Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

  3. The humor in Dorotea's statement (comparable to her not being able to recall Don Quixote's name) lies in the fact that Osuna is landlocked and that La Mancha is part of Spain, and not the reverse, as she implies.

  4. This is the first reference, in either the first or second edition of the novel, to the theft of Don Quixote's sword.

  5. As indicated earlier, when he is extremely angry Don Quixote changes the way he addresses Sancho, moving from the second person singular to the more distant second person plural. This is the second time he has done so, and he maintains his irate distance until the end of the paragraph.

  6. At this point, in the second edition, Gines de Pasamonte reappears, riding Sancho's donkey. Sancho begins to shout at him, calling him a thief, and Gines runs away, leaving the donkey behind. Sancho is overjoyed, especially when Don Quixote says that this does not nullify the transfer of the three donkeys he had promised him earlier.

  1. A fanega is approximately 1.6 bushels.

  2. As a sign of respect, the recipient of a letter from a person of high station touched it to his or her head before opening it.

  4. Sancho confuses the proverb, which ends: "...you can't complain about the evil that happens to you."

  1 Written by Bernardo de Vargas, the book was published in 1545.

  2 This novel was mentioned in the examination of Don Quixote's library by the priest and the barber.

  3 Published in 1580, this chronicle recounts the exploits of one of the most famous and successful officers to serve under the Catholic Sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella. Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordoba (1453-1515) was called the Great Captain; his aide, Diego Garcia de Paredes, was renowned for his enormous strength.

  1 This is the first of what are called the interpolated novels (in contemporary terms, they are novellas) in the first part of Don Quixote; the story is derived from an episode in Canto 43 of Ariosto's Orlando furioso. There are indications in the second part of Don Quixote that Cervantes was criticized for these "interruptions" of the action.

  2 Plutarch attributes the phrase to Pericles.

  3 An Italian poet of the sixteenth century (1510-1568).

  4 An allusion to the story, recounted in Orlando furioso, of a magic goblet that indicated if the women who drank from it were faithful.

  5 Danae was confined in a tower by her father, King Acrisius, when an oracle stated that her son would kill him. Zeus transformed himself into a shower of gold, visited her, and fathered Perseus.

  2 The four Ss that a lover needed to be were sabio ("wise"), solo ("alone"), solicito ("solicitous"), and secreto ("secretive"). This conceit was popular during the Renaissance, as were the ABCs of love cited by many authors. The W is omitted from Leonela's ABC because it is not part of the Spanish alphabet.

  1 The phrase in Spanish, ciertos son los toros, is equivalent to "the bulls are certain"--that is, "there's no doubt about the outcome."

  2 A cuartillo is one-fourth of a real.

  3 A cuarto, a coin of very little value, was worth four maravedis.

  4 This appears to refer to the battle of Cerignola, in 1503, when the defeat of the French made the kingdom of Naples a Spanish province.

  1 In what seems to be another oversight on the part of Cervantes or his printer, the first part of this epigraph actually belongs to the previous chapter.

  2 These were worn to protect travelers from the sun and dust.

  3 It was believed that nobility was inherited exclusively from the father.

  4 Another apparent oversight: it was indicated earlier in the chapter that the two men had already seen each other.

  1 An extremely variable liquid measure, ranging from 2.6 to 3.6 gallons (it is also a dry measure equivalent to twenty-five pounds).

  3 It seems likely that the earlier description of the character as a "Christian recently arrived from Moorish lands" means that he could only be a former prisoner, although the story of his captivity--another interpolated novel--does not begin until chapter XXXIX.

  4 The word means Senora, or "Lady."

  5 The debate between arms and letters (that is, the life of a soldier compared to the life of a cleric or scholar), a frequent literary topic in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was at least as popular as the theme of the Golden Age, the subject of Don Quixote's discourse when he shared a meal with the goatherds.

  6 A phrase that means going to convents and monasteries for the soup that is distributed to the poor.

  1 This is the second of the "interpolated novels." Cervantes himself had been a captive for some five years, and many of the elements in the story may be autobiographical, but it should also be noted, as Martin de Riquer points out, that it was a fairly common practice to insert a romantic tale with Moorish themes into works that otherwise seemed to have little to do with either romance or the Moors.

  2 An amount worth approximately thirty-three thousand reales.

  3 A fortified town on the Tenaro River, near Milan.

  4 The duke of Alba reached Brussels on August 22, 1567.

  5 Belgian noblemen who fought against the French in the Spanish army and were executed by the duke of Alba on June 5, 1568, for rebelling against the Inquisition.

  6 Cervantes fought under this captain at the battle of Lepanto, in 1571.

  8 The naval crown, made of gold, was awarded to the first man to board an enemy ship.

  9 Uchali, or Uluch Ali, the viceroy of Algiers in 1570, did in fact take part in the actions described by Cervantes. He commanded the Ottoman fleet from 1571 to 1587 and defeated the flagship of the Order of Malta during the battle of Lepanto.

  10 Giovanni Andrea Doria, a Genoese, commanded the Spanish galleys.

  11 An insignia that indicated the flagship of an admiral.

  12 Muley Hamet, or Muley Mohammad, took possession of Tunis in October of 1573; the following year, he was captured by the Turks. His brother, Muley Hamida, or Ahmad-Sultan, attempted to join the attack on Tunis in 1573 by Don Juan of Austria, and died in Palermo in 1575.

  13 The fortress that protected Tunis.

  14 A span (palmo) is approximately 8 inches; a vara, about 2.8 feet.

  1 Nicknamed El Fratin ("the Little Friar"), Jacome Paleazzo fortified a number of garrisons for the Spanish monarchy.

  2 The historical Uchali died suddenly on June 21, 1587, in Constantinople.

  3 The four Ottoman family names are Muhammat, Mustafa, Murad, and Ali.

  5 The allusion is to Cervantes himself; his complete surname was Cervantes Saavedra.

  6 A historical figure, Agi Morato, or Hajji Murad, the son of Slavic parents, renounced Christianity and became an important personage in Algiers.

  7 La Pata is al-Batha, a fortress-city.

  8 According to Martin de Riquer, the daughter of Agi Morato (see note 6) was in fact named Zahara; in 1574 she married Abd al-Malik, who was proclaimed sultan of Morocco in 1576 and died in the battle of Alcazarquivir, against the Portuguese, in 1578. She was remarried, to Hasan Baja, and after 1580 lived in Constantinople. In other words, some characters in this story of the captive are historical, although the action is fictional.

  9 Bab Azun, the Gate of Azun, is one of the gates to Algiers.

  10 This was the name for perfectly bilingual Moors, usually converts to Christianity, who had lived among Christians; they often came from the ancient kingdom of Aragon, which included present-day Aragon, Cataluna, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands.

  1 This was the name of the pirate who captured Cervantes.

  2 A gold coin worth approximately six silver reales.

  3 A coin worth approximately seventeen reales.

  5 This is an allusion to the legend of Don Rodrigo, the last Visigothic ruler of Spain, whose illicit love for Florinda, the daughter of Count Julian, caused her father to seek his revenge by betraying Spain to the Moors at the battle of Guadalete, in 711.

  1 Martin de Riquer indicates that this lyric (and other poems inserted in the text) was composed by Cervantes yea
rs before he wrote Don Quixote and set to music in 1591 by Salvador Luis, a singer in the chapel choir of Philip II.

  2 These were common coverings for windows before glass was in general use.

  3 The reference is to Apollo's pursuit of Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus.

  1 According to Martin de Riquer, Sancho invents the word both as a sarcastic comment on Don Quixote's misperception and in order not to contradict Don Quixote openly.

  1 Certificates were issued by the trade guilds to indicate a member's skill.

  2 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was not unusual for innkeepers to belong to the Holy Brotherhood; the staff was a symbol of authority derived from the king.

  3 The dispute, which became proverbial, was described by Ariosto in Orlando furioso.

  4 Traditionally, the disputed items in Agramante's camp were a sword, a horse, and a shield emblazoned with an eagle; the helmet is an invention of Don Quixote's.

  1 In the first edition, this is the first indication that Sancho has recovered his donkey.

  3 The allusion is to Apollo pursuing Daphne, as well as to the sun crossing the sky and passing various constellations.

  4 The name is based on the verb mentir, "to lie."

  1 It was a mark of great dishonor for a knight to ride in so humble a vehicle; in medieval tales, for example, Lancelot incurred great shame by riding in an oxcart.

  2 "Catholic" is used by Sancho metaphorically to mean "trustworthy" or "legitimate," much as we would use "kosher" today; Don Quixote responds to the literal meaning of the word.

  3 This is the title of one of the novellas in Cervantes's collection, Novelas ejemplares (Exemplary Novels), which was published in 1613, eight years after the first part of Don Quixote.

  4 A treatise on logic, written by Gaspar Cardillo de Villalpando and used as a text at the University of Alcala.

  5 A kind of sensual, supposedly decadent writing associated with the ancient Ionian city of Miletus.

  6 Sinon persuaded the Trojans to admit the wooden horse, filled with Greek soldiers, into their city, thereby causing the defeat of Troy. According to some accounts, he was a Greek who allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans; according to others, he was a Trojan in the service of the Greeks.

  7 Euryalus was well-known for his friendship with Nisus. They accompanied Aeneas to Italy following the Trojan War and were killed in battle.

  8 Zopyrus proved his loyalty to Darius during a revolt by the Babylonians: he mutilated himself severely, then went over to the Babylonian side, claiming to be a victim of Persian cruelty; he gained their confidence, was made leader of their armies, and eventually betrayed Babylon to Darius.

  2 The reference is to Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, who tended to write in the classical style of the early Renaissance (clearly favored by Cervantes) in contrast to the more effusive complexities of the Baroque that were popular in the theater of the time.

  3 La ingratitud vengada, by Lope de Vega.

  4 Numancia, by Miguel de Cervantes.

  5 El mercader amante, by Gaspar de Aguilar.

  6 La enemiga favorable, by Francisco Agustin Tarrega.

  7 At the time Cervantes wrote this, the classical rules of drama were not followed anywhere in Europe, at least not in Italy, France, or England. Martin de Riquer wonders if Cervantes might actually have been thinking of prescriptive treatises that were widely published but adhered to by no playwright of significance.

  8 The description is of Lope de Vega, who wrote hundreds of comedias; the exact number is not known, but a legendary two thousand plays have been attributed to him (not to mention numerous works in other genres). He and Cervantes, his senior by some fifteen years, had a highly competitive relationship. Lope apparently took great offense at this passage.

  1 Viriato led a Lusitanian (Portuguese) rebellion against the Romans.

  2 Count Fernan Gonzalez declared the independence of Castilla from the Moors in the tenth century.

  4 Diego Garcia de Paredes was a military hero who fought with Gonzalo Fernandez.

  5 Perez de Vargas, a historical figure mentioned in chapter VIII, broke his sword in battle, then tore a branch from an oak tree and used it to kill countless Moors.

  6 Garcilaso de la Vega, not to be confused with the Renaissance poet of the same name, fought in the war to capture Granada from the Moors.

  7 Don Manuel de Leon entered a lion's cage to recover a glove that a lady had thrown inside in order to test his courage. When he returned the glove, he slapped her for endangering the life of a knight on a whim.

  8 The two anecdotes appear in a history of Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers ( La historia del emperador Carlomagno y los doce pares de Francia) published in Alcala in 1589.

  9 A book entitled Cronica del nobre caballero Guarino Mesquino was cited by Juan de Valdes, an important humanist of the early sixteenth century, as being very poorly written and even more absurd than other novels of chivalry.

  10 A figure associated with the Lancelot story who passed into popular ballads and became part of the folk tradition in Spain.

  11 The Provencal story of Pierres de Provence and the beautiful Magalona was extremely popular in the sixteenth century; its Spanish translation was published in 1519.

  12 These lines were cited previously, in chapter IX.

  13 A Castilian knight of Portuguese descent who served under Juan II.

  15 Don Fernando de Guevara was also cited in the Cronica de Juan II.

  16 In 1434, with the permission of Juan II, Suero Quinones, for the love of his lady, jousted with sixty-eight challenging knights at what is called the Honorable Pass.

  17 An encounter that was also cited in the Cronica de Juan II.

  18 Turpin is the fictitious author of a chronicle about Charlemagne.

  1 This detail seems comically incongruous, yet picking one's teeth after a meal was so common during the Renaissance that it was employed as a kind of trope for the necessary deceptions of genteel poverty, for example in Lazarillo de Tormes, when the hungry gentleman walks down the street wielding a toothpick to indicate that he has eaten.

  1 In the first edition, the character is called Rosa twice and Roca once; subsequent editions, including many modern ones, call him Roca; in the first English, French, and Italian translations, which are cited by Martin de Riquer, Shelton calls him "Vincente of the Rose," Oudin calls him "Vincent de la Roque," and Franciosini calls him "Vincenzio della Rosa."

  2 The identities of these two men are not known; according to Martin de Riquer, it is possible that the manuscript read "Garci Lasso," who was cited earlier, in chapter XLIX, with Garcia de Paredes.

  3 In Spanish, as in many other languages, varying degrees of deference, distance, familiarity, intimacy, and significant class distinctions can be shown by the form of address, either second or third person, singular or plural.

  4 Arcadia was a region of the Peloponnesus where classical and Renaissance authors frequently located their pastoral novels; two important works of this extremely popular genre, by Sannazaro and Lope de Vega, were entitled La Arcadia, and Cervantes himself published a pastoral novel called La Galatea.

  2 Only seventeen days had passed since Don Quixote's second sally.

  3 As indicated in an earlier note in chapter VII, there is a good amount of variation in the name of Sancho's wife.

  4 These are the horses of Orlando and Reinaldos de Montalban. It should be noted that this sonnet, the kind called caudato in Italian, has an extra tercet.

  5 The line, from Orlando furioso, should read, Forse altri cantera con miglior plettro ("Perhaps another will sing in a better style"), and is cited by Cervantes in the first chapter of the second part of the novel.