Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

This Amateur's Final Report

December 27, 1996

After resigning his governorship of the Isle Barataria, Sancho sets out on the road to the Duke and Duchess' palace. He enjoys himself at lunchtime in company with some vagabonds, one of whom, it turns out, was a Moor expelled from his home town by a general decree against the Moors. Later that day, Sancho and Dapple (his ass) fall into a pit, and they end up being rescued by Don Quixote on the pure chance of his being at the spot near where Sancho and Dapple were trapped.

Not long after leaving the Duke and Duchess, Don Quixote and Sancho are held up by a thieving band led by Roque Guinart. Soon after their meeting, Roque recognizes Don Quixote from reading of his exploits, and a runner is sent ahead to Don Antonio Moreno, a friend of Roque's in Barcelona, to prepare for the arrival of the knight and his squire. Meanwhile, during a period of several days, knight and squire are "guests" of this Robin Hood-like band of characters who actually hold people up and let them go unharmed in exchange for payment of a few crowns. Sancho even gets paid from one such incident (Ch. 61).

To me, this was the most inconsistent chapter in the book with respect to Don Quixote's character. Before, he was always the one to come to the aid of someone being robbed. Now, he is traveling with the robber and finding his company and conversation stimulating. Is this a different melody of the same old madness in the knight, or is this something new?

Don Antonio Moreno has arranged for a splendid welcome into Barcelona of the Don and his squire. Even though he is sort of a rogue himself, out to get fun out of the spectacle of a modern-day knight errant and his squire, Don Antonio is "a gentleman of good parts and plentiful fortune loving all those diversions that may innocently be obtained without prejudice to his neighbors, and not of the humor of those who would rather lose their friend than their jest."

During his stay in Barcelona, Don Quixote's spirits didn't seem to improve from their earlier low ebb. He is taken through town on horseback with a sign on his back that read "This is Don Quixote." He couldn't understand how so many people knew him. Later, he was so exhausted at the evening dance by all the ladies inviting him to dance that he collapsed and had to be picked up from the middle of the dance floor and be carried to his room. His innocence or silence in the face of these absurdities made me feel he was really suffering for his madness.

One day, quite independent of any plans by Don Antonio, Don Quixote meets up with a knight in full armor on horseback (Ch. 64). This Knight of the White Moon challenges Don Quixote to a joust. If Don Quixote loses, he must "forsake arms, abstain from seeking adventures, and withdraw to [his] own village for the period of a year, which [he] must pass without putting hand to sword, in profound peace and profitable ease, such as will contribute to the increase of [his] estate and the profit of [his] soul." If the Knight of the White Moon loses, his head shall be at Don Quixote's mercy, "and the spoils of my armour and horse shall be yours, and the renown of my deeds shall be transferred to you." It's over in a flash. Don Quixote and Rocinante, his horse, are trampled to the ground by the charging opponent.

"Then, battered and stunned, without lifting his vizor Don Quixote proclaimed in a low and feeble voice, as if he were speaking from inside a tomb: 'Dulcinea del Toboso is the most beautiful woman in the world, and I am the most unfortunate knight on earth; nor is it just that my weakness should discredit that truth. Drive your lance home, knight, and rid me of life, since you have robbed me of honor.'" Fortunately, the conquering knight declines to kill the vanquished one. Instead, he proclaims that "the renown of the lady Dulcinea del Toboso's beauty" shall "live unimpaired." He only wants Don Quixote to comply with the conditions set down before the joust.

Through Don Antonio's inquiry, we learn that the Knight of the White Moon is none other than Bachelor Sampson Carrasco from Don Quixote's home town who hopes that spending a year away from knight errantry will cure the Don of his madness. Don Antonio is appalled: "May God pardon you the injury you have done the whole world in your attempt to restore the most amusing of all madmen to his senses. Don't you see, sir, that no benefit to be derived from Don Quixote's recovery could outweigh the pleasure afforded by his extravagances?"

Don Quixote "stayed six days in bed, melancholy, sorrowful, brooding and in a bad way, turning over and over in his mind the misfortune of his defeat." Sancho tried to cheer him up, saying he was the greater loser, "For though with my government I gave up all desire to be a governor again, I've never lost my longing to be a count. But that will never come to anything, if your worship gives up trying to be a king, and abandons the profession of chivalry. So my hopes are all going up in smoke."

Don Quixote returns to his home town and is resigned to take up the life of a shepherd. Unfortunately, he becomes ill soon afterwards. His friends, the priest, the barber, Sancho, Sampson Carrasco, his niece and his housekeeper gather round his bed to witness an astonishing transformation.

Before he dies, he has the sudden experience of realizing that knight errantry is all wrong. He tells his niece, "My judgment is now clear and free from the misty shadows of ignorance with which my ill-starred and continuous reading of those detestable books of chivalry had obscured it. Now I know their absurdities and their deceits, and the only thing that grieves me is that this discovery has come too late, and leaves me no time to make amends by reading other books, which might enlighten my soul." (Ch. 74)

"Now I am the enemy of Amadis of Gaul and of all the infinite brood of his progeny. Now all profane histories of knight errantry are odious to me. I know my folly now, and the peril I have incurred from the reading of them. Now, by God's mercy, I have learnt from my own bitter experience and I abominate them."

Sancho, in tears, says, "Don't be lazy, look you, but get out of bed, and let's go out into the fields dressed as shepherds, as we decided to. Perhaps we shall find the lady Dulcinea behind some hedge, disenchanted and as pretty as a picture."

After making his peace with God and preparing his will, Don Quixote left this world in peace.

Finishing this book is a sad experience. Getting to know old Don Quixote and Sancho, his squire, and all those crazy adventures and humorous discussions, has been enjoyable the whole four months it took me to read it. I'm going to miss this.

I tried to avoid reading any professional criticism about Don Quixote while progressing with the novel. Probably for the same reasons I prefer to avoid a movie, if there is one, before reading some books, especially ones of this quality. After finishing the book, it was interesting to read Marianne Sturman's discussion, in Cliff Notes, of "Quixotism" as the major theme of the book. This word is defined as "the universal quality characteristic of any visionary action. Acts of rebellion or reform are always quixotic..." The hero references for this "virtue" are to truth and justice, rather than to duty, honor, and virtue, as I'd written about in an earlier report. Here's where I wave my amateur credentials like a white flag.

Maybe I should follow the advice of Aubrey Bell: Read the book "at least three times in the course of a lifetime: in youth, maturity, and old age." Although Cliff Notes offers no answer to why she advises this, I think a child would be enthralled with the excitement and blundering, the mature man or woman would wonder at such fierce idealism persisting amidst such troubles and realities of life, and the old man or woman might get good companionship and laughter out of the book. What do you think?

© 1996 Herman Fontenot

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