God shall deliver you out of all Adventures that may befall you as whole and sound as he hath done out of this Hath not the great fear we were in been a good subject of laughter and a thing worthy the telling At least I for of you I am certain that you doe not yet know what fear or terrour is I doe not denye quoth Don-Quixote but that which befell us is worthy of laughter yet ought it not to be recounted for as much as all persons are not so discreet as to know how to discerne one thing from another and set every thing in his right poynt You know at least wise quoth Sancho how to set your Javelin in his poynt when poynting at my pate you hit me on the shoulders thanks be to God and to the diligence I put in going aside But farewell it for all will away in the bucking and I have heard old folk say That man loves thee well who makes thee to weep And besides great Lords are wont after a bad word which they say to one of their Servingmen to bestow on him presently a pair of hose But I know not yet what they are wont to give them after blows if it be not that Knights Errant give after the Bastanado Islands or Kingdoms on the continent The Die might run so favourably quoth Don-Quixote as all thou hast said might come to passe and therefore pardon what is done since thou art discreet and knowest that a mans first motions are not in his hand And be advertised of one thing from hence forward to the end to abstain and carry thy self more respectively in thy over-much liberty of speech with me that in as many books of Chivalry as I have read which are infinite I never found that any Squire spoak so much with his Lord as thou doest with thine which in good sooth I doe attribute to thy great indiscretion and mine thine in respecting me so little mine in not making my self to be more regarded Was not Gandalin Amadis du Gaules Squire Earl of the firm Island and yet it is read of him that hee spoak to his Lord with his Cap in his hand his head bowed and his body bended more Turcesco What then shall we say of Gasabel Don Gataors Squire who was so silent as to declare us the excellencie thereof his name is but once repeated in all that so great and authenticall a History Of all which my words Sancho thou must infer that thou must make difference between the Master and the man the Lord and his Serving-man the Knight and his Squire So that from this day forward we must proceed with more respect not letting the clew run so much for after what way soever I grow angry with thee it will be bad for the Pitcher The rewards and benefits that I have promised thee will come in their time and if they doe not thy wages cannot be lost as I have already said to thee You say very well quoth Sancho but fain would I learn in case that the time of rewards came not and that I must of necessity trust to my wages how much a Knight Errants Squire did gain in times past Or if they did agree for moneths or by dayes as Masons men I doe not think quoth Don-Quixote that they went by the hire but only trusted to their Lords courtesie And if I have assigned wages to thee in my sealed Testament which I left at home it was to prevent the worst because I know not yet what successe Chivalry may have in these our so miserable times and I would not have my Soul suffer in the other world for such a minuity as is thy wages For thou must understand that in this world there is no state so dangerous as that of Knights Errant That is most true replyed Sancho seeing the only sound of the Maces of a Fulling-Mill could trouble and disquiet the heart of so valiant a Knight as you are But you may be sure that I will not hereafter once unfold my lips to jest at your doings but only to honour you as my Master and naturall Lord. By doing so replyed Don-Quixote thou shalt live on the face of the earth for next to our parents we are bound to respect our Masters as if they were our Fathers CHAP. VII Of the high Adventure and rich winning of the Helmet of Mambrino with other Successes which befell the invincible Knight IT began about this time to rain and Sancho would fain have entred into the fulling-Mills but Don-Quixote had conceived such hate against them for the jest recounted as he would in no wise come neer them but turning his way on she right hand he fell into a high◠way as much 〈◊〉 as that wherein they rode the day before within a while after Don-Quixote espied one a horse-back that bore on his head somewhat that glistered like gold and scarce had he seen him when he turned to Sancho and said Me thinks Sancho that there 's no proveb that is not true for they are all sentences taken out of experience it self which is the universall mother of Sciences and specially that proverb that sayes Where one door is shut another is opened I say this because if fortune did shut yester night the door that we searched deceiving us in the Adventure of the iron Maces it layes us how wide open the door that may addresse us to a better and more certain Adventure whereon if I cannot make a good entrie the fall shall be mine without being able to attribute it to the little knowledge of the Fulling Maces or the darkenesse of the night which I affirm because if I be not deceived there comes one towards us that wears on his head the helmet of Mambrino for which I made the Oath See well what you say Sir and better what you doe quoth Sancho for I would not with that this were new Maces to batter us and our understanding The Divell take thee for a man replyed Don-Quixote what difference is there betwixt a Helmet and fulling Maces I know not quoth Sancho but if I could speak as much now as I was wont perhaps I would give you such reasons as you your self should see how much you are deceived in that you speak How may I be deceived in that I say scrupulous traytor quoth Don-Quixote Tell me seest thou not that Knight which comes riding towards us on a dapple gray horse with a Helmet of gold on his head That which I see and finde out to be so answered Sancho is none other then a man on a gray Asse like mine own and brings on his head somewhat that shines Why that is Mambrino's Helmet quoth Don-Quixote stand aside and leave me alone with him thou shalt see how without speech to cut off delayes I will conclude this Adventure and remain with the Helmet as mine own which I have so much desired I will have care to stand off but I turn again to say that I
Inn-Keeper the Hostesse her Daughter and Maritornes seeing Don-Quixote and Sancho return went out to receive them with tokens of great love and joy and he entertained them with grave countenance and applause and bade them to make him ready a better Bed then the other which they had given unto him the time before Sir quoth the Hostesse if you would pay us better then the last time wee would give you one for a Prince Don-Quixote answered that he would They prepared a reasonable good bed for him in the same wide room where he lay before and he went presently to bed by reason that he arived much tyred and void of wit And scarce was he gotten into his chamber when the Hostesse leaping suddainly on the Barber and taking him by the beard said Now by my self blessed thou shalt use my taile no more for a beard and thou shalt turne me my taile for my husbands combe goes thrown up and down the floor that it is a shame to see it I mean the combe that I was wont to hang up in my good taile The Barber would not give it unto her for all her drawing untill the Licentiat bade him to restore it that they had now no more use thereof but that he might now very well discover himself and appear in his own shape and say to Don-Quixote that after the Gally-slaves had rob'd him he fled to that Inne And if Don-Quixote demanded by chance for the Princesse her Squire that they should tell him how she had sent him before to her Kingdome to give intelligence to her Subjects that she returned bringing with her him that should free and give them all libertie With this the Barber surrendred the taile willingly to the Hostesse and likewise all the other borrowed wares which she had lent for Don-Quixotes deliverie All those of the Inne rested wonderfull amazed at Doroteas beautie and also at the comelinesse of the Sheepheard Cardenio Then the Curate gave order to make readie for them such meat as the Inne could afford and the Inn-keeper in hope of better payment did dresse very speedily for them a reasonable good Dinner Don-Quixote slept all this while and they were of opinion to let him take his rest seeing sleep was more requisite for his disease then meat At the Table they discoursed the Inn-keeper his Wife Daughter and Maritoâ—nes and all the other Travailers being present of Don-Quixotes strange Frenzie and of the manner wherein they found him The Hostesse eftsoons recounted what had hapned there between him and the Carrier and looking to see whether Sancho were present preceiving that he was away she told likewise all the story of his canvasing whereat they conceived no little content and pastime And as the Curate said that the originall cause of Don-Quixotes madnesse proceeded from the reading of Books of Knighthood The Inn-keeper answered I cannot conceive how that can bee for as I beleeve there is no reading so delightfull in this world and I my selfe have two or three bookes of that kinde with other papers which doe verily keepe mee alive and not only mee but many other For in the reaping times many of the Reapers repayre to this place in the heates of mid day and there is evermore some one or other among them that can reade who takes one of these bookes in hand and then some thirty or more of us doe compasse him about and doe listen to him with such pleasure as it hinders a thousand hoary haires for I dare say at least of my selfe that when I heard tell of those furious and terrible blowes that Knights Errant give it inflames mee with a desire to become such a one my selfe and could finde in my heart to bee hearing of them day and night I am just of the same minde no more nor no lesse said the Hostesse for I never have any quiet houre in my house but when thou art hearing those bookes whereon thou art so besotted as then thou dost only forget to chide which is thy ordinary exercise at other times That is very true said Maritornes And I in good sooth doe take great delight to heare those things for they are very fine and especially when they tell how such a Ladie lies embraced by her Knight under an Orange tree and that a certaine Damzell keepeth Watch all the while readie to burst for envie that shee hath not likewise her sweete-heart and very much afraid I say that all those things are as sweete as honey to mee And you quoth the Curate to the Inn-keepers daughter what doe you thinke I know not in good sooth Sir quoth shee but I doe likewise give eare and in truth although I understand it not yet doe I take some pleasure to heare them but I mislike greatly those blows which please my father so much and only delight in the lamentations that Knights make being absent from their Ladies which in sooth doe now and then make mee weepe through the compassion I take of them Well then quoth Dorotea belike faire mayden you would remedie them if such plaints were breathed for your owne sake I know not what I would doe answered the Gyrle only this I know that there are some of those Ladies so cruell as their Knights call them Tygers and Lyons and a thousand other wilde-Beasts And good Iesus I know not what un-Souled folke they bee and so without Conscience that because they will not once behold an honourable man they suffer him eyther to die or run mad And I know not to what end serves all that coynesse For if they doe it for honesties sake let them marry with them for the Knights desire nothing more Peace childe quoth the Hostesse for it seems that thou knowest too much of those matters and it is not decent that Maidens should know or speak so much I speak quoth she by reason that this good Sir made me the demand and I could not in courtesie omit to answer him Well said the Curate let me intreat you good mine Host to bring us here those Books for I would fain see them I am pleased said the Inn-keeper And then entring into his Chamber he brought forth a little old Malet shut up with a chain and opening thereof hee took out three great Books and certain Papers written with a very fair Letter The first Book hee opened was that of Don Cirongilio of Thracia The other Felixmarte of Hircania And the third The History of the great Captain Goncalo Hernandez of Cordova with the life of Diego Garcia of Paredes adjoyned As soon as the Curate had read the Titles of the two Books he said to the Barber We have now great want of our friends the old woman and Neece Not so much as you think quoth the Barber for I know also the way to the yard or the chimney and in good sooth there is a fire in it good enough for that purpose Would you then quoth the Host burn my Books No more of
his work which if I can finde among these and that he speaks not his own native tongue I 'le use him with no respect but if he talk in his own language I will put him for honours sake on my head If that be so quoth the Barber I have him at home in the Italian but cannot understand him Neither were it good you should understand him replyed the Curate and here we would willingly have excused the good Captain that translated it into Spanish from that labour or bringing it into Spain if it had pleased himself For he hath deprived it of much naturall worth in the translation a fault incident to all those that presume to translate Verses out of one language into another for though they imploy all their industry and wit therein they can never arive to the height of that Primitive conceit which they bring with them in their first byrth I say therefore that this booke and all the others that may bee found in this Library to treate of French affaires bee cast and deposited in some drie Vault untill wee may determine with more deliberation what wee should doe with them alwaies excepting Bernardo del Carpio which must bee there amongst the rest and another called Roncesualles for these two coming to my hands shall bee rendred up to those of the old guardian and from hers into the fires without any remission All which was confirmed by the Barbar who did ratifie his Sentence holding it for good and discreete because hee knew the Curate to bee so vertuous a man and so great a friend of the truth as he would say nothing contrary to it for all the goods of the world And then opening another booke he saw it was Palmerin de Oliva neere unto which stood another intituled Palmerin of England which the â—icenciat perceiving said let Oliva be presently rent in pieces and burned in such sort that even the very ashes thereof may not be found and let Palmerin of England be preserved as a thing rarely delectable and let such another box as that which Alexander found among Darius spoyls and depured to keep Homers works be made for it for gossip this booke hath sufficient authority for two reasons the first because of it self it is very good and excellently contrived the other for as much as the report runnes that a certain discreet King of Portugal was the author thereof All the Adventures of the Castle of Miraguarda are excellent and artificiall The discourses very cleere and courtly observing evermore a decorum in him that speaks with great propriety and conceit therefore I say Master Nicholas if you think good this and Amadis de Gaule may bee preserved from the fire and let all the rest without farther search or regard perish In the devills name doe not so gentle gossip replyed the Barbar for this which I hold now in my hand is the famous Don Belianis What hee quoth the Curate the second third and fourth part thereof have great neede of some Ruybarbe to purge his excessive choller and wee must moreover take out of him all that of the Castell of Fame and other impertinencies of more consequence Therefore wee give them a terminus Vltramarinus and as they shall bee corrected so will wee use Mercy or justice towards them and in the meane space Gossip you may keepe them at your house but permit no man to read them I am pleased quoth the Barbar and being unwilling to tyre himself any more by reading of Titles hee bad the old woman to take all the great volumes and throw them into the yard the words were not spoken to a Mome or deaf person but to one that had more desire to burn them then to weave a peace of Linnen were it never so great and fine and therefore taking eight of them together shee threw them all out of the window and returning the second time thinking to carry away a great many at once one of them fell at the Barbers feet who desirous to know the Title saw that it was the Historie of the famous Knight Tirante the white Good God quoth the Curate with a loud voice is Tirante the white here Give mee it Gossip for I make account to find in it a Treasure of delight and a copious Mine of pastime Here is Don Quireleison of Montalban a valiant Knight and his brother Thomas of Montalban and the Knight Fonseca and the combat which the valiant Detriante fought with Alano and the witty conceits of the damzell Plazerdeminida with the love and guiles of the widow Reposada and of the Empresse enamoured on her Squire Ipolite I say unto you gossip that this booke is for the stile one of the best of the world in it Knights doe eate and drinke and sleepe and die in their beds naturally and make their testaments before their death with many other things which all other bookes of this subject doe want yet notwithstanding if I might bee Judge the Author thereof deserved because hee purposely penned and writ so many follies to bee sent to the Gallies for all the dayes of his life Carie it home and read it and you shall see all that I have said thereof to bee true I beleeve it very well quoth the Barber But what shall wee doe with these little bookes that remaine These as I take said the Curate are not bookes of Knighthood but of Poetry and opening one hee perceived it was The Diana of Montemayor and beleeving that all the rest were of that stampe hee said these deserve not to bee burned with the rest for they have not nor can doe so much hurt as bookes of Knighthood being all of them works full of understanding and conceits and doe not prejudice any other O good Sir quoth Don-Quixote his Niese your reverence shall likewise doe well to have them also burned lest that mine Uncle after hâ—â— bee cured of his Knightly disease may fall by reading of these in an humor of becomming a Sheepheard and so wander through the woods and fields singing of Rounde layes and playing on a Crowd and what is more dangerous then to become a Poet which is as some say an incurable and infectious disease This maiden saies true quoth the Curate and it will not bee amisse to remove this stumbling block and occasion out of our friends way and since wee begin with the Diana of Montemayor I am of opinion that it bee not burned but only that all that which treates of the wise Felicia and of the inchanted water bee taken away and also all the longer verses and let him remaine with his Proses and the honour of being the best of that kinde This that followes quoth the Barber is the Diana called the second written by him of Salamanca and this other is of the same name whose Author is Gil Polo Let that of Salamanca answered Master Parson augment the number of the condemned in the yard and that of Gil Polo bee kept as charity
shall bee recounted in the second Part. THE Delightfull Historie of the most witty Knight DON-QUIXOTE of the Mancha The Second Part. CHAP. I. Wherein is related the events of the fearfull Battell which the gallant Biscaine fought with Don-Quixote WEE left the valorous Biscaine and the famous Don-Quixote in the first Part with their Swords lifted up and naked in termes to discharge one upon another two furious Cleevers and such as if they had lighted rightly would cut and divide them both from the top to the toe and open them like a Pomgranat And that in so doubtfull a taking the delightfull Historie stopped and remained dismembred the Author thereof leaving us no notice where wee might find the rest of the narration This grieved mee not a little but wholly turned the pleasure I tooke in reading the beginning thereof into disgust thinking how small commodity was offered to finde out so much as in my opinion wanted of this so delectable a tale It seemed unto mee almost impossible and contrary to all good order that so good a Knight should want some wise man that would undertake his wonderfull prowesses and feats of Chivalry A thing that none of those Knights Errant ever wanted of whom People speake for each of them had one or two wise men of purpose that did not only write their Acts but also depainted their very least thoughts and toyes were they never so hidden And surely so good a Knight could not bee so unfortunate as to want that wherewith Platyr and others his like abounded and therefore could not induce my self to beleeve that so gallant a Historie might remaine maimed and lame and did rather cast the fault upon the malice of the time who is a consumer and devourer of all things which had eyther hidden or consumed it Me thought on the other side seeing that among his bookes were found some modern workes such as the Vndeceiving of Iealousie and the Nymphs and Sheepheards of Henares That also his owne Historie must have been new and if that it were not written yet was the memory of him fresh among the dwellers of his owne Village and the other Villages adjoyning This imagination held mee suspended and desirous to learn really and truly all the life and miracles of our famous Spanyard Don-Quixote of the Mancha the light and mirror of all Manchicall Chivalrie being the first who in this our age and time so full of calamities did undergoe the travells and exercise of armes Errant and undid wrongs succour'd widdowes protected Damzels that rode up and down with their whips and Palfreys and with all their virginity on their backs from hill to hill and dale to dale for if it hapned not that some lewd miscreant or some Clowne with a hatchet and long haire or some monstrous Giant did force them Damzels there were in times past that at the end of fourescore yeeres all which time they never slept one day under a roofe went as entyre and pure may dens to their Graves as the very mother that bore them Therefore I say that as well for this as for many other good respects our gallant Don-Quixote is worthy of continuall and memorable praises nor can the like bee justly denied to my self for the labour and diligence which I used to finde out the end of this gratefull History although I know very well that if Heaven Chance and Fortune had not assisted mee the world had beene deprived of the delight and pastime that men may take for almost two houres together who shall with diligent attention read it The manner therefore of finding it was this Being one day walking in the Exchange of Toledo a certain Boy by chance would have sold divers old quires scroules of bookes to a Squire that walked up and down in that place and I being addicted to read such scroules though I found them torn in the streets borne away by this my naturall inclination tooke one of the quires in my hand and perceived it to bee written in Arabicall Characters and seeing that although I knew the Letters yet could I not read the substance I looked about to view whether I could perceive any Moor turned Spanyard thereabouts that could reade them nor was it very difficult to finde there such an Interpreter for if I had searched one of another better and more ancient language to Wit a Iew that place would easily afford him In fine my good fortune presented one to mee to whom telling my desire and giving him the booke in his hand hee opened it and having read a little therein began to laugh I demanded of him why hee laughed and hee answered at that marginall note which the booke had I bad him to expound it to mee and with that tooke him a little aside and hee continuing still his laughter said there is written here on this margin these words This Dulcinea of Toboso so many times spoaken of in this Historie had the best hand for powdring of Porkes of any woman in all the Mancha When I heard it make mention of Dulcinea of Toboso I rested amazed and suspended and imagined forthwith that those quires contained the Historie of Don-Quixote with this conceit I hastned him to read the ibegnning which hee did and translating the Arabicall into Spanish in a trice hee said that it began thus The Historie of Don-Quixote of the Mancha written by Cyde Hamete Benegeli an Arabicall Historiographer Much discretion was requisite to dissemble the content of mind I conceived when I heard the Title of the book and preventing the Squire I bought all the boyes scroles and papers for a Riall and were he of discretion or knew my desire he might have promised himself easily and also have borne away with him more then six Reals for his Merchandize I departed after with the Moor to the Cloyster of the great Church I requested him to turn me all the Arabicall sheets that treated of Don-Quixote into Spanish without adding or taking away any thing from them and I would pay him what hee listed for his paines hee demanded fifty pounds of Raisons and three Bushells of Wheat and promised to translate them speedily well and faithfully But I to hasten the matter more least I should lose such an unexpected and welcome treasure brought him to my house where he translated all the work in lesse then a moneth and a half even in the manner that it is here recounted There was painted in the first Quier very naturally the battell betwixt Don-Quixote and the Biscaine even in the same manner that the History relateth it with their Swords lifted aloft the one covered with his Buckler the other with the Cushion and the Biscaines Mule was delivered so naturally as a man might perceive it was hired although he stood farther oft then the shot of a Cross-bow The Biscaine had a title written under his feet that said Don Sancho de Azpetia for so belike he was called and at Rozinante his
Letter Don-Quixote said Wee can collect lesse by this then by the Verses what the Authour is other then that hee is some disdained Lover And so passing over all the book hee found other Verses and Letters of which he could read some others not at all But the summe of them all were Accusations Plaints and Mistrusts Pleasures Griefs Favours and Disdains some Solemnized others Deplored And whilest Don-Quixote past over the Book Sancho past over the Malet without leaving a corner of it or the Cushion unsearched or a seam unript nor a lock of wooll uncarded to the end that nothing might remain behinde for want of dilligence or carelessenesse The found gold which past a hundred crowns had stir'd in him such a greedinesse to have more And though hee got no more then that which hee found at the first yet did hee account his flights in the Coverlet his vomitting of the Drench the benedictions of the Pack-staves the blows of the Carrier the losse of his Wallet the robbing of his Casâ—ock and all the hunger thirst and wearinesse that hee had past in the service of his good Lord and Master for well imployed accounting himself to be more then well payed by the gifts received of the money they found The Knight of the Ill-favoured face was the while possessed with a marvellous desire to know who was the owner of the malet conjecturing by the Sonnet and Letter the gold and Linnen that the enamoured was some man of worth whom the disdain and rigour of his Lady had conducted to some desperate termes But by reason that no body appeared through that inhabitable and Desart place by whom hee might bee informed hee thought on it no more but only rode on without choosing any other way then that which pleased Rozinante to travail who took the plainest and easiest to passe thorow having still an imagination that there could not want some strange Adventure amid'st that Forrest And as he rode on with this conceit hee saw a man on the top of a little Mountain that stood just before his face leap from Rock to Rock and Tuff to Tuff with wondeâ—full dexterity And as hee thought was naked had a black and thick beard the hairs many and confusedly mingled his feet and leggs bare his thighs were covered with a pair of hose which seemed to bee of murry Velvet but were so torn that they discovered his flesh in many places His head was likewise bare and although hee past by with the haste wee have recounted yet did The Knight of the ill-favoured face note all these particulars and although hee endeavoured yet could not hee follow him for it was not in Rozinantes power in that weake state wherein hee was to travail so swiftly among those Rocks chiefly being naturally very slow and flegmatick Don-Quixote after espying him did instantly imagine him to bee the owner of the Cushion and Malet and therefore resolved to goe on in his search although hee should spend a whole yeer therein among those Mountains and commanded Sancho to goe about the one side of the Mountain and hee would goe the other and quoth hee it may befall that by using this dilligence wee may incounter with that man which vanished so suddainly out of our sight I cannot doe so quoth Sancho for that in parting one step from you fear presently so assalts me with a thousand visions and affrightments And let this serve you hereafter for a warning to the end you may not henceforth part me the black of a nail from your presence It shall be so answered The Knight of the ill-favoured face and I am very glad that thou doest thus build upon my valour the which shall never fail thee although thou didest want thy very â—oul and therefore follow me by little and little or as thou mayest and make of thine eyes two Lant-hornes for wee will give a turne about this little Rock and perhaps wee may meet with this man whom we saw even now who doublesly can bee none other then the owner of our booty To which Sancho replyed It were much better not to finde him for if wee should meet him and were by chance the owner of this money it is most evident that I must restore it to him and therefore it is better without using this unprofitable dilligence to let me possesse it bona fide untill the true Lord shall appear by some way lesse curious and dilligent which perhaps may fall at such a time as it shall bee all spent and in that case I am free from all Processes by priviledge of the King Thou deceivest thy self Sancho therein quoth Don-Quixote for seeing wee are fallen already into suspition of the owner wee are bound to search and restore it to him and when wee would not seek him out yet the vehement presumption that wee have of it hath made us possessors mala-fide and renders us as culpable as if hee whom we surmise were verily the true Lord. So that friend Sancho be not grieved to seek him in respect of the grief whereof thou shalt free me if he be found And saying so spur'd Rozinante and Sancho followed after a foot animated by the hope of the young Asses his Master had promised unto him And having compassed a part of the Mountain they found a little stream wherein lay dead and half devoured by Doggs and Crows a Mule saddled and bridled all which confirmed more in them the suspition that hee which fled away was owner of the Mule and Cushion And as they looked on it they heard a whistle much like unto that which Sheepheards use as they keep their Flocks and presently appeared at their left hand a great number of Goats after whom the Goatheard that kept them who was an aged man followed on the top of the Mountain and Don-Quixote cried to him requesting him to come down to them who answered them again as loudly demanding of them who had brought them to those Desarts rarely trodden by any other then Goats Wolves or other Savage Beasts which frequented those Mountains Sancho answered him That if hee would descend where they were they would give him account thereof With that the Sheepheard came down and arriving to the place where Don-Quixote was hee said I dare wager that you look on the hyred Mule which lies dead there in that bottome well in good faith he hath lien in that very place these six moneths Say I pray you have not you met in the way with the Master thereof Wee have encountred no body but a Cushion and a little Malet which we found not very far off from hence I did likewise finde the same replyed the Goat-heard but I would never take it up nor approach to it fearfull of some misdemeanor or that I should be hereafter demanded for it as for a stealth For the Divell is crafty and now and then something ariseth even from under a mans feet whereat he stumbles and falls without knowing how or how
famous women Greek Barbarous or Latine of foregoing ages And let every one say what hee pleaseth For though I should be reprehended for this by the ignorant yet shall I not therefore be chastised by the more observant and rigorous sort of men I avouch quoth Sancho that you have great reason in all that you say and that I am my self a very Asse But alas why doe I name an Asse with my mouth seeing one should not mention a Rope in ones house that was hanged but give me the Letter and farewell for I will change With that Don-Quixote drew out his Tablets and going aside began to indite his Letter with great gravity which ended he called Sancho to read it to him to the end he might bear it away in memory left by chance hee did lose the Tablets on the way for such were his crosse fortunes as made him fear every event To which Sancho answered saying Write it there twice or thrice in the book and give me it after for I will carry it safely by Gods grace For to think that I will be able ever to take it by rote is a great folly for my memory is so short as I doe many times forget mine own name But yet for all that read it to me good Sir for I would bee glad to hear it as a thing which I suppose to be as excellent as if it were cast in a mould Hear it then said Don-Quixote for thus it sayes The Letter of DON-QUIXOTE to DULCINEA of Toboso Soveraign Ladie THE wounded by the poynt of absence and the hurt by the Darts of thy heart sweetest Dulcinea of Toboso doth send thee that health which hee wanteth himself If thy beauty disdain me if thy valour turn not to my benefit if thy disdains convert themselves to my harm maugre all my patience I shall bee ill able to sustein this care which besides that it is violent is also too durable My good Squire Sancho will give thee certain relation O beautifull ingrate and my deerest beloved enemy of the State wherein I remain for thy sake If thou please to favour me I am thine and if not doe what thou likest For by ending of my life I shall both satisfie thy Cruelty and my Desires Thine untill death The Knight of the Illfavored face By my fathers life quoth Sancho when he heard the Letter it is the highest thing that ever I heard Good God â— how well doe you say every thing in it and how excellently have you applyed the subscription of The Knight of the Ill-favoured face I say again in good earnest that you are the Divell himself and there 's nothing but you know it All is necessary answered Don-Quixote for the Office that I professe Put then quoth Sancho in the other side of that leafe the Warrant of the three Colts and firm it with a legible Letter that they may know it at the first sight I am pleased said Don-Quixote and so writing it he read it after to Sancho and it said thus YOV shall please good Neece for this first of Colts to deliver unto my Squire Sancho Pança three of the five that I left at home and are in your charge the which three Colts I command to bee delivered to him for as many others counted and received here for with this and his acquittance they shall bee justly delivered Given in the bowels of Sierra Morena the two and twentieth of August of this present yeer It goes very well quoth Sancho subsign it therefore I pray you It needs no seal quoth Don-Quixote but only my Rubrick which is as valible as if it were subscribed not only for three Asses but also for three hundred My trust is in you answered Sancho permit me for I will goe saddle Rozinante and prepare your self to give me your blessing for I purpose presently to depart before I see any madd prank of yours for I will say that I saw you play so many as no more can bee desired I will have thee stay Sancho and that because it is requisite at least to see me stark naked playing a dozen or two of raving tricks for I will dispatch them in lesse then half an hour because that thou having viewed them with thine own eyes mayest safely swear all the rest that thou pleasest to add and I assure thee that thou canst not tell so many as I mean to perform Let me intreat you good Sir that I may not see you naked for it will turn my stomack and I shall not bee able to keep my self from weeping and my head is yet so sore since yester night through my lamentations for the losse of the gray beast as I am not strong enough yet to indure new plaints but if your pleasure bee such as I must necessarily see some follies doe them in Ioves name in your clothes briefly and such as are most necessary chiefly seeing none of these things are requisite for me And as I have said wee might excuse time that shall now bee lavished in these trifles to return speedily with the news you desire and deserve so much And if not let the â—ady Dulcinea provide her self well for if shee answer not according to reason I make a solemn vow to him that I may that I 'le make her disgorge out of her stomack a good answer with very kicks and fists For how can it bee suffered that so famous a Knight Errant as your self should thus runn out of his wits without nor for what for one Let not the Gentlewomen constrain me to say the rest for I will out with it and venter all upon twelve although it never were sold. In good faith Sancho quoth Don-Quixote I think thou art grown as mad as my self I am not so mad replyed Sancho but I am more cholerick But setting that aside say What will you eat untill my return Doe you mean to doe as Cardenio and take by the high-wayes side perforce from the Sheepheards Care thou not for that replyed Don-Quixote for although I had it yet would I not eat any other thing then the Hearbs and Fruits that this Field and Trees doe yield for the perfection of mine affair consists in fasting and the exercise of other castigations To this Sancho replyed Doe you know what I fear that I shall not finde the way to you again here where I leave you it is so difficult and obscure Take well the marks and I will endevour to keep here-about quoth Don-Quixote untill thou come back again and will moreover about the time of thy return mount to the tops of these high Rocks to see whether thou appearest but thou shouldest doe best of all to the end thou mayest not stay and misse me to cut down here and there certain boughs and strew them on the way as thou goest untill thou beest out in the Plains and those may after serve thee as bounds and marks by which thou mayest again finde me when thou returnest in
them quoth the Curate but these first two of Don Cirongilio and Felixmarte are my Books Perhaps quoth the Inn-keeper Hereticall or Flegmaticall that you would thus roughly handle them Schismaticall thou woâ—ldest have said quoth the Barber and not Flegmaticall It is so said the Inn-keeper but if you will needs burn any I pray you rather let it be that of the great Captain and of that Diego Garcia for I would rather suffer one of my Sonnes to bee burned then any one of those other two Good friend these two Books are lying and full of follies and vanities but that of the great Captain is true and containeth the arts of Goncalo Hernandez of Cordova who for his sundrie and noble acts merited to be tearmed by all the world The great Captain a name famous illustrious and only deserved by himself and this other Diego Garcia of Paredes was a noble Gentleman born in the City of Truxillo in Estremadura was a most valourous Souldier and of so surpassing force as he would detain a Mill-wheele with one hand from turning in the midest of the speediest motion And standing once at the end of a Bridge with a two-handed Sword defended the passage against a mighty Armie that attempted to passe over it and did so many other things that if another who were a stranger and unpassionate had written them as he did himself who was the relater and Historiographer of his own Acts and therefore recounted them with the modestie of a Gentleman and proper Chronicler they would have drowned all the Hectors Achillises and Rollands in oblivion There is a Jest quoth the Inn-keeper deale with my father I pray you see at what you wonder A wise tale at the with-holding of the wheele of a Mill. I swear you ought to read that which is read in Felixmarte of Hircania who with one thwart blow cut five mighty Gyants in halfes as if they were of Beans like to the little Friers that Children make of Bean-cods And set another time upon a great and most powerfull Army of more then a Million and six hundred thousand Souldiers and overthrew and scattered them all like a Flock of Sheep What then can you say to me of the good Don Cirongilio of Thracia who was so animous and valiant as may bee seen in his Book wherein is laid down That as he sailed along a River there issued out of the midest of the water a Serpent of fire and he as soon as he perceived it leaped upon her and hanging by her scalie shoulders he wrung her throat so straitly between both his armes that the Serpent perceiving her self to be well-nigh strangled had no other way to save her self but by diving down into the deeps carrying the Knight away with her who would never let goe his gripe and when they came to the bottom hee found himself by a Palace in such faire and pleasant gardens as it was a wonder and presently the Serpent turned into an old man which said to him such things as there is no more to be desired Two figs for the Great Captain and that Diego Garcia of whom you speake Dorotea hearing him speake thus said to Cardenio Mee thinks our Host wants but little to make up a second part of Don-Quixote So it seemes to mee likewise replyed Cardenio for as wee may conjecture by his words hee certainly beleeves that every thing written in those bookes passed just as it is laid downe and barefooted-Friers would bee scarce able to perswade him the contary Know friend quoth the Curate to the In-keeper that there was never any such man as Felixmarte of Hircania or Don-Chirongilio of Thracia nor other such Knights as bookes of Chivalry recount for all is but a device and fiction of idle wits that composed them to the end that thou sayest to passe over the time as your readers doe in reading of them For I sinceerely sweare unto thee that there were never such Knights in the world nor such Adventures and ravings hapned in it Cast that bone to another dog quoth the In-keeper as though I knew not how many numbers are five and where the shooe wrests mee now I pray you Sir goe not about to give mee pap for by the Lord I am not so white Is it not a good sport that you labour to perswade mee that all that which these good bookes say are but ravings and fables they being printed by Grace and Favour of the Lords of the Privie Councell as if they were folke that would permit so many lies to bee printed at once and so many Battells and Enchantments as are able to make a man run out of his wits I have told thee already friend said the Curate that this is done for the recreation of our idle thoughts and so even as in well governed Comonwealths the playes at Chesse Tennis and Trucks are tolerated for the pastime of some men which have none other occupation and either ought not or cannot worke even so such books are permitted to bee printed presuming as in truth they ought that no man would be found so simple and ignorant as to hold any of these bookes for a true Historie And if my leisure permitted and that it were a thing requisite for this Auditory I could say many things concerning the subject of bookes of Knighthood to the end that they should bee well contrived and also bee pleasant and profitable to the Readers but I hope somtime to have the commodity to communicate my conceit with those that may redresse it And in the meane while you may beleeve good mine Host what I have said and take to you your books and agree with their truths or leasings as you please and much good may it doe you and I pray God that you halt not in time on the foote that your guest Don-Quixote halteth Not so quoth the In-keeper for I will never bee so wood as to become a Knight Errant for I see well that what was used in the times of these famous Knights is now in no use nor request Sancho came in about the midst of this discourse and rested much confounded and Pensative of that which hee heard them say that Knights Errant were now in no request and that the bookes of Chivalry only conteined follies and lies and purposed with himselfe to see the end of that voyage of his Lords and that if it sorted not the wished successe which hee expected hee resolved to leave him and return home to his wife and children and accustomed labour The Inn-keeper thought to take away his bookes and budget but the Curate withheld him saying Stay a while for I would see what papers are those which are written in so faire a Character The Host tooke them out and gave them to him to read being in number some eight sheetes with a title written in text letters which said The Historie of the curious Impertinent The Curate read two or three lines softly to himselfe and said after
greatnesse of my deserts but now I perceive that to bee true which is commonly said That the wheel of Fortune turns about more swiftly then that of a Mill and that they which were yesterday on the top thereof lie to day all along on the ground I am chiefly grieved for my Wife and Children for whereas they ought and might hope to see their Father come in at his gates made a Governour or Vice-Roy of some Isle or Kingdome they shall now see him return unto them no better then a poor Horse-Boy All which I have urged so much Master Curate only to intimate to your paternitie how you ought to have remorse and make a scruple of conscience of treating my dear Lord as you doe and look to it well that God doe not one day demand at your hands in the other life amends for the prison whereinto you carrie him and that you bee not answerable for all the succours and good deeds which hee would have afforded the World in this time of his Captivitie Snuffe me those candles quoth the Barber hearing him speak so What Sancho art thou also of thy Masters confraternity I swear by the Lord I begin to see that thou art very like to keep him company in the Cage and that thou shalt be as deeply inchanted as he for the portion which thou hast of humour and Chivalry Thou wast in an ill hour begotten with child by his promises and in a worse did the Isle which thou so greatly longest for sink into thy pate I am not with child by any body said Sancho nor am I a man of humour to let any body get me with child no though it were the King himself and although I be poor yet am I a Christian and owe nothing to any one and if I desire Islands others there are that desire worse things and every one is the sonne of his own workes and under the name of a man I may become Pope how much more the Governour of an Island and chiefly seeing my Lord may gaine so many as he may want men to bestow them on and therefore Master Barber you should take heed how you speak for all consists not in trimming of beards and there is some difference between Peter and Peter I say it because all of us know one another and no man shall unperceived put a false Die upon me As concerning my Lords inchantment God knowes the truth and therefore let it rest as it is seeing it is the worse for the stirring in The Barber would not reply unto Sancho lest that with his simplicities he should discover what the Curate and himselfe did labour so much to conceale and the Curate doubting the same had intreated the Canon to prick on a little forward and he would unfold to him the mistery of the encaged Knight with other matters of delight The Canon did so and taking his men along with them was very attentive to all that he rehearsed of the condition life madnesse and fashion of Don-Quixote There did he briefly acquaint him with the originall cause of his distraction and all the progresse of his adventures untill his shutting up in that Cage and their own designe in carrying him home to his Country to try whether they might by any means finde out a remedy for his frenzy The Canon and his men again admired to hear so strange a History as that of Don-Quixote and as soon as the Curate had ended his relation the Canon said Verily Master Curate I doe find by experience that those Books which are instituted of Chivalry or Knighthood are very prejudicicall to wel-governed Common-wealths and although borne away by an idle and curious desire I have read the beginning of almost as many as are imprinted of that subject yet could I never indure my selfe to finish and read any one of them thorow for me thinkes that somewhat more or lesse they all import one thing and this hath no more then that nor the other more then his fellow And in mine opinion this kinde of writing and invention falls within the compasse of the Fables called Milesid which are wandring and idle Tales whose only scope is delight and not instruction quite contrarie to the project of those called Fabulae Apologae which delight and instruct together And though that the principall end of such Books bee recreation yet cannot I perceive how they can yeeld it seeing they bee forced with so many and so proportionlesse untruths For the delight that the minde conceives must proceed from the beautie and conformitie which it sees or contemplates in such things as the sight or imagination represents unto it and all things that are deformed and discordant must produce the contrary effect Now then what beautie can there be or what proportion between the parts and the whole or the whole and the parts in a Book or Fable wherein a Youth of sixteen yeers of age gives a blow to a Gyant as great as a Jewes and with that blow divides him in two as easily as if hee were a pellet of Sugar And when they describe a Battell after that they have told us how there were at least a million of men on the adverse side yet if the Knight of the Book bee against them wee must of force and whether wee will or no understand that the said Knight obtained the Victory through the invincible strength of his Arme. what then shall wee say of the facilitie wherewithall the Inheritrix of a Kingdome or Empire falls between the armes of those Errant and unknown Knights What understanding if it bee not altogether barren or barbarous can delight it self reading how a great Tower full of Knights doth passe thorow the Sea as fast as a Ship with the most prosperous winde And that going to Bed a man is in Lombardie and the next morning findes himself in Prester Iohn's Countrey among the Indians or in some other Region which never was discovered by Ptolomeus nor seen by Marcus Polus And if I should bee answered that the inventers of such Books doe write them as Fables and therefore are not bound unto any respect of circumstances or observation of truth I would reply that an untruth is so much the more pleasing by how much the neerer it resembles a truth and so much the more gratefull by how much the more it is doubtfull and possible For lying Fables must bee suited unto the Readers understanding and so written as that facilitating impossible things levelling untrue things and holding the minde in suspence they may ravish a more delight and entertain such manners as pleasure and wonder may step by step walk together all which things hee that writes not likelihoods shall never bee able to perform And as touching imitation wherein consists the perfection of that which is written I have not seen in any Books of Knight-hood an intire bulk of a Fable so proportioned in all the members thereof as that the middle may answer the beginning
Mosen Henry of Ramestan in the Citie of Basilea and bore away the Victorie in both the conflicts to his eternall Fame And that there were no such curres as the Adventures and single Combats begunne and ended in Burgundie by the valiant Spanyards Pedro Garba and Guttierre Quixadâ— from whom I my selfe am lineally descended who overcame the Earle of Saint Paules sonnes They may also averre unto mee that Don Fernando de Guevarra went not to seeke Adventures in Germanie where hee fought with Micer George a Knight of the Duke of Austria his House Let them likewise affirme that Suero de Quinonnes of the passage his Justs were but Jests as 〈◊〉 the Enterprize of Mosen Lewis de falses against Don Goncalo de Guzman a Gentleman of Castile with many other renowned Acts done as well by Christian Knights of this Kingdom as of other forraign Lands which are all so authentical true as that I am compell'd to reiterate what I said before which isâ—â— That whosoever denies them is defective of Reason and good Discourse Full of admiration remained the good Canon to heare the composition and medley that Don-Quixote made of truths and fictions together and at the great notice hee had of all things that might any way cocerne his Knighthood Errant and therefore he shaped him this answere I cannot denie Sir Don-Quixote but that some part of that which you have said is true specially touching those Spanish Adventurers of whom you have spoken and will likewise grant you that there were twelve Peeres of France but I will not beleeve that they have accomplished all that which the Archbishop Turpine pine hath left written of them for the bare truth of the affair is that they were certain Noble men chosen out by the Kings of France whom they called Peers because they were all equall in Valour Qualitie and Worth or if they were not it was at least presumed that they were and they were not much unlike the Militarie orders of Saint Iames or Calatrava were in request wherein is presupposed that such as are of the Profession are or ought to bee valorous and well descended Gentlemen and as now they say a Knight of Saint Iohn or Alcantara so in those times they said a Knight of the twelve Peers because they were twelve equalls chosen to bee of that Military Order That there was a Cid and a Bernard of Carpio is also doubtlesse that they have done the Acts recounted of them I beleeve there is very great cause to doubt As touching the pin of the good Earl Pierres and that it is by Babieca his saddle in the Kings Armorie I confesse that my sin hath made me so ignorant or blinde that although I have viewed the Saddle very well yet could I never get a sight of that Pin how great soever you affirm it to be Well it is there without question quoth Don-Quixote and for the greater confirmation thereof they say it is laid up in a case of Neats leather to keep it from rusting That may very well so bee said the Canon yet by the orders that I have received I doe not remember that ever I saw it and although I should grant it to bee there yet doe I not therefore oblige my self to believe the Histories of all the Amadises nor those of the other rabblement of Knights which Books doe mention unto us nor is it reason that so honourable a man adorn'd with so many good parts and indowed with such a wit as you are should beleeve that so many and so strange follies as are written in the raving Books of Chivalraie can bee true CHAP. XXIII Of the discreet contention between Don-Quixote and the Canon with other accidents THat were a Jest indeed quoth Don-Quixote that Books which are printed with the Kings licence and approbation of those to whom their examination was commited and that are read with universall delight and acceptance and celebrated by great and little rich and poor learned and ignorant Plebeyans and Gentlemen and finally by all kinde of persons of what state or condition soever should bee so lying and fabulous specially seeing they have such probability of truth seeing they describe unto us the Father Mother Countrey Kinsfolk Age Town and Acts of such a Knight or Knights and that so exactly point by point and day by day Hold your peace and never speak again such a blasphemie and beleeve me for I doe sincerely councell you what you as a discreet man ought to doe herein and if not read them but once and you shall see what delight you shall receive thereby if not tell me what greater pleasure can there bee then to behold as one would say even here and before our eyes a great Lake of Pitch boyling-hot and many Serpents Snakes Lizarts and other kindes of cruell and dreadfull Beasts swimming a thwart it and in every part of it and that there issues out of the Lake a most lamentable voyce saying O thou Knight whatsoever thou art which doest behold the fearfull Lake if thou desirest to obtain the good concealed under these horrid and black waters show the valour of thy strong brest and throw thy self into the midest of this sable and inflamed liquor for if thou doest not so thou shall not be worthy to discover the great wonders hidden in the seven Castles of the seven Fates which are seated under these gloomie waves And that scarce hath the Knight heard the fearfull voyce when without entring into any new discourses or once considering the danger whereinto hee thrusts himself yea or easing himself of the weight of his ponderous Armour but only commending himself unto God and his Ladie Mistrisse hee plunges into the midest of that burning puddle and when hee neither cares nor knows what may befall him hee findes himself in the midest of flourishing Fields with which the very Elisean Plains can in no sort bee compared There it seems to him that the element is more transparent and that the Sun shines with a cleerer light then in our Orbe There offers it self to his greedie and curious eye a most pleasing Forrest replenished with so green and well-spread Trees as the verdure thereof both joyes and quickens the sight whilest the eares are entertained by the harmonious though artlesse Songs of infinite and enamelled Birds which traverse the intricate boughs of that shadie habitation Here hee discovers a small stream whose fresh waters resembling liquid Cristall slides over the small Sands and white little stones resembling sifted Gold wherein Orientall Pearls are inchaced There hee discerns an artificiall Fountain wrought of motly Jasper and smooth Marble and hard by it another rudely and negligently framed wherein the sundry Cockle-shels with the wreathed white and yellow houses of the Perwinkle and Snail intermingled and placed after a disorderly manner having now and then peeces of cleer Cristall and counterfeit Emeralds mingled among them doe make a work of so gracefull varietie as Art imitating Nature
Don Iohn why should wee read these fopperies hee that hath read the first part of Don-Quixote it is impossible hee should take any pleasure in reading the second For all that quoth Don Iohn 't were good reading it for there is no book so ill that hath not some good thing in it That which most displeaseth me in this is thet hee makes Don-Quixote disenamoured of Dulcinea del Toboso Which when Don-Quixote heard full of wrath and despight hee lifted up his voyce saying Whosoever saith Don Quixote de la Mancha hath forgotten or can forget Dulcinea del Toboso I will make him know with equall Armes that he is farre from the truth for the peerlesse Dulcinea del Toboso cannot bee forgotten neither can forgetfullnesse bee contained in Don-Quixote his Scutchion is Loyalty his Profession sweetly to keep it without doing it any violence Who is that answers us said they in the next room Who should it bee quoth Sancho but Don-Quixote himself that will make good all hee hath said or as much as hee shall say for a good Pay-master cares not for his pawnes Scarce had Sancho said this when the two Gentlemen came in at the Chamber door for they seemed no lesse to them and one of them casting his Armes about Don-Quixotes neck said neither can your presence belye your name or your name credit your presence Doubtlesse you Sir are the right Don-Quixote de la Mancha North-starre and Morning-starre of Knight Errantry in spight of him that hath usurped your name and annihilated your exploits as the Author of this Book I here deliver hath done and giving him the Book that his companion had Don-Quixote took it and without answering a word began to turne the leaves and a while after returned it saying In this little that I have seen I have found three things in this Authour worthy of reprehension This the Authour of this Book brings in by way of invective against an Aragonian Scholer that wrote a second part of Don Quixote before this was published The first is some words I have read in this Prologue The second that his language is Arragonian for sometimes hee writes without Articles And the third which doth most confirm his ignorance is That hee errs and strayes from the truth in the chiefest of the History for here hee sayes that Sancho Panca my Squires Wifes name was Mary Gutierrez which is not so but shee is called Teresa Panca and therefore hee that errs in so main a matter it may well bee feared he will erre in all the rest of the History To this Sancho said prettily done indeed of the Historian hee knows very well sure what belongs to our Affaires since he calls my Wife Teresa Panca Mary Gutierrez Pray take the Book again Sir and see whether I be there and whether he have chang'd my name By your speech friend quoth Don Ieronimo you should be Sancho Panca Signior Don-Quixotes Squire I am quoth Sancho and I am proud of it Well in faith said the Gentleman this modern Authour doth not treat of you so neatly as your person makes shew for hee paints you out for a Glutton and Ideot and nothing witty and farre different from the Sancho that is described in the first part of your Masters History God forgive him said Sancho hee should have left me in my corner and not remembred me for every man in his ability and 't is good sleeping in a whole skin The two Gentlemen entreated Don-Quixote to goe to their chamber and Sup with them for they knew well that in that Inne hee found not things fitting to his person Don-Quixote who was ever courteous condescended to their requests and supped with them Sancho remained with his flesh-pot sole Lord and Governour Sancho sate at the upper end of the Table and with him the Inn-keeper that was no lesse affectioned to his Neats-feet then Sancho In the midst of supper Don Iohn asked Don Quixote what news hee had of his Lady Dulcinea del Toboso whether shee were married or brought a Bed or great with child or being entire whether respecting her honesty and good decorum she were mindefull of Signior Don Quixotes amorous desires To which he answered Dulcinea is as entire and my desires as firm as ever our correspondency in the ancient barrennsse her beauty transformed into the complexion of a base Milk-wench and straight hee recounted unto them every tittle of her Enchantment and what had befaln him in Montesinos Cave with the order that the sage Merlin had given for her dis-enchanting which was by Sancho's stripes Great was the delight the two Gentlemen received to heare Don Quixote tell the strange passages of his History and so they wondered at his fopperies as also his elegant manner of delivering them here they held him to be wise there he slipped from them by the fool so they know not what medium to give him betwixtn wisedome and folly Sancho ended his Supper and leaving the Inn-keeper passed to the Chamber where his Master was and entring said Hang me Sirs if the Authour of this Book that your Worships have would that wee should eat a good meale together pray God as hee calls me Glutton hee say not that I am a Drunkard too Yes marry doth hee said Don Ieronimo but I know not how directly though I know his reasons doe not hang together and are very erroneous as I see by Sancho's Phisiognomy here present Believe me quoth Sancho Sancho and Don-Quixote are differing in this History from what they are in that Cid Hamete Benengeli composed for wee are my Master valiant discreet and amorous I simple and conceited but neither Glutton nor Drunkard I believe it said Don Iohn and were it possible it should bee commanded that none should dare to treat of the Grand Don Quixotes Affairs but Cid Hamete his first Authour as Alexander commanded that none but Apelles should dare to draw him Let whose will draw me quoth Don-Quixote but let him not abuse me for ofâ— times patience falls when injuries over-load None quoth Don Iohn can be done Signior Don-Quixote that hee will not bee revenged of if he ward it not with the Shield of his patience which in my opinion is strong and great In these and other discourses they passed a great part of the night and though Don Iohn would that Don-Quixote should have read more in the Book to see what it did descant on yet hee could not prevaile with him saying Hee made account he had read it and concluded it to bee but an idle Pamphlet and that hee would not if it should come to the Authours knowledge that hee had medled with it hee should make himself merry to think he had read it for our thoughts must not be busied in filthy and obscene things much lesse our eyes They asked him whither hee purposed his voyage Hee answered to Saragosa to be at the Justs in Harnesse that use to be there yeerly Don Iohn told him that
distribute in pious uses Item I intreat the said Executors and Over-seers of my Will that if by good fortune they come to the knowledge of the Authour who is said to have composed an History which goes from hand to hand under the Title of The second part of the heroike feats of Armes of Don Quixote de la Mancha they shall in my behalf most affectionately desire him to pardon me for that I have unawares given them occasion to write so infinite a number of great extravagancies and idle impertinencies for so much as I depart out of this life with this scruple upon my conscience to have given him subject and cause to publish them to the world Hee had no sooner ended his discourse and signed and sealed his Will and Testament but a swouning and faintnesse surprizing him hee stretched himself the full length of his Bed All the company were much distracted and moved thereat and ranne presently to help him And during the space of three dayes that hee lived after hee had made his Will hee did Swoun and fall into Trances almost every hour All the house was in a confusion and uproare All which notwithstanding the Neece ceased not to feed very devoutly the Maid-servant to drink profoundly and Sancho to live merrily For when a man is in hope to inherit any thing that hope doth deface or at least moderate in the minde of the inheritor the remembrance or feeling of the sorrow and grief which of reason hee should have a feeling of the Testators death To conclude the last day of Don-Quixote came after hee had received all the Sacraments and had by many and Godly reasons made demonstration to abhorr all the Books of Errant Chivalry The Notary was present at his death and reporteth how hee had never read or found in any Book of Chivalrie that any Errant Knight dyed in his Bed so mildly so quietly so Christianly as did Don-Quixote Amidst the wailfull plaints and blubbering tears of the by-standers hee yeelded up the ghost that is to say hee dyed which the Curate perceiving hee desired the Notary to make him an Attestation or Certificate how Alonso Quixano surnamed the good and who was commonly called Don-Quixote de la Mancha hee was deceased out of this life unto another and dyed of a naturall death Which Testificate hee desired to remove all occasions from some Authors except Cid Hamete Benengeli falsly to raise him from death again and write endlesse Histories of his famous Acts. This was the end of the ingenious Gentleman de la Mancha of whose birth-place Cid Hamete hath not been pleased to declare manifestly the situation unto us to the end that all Villages Towns Boroughs Hamlets of la Mancha should contest quarrell dispute among themselves the honour to have produced him as did the seven Cities of Greece for the love of Homer we have not been willing to make mention and relate in this place the dolefull plaints of Sancho nor those of the Neece and Maid-servant of Don Quixote nor likewise the sundry new and quaint Epitaphs which were graven over his tombe Content your self with this which the Bachelor Samson Carrasco placed there Here lies the Gentle Knight and stout That to that height of valour got As if you marke his deeds throughout Death on his life triumphed not With bringing of his death about The world as nothing hee did prize For as a Scar-crow in mens eyes Hee liv'd and was their Bug-bear too And had the luck with much adoe To live a foole and yet die wise In the meane while the wise and prudent Cid Hamete Benengeli addrest this speech unto his witty Pen Here it is oh my slender Quill whether thou bee ill or well cut that thou shalt abide hanged upon those Racks whereon they hang Spits and Broaches being there-unto fastned with this Copper Wire There shalt thou live many ages except some rash fond-hardy and lewd Historian take thee downe to profane thee Neverthelesse before they lay hands upon thee thou maist as it were by way of advertisement and as well as thou canst boldly tell them Away pack hence stand a farr off you wicked botchers and ungracious Souters and touch mee not since to mee only it belongs to cause to bee imprinted Cum bono Privilegio Regiae Majestatis Don-Quixote was borne for mee alone and I had my birth onely for him If hee hath been able to produce the effects I have had the glory to know how to write and compile them well To be short He and I are but one selfe-same thing maugre and in despight of the fabulous Scribler de Tordesillas who hath rashly and malapâ—rtly dared with an Estridge course and bungling Pen to write the prowesse and high Feates of Armes of my valorous Knight This fardle is too-too heavy for his weake shoulders and his dull wit over-cold and frozen for such an enterprize And if peradventure thou know him thou shalt also advise him to suffer the weary and already rotten bones of Don-Quixote to rest in his Sepulchre For it would bee too great a cruelty if contrary to all Orders and Decrees of Death hee should goe about to make shew of him in Castila the olde where in good sooth hee lyeth within a Sepulchre layd all along and unable to make a third journey and a new outrode It is sufficient to mocke those that so many wandring Knights have made that those two whereof hee hath made shew unto the world to the generall applause and universall content of all Peoples and Nations that have had knowledge of them as well through the whole Countries of Spain as in all other forreigne Kingdomes Thus shalt thou performe what a good Christian is bound to doe in giving good counsell to him that wisheth thee evill As for mee I shall rest contented and well satisfied to have been the first that fully enjoyed the fruites of his writings and that according to my desires since I never desired any other thing then that men would utterly abhore the fabulous impertinent and extravagant Bookes of Chivalries And to say truth by meanes of my true Don-Quixote they begin already to stagger for undoubtedly such fables and slim-slam tales will shortly faile and I hope shall never rise again Farewell FINIS * O dulces prendas A beginning of a Sonnet in Diana de Monto Mayoâ— which D. Q. here rapâ— out upon a suddain Verses made on purpose absurdly as the subject required and so translated ad verbum a These verses and the former of Altisidora are made to bee scurvy on purpose by the Author fitting the occasions and the subjects so he observes neyther Verse nor Rime * Though these Verses were made on purpose to bee absurd yet sure the authoritie here fell into the common absurditie that I have known many of his Countreymen doe which is that England is in London and not Vice Versa
THE HISTORY OF The Valorous and VVitty-KNIGHT-ERRANT Don-Quixote of the Mancha Translated out of the Spanish now newly Corrected and Amended LONDON Printed by Richard Hodgkinsonne for Andrew Crooke 1652. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE his very good friend the Lord of VValden c. MIne Honourable Lord having Translated some five or six years agoe the Historie of Don-Quixote out of the Spanish tongue into the English in the space of fourty dayes being thereunto more then half enforced through the importunity of a very deer friend that was desirous to understand the subject After I had given once a view thereof I cast it aside where it lay long time neglected in a corner and so little regarded by me as I never once set hand to review or correct the same Since when at the entreatie of others my friends I was content to let it come to light conditionally that some one or other would peruse and and amend the errours escaped my many affairs hindring me from undergoing that labour Now I understand by the Printer that the Copie was presented to your Honor which did at the first somewhat disgust me because as it must pass I fear much it wil prove far unworthy either of your Noble view or protection Yet since it is mine though abortive I doe humbly intreat that your Honour will lend it a favourable countenance thereby to animate the Parent thereof to produce in time some worthier subject in your Honourable name whose many rare Virtues have already rendred me so highly devoted to your service as I will some day give very evident tokens of the same and till then I rest Your Honours most affectionate Servitor Thomas Shelton The Authors Preface to the Reader THou maist beleeve me gentle Reader without swearing that I could willingly desire this book as a childe of understanding to be the most beautifull gallant and discreet that might possibly bee imagined But I could not transgresse the order of Nature wherein every thing begets his like which being so what could my sterile and ill-tild wit engender but the History of a dry toasted and humorous sonne full of various thoughts and conceits never before imagined of any other much like one who was ingendred within some noysome prison where all discommodities have taken possession and all dolefull noyses made their habitation seeing that rest pleasant places amenity of the fields the cheerfulnesse of cleer skie the murmuring noyse of the cristal fountains quiet repose of the spirit are great helps for the most barren Muses to shew themselves fruitful to bring forth into the world such births as may enrich it with admiration delight It oft times befals that a father hath a child both by by birth evil favoured and quite devoid of all perfection and yet the love that hee bears him is such as it casts a mask over his eyes which hinders his descerning of the faults and simplicities thereof and makes him rather to deem them discretions beauty and so tels them to his friends for witty jests conceits But I though in shew a father yet in truth but a step-father to Don Quixote will not bee born away by the violent current of the modern custome now a daies and therefore intreat thee with the tears almost in mine eyes as many others are wont to doe most dear Reader to pardon and dissemble the faults which thou shalt discern in this my soone for thou art neither his kinsman nor friend and thou hast thy soul in thy body and thy free will therein as absolute as the best and thou art in thine own house wherein thou art as absolute a Lord as the King is of his subsidies and thou knowest well the common Proverb that Under my cloak a fig for the King all which doth exempt thee and makes thee free from all respect and obligation and so thou maiest holdly say of this History whatsoever thou shalt think good without fear either to bee controled for the evill or rewarded for the good thou shalt speak thereof I would very fain have presented it unto thee pure and Naked without the ornament of a Preface or the rabblement Catalogue of the wonted Sonnets Epigrams Poems Elegies c. which are wont to bee put at the beginning of Books For I dare say unto thee that although it cost me some pains to compose it yet in no respect did it equalize that which I took to make this preface which thou doest now read I took oftentimes my pen in my hand to write it and as often set it down again as not knowing what I should write and being once in amuse with my Paper before me my Pen in mine eare mine elbow on the table and my hand on my cheek imagining what I might write there entred a friend of mine unexpectedly who was a very discreet and pleasantly witted man who seeing me so pensative demanded of me the reason of my musing And not concealing it from him said That I bethought my self on my preface I was to make to Don Quixotes History which did so much trouble me as I neither mean to make any at all nor publish the History of the Acts of so noble a Knight For how can I choose quoth I but be much confounded at that which the old legislator the Vulgar will say when it sees that after the end of so many years as are spent since I first step in the bosome of oblivion I come out loaden with my gray haires and bring with me a Book as dry as a Kex void of invention barren of good phrase poor of conceits and altogether emptie both of learning and eloquence without quotations on the margents or annotations in the end of the Book wherewith I see other Books are still adorned bee they never so idle fabulous and prophane so full of sentences of Aristotle and Plato and the other crue of the Philosophers as admires the Readers and makes them beleeve that these Authours were very learned and eloquent And after when they cite Plutarch or Cicero what can they say but that they are the sayings of S. Thomas or other Doctors of the Church observing herein so ingenious a method as in one line they will paint you an enamoured gull and in the other will lay you down a little seeming devout sermon so that it is a great pleasure and delight to read or heare it all which things must be wanting in my Book for neither have I any thing to cite on the margent or note in the end much lesse doe I know what Authors I follow to put them at the beginning as the custome is by the letter of the A.B.C. beginning with Aristotle and ending in Xenophon or in Zoylus or Zeuxis Although the one was a Railer and the other a Painter So likewise shall my Book want Sonnets at the beginning at least such Sonnets whose Authours bee Dukes Marquesses Earls Bishops Ladies or famous Poets Although if I would demand them
with other strange Adventures befaln in the Inne CHAP. XVII Wherein are prosecuted the wonderfull Adventures of the Inne CHAP. XVIII Wherein are decided the controversies of Mambrino's Helmet and the Asses Pannell with other strange Adventures most doubtlesly befaln CHAP. XIX In which is finished the notable Adventure of the Troopers and the great ferocitie of our good Knight Don Quixote and how hee was inchanted CHAP. XX. Wherein is prosecuted the manner of Don Quixotes inchantment with other famous occurrences CHAP. XXI Wherein the Canon continueth his discourse upon Books of Chivalrie With many other things worthy of his note CHAP. XXII Wherein is laid down the very discreet discourse that passed between Sancho Pança and his Lord Don Quixote CHAP. XXIII Of the discreet contention passed between Don Quixote and the Canon with other accidents CHAP. XXIV Relating that which the Goatheard told to those that carried away Don Quixote CHAP. XXV Of the falling out of Don Quixote with the Goatheard with the Adventure of the disciplinants to which the Knight gave end although to his cost THE Delightfull-Historie of the most ingenious Knight DON QUIXOTE of the Mancha The first Part. CHAP. I. Wherein is rehearsed the Calling and Exercise of the Renowned Gentleman Don-Quixote of the Mancha THere lived not long since in a certain Vilage of the Mancha the hame whereof I purposely omit a Gentleman of their calling that use to pile up in their Halls old Launces Halbards Morrions and such other Armours and Weapons He was besides Master of an ancient Target a Lean Stallion and a swift Grayhound His pot consisted daily of somewhat more Beef then Mutton a Galli mawfry each night Collops and Eggs on Saturdayes Lentils on Fridayes and now and then a lean Pigeon on Sundayes did consume three parts of his Rents the rest and remnant thereof was spent on a Jerkin of fine Puke a pair of Velvet hose with Pantofles of the same for the Holy-dayes and one Sute of the finest Vesture for therewithall he honoured and see out his person on the work dayes He had in his house a woman servant of about fourty yeers old and a Neece not yet twenty and a man that served him both in field and at home and could saddle his Horse and likewise manage a pruning hook The Master himself was about fifty yeers old of a strong complexion dry flesh and a withered face He was an early riser and a great friend of hunting Some affirm that his surname was Qixada or Quesada for in this there is some varience among the Authors that write his life although it may be gathered by very probable conjectures that he was called Quixanall Yet all this concerns our Historicall Relation but little◠Let it then suffice that in the Narration thereof we will not vary a jot from the truth You shall therefore wit that this Gentleman above named the spirts that he was idle which was the longer part of the year did apply himself wholly to the reading of Books of Knight-hood and that with such gusts and delights as he almost wholly neglected the exercise of hunting yea and the very administration of his houshould affairs and his curiosity and folly came to that passe that he made away many Acres of arable Land to buy him books of that kinde and therefore he brought to his house as many as ever he could get of that Subject And among them all none pleased him better then those which famous Felician of Silva composed For the smoothness of his Prose with now and then some intricate sentence meddled seemed to him peerlesse and principally when he did read the courtings or Letters of challenge that Knights sent to Ladies or one to another where in many places he found written The reason of the unreasonablenesse which against my reason is wrought doth so weaken my reason as withall reason I doe justly complain on your Beauty And also when he read the high Heavens which with your Divinity doe fortifie you divinely with the Starrs and make you deserveresse of the Deserts which your Greatnesse deserves c. With these and other such passages the poor Gentleman grew distracted and was breaking his brains day and night to understand and unbowell their sense An endlesse labour foreven Aristotle himself would not understand them though he were again resuscitated only for that purpose He did not like so much the unproportionate blows that Don Belianie gave and took in fight for as he imagined were the Surgeons never so cunning that cured them yet was it impossible but that the Patient his Face and all his Body must remain full of scars and tokens yet did he praise notwithstanding in the Author of that History the conclusion of his book with the promise of the endlesse adventure and many times he himself had a desire to take pen and finish it exactly as it is there promised and would doubtlesly have performed it and that 〈◊〉 with happy successe if other more urgent and continuall thoughts had not disturbed him Many times did he fall at varience with the Curate of his Village who was a learned man graduated in Ciguenca touching who was the better Knight Palmerin of England or Amadis de Gaule But Mr. Nicholas the Barber of the same Town would affirm that none of both arrived in worth to the Knight of the Sun and if any one Knight might paragon with him it was infallibly Don Galaor Amadis de Gaule's brother whose nature might fitly be accommodated to any thing For he was not so coy and whyning a Knight as his brother and that in matters of Valour he did not bate him an Ace In resolution he plunged himself so deeply in his reading of these books as he spent many times in the Lecture of them whole dayes and nights and in the end through his little sleep and much reading he dryed up his brains in such sort as he lost wholy his Judgement His fantasie was filled with those things that he read of Enchantments Quairels Battels Challenges Wounds Wooings Loves Tempests and other impossible follies And these toyes did so firmly possesse his imagination with an infallible opinion that all that Machina of dreamed inventions which he read was true as he accounted no History in the World to be so certain and sincere as they were He was wont to say that the Gid Ruydiaz A famous Captain of the Spanish Nation was a very good Knight but not to be compared to the Knight of the burning Sword which with one thwart blow cut asunder two fierce and mighty Gyants He agreed better with Bernarde del Carpio because he flew the enchanted Rowland in Roncesuales He likewise liked of the shift Hercules used when he smothered Antean the son of the earth between his arms He praised the Gyant Margant marvelously because though he was of that Monstrom Progenie who are commonly all of them proud and rude yet he only was affable and courteous But he agreed best
question that was put to him Which the good man perceiving disarmed him the best he could to see whether he had any wound but he could see no blood or any token on him of hurt Afterward he endeavoured to raise him from the ground which he did at the last with much adoe and mounted him on his Asse as a Beast of easiest carriage He gathered then together all his Arms and left not behinde so much as the splinters of the Launce and tied them altogether upon Rozinante whom he took by the bridle and the Asse by his halter and led them both in that equipage fair and easily towards his Village being very pensative to hear the follies that Don-Quixote spoak And Don-Quixote was no lesse melancholy who was so beaten and bruised as he could hardly hold himself upon the Asse and ever and anon he breathed forth such grievons sighs as he seemed to fix them in Heaven which moved his neighbour to intreat him again to declare unto him the cause of his grief And it seems none other but that the very Devill himself did call to his memorie Histories accommodated to his successes For in that instant wholy forgeting Valdovinos he remembred the Moor Abindaraez then when the Constable of Antequera Roderick Narvaez had taken him and carried him prisoner to his Castle So that when his neighbour turned again to aske of him how hee did and what ailed him he answered the very same words and speech that Captive Abencerrase said to Narvaez just as hee had read them in Diana of Montemayor where the History is written applying it so properly to his purpose that the labourer grew almost mad for anger to heare that Machina of follies by which hee collected that his neighbour was distracted and therfore hee hied as fast as possible hee could to the Village that so hee might free himself from the vexation that Don-Quixotes idle and prolixe discourse gave unto him At the end whereof the Knight said Don Rodericke of Narvaez You shall understand that this beautifull Xarifa of whom I spoak is now the faire Dulcinea of Toboso for whom I have done I doe and will doe such famous acts of Knighthood as ever have beene are and shall be seen in all the World To this his neighbour answered doe not you perceive Sir sinner that I am how I am neyther Don Roderick de Narvaez nor the Marquesse of Mantua but Peter Alonso your neighbour nor are you Valdovinos nor Abindaraez but the honourable yeoman Master Quixada I know very well who I am quoth Don-Quixote and also I know that I may not only bee those whom I have named but also all the twelve Peeres of France yea and the nine worthies since mine Acts shall surpasse all those that ever they did together or every one of them apart With these and such other discourses they arived at last at their Village about Sun-set but the labourer awayted untill it waxed somwhat darke because folke should not view the Knight so simply mounted And when hee saw his time he entred into the Towne and went to Don-Quixotes house which hee found full of confusion There was the Curate the Barbar of the Village both of them Don-Quixotes great friends to whom the old woman of the house said in a lamentable manner What doe you think Master Licentiate Pere Perez for so the Curate was called of my Masters misfortune These six dayes neyther hee nor his horse have appeared nor the Target Launce or Armour unfortunate woman that I am I doe suspect and I am as sure it is true as that I shall die how those accursed Books of Knighthood which hee hath and is wont to reade ordinarily have turned his judgement for now I remember that I have heard him say often times speaking to himself that hee would become a Knight Errant and goe seeke Adventures throughout the World Let such Books bee recommended to Sathan and Barrabas which have destroyed in this sort the most delicate understanding of all the Mancha His Niese affirmed the same and did add moreover you shall understand good Master Nicholus for so hight the Barbar that it many times befell my Uncle to continue the Lecture of those unhappy Books of disventures two dayes and two nights together At the end of which throwing the book away from him he would lay hand on his Sword and would fall a slashing of the walls and when hee were wearied hee would say that hee had slain foure Giants as great as foure Towres and the sweat that dropped down through the labour hee tooke hee would say was blood that gushed out of those wounds which hee had received in the conflict and then would hee quaffe off a great pot full of cold water and straight hee did become whole and quiet saying that water was a most precious drinke which the wise man Esquife a great Enchanter or Sorcerer and his friend had brought unto him But I am in the fault of all this who never advertis'd you both of mine Uncles raving to the end you might have redrest it ere it came to these termes and burnt all those Excommunicate Books for hee had many that deserved the Fire as much as if they were Hereticall That doe I likewise affirme quoth Master Curate and in soothe to morrow shall not passe over us without making a publique Processe against them and condemn them to bee burned in the Fire that they may not minister occasion again to such as may read them to doe that which I feare my good friend hath done The Labourer and Don-Quixote stood hearing all that which was said and then hee perfectly found the disease of his neighbour and therefore he began to crie aloud Open the doores to Lord Valdovinos and to the Lord Marquesse of Mantua who comes very sore wounded and hurt and to the Lord Moore Abindaraez whom the valorous Rodericke of Narvaez Constable of Antequera brings as his Prisoner All the houshould ran out hearing these cries and some knowing their friend the others their Master and Uncle who had not yet alighted from the Asse because he was not able they ran to embrace him but he forbad them saying stand still and touch me not for I returne very sore wounded and hurt through default of my horse carie me to my bed and if it be possible send for the wise Viganda that she may cure and looke to my hurt See in an ill houre quoth the old woman straight way if my heart did not very well foretell me on which foote my Master halted come up in good time for we shall know how to cure you well enough without sending for that Viganda you have mentioned Accursed say I once again and a hundred times accursed may those bookes of Knighthood be which have brought you to such a state With that they bore him up to his bed and searching for his wounds could not finde any and then hee said all was but bruising by
reason of a great fall hee had with his horse Rozinante as hee fought with ten Giants the most unmeasurable and boldest that might bee found in a great part of the Earth Hearken quoth the Curate wee have also Giants in the dance by mine honesty I will burne them all before to morrow at night Then did they aske a thousand questions of Don-Quixote but hee would answere to none of them and only requested them to give him some meate and suffer him to sleep seeing rest was most behoovefull for him All which was done and the Curate informed himself at large of the laboring man in what sort hee had found Don-Quixote which hee recounted to him and also the follies hee said both at his finding and bringing to Towne which did kindle more earnestly the Licentiates desire to doe what hee had resolved the next day which was to call his friend the Barber M. Nicholas with whom hee came to Don-Quixotes House CHAP. VI. Of the pleasant and curious search made by the Curate and the Barbar of Don-Quixotes Library WHO slept yet soundly The Curate sought for the keyes of the Library the only authors of his harme which the Gentleman 's Niese gave unto him very willingly All of them entred into it and among the rest the old woman wherein they found more then a hundred great Volumes and those very well bound beside the small ones And as soone as the old woman had seene them shee departed very hastily out of the chamber and eftsoones returned with as great speed with a holy-water pot and a sprinkler in her hand and said Hold Master Licentiate and sprinkle this chamber all about lest there should lurke in it some one Inchanter of â—he many which these bookes contain and cry quittance with us for the penalties wee meane to inflict on these Bookes by banishing them out of this world The simplicitie of the good old woman caused the Licentiat to laugh who commanded the Barber to fetch him down the Books from their shelves one by one that hee might peruse their Arguments for it might happen some to bee found which in no fort deserved to bee chastised with Fire No replyed the Niese no you ought not to pardon any of them seeing they have all beene offenders it is better you throw them all into the base Court and there make a pile of them and then set them a Fire if not they may bee carried into the yard and there make a bon-fire of them and the smoak will offend no body the old woman said as much both of them thirsted so much for the death of these Innocents but the Curate would not condiscend thereto untill he had first read the Titles at the lest of every booke The first that Master Nicholas put into his hands was that of Amadis of Gaule which the Curate perusing a while this comes not to mee first of all others without some mystery for as I have heard told this is the first Book of Knighthood that ever was printed in Spain and all the others have had their beginning and originall from this and therefore methinks that we must condemn him to the fire without all remission as the Dogmatizer and head of so bad a Sect. Not so fie quoth the Barber for I have heard that it is the very best contrived book of all those of that kinde and therefore he is to be pardoned as the only compleat one of his profession That is true replied the Curate and for that reason we doe give him his life for this time Let us see that other which lyes next unto him It is quoth the Barber The Las Sâ—rgas pag. 73. Adventure of Splandian Amadis of Gaules lawfully begotten son Yet on mine honesty replyed the Curate his fathers goodnesse shall nothing avail him take this book old Masters and open the window throw it down into the yard and let it lay the foundation of our heap for the fire we mean to make She did what was commanded with great alacrity and so the good Splandian fled into the yard to expect with all patience the fire which he was threatned to abide Forward quoth the Curate This that comes now said the Barber is Amadis of Greece and as I conjecture all those that lye on this side are of the same linage of Amadis Then let them goe all to the yard quoth the Curate in exchange of burning Queen Pintiquinestra and the Sheepheard Darinel with his Eglogues and the subtle and intricate Discourses of the Author which are able â—o intangle the father that ingendred me if he went in form of a Knight Errant I am of the same opinion quoth the Barber And I also said the Niese Then since it is so quoth the old wife let them come and to the yard with them all They were rendred all up unto her which were many in number wherefore to save a labour of going up and down the stairs she threw them out at the window What bundle is that quoth the Curate This is answered Master Nicholas Don Olivante of Laura The authour of that booke quoth the Curate composed likewise The Garden of flowers and in good sooth I can scarce resolve which of the two works is truest or to speake better is lesse lying onely this much I can determine that this must goe to the yard being a booke foolish and arrogant This that followes is Florismarte of Hircania quoth the Barber Is Lord Florismarte there then replyed the Curate then by mine honesty he shall briefly make his arrest in the yard in despight of his wonderfull birth and famous Adventures for the drouth and harshnesse of his stile deserves no greater favour To the yard with him and this other good Masters with a very good will quoth old Mumpsimus and streight way did execute his commandement with no small gladnesse This is Platyr quoth the Barber It is an ancient book replyed the Curate wherin I finde nothing meriting pardon let him without any reply keep company with the rest Forthwith it was done Then was another book opened and they saw the title thereof to be The Knight of the Crosse. For the holy title which this book beareth quoth the Curate his ignorance might be pardoned but it is a common saying The Devill lurks behinde the Crosse wherefore let it goe to the fire The Barber taking another book said This is The Mirror of Knighthood I know his worship well quoth the Curate There goes among those books I see the Lord Raynold of Montalban with his friends and companions all of them greater Theeves then Cacus A Theefe that used to steal Cattell and pull them backward by the tayles that none might trace them and the twelve Peers of France with the Historiographer Turpin I am in truth about to condemn them only to exile for as much as they contain some part of the famous Poet Matthew Boyardo his invention Out of which the Christian Poet Lodovick Ariosto did likewise weave
as if it were Apollo his owne worke and goe forward speedily good Gossip for it growes late This booke quoth the Barber opening of another is The twelve bookes of the fortunes of Love written by Anthony Lâ—fraso the 〈◊〉 Poet. By the holy Orders which I have received quoth the Curate since Apollo was Apollo and the Muses Muses and Poets Poets was never written so delightful band extravagant a worke as this and that in his way and vaine it is the only one of all the bookes that have everissued of that kinde to view the light of the world and hee that hath not read it may make account that hee hath never read matter of delight Give it to men Gossip for I doe prize more the finding of it then I would the gift of a Caâ—â—ocke of the best sate in of Florence and so with great joy bee laid it aside and the Barbar prosecuted saying these that follow bee The Sheepheard of Iâ—eâ—â— The Nymphs of Enares and the Recâ—â—ing of the 〈◊〉 Then there is no more to bee done but to deliver them up to the secular arm of the old wife and doe not demand the reason for that were never to make an end This that comes is The Sheepheard of Filida That is not a Sheepheard quoth the Curate but a very compleat Courtier let it bee reserved as a precious jewell This great one that followes is said the Barber intituledâ— The Treasure of divers Poems If they had not beene so many replyed the Curate they would have beene more esteemed It is necessary that this book bee carded and purged of certain base things that lurke among his high conceits Let Him bee kept both because the Author is my very great friend and in regard of other more Heroicall and lost in works hee hath written This is said the Barber The ditty booke of Lopez Maldonadâ— The Author of that worke is likewise my great friend replyed the Parson and his lines pronounced by himselfe doe ravish the hearers and such is the sweetnesse of his voice when hee sings them as it doth enchant the eare Hee is somwhat prolix in his Eglogues but that which is good is never superfluous let him bee kept among the choysest But what booke is that which lies next unto him The Galatea of Michael Cervantes quoth the Barber That Cervantes said the Curate is my old acquaintance this many a yeere and I know hee is more practised in misfortunes then in verses His booke hath some good invention in it hee intends and propounds somwhat but concludes nothing therefore wee must expect the second Part which hee hath promised perhaps his amendment may obtaine him a generall remission which until now is denied him and whilest we expect the sight of his second work keep this part closely imprisoned in your lodging I am very well content to do so good Gossip said the Barber and here there come three together The Auracana of Don Alonso de Ercilla The Austriada of Iohn Ruffo one of the Magistrates of Cordova and The Monserrato of Christopher de Virnes a Valentian Poet. All these three books quoth the Curate are the best that are written in heroicall verse in the Castilian tongue and may compare with the most famous of Italy reserve them as the richest pawns that Spain enjoyeth of Poetry The Curate with this grew weary to see so many books and so he would have all the rest burned at all adventures But the Barber ere the Sentence was given had opened by chance one entituled The Tears of Angelica I would have shed those tears my self said the Curate if I had wittingly caused such a book to bee burned for the Author thereof was one of the most famous Poets of the World not only of Spain And was most happy in the translation of certain Fables of Ovid. CHAP. VII Of the second departure which our good Knight Don-Quixote made from his house to seek Adventures WHile they were thus busied Don-Quixote began to cry aloud saying Here here valourous Knights here it is needfull that you shew the force of your valiant armes for the Courtiers begin to bear away the best of the Tourney The folk repairing to this rumour and noyse was an occasion that any farther speech and visitation of the books was omitted and therefore it is to be suspected that The Caâ—â—leâ—â— and Lyon of Spain with the acts of the Emperor Charles the fifth written by Don Luis de Avila were burned without being ever seen or heard and perhaps if the Curate had seen them they should not have pas'd under so rigorous a sentence When they all arrived to Don-Quixote his Chamber he was risen already out of his Bed and continued still his out-cries cutting and flashing on every side being as bâ—â—â—dly awake as if he never had slept Wherefore taking him in their arms they returned him by main force into his Bed and after he was somewhat quiet and setled he said turning himself to the Curate In good sooth Lord Archbishop Turpin it is a great dishonor to us that are called the twelve Peers to permit the Knights of the Court to bear thus away the glory of the Tournay without more adoe seeing that we the Adventures have gained the prize thereof the three formost dayes Hold your peace good Gossip quoth the Curate for fortune may be pleased to change the successe what is lost to day may be wonn again to morrow Look you to your health for the present for you seem at least to be very much tyred if besides you be not sore wounded Wounded no quoth Don-Quixote but doubtless I am somewhat bruised for that Bastard Don Rowland hath beaten me to powder with the stock of an Oake-tree and all for envy because he sees that I only dare oppose my self to his valour But let me be never again called Raynold of Montealban if he pay not deerly for it as soon as I rise from this Bed in despite of all his inchantment But I pray you call for my breakfast for I know it will doe me much good and have the revenge of this wrong to my charge Presently meat was brought and after he had eaten he fell a sleep and they remained astonished at his wonderfull madnesse That night the old woman burned all the books that she found in the house and yard and some there were burned that deserved for their worthynesse to be kept up in everlasting Treasuries if their fortunes and the lazinesse of the Searchers had permitted it And so the proverb was verrified in them That the Just payes sometimes for the Sinners One of the remedies which the Curate and the Barber prescribed for that present to help their friends Disease was that they should change his Chamber and dam up his Study to the end that when he arose he might not finde them for perhaps by removing the cause they might also take away the effects And moreover they bad them to say that a certain
Inchanter had carried them away studie and all which device was presently put in practise And within two dayes after Don-Quixote got up and the first thing he did was to goe and visit his books and seeing he could not finde the Chamber in the same place where he had left it hee went up and down to finde it Sometimes he came to the place where the door stood and felt it with his hands and then would turn his eyes up and down here and there to seek it without speaking a word But at last after deliberation he asked of the old woman the way to his books She as one well-schooled before what she should answer said What Study or what nothing is this you look for There is now no more Study nor books in this house for the very Divell himself carried all away with him It was not the Divell said his Niese but an Inchanter that came here one night upon a cloud the day after you departed from hence and alighting down from a Serpent upon which he rode he entred into the study and what he did therein I know not and within a while after he fled out at the roof of the house and left all the house full of smoak And when we accorded to see what he had done we could neither see Book or Studie only this much the old woman And I doe remember very well that the naughty old man at his departure said with a loud voyce that he for hidden enmity that he bore to the Lord of those books had done all the harme to the house that they might perceive when he were departed and added that he was named the wise Muniaton Frestron you would have said quoth Don-Quixote I know not quoth the old woman whether he height Frestron or Friton but well I wot that his name ended with Ton. That is true quoth Don-Quixote and he is a very wise Inchanter and my great adversary and looks on me with a sinister eye for he knows by his Art and Science that I shall in time fight a single combat with a Knight his very great friend and overcome him in battell without being able to be by him assisted and therefore he labours to doe me all the hurt he may and I have sent him word that he strives in vain to divert or shun that which is by heaven already decreed Who doubts of that quoth his Niese But I pray you good Unkle say what need have you to thrust your self into these difficulties and brabbles were it not better to rest you quietly in your own house then to wander through the world searching bread of Buscardo pan de Trastrigo p. 47. blasted corn without once considering how many there goe to seek for wooll that return again shorn themselves O Niese quoth Don-Quixote how ill doest thou understand the matter before I permit my self to be shorn I will pill and pluck away the beards of as many as shall dare or imagine to touch but a hair only of me To these words the woman would make no reply because they saw his choler increase Fifteene dayes he remained quietly at home without giving any argument of seconding his former vanities in which time past many pleasant encounters betweene him and his two gossips the Curate and Barber upon that point which he defended to wit that the world needed nothing so much as Knights errant and that the erraticall Knighthood ought to be again renewed therein Master Parson would contradict him sometimes and other times yeeld unto that he urged for had they not observed that manner of proceeding it were impossible to bring him to any conformity In this space Don-Quixote dealt with a certain labourer his neighbour an honest man if the title of honesty may be given to the poore but one of a very shallow wit in resolution he said so much to him and perswaded him so earnesty and made him so large promises as the poore fellow determined to goe away with him and serve him as his Squire Don-Quixote among many other things bad him to dispose himself willingly to depart with him for now and then such an adventure might present it self that in as short space as one would take up a couple of straws an Island might be won and he be left as Governor thereof With these and such like promises Sancho Panca for so he was called left his wife and children and agreed to be his Squire Afterward Don-Quixote began to cast plots how to come by some money which he atchieved by selling one thing pawning another and turning all up-side down At last he got a pretty sum and accommodating himself with a buckler which he had borrowed of a friend and patching up his broken Beaver again as well he could he advertised his Squire Sancho of the day and hour wherein he meant to depart that he might likewise furnish himself with that which he thought needfull but above all things he charged him to provide himself of a Wallet which he promised to perform and said that he meant also to carry a very good Asse which he had of his own because he was not wont to travell much a foot In that of the Asse Don-Quixote stood a while pensive calling to minde whether ever he had read that any Knight Errant carried his Squire Assishly mounted but he could not remember any authority for it yet notwithstanding he resolved that he might bring his beast with intention to accomodate him more honourably when occasion were offered by dismounting the first-discourteous Knight they met from his horse and giving it to his Squire he also furnished himself with Shirts and as many other things as he might according unto the Inn-keepers advise All which being finished Sancho Panca without bidding his wife and children farewell or Don-Quixote his Niese and old servant they both departed one night out of the Village unknown to any person living and they travelled so farr that night as they were sure in the morning not to be found although they were pursued Sancho Pancha rode on his beast like a Patriark with his Wallet and Bottle and a marvellous longing to see himself Governour of the Island which his master had promised unto him Don-Quixote took by chance the same very course and way that he had done in his first voyage through the field of Montiel wherein he travelled then with lesse vexation then the first for by reason it was early and the Sun beams stroke not directly down but athwart the heat did not trouble them much And Sancho Pancha seeing the oportunity good said to his Master I pray you have care good Sir Knight that you forget not that Government of the Island which you have promised me for I shall be able to Govern it were it never so great To which Don-Quixote replyed You must understand friend Sancho Pancha that it was a custome very much used by ancient Knights Errant to make their Squires Governours of the Islands and
Island By this Don-Quixote arose and setting his left hand to his mouth that the rest of his teeth might not fall out he caught hold on the Raines of Rozinantes bridle with the other who had never stir'd from his Master such was his loyalty and good nature he went towards his Squire that leaned upon his Asse with his hand under his cheek like one pensative and malecontent And Don-Quixote seeing of him in that guise with such signes of sadnesse said unto him Know Sancho that one man is not more then another if he doe not more then another All these storms that fall on us are arguments that the time will waxe calm very soon and that things will have better successe hereafter for it is not possible that either good or ill be dureable And hence we may collect that our misfortunes having lasted so long our fortune and weale must be likewise neer And therefore thou oughtest not thus to afflict thy self for the disgraces that befall me seeing no part of them fall to thy lot How not quoth Sancho Was he whom they tossed yester day in the Coverlet by fortune any other mans sonne then my Fathers and the Wallet that I want to day with all my Provision was it any others then mine own What doest thou want thy Wallet Sancho quoth Don-Quixote I that I doe quoth hee In that manner replyed Don-Quixote We have nothing left us to eat to day That would be so quoth Sancho if we could not finde among these Fields the hearbs which I have heard you say you know wherewithall such unluckie Knights Errant as you are wont to supply like needs For all that quoth Don-Quixote I would rather have now a quarter of a loaf or a cake and two Pilchers heads then all the hearbs that Diascoridles describeth although they came glosed by Doctor Laguna himself But yet for all that get upon thy beast Sancho the good and follow me for God who is the provider for all Creatures will not fail us and principally seeing we doe a work so greatly to his service as we doe seeing he doth not abandon the little Flies of the Air nor the Wormlings of the Earth nor the Spawnlings of the Water And he is so mercifull that he maketh his Sunne shine on the good and the evill and Rains on sinners and just men You were much fitter quoth Sancho to be a Preacher then a Knight Errant Knights Errant knew and ought to know somewhat of all things quoth Don-Quixote For there hath been a Knight Errant in times past who would make a Sermon or discourse in the midest of a Camp royall with as good grace as if he were graduated in the University of Paris by which we may gather that the Launce never dulled the Pen nor the Pen the Launce Well then quoth Sancho let it be as you have said and let us depart hence and procure to finde a lodging for this night where I pray God may be no Coverlets and Tossors nor Spirits nor inchanted Moors for if there be I 'le bestow the Flock and the Book on the Devill Demand that of God Sonne Sancho quoth Don-Quixote and lead me where thou pleasest for I will leave the election of our lodging to thy choyse for this time yet I pray thee give me thy hand and feel how many cheek teeth or others I want in this right side of the upper jaw for there I feel most pain Sancho put in his finger and whilest he felt him demanded how many cheek teeth were you accustomed to have on this side Four quoth he besides the hindermost all of them very whole and sound See well what you say Sir quoth Sancho I say four quoth Don-Quixote if they were not five for I never in my life drew or lost any tooth nor hath any faln or been worm-eaten or mard by any rhume Well then quoth Sancho you have in this nether part but two cheek teeth and a half and in the upper neither a half nor any for all there is as plain as the palm of my hand Unfortunate I quoth Don-Quixote hearing the sorrowfull news that his Squire told unto him for I had rather lose one of my armes so it were not that of my Sword For Sancho thou must wit that a mouth without cheek-teeth is like a Mill without a Mill-stone and a tooth is much more to be esteemed then a Diamond But wee which professe the rigorous Lawes of Armes are subject to all these disasters wherefore mount gentle friend and give the way for I will follow thee what pace thou pleasest Sancho obeyed and rode the way where hee thought hee might find lodging without leaving the high way which was there very much beaten And going thus by little and little for Don-Quixote his paine of his jawes did not suffer him rest or make overmuch haste Sancho to entertain him and divert his thought by saying some things began to aboord him in the forme wee meane to rehearse in the Chapter ensuing CHAP. V. Of the discreet discourses passed betweene Sancho and his Lord With the Adventure succeeding of a dead Body And other notable Occurrences MEE thinks good Sir that all the mishaps that befell us these dayes past are without any doubt in punishment of the sinne you committed against the order of Knighthood by not performing the Oath you swore not to eate bread on table clothes nor to sport with the Queen with all the rest which ensueth and you vowed to accomplish untill you had wonne the Helmet of Malandrino or I know not how the Moore is called for I have forgotten his name Thou sayst right Sancho quoth Don-Quixote but to tell the truth indeede I did wholly forget it and thou maist likwise thinke certainly that because thou didst not remember it to mee in time that of the Coverlet was inflicted as a punishment on thee But I will make amends for we have also manners of reconciliation for all things in the Order of Knighthood Why did I by chance sweare any thing quoth Sancho it little imports quoth Don-Quixote that thou hast not sworne let it suffice that I know thou art not very cleere from the fault of an accessary And therefore at all Adventures it will not bee ill to provide a remedy If it bee so quoth Sancho beware you doe not forget this againe as you did that of the Oath for if you should perhaps those spirits will take againe a fancie to solace themselves with mee and peradventure with you your selfe if they see you obstinate Being in these and other such discourses the night overtook them in the way before they could discover any lodging and that which was worst of all they were almost famisht with hunger for by the losse of their wallets they lost at once both their provision and warder-house And to accomplish wholly this disgrace there succeeded a certain Adventure which certainly hapned as we lay it down without any addition in the world
have that absence to be this That both of us should depart together and come to my fathers house under prettence as he would informe the Duke that he went to see and cheapâ—n certain great horses that were in the City wherein I was borne a place of breeding the best horses in the world Scarce had I heard him say this when borne away by the naturall propension each one hath to his Countrey and my love joyn'd although his designment had not been so good yet would I have ratified it as one of the most expedient that could be imagined because I saw occasion and oportunity so fairly offered to return and see again my Luscinda And thereof set on by this thought and desire I approved his opinion and did quicken his purpose perswading him to prosecute it with all possible speed for absence would in the end work her effect in despight of the most forcible and urgent thoughts And when he said this to me he had already under the title of a husband as it was afterward known reaped the fruits of his longed desires from his beautifull Countrâ—y-Maid and did only await an oportunity to reveal it without his own detriment fearfull of the Duke his fathers indignation when he should understand his erroâ—r It afterward hapned that as love in young men is not for the most part Love but last the which as it ever proposeth to it self as his last end and period is delight so as soon as it obteineth the same it likewise decayeth and maketh forcibly to retire that which was tearmed Love for it cannot transgresse the limits which Nature hath assigned it which boundings are meares Nature hath in no wise allotted to true and sincere affection I would say that as soon as Don Fernando had injoyed his Countrey-Lasse his desires weakned and his importunities waxed cold and if at the first he â—eigned an excuse to absent himself that he might with more facility compasse them he did now in very good earnest procure to depart to the end hee might not put them in execution The Duke gave him licence to depart and commanded me to accompany him Wee came to my Citie where my Father entertained him according 〈◊〉 talling I saw Luscinda and then again were reviv'd although indeed they were neither dead nor mortified my desires and acquainted Don Fernando alas to my totall ruine with them because I thought it was not lawfull by the law of amity to keep any thing concealed from him There I dilated to him on the Beauty Wit and Discretion of Luscinda in so ample manner as my prayses stirred in him a desire to view a Damzell so greatly adorned and inriched with so rare endowments And this his desire I through my misfortune satisfied shewing her unto him by the light of a candle at a window where wee two were wont to paâ—le together where he beheld her to bee such as was sufficient to blot out of his memory all the beauties which ever hee had viewed before Hee stood mute beside himself and ravished and moreover rested so greatly enamoured as you may perceive in the discourse of this my doâ—efull narration And to inflame his desires the more a thing which I fearfully avoyded and only discovered to heaven fortune so disposed that hee found after me one of her Letters wherein she requested that I would demand her of her father for wife which was so discreete honest and amorously penned as he said after reading it that in Luscinda alone were included all the graces of Beauty and Understanding joyntly which were divided and separate in all the other women of the world Yet in good sooth I will here confesse the truth that although I saw cleerely how deservedly Luscinda was thus extold by Don Fernando yet did not her prayses please mee so much pronounced by him and therefore began to feare and suspect him because he let no moment overslip us without making some mention of Luscinda and would still himselfe begin the Discourse were the occasion ever so far fetched a thing which rowsed in mee I cannot tell what jealousie not that I did feare any traverse in Luscindaes loyalty but yet for all my Fates made mee the very thing which they most assured mee and Don Fernando procured to read all the papers I sent to Luscinda or shee to mee under pretext that hee tooke extraordinary delight to note the witty conceits of us both It therefore fell out that Luscinda having demanded of mee a booke of Chivalry to read wherein shee took marveilous delight and was that of Amadis du Gaule Scarce had Don-Quixote well heard him make mention of bookes of Knighthood when hee replyed to him If you had good sir but once told mee at the beginning of your historicall narration that your Lady Luscinda was affected to the reading of Knightly Adventures you needed not to have used any amplification to indeer or make plaine unto mee the eminencie of her wit which certainly could not in any wise bee so excellent and perspicuous as you have figured it if shee wanted the propension and feeling you have rehearsed to the perusing of so pleasing discourses so that henceforth with mee you neede not spend any more words to explane and manifest the height of her beauty worths and understanding for by this only notice I have received of her devotion to bookes of Knighthood I doe confirme her for the most faire and accomplished woman for all perfections in the world and I would to God good Sir that you had also sent her together with Amadis the Histories of the good Don Rugel of Grecia for I am certaine the Lady Luscinda would have taken great delight in Darayda and Garaya and in the witty conceits of the Sheepheard Darinel and in those admirable verses of his Bucolicks sung and rehearsed by him with such grace discretion and libertie But a time may come wherein this fault may bee recompenced if it shall please you to come with mee to my Village for there I may give you three hundred Bookes which are my Soules greatest contentment and the entertainment of my life although I doe now verily beleeve that none of them are left thanks bee to the malice of evill and envious Enchanters And I beseech you to pardon me this transgression of our agreement at the first promised not to interrupt your Discourses for when I heare any motion made of Chivalry or Knights Errant it is no more in my power to omit to speake of them then in the Sunne-beames to leave off warming or in the Moones to render things humid And therefore I intreate pardon and that you will prosecute your History as that which most imports us Whilest Don-Quixotes spoke those words Cardenio hanged his head on his breast giving manifest tokens that hee was exceeding sad And although Don-Quixote requested him twice to follow on with his Discourse yet neither did he lift up his head or answere a word till at last after hee
add that Of Toboso the time could not bee understood and in truth it was so as hee himself did afterward confesse Hee composed many others but as we have related none could be well copied or found intire but these three Stanza's In this and in sighing and invoking the Faâ—nes and Silvanes of these woods and the Nymphs of the adjoyning streams with the doloroâ—s and hollow Ecchâ— that it would answer and they consort and listen unto him and in the search of some hearbs to sustein his languishing forces he entertained himself all the time of Sancho his absence who had he staid three weeks away as hee did but three dayes The Knight of the Ill-favoured face should have remained so disfigured as the very mother that bore him would not have known him But now it is congruent that leaving him swallowed in the gulfs of sorrow and verifying we turn and recount what hapned to Sancho Panca in his Embassage which was that issuing out to the high-way hee presently took that which led towards Toboso and arrived the next day following to the Inn where the disgrace of the Coverlet befell him and scarce had he well espied it but presently hee imagined that he was once again flying in the aire and therefore would not enter into it although his arrivall was at such an hour as hee both might and ought to have stayed being dinner time and he himself likewise possest with a marvelous longing to taste some warme meat for many dayes past he had fed altogether on cold Viands This desire enforced him to approach to the Inn remaining still doubtfull notwithstanding whether hee should enter into it or no. And as hee stood thus suspended there issued out of the Inn two persons which presently knew him and the one said to the other Tell me Master Licentiate is not that horseman that rides there Sancho Panca hee whom our Adventurers old woman said departed with her Master for his Squire It is quoth the Licentiat and that is our Don-Quixote his horse And they knew him so well as those that were the Curate and Barber of his own Village and were those that made the search and formall processe against the Books of Chivalry and therefore as soon as they had taken full notice of Sancho Panca and Rozinante desirous to learn news of Don-Quixote they drew neer unto him and the Curate called him by his name saying Friend Sancho Panca where is your Master Sancho Panca knew them instantly and desirous to conceal the place and manner wherein his Lord remained did answer them that his Master was in a certain place with-held by affairs for a few dayes that were of great consequence and concerned him very much and that hee durst not for both his eyes discover the place to them No no quoth the Barber Sancho Panca if thou doest not tell us where hee sojourneth wee must imagine as wee doe already that thou hast rob'd and slain him specially seeing thou commest thus on his horse and therefore thou must in good faith get us the horses owner or else stand to thine answer Your threats fear me nothing quoth Sancho for I am not a man that Robs or Murthers any one every man is slain by his destinie or by God that made him My Lord remains doing of penance in the midest of this Mountain â—with very great pleasure And then hee presently recounted unto them from the beginning to the end the fashion wherein he had left him the Adventures which had befaln and how hee carried a Letter to the Lady Dulcinea of Toboso who was Larenco Corcuelo his daughter of whom his Lord was enamoured up to the Livers Both of them stood greatly admired at Sancho's relation and although they knew Don-Quixote's madnesse already and the kinde thereof yet as often as they heard speak thereof they rested newly amazed They requested Sancho to shew them the Letter that he carried to the Lady Dulcinea of Toboso Hee told them that it was written in Tablets and that hee had expresse order from his Lord to have it fairly copied out in paper at the first Village whereunto he should arrive To which the Curate answered bidding shew it unto him and he would write out the copie very fairly Then Sancho thrust his hand into his bosome and searched the little book but could not finde it nor should not though hee had searched till Dooms-day for it was in Don-Quixote's power who gave it not to him nor did hee ever remember to demand it When Sancho perceived that the book was lost hee waxed as wan pale as a dead man and turning again very speedily to feel all the parts of his body hee saw cleerly that it could not bee found and therefore without making any more adoe hee laid hold on his own beard with both his fists and drew almost the one half of the hair away and afterward bestowed on his face and nose in a momento half a dozen such cuffs as hee bathed them all in blood which the Curate and Barber beholding they asked him what had befalne him that hee intreated himself so ill What should befall me answered swered Sancho but that I have lost at one hand and in an instant three Colts whereof the least was like a Castle How so quoth the Barber Marry said Sancho I have lost the Tablets wherein were written Dulcineas Letter and a schedule of my Lords addrest to his Neece wherein hee commanded her to deliver unto me three Colts of four or five that remained in his house And saying so hee recounted the losse of his gray Asse The Curate comforted him and said that as soon as his Lord were found hee would deal with him to renew his grant and write it in Paper according to the common use and practise for as much as those which were written in Tablets were of no value and would never be accepted nor accomplished With this Sancho took courage and said if that was so he cared not much for the losse of Dulcineas Letter for he knew it almost all by rote Say it then Sancho quoth the Barber and we will after write it Then Sancho stood still and began to scratch his head to call the Letter to memory and now would hee stand upon one leg and now upon another Sometimes hee looked on the earth other whiles upon Heaven and after he had gnawn off almost the half of one of his nails and held them all the while suspended expecting his recitall thereof he said after a long pause On my soul Master Licentiate I give to the Divell any thing that I can remember of that Letter although the beginning was thus High and unâ—avorie Lady I warrant you quoth the Barber he said not but super-humane or Sovereigne Ladie It is so quoth Sancho and presently followed if I well remember He that is wounded and wants sleepe and the hurt man doth kisse your worships hands ingrate and very scornefull faire And thus hee went
Love And who my glories ebb doth most importune Fortune And to my Plaints by whom increase is giv'n By Heav'n If that be so then my mistrust jumps ev'n That of my wondrous evill I must die Since in my harme joyn'd and united be Love wavering Fortune and a rig'rous Heaven Who better hap can unto me bequeath Death From whom his favours doth not Love estrange From change And his too serious harms who cureth wholy Folly If that bee so it is no wisedome truly To think by humane means to cure that care Where th' only Antidotes and Med'cines are Desired Death light Change and endlesse Folly The hour the time the solitarinesse of the place voice and art of him that sung struck wonder and delight in the Hearers mindes which remained still quiet listning whether they might hear any thing else But perceiving that the silence continued a prettie while they agreed to issue and seek out the Musician that sung so harmoniously And being ready to put their resolution in practise they were again arrested by the same voyce the which touched their ears anew with this Sonnet A SONNET HOly Amitie which with nimble wings Thy semblance leaving here on earth behinde Among the blessed Souls of Heaven up-flings To those Imperiall rooms to cheer thy minde And thence to us is when thou lik'st assign'd Iust Peace whom shadie vail so cover'd brings As oft instead of her Deceit wee find Clad in the weeds of good and vertuous things Leave Heav'n O Amitie doe not permit Foul Fraud thus openly thy Robes t' invest With which sincere intents destroy does it For if thy likenesse from 't thou do'st not wrest The World will turn to the first conflict soon Of Discord Chaâ—â— and Confusion The Song was concluded with a profound sigh and both the others lent attentive eare to heare if hee would sing any more but perceiving that the Musick was converted into throbs and dolefull plaints they resolved to goe and learn who was the wretch as excellent for his voyce as dolorous in his sighs and after they had gone a little at the doubling of the poynt of a cragg they perceived one of the very same form and fashion that Sancho had painted unto them when hee told them the History of Cardenio which man espying them likewise shewed no semblance of fear but stood still with his head hanging on his breast like a male-content not once lifting up his eyes to behold them from the first time when they unexpectedly arrived The Curate who was a man very well spoken as one that had already intelligence of his misfortune for he knew him by his signes drew neerer to him and prayed and perswaded him with short but very forcible reasons to forsake that miserable life left hee should there eternally lose it which of all miseries would prove the most miserable Cardenio at this season was in his right sense free from the furious accident that distracted him so often therefore viewing them both attyred in so strange unusuall a fashion from that which was used among those Desarts he rested somewhat admired but chiefly hearing them speak in his affair as in a matter known for so much he gathered out of the Curates speeches and therefore answered in this manner I perceive well good Sirs whosoever you be that Heaven which hath alwayes care to succour good men yea even and the wicked many times hath without any desert addrest unto me by these Desarts and places so remote from vulgar haunt persons which laying before mine eyes with quick and pregnant reasons the little I have to lead this kinde of life doe labour to remove me from this place to a better And by reason they know not as much as I doe and that after escaping this harme I shall fall into a far greater they account me perhaps for a man of weak discourse and what is worse for one wholly devoid of judgement And were it so yet is it no marvell for it seems to me that the force of the imagination of my disasters is so bent and powerfull in my destruction that I without being able to make it any resistance doe become like a stone void of all good feeling and knowledge and I come to know the certainty of this truth when some men doe recount and shew unto me tokens of the things I have done whilest this terrible accident over-rules me and after I can doe no more then be grieved though in vain and curse without benefit my too froward fortune and render as an excuse of my madnesse the relation of the cause thereof to as many as please to hear it for wise men perceiving the cause will not wonder at the effects And though they give me no remedie yet at least will not condemn me for it will convert the anger they conceive at my mis-rules into compassion of my disgraces And Sirs if by chance it be so that you come with the same intention that others did I request you e're you inlarge farther your discreet perswasions that you will give eare a while to the relation of my mis-haps for perhaps when you have understood it you may save the labour that you would take comforting an evill wholy incapable of consolation Both of them which desired nothing so much as to understand from his own mouth the occasion of his harmes did intreate him to relate it promising to doe nothing else in his remedie or comfort but what himselfe pleased And with this the sorrowfull Gentleman began his dolefull Historie with the very same words almost that hee had rehearsed it to Don-Quixote and the Goat-heard a few dayes past when by occasion of Master Elisabat and Don-Quixotes curiositie in observing the Decorum of Chivalrie the tale remained imperfect as our Historie left it above But now good fortune so disposed things that his foolish fit came not upon him but gave him leisure to continue his Storie to the end and so ariving to the passage that spoke of the Letter Don Ferdinando found in the booke of Amadis du Gaule Cardenio said that hee had it very well in memorie and the sence was this LUSCINDA to CARDENIO I Discover daily in thee worths that obliege and inforces mee to hold thee deere and therefore if thou desirest to have mee discharge this Debt without serving a Writ on my Honour thou mayst easily doe it I have a Father that knowes thee and loves mee likewise well who without forcing my Will will accomplish that which justly thou oughtest to have if it bee so that thou esteemest mee as much as thou sayest and I doe beleeve This Letter moved mee to demand Luscinda of her father for my wife as I have already recounted and by it also Luscinda remayned in Don Ferdinandoes opinion crowned for one of the most discreete women of her time And this billet Letter was that which first put him in minde to destroy mee ere I could effect my desires I told to Don
an AEgyptian whose language and many others hee could speake as well as if they were his mother tongue Sancho saw him and knew him and scarce had hee seene and taken notice of him when hee cryed out aloud Ah theese Ginesillo leave my goods behinde thee set my life loose and doe not intermeddle with my ease Leave mine Asse leave my comfort flie Villane absent thy selfe theeâ—e and abandon that which is none of thine He needed not to have used so many words and frumps for Gines leaped downe at the very first and beginning a Trot that seemed rather to bee a Gallop hee absented himselfe and fledde farre enough from them in a moment Sancho went then to his Asse and imbracing him said How hast thou done hitherto my Darling and Treasure gray Asse of mine Eyes and my deerest Companion and with that stroked and kissed him as if it were a reasonable creature The Asse held his peace and permitted Sancho to kisse and cherish him without answering a Word All the rest arived and congratulated with Sancho for the finding of his Asse but chiefely Don-Quixote who said unto him that notwithstanding that hee found his Asse yet would not hee therefore annull his Warrant for the three Colts for which Sancho returned him very great thanks Whilest they two travelled together discoursing thus the Curate said to Dorotea that shee had very discreetly discharged her selfe as well in the Historie as in her brevitie and immitation thereof to the phrase and conceits of Bookes of Knighthood Shee answered That shee did oft times reade bookes of that subject but that shee knew not where the Provinces lay nor Sea-ports and therefore did only say at randome that shee had landed in Osuna I knew it was so quoth the Curate and therefore I said what you heard wherewithall the matter was souldered But is it not a marveilous thing to see with what facilitie the unfortunate Gentleman beleeves all these inventions and lies only because they beare the stile and manner of the follies laid down in his bookes It is quoth Cardenio and that so rare and beyond all conceite as I beleeve if the like were to bee invented scarce could the sharpest wits devise such another There is yet quoth the Curate as marvellous a matter as that for leaving apart the simplicities which this good Gentleman speakes concerning his frenzie if you will commune with him of any other subject whatsoever he will discourse on it with an excellent method and shew himself to have a cleer and pleasing understanding So that if he be not touched by matters of Chivalry there is no man but will deem him to be of a sound and excellent Judgement Don-Quixote on the other side prosecuted his conversing with his Squire whilest the others talked together and said to Sancho Let us two friend Pancha forget old injuries and say unto me now without any rancour or anger Where how and when didest thou finde my Ladie Dulcinea What did shee when thou camest What said'st thou to her What answered she What countenance shewed she as she read my Letter And who writ it out fairly for thee And every other thing that thou shalt think worthy of notice in this affair to be demanded or answered without either addition or lying or soothing adulation and on the other side doe not abbreviate it lest thou shouldest defraud me thereby of expected delight Sir answered Sancho if I must say the truth none copied out the Letter for me for I carried no Letter at all Thou sayest true quoth Don-Quixote for I found the Tablets wherein it was written with my self two dayes after thy departure which did grieve me exceedingly because I knew not what thou wouldest doe when thou didest perceive the want of the Letter and I alwaies made full account that thou wouldest return again from the place where thou shouldest first misse it I had done so quoth Sancho if I had not borne it away in memory when you read it to me in such sort as I said it to a Cleark of a Verstrie who did copie it out of my understanding so poynt by poynt as he said that he never in all the dayes of his life although he had read many a Letter of excommunication read or seen so fine a Letter as it was And doest thou hold it yet in memory Sancho quoth Don-Quixote No Sir said Sancho for after I gave it seeing it served for none other purpose I did willingly forget it And if I remember any thing it is that of the mouldy I would say Soveraign Ladie and the end Yours untill death The Knight of the Ill-favoured face and I put between these two things in the Letter three hundred Souls and Lives and Sweet-eyes CHAP. IV. Of the pleasant discourses continued between Don-Quixote and his Squire Sancho Pança with other Adventures ALâ— this liketh me well said Don-Quixote therefore say on thou arrived'st and what was that Queen of Beauty doing then I dare say that thou foundest her threading of Pearls or imbroydering some curious Device with Venice gold for me her captive Knight No that I did not quoth Sancho but winnowing two bushels of Wheat in the yard of her house Why then said Don-Quixote thou mayest make account that each corne of that wheat was a grain of Pearl seeing they were touched by her delicate hand And friend didest thou note well what the Wheat was whether of the best or ordinarie It was not but red said Sancho Well then I assure thee answered Don-Quixote that being sifted by her hands it must needs make very fair bread and white But passe forward When thou didest deliver my Letter did she kisse it Did she set it on her head Did she use any ceremony worthy of such a Letter Or what did she When I went to give it unto her said Sancho she was holding up of her armes with a good quantity of Wheat that shee had in her Sieve and therefore said unto me Friend lay down that Letter there on the Sack for I cannot read it untill I have winnowed all that is here O discreet Ladie quoth Don-Quixote she surely did that because she might read it at leisure and recreate her self therewithall Forward Sancho And as long as she was thus busied what discourses passed she with thee What did she demand of thee concerning me And thou what didest thou answer Say all good Sancho say all recount to me every particularity and let not the least immunity remain in the Ink-horn Shee demanded nothing of mee quoth Sancho but I recounted unto her the state I had left you in for her sake doing of penance all naked from the gyrdle upward among these Rocks like a bruit Beast sleeping on the ground and eating your bread without Table-cloathes and that you never combed your Beard but was weeping and cursing your fortune There thou saidst ill quoth Don-Quixote for I doe not curse my fortune but rather blesse it and will blesse it as long
Truly the title of this History doth not mislike mee and therefore I am about to reade it through The Inn-keeper hearing him said Your reverence may very well doe it for I 〈◊〉 you that some guests which have read it here as they travelled disâ—ommend it exceedingly and have beg'd it of mee as earnestly but I would never bestow it hoping some day to restore it to the owner of this Malet who forgot it here behinde him with those bookes and papers for it may bee that hee will somtime return and although I know that I shall have great want of the bookes yet will I make to him restitution for although I am an In-keeper yet God be thanked I am a Christian therewithall You have great reason my friend quoth the Curate but yet notwithstanding if the taste like me thou must give me leave to take a copie thereof With all my heart replyed the Host. And as they two talked Cardenio taking the booke began to reade a little of it and it pleasing him as much as it had done the Curate he requested him to reade it in such sort as they might all heare him That I would willingly doe said the Curate if the time were not now more fit for sleeping then reading It were sufficient repose for me said Dorotea to passe away the time listening to some tale or other for my spirit is not yet so well quieted as to aford me licence to sleepe even then when nature exacteth it If that bee so quoth the Curate I will reade it if it were but for curiositie perhaps it containeth some delightfull matter Master Nicholas and Sancho intreated the same The Curate seeing and knowing that he should therein doe them all a pleasure and hee himselfe likewise receive as great said Seeing you will needes heare it be all of you attentive for the History begineth in this manner CHAP. VI. Wherein is rehearsed the History of the Curious-Impertinent IN Florence a rich and famous Citie of Italie in the Province called Tuscane there dwelled two rich and principall Gentlemen called Anselmo and Lothario which two were so great friends as they were named for excellency and by Antonomasta by all those that knew them the Two friends They were both Batchelers and much of one age and manners all which was of force to make them answer one another with reciprocall amity True it is that Anselmo was somewhat more inclined to amorous dalliance then Lothario who was altogether addicted to hunting But when occasion exacted it Anselmo would omit his own pleasures to satisfie his friends and Lothario likewise his to please Anselmo And by this means both their wills were so correspondent as no clock could be better ordered then were their desires Anselmo being at last deeply enamoured of a principall and beautifull young Ladie of the same Citie called Camila being so worthily descended and she her self of such merit therewithall as he resolved by the consent of his friend Lothario without whom he did nothing to demand her of her Parents for wife and did put his purpose in execution and Lothario himself was the messenger and concluded the matter so to his friends satisfaction as he was shortly after put in possession of his desires and Camila so contented to have gotten Anselmo as she ceased not to render Heaven and Lothario thanks by whose means she had obtained so great a match The first dayes as all marriage dayes are wont to be merry Lothario frequented according to the custome his frind Anselmo's house endeavouring to honour feast and recreate him all the wayes he might possible But after the Nuptials were finished and the concourse of Strangers Visitations and Congratulations somewhat ceased Lothario also began to be somewhat more slack then he worâ—ted in going to Anselmo his house deeming it as it is reason that all discreet men should not so convenient to visit or haunt so often the house of his friend after marriage as he would had he still remained a Batcheler For although true amity neither should nor ought to admit the least suspition yet notwithstanding a married mans honour is so delicate and tender a thing as it seems it may be sometimes impaired even by very Bretheren and how much more by Friends Anselmo noted the remission of Lothario and did grievously complain thereof saying That if he had wist by marriage he should thus be deprived of his deered conversation hee would never have married and that since through the uniform correspondencie of them both being free they had deserved the sweet title of the two friends that he should not now permit beâ—ause he would be noted circumspect without any other occasion that so famous and pleasing a name should be lost and therefore he requested him if it were lawfull to use such a terme between them two to return and be Master of his house and come and goe as he had done before his marriage assuring him that his Spouse Camila had no other pleasure and will then that which himself pleased shee should have and that she after having known how great was both their frindships was not a little amazed to see him become so strange To all these and many other reasons alledged by Anselmo to perswade Lothario to frequent his house he answered with so great prudence discretion and warinesse as Anselmo remained satisfied of his friends good intention herein and they made an agreement between them two that Lothario should dine at his house twice a week and the Holy-dayes besides And although this agreement had passed between them yet Lothario purposed to doe that only which he should finde most expedient for his friends honour whose reputation he tendered much more deerly then he did his own and was wont to say very discreetly that the married man unto whom heaven had given a beautifull wife ought to have as much heede of the friends which he brought to his house as he should of the women friends that visited his wife for that which is not done nor agreed upon in the Church or Market nor in publique Feasts or Stations being places that a man cannot lawfully hinder his wife from frequenting sometimes at least are oft-times facilitated and contrived in a friends or kins-womans house whom perhaps we never suspected Anselmo on the other side affirmed That therefore married men ought every one of them to have some friend who might advertise them of the faults escaped in their manner of proceeding for it befalls many times that through the great love which the Husband bears to his Wife either he doth not take notice or else he doth not advertise her because he would not offend her to doe or omit to doe certain things the doing or omitting whereof might turn to his honour or obloquie to which things being advertised by his friend he might easily apply some remedie But where might a man finde a friend so discreet loyall and trustie as Anselmo demands I know not truly if not
so many Palfrayes Damzels Errant Serpents Robbers Giants Battailes unheard of adventures sundry kinds of inchantments such unmeasureable incounters such braverie of apparell such a multitude of enamoured and valiant Princesses so many Squires Earles witty Dwarfes Viragoes love-Letters amorous dalliances and finally so many so unreasonable and impossible Adventures as are contayned in the bookes of Knighthood Thus much I dare avouch of my selfe that when I reade them as long as I doe not thinke that they are all but toyes and untruths they delight mee but when I ponder seriously what they are I throw the very best of them against the walls yea and would throw them into the fire if they were neere mee or in my hands having well deserved that severitie as false Impostors and Seducers of common sense as brochers of new Sects and of uncouth courses of life as those that give occasion to the ignorant vulgar to beleeve in such exorbitant untruths as are contained in them Yea and are withall so presumptuous as to dare to confound the wits of the most discreete and best descended Gentlemen as wee may cleerely perceive by that they have done to your selfe whom they have brought to such termes as it is necessarie to shut you up in a Cage and carry you on a Team of Oxen even as one carries a Lyon or Tygre from place to place to gayne a living by the shewing of him Therefore good Sir Don-Quixote take compassion of your selfe and returne into the bosom of discretion and learne to imploy the most happy talent of understanding and abundance of wit wherewith bountifull heaven hath enriched you yet some other course of studâ—e which may redound to the profit of your Soule and advancement of your credit and estate And if borne away by your naturall disposition you will yet persist in the reading of Warlike and Knightly discourses Reade in the holy Scripture the Acts of Judges for there you shall finde surpassing feats and deeds as true as valorous Portugal had a Viriate Rome a Caesar Carthage a Hanniball Greece an Alexander Castile an Earle Feâ—nun Goncalez VÃ lencia a Cid Andaluzia a Goncalo Fernandez Estremaduza a Diego Garcia de Paredes Xerez a Garcia Perez de Vargas Toledo a Garcia Lasso Siâ—ill a Doâ— Manuel de Leon. The discourses of whose valorous Acts may Entertayne Teach Delight and make Wonder the most sublime Wit that shall reade them Yea this were indeede a Studie fit for your sharpe understanding my deere Sir Don-Quixote for by this you should become learned in Histories enamoured of Virtue instructed in Goodnesse bettered in Manners Valiant without Rashnesse Bold without Cowardice And all this to Gods Honour your owne Profit and Renowne of the Mancha from whence as I have learned you deduce your beginning and Progenie Don-Quixote listened with all attention unto the Canons admonition and perceiving that hee was come to an end of them after hee had looked upon him a good while he said Me thinks Gentleman that the scope of your discourse hath been addrest to perswade me that there never were any Knights Errant in the world and that all the bookes of Chivalry are false lying hurtfull and unprofitable to the Common-wealth and that I have done ill to reade them worse to beleeve in them and worst of all to follow them by having thus taken on mee the most austere profession of wandring Knighthood whereof they intreate denying moreover that there were ever any Amadises eyther of Gaule or Greece or any of all the other Knights wherewith such bookes are stuffed All is just as you have said quoth the Cannon whereto Don-Quixote replyed thus You also added that such bookes had done mee much hurt seeing they had turned my judgement and immured mee up in this Cage and that it were better for mee to make some amendment and alter my Studie reading other that are more Authenticall and delight and instruct much better It is very true answered the Canon Why then quoth Don-Quixote I finde by mine accounts that the inchanted and senslesse man is your selfe seeing you have bent your selfe to speake so many blasphemies against a thing so true so currant and of such request in the world as hee that should deny it as you doe merits the same punishment which as you say you give to those bookes when the reading thereof offends you for to goe about to make men beleeve that Amadis never lived nor any other of those Knights wherewith Histories are fully replenished would bee none other then to perswade them that the Sunne lightens not the Earth sustaines not nor the Ice makes any thing cold See what wit is there in the world so profound that can induce another to beleeve that the History of Guy of Burgundie and the Princes Floripes was not true Nor that of Fierabras with the Bridg of Mantible which befell in Charlemaines time and is I swear as true as that it is day at this instant And if it be a Lie so must it be also that ever there was an Hector Achilles or the War of Troy The twelve Peeres of France or King Arthur of Britaine who goes yet about the world in the shape of a Crow and is every foote expected in his Kingdome And they will as well presume to say that the History of Guarino Mezquino and of the quest of the holy Sangriall bee lies and that for the love betweene Sir Tristram and La Bella Ysonde and betweene Queene Guenevor and Sir Lancelot Dulake wee have no sufficient authoritie and yet there bee certaine persons alive which almost remember that they have seene the Ladie Quintaniona who was one of the best skinkers of Wine that ever Great Brittaine had and this is so certaine as I remember that one of my Grand-mothers of my Fathers side was wont to say unto mee when shee saw my Matrone with a long and reverend Kerchief or Vaile My Boy that woman resembles very much Lady Quintaniona From which I argue that eyther shee knew her her self or at the least had seene some Portraiture of hers Who can moreover denie the certaintie of the Historie of Peter of Provance and the beautifull Magolona seeing that untill this very day one may behold in the Kings Armory the Pinne wherewith hee guided and turned any way hee listed the horse of wood whereupon hee rode through the Ayre which Pinne is a little bigger then the Thill of a Cart and neere unto it is also seene Babieca his saddle and in Roncesuals there yet hangs Rowlands horne which is as big as a very great joyst whence is inferred that there were twelve Peeres that there was a Pierres of Provance that also there were Cids and other such Knights as those which the world termes Adventurers if not let them also tell mee that the valiant Lusitanian Iohn de Melo was no Knight Errant who went to Burgundie and in the Citie of Ras fought with the famous Lord of Charni called Mosen Pierres and after with
doth herein seem to surpasse her Suddainly he discovers a strong Castle or goodly Palace whose walles are of beaten gold the pinacles of Diamonds the gates of Iacinths finally it is of so exquisite Workemanship as although the materials whereof it is built are no worse then Diamonds Carbuncles Rubies Emeralds Pearles and Gold yet is the Architecture thereof of more estimation and value then they and is there any more to be seen after the seeing hereof then to see sallie out at the Castle gates a goodly troup of lovely Damzels whose brave and costly attyre if I should attempt to describe as it is laid down in Histories we should never make an end and she that seems the chiefest of all to take presently our bold Knight that threw himself into the boyling Lake by the hand and carry him into the rich Castle or Palace without speaking a word and cause him to strip himself as naked as he was when his Mother bore him and bathe him in very temperate waters and afterwards anoint him all over with precious oyntments and put on him a shirt of most fine odoriferous and perfumed Sendall and then another Damzell to come suddainly and cast on his back a rich mantle which they say is wont to be worth at the very least a rich Citty yea and more Then what a sport it is when they tell us after that after this he is carried into another Hall where he finds the tables covered so orderly as he rests amazed what to see cast on his hands water distilled all of Amber and most fragrant flowers what to see him seated in a chaire of Ivory what to see him served by all the Damzels with marvellous silence what the setting before him such variety of accares and those so excellently dressed as his appetite knowes not to which of them it shall first addresse his hand what to hear the Musicke which sounds whilst he is at dinner without knowing who makes it or whence it comes and after that dinner is ended and the tables taken away the Knight to remaine leaning on a chaire and perhaps picking of his teeth as the custome is and on a suddaine to enter at the Hall-door another much more beautifull Damzell then any of the former and to sit by his side and begin to recount unto him what Castle that is and how she is inchanted therein with many other things that amazed the Knight and amazed the Readers I will not enlarge my self any more in this matter seeing that you may collect out of that which I have said that any part that is read of any book of a Knight Errant will delight and astonish him that shall peruse it with attention and therefore I pray you beleeve me and as I have said already reade those kinde of books and you shall finde that they will exile all the Melancholy that shall trouble you and rectifie your disposition if by fortune it be depraved for I dare affirme of my self that since I am become a Knight Errant I am valiant courteous liberall well-manner'd generous gentle bold mild patient and indurer of labours imprisonments and inchantments and although it be but so little a while since I was shut up in a Cage like a mad man yet doe I hope by the valour of mine arme heaven concurring and fortune not crossing me to see my self within a few daies the King of some Kingdoms wherein I may shew the bounty and liberality included within my brest For in good truth Sir a poor man is made unable to manifest the virtue of liberality toward any other although he virtually possesse it himself in a most eminent degree and the will to gratifie which onely consists of will is a dead thing as Faith without Works For which cause I doe wish that fortune would quickly present me some occasion whereby I might make my self an Emperour that I may discover the desire I have to doe good unto my friends but especially to this my poor Squire Sancho Panca who is one of the honestest men in the world on whom I would faine bestow the Earledome which I promised him many daies past but that I fear me he will not be able to governe his estate Sancho overhearing those last words of his Masters said Labour you Sir Don-Quixote to get me that Earledome as often promised by you as much longed for by me and I promise you that I will not want sufficiency to governe it and though I should yet have I heard say that there are men in the world who take Lordships to farme paying the Lord so much by the yeer and undertaking the care of the government thereof whilst the Lord himself with outstretched legs doth live at his ease enjoying the rents they bring him and caring for nothing else and so will I do and will not stand wracking it to the utmost but presently desist from all administration and live merily upon my Rent like a young Duke and so let the World wag and goe how it will That friend Sancho is to bee understood quoth the Canon of enjoying the Revenues but as concerning the administration of Justice the Lord of the Seigniory is bound to look to it in that is required a sufficiencie and abilitie to govern and above all a good intention to deal justly and determine rightly for if this bee wanting when wee begin our means and ends will alwaies bee subject to errour And therefore is God wont as well to further the good Designes of the simple as to disfavour the bad ones of those that be wittily wicked I understand not those Philosophies quoth Sancho Panca but this I know well that I would I had as speedily the Earldome as I could tell how to govern it for I have as much Soul as another and as much Body as hee that hath most and I would bee as absolute a King in my estate as any one would bee in his and being such I would doe what I liked and doing what I liked I would take my pleasure and taking my pleasure I would bee content and when one is content hee hath no more to desire and having no more to desire the matter were ended and then come the state when it will or farewell it and let us behold our selves as one blinde man said to another They are no bad Philosophies which thou comest out with kinde Sancho quoth the Canon but yet for all that there is much to bee said concerning this matter of Earldomes To that Don-Quixote replyed I know not what more may bee said only I govern my self by the example of Amadis de Gaule who made his Squire Earl of the firm Island and therefore I may without scruple of conscience make Sancho Panca an Earl for hee is one of the best Squires that ever Knight Errant had The Canon abode amazed at the well compacted and orderly ravings of Don-Quixote at the manner wherewith hee had deciphred the Adventure of the Knight of the Lake at
nor an imagination lesse then Catholique Hee that should write otherwise quoth Don-Quixote should write no truths but lies and hee that doth so ought to bee burned like them that coyne false money and I know not what the Authour meant to put in Novels and strange Tales my Storie affording him matter enough belike hee holds himself to the Proverb of Chaff and Hay c. Well I 'le tell you out of mentioning only my thoughts my sighs my tears my honest wishes and my on-sets hee might have made a greater volume then all Tostatus Works Indeed Signior Bachelor all that I conceive is that to write a History or any other Work of what sort soever a man had need of a strong judgement and a ripe understanding To speak wittily and write conceits belongs only to good wits The cunningest part in a Play is the Fools because hee must not bee a Fool that would well counterfeit to seem so An History is as a sacred thing which ought to bee true and reall and where truth is there God is in as much as concerneth truth howsoever you have some that doe so compose and cast their Works from them as if they were Fritters There is no booke so bad said the Bachelour that hath not some good in it No doubt of that said Don-Quixote but many times it fals out that those that have worthily hoorded up and obtained great fame by their writings when they commit them to the Presse they either altogether lose it or in something lessen it The reason of it quoth Samson is this that as the printed workes are viewed by leisure their faults are easily espied and they are so much the more pried into by how much the greater the Authors fame is Men famous for their wits great Poets illustrious Historians are alwaies or for the most part envied by them that have a pleasure and particular pastime to judge of other mens writings without publishing their owne That 's not to be wondred at cries Don-Quixote for there be many Divines that are nothing worth in a Pulpit and are excellent in knowing the defect or excesse of him that preacheth All this said Carrasco Sir Donâ— Qiuxote is right but I could wish such Censurers were more milde and lesse scrupulous in looking on the moates of the most cleere sunne of his workes whom they bite for if Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus let them consider how much hee watched to shew the light of his worke without the least shadow that might bee and it might bee that what seemes ill to them were Moles that somtimes increase the beautie of the Face that hath them and thus I say that hee that prints a Booke puts himselfe into a manifest danger being of all impossibilities the most impossible to frame it so that it may content and satisfie all that read it The Booke that treats of mee quoth Don-Quixote will please very few Rather contrarie saies Samson for as Stultorum infinitus est numerus an infinite number have beene delighted with this History but some found fault and craftilie taxed the Authors memory in that he forgot to tell who was the theefe that stole Sanchoes dapple for there is no mention there only it is inferred that he was stole and not long after we see him mounted upon the same Asse without knowledge how he was found They also say that he forgot to tell what Sancho did with those hundred pistolets which he found in the Maile in Sierra Morena for he never mentions them more and there be many that desire to know what became of them and how he imployed them which is one of the essentiall points in the worke Master Samson said Sancho I am not now for your reckonings or relations for my stomacke is faiâ—t and if I fetch it not again with a sup or two of the old Dog it will make me as gaunt as Saint Lucia I have it at home and my Pigs-nie staies for me when I have dined I am for ye and will satisfie you aâ—d all the world in any thing you will aske me aswell touching the losse of mine Asse as the expence of the hundred pistolets And so without expecting any reply or exchanging another word home he goes Don-Quixote intreated the Bachelour to stay and take a pittance with him The Bachelour accepted the invitement and so staid dinner Beside their ordinary fare they had a paire of houshold Pigeons added at table they discoursed of Cavallery Carrasco followed his humour the banquet was ended and they slept out the heat Sancho returned and the former discourse was renewed CHAP. IV. How Sancho Panca satisfies the Bachelor Samson Carrasco's doubts and demands with other Accidents worthy to be knowne and related SANCHO came back to Don-Quixotes house and turning to his former discourse said Touching what Master Samson desired to know who how and when mine Asse was stolne By way of answere I say that the very same night wee fled from the hue and cry we entred Sierra Morena after the unfortunate Adventure of the Gally-slaves the dead-man that was carrying to Segovia my Master and I got us into a thicket where hee leaning upon his Launce and I upon my Dapple both of us well bruized and wearied with the former skermishes we fell to sleep as soundly as if we had been upon some fether beds especially I that slept so soundly that he whosoever he was might easily come and put me upon foure Stakes which he had fastned upon both sides of my pack-saddle upon which he left me thus mounted and without perceiving it got my Dapple from under me This was easie to bee done and no strange accident for wee read that the same happened to Sacripant when being at the siege of Albraca that famous Theefe Brunelâ— with the self same slight got his horse from under his legs Sancho proceeds It was light day said hee when I had scarce stretched my self but the stakes failed and I got a good squelch upon the ground then I looked for mine Asse but not finding him the tears came to mine eyes and I made such strange moan that if the Authour of our History omitted it let him bee assured hee forgot a worthy passage I know not how long after comming with my Lady the Princesse Micomicona I knew mine Asse and that hee who rode on him in the habit of a Gipson was that Gines de Passamonte that Cheater that arrant Mischief-monger that my Master and I freed from the Chaine The errour was not in this said Samson but that before there was any news of your Asse the Authour still said you were mounted upon the self-same Dapple I know not what to say to that quoth Sancho but that either the Historian was deceived or else it was the carelesnesse of the Printer Without doubt saith Samson 't was like to bee so But what became of the Pistolets Were they spâ—nt I spent them upon my self quoth Sancho and on my Wife and
carried a Soare-Falcon a signe that made Don-Quixote think shee was some great Lady and Mistresse to all the rest as true it was so hee cried out to Sancho Runne sonne Sancho and tell that Lady on the Palfrey with the Soare-hawke that I The Knight of the Lyons doe kisse her most beautifull hands and if her magnificence give me leave I will receive her commands and bee her servant to the uttermost of my power that her highnesse may please to command mee in and take heede Sancho how thou speakest and have a care thou mixe not thy Ambassage with some of those Proverbs of thine Tell mee of that as if it were now the first time that I have carried Embassies to high and mighty Ladies in my life Except it were that thou carriedst to Dulcinea quoth Don-Quixote I know not of any other thou hast carried at least whilest thou wert with mee That 's true said Sancho but a good pay-master needs no surety and where there is plenty the ghests are not empty I meane there is no telling nor advising mee ought for of all things I know a little I beleeve it said Don-Quixote get thee gone in good time and God speed thee Sancho went on putting Dapple out of his pace with a Careere and comming where the faire Huntresse was alighting hee kneeled downe and said Faire Lady that Knight you see there called The Knight of the Lyons is my Master and I am a Squire of his whome at his house they call Sancho Panca this said Knight of the Lyons who not long since was called The Knight of the sorrowfull Countenance sends me to tell your Greatnesse That you bee pleased to give him leave that with your liking good will and consent hee put in practice his desire which is no other as hee sayes and I beleeve then to serve your lofty high-flying beauty For so it is in the Spanish to make the simple Squire speake absurdly enough for in stead of Alteca the Author makes him say Altaneria and if your Ladyship give him leave you shall doe a thing that may redound to your good and hee shall receive a most remarkeable favour and content Truely honest Squire said the Ladie thou hast delivered thy Ambassage with all the circumstances that such an Ambassage requires Rise rise for the Squire of so renowned a Knight as hee of The sorrowfull Countenance of whom wee have here speciall notice 't is not fit should kneel Rise up friend and tell your Master that hee come neer on Gods name that the Duke my Husband and I may doe him service at a house of pleasure wee have here Sancho rose up astonish't as well at the good Ladies beauty as her courtship and courtesie especially for that shee told him shee had notice of his Master The Knight of the sorrowfull Countenance for in that shee called him not Knight of the Lyons it was because it was so lately put upon him The Duchesse asked him for as yet wee know not of what place shee was Duchesse tell me Sir Squire is not this your Master one of whom there is a History printed and goes by the name of The ingenious Gentleman Don-Quixote de la Mancha the Lady of whose life is likewise one Dulcinea del Toboso The very self-same said Sancho and that Squire of his that is or should bee in the Historie called Sancho Panca am I except I were changed in my cradle I mean that I were changed in the Presse I am glad of all this quoth the Duchesse goe brother Panca and tell your Master that hee is welcome to our Dukedome and that no news could have given mee greater content Sancho with this so acceptable an answer with great pleasure returned to his Master to whom hee recounted all that the great Ladie had said to him extolling to the Heavens her singular beauty with his rusticall tearms her affablenesse and courtesie Don-Quixote pranked it in his saddle sate stiff in his stirrops fitted his Visor rowsed up Rozinante and with a comely boldnesse went to kisse the Duchesses hands who causing the Duke her Husband to bee called told him whilest Don-Quixote was comming his whole Embassie So both of them having read his first part and understood by it his besotted humour attended him with much pleasure and desire to know him with a purpose to follow his humour and to give way to all hee should say and to treat with him as a Knight Errant as hee should bee with them with all the accustomed ceremonies in Books of Knight Errantry which they had read and were much affected with By this Don-Quixote came with his Visor pulled up and making shew to alight Sancho came to have held his stirrop but hee was so unluckie that as hee was lighting from Dapple one of his feet caught upon a halter of the pack-saddle so that it was not possible for him to disintangle himselfe but hung by it with his mouth and his brest to the ground-ward Don-Quixote who used not to alight without his stirrops being held thinking Sancho was already come to hold it lighted sodainly down but brought saddle and all to ground belike being ill gyrt to his much shame and curses inwardly laid upon the unhappie Sancho that had still his legg in the stocks The Duke commanded some of his Falconers to help the Knight and Squire who raised Don-Quixote in ill plight with his fall and limping as well as he could hee went to kneel before the two Lordings but the Duke would not by any means consent rather alighting from his horse hee embraced Don-Quixote saying I am very sorrie Sir Knight of the sorrowfull Countenance that your first fortune hath been so ill in my ground but the carelesnesse of Squires is oft the cause of worse successes It is impossible volorous Prince that any should bee bad since I have seen you although my fall had cast me to the profound Abisme since the glory of seeing you would have drawn me out and raised me up My Squire a curse light on him unties his tongue better to speak maliciously then hee gyrts his horses saddle to sit firmly but howsoever I am down or up on foot or on horse-back I will alwaies bee at yours and my Ladie the Duchesses service your worthy Consort the worthy Lady of beautie and Princesse of universall courtesie Softly my Signior Don-Quixote de la Mancha qd the Duke for where my Lady Dulcinea del Toboso is present there is no reason other beauties should be praised Now Sancho Panca was free from the noose and being at hand before his Master could answere a word hee said it cannot be denied but affirmed that my Lady Dulcinea del Toboso is very faire but where wee least thinke there goes the Hare away for I have heard say that shee you call Nature is like a Potter that makes Vessells of Clay and he that makes a handsome Vessell may make two or three or an hundred this I say that you may
Sancho that e're long there shall bee never a Tipling-house Tavern Inne Hostory or Barbers Shop but in them all wee shall see the History of our famous Acts painted neverthelesse I would with with all my heart that they might bee drawn by a more cunning and skillfull hand then by that which hath pourtraid these figures Thou hast reason Sancho answered Don-Quixote for this Painter is like unto Orbanegia who dwelled at Vbeda who when hee was demanded what he was Painting made this answer That which shall come forth to light And if perchance hee drew a Cock hee would write above it This is a Cock lest any man should think it to bee a Fox Now me thinks Sancho that such ought to bee the Painter or the writer for all is one same thing who hath set forth the History of this new Don-Quixote because hee hath painted or written that which may come forth to the open light Hee hath imitated a certain Poet named Mauleon who the last yeer was at the Court who sodainly would make answer to whatsoever was demanded him And as one asked him one day what these words Deum de Deo signified Hee answered in Spanish De donde diere But omitting all this tell me Sancho Hast thou a minde to give thy another touch this night and wilt thou have it to bee under the roof of a house or else in the open ayre Now I assure you quoth Sancho for the stripes and lashes that I intend to give my self I love them as well in the house as in the open fields yet with this Proviso That I would have it to bee amongst Trees for me thinks that they keepe mee good company and doe exceedingly help mee to indure and undergoe my travell and pains Friend Sancho said Don-Quixote that shall not bee rather reserve them that you may exercise them when wee shall bee arrived at our Village whither at the farthest we shall reach the next day after to morrow and in the mean time thou shalt have recovered new strength Sancho answered that hee might doe what best pleased him but notwithstanding hee desired to dispatch this businesse in hot blood and whilest the Mill was going for dangers consist often in lingring and expectation and that with prayers unto God a man must strike with his Mallet That one take it is more worth then two thou shalt have it And better is one Sparrow in the hand then a Vulture flying in the ayre Now for Gods sake Sancho replyed Don-Quixote let us not alledge so many Proverbs me thinks thou art still returning unto Sicut erat I prethee speak plainly cleerly and goe not so about the bush with such embroyled speeches as I have often told thee and thou shalt see that one loaf of bread will yeeld thee more then an hundred I am so unluckie quoth Sancho that I cannot discourse without Proverbs nor can I alleage a Proverb that seems not to bee a reason unto me Neverthelesse if I can I will correct my self and with that they gave over their enterparlie at that time CHAP. LXXII How Don-Quixote and Sancho arrived at their Village DOn-Quixote and Sancho looking for night stayed in that Inne The one to end in the open fields the task of his discipline and the other to see the successe of it whence depended the end of his desires During which time a Gentleman on horse-back followed by three or four Servants came to the Gate of the Inne to whom one of his attendants said thus My Lord Don Alvaro Tarfe you may here rest your self and passe the great heat of the day This Inne seemeth to bee very cleanly and cool Which speech Don Quixote hearing he said unto Sancho Thou oughtest to know that when I turned over the Book of the second part of my History me thought that in reading of the same I met with this name of Don Alvaro Tarfe That may very well bee said Sancho but first let us lee him alight from his horse and then wee will speak unto him The Knight alighted and the Hostesse appointed him a low Chamber neer unto that of Don-Quixote and which was furnished with like figures of painted Serge. The new-come Knight did forthwith put off his heavy clothes and now going out of the Inne Porch which was somewhat spacious and fresh under which Don-Quixote was walking hee demanded of him Whither goe you my good Sir Gentleman I am going answered Don-Quixote unto a certain Village not farre off where I was born And you my Lord whither goe you I travell said the Knight towards Granada which is my native Country Sir you were born replyed Don-Quixote in a very good Country in the mean time I pray you in courtesie tell me your name for it stands me very much upon to know it yea more then can well bee imagined I am called Don Alvaro Tarfe answered the Knight Then are you undoubtedly quoth Don-Quixote that Alvaro Tarâ—e whose name is imprinted in the second part of the History of Don-Quixote de la Mancha which a modern Authour hath lately set forth I am the very same man of whom you speak said the Knight and that Don Quixote who is the principall subject of such an History was my very great friend It was even I that drew him first out of his Village or at least that perswaded him to be at the Justs and Tiltings which were then kept at Saragosa and whither I was going and in good truth I did him a great favour for I was the cause that the hang-man did not well claw and bum-baste his back having rightly deserved such a punishment because hee was over â—rash and fool â—hardy But tell me I beseech you then quoth Don-Quixote my Lord Don Alvaro doe I in any thing resemble the said Don-Quixote of whom you speak Nothing at all answered the other And did that Don-Quixote replyed our Knight conduct with him a Squire named Sancho Panca Yes verily quoth Don Alvaro And the report went that this Squire was very blithe pleasant aad gamesome but yet I never heard him speak any thing with a good garbe or grace nor any one word that might cause laughter I beleeve it well said Sancho then for it suits not with all the world to bee pleasant and jesting and the very same Sancho of whom you speak my Lord the Gentleman must bee some notorious Rogue some Greedy-gut and notable Theef It is I that am the right Sancho Panca that can tell many fine Tales yea more then there are drops of water when it raineth If so you please my Lord you may make experience of it and follow me at least one yeer and you shall then see that at every step I shall speak so many unpleasant things that very often without knowing what I utter I make all them to laugh that listen unto me In good sooth Don-Quixote de la Mancha the farre renowned the valiant the discreet the amorous he who is the redresser of wrongs
to the worst it were better to bee still a Knight Errant then a Sheepheard I beseech you good my Lord follow my counsell which I give you not as being full of Wine and Bread but rather fasting and as one that have fifty yeers upon my head Abide still in your house think on your domestick Affairs confesse your self often serve God doe good unto the poor and if any harme come to you of it let me take it upon my soul. Good Wenches hold your peace replyed Don-Quixote for I know what I have to doe In the mean while let me be had to bed me thinks I am not very well yet assure your selves that whether I bee an Errant Knight or a Sheepheard I will carefully provide for all that you may stand in need of and you shall see the effects of it The Neece and the Maid-servant who without doubt were two merry good Wenches laid him in his bed and attended and lookt so well unto him as they could not possibly have done better CHAP. LXXIV How Don-Quixote fell sick Of the Will hee made And of his death AS all humane things being transitory and not eternall are ever declining from their beginnings untill they come unto their last end and period but more especially the lives of men And as that of Don-Quixote had no priviledge from Heaven to continue in one estate and keep it's course his end surprized him at what time hee least thought of it I wot not whether it proceeded of the melancholy which the sad remembrance of his being vanquished caused in him or whether the disposition of the Heavens had so decreed So it is that a burning Fever seized upon him which forced him to keep his bed six dayes During which time the Curate the Bachelor and the Barber who were all his good friends did very often visit him and Sancho Panca his good Squire never went from his bed-side They supposing that the vexation and fretting which hee felt for having been conquered as also because hee saw not the accomplishment of his desires touching the dis-enchantment of Dulcinea caused this sicknesse in him endevoured by all possible means to make him merry The Bachelor desired him to bee of good courage and to rise that they might begin their Pastorall exercise and how hee had already composed an Eglogue which was nothing behinde those that Sanazaro had compiled That for the same purpose hee had bought two goodly and fair Doggs and of great renown for to keep their Flock whereof the one was called Barcino and the other Butron and how a Sheepheard of Quintanar had sold them to him But for all this Don-Quixote quitted not his sorrow nor left off his sadnesse His friends called for a Physician who was nothing well pleased with his pulse which hee felt And therefore hee told him that whatsoever might happen hee should not doe amisse to begin to think on the salvation of his soul for the health of his body was in very great danger Don-Quixote without being any whit amazed did very quietly listen unto this discourse which neither his Neece his Maid nor his Squire did for they were so deeply plunged in tears and weeping as had they seen gastly death in the face they could have done no more The Physician told them plainly That only melancholy and his troublesome cares were the cause of his death Don-Quixote intreated the company to leave him alone because hee had a great desire to sleep a while They did so and hee had a sound nap as they say of six hours so that the Maid and his Neece thought hee would never have waked again Well hee waked at last and with a lowd and audible voyce hee uttered these words The Almighty God bee for ever blessed that hath done so much good for me To bee short his mercies have no bounds they are neither shortned nor hindred by the sinnes of man The Neece listned with heedy attention unto her Uncles words and perceiving that they were better couched and wiser disposed then those hee was accustomed to pronounce in all his sicknesses shee proposed this question unto him My Lord and Uncle what is that you say Is there any new matter befaln What mercies doe you speak of Or what sinnes of men My good Neece replyed Don-Quixote the mercies I talk of are those which God of his goodnesse hath at this instant conferred upon me wretched sinner and my sinnes have been no stop or let unto them I possesse now a free and cleer judgement and nothing over-shadowed with the misty clouds of ignorance which the continuall reading and plodding on books of Chivalry had over-cast me withall I acknowledge all these extravagancies and confesse them to bee but coozening tricks and am agrieved that this disabuse hath hapned so late unto me as it affords me no leisure to make amends for my over-sight by reading of other good books and which might serve and tend to the enlightning of my soul. My deer Neece I feel my self neer unto death but I would not have it to bee such as the sirname of Fool should rest upon me for although I have been foolish in my life I desire not to confirm the truth of it in my death And therefore my dear friend goe and cause the Curate the Bachelor Samson Carrasco and Master Nicholas the Barber to come immediately unto me I desire to confesse my self and to make my last Will and Testament His Neece was eased of this labour by the comming of them all three who even then entred the Chamber Don Quixote no sooner saw them but said thus unto them My good Sirs give me some new yeers gift I am no more Don Quixote de la Mancha but rather Alonso Quixano unto whom my honest life and civill conversation hath heretofore appropriated the surname of Good I am now a professed enemy to Amadis de Gaule of all the infinite rabble of his race Now are all the prophane Histories of Errant Chivalrie hatefull unto me I now acknowledge my folly and perceive the danger whereinto the reading of them hath brought me But now by the meer mercy of my God become wise at my own proper cost and charges I utterly abhorr them When these three friends heard him speak so they beleeved undoubtedly that hee was possessed with some new kinde of foolishnesse My Lord Don Quixote said Samson unto him now that the news are come unto us that the Lady Dulcinea of Toboso is dis-enchanted doe you speak in this manner And now that wee are so neer hand to become Sheepheards that so wee may in singing mirth and jollity lead a kinde of Princely life doe you intend to become a Hermite Hold your peace I pray you replyed Don-Quixote recollect your wits together and let us leave all these discourses That which hitherto served me to my hurt and detriment my death by the assistance of Heaven shall turn to my good and redound to my profit Good Sirs I perceive
and feel death to follow me at my heels Let us leave off and quit all merriments and jesting and let me have a confessor to shrift me and a Notary to draw my last Will and Testament In the extremity whereunto I now finde and feel my self a man must not make a jest of his soule and therefore whilest Master Curate is taking of my Confession let mee have a Scrivener fetch'd They stood all gazing one upon another wondring at Don-Quixotes found reasons although they made some doubt to beleeve them One of the signes which induced them to conjecture that hee was neer unto deaths door was that with such facility hee was from a stark fool become a wise man For to the words already alleaged hee added many more so significant so Christian-like and so well couched that without doubt they confidently believed that Don-Quixote was become a right wise man The Curate made all those who were in the Chamber to avoid and being left alone with him took his Confession The Bachelor Carrasco went to finde out a Notary who not long after came with him and with Sancho Panca This good Squire having understood from the mouth of the Bachelour that his Master was in a very bad estate and finding his Maid-servant and his Neece weeping very bitterly began like a mad-man with his own fists to thump and beat himself and to shead brackish tears The Confession being ended the Curate came forth and was heard to utter these words Verily verily hee is at his last gasp and verily the good Alonso Quixano is become wise and it is high time for him to make his last will and Testament These heavy news opened the sluces of the tears-full and swoln-blubbering eyes of the Maid of the Neeces and of his good Squire Sancho Pansa so that they showred forth whole fountains of tears and fetched from the very bottome of their aggrieved hearts a thousand groaning sighs For in effect as we have already declared else-where whilest Don Quixote was simply the good Alonso Quixano and likewise when hee was Don Quixote de la Mancha hee was ever of a milde and affable disposition and of a kinde and pleasing conversation and therefore was hee not only beloved of all his Houshold but also of all those that knew him In the mean space the Notary came who after hee had written the beginning of his Will and that Don Quixote had disposed of his soul with all the circumstances required and necessary in a true Christian and that hee was come unto the Legacies hee caused this to bee written Item concerning a certain summe of money which Sancho Panca whoâ—â— I made my Squire whilest my folly possessed me hath yet in his custody For so much is between him and me there remain certain odd reckonings and accounts to bee made up of what hee hath received and laid out My will and pleasure is That hee bee not ty'd to yeeld any account at all nor bee in any Bond for it Nay rather if any over-plus remain in his hands having first fully paid and satisfied him of what I owe and am indebted to him which is no great matter my purpose is That it bee absolutely his own and much good may it doe him And as being then a fool I was the cause that hee had the Government of an Island given him I would to God now I am wise and in my perfect sences it were in my power to give him a Kingdome for the sincerity of his minde and the fidelity of his comportments doe well deserve it Then addressing himself unto Sancho hee made this speech unto him My dear friend pardon me that I have given thee occasion to seem a fool as I was in making thee to fall into the same error wherein I was faln that the world there have been and still are Errant Knights Alas and wellady my good Sir answered Sancho throbbing and weeping yeeld not unto death I pray you but rather follow my counsell which is That you endeavour to live many fair yeeres The greatest folly that any man can commit in this world is to give himself over unto death without apparent cause except hee bee wilfully slain or that no other hand bring him to his end but that of melancholy Once more I beseech you suffer not remisnesse or faint-heartednesse to overcome you Rather rise out of your Bed and let us goe into the fields attired like Sheepheards as wee were once resolved to doe It may come to passe that wee behinde some Bush or Shrub shall finde the Lady Madame Dulcinea dis-enchanted so that wee shall have no more businesse If the vexation or irksomenesse you feele to have beene vanquished attempt to bring you unto death let mee undertake the blame who will stoutly maintain in all places and before all men That you were overthrown and quelled because I had not well gyrt your Palfrey Rozinante And you have seen and read in your Books of Chivalry that it is an ordinary thing for one Knight to thrust another out of his saddle And that hee who is to day conquered is to morrow a conqueror It is most true quoth Samson and Sancho Panca relates the very truth of such accidents My Sirs replyed Don-Quixote I pray you goe not on so fast since that in the Nests of the last yeer there are no Birds of this yeer Whilome I was a fool but now I am wise Sometimes I was Don-Quixote de la Mancha but am now as I have already told you the good Alonso Quixano Let my unfained repentance and the truth of what I say obtain this favour at your courteous hands that you will have the same estimation of me now which you have had heretofore And so let Master Notary proceed Item I make and institute my Neece Antoinette Quixana who is here present generall Heir of all my goods whatsoever having first deducted out of them all that shall be necessary for the full accomplishment of the Legacies which I have bequeathed And the first thing I would have discharged I purpose shall bee the wages which I owe unto my Maid-servant and that over and besides shee have twenty Ducats delivered unto her to buy her some good clothes withall Item I appoint and institute Master Curate and Master Samson Carrasco the Bachelour here present to be the Over-seers and Executors of this my last Will and Testament Item my will and pleasure is That if Antoinette Quixana my Neece chance to marry that it bee a man of whom diligent enquiry shall first bee made that hee is utterly ignorant of Books of Chivalrie and that hee never heard speech of them And if it should happen that hee have read them and that notwithstanding my Neece will or take him to her Husband That shee utterly lose and never have any thing that I have bequeathed her as an inheritance all which my Executors and Assigneâ—â— may at their pleasure as shall seem good unto them imploy and
of two or three Ahtificers of mine acquaintance I know they would make me some such as those of the most renowed in Spain would in no wise be able to equall or compare with them Finally good Sir and my very deer friend quoth I I doe resolve that Sir Don Quixote remain intombed among the old Records of the Mancha untill heaven ordain some to adorn him with the many graces that are yet wanting for I find my self wholly unable to remedy them through mine insufficiency and little learning and also because I am naturally lazie and unwilling to goe searching for Authors to say that which I can say well enough without them And hence proceeded the perplexity extasie wherein you found me plunged My friend hearing that striking himself on the fore head after a long and lowd laughter said In good faith friend I have now at last delivered my self of a long and intricate error wherewith I was possessed all the time of our acquaintance for hitherto I accounted thee ever to bee discreet and prudent in all thy Actions but now I see plainly that thou art as far from that I took thee to bee as Heaven is from the Earth How is it possible that things of so small moment and so easie to be redressed can have force to suspend and swallow up so ripe a wit as yours hath seemed to bee and so fitted to break up and trample over the greatest difficulties that can be propounded This proceeds not in good sooth from defect of will but from superfluity of sloath and penury of discourse wilt thou see whether that I say be true or no Listen then attentively a while and thou shalt perceive how in the twinkling of an eye I will confound all these difficulties and supply all the wants which doe suspend affright thee from publishing to the world The History of the famous DON-QUIXOTE the light and mirrour of all Knighthood Errant Say I pray thee quoth I hearing what hee had said after what manner doest thou think to replenish the vacuity of my fear and reduce the Chaos of my confusion to any cleernesse and light And hee replyed The first thing whereat thou stopest of Sonnets Epigrams Eglogues c. which are wanting for the beginning and ought to be written by grave and noble persons may be remedied if thou thy self wilt but take a little pain to compasse them and thou mayest after name them as thou pleasest and father them on Prester John of the Indians or the Emperour of Trapisonde whom I know were held to be famous Poets and suppose they were not but that some pedantes and presumptuous fellowes would backbite thee and murmur against this truth thou needest not waigh them two straws for although they could prove it to bee an untruth yet cannot they cut off thy hand for it As touching citations in the margent and Authours out of whom thou mayest collect sentences and sayings to insert in thy History there is nothing else to bee done but to bob into it some latine sentences that thou knowest already by rote or mayest get easily with a little labour as for example When thou treatest of liberty and thraldome thou mayest cite that non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro and presently quote Horace or hee whosoever else that said it on the margent If thou shouldest speak of the power of death have presently recourse to that of Pallida mors equo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres If of the instability of friends thou hast at hand Cato freely offering his distiâ—hon Donec eris foelix multos numerabis amicos Tempora si iuerint nubila solus eris If of riches quantum quisque sua nummorum servat in arca tantum habet fidei If of love hei mihi quod nullis amor est medicabilis herbis And so with these latine Authorities and other such like they will at least account thee a good Grammarian and the being of such a one is of no little honour and profit in this our age As touching the addition of annotations in the end of thy Book thou mayest boldly observe this course If thou namest any Gyant in thy Book procure that it bee the Gyant Goliah and with this alone which almost will cost thee nothing thou hast gotten a fair annotation for thou mayest say The Gyant Golias or Goliat was a Philistine whom the Sheepheard David slew with the blow of a stone in the vale of Terebintho as is recounted in the Book of Kings in the chapter wherein thou shalt finde it written After all this to shew that thou art learned in humane letters and a Cosmographer take some occasion to make mention of the River Tagus and thou shalt presently finde thy self stored with another notable notation saying the River Tagus was so called of a King of Spain it takes it beginning from such a place and dies in the Ocean Seas kissing first the walls of the famous Citie of Lisborne And some are of opinion that the sands thereof are of Gold c. If thou wilt treat of Theeves I will recite the History of Cacus to thee for I know it by memory If of Whores or Curtezans there thou hast the Bishop of Mondonnedo who will lend thee Lamia Layda and Flora whose annotation will gain thee no small credit If of cruell persons Ovid will tender Medea If of Enchanters and Witches Homer hath Calipso and Virgill Circe If of valorous Captains Julius Caesar shall lend himself in his commentaries to thee and Plutarch shall give thee a thousand Alexanders If thou doest treat of Love and hast but two ounces of the Thuscane language thou shalt encounter with Lion the Hebrew who will replenish thy vessells with store in that kinde but if thou wilt not travel for it into strange Countries thou hast here at home in thy house Fonseca of the love of God wherein is deciphered all that either thou or the most ingenious capacitie can desire to learn of that subject In conclusion there is nothing else to bee done but that thou only indeavour to name those names or to touch those Histories in thine own which I have here related and leave the adding of Annotations and citations unto me for I doe promise thee that I will both fill up the margent and also spend four or five sheets of advantage at the end of the Book Now let us come to the citation of Authours which other Books have and thine wanteth the remedie hereof is very easie for thou needest doe naught else but seek out a Book that doth quote them all from the Letter A untill Z as thou saidst thy self but even now and thou shalt set that very same Alphabet to thine own Book for although the little necessity that thou hadst to use their assistance in thy work will presently convict thee of falshood it makes no matter and perhaps there may not a few bee found so simple as to
beleeve that thou hast holp thy self in the Narration of thy most simple sincere History with all their authorities And though that large Catalogue of Authors doe serve to none other purpose yet will it at least give some authority to the Book at the first blush and the rather because none will bee so mad as to stand to examine whether thou doest follow them or no seeing they can gain nothing by the matter Yet if I doe not erre in the consideration of so weighty an affaire this Book of thine needs none of all these things for as much as it is only an invective against Books of Knighthood a subject whereof Aristotle never dreamed Saint Basil said nothing Cicero never heard any word Nor doe the punctualities of truth nor observations of Astrologie fall within the Sphear of such fabulous jestings Nor doe Geometricall dimentions impart it anything nor the confutation of arguments usurped by Rhetorick nor ought it to preach unto any the mixture of holy matters with prophane a motly wherewith no Christian well should bee attyred only it hath need to help it self with imitation for by how much the more it shall excell therein by so much the more will the work be esteemed And since that thy labour doth aime at no more then to diminish the authoritie and acceptance that Books of Chivalrie have in the world and among the vulgar there is no occasion why thou shouldest goe begging of sentences from Philosophers fables from Poets Orations from Rhetoritians or miracles from the Saints but onely endeavour to deliver with significant plain honest and well-ordered words thy joviall and cheerfull discourse expressing as neer as thou mayest possibly thy intention making thy conceits cleer and not intricate or dark and labour also that the melancholy Mare by the reading thereof may bee urged to laughter the pleasant disposition increased the simple not cloyed and that the judicious may admire thy invention the grave not despise it the prudent applaude it In conclusion let thy project bee to overthrow the ill-compiled Machina and bulk of those knightly Books abhorred by many but applauded by more For if thou bring this to passe thou hast not atchieved a small matter I listned with very great attention to my friends Speech and his reasons are so firmly imprinted in my minde as without making any reply unto them I approved them all for good and framed my preface of them Wherein sweet Reader thou mayest perceive my friends discretion my happinesse to meet with so good a councellour at such a pinch and thine own ease in finding so plainly and sincerely related The History of the famous DON-QUIXOTE of the Mancha of whom it is the common opinion of all the inhabitants bordering on the Fields of Montiel that hee was the most chaste enamoured and valiant Knight that hath been seen read or heard of these many ages I will not indeer the benefit and service I have done thee by making thee acquainted with so Noble and Honourable a Knight but only doe desire that thou gratifie me for the notice of the famous Sancho Panca his Squire in whom in mine opinion are deciphered all the Squire-like graces dispersed throughout the vain rout of Knightly Books And herewithall I bid thee farewell and doe not forget me Vale. Certain Sonnets written by Knights Errant Ladies Squires and Horses in the praise of DON-QUIXOTE his Dame his Squire and Steed AMADIS of Gaule in praise of Don-Quixote THou that my dolefull life did'st imitate When absent and disdained it befell Devoid of Joy I a repentant state Did lead and on the poor Rock's top did dwell Thou that the streams so often from thine eyes Did'st suck of scalding tears digustfull brine And without Pewter Copper Plate likewise Wast on the bare earth oft constrain'd to dine Live on one thing secure eternally That whil'st bright Phoebus shall his Horses spur Through the fourth Spheares dilated Monarchy Thy name shall be renowned neer and fur And as 'mongst Countries thine is best alone So shall thine Authour Peers on earth have none DON BELIANIS of Greece to Don Quixote of the Mancha I Tore I hackt abolisht said and did More then Knight Errant else on earth hath done I dextrous valiant and so stout beside Have thousand wrongs reveng'd millions undone I have done Acts that my fame eternize In Love I courteous and so peerlesse was Gyants as if but Dwarfs I did despise And yet no time of Love plaints I let passe I have held Fortune prostrate at my feet And by my wit seiz'd on occasions top Whose wandring steps I led where I thought meet And though beyond the Moor my soaring hope Did crown my hap with all felicitie Yet Great Quixote doe I envie thee The Knight of the Sunne ALPHEBO to Don Quixote MY Sword could not at all compare with thine Spanish Alphebo full of courtesie Nor thine Armes valour can bee match'd by mine Though I was fear'd where dayes both spring and dye Empires I scorn'd and the vast Monarchie Of th' orient ruddie offred me in vain I left that I the soveraigne face might see Of my Aurora fair Claridiane Whom as by miracle I surely lov'd So banisht by disgrace even very Hell Quak'd at mine Arme that did his furie tame But thou illustrious Gothe Quixote hast prov'd Thy Valour for Dulcinea's sake so well As both on earth have gain'd eternall fame ORLANDO FURIOSO Peer of France to Don Quixote of the Mancha THought thou art not a Peer thou hast no peer Who mightst among ten thousand Peers be one Nor shalt thou never any Peer have here Who ever conquering vanquisht was of none Quixote I' me Orlando that cast away For faire Angelica crost remotest Seas And did such Trophies on Fames Altar lay As passe oblivions reach many degrees Nor can I bee thy Peer for Peerlesnesse Is to thy prowes due and great renown Although I lost as well as thou my wit Yet mine thou may'st be if thy good successe Make thee the proud Moor tame and Schite that crown Us equals in disgrace and loving fit SOLIS DAN to Don Quixote of the Mancha MAugre the ravings that are set abroach And rumble up and down thy troubled brain Yet none thine Acts Quixote can reproach Or thy proceedings tax as vile or vain Thy feats shall bee thy fairest ornament Seeing wrongs to ' ndoe thou goest thus about Although with blows a thousand times y-shent Thou wert well nigh yea ' ven by the miscreant rout And if thy fair Dulcinea shall wrong By mis-regard thy fairer expectation And to thy cares will lend no lightning eare Then let this comfort all thy woes out weare That Sancho faild in Brokers occupation Hee foolish cruel she thou without tongue The Princesse ORIANA of Great Britain to Lady Dulcinea del Toboso HAppie those which for more commoditie And ease Dulcinea fair could bring to passe That Green Witch where Toboso is might bee And London chang'd where thy