GREEK ATTRACTION

We participated in an interdisciplinary conference about classical Greece celebrated in IES Norba on April, 22nd. The title of our presentation was "Greek attraction". It was focused on the attaction that British artists have always felt for Ancient Greece. We quickly revisited some Romantics poets and Pre-Rafaelist painters, and finally had a look at the world of cinema, sellecting a scene form "Troy".

DON QUIXOTE ILLUSTRATED

In order to commemorate Cervantes and his universal novel, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, our Bilingual Section has prepared an exhibition with illustrations found in British editions of the book. We also found the translations into English of these adventures.

THE MADNESS OF DON QUIXOTE (First part, chapter VII)

Description of the illustration

Don Quixote in his nightshirt, in profile to left, holding aloft his sword; two men seizing him, a woman clasping his sword arm, a woman praying to left, a bed in the corner; second state. 1902

At this instant Don Quixote began shouting out, "Here, here, valiant knights! here is need for you to put forth the might of your strong arms, for they of the Court are gaining the mastery in the tourney!" Called away by this noise and outcry, they proceeded no farther with the scrutiny of the remaining books, and so it is thought that "The Carolea," "The Lion of Spain," and "The Deeds of the Emperor," written by Don Luis de Avila, went to the fire unseen and unheard; for no doubt they were among those that remained, and perhaps if the curate had seen them they would not have undergone so severe a sentence.

When they reached Don Quixote he was already out of bed, and was still shouting and raving, and slashing and cutting all round, as wide awake as if he had never slept.

They closed with him and by force got him back to bed, and when he had become a little calm, addressing the curate, he said to him, "Of a truth, Senor Archbishop Turpin, it is a great disgrace for us who call ourselves the Twelve Peers, so carelessly to allow the knights of the Court to gain the victory in this tourney, we the adventurers having carried off the honour on the three former days."

THE ADVENTURE OF THE WIND MILLS (First part, chapter VIII)

Description of the illustration

Don Quixote on horseback, wearing armour and holding a lance, falling of a ladder backwards after attempting to attack a windmill, watched by a shocked man, carrying a sack at right, and by Sancho Panza, approaching behind on the back of Rosinante; more windmills in background; from a series of illustrations to Don Quixote after Henry Alken. 1832

At this point they came in sight of thirty forty windmills that there are on plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire, "Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes; for this is righteous warfare, and it is God's good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth."

"What giants?" said Sancho Panza.

"Those thou seest there," answered his master, "with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long."

"Look, your worship," said Sancho; "what we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go."

THE TOSSING OF SANCHO (First part, chapter XVII)

Description of the illustration

Sancho Panza in mid-air, receiving a blanket-tossing outside an inn from six cheerful people, Don Quijote brandishing his lance in anger from behind the wall to left; second state. 1902

The ill-luck of the unfortunate Sancho so ordered it that among the company in the inn there were four woolcarders from Segovia, three needle-makers from the Colt of Cordova, and two lodgers from the Fair of Seville, lively fellows, tender-hearted, fond of a joke, and playful, who, almost as if instigated and moved by a common impulse, made up to Sancho and dismounted him from his ass, while one of them went in for the blanket of the host's bed; but on flinging him into it they looked up, and seeing that the ceiling was somewhat lower what they required for their work, they decided upon going out into the yard, which was bounded by the sky, and there, putting Sancho in the middle of the blanket, they began to raise him high, making sport with him as they would with a dog at Shrovetide.

DOROTHEA (First part, chapter XXVIII)

Description of the illustration

Dorothea, wearing breeches and a waistcoat, sitting by a stream, looking distressed to the left; three men watching her from behind a rock in the upper right corner. 1802

When Cardenio heard her say she was called Dorothea, he showed fresh agitation and felt convinced of the truth of his former suspicion, but he was unwilling to interrupt the story, and wished to hear the end of what he already all but knew, so he merely said:

"What! is Dorothea your name, senora? I have heard of another of the same name who can perhaps match your misfortunes. But proceed; by-and-by I may tell you something that will astonish you as much as it will excite your compassion."

Dorothea was struck by Cardenio's words as well as by his strange and miserable attire, and begged him if he knew anything concerning her to tell it to her at once, for if fortune had left her any blessing it was courage to bear whatever calamity might fall upon her, as she felt sure that none could reach her capable of increasing in any degree what she endured already.

THE DON BATTLING WITH THE WINE SKINS (First part, chapter XXXV)

Description of the illustration

Don Quixote in his night shirt, holding a blanket before him as a shield and with his sword raised in the air, slashing open wine skins; the landlord with an expression of rage on his face and about to punch him; the compay at the inn gathering at the door, blocked by Sancho Panza, who stands crouched over, his hands on his knees, breathing heavily; illustration to "Roscoe's Novelist's Library vol. XIII, XIV and XV -The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote" (1833)

There remained but little more of the novel to be read, when Sancho Panza burst forth in wild excitement from the garret where Don Quixote was lying, shouting, "Run, sirs! quick; and help my master, who is in the thick of the toughest and stiffest battle I ever laid eyes on. By the living God he has given the giant, the enemy of my lady the Princess Micomicona, such a slash that he has sliced his head clean off as if it were a turnip."

"What are you talking about, brother?" said the curate, pausing as he was about to read the remainder of the novel. "Are you in your senses, Sancho? How the devil can it be as you say, when the giant is two thousand leagues away?"

Here they heard a loud noise in the chamber, and Don Quixote shouting out, "Stand, thief, brigand, villain; now I have got thee, and thy scimitar shall not avail thee!" And then it seemed as though he were slashing vigorously at the wall.

"Don't stop to listen," said Sancho, "but go in and part them or help my master: though there is no need of that now, for no doubt the giant is dead by this time and giving account to God of his past wicked life; for I saw the blood flowing on the ground, and the head cut off and fallen on one side, and it is as big as a large wine-skin."

"May I die," said the landlord at this, "if Don Quixote or Don Devil has not been slashing some of the skins of red wine that stand full at his bed's head, and the spilt wine must be what this good fellow takes for blood;" and so saying he went into the room and the rest after him, and there they found Don Quixote in the strangest costume in the world. 

THE DON ENCHANTED IN THE CAGE (First part, chapter XLVII)

Description of the illustration

Don Quixote, in a covered cage on board an ox-waggon stretching his hands through the bars, surrounded by Dorothea and other ladies, all weeping and saying their farewells; Don Fernando and his companions mounted on horses behind; to the foreground, Sancho Panza saddling his ass; illustration to "Roscoe's Novelist's Library vol. XIII, XIV and XV -The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote" (1833) 

When Don Quixote saw himself caged and hoisted on the cart in this way, he said, "Many grave histories of knights-errant have I read; but never yet have I read, seen, or heard of their carrying off enchanted knights-errant in this fashion, or at the slow pace that these lazy, sluggish animals promise; for they always take them away through the air with marvellous swiftness, enveloped in a dark thick cloud, or on a chariot of fire, or it may be on some hippogriff or other beast of the kind; but to carry me off like this on an ox-cart! By God, it puzzles me! But perhaps the chivalry and enchantments of our day take a different course from that of those in days gone by; and it may be, too, that as I am a new knight in the world, and the first to revive the already forgotten calling of knight-adventurers, they may have newly invented other kinds of enchantments and other modes of carrying off the enchanted. What thinkest thou of the matter, Sancho my son?"

  

ADVENTURE OF THE LIONS (Second part, chapter XVII)

 

Description of the illustration

Don Quixote in suits of armour with a raised sword, stands next to a wheeled cage containing a lion, lying in the opening of the cage, a man standing on the right wheel of the cage, looking down on the lion, proof state; illustration to Miguel de Cervantes' 'Don Quixote' (London, Cadell & Davies, 1818).

Don Quixote planted himself before it and said, "Whither are you going, brothers? What cart is this? What have you got in it? What flags are those?"

To this the carter replied, "The cart is mine; what is in it is a pair of wild caged lions, which the governor of Oran is sending to court as a present to his Majesty; and the flags are our lord the King's, to show that what is here is his property."

"And are the lions large?" asked Don Quixote.

"So large," replied the man who sat at the door of the cart, "that larger, or as large, have never crossed from Africa to Spain; I am the keeper, and I have brought over others, but never any like these. They are male and female; the male is in that first cage and the female in the one behind, and they are hungry now, for they have eaten nothing to-day, so let your worship stand aside, for we must make haste to the place where we are to feed them."

Hereupon, smiling slightly, Don Quixote exclaimed, "Lion-whelps to me! to me whelps of lions, and at such a time! Then, by God! those gentlemen who send them here shall see if I am a man to be frightened by lions. Get down, my good fellow, and as you are the keeper open the cages, and turn me out those beasts, and in the midst of this plain I will let them know who Don Quixote of La Mancha is, in spite and in the teeth of the enchanters who send them to me."

"So, so," said the gentleman to himself at this; "our worthy knight has shown of what sort he is; the curds, no doubt, have softened his skull and brought his brains to a head."

At this instant Sancho came up to him, saying, "Senor, for God's sake do something to keep my master, Don Quixote, from tackling these lions; for if he does they'll tear us all to pieces here."