Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
14. Written by Jeronimo Fernandez and published in 1547.
15. As indicated earlier, this was first published in 1490; composed in Catalan by Johanot Martorell and continued by Marti Johan de Galba, the anonymous Castilian translation was published in 1511.
16. In the translation of this sentence, which has been called the most obscure in the entire novel, I have followed the interpretation offered by Martin de Riquer. One of the problematic issues in Spanish is the word galeras, or "galleys," which can mean either ships or publisher's proofs.
17. As indicated earlier, this was the first pastoral novel in Spanish.
18. A very poor continuation by Alonso Perez, a Salamancan physician, printed in 1564; also published in 1564 is the highly esteemed Diana enamorada (Diana in Love) by Gil Polo.
19. Published in 1573; according to Martin de Riquer, Cervantes's praise is ironic, since he mocked the book in his Viaje del Parnaso (Voyage from Parnassus).
21. Published in 1582 by Luis Galvez de Montalvo.
22. Published in 1580 by Pedro de Padilla.
23. Published in 1586 by Gabriel Lopez Maldonado and his collaborator, Miguel de Cervantes.
24. This pastoral novel was the first work published by Cervantes, in 1585; the often promised second part was never published and has been lost.
25. Epic poems of the Spanish Renaissance, they were published in 1569, 1584, and 1588, respectively.
26. Published in 1586 by Luis Barahona de Soto.
1. The first two are epic poems by Jeronimo Sempere (1560) and Pedro de la Vecilla Castellanos (1586); the third work is not known, although Luis de Avila did write a prose commentary on Spain's wars with the German Protestants. Martin de Riquer believes that Cervantes intended to cite the poem Carlo famoso (1566) by Luis Zapata.
2. The enchanter Freston is the alleged author of Don Belianis of Greece, a chivalric novel.
3. A Latinate word for "island" that appeared frequently in novels of chivalry; Cervantes uses it throughout for comic effect.
1. A monstrous giant in Greek mythology who had fifty heads and a hundred arms.
2. An entrance to the mountains of the Sierra Morena, between La Mancha and Andalucia.
3. A historical figure of the thirteenth century.
4. Agrajes, a character in Amadis of Gaul, would say these words before doing battle; it became a proverbial expression used at the beginning of a fight.
5. The "second author" is Cervantes (that is, the narrator), who claims, in the following chapter, to have arranged for the translation of another (fictional) author's book. This device was common in novels of chivalry.
6. Cervantes originally divided the 1605 novel (commonly called the "first part" of Don Quixote) into four parts. The break in the narrative action between parts was typical of novels of chivalry.
1. These lines, probably taken from a ballad, appeared in Alvar Gomez's Spanish translation of Petrarch's Trionfi, although nothing comparable is in the Italian original.
2. A commonplace in chivalric fiction was that the knight's adventures (Platir's, for example) had been recorded by a wise man and then translated, the translation being the novel.
3. Published in 1586 and 1587, respectively.
4. A Moor who had been converted to Christianity.
5. An allusion to Hebrew, spoken by the Jews who were merchants in the Alcana.
6. Cide is the equivalent of senor; Hamete is the Arabic name Hamid; Benengeli (berenjenain Spanish) means "eggplant," a favorite food of Spanish Moors and Jews. In chapter II of the second volume (1615), the "first author" is, in fact, referred to as Cide Hamete Berenjena.
7. Two arrobas is approximately fifty pounds; two fanegasis a little more than three bushels.
8. Zancas means "shanks"; panza, as indicated earlier, means "belly" or "paunch."
1. Cervantes apparently divided this portion of the text into chapters after he had written it, and he did so in haste: the adventure with the Basque is concluded, and the Galicians do not appear for another five chapters.
2. The Santa Hermandad, or Holy Brotherhood, was an armed force that policed the countryside and the roads.
3. Sancho confuses homicidios ("homicides") and omecillos ("grudges").
4. Lint was used in much the same way that absorbent cotton is used in modern medicine.
6. An azumbre was the equivalent of a little more than two liters.
7. Loosely based on an episode in Ariosto's Orlando furioso, in which Reinaldos de Montalban takes the enchanted helmet of the Moorish king Mambrino from Dardinel (not Sacripante) and kills him in the process.
8. A reference to an episode in Boiardo's Orlando innamorato, in which Agricane's army, consisting of "twenty-two hundred thousand knights," laid siege to Albracca.
9. This name appears in a novel of chivalry, Clamades y Clarmonda (1562); in later editions of Don Quixote it was changed to "Sobradisa," a kingdom mentioned in Amadis of Gaul.
1. Don Quixote's soliloquy incorporates all the elements traditionally associated with the classical idea of the Golden Age.
2. A precursor of the violin, mentioned frequently in pastoral novels.
1. The lines are from Orlando furioso. "Roland" is the English (and French) for "Orlando." The Spanish version of the name is "Roldan."
2. Virgil requested that the Aeneid be burned at his death.
1. According to a medieval legend, the wounds of a murder victim would bleed in the presence of the killer.
1. There is a Yanguas in the modern province of Soria and another in the province of Segovia; in the first edition, however, Cervantes calls the drovers "Galicians." For the sake of clarity, I have called them "Yanguesans," which is how they are referred to in part II.
2. Sancho misremembers the name (Fierabras) associated with the healing potion.
3. The humor here stems from wordplay based on costas ("costs") and costillas ("ribs").
4. The "merry god" is Bacchus.
5. Cervantes erroneously describes the city entered by Silenus as having one hundred gates, which refers to Egyptian Thebes; Silenus rode into Thebes in Boeotia, which had seven gates.
1. A span is approximately eight inches.
2. Sancho is mistaken (or lying): he and Don Quixote have been traveling for three days.
3. According to Martin de Riquer, muledrivers were usually Moriscos, and Cervantes is suggesting a connection between this character and Cide Hamete Benengeli.
4. A book of chivalry based on an earlier French poem and published in Spanish in 1513.
1. The phrase recalls the opening of a traditional ballad about El Cid.
2. A coin of little value, worth about one-sixth of a maravedi.
3. Tossing a dog in a blanket was a Carnival diversion.
4. An ancient Spanish coin of very little value.
1. The reference is to Amadis of Greece, the great-grandson of Amadis of Gaul.
2. The Greek and Roman name for Sri Lanka. The names of the warriors in this section are parodies of the kinds of grandiloquent names typical of novels of chivalry (Alifanfaron is roughly equivalent to "Alibombast," Pentapolinto "Pentaroller"). The listing of combatants appears to be a brief detour by Cervantes into the world of the epic poem.
3. The names in this section suggest ludicrous associations: Laurcalco, "Laurelfacsimile"; Micocolembo, "Monkeywedge"; Brandabarbaran de Boliche, "Brandabarbarian of Ninepins"; Timonel de Carcajona, "Helmsman of Guffawjona"; Nueva Vizcaya, "New Basqueland"; Miulina, "Mewlina"; Alfeniquen del Algarbe, "Mollycoddle of Babble"; Pierres Papin, "Pierres Bonbon"; Espartafilardo del Bosque, "Esparragrass of the Forest."
4. In heraldry, these are blue and white cups, or bells, that fit together perfectly.
5. The legend, Rastrea mi Suerte, is ambiguous and can be interpreted in several ways, including "Look into my fate," "Delve into my fate," "My fate creeps along," and "Follow [the trail of] my fate."
7. The Spanish word peladilla can mean either "pebble" or "sugared almond.
8. Andres Laguna, an eminent sixteenth-century physician, translated and commented on the medical treatise by Dioscorides, a Greek physician of the first century C.E.
1. Sancho does not remember the name "Mambrino" and confuses it with malandrin ("scoundrel" or "rascal").
2. The reference is to soldiers who wore shirts of a specific color over their armor during night battles so they would not be mistaken for the enemy.
3. All of these are fictional except for the Knight of the Griffon, a count who lived during the reign of Philip II.
4. This is part of a phrase established by the Council of Trent for excommunicating those who committed violence against a member of the clergy.
5. The incident is narrated in several ballads about El Cid (Rodrigo de Vivar, also called Ruy Diaz).
1. The Horn is the constellation of Ursa Minor; Sancho refers to a method of telling the time by the stars in which the person would extend his arms in the shape of a cross and calculate the hour by determining the position of the Horn in relationship to his arms.
2. Sancho is alluding to Cato the Censor, or Cato Censorino, who was popularly considered to be a source of proverbs and sayings; in the process, he mispronounces his title, calling him zonzorino, which suggests "simpleminded."
4. For the next few sentences, Don Quixote uses a more formal mode of address with Sancho (a change that cannot be rendered in modern English) to indicate extreme displeasure and his desire for distance between them.
5. Latin for "in the Turkish manner."
6. This is the second half of a proverb: "It doesn't matter if the pitcher hits the stone or the stone hits the pitcher: it will be bad for the pitcher."
1. An enchanted helmet worn by Reinaldos de Montalban.
2. Sancho is citing part of a proverb--"May it please God that this is oregano and not caraway"--which warns against fool's gold (oregano was considered more valuable than caraway).
3. Castor, a strong-smelling secretion of the beaver's sexual glands, was used in making perfume.
4. Vulcan made armor for Mars, but not a helmet.
5. Sancho means "Mambrino."
6. An idiom, used earlier, that means to flee an unexpected danger.
8. It should be noted that Don Quixote's tale is a perfect plot summary of a novel of chivalry.
9. Under certain circumstances, it was a privilege of the gentry to collect five hundred sueldos as recompense for damages or injuries.
1. The speech of the galley slaves is peppered with underworld slang. Here, for example, the convict says that his sentence was a hundred lashes plus a term of three years in the galleys.
2. The allusion is to the public flogging and humiliation of convicted criminals.
3. There is a certain intentional confusion or ambiguity regarding "go-between" in the ensuing dialogue, where it alternately implies "matchmaker" and "procurer."
4. A kind of metal collar placed under the chin, which prevented a prisoner from lowering his head.
5. Cervantes is alluding to the picaresque novel in Gines's discussion of his book, just as he suggests the pastoral in the story of Marcela. These genres, along with novels of chivalry, were the most popular forms of prose fiction in Spain during the sixteenth century.
6. A traditional expression that means, "Don't go looking for trouble."
1. Martin de Riquer faithfully follows the first edition of Don Quixote, published in 1605; the second edition, printed a few months later by Juan de la Cuesta, the same printer, introduces a brief passage here, indicating that Gines de Pasamonte, who is also in the mountains, steals Sancho's donkey. The thorny and ambiguous question of why Cervantes does not mention the theft of the donkey in the first edition (usually attributed to an author's oversight or a printer's error) is alluded to in the second part of Don Quixote, published in 1615.
2. By the third edition of Don Quixote, printed by Juan de la Cuesta, the references to Sancho's donkey in the Sierra Morena had been deleted; here, for example, the revised text says that Sancho was on foot and carrying the donkey's load, "thanks to Ginesillo de Pasamonte."
1. A lost play by Shakespeare, The History of Cardenio, was apparently based on Cardenio's tale. An English translation of the first part of Don Quixote appeared only a few years after its initial publication in 1605.
2. A promise of marriage was considered a legally binding contract.
3. This is the eleventh of the books about Amadis and his descendants.
4. Queen Madasima, a character in the Amadis of Gaul, did not have a romantic relationship with the surgeon Elisabat.
1. The knight's penance is a favorite topic in the books of chivalry. Beltenebros is the name taken by Amadis during his penance; it suggests "Dark Beauty" or "Beautiful Dark."
2. This was the popular name for Aesop among the uneducated.
3. This is Sancho's misunderstanding of the name Elisabat.
4. Pena Pobrecan be translated as "Poor Rock" or "Bare Rock" or, to retain the alliteration, "Mount Mournful."
5. The figure of Opportunity was traditionally represented as bald except for one lock of hair, which, like the proverbial brass ring, one had to grasp and hold on to.
7. Over the years, the question of exactly when Sancho's donkey was stolen has been a matter of some controversy among Cervantine scholars. According to the first edition, published in 1605, this is the initial indication that a theft has taken place. In the second edition, however, published a few months after the first, a passage inserted in chapter XXIII states that Gines de Pasamonte, the galley slave, steals the donkey while Sancho is sleeping. Martin de Riquer, editor of the text on which this translation is based, adheres consistently to the first edition, citing the added passage in a footnote but not including it in the body of the text. In brief, then, through an oversight of Cervantes or the printer, Juan de la Cuesta, the first edition does not prepare the reader for the fact that the donkey has been stolen; despite subsequent corrections, in the second part of Don Quixote, published in 1615, Cervantes alludes to this omission in chapter III and apparently accepts criticism of the omission as valid.
8. This is Sancho's corruption of a Latin phrase in the service for the dead: Quia in inferno nulla est redemptio.
9. In the passage regarding the theft of the donkey, which was inserted in chapter XXIII in the second edition, Don Quixote offers Sancho his own donkeys as compensation for his loss.
10. In an apparent oversight, Cervantes wrote "Perseus" instead of "Theseus."
1. This phrase was considered irreverent, and in the second edition it was replaced by "And for a rosary he took some large galls from a cork tree, which he strung together and used as prayer beads."
1. A Visigoth who ruled Spain in the seventh century (672-680).
1. This appears to be a reference to the duke of Osuna.
1. In the first edition, this was the epigraph for chapter XXX, while the one for chapter XXIX appeared before chapter XXX. In other words, the epigraphs were reversed.
2. The kind of gentle horse normally ridden by women and referred to frequently in novels of chivalry; Cervantes uses the term for comic effect since Dorotea is riding a mule.
3. In other words, Sancho will turn them into silver and gold.
5. Meona means "urinating frequently" and is often used to describe newborn infants.
1. In this context, religion signifies the order of chivalry.
2. Azote means "whip" or "scourge"; gigote is "fricassee" or "hash."