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."
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