diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/orig5946-h/p42.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/orig5946-h/p42.htm | 635 |
1 files changed, 635 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/orig5946-h/p42.htm b/old/orig5946-h/p42.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d30e558 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/orig5946-h/p42.htm @@ -0,0 +1,635 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>THE HISTORY OF DON QUIXOTE, By Cervantes, Vol. II., Part 42.</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="p41.htm">Previous Part</a> +</td><td> + <a href="5946-h.htm">Main Index</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 42 +<br><br> +Chapters 73-74 +</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="#ch73b">CHAPTER LXXIII</a> +OF THE OMENS DON QUIXOTE HAD AS HE ENTERED HIS OWN VILLAGE, +AND OTHER INCIDENTS THAT EMBELLISH AND GIVE A COLOUR TO THIS +GREAT HISTORY + +<a href="#ch74b">CHAPTER LXXIV</a> +OF HOW DON QUIXOTE FELL SICK, AND OF THE WILL HE MADE, +AND HOW HE DIED + +</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="ch73b"></a>CHAPTER LXXIII.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>OF THE OMENS DON QUIXOTE HAD AS HE ENTERED HIS OWN VILLAGE, AND +OTHER INCIDENTS THAT EMBELLISH AND GIVE A COLOUR TO THIS GREAT HISTORY +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="p73a"></a><img alt="p73a.jpg (141K)" src="images/p73a.jpg" height="443" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p73a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>At the entrance of the village, so says Cide Hamete, Don Quixote saw +two boys quarrelling on the village threshing-floor one of whom said +to the other, "Take it easy, Periquillo; thou shalt never see it again +as long as thou livest."</p> + +<p>Don Quixote heard this, and said he to Sancho, "Dost thou not +mark, friend, what that boy said, 'Thou shalt never see it again as +long as thou livest'?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Sancho, "what does it matter if the boy said so?"</p> + +<p>"What!" said Don Quixote, "dost thou not see that, applied to the +object of my desires, the words mean that I am never to see Dulcinea +more?"</p> + +<p>Sancho was about to answer, when his attention was diverted by +seeing a hare come flying across the plain pursued by several +greyhounds and sportsmen. In its terror it ran to take shelter and +hide itself under Dapple. Sancho caught it alive and presented it to +Don Quixote, who was saying, "Malum signum, malum signum! a hare +flies, greyhounds chase it, Dulcinea appears not."</p> + +<p>"Your worship's a strange man," said Sancho; "let's take it for +granted that this hare is Dulcinea, and these greyhounds chasing it +the malignant enchanters who turned her into a country wench; she +flies, and I catch her and put her into your worship's hands, and +you hold her in your arms and cherish her; what bad sign is that, or +what ill omen is there to be found here?"</p> + +<p>The two boys who had been quarrelling came over to look at the hare, +and Sancho asked one of them what their quarrel was about. He was +answered by the one who had said, "Thou shalt never see it again as +long as thou livest," that he had taken a cage full of crickets from +the other boy, and did not mean to give it back to him as long as he +lived. Sancho took out four cuartos from his pocket and gave them to +the boy for the cage, which he placed in Don Quixote's hands, +saying, "There, senor! there are the omens broken and destroyed, and +they have no more to do with our affairs, to my thinking, fool as I +am, than with last year's clouds; and if I remember rightly I have +heard the curate of our village say that it does not become Christians +or sensible people to give any heed to these silly things; and even +you yourself said the same to me some time ago, telling me that all +Christians who minded omens were fools; but there's no need of +making words about it; let us push on and go into our village."</p> + +<p>The sportsmen came up and asked for their hare, which Don Quixote +gave them. They then went on, and upon the green at the entrance of +the town they came upon the curate and the bachelor Samson Carrasco +busy with their breviaries. It should be mentioned that Sancho had +thrown, by way of a sumpter-cloth, over Dapple and over the bundle +of armour, the buckram robe painted with flames which they had put +upon him at the duke's castle the night Altisidora came back to +life. He had also fixed the mitre on Dapple's head, the oddest +transformation and decoration that ever ass in the world underwent. +They were at once recognised by both the curate and the bachelor, +who came towards them with open arms. Don Quixote dismounted and +received them with a close embrace; and the boys, who are lynxes +that nothing escapes, spied out the ass's mitre and came running to +see it, calling out to one another, "Come here, boys, and see Sancho +Panza's ass figged out finer than Mingo, and Don Quixote's beast +leaner than ever."</p> + +<p>So at length, with the boys capering round them, and accompanied +by the curate and the bachelor, they made their entrance into the +town, and proceeded to Don Quixote's house, at the door of which +they found his housekeeper and niece, whom the news of his arrival had +already reached. It had been brought to Teresa Panza, Sancho's wife, +as well, and she with her hair all loose and half naked, dragging +Sanchica her daughter by the hand, ran out to meet her husband; but +seeing him coming in by no means as good case as she thought a +governor ought to be, she said to him, "How is it you come this way, +husband? It seems to me you come tramping and footsore, and looking +more like a disorderly vagabond than a governor."</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue, Teresa," said Sancho; "often 'where there are +pegs there are no flitches;' let's go into the house and there +you'll hear strange things. I bring money, and that's the main +thing, got by my own industry without wronging anybody."</p> + +<p>"You bring the money, my good husband," said Teresa, "and no +matter whether it was got this way or that; for, however you may +have got it, you'll not have brought any new practice into the world."</p> + +<p>Sanchica embraced her father and asked him if he brought her +anything, for she had been looking out for him as for the showers of +May; and she taking hold of him by the girdle on one side, and his +wife by the hand, while the daughter led Dapple, they made for their +house, leaving Don Quixote in his, in the hands of his niece and +housekeeper, and in the company of the curate and the bachelor.</p> + +<p>Don Quixote at once, without any regard to time or season, +withdrew in private with the bachelor and the curate, and in a few +words told them of his defeat, and of the engagement he was under +not to quit his village for a year, which he meant to keep to the +letter without departing a hair's breadth from it, as became a +knight-errant bound by scrupulous good faith and the laws of +knight-errantry; and of how he thought of turning shepherd for that +year, and taking his diversion in the solitude of the fields, where he +could with perfect freedom give range to his thoughts of love while he +followed the virtuous pastoral calling; and he besought them, if +they had not a great deal to do and were not prevented by more +important business, to consent to be his companions, for he would +buy sheep enough to qualify them for shepherds; and the most important +point of the whole affair, he could tell them, was settled, for he had +given them names that would fit them to a T. The curate asked what +they were. Don Quixote replied that he himself was to be called the +shepherd Quixotize and the bachelor the shepherd Carrascon, and the +curate the shepherd Curambro, and Sancho Panza the shepherd Pancino.</p> + +<p>Both were astounded at Don Quixote's new craze; however, lest he +should once more make off out of the village from them in pursuit of +his chivalry, they trusting that in the course of the year he might be +cured, fell in with his new project, applauded his crazy idea as a +bright one, and offered to share the life with him. "And what's more," +said Samson Carrasco, "I am, as all the world knows, a very famous +poet, and I'll be always making verses, pastoral, or courtly, or as it +may come into my head, to pass away our time in those secluded regions +where we shall be roaming. But what is most needful, sirs, is that +each of us should choose the name of the shepherdess he means to +glorify in his verses, and that we should not leave a tree, be it ever +so hard, without writing up and carving her name on it, as is the +habit and custom of love-smitten shepherds."</p> + +<p>"That's the very thing," said Don Quixote; "though I am relieved +from looking for the name of an imaginary shepherdess, for there's the +peerless Dulcinea del Toboso, the glory of these brooksides, the +ornament of these meadows, the mainstay of beauty, the cream of all +the graces, and, in a word, the being to whom all praise is +appropriate, be it ever so hyperbolical."</p> + +<p>"Very true," said the curate; "but we the others must look about for +accommodating shepherdesses that will answer our purpose one way or +another."</p> + +<p>"And," added Samson Carrasco, "if they fail us, we can call them +by the names of the ones in print that the world is filled with, +Filidas, Amarilises, Dianas, Fleridas, Galateas, Belisardas; for as +they sell them in the market-places we may fairly buy them and make +them our own. If my lady, or I should say my shepherdess, happens to +be called Ana, I'll sing her praises under the name of Anarda, and +if Francisca, I'll call her Francenia, and if Lucia, Lucinda, for it +all comes to the same thing; and Sancho Panza, if he joins this +fraternity, may glorify his wife Teresa Panza as Teresaina."</p> + +<p>Don Quixote laughed at the adaptation of the name, and the curate +bestowed vast praise upon the worthy and honourable resolution he +had made, and again offered to bear him company all the time that he +could spare from his imperative duties. And so they took their leave +of him, recommending and beseeching him to take care of his health and +treat himself to a suitable diet.</p> + +<p>It so happened his niece and the housekeeper overheard all the three +of them said; and as soon as they were gone they both of them came +in to Don Quixote, and said the niece, "What's this, uncle? Now that +we were thinking you had come back to stay at home and lead a quiet +respectable life there, are you going to get into fresh entanglements, +and turn 'young shepherd, thou that comest here, young shepherd +going there?' Nay! indeed 'the straw is too hard now to make pipes +of.'"</p> + +<p>"And," added the housekeeper, "will your worship be able to bear, +out in the fields, the heats of summer, and the chills of winter, +and the howling of the wolves? Not you; for that's a life and a +business for hardy men, bred and seasoned to such work almost from the +time they were in swaddling-clothes. Why, to make choice of evils, +it's better to be a knight-errant than a shepherd! Look here, senor; +take my advice--and I'm not giving it to you full of bread and wine, +but fasting, and with fifty years upon my head--stay at home, look +after your affairs, go often to confession, be good to the poor, and +upon my soul be it if any evil comes to you."</p> + +<p>"Hold your peace, my daughters," said Don Quixote; "I know very well +what my duty is; help me to bed, for I don't feel very well; and +rest assured that, knight-errant now or wandering shepherd to be, I +shall never fail to have a care for your interests, as you will see in +the end." And the good wenches (for that they undoubtedly were), the +housekeeper and niece, helped him to bed, where they gave him +something to eat and made him as comfortable as possible.</p> + + +<br><br> +<center><h2><a name="ch74b"></a>CHAPTER LXXIV.</h2></center> +<br> +<center><h3>OF HOW DON QUIXOTE FELL SICK, AND OF THE WILL HE MADE, AND HOW HE DIED +</h3></center> +<br> +<br> + +<center><a name="p74a"></a><img alt="p74a.jpg (96K)" src="images/p74a.jpg" height="349" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p74a.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + +<p>As nothing that is man's can last for ever, but all tends ever +downwards from its beginning to its end, and above all man's life, and +as Don Quixote's enjoyed no special dispensation from heaven to stay +its course, its end and close came when he least looked for it. +For--whether it was of the dejection the thought of his defeat produced, or +of heaven's will that so ordered it--a fever settled upon him and kept +him in his bed for six days, during which he was often visited by +his friends the curate, the bachelor, and the barber, while his good +squire Sancho Panza never quitted his bedside. They, persuaded that it +was grief at finding himself vanquished, and the object of his +heart, the liberation and disenchantment of Dulcinea, unattained, that +kept him in this state, strove by all the means in their power to +cheer him up; the bachelor bidding him take heart and get up to +begin his pastoral life, for which he himself, he said, had already +composed an eclogue that would take the shine out of all Sannazaro had +ever written, and had bought with his own money two famous dogs to +guard the flock, one called Barcino and the other Butron, which a +herdsman of Quintanar had sold him.</p> + +<p>But for all this Don Quixote could not shake off his sadness. His +friends called in the doctor, who felt his pulse and was not very well +satisfied with it, and said that in any case it would be well for +him to attend to the health of his soul, as that of his body was in +a bad way. Don Quixote heard this calmly; but not so his +housekeeper, his niece, and his squire, who fell weeping bitterly, +as if they had him lying dead before them. The doctor's opinion was +that melancholy and depression were bringing him to his end. Don +Quixote begged them to leave him to himself, as he had a wish to sleep +a little. They obeyed, and he slept at one stretch, as the saying +is, more than six hours, so that the housekeeper and niece thought +he was going to sleep for ever. But at the end of that time he woke +up, and in a loud voice exclaimed, "Blessed be Almighty God, who has +shown me such goodness. In truth his mercies are boundless, and the +sins of men can neither limit them nor keep them back!"</p> + +<p>The niece listened with attention to her uncle's words, and they +struck her as more coherent than what usually fell from him, at +least during his illness, so she asked, "What are you saying, senor? +Has anything strange occurred? What mercies or what sins of men are +you talking of?"</p> + +<p>"The mercies, niece," said Don Quixote, "are those that God has this +moment shown me, and with him, as I said, my sins are no impediment to +them. My reason is now free and clear, rid of the dark shadows of +ignorance that my unhappy constant study of those detestable books +of chivalry cast over it. Now I see through their absurdities and +deceptions, and it only grieves me that this destruction of my +illusions has come so late that it leaves me no time to make some +amends by reading other books that might be a light to my soul. Niece, +I feel myself at the point of death, and I would fain meet it in +such a way as to show that my life has not been so ill that I should +leave behind me the name of a madman; for though I have been one, I +would not that the fact should be made plainer at my death. Call in to +me, my dear, my good friends the curate, the bachelor Samson Carrasco, +and Master Nicholas the barber, for I wish to confess and make my +will." But his niece was saved the trouble by the entrance of the +three. The instant Don Quixote saw them he exclaimed, "Good news for +you, good sirs, that I am no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but +Alonso Quixano, whose way of life won for him the name of Good. Now am +I the enemy of Amadis of Gaul and of the whole countless troop of +his descendants; odious to me now are all the profane stories of +knight-errantry; now I perceive my folly, and the peril into which +reading them brought me; now, by God's mercy schooled into my right +senses, I loathe them."</p> + +<p>When the three heard him speak in this way, they had no doubt +whatever that some new craze had taken possession of him; and said +Samson, "What? Senor Don Quixote! Now that we have intelligence of the +lady Dulcinea being disenchanted, are you taking this line; now, +just as we are on the point of becoming shepherds, to pass our lives +singing, like princes, are you thinking of turning hermit? Hush, for +heaven's sake, be rational and let's have no more nonsense."</p> + +<p>"All that nonsense," said Don Quixote, "that until now has been a +reality to my hurt, my death will, with heaven's help, turn to my +good. I feel, sirs, that I am rapidly drawing near death; a truce to +jesting; let me have a confessor to confess me, and a notary to make +my will; for in extremities like this, man must not trifle with his +soul; and while the curate is confessing me let some one, I beg, go +for the notary."</p> + +<p>They looked at one another, wondering at Don Quixote's words; but, +though uncertain, they were inclined to believe him, and one of the +signs by which they came to the conclusion he was dying was this so +sudden and complete return to his senses after having been mad; for to +the words already quoted he added much more, so well expressed, so +devout, and so rational, as to banish all doubt and convince them that +he was sound of mind. The curate turned them all out, and left alone +with him confessed him. The bachelor went for the notary and +returned shortly afterwards with him and with Sancho, who, having +already learned from the bachelor the condition his master was in, and +finding the housekeeper and niece weeping, began to blubber and shed +tears.</p> + +<p>The confession over, the curate came out saying, "Alonso Quixano the +Good is indeed dying, and is indeed in his right mind; we may now go +in to him while he makes his will."</p> + +<p>This news gave a tremendous impulse to the brimming eyes of the +housekeeper, niece, and Sancho Panza his good squire, making the tears +burst from their eyes and a host of sighs from their hearts; for of +a truth, as has been said more than once, whether as plain Alonso +Quixano the Good, or as Don Quixote of La Mancha, Don Quixote was +always of a gentle disposition and kindly in all his ways, and hence +he was beloved, not only by those of his own house, but by all who +knew him.</p> + +<p>The notary came in with the rest, and as soon as the preamble of the +had been set out and Don Quixote had commended his soul to God with +all the devout formalities that are usual, coming to the bequests, +he said, "Item, it is my will that, touching certain moneys in the +hands of Sancho Panza (whom in my madness I made my squire), +inasmuch as between him and me there have been certain accounts and +debits and credits, no claim be made against him, nor any account +demanded of him in respect of them; but that if anything remain over +and above, after he has paid himself what I owe him, the balance, +which will be but little, shall be his, and much good may it do him; +and if, as when I was mad I had a share in giving him the government +of an island, so, now that I am in my senses, I could give him that of +a kingdom, it should be his, for the simplicity of his character and +the fidelity of his conduct deserve it." And then, turning to +Sancho, he said, "Forgive me, my friend, that I led thee to seem as +mad as myself, making thee fall into the same error I myself fell +into, that there were and still are knights-errant in the world."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Sancho weeping, "don't die, master, but take my advice +and live many years; for the foolishest thing a man can do in this +life is to let himself die without rhyme or reason, without anybody +killing him, or any hands but melancholy's making an end of him. Come, +don't be lazy, but get up from your bed and let us take to the +fields in shepherd's trim as we agreed. Perhaps behind some bush we +shall find the lady Dulcinea disenchanted, as fine as fine can be. +If it be that you are dying of vexation at having been vanquished, lay +the blame on me, and say you were overthrown because I had girthed +Rocinante badly; besides you must have seen in your books of +chivalry that it is a common thing for knights to upset one another, +and for him who is conquered to-day to be conqueror tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"Very true," said Samson, "and good Sancho Panza's view of these +cases is quite right."</p> + +<p>"Sirs, not so fast," said Don Quixote, "'in last year's nests +there are no birds this year.' I was mad, now I am in my senses; I was +Don Quixote of La Mancha, I am now, as I said, Alonso Quixano the +Good; and may my repentance and sincerity restore me to the esteem you +used to have for me; and now let Master Notary proceed.</p> + +<p>"Item, I leave all my property absolutely to Antonia Quixana my +niece, here present, after all has been deducted from the most +available portion of it that may be required to satisfy the bequests I +have made. And the first disbursement I desire to be made is the +payment of the wages I owe for the time my housekeeper has served +me, with twenty ducats, over and above, for a gown. The curate and the +bachelor Samson Carrasco, now present, I appoint my executors.</p> + +<p>"Item, it is my wish that if Antonia Quixana, my niece, desires to +marry, she shall marry a man of whom it shall be first of all +ascertained by information taken that he does not know what books of +chivalry are; and if it should be proved that he does, and if, in +spite of this, my niece insists upon marrying him, and does marry him, +then that she shall forfeit the whole of what I have left her, which +my executors shall devote to works of charity as they please.</p> + +<p>"Item, I entreat the aforesaid gentlemen my executors, that, if +any happy chance should lead them to discover the author who is said +to have written a history now going about under the title of 'Second +Part of the Achievements of Don Quixote of La Mancha,' they beg of him +on my behalf as earnestly as they can to forgive me for having been, +without intending it, the cause of his writing so many and such +monstrous absurdities as he has written in it; for I am leaving the +world with a feeling of compunction at having provoked him to write +them."</p> + +<p>With this he closed his will, and a faintness coming over him he +stretched himself out at full length on the bed. All were in a flutter +and made haste to relieve him, and during the three days he lived +after that on which he made his will he fainted away very often. The +house was all in confusion; but still the niece ate and the +housekeeper drank and Sancho Panza enjoyed himself; for inheriting +property wipes out or softens down in the heir the feeling of grief +the dead man might be expected to leave behind him.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p74b"></a><img alt="p74b.jpg (391K)" src="images/p74b.jpg" height="828" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p74b.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<p>At last Don Quixote's end came, after he had received all the +sacraments, and had in full and forcible terms expressed his +detestation of books of chivalry. The notary was there at the time, +and he said that in no book of chivalry had he ever read of any +knight-errant dying in his bed so calmly and so like a Christian as +Don Quixote, who amid the tears and lamentations of all present +yielded up his spirit, that is to say died. On perceiving it the +curate begged the notary to bear witness that Alonso Quixano the Good, +commonly called Don Quixote of La Mancha, had passed away from this +present life, and died naturally; and said he desired this testimony +in order to remove the possibility of any other author save Cide +Hamete Benengeli bringing him to life again falsely and making +interminable stories out of his achievements.</p> + +<p>Such was the end of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, whose +village Cide Hamete would not indicate precisely, in order to leave +all the towns and villages of La Mancha to contend among themselves +for the right to adopt him and claim him as a son, as the seven cities +of Greece contended for Homer. The lamentations of Sancho and the +niece and housekeeper are omitted here, as well as the new epitaphs +upon his tomb; Samson Carrasco, however, put the following lines:</p> + + +<pre> +A doughty gentleman lies here; +A stranger all his life to fear; +Nor in his death could Death prevail, +In that last hour, to make him quail. +He for the world but little cared; +And at his feats the world was scared; +A crazy man his life he passed, +But in his senses died at last. + +</pre> + + +<p> +And said most sage Cide Hamete to his pen, "Rest here, hung up by +this brass wire, upon this shelf, O my pen, whether of skilful make or +clumsy cut I know not; here shalt thou remain long ages hence, +unless presumptuous or malignant story-tellers take thee down to +profane thee. But ere they touch thee warn them, and, as best thou +canst, say to them:</p> + + +<pre> +Hold off! ye weaklings; hold your hands! + Adventure it let none, +For this emprise, my lord the king, + Was meant for me alone. + +</pre> + + +<p>For me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him; it was his to act, +mine to write; we two together make but one, notwithstanding and in +spite of that pretended Tordesillesque writer who has ventured or +would venture with his great, coarse, ill-trimmed ostrich quill to +write the achievements of my valiant knight;--no burden for his +shoulders, nor subject for his frozen wit: whom, if perchance thou +shouldst come to know him, thou shalt warn to leave at rest where they +lie the weary mouldering bones of Don Quixote, and not to attempt to +carry him off, in opposition to all the privileges of death, to Old +Castile, making him rise from the grave where in reality and truth +he lies stretched at full length, powerless to make any third +expedition or new sally; for the two that he has already made, so much +to the enjoyment and approval of everybody to whom they have become +known, in this as well as in foreign countries, are quite sufficient +for the purpose of turning into ridicule the whole of those made by +the whole set of the knights-errant; and so doing shalt thou discharge +thy Christian calling, giving good counsel to one that bears +ill-will to thee. And I shall remain satisfied, and proud to have been +the first who has ever enjoyed the fruit of his writings as fully as +he could desire; for my desire has been no other than to deliver +over to the detestation of mankind the false and foolish tales of +the books of chivalry, which, thanks to that of my true Don Quixote, +are even now tottering, and doubtless doomed to fall for ever. +Farewell."</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><a name="p74e"></a><img alt="p74e.jpg (49K)" src="images/p74e.jpg" height="285" width="650"> +</center> +<a href="images/p74e.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg"></a> + + + + +<br> +<br> + + +<center> +<table summary="" cellPadding=4 border=3> +<tr><td> + <a href="p41.htm">Previous Part</a> +</td><td> + <a href="5946-h.htm">Main Index</a> + </td></tr> +</table> +</center> +<br><br> + +</body> +</html> + + |