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diff --git a/old/orig5946-h/p29.htm b/old/orig5946-h/p29.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6720e30 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/orig5946-h/p29.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1581 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE, By Cervantes, Vol. II., Part 29</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> + + +<center> +<table summary="" cellPadding=4 border=3> +<tr><td> + <a href="p28.htm">Previous Part</a> +</td><td> + <a href="5946-h.htm">Main Index</a> +</td><td> + <a href="p30.htm">Next Part</a> + </td></tr> +</table> +</center> +<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 II., Part 29 +<br><br> +Chapters 32-35 +</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="#ch32b">CHAPTER XXXII</a> +OF THE REPLY DON QUIXOTE GAVE HIS CENSURER, WITH OTHER +INCIDENTS, GRAVE AND DROLL + +<a href="#ch33b">CHAPTER XXXIII</a> +OF THE DELECTABLE DISCOURSE WHICH THE DUCHESS AND HER +DAMSELS HELD WITH SANCHO PANZA, WELL WORTH READING AND +NOTING + +<a href="#ch34b">CHAPTER XXXIV</a> +WHICH RELATES HOW THEY LEARNED THE WAY IN WHICH THEY +WERE TO DISENCHANT THE PEERLESS DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO, +WHICH IS ONE OF THE RAREST ADVENTURES IN THIS BOOK + +<a href="#ch35b">CHAPTER XXXV</a> +WHEREIN IS CONTINUED THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN TO DON QUIXOTE +TOUCHING THE DISENCHANTMENT OF DULCINEA, TOGETHER WITH +OTHER MARVELLOUS INCIDENTS + +</pre> + +<br><br><br><br> + + +<center><h1>DON QUIXOTE</h1></center> +<br><br> +<center><h2>Volume II.</h2></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch32b"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>OF THE REPLY DON QUIXOTE GAVE HIS CENSURER, WITH OTHER INCIDENTS, +GRAVE AND DROLL +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="p32a"></a><img alt="p32a.jpg (152K)" src="images/p32a.jpg" height="436" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p32a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>Don Quixote, then, having risen to his feet, trembling from head +to foot like a man dosed with mercury, said in a hurried, agitated +voice, "The place I am in, the presence in which I stand, and the +respect I have and always have had for the profession to which your +worship belongs, hold and bind the hands of my just indignation; and +as well for these reasons as because I know, as everyone knows, that a +gownsman's weapon is the same as a woman's, the tongue, I will with +mine engage in equal combat with your worship, from whom one might +have expected good advice instead of foul abuse. Pious, well-meant +reproof requires a different demeanour and arguments of another +sort; at any rate, to have reproved me in public, and so roughly, +exceeds the bounds of proper reproof, for that comes better with +gentleness than with rudeness; and it is not seemly to call the sinner +roundly blockhead and booby, without knowing anything of the sin +that is reproved. Come, tell me, for which of the stupidities you have +observed in me do you condemn and abuse me, and bid me go home and +look after my house and wife and children, without knowing whether I +have any? Is nothing more needed than to get a footing, by hook or +by crook, in other people's houses to rule over the masters (and that, +perhaps, after having been brought up in all the straitness of some +seminary, and without having ever seen more of the world than may +lie within twenty or thirty leagues round), to fit one to lay down the +law rashly for chivalry, and pass judgment on knights-errant? Is it, +haply, an idle occupation, or is the time ill-spent that is spent in +roaming the world in quest, not of its enjoyments, but of those +arduous toils whereby the good mount upwards to the abodes of +everlasting life? If gentlemen, great lords, nobles, men of high +birth, were to rate me as a fool I should take it as an irreparable +insult; but I care not a farthing if clerks who have never entered +upon or trod the paths of chivalry should think me foolish. Knight I +am, and knight I will die, if such be the pleasure of the Most High. +Some take the broad road of overweening ambition; others that of +mean and servile flattery; others that of deceitful hypocrisy, and +some that of true religion; but I, led by my star, follow the narrow +path of knight-errantry, and in pursuit of that calling I despise +wealth, but not honour. I have redressed injuries, righted wrongs, +punished insolences, vanquished giants, and crushed monsters; I am +in love, for no other reason than that it is incumbent on +knights-errant to be so; but though I am, I am no carnal-minded lover, +but one of the chaste, platonic sort. My intentions are always +directed to worthy ends, to do good to all and evil to none; and if he +who means this, does this, and makes this his practice deserves to +be called a fool, it is for your highnesses to say, O most excellent +duke and duchess."</p> + +<p>"Good, by God!" cried Sancho; "say no more in your own defence, +master mine, for there's nothing more in the world to be said, +thought, or insisted on; and besides, when this gentleman denies, as +he has, that there are or ever have been any knights-errant in the +world, is it any wonder if he knows nothing of what he has been +talking about?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, brother," said the ecclesiastic, "you are that Sancho +Panza that is mentioned, to whom your master has promised an island?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am," said Sancho, "and what's more, I am one who deserves it +as much as anyone; I am one of the sort—'Attach thyself to the +good, and thou wilt be one of them,' and of those, 'Not with whom thou +art bred, but with whom thou art fed,' and of those, 'Who leans +against a good tree, a good shade covers him;' I have leant upon a +good master, and I have been for months going about with him, and +please God I shall be just such another; long life to him and long +life to me, for neither will he be in any want of empires to rule, +or I of islands to govern."</p> + +<p>"No, Sancho my friend, certainly not," said the duke, "for in the +name of Senor Don Quixote I confer upon you the government of one of +no small importance that I have at my disposal."</p> + +<p>"Go down on thy knees, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "and kiss the feet +of his excellence for the favour he has bestowed upon thee."</p> + +<p>Sancho obeyed, and on seeing this the ecclesiastic stood up from +table completely out of temper, exclaiming, "By the gown I wear, I +am almost inclined to say that your excellence is as great a fool as +these sinners. No wonder they are mad, when people who are in their +senses sanction their madness! I leave your excellence with them, +for so long as they are in the house, I will remain in my own, and +spare myself the trouble of reproving what I cannot remedy;" and +without uttering another word, or eating another morsel, he went +off, the entreaties of the duke and duchess being entirely +unavailing to stop him; not that the duke said much to him, for he +could not, because of the laughter his uncalled-for anger provoked.</p> + +<p>When he had done laughing, he said to Don Quixote, "You have replied +on your own behalf so stoutly, Sir Knight of the Lions, that there +is no occasion to seek further satisfaction for this, which, though it +may look like an offence, is not so at all, for, as women can give +no offence, no more can ecclesiastics, as you very well know."</p> + +<p>"That is true," said Don Quixote, "and the reason is, that he who is +not liable to offence cannot give offence to anyone. Women, +children, and ecclesiastics, as they cannot defend themselves, +though they may receive offence cannot be insulted, because between +the offence and the insult there is, as your excellence very well +knows, this difference: the insult comes from one who is capable of +offering it, and does so, and maintains it; the offence may come +from any quarter without carrying insult. To take an example: a man is +standing unsuspectingly in the street and ten others come up armed and +beat him; he draws his sword and quits himself like a man, but the +number of his antagonists makes it impossible for him to effect his +purpose and avenge himself; this man suffers an offence but not an +insult. Another example will make the same thing plain: a man is +standing with his back turned, another comes up and strikes him, and +after striking him takes to flight, without waiting an instant, and +the other pursues him but does not overtake him; he who received the +blow received an offence, but not an insult, because an insult must be +maintained. If he who struck him, though he did so sneakingly and +treacherously, had drawn his sword and stood and faced him, then he +who had been struck would have received offence and insult at the same +time; offence because he was struck treacherously, insult because he +who struck him maintained what he had done, standing his ground +without taking to flight. And so, according to the laws of the +accursed duel, I may have received offence, but not insult, for +neither women nor children can maintain it, nor can they wound, nor +have they any way of standing their ground, and it is just the same +with those connected with religion; for these three sorts of persons +are without arms offensive or defensive, and so, though naturally they +are bound to defend themselves, they have no right to offend +anybody; and though I said just now I might have received offence, I +say now certainly not, for he who cannot receive an insult can still +less give one; for which reasons I ought not to feel, nor do I feel, +aggrieved at what that good man said to me; I only wish he had +stayed a little longer, that I might have shown him the mistake he +makes in supposing and maintaining that there are not and never have +been any knights-errant in the world; had Amadis or any of his +countless descendants heard him say as much, I am sure it would not +have gone well with his worship."</p> + +<p>"I will take my oath of that," said Sancho; "they would have given +him a slash that would have slit him down from top to toe like a +pomegranate or a ripe melon; they were likely fellows to put up with +jokes of that sort! By my faith, I'm certain if Reinaldos of Montalvan +had heard the little man's words he would have given him such a +spank on the mouth that he wouldn't have spoken for the next three +years; ay, let him tackle them, and he'll see how he'll get out of +their hands!"</p> + +<p>The duchess, as she listened to Sancho, was ready to die with +laughter, and in her own mind she set him down as droller and madder +than his master; and there were a good many just then who were of +the same opinion.</p> + +<p>Don Quixote finally grew calm, and dinner came to an end, and as the +cloth was removed four damsels came in, one of them with a silver +basin, another with a jug also of silver, a third with two fine +white towels on her shoulder, and the fourth with her arms bared to +the elbows, and in her white hands (for white they certainly were) a +round ball of Naples soap. The one with the basin approached, and with +arch composure and impudence, thrust it under Don Quixote's chin, who, +wondering at such a ceremony, said never a word, supposing it to be +the custom of that country to wash beards instead of hands; he +therefore stretched his out as far as he could, and at the same +instant the jug began to pour and the damsel with the soap rubbed +his beard briskly, raising snow-flakes, for the soap lather was no +less white, not only over the beard, but all over the face, and over +the eyes of the submissive knight, so that they were perforce +obliged to keep shut. The duke and duchess, who had not known anything +about this, waited to see what came of this strange washing. The +barber damsel, when she had him a hand's breadth deep in lather, +pretended that there was no more water, and bade the one with the +jug go and fetch some, while Senor Don Quixote waited. She did so, and +Don Quixote was left the strangest and most ludicrous figure that +could be imagined. All those present, and there were a good many, were +watching him, and as they saw him there with half a yard of neck, +and that uncommonly brown, his eyes shut, and his beard full of +soap, it was a great wonder, and only by great discretion, that they +were able to restrain their laughter. The damsels, the concocters of +the joke, kept their eyes down, not daring to look at their master and +mistress; and as for them, laughter and anger struggled within them, +and they knew not what to do, whether to punish the audacity of the +girls, or to reward them for the amusement they had received from +seeing Don Quixote in such a plight.</p> + +<p>At length the damsel with the jug returned and they made an end of +washing Don Quixote, and the one who carried the towels very +deliberately wiped him and dried him; and all four together making him +a profound obeisance and curtsey, they were about to go, when the +duke, lest Don Quixote should see through the joke, called out to +the one with the basin saying, "Come and wash me, and take care that +there is water enough." The girl, sharp-witted and prompt, came and +placed the basin for the duke as she had done for Don Quixote, and +they soon had him well soaped and washed, and having wiped him dry +they made their obeisance and retired. It appeared afterwards that the +duke had sworn that if they had not washed him as they had Don Quixote +he would have punished them for their impudence, which they adroitly +atoned for by soaping him as well.</p> + +<p>Sancho observed the ceremony of the washing very attentively, and +said to himself, "God bless me, if it were only the custom in this +country to wash squires' beards too as well as knights'. For by God +and upon my soul I want it badly; and if they gave me a scrape of +the razor besides I'd take it as a still greater kindness."</p> + +<p>"What are you saying to yourself, Sancho?" asked the duchess.</p> + +<p>"I was saying, senora," he replied, "that in the courts of other +princes, when the cloth is taken away, I have always heard say they +give water for the hands, but not lye for the beard; and that shows it +is good to live long that you may see much; to be sure, they say too +that he who lives a long life must undergo much evil, though to +undergo a washing of that sort is pleasure rather than pain."</p> + +<p>"Don't be uneasy, friend Sancho," said the duchess; "I will take +care that my damsels wash you, and even put you in the tub if +necessary."</p> + +<p>"I'll be content with the beard," said Sancho, "at any rate for +the present; and as for the future, God has decreed what is to be."</p> + +<p>"Attend to worthy Sancho's request, seneschal," said the duchess, +"and do exactly what he wishes."</p> + +<p>The seneschal replied that Senor Sancho should be obeyed in +everything; and with that he went away to dinner and took Sancho along +with him, while the duke and duchess and Don Quixote remained at table +discussing a great variety of things, but all bearing on the calling +of arms and knight-errantry.</p> + +<p>The duchess begged Don Quixote, as he seemed to have a retentive +memory, to describe and portray to her the beauty and features of +the lady Dulcinea del Toboso, for, judging by what fame trumpeted +abroad of her beauty, she felt sure she must be the fairest creature +in the world, nay, in all La Mancha.</p> + +<p>Don Quixote sighed on hearing the duchess's request, and said, "If I +could pluck out my heart, and lay it on a plate on this table here +before your highness's eyes, it would spare my tongue the pain of +telling what can hardly be thought of, for in it your excellence would +see her portrayed in full. But why should I attempt to depict and +describe in detail, and feature by feature, the beauty of the peerless +Dulcinea, the burden being one worthy of other shoulders than mine, an +enterprise wherein the pencils of Parrhasius, Timantes, and Apelles, +and the graver of Lysippus ought to be employed, to paint it in +pictures and carve it in marble and bronze, and Ciceronian and +Demosthenian eloquence to sound its praises?"</p> + +<p>"What does Demosthenian mean, Senor Don Quixote?" said the +duchess; "it is a word I never heard in all my life."</p> + +<p>"Demosthenian eloquence," said Don Quixote, "means the eloquence +of Demosthenes, as Ciceronian means that of Cicero, who were the two +most eloquent orators in the world."</p> + +<p>"True," said the duke; "you must have lost your wits to ask such a +question. Nevertheless, Senor Don Quixote would greatly gratify us +if he would depict her to us; for never fear, even in an outline or +sketch she will be something to make the fairest envious."</p> + +<p>"I would do so certainly," said Don Quixote, "had she not been +blurred to my mind's eye by the misfortune that fell upon her a +short time since, one of such a nature that I am more ready to weep +over it than to describe it. For your highnesses must know that, going +a few days back to kiss her hands and receive her benediction, +approbation, and permission for this third sally, I found her +altogether a different being from the one I sought; I found her +enchanted and changed from a princess into a peasant, from fair to +foul, from an angel into a devil, from fragrant to pestiferous, from +refined to clownish, from a dignified lady into a jumping tomboy, and, +in a word, from Dulcinea del Toboso into a coarse Sayago wench."</p> + +<p>"God bless me!" said the duke aloud at this, "who can have done +the world such an injury? Who can have robbed it of the beauty that +gladdened it, of the grace and gaiety that charmed it, of the +modesty that shed a lustre upon it?"</p> + +<p>"Who?" replied Don Quixote; "who could it be but some malignant +enchanter of the many that persecute me out of envy—that accursed +race born into the world to obscure and bring to naught the +achievements of the good, and glorify and exalt the deeds of the +wicked? Enchanters have persecuted me, enchanters persecute me +still, and enchanters will continue to persecute me until they have +sunk me and my lofty chivalry in the deep abyss of oblivion; and +they injure and wound me where they know I feel it most. For to +deprive a knight-errant of his lady is to deprive him of the eyes he +sees with, of the sun that gives him light, of the food whereby he +lives. Many a time before have I said it, and I say it now once +more, a knight-errant without a lady is like a tree without leaves, +a building without a foundation, or a shadow without the body that +causes it."</p> + +<p>"There is no denying it," said the duchess; "but still, if we are to +believe the history of Don Quixote that has come out here lately +with general applause, it is to be inferred from it, if I mistake not, +that you never saw the lady Dulcinea, and that the said lady is +nothing in the world but an imaginary lady, one that you yourself +begot and gave birth to in your brain, and adorned with whatever +charms and perfections you chose."</p> + +<p>"There is a good deal to be said on that point," said Don Quixote; +"God knows whether there be any Dulcinea or not in the world, or +whether she is imaginary or not imaginary; these are things the +proof of which must not be pushed to extreme lengths. I have not +begotten nor given birth to my lady, though I behold her as she +needs must be, a lady who contains in herself all the qualities to +make her famous throughout the world, beautiful without blemish, +dignified without haughtiness, tender and yet modest, gracious from +courtesy and courteous from good breeding, and lastly, of exalted +lineage, because beauty shines forth and excels with a higher degree +of perfection upon good blood than in the fair of lowly birth."</p> + +<p>"That is true," said the duke; "but Senor Don Quixote will give me +leave to say what I am constrained to say by the story of his exploits +that I have read, from which it is to be inferred that, granting there +is a Dulcinea in El Toboso, or out of it, and that she is in the +highest degree beautiful as you have described her to us, as regards +the loftiness of her lineage she is not on a par with the Orianas, +Alastrajareas, Madasimas, or others of that sort, with whom, as you +well know, the histories abound."</p> + +<p>"To that I may reply," said Don Quixote, "that Dulcinea is the +daughter of her own works, and that virtues rectify blood, and that +lowly virtue is more to be regarded and esteemed than exalted vice. +Dulcinea, besides, has that within her that may raise her to be a +crowned and sceptred queen; for the merit of a fair and virtuous woman +is capable of performing greater miracles; and virtually, though not +formally, she has in herself higher fortunes."</p> + +<p>"I protest, Senor Don Quixote," said the duchess, "that in all you +say, you go most cautiously and lead in hand, as the saying is; +henceforth I will believe myself, and I will take care that everyone +in my house believes, even my lord the duke if needs be, that there is +a Dulcinea in El Toboso, and that she is living to-day, and that she +is beautiful and nobly born and deserves to have such a knight as +Senor Don Quixote in her service, and that is the highest praise +that it is in my power to give her or that I can think of. But I +cannot help entertaining a doubt, and having a certain grudge +against Sancho Panza; the doubt is this, that the aforesaid history +declares that the said Sancho Panza, when he carried a letter on +your worship's behalf to the said lady Dulcinea, found her sifting a +sack of wheat; and more by token it says it was red wheat; a thing +which makes me doubt the loftiness of her lineage."</p> + +<p>To this Don Quixote made answer, "Senora, your highness must know +that everything or almost everything that happens me transcends the +ordinary limits of what happens to other knights-errant; whether it be +that it is directed by the inscrutable will of destiny, or by the +malice of some jealous enchanter. Now it is an established fact that +all or most famous knights-errant have some special gift, one that +of being proof against enchantment, another that of being made of such +invulnerable flesh that he cannot be wounded, as was the famous +Roland, one of the twelve peers of France, of whom it is related +that he could not be wounded except in the sole of his left foot, +and that it must be with the point of a stout pin and not with any +other sort of weapon whatever; and so, when Bernardo del Carpio slew +him at Roncesvalles, finding that he could not wound him with steel, +he lifted him up from the ground in his arms and strangled him, +calling to mind seasonably the death which Hercules inflicted on +Antaeus, the fierce giant that they say was the son of Terra. I +would infer from what I have mentioned that perhaps I may have some +gift of this kind, not that of being invulnerable, because +experience has many times proved to me that I am of tender flesh and +not at all impenetrable; nor that of being proof against +enchantment, for I have already seen myself thrust into a cage, in +which all the world would not have been able to confine me except by +force of enchantments. But as I delivered myself from that one, I am +inclined to believe that there is no other that can hurt me; and so, +these enchanters, seeing that they cannot exert their vile craft +against my person, revenge themselves on what I love most, and seek to +rob me of life by maltreating that of Dulcinea in whom I live; and +therefore I am convinced that when my squire carried my message to +her, they changed her into a common peasant girl, engaged in such a +mean occupation as sifting wheat; I have already said, however, that +that wheat was not red wheat, nor wheat at all, but grains of orient +pearl. And as a proof of all this, I must tell your highnesses that, +coming to El Toboso a short time back, I was altogether unable to +discover the palace of Dulcinea; and that the next day, though Sancho, +my squire, saw her in her own proper shape, which is the fairest in +the world, to me she appeared to be a coarse, ill-favoured farm-wench, +and by no means a well-spoken one, she who is propriety itself. And +so, as I am not and, so far as one can judge, cannot be enchanted, she +it is that is enchanted, that is smitten, that is altered, changed, +and transformed; in her have my enemies revenged themselves upon me, +and for her shall I live in ceaseless tears, until I see her in her +pristine state. I have mentioned this lest anybody should mind what +Sancho said about Dulcinea's winnowing or sifting; for, as they +changed her to me, it is no wonder if they changed her to him. +Dulcinea is illustrious and well-born, and of one of the gentle +families of El Toboso, which are many, ancient, and good. Therein, +most assuredly, not small is the share of the peerless Dulcinea, +through whom her town will be famous and celebrated in ages to come, +as Troy was through Helen, and Spain through La Cava, though with a +better title and tradition. For another thing; I would have your +graces understand that Sancho Panza is one of the drollest squires +that ever served knight-errant; sometimes there is a simplicity +about him so acute that it is an amusement to try and make out whether +he is simple or sharp; he has mischievous tricks that stamp him rogue, +and blundering ways that prove him a booby; he doubts everything and +believes everything; when I fancy he is on the point of coming down +headlong from sheer stupidity, he comes out with something shrewd that +sends him up to the skies. After all, I would not exchange him for +another squire, though I were given a city to boot, and therefore I am +in doubt whether it will be well to send him to the government your +highness has bestowed upon him; though I perceive in him a certain +aptitude for the work of governing, so that, with a little trimming of +his understanding, he would manage any government as easily as the +king does his taxes; and moreover, we know already ample experience +that it does not require much cleverness or much learning to be a +governor, for there are a hundred round about us that scarcely know +how to read, and govern like gerfalcons. The main point is that they +should have good intentions and be desirous of doing right in all +things, for they will never be at a loss for persons to advise and +direct them in what they have to do, like those knight-governors +who, being no lawyers, pronounce sentences with the aid of an +assessor. My advice to him will be to take no bribe and surrender no +right, and I have some other little matters in reserve, that shall +be produced in due season for Sancho's benefit and the advantage of +the island he is to govern."</p> + +<p>The duke, duchess, and Don Quixote had reached this point in their +conversation, when they heard voices and a great hubbub in the palace, +and Sancho burst abruptly into the room all glowing with anger, with a +straining-cloth by way of a bib, and followed by several servants, or, +more properly speaking, kitchen-boys and other underlings, one of whom +carried a small trough full of water, that from its colour and +impurity was plainly dishwater. The one with the trough pursued him +and followed him everywhere he went, endeavouring with the utmost +persistence to thrust it under his chin, while another kitchen-boy +seemed anxious to wash his beard.</p> + +<p>"What is all this, brothers?" asked the duchess. "What is it? What +do you want to do to this good man? Do you forget he is a +governor-elect?"</p> + +<p>To which the barber kitchen-boy replied, "The gentleman will not let +himself be washed as is customary, and as my lord and the senor +his master have been."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will," said Sancho, in a great rage; "but I'd like it to +be with cleaner towels, clearer lye, and not such dirty hands; for +there's not so much difference between me and my master that he should +be washed with angels' water and I with devil's lye. The customs of +countries and princes' palaces are only good so long as they give no +annoyance; but the way of washing they have here is worse than doing +penance. I have a clean beard, and I don't require to be refreshed +in that fashion, and whoever comes to wash me or touch a hair of my +head, I mean to say my beard, with all due respect be it said, I'll +give him a punch that will leave my fist sunk in his skull; for +cirimonies and soapings of this sort are more like jokes than the +polite attentions of one's host."</p> + +<p>The duchess was ready to die with laughter when she saw Sancho's +rage and heard his words; but it was no pleasure to Don Quixote to see +him in such a sorry trim, with the dingy towel about him, and the +hangers-on of the kitchen all round him; so making a low bow to the +duke and duchess, as if to ask their permission to speak, he addressed +the rout in a dignified tone: "Holloa, gentlemen! you let that youth +alone, and go back to where you came from, or anywhere else if you +like; my squire is as clean as any other person, and those troughs are +as bad as narrow thin-necked jars to him; take my advice and leave him +alone, for neither he nor I understand joking."</p> + +<p>Sancho took the word out of his mouth and went on, "Nay, let them +come and try their jokes on the country bumpkin, for it's about as +likely I'll stand them as that it's now midnight! Let them bring me +a comb here, or what they please, and curry this beard of mine, and if +they get anything out of it that offends against cleanliness, let them +clip me to the skin."</p> + +<p>Upon this, the duchess, laughing all the while, said, "Sancho +Panza is right, and always will be in all he says; he is clean, and, +as he says himself, he does not require to be washed; and if our +ways do not please him, he is free to choose. Besides, you promoters +of cleanliness have been excessively careless and thoughtless, I don't +know if I ought not to say audacious, to bring troughs and wooden +utensils and kitchen dishclouts, instead of basins and jugs of pure +gold and towels of holland, to such a person and such a beard; but, +after all, you are ill-conditioned and ill-bred, and spiteful as you +are, you cannot help showing the grudge you have against the squires +of knights-errant."</p> + +<p>The impudent servitors, and even the seneschal who came with them, +took the duchess to be speaking in earnest, so they removed the +straining-cloth from Sancho's neck, and with something like shame +and confusion of face went off all of them and left him; whereupon he, +seeing himself safe out of that extreme danger, as it seemed to him, +ran and fell on his knees before the duchess, saying, "From great +ladies great favours may be looked for; this which your grace has done +me today cannot be requited with less than wishing I was dubbed a +knight-errant, to devote myself all the days of my life to the service +of so exalted a lady. I am a labouring man, my name is Sancho Panza, I +am married, I have children, and I am serving as a squire; if in any +one of these ways I can serve your highness, I will not be longer in +obeying than your grace in commanding."</p> + +<p>"It is easy to see, Sancho," replied the duchess, "that you have +learned to be polite in the school of politeness itself; I mean to say +it is easy to see that you have been nursed in the bosom of Senor +Don Quixote, who is, of course, the cream of good breeding and +flower of ceremony—or cirimony, as you would say yourself. Fair be +the fortunes of such a master and such a servant, the one the cynosure +of knight-errantry, the other the star of squirely fidelity! Rise, +Sancho, my friend; I will repay your courtesy by taking care that my +lord the duke makes good to you the promised gift of the government as +soon as possible."</p> + +<p>With this, the conversation came to an end, and Don Quixote +retired to take his midday sleep; but the duchess begged Sancho, +unless he had a very great desire to go to sleep, to come and spend +the afternoon with her and her damsels in a very cool chamber. +Sancho replied that, though he certainly had the habit of sleeping +four or five hours in the heat of the day in summer, to serve her +excellence he would try with all his might not to sleep even one +that day, and that he would come in obedience to her command, and with +that he went off. The duke gave fresh orders with respect to +treating Don Quixote as a knight-errant, without departing even in +smallest particular from the style in which, as the stories tell us, +they used to treat the knights of old.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p32e"></a><img alt="p32e.jpg (16K)" src="images/p32e.jpg" height="381" width="333"> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch33b"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>OF THE DELECTABLE DISCOURSE WHICH THE DUCHESS AND HER DAMSELS HELD +WITH SANCHO PANZA, WELL WORTH READING AND NOTING +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="p33a"></a><img alt="p33a.jpg (138K)" src="images/p33a.jpg" height="428" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p33a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>The history records that Sancho did not sleep that afternoon, but in +order to keep his word came, before he had well done dinner, to +visit the duchess, who, finding enjoyment in listening to him, made +him sit down beside her on a low seat, though Sancho, out of pure good +breeding, wanted not to sit down; the duchess, however, told him he +was to sit down as governor and talk as squire, as in both respects he +was worthy of even the chair of the Cid Ruy Diaz the Campeador. Sancho +shrugged his shoulders, obeyed, and sat down, and all the duchess's +damsels and duennas gathered round him, waiting in profound silence to +hear what he would say. It was the duchess, however, who spoke +first, saying:</p> + +<p>"Now that we are alone, and that there is nobody here to overhear +us, I should be glad if the senor governor would relieve me of certain +doubts I have, rising out of the history of the great Don Quixote that +is now in print. One is: inasmuch as worthy Sancho never saw Dulcinea, +I mean the lady Dulcinea del Toboso, nor took Don Quixote's letter +to her, for it was left in the memorandum book in the Sierra Morena, +how did he dare to invent the answer and all that about finding her +sifting wheat, the whole story being a deception and falsehood, and so +much to the prejudice of the peerless Dulcinea's good name, a thing +that is not at all becoming the character and fidelity of a good +squire?"</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p33b"></a><img alt="p33b.jpg (326K)" src="images/p33b.jpg" height="828" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p33b.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>At these words, Sancho, without uttering one in reply, got up from +his chair, and with noiseless steps, with his body bent and his finger +on his lips, went all round the room lifting up the hangings; and this +done, he came back to his seat and said, "Now, senora, that I have +seen that there is no one except the bystanders listening to us on the +sly, I will answer what you have asked me, and all you may ask me, +without fear or dread. And the first thing I have got to say is, +that for my own part I hold my master Don Quixote to be stark mad, +though sometimes he says things that, to my mind, and indeed +everybody's that listens to him, are so wise, and run in such a +straight furrow, that Satan himself could not have said them better; +but for all that, really, and beyond all question, it's my firm belief +he is cracked. Well, then, as this is clear to my mind, I can +venture to make him believe things that have neither head nor tail, +like that affair of the answer to the letter, and that other of six or +eight days ago, which is not yet in history, that is to say, the +affair of the enchantment of my lady Dulcinea; for I made him +believe she is enchanted, though there's no more truth in it than over +the hills of Ubeda."</p> + +<p>The duchess begged him to tell her about the enchantment or +deception, so Sancho told the whole story exactly as it had +happened, and his hearers were not a little amused by it; and then +resuming, the duchess said, "In consequence of what worthy Sancho +has told me, a doubt starts up in my mind, and there comes a kind of +whisper to my ear that says, 'If Don Quixote be mad, crazy, and +cracked, and Sancho Panza his squire knows it, and, notwithstanding, +serves and follows him, and goes trusting to his empty promises, there +can be no doubt he must be still madder and sillier than his master; +and that being so, it will be cast in your teeth, senora duchess, if +you give the said Sancho an island to govern; for how will he who does +not know how to govern himself know how to govern others?'"</p> + +<p>"By God, senora," said Sancho, "but that doubt comes timely; but +your grace may say it out, and speak plainly, or as you like; for I +know what you say is true, and if I were wise I should have left my +master long ago; but this was my fate, this was my bad luck; I can't +help it, I must follow him; we're from the same village, I've eaten +his bread, I'm fond of him, I'm grateful, he gave me his ass-colts, +and above all I'm faithful; so it's quite impossible for anything to +separate us, except the pickaxe and shovel. And if your highness +does not like to give me the government you promised, God made me +without it, and maybe your not giving it to me will be all the +better for my conscience, for fool as I am I know the proverb 'to +her hurt the ant got wings,' and it may be that Sancho the squire will +get to heaven sooner than Sancho the governor. 'They make as good +bread here as in France,' and 'by night all cats are grey,' and 'a +hard case enough his, who hasn't broken his fast at two in the +afternoon,' and 'there's no stomach a hand's breadth bigger than +another,' and the same can be filled 'with straw or hay,' as the +saying is, and 'the little birds of the field have God for their +purveyor and caterer,' and 'four yards of Cuenca frieze keep one +warmer than four of Segovia broad-cloth,' and 'when we quit this world +and are put underground the prince travels by as narrow a path as +the journeyman,' and 'the Pope's body does not take up more feet of +earth than the sacristan's,' for all that the one is higher than the +other; for when we go to our graves we all pack ourselves up and +make ourselves small, or rather they pack us up and make us small in +spite of us, and then—good night to us. And I say once more, if +your ladyship does not like to give me the island because I'm a +fool, like a wise man I will take care to give myself no trouble about +it; I have heard say that 'behind the cross there's the devil,' and +that 'all that glitters is not gold,' and that from among the oxen, +and the ploughs, and the yokes, Wamba the husbandman was taken to be +made King of Spain, and from among brocades, and pleasures, and +riches, Roderick was taken to be devoured by adders, if the verses +of the old ballads don't lie."</p> + +<p>"To be sure they don't lie!" exclaimed Dona Rodriguez, the duenna, +who was one of the listeners. "Why, there's a ballad that says they +put King Rodrigo alive into a tomb full of toads, and adders, and +lizards, and that two days afterwards the king, in a plaintive, feeble +voice, cried out from within the tomb-</p> + +<pre> +They gnaw me now, they gnaw me now, +There where I most did sin. + +</pre> + +<p>And according to that the gentleman has good reason to say he would +rather be a labouring man than a king, if vermin are to eat him."</p> + +<p>The duchess could not help laughing at the simplicity of her duenna, +or wondering at the language and proverbs of Sancho, to whom she said, +"Worthy Sancho knows very well that when once a knight has made a +promise he strives to keep it, though it should cost him his life. +My lord and husband the duke, though not one of the errant sort, is +none the less a knight for that reason, and will keep his word about +the promised island, in spite of the envy and malice of the world. Let +Sancho he of good cheer; for when he least expects it he will find +himself seated on the throne of his island and seat of dignity, and +will take possession of his government that he may discard it for +another of three-bordered brocade. The charge I give him is to be +careful how he governs his vassals, bearing in mind that they are +all loyal and well-born."</p> + +<p>"As to governing them well," said Sancho, "there's no need of +charging me to do that, for I'm kind-hearted by nature, and full of +compassion for the poor; there's no stealing the loaf from him who +kneads and bakes;' and by my faith it won't do to throw false dice +with me; I am an old dog, and I know all about 'tus, tus;' I can be +wide-awake if need be, and I don't let clouds come before my eyes, for +I know where the shoe pinches me; I say so, because with me the good +will have support and protection, and the bad neither footing nor +access. And it seems to me that, in governments, to make a beginning +is everything; and maybe, after having been governor a fortnight, I'll +take kindly to the work and know more about it than the field labour I +have been brought up to."</p> + +<p>"You are right, Sancho," said the duchess, "for no one is born ready +taught, and the bishops are made out of men and not out of stones. But +to return to the subject we were discussing just now, the +enchantment of the lady Dulcinea, I look upon it as certain, and +something more than evident, that Sancho's idea of practising a +deception upon his master, making him believe that the peasant girl +was Dulcinea and that if he did not recognise her it must be because +she was enchanted, was all a device of one of the enchanters that +persecute Don Quixote. For in truth and earnest, I know from good +authority that the coarse country wench who jumped up on the ass was +and is Dulcinea del Toboso, and that worthy Sancho, though he +fancies himself the deceiver, is the one that is deceived; and that +there is no more reason to doubt the truth of this, than of anything +else we never saw. Senor Sancho Panza must know that we too have +enchanters here that are well disposed to us, and tell us what goes on +in the world, plainly and distinctly, without subterfuge or deception; +and believe me, Sancho, that agile country lass was and is Dulcinea +del Toboso, who is as much enchanted as the mother that bore her; +and when we least expect it, we shall see her in her own proper +form, and then Sancho will be disabused of the error he is under at +present."</p> + +<p>"All that's very possible," said Sancho Panza; "and now I'm +willing to believe what my master says about what he saw in the cave +of Montesinos, where he says he saw the lady Dulcinea del Toboso in +the very same dress and apparel that I said I had seen her in when I +enchanted her all to please myself. It must be all exactly the other +way, as your ladyship says; because it is impossible to suppose that +out of my poor wit such a cunning trick could be concocted in a +moment, nor do I think my master is so mad that by my weak and +feeble persuasion he could be made to believe a thing so out of all +reason. But, senora, your excellence must not therefore think me +ill-disposed, for a dolt like me is not bound to see into the thoughts +and plots of those vile enchanters. I invented all that to escape my +master's scolding, and not with any intention of hurting him; and if +it has turned out differently, there is a God in heaven who judges our +hearts."</p> + +<p>"That is true," said the duchess; "but tell me, Sancho, what is this +you say about the cave of Montesinos, for I should like to know."</p> + +<p>Sancho upon this related to her, word for word, what has been said +already touching that adventure, and having heard it the duchess said, +"From this occurrence it may be inferred that, as the great Don +Quixote says he saw there the same country wench Sancho saw on the way +from El Toboso, it is, no doubt, Dulcinea, and that there are some +very active and exceedingly busy enchanters about."</p> + +<p>"So I say," said Sancho, "and if my lady Dulcinea is enchanted, so +much the worse for her, and I'm not going to pick a quarrel with my +master's enemies, who seem to be many and spiteful. The truth is +that the one I saw was a country wench, and I set her down to be a +country wench; and if that was Dulcinea it must not be laid at my +door, nor should I be called to answer for it or take the +consequences. But they must go nagging at me at every step—'Sancho +said it, Sancho did it, Sancho here, Sancho there,' as if Sancho was +nobody at all, and not that same Sancho Panza that's now going all +over the world in books, so Samson Carrasco told me, and he's at any +rate one that's a bachelor of Salamanca; and people of that sort can't +lie, except when the whim seizes them or they have some very good +reason for it. So there's no occasion for anybody to quarrel with +me; and then I have a good character, and, as I have heard my master +say, 'a good name is better than great riches;' let them only stick me +into this government and they'll see wonders, for one who has been a +good squire will be a good governor."</p> + +<p>"All worthy Sancho's observations," said the duchess, "are +Catonian sentences, or at any rate out of the very heart of Michael +Verino himself, who florentibus occidit annis. In fact, to speak in +his own style, 'under a bad cloak there's often a good drinker.'"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, senora," said Sancho, "I never yet drank out of wickedness; +from thirst I have very likely, for I have nothing of the hypocrite in +me; I drink when I'm inclined, or, if I'm not inclined, when they +offer it to me, so as not to look either strait-laced or ill-bred; for +when a friend drinks one's health what heart can be so hard as not +to return it? But if I put on my shoes I don't dirty them; besides, +squires to knights-errant mostly drink water, for they are always +wandering among woods, forests and meadows, mountains and crags, +without a drop of wine to be had if they gave their eyes for it."</p> + +<p>"So I believe," said the duchess; "and now let Sancho go and take +his sleep, and we will talk by-and-by at greater length, and settle +how he may soon go and stick himself into the government, as he says."</p> + +<p>Sancho once more kissed the duchess's hand, and entreated her to let +good care be taken of his Dapple, for he was the light of his eyes.</p> + +<p>"What is Dapple?" said the duchess.</p> + +<p>"My ass," said Sancho, "which, not to mention him by that name, +I'm accustomed to call Dapple; I begged this lady duenna here to +take care of him when I came into the castle, and she got as angry +as if I had said she was ugly or old, though it ought to be more +natural and proper for duennas to feed asses than to ornament +chambers. God bless me! what a spite a gentleman of my village had +against these ladies!"</p> + +<p>"He must have been some clown," said Dona Rodriguez the duenna; "for +if he had been a gentleman and well-born he would have exalted them +higher than the horns of the moon."</p> + +<p>"That will do," said the duchess; "no more of this; hush, Dona +Rodriguez, and let Senor Panza rest easy and leave the treatment of +Dapple in my charge, for as he is a treasure of Sancho's, I'll put him +on the apple of my eye."</p> + +<p>"It will be enough for him to be in the stable," said Sancho, "for +neither he nor I are worthy to rest a moment in the apple of your +highness's eye, and I'd as soon stab myself as consent to it; for +though my master says that in civilities it is better to lose by a +card too many than a card too few, when it comes to civilities to +asses we must mind what we are about and keep within due bounds."</p> + +<p>"Take him to your government, Sancho," said the duchess, "and +there you will be able to make as much of him as you like, and even +release him from work and pension him off."</p> + +<p>"Don't think, senora duchess, that you have said anything absurd," +said Sancho; "I have seen more than two asses go to governments, and +for me to take mine with me would be nothing new."</p> + +<p>Sancho's words made the duchess laugh again and gave her fresh +amusement, and dismissing him to sleep she went away to tell the +duke the conversation she had had with him, and between them they +plotted and arranged to play a joke upon Don Quixote that was to be +a rare one and entirely in knight-errantry style, and in that same +style they practised several upon him, so much in keeping and so +clever that they form the best adventures this great history contains.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p33e"></a><img alt="p33e.jpg (34K)" src="images/p33e.jpg" height="391" width="579"> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch34b"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>WHICH RELATES HOW THEY LEARNED THE WAY IN WHICH THEY WERE TO +DISENCHANT THE PEERLESS DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO, WHICH IS ONE OF THE +RAREST ADVENTURES IN THIS BOOK +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="p34a"></a><img alt="p34a.jpg (141K)" src="images/p34a.jpg" height="404" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p34a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>Great was the pleasure the duke and duchess took in the conversation +of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza; and, more bent than ever upon the +plan they had of practising some jokes upon them that should have +the look and appearance of adventures, they took as their basis of +action what Don Quixote had already told them about the cave of +Montesinos, in order to play him a famous one. But what the duchess +marvelled at above all was that Sancho's simplicity could be so +great as to make him believe as absolute truth that Dulcinea had +been enchanted, when it was he himself who had been the enchanter +and trickster in the business. Having, therefore, instructed their +servants in everything they were to do, six days afterwards they +took him out to hunt, with as great a retinue of huntsmen and +beaters as a crowned king.</p> + +<p>They presented Don Quixote with a hunting suit, and Sancho with +another of the finest green cloth; but Don Quixote declined to put his +on, saying that he must soon return to the hard pursuit of arms, and +could not carry wardrobes or stores with him. Sancho, however, took +what they gave him, meaning to sell it the first opportunity.</p> + +<p>The appointed day having arrived, Don Quixote armed himself, and +Sancho arrayed himself, and mounted on his Dapple (for he would not +give him up though they offered him a horse), he placed himself in the +midst of the troop of huntsmen. The duchess came out splendidly +attired, and Don Quixote, in pure courtesy and politeness, held the +rein of her palfrey, though the duke wanted not to allow him; and at +last they reached a wood that lay between two high mountains, where, +after occupying various posts, ambushes, and paths, and distributing +the party in different positions, the hunt began with great noise, +shouting, and hallooing, so that, between the baying of the hounds and +the blowing of the horns, they could not hear one another. The duchess +dismounted, and with a sharp boar-spear in her hand posted herself +where she knew the wild boars were in the habit of passing. The duke +and Don Quixote likewise dismounted and placed themselves one at +each side of her. Sancho took up a position in the rear of all without +dismounting from Dapple, whom he dared not desert lest some mischief +should befall him. Scarcely had they taken their stand in a line +with several of their servants, when they saw a huge boar, closely +pressed by the hounds and followed by the huntsmen, making towards +them, grinding his teeth and tusks, and scattering foam from his +mouth. As soon as he saw him Don Quixote, bracing his shield on his +arm, and drawing his sword, advanced to meet him; the duke with +boar-spear did the same; but the duchess would have gone in front of +them all had not the duke prevented her. Sancho alone, deserting +Dapple at the sight of the mighty beast, took to his heels as hard +as he could and strove in vain to mount a tall oak. As he was clinging +to a branch, however, half-way up in his struggle to reach the top, +the bough, such was his ill-luck and hard fate, gave way, and caught +in his fall by a broken limb of the oak, he hung suspended in the +air unable to reach the ground. Finding himself in this position, +and that the green coat was beginning to tear, and reflecting that +if the fierce animal came that way he might be able to get at him, +he began to utter such cries, and call for help so earnestly, that all +who heard him and did not see him felt sure he must be in the teeth of +some wild beast. In the end the tusked boar fell pierced by the blades +of the many spears they held in front of him; and Don Quixote, turning +round at the cries of Sancho, for he knew by them that it was he, +saw him hanging from the oak head downwards, with Dapple, who did +not forsake him in his distress, close beside him; and Cide Hamete +observes that he seldom saw Sancho Panza without seeing Dapple, or +Dapple without seeing Sancho Panza; such was their attachment and +loyalty one to the other. Don Quixote went over and unhooked Sancho, +who, as soon as he found himself on the ground, looked at the rent +in his huntingcoat and was grieved to the heart, for he thought he had +got a patrimonial estate in that suit.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile they had slung the mighty boar across the back of a +mule, and having covered it with sprigs of rosemary and branches of +myrtle, they bore it away as the spoils of victory to some large +field-tents which had been pitched in the middle of the wood, where +they found the tables laid and dinner served, in such grand and +sumptuous style that it was easy to see the rank and magnificence of +those who had provided it. Sancho, as he showed the rents in his +torn suit to the duchess, observed, "If we had been hunting hares, +or after small birds, my coat would have been safe from being in the +plight it's in; I don't know what pleasure one can find in lying in +wait for an animal that may take your life with his tusk if he gets at +you. I recollect having heard an old ballad sung that says,</p> + + +<pre> + By bears be thou devoured, as erst + Was famous Favila." + + </pre> + +<p> +"That," said Don Quixote, "was a Gothic king, who, going +a-hunting, was devoured by a bear."</p> + +<p>"Just so," said Sancho; "and I would not have kings and princes +expose themselves to such dangers for the sake of a pleasure which, to +my mind, ought not to be one, as it consists in killing an animal that +has done no harm whatever."</p> + +<p>"Quite the contrary, Sancho; you are wrong there," said the duke; +"for hunting is more suitable and requisite for kings and princes than +for anybody else. The chase is the emblem of war; it has stratagems, +wiles, and crafty devices for overcoming the enemy in safety; in it +extreme cold and intolerable heat have to be borne, indolence and +sleep are despised, the bodily powers are invigorated, the limbs of +him who engages in it are made supple, and, in a word, it is a pursuit +which may be followed without injury to anyone and with enjoyment to +many; and the best of it is, it is not for everybody, as +field-sports of other sorts are, except hawking, which also is only +for kings and great lords. Reconsider your opinion therefore, +Sancho, and when you are governor take to hunting, and you will find +the good of it."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said Sancho, "the good governor should have a broken leg +and keep at home;" it would be a nice thing if, after people had +been at the trouble of coming to look for him on business, the +governor were to be away in the forest enjoying himself; the +government would go on badly in that fashion. By my faith, senor, +hunting and amusements are more fit for idlers than for governors; +what I intend to amuse myself with is playing all fours at Eastertime, +and bowls on Sundays and holidays; for these huntings don't suit my +condition or agree with my conscience."</p> + +<p>"God grant it may turn out so," said the duke; "because it's a +long step from saying to doing."</p> + +<p>"Be that as it may," said Sancho, "'pledges don't distress a good +payer,' and 'he whom God helps does better than he who gets up early,' +and 'it's the tripes that carry the feet and not the feet the tripes;' +I mean to say that if God gives me help and I do my duty honestly, +no doubt I'll govern better than a gerfalcon. Nay, let them only put a +finger in my mouth, and they'll see whether I can bite or not."</p> + +<p>"The curse of God and all his saints upon thee, thou accursed +Sancho!" exclaimed Don Quixote; "when will the day come—as I have +often said to thee—when I shall hear thee make one single coherent, +rational remark without proverbs? Pray, your highnesses, leave this +fool alone, for he will grind your souls between, not to say two, +but two thousand proverbs, dragged in as much in season, and as much +to the purpose as—may God grant as much health to him, or to me if +I want to listen to them!"</p> + +<p>"Sancho Panza's proverbs," said the duchess, "though more in +number than the Greek Commander's, are not therefore less to be +esteemed for the conciseness of the maxims. For my own part, I can say +they give me more pleasure than others that may be better brought in +and more seasonably introduced."</p> + +<p>In pleasant conversation of this sort they passed out of the tent +into the wood, and the day was spent in visiting some of the posts and +hiding-places, and then night closed in, not, however, as +brilliantly or tranquilly as might have been expected at the season, +for it was then midsummer; but bringing with it a kind of haze that +greatly aided the project of the duke and duchess; and thus, as +night began to fall, and a little after twilight set in, suddenly +the whole wood on all four sides seemed to be on fire, and shortly +after, here, there, on all sides, a vast number of trumpets and +other military instruments were heard, as if several troops of cavalry +were passing through the wood. The blaze of the fire and the noise +of the warlike instruments almost blinded the eyes and deafened the +ears of those that stood by, and indeed of all who were in the wood. +Then there were heard repeated lelilies after the fashion of the Moors +when they rush to battle; trumpets and clarions brayed, drums beat, +fifes played, so unceasingly and so fast that he could not have had +any senses who did not lose them with the confused din of so many +instruments. The duke was astounded, the duchess amazed, Don Quixote +wondering, Sancho Panza trembling, and indeed, even they who were +aware of the cause were frightened. In their fear, silence fell upon +them, and a postillion, in the guise of a demon, passed in front of +them, blowing, in lieu of a bugle, a huge hollow horn that gave out +a horrible hoarse note.</p> + +<p>"Ho there! brother courier," cried the duke, "who are you? Where are +you going? What troops are these that seem to be passing through the +wood?"</p> + +<p>To which the courier replied in a harsh, discordant voice, "I am the +devil; I am in search of Don Quixote of La Mancha; those who are +coming this way are six troops of enchanters, who are bringing on a +triumphal car the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso; she comes under +enchantment, together with the gallant Frenchman Montesinos, to give +instructions to Don Quixote as to how, she the said lady, may be +disenchanted."</p> + +<p>"If you were the devil, as you say and as your appearance +indicates," said the duke, "you would have known the said knight Don +Quixote of La Mancha, for you have him here before you."</p> + +<p>"By God and upon my conscience," said the devil, "I never observed +it, for my mind is occupied with so many different things that I was +forgetting the main thing I came about."</p> + +<p>"This demon must be an honest fellow and a good Christian," said +Sancho; "for if he wasn't he wouldn't swear by God and his conscience; +I feel sure now there must be good souls even in hell itself."</p> + +<p>Without dismounting, the demon then turned to Don Quixote and +said, "The unfortunate but valiant knight Montesinos sends me to thee, +the Knight of the Lions (would that I saw thee in their claws), +bidding me tell thee to wait for him wherever I may find thee, as he +brings with him her whom they call Dulcinea del Toboso, that he may +show thee what is needful in order to disenchant her; and as I came +for no more I need stay no longer; demons of my sort be with thee, and +good angels with these gentles;" and so saying he blew his huge +horn, turned about and went off without waiting for a reply from +anyone.</p> + +<p>They all felt fresh wonder, but particularly Sancho and Don Quixote; +Sancho to see how, in defiance of the truth, they would have it that +Dulcinea was enchanted; Don Quixote because he could not feel sure +whether what had happened to him in the cave of Montesinos was true or +not; and as he was deep in these cogitations the duke said to him, "Do +you mean to wait, Senor Don Quixote?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" replied he; "here will I wait, fearless and firm, +though all hell should come to attack me."</p> + +<p>"Well then, if I see another devil or hear another horn like the +last, I'll wait here as much as in Flanders," said Sancho.</p> + +<p>Night now closed in more completely, and many lights began to flit +through the wood, just as those fiery exhalations from the earth, that +look like shooting-stars to our eyes, flit through the heavens; a +frightful noise, too, was heard, like that made by the solid wheels +the ox-carts usually have, by the harsh, ceaseless creaking of +which, they say, the bears and wolves are put to flight, if there +happen to be any where they are passing. In addition to all this +commotion, there came a further disturbance to increase the tumult, +for now it seemed as if in truth, on all four sides of the wood, +four encounters or battles were going on at the same time; in one +quarter resounded the dull noise of a terrible cannonade, in another +numberless muskets were being discharged, the shouts of the combatants +sounded almost close at hand, and farther away the Moorish lelilies +were raised again and again. In a word, the bugles, the horns, the +clarions, the trumpets, the drums, the cannon, the musketry, and above +all the tremendous noise of the carts, all made up together a din so +confused and terrific that Don Quixote had need to summon up all his +courage to brave it; but Sancho's gave way, and he fell fainting on +the skirt of the duchess's robe, who let him lie there and promptly +bade them throw water in his face. This was done, and he came to +himself by the time that one of the carts with the creaking wheels +reached the spot. It was drawn by four plodding oxen all covered +with black housings; on each horn they had fixed a large lighted wax +taper, and on the top of the cart was constructed a raised seat, on +which sat a venerable old man with a beard whiter than the very +snow, and so long that it fell below his waist; he was dressed in a +long robe of black buckram; for as the cart was thickly set with a +multitude of candles it was easy to make out everything that was on +it. Leading it were two hideous demons, also clad in buckram, with +countenances so frightful that Sancho, having once seen them, shut his +eyes so as not to see them again. As soon as the cart came opposite +the spot the old man rose from his lofty seat, and standing up said in +a loud voice, "I am the sage Lirgandeo," and without another word +the cart then passed on. Behind it came another of the same form, with +another aged man enthroned, who, stopping the cart, said in a voice no +less solemn than that of the first, "I am the sage Alquife, the +great friend of Urganda the Unknown," and passed on. Then another cart +came by at the same pace, but the occupant of the throne was not old +like the others, but a man stalwart and robust, and of a forbidding +countenance, who as he came up said in a voice far hoarser and more +devilish, "I am the enchanter Archelaus, the mortal enemy of Amadis of +Gaul and all his kindred," and then passed on. Having gone a short +distance the three carts halted and the monotonous noise of their +wheels ceased, and soon after they heard another, not noise, but sound +of sweet, harmonious music, of which Sancho was very glad, taking it +to be a good sign; and said he to the duchess, from whom he did not +stir a step, or for a single instant, "Senora, where there's music +there can't be mischief."</p> + +<p>"Nor where there are lights and it is bright," said the duchess; +to which Sancho replied, "Fire gives light, and it's bright where +there are bonfires, as we see by those that are all round us and +perhaps may burn us; but music is a sign of mirth and merrymaking."</p> + +<p>"That remains to be seen," said Don Quixote, who was listening to +all that passed; and he was right, as is shown in the following +chapter.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p34e"></a><img alt="p34e.jpg (47K)" src="images/p34e.jpg" height="553" width="503"> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch35b"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>WHEREIN IS CONTINUED THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN TO DON QUIXOTE TOUCHING +THE DISENCHANTMENT OF DULCINEA, TOGETHER WITH OTHER MARVELLOUS INCIDENTS +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="p35a"></a><img alt="p35a.jpg (108K)" src="images/p35a.jpg" height="324" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p35a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>They saw advancing towards them, to the sound of this pleasing +music, what they call a triumphal car, drawn by six grey mules with +white linen housings, on each of which was mounted a penitent, robed +also in white, with a large lighted wax taper in his hand. The car was +twice or, perhaps, three times as large as the former ones, and in +front and on the sides stood twelve more penitents, all as white as +snow and all with lighted tapers, a spectacle to excite fear as well +as wonder; and on a raised throne was seated a nymph draped in a +multitude of silver-tissue veils with an embroidery of countless +gold spangles glittering all over them, that made her appear, if not +richly, at least brilliantly, apparelled. She had her face covered +with thin transparent sendal, the texture of which did not prevent the +fair features of a maiden from being distinguished, while the numerous +lights made it possible to judge of her beauty and of her years, which +seemed to be not less than seventeen but not to have yet reached +twenty. Beside her was a figure in a robe of state, as they call it, +reaching to the feet, while the head was covered with a black veil. +But the instant the car was opposite the duke and duchess and Don +Quixote the music of the clarions ceased, and then that of the lutes +and harps on the car, and the figure in the robe rose up, and flinging +it apart and removing the veil from its face, disclosed to their +eyes the shape of Death itself, fleshless and hideous, at which +sight Don Quixote felt uneasy, Sancho frightened, and the duke and +duchess displayed a certain trepidation. Having risen to its feet, +this living death, in a sleepy voice and with a tongue hardly awake, +held forth as follows:</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p35b"></a><img alt="p35b.jpg (232K)" src="images/p35b.jpg" height="812" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p35b.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<pre> +I am that Merlin who the legends say +The devil had for father, and the lie +Hath gathered credence with the lapse of time. +Of magic prince, of Zoroastric lore +Monarch and treasurer, with jealous eye +I view the efforts of the age to hide +The gallant deeds of doughty errant knights, +Who are, and ever have been, dear to me. + Enchanters and magicians and their kind + +Are mostly hard of heart; not so am I; +For mine is tender, soft, compassionate, +And its delight is doing good to all. +In the dim caverns of the gloomy Dis, +Where, tracing mystic lines and characters, +My soul abideth now, there came to me +The sorrow-laden plaint of her, the fair, +The peerless Dulcinea del Toboso. +I knew of her enchantment and her fate, +From high-born dame to peasant wench transformed +And touched with pity, first I turned the leaves +Of countless volumes of my devilish craft, +And then, in this grim grisly skeleton +Myself encasing, hither have I come +To show where lies the fitting remedy +To give relief in such a piteous case. + O thou, the pride and pink of all that wear + +The adamantine steel! O shining light, +O beacon, polestar, path and guide of all +Who, scorning slumber and the lazy down, +Adopt the toilsome life of bloodstained arms! +To thee, great hero who all praise transcends, +La Mancha's lustre and Iberia's star, +Don Quixote, wise as brave, to thee I say— +For peerless Dulcinea del Toboso +Her pristine form and beauty to regain, +'T is needful that thy esquire Sancho shall, +On his own sturdy buttocks bared to heaven, +Three thousand and three hundred lashes lay, +And that they smart and sting and hurt him well. +Thus have the authors of her woe resolved. +And this is, gentles, wherefore I have come. + +</pre> + + +<p> +"By all that's good," exclaimed Sancho at this, "I'll just as soon +give myself three stabs with a dagger as three, not to say three +thousand, lashes. The devil take such a way of disenchanting! I +don't see what my backside has got to do with enchantments. By God, if +Senor Merlin has not found out some other way of disenchanting the +lady Dulcinea del Toboso, she may go to her grave enchanted."</p> + +<p>"But I'll take you, Don Clown stuffed with garlic," said Don +Quixote, "and tie you to a tree as naked as when your mother brought +you forth, and give you, not to say three thousand three hundred, +but six thousand six hundred lashes, and so well laid on that they +won't be got rid of if you try three thousand three hundred times; +don't answer me a word or I'll tear your soul out."</p> + +<p>On hearing this Merlin said, "That will not do, for the lashes +worthy Sancho has to receive must be given of his own free will and +not by force, and at whatever time he pleases, for there is no fixed +limit assigned to him; but it is permitted him, if he likes to commute +by half the pain of this whipping, to let them be given by the hand of +another, though it may be somewhat weighty."</p> + +<p>"Not a hand, my own or anybody else's, weighty or weighable, shall +touch me," said Sancho. "Was it I that gave birth to the lady Dulcinea +del Toboso, that my backside is to pay for the sins of her eyes? My +master, indeed, that's a part of her—for, he's always calling her +'my life' and 'my soul,' and his stay and prop—may and ought to +whip himself for her and take all the trouble required for her +disenchantment. But for me to whip myself! Abernuncio!"</p> + +<p>As soon as Sancho had done speaking the nymph in silver that was +at the side of Merlin's ghost stood up, and removing the thin veil +from her face disclosed one that seemed to all something more than +exceedingly beautiful; and with a masculine freedom from embarrassment +and in a voice not very like a lady's, addressing Sancho directly, +said, "Thou wretched squire, soul of a pitcher, heart of a cork +tree, with bowels of flint and pebbles; if, thou impudent thief, +they bade thee throw thyself down from some lofty tower; if, enemy +of mankind, they asked thee to swallow a dozen of toads, two of +lizards, and three of adders; if they wanted thee to slay thy wife and +children with a sharp murderous scimitar, it would be no wonder for +thee to show thyself stubborn and squeamish. But to make a piece of +work about three thousand three hundred lashes, what every poor little +charity-boy gets every month—it is enough to amaze, astonish, astound +the compassionate bowels of all who hear it, nay, all who come to hear +it in the course of time. Turn, O miserable, hard-hearted animal, +turn, I say, those timorous owl's eyes upon these of mine that are +compared to radiant stars, and thou wilt see them weeping trickling +streams and rills, and tracing furrows, tracks, and paths over the +fair fields of my cheeks. Let it move thee, crafty, ill-conditioned +monster, to see my blooming youth—still in its teens, for I am not +yet twenty—wasting and withering away beneath the husk of a rude +peasant wench; and if I do not appear in that shape now, it is a +special favour Senor Merlin here has granted me, to the sole end +that my beauty may soften thee; for the tears of beauty in distress +turn rocks into cotton and tigers into ewes. Lay on to that hide of +thine, thou great untamed brute, rouse up thy lusty vigour that only +urges thee to eat and eat, and set free the softness of my flesh, +the gentleness of my nature, and the fairness of my face. And if +thou wilt not relent or come to reason for me, do so for the sake of +that poor knight thou hast beside thee; thy master I mean, whose +soul I can this moment see, how he has it stuck in his throat not +ten fingers from his lips, and only waiting for thy inflexible or +yielding reply to make its escape by his mouth or go back again into +his stomach."</p> + +<p>Don Quixote on hearing this felt his throat, and turning to the duke +he said, "By God, senor, Dulcinea says true, I have my soul stuck here +in my throat like the nut of a crossbow."</p> + +<p>"What say you to this, Sancho?" said the duchess.</p> + +<p>"I say, senora," returned Sancho, "what I said before; as for the +lashes, abernuncio!"</p> + +<p>"Abrenuncio, you should say, Sancho, and not as you do," said the +duke.</p> + +<p>"Let me alone, your highness," said Sancho. "I'm not in a humour now +to look into niceties or a letter more or less, for these lashes +that are to be given me, or I'm to give myself, have so upset me, that +I don't know what I'm saying or doing. But I'd like to know of this +lady, my lady Dulcinea del Toboso, where she learned this way she +has of asking favours. She comes to ask me to score my flesh with +lashes, and she calls me soul of a pitcher, and great untamed brute, +and a string of foul names that the devil is welcome to. Is my flesh +brass? or is it anything to me whether she is enchanted or not? Does +she bring with her a basket of fair linen, shirts, kerchiefs, +socks—not that wear any—to coax me? No, nothing but one piece of abuse +after another, though she knows the proverb they have here that 'an +ass loaded with gold goes lightly up a mountain,' and that 'gifts +break rocks,' and 'praying to God and plying the hammer,' and that +'one "take" is better than two "I'll give thee's."' Then there's my +master, who ought to stroke me down and pet me to make me turn wool +and carded cotton; he says if he gets hold of me he'll tie me naked to +a tree and double the tale of lashes on me. These tender-hearted +gentry should consider that it's not merely a squire, but a governor +they are asking to whip himself; just as if it was 'drink with +cherries.' Let them learn, plague take them, the right way to ask, and +beg, and behave themselves; for all times are not alike, nor are +people always in good humour. I'm now ready to burst with grief at +seeing my green coat torn, and they come to ask me to whip myself of +my own free will, I having as little fancy for it as for turning +cacique."</p> + +<p>"Well then, the fact is, friend Sancho," said the duke, "that unless +you become softer than a ripe fig, you shall not get hold of the +government. It would be a nice thing for me to send my islanders a +cruel governor with flinty bowels, who won't yield to the tears of +afflicted damsels or to the prayers of wise, magisterial, ancient +enchanters and sages. In short, Sancho, either you must be whipped +by yourself, or they must whip you, or you shan't be governor."</p> + +<p>"Senor," said Sancho, "won't two days' grace be given me in which to +consider what is best for me?"</p> + +<p>"No, certainly not," said Merlin; "here, this minute, and on the +spot, the matter must be settled; either Dulcinea will return to the +cave of Montesinos and to her former condition of peasant wench, or +else in her present form shall be carried to the Elysian fields, where +she will remain waiting until the number of stripes is completed."</p> + +<p>"Now then, Sancho!" said the duchess, "show courage, and gratitude +for your master Don Quixote's bread that you have eaten; we are all +bound to oblige and please him for his benevolent disposition and +lofty chivalry. Consent to this whipping, my son; to the devil with +the devil, and leave fear to milksops, for 'a stout heart breaks bad +luck,' as you very well know."</p> + +<p>To this Sancho replied with an irrelevant remark, which, +addressing Merlin, he made to him, "Will your worship tell me, Senor +Merlin—when that courier devil came up he gave my master a message +from Senor Montesinos, charging him to wait for him here, as he was +coming to arrange how the lady Dona Dulcinea del Toboso was to be +disenchanted; but up to the present we have not seen Montesinos, nor +anything like him."</p> + +<p>To which Merlin made answer, "The devil, Sancho, is a blockhead +and a great scoundrel; I sent him to look for your master, but not +with a message from Montesinos but from myself; for Montesinos is in +his cave expecting, or more properly speaking, waiting for his +disenchantment; for there's the tail to be skinned yet for him; if +he owes you anything, or you have any business to transact with him, +I'll bring him to you and put him where you choose; but for the +present make up your mind to consent to this penance, and believe me +it will be very good for you, for soul as well for body—for your soul +because of the charity with which you perform it, for your body +because I know that you are of a sanguine habit and it will do you +no harm to draw a little blood."</p> + +<p>"There are a great many doctors in the world; even the enchanters +are doctors," said Sancho; "however, as everybody tells me the same +thing—though I can't see it myself—I say I am willing to give myself +the three thousand three hundred lashes, provided I am to lay them +on whenever I like, without any fixing of days or times; and I'll +try and get out of debt as quickly as I can, that the world may +enjoy the beauty of the lady Dulcinea del Toboso; as it seems, +contrary to what I thought, that she is beautiful after all. It must +be a condition, too, that I am not to be bound to draw blood with +the scourge, and that if any of the lashes happen to be fly-flappers +they are to count. Item, that, in case I should make any mistake in +the reckoning, Senor Merlin, as he knows everything, is to keep count, +and let me know how many are still wanting or over the number."</p> + +<p>"There will be no need to let you know of any over," said Merlin, +"because, when you reach the full number, the lady Dulcinea will at +once, and that very instant, be disenchanted, and will come in her +gratitude to seek out the worthy Sancho, and thank him, and even +reward him for the good work. So you have no cause to be uneasy +about stripes too many or too few; heaven forbid I should cheat anyone +of even a hair of his head."</p> + +<p>"Well then, in God's hands be it," said Sancho; "in the hard case +I'm in I give in; I say I accept the penance on the conditions laid +down."</p> + +<p>The instant Sancho uttered these last words the music of the +clarions struck up once more, and again a host of muskets were +discharged, and Don Quixote hung on Sancho's neck kissing him again +and again on the forehead and cheeks. The duchess and the duke +expressed the greatest satisfaction, the car began to move on, and +as it passed the fair Dulcinea bowed to the duke and duchess and +made a low curtsey to Sancho.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p35c"></a><img alt="p35c.jpg (284K)" src="images/p35c.jpg" height="842" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p35c.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>And now bright smiling dawn came on apace; the flowers of the field, +revived, raised up their heads, and the crystal waters of the +brooks, murmuring over the grey and white pebbles, hastened to pay +their tribute to the expectant rivers; the glad earth, the unclouded +sky, the fresh breeze, the clear light, each and all showed that the +day that came treading on the skirts of morning would be calm and +bright. The duke and duchess, pleased with their hunt and at having +carried out their plans so cleverly and successfully, returned to +their castle resolved to follow up their joke; for to them there was +no reality that could afford them more amusement.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p35e"></a><img alt="p35e.jpg (10K)" src="images/p35e.jpg" height="301" width="223"> +</center> + + + + +<br> +<br> + + + +<center> +<table summary="" cellPadding=4 border=3> +<tr><td> + <a href="p28.htm">Previous Part</a> +</td><td> + <a href="5946-h.htm">Main Index</a> +</td><td> + <a href="p30.htm">Next Part</a> + </td></tr> +</table> +</center> +<br><br> + +</body> +</html> + |