Constantinople where I was sometime captive who was one of the most valiant Souldiers and Captaines that might bee found among all the Spanish foote but hee was as unfortunate as hee was valorous and resolute And how was that Captaine called good Sir quoth the Judge His name was replyed Master Curate Ruy Perez Viedma and hee was borne in a Village of the Mountaines of Leon and hee recounted unto mee an occurrence hapned betweene his Father him and his other Brethren which if I had not beene told by a man of such credit and reputation as hee was I would have esteemed for one of these fables which old Wives are wont to rehearse by the fire side in Winter for hee said to mee that his Father had divided his goods among his three sonnes and gave them withall certaine Precepts better then those of Cato and I know well that the choice which hee made to follow the Warre had such happy success as within a few yeeres through his forwardnesse and valour without the helpe of any other arme hee was advanced to a company of Foote and made a Captaine and was in the way and course of becomming one day a Colonell but Fortune was contrary to him for even there where he was most to expect her favour hee lost it with the losse of his Liberty in that most happy journey wherein so many recovered it to wit in the Battell of Lepanto I lost mine in Goleta and after by different successe wee became companions in Constantinople from whence wee went to Argiers where did befall him one of the most notable Adventures that ever hapned in the World and there the Curate with succinct brevitie recounted all that had hapned between the Captain and Zoraida to all which the Judge was so attentive as in all his life hee never listened to any cause so attentively as then And the Curate only arived to the point wherein the French-men spoyled the Christians that came in the Barke and the necessitie wherein his Companion and the beautifull Zoraida remained of whom hee had not learned any thing after nor knew not what became of them or whether they came into Spain or were carried away by the French-men into France The Captain stood listening somewhat aloof off to all the Curates words and noted the while the motions and gestures of his brother who seeing that the Curate had now made an end of his Speech breathing forth a great sigh and his eyes being filled with teares hee said O Sir if you had known the news which you have told me and how neerly they touch me in some points whereby I am constrained to manifest these teares which violently break forth in despight of my discretion and calling you would hold me excused for this excesse That Captaine of whom you spoke is my eldest Brother who as one stronger and of more noble thoughts then I or my younger Brother made election of the honourable military calling one of the three estates which our Father proposed to us even as your Comrade informed when as you thought hee related a Fable I followed my Book by which God and my dilligence raised me to the State you see My younger Brother is in Peru and with that which hee hath sent to my Father and my self hath bountifully recompenced the portion hee carried and given to him sufficient to satisfie his liberall disposition and to me wherewithall to continue my Studies with the decencie and authority needfull to advance me to the rank which now I possesse My Father lives yet but dying through desire to learne somewhat of his eldest Sonne and doth dayly importune God with incesâ—ant prayers that death may not shut his eyes untill hee may once again see him alive I only marvell not a little considering his discreetion that among all his labours afflictions or prosperous successes hee hath been so carelesse in giving his Father notice of his Proceedings for if either hee or any one of us had known of his Captivity hee should not have needed to expect the miracle of the Cane for his Ransome But that which troubles me most of all is to think whether these French-men have restored him again to libertie or else slain him that they might conceale their robberie the better all which will bee an occasion to me to prosecute my Voyage not with the joy wherewithall I began it but rather with Melancholy and Sorrow O dear Brother I would I might know now where thou art that I my self might goe and search thee out and free thee from thy pains although it were with the hazard of mine own O who is hee that could carrie news to our old Father that thou wert but alive although thou were hidden in the most abstruse Dungeons of Barbarie for his Riches my Brothers and mine would fetch thee from thence O beautifull and bountifull Zoraida who might bee able to recompence thee for the good thou hast done to my Brother How happie were hee that might bee present at thy Spirituall Birth and Baptisme and at thy nuptials which would bee so gratefull to us all These and many other such words did the Judge deliver so full of compassion for the news that hee had received of his Brother as all that heard him kept him companie in shewing signes of compassion for his sorrow The Curate therefore perceiving the happie successe whereto his designe and the Captains desire had sorted would hold the company sad no longer and therefore arising from the Table and entring into the Room wherein Zoraida was hee took her by the hand and after her followed Luscinda Dorotea and the Judge his Daughter the Captain stood still to see what the Curate would doe who taking him fast by the other hand martched over with them both towards the Judge and the other Gentlemen and said Suppresse your teares Master Justice and glut your desire with all that good which it may desire seeing you have here before you your good brother and your loving sister in law this man whom you view here is the Captaine Viedma and this the beautifull Moore which hath done so much for him The Frenchmen which I told you of have reduced them to the povertie you see to the end that you may shew the liberalitie of your noble brest Then did the Captaine draw neere to embrace his brother but hee held him off a while with his armes to note whether it was hee or no but when hee once knew him hee embraced him so lovingly and with such abundance of teares as did attract the like from all the beholders The words that the brothers spoke one to another or the feeling affection which they shewed can hardly bee conceived and therefore much lesse written by any one whatsoever There they did briefly recount the one to the other their successes there did they shew the true love and affection of brothers in his prime there did the Judge embrace Zoraida there hee made her an ofâ—er of
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
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