealousy. +They were all thrown into confusion by Luscinda's fainting, and as her +mother was unlacing her to give her air a sealed paper was discovered in +her bosom which Don Fernando seized at once and began to read by the +light of one of the torches. As soon as he had read it he seated himself +in a chair, leaning his cheek on his hand in the attitude of one deep in +thought, without taking any part in the efforts that were being made to +recover his bride from her fainting fit. + +"Seeing all the household in confusion, I ventured to come out regardless +whether I were seen or not, and determined, if I were, to do some +frenzied deed that would prove to all the world the righteous indignation +of my breast in the punishment of the treacherous Don Fernando, and even +in that of the fickle fainting traitress. But my fate, doubtless +reserving me for greater sorrows, if such there be, so ordered it that +just then I had enough and to spare of that reason which has since been +wanting to me; and so, without seeking to take vengeance on my greatest +enemies (which might have been easily taken, as all thought of me was so +far from their minds), I resolved to take it upon myself, and on myself +to inflict the pain they deserved, perhaps with even greater severity +than I should have dealt out to them had I then slain them; for sudden +pain is soon over, but that which is protracted by tortures is ever +slaying without ending life. In a word, I quitted the house and reached +that of the man with whom I had left my mule; I made him saddle it for +me, mounted without bidding him farewell, and rode out of the city, like +another Lot, not daring to turn my head to look back upon it; and when I +found myself alone in the open country, screened by the darkness of the +night, and tempted by the stillness to give vent to my grief without +apprehension or fear of being heard or seen, then I broke silence and +lifted up my voice in maledictions upon Luscinda and Don Fernando, as if +I could thus avenge the wrong they had done me. I called her cruel, +ungrateful, false, thankless, but above all covetous, since the wealth of +my enemy had blinded the eyes of her affection, and turned it from me to +transfer it to one to whom fortune had been more generous and liberal. +And yet, in the midst of this outburst of execration and upbraiding, I +found excuses for her, saying it was no wonder that a young girl in the +seclusion of her parents' house, trained and schooled to obey them +always, should have been ready to yield to their wishes when they offered +her for a husband a gentleman of such distinction, wealth, and noble +birth, that if she had refused to accept him she would have been thought +out of her senses, or to have set her affection elsewhere, a suspicion +injurious to her fair name and fame. But then again, I said, had she +declared I was her husband, they would have seen that in choosing me she +had not chosen so ill but that they might excuse her, for before Don +Fernando had made his offer, they themselves could not have desired, if +their desires had been ruled by reason, a more eligible husband for their +daughter than I was; and she, before taking the last fatal step of giving +her hand, might easily have said that I had already given her mine, for I +should have come forward to support any assertion of hers to that effect. +In short, I came to the conclusion that feeble love, little reflection, +great ambition, and a craving for rank, had made her forget the words +with which she had deceived me, encouraged and supported by my firm hopes +and honourable passion. + +"Thus soliloquising and agitated, I journeyed onward for the remainder of +the night, and by daybreak I reached one of the passes of these +mountains, among which I wandered for three days more without taking any +path or road, until I came to some meadows lying on I know not which side +of the mountains, and there I inquired of some herdsmen in what direction +the most rugged part of the range lay. They told me that it was in this +quarter, and I at once directed my course hither, intending to end my +life here; but as I was making my way among these crags, my mule dropped +dead through fatigue and hunger, or, as I think more likely, in order to +have done with such a worthless burden as it bore in me. I was left on +foot, worn out, famishing, without anyone to help me or any thought of +seeking help: and so thus I lay stretched on the ground, how long I know +not, after which I rose up free from hunger, and found beside me some +goatherds, who no doubt were the persons who had relieved me in my need, +for they told me how they had found me, and how I had been uttering +ravings that showed plainly I had lost my reason; and since then I am +conscious that I am not always in full possession of it, but at times so +deranged and crazed that I do a thousand mad things, tearing my clothes, +crying aloud in these solitudes, cursing my fate, and idly calling on the +dear name of her who is my enemy, and only seeking to end my life in +lamentation; and when I recover my senses I find myself so exhausted and +weary that I can scarcely move. Most commonly my dwelling is the hollow +of a cork tree large enough to shelter this miserable body; the herdsmen +and goatherds who frequent these mountains, moved by compassion, furnish +me with food, leaving it by the wayside or on the rocks, where they think +I may perhaps pass and find it; and so, even though I may be then out of +my senses, the wants of nature teach me what is required to sustain me, +and make me crave it and eager to take it. At other times, so they tell +me when they find me in a rational mood, I sally out upon the road, and +though they would gladly give it me, I snatch food by force from the +shepherds bringing it from the village to their huts. Thus do pass the +wretched life that remains to me, until it be Heaven's will to bring it +to a close, or so to order my memory that I no longer recollect the +beauty and treachery of Luscinda, or the wrong done me by Don Fernando; +for if it will do this without depriving me of life, I will turn my +thoughts into some better channel; if not, I can only implore it to have +full mercy on my soul, for in myself I feel no power or strength to +release my body from this strait in which I have of my own accord chosen +to place it. + +"Such, sirs, is the dismal story of my misfortune: say if it be one that +can be told with less emotion than you have seen in me; and do not +trouble yourselves with urging or pressing upon me what reason suggests +as likely to serve for my relief, for it will avail me as much as the +medicine prescribed by a wise physician avails the sick man who will not +take it. I have no wish for health without Luscinda; and since it is her +pleasure to be another's, when she is or should be mine, let it be mine +to be a prey to misery when I might have enjoyed happiness. She by her +fickleness strove to make my ruin irretrievable; I will strive to gratify +her wishes by seeking destruction; and it will show generations to come +that I alone was deprived of that of which all others in misfortune have +a superabundance, for to them the impossibility of being consoled is +itself a consolation, while to me it is the cause of greater sorrows and +sufferings, for I think that even in death there will not be an end of +them." + +Here Cardenio brought to a close his long discourse and story, as full of +misfortune as it was of love; but just as the curate was going to address +some words of comfort to him, he was stopped by a voice that reached his +ear, saying in melancholy tones what will be told in the Fourth Part of +this narrative; for at this point the sage and sagacious historian, Cide +Hamete Benengeli, brought the Third to a conclusion. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Don Quixote, Vol. I., +Part 9., by Miguel de Cervantes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DON QUIXOTE, PART 9 *** + +***** This file should be named 5911.txt or 5911.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/9/1/5911/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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