Discussion Questions

The gentleman tries the helmet once, sees that it falls apart, remakes it, and does not try it again, and he spends four and then eight days choosing the names of the horse and of himself. What kind of verification does he accept, and what kind does he avoid?

No one that night tells Don Quixote that he is in an inn. What does each of those present (the innkeeper, the girls, the pig castrator) gain by joining the game, or by keeping quiet?

The innkeeper dubs Don Quixote to be rid of him, and Don Quixote leaves grateful and without paying. If an investiture is worth what the officiant believes or what the recipient believes, what is it worth here, and to whom?

That same morning, Don Quixote trusts the farmer's word under oath, and he demands that the merchants believe without seeing. In both cases he asks the listener to trust a word. Who pays when the trust fails?

Pedro Alonso calls him Señor Quijana, the housekeeper and the niece call him sir and sir uncle, the priest calls him good friend, and he replies that he knows who he is. What name does each of them use for him, and what does each name assume about what is happening?

The priest saves Amadis for being the best and condemns his son Esplandián. He saves Tirant because its knights eat and die in their beds, and he burns those he finds arrogant. What criteria does he use to condemn or spare a book, and do those criteria hold each other up?

The priest and the barber order the room walled up and say that an enchanter carried off the books. The niece embellishes the story, and Don Quixote corrects the name of the magician and explains the reason for the enmity. In this scene, who helps the fiction stand up, and what does each one gain by doing so?

Before the windmills, Sancho names what he sees (blades, wind, millstone), and Don Quixote replies that he knows nothing of adventures. What does each of the two, in this scene, take as proof of what he has seen?

The narrator interrupts the battle to say that he found nothing more written about the exploits. What effect does it have on the reader to learn that the one telling depends on other people's papers, and not on his own invention?

The narrator says that the Arab author may have lied, being an Arab, and soon after that, being an enemy, he must have kept silent about praises the knight deserved. In what way does each of these two sentences protect the narrator, and whom does he ask the reader to believe?

Don Quixote swears to live as the Marquis of Mantua did until he obtains another helmet, and Sancho asks what to do if no armed man appears. What answer does his master give, and what does it show of how he treats what he does not see?

Don Quixote orders Sancho to sit at the goatherds' table in the name of the equality that chivalry brings, and Sancho prefers to eat standing, in his own corner. What does each of them want from the table, and who decides in the end who sits down?

Pedro tells Marcela's story the way the village tells it: rich and beautiful, she becomes a shepherdess, and her suitors follow her across the fields. What does he acknowledge in her favor, what does he accuse her of, and what is still missing to hear before deciding who is right?

Vivaldo provokes the gentleman to amuse himself on the road, and the traveler raises two scruples against chivalry: that the knight commends himself to his lady and not to God, and that not everyone has a lady. What does Don Quixote answer to each, and what does that show of what he takes as the rule of his office?

Marcela answers the charge of having killed Grisóstomo by saying that she gave hope to no one. What part of what she says does Ambrosio's epitaph contradict, and what help does Don Quixote offer her without her having asked for it?

Don Quixote attributes the beating to punishment for having drawn his sword against someone who was not a knight, orders Sancho to punish the scoundrels the next time, and, minutes later, says that wounds from stakes do not bring disgrace. What rule does he apply at each moment, and who bears the cost of each one?

The gentleman receives Maritornes as the princess the books promise, and declines out of fidelity to Dulcinea. The muleteer awaits her at an arranged meeting, and the innkeeper looks for her to punish her. What does each one believe is happening in that bed, and why does the scene end in a brawl?

Don Quixote attributes the carter's blow to an enchanted Moor who guards the maiden's beauty, and Sancho says that the Moor, if he does not let himself be seen, lets himself be felt. What does each one accept and what does each one refuse of the explanation, and who pays the bill at the end of the stay?

Don Quixote attributes the transformation of the armies into flocks to a wise enemy, and proposes that Sancho follow the shepherds to see the sheep return to their original form, but asks him to stay there, because he needs his help. What does the test he proposes prove, and why does he not carry it out himself?

Over eight chapters the gentleman explains his defeats in different ways: the carters are scoundrels, the blow comes from an enchanted Moor, the blanket-tossers are ghosts, the flocks were changed by a wise enemy. What changes from one explanation to the next, and what does Sancho accept or refuse each time?

Don Quixote sees in the hooded men and the litter a book adventure and attacks; the bachelor, fallen, says the gentleman made him crooked while trying to straighten the crooked. What scene does each of the two see, and how does the gentleman explain the blow when his own version cannot hold?

Sancho ties Rocinante's legs and tells the goat story to keep his master there until daylight; at dawn, the noise is that of six pestle hammers. What does each one do with the discovery, and who comes out on top at the end of the conversation?

Don Quixote and Sancho see the same man on horseback and give different names to what he wears on his head; the gentleman, now in possession of the basin, explains why half of it is missing. What does each one need the thing to be, and what does Sancho keep silent about when he wants to laugh?

Don Quixote hears the case of each galley slave before deciding; Sancho recalls that justice is the king, and Ginés says his book is not yet finished. What does each galley slave say of himself, and what does the gentleman choose to take from these stories in order to conclude that he must set them free?

The gentleman asks the freed men to take the chain to El Toboso and present themselves to Dulcinea; Ginés replies that this is impossible and proposes Hail Marys and Creeds. What reasons does each one give, and what happens when the gentleman insists?

Sancho finds more than a hundred crowns in the valise, and Don Quixote wants to return them before knowing whose they are. What does each of them conclude about the owner from the sonnet, the letter and the dead mule, and what reason does each give for keeping or returning the money?

Cardenio will tell his story only if no one interrupts him. Don Quixote interrupts at the mention of "Amadis of Gaul," and afterward answers with anger what Cardenio says about Queen Madasima. What does each interruption show of the one who speaks, and what happens to the thread of the story?

Don Quixote chooses Amadis's penance because it is easier to imitate than Orlando's, and says that going mad without cause is what is worth something. What does he want to prove to Dulcinea, who has never seen the penance nor read the letter, and what does Sancho, who swears he has seen it, take away to tell?

The priest and the barber decide not to undeceive Sancho and to let the gentleman be carried off by a fiction like those he reads. What makes them think this path is better than that of the truth, and why should it work on Don Quixote?

Cardenio says he heard Luscinda's yes behind a tapestry, without coming out, and afterward lost his wits in the sierra. What does he say he should have done, what held him back, and why does he tell everything to the priest and the barber, who came looking for another madman?

Dorothea tells Don Fernando that she is his vassal and not his slave, and then accepts his hand before an image. What makes her change from one sentence to the other, and what does Cardenio, who hears her without saying who he is, already know of the other woman in the story?

Dorothea accepts the role of Princess Micomicona, and Don Quixote grants the boon without knowing which it is. What does each of those who build the fiction gain from it, and what distinguishes it from a lie, for the one who makes it and for the one who believes it?

Don Quixote says that the knight-errant does not ask the guilt of the one he succors, and soon accepts that Dorothea should guide him by a story that bears his sign. What convinces him that Tinacrio's prophecy is about him, and what does Sancho, on the contrary, want from the same prophecy?

Sancho tells of a visit he never made, and Don Quixote turns every detail into proof in Dulcinea's favor. What does each of Sancho's answers reveal about the village and the lady, and what does the master do with them?

Each one in the inn says what the books of chivalry give them: to the innkeeper, life; to the innkeeper's wife, rest; to the daughter, laments; to the priest, a pastime for idle people. In what way does the use the priest proposes differ from what the inn actually does with them, and why does the innkeeper not accept the argument?

Lothario lists why the test is worth nothing, and Anselmo answers that he suffers from a desire that no argument can remove. What does each of them presuppose about what Camilla is and about what can be known of her, and why does the argument of the jewel not convince the one who asked for the test?

Camilla stages a scene for a hidden husband, and Lothario and Leonela sustain it without rehearsal. What does each of the three try to save with the staging, and what does Anselmo, who asked for the proof, only manage to see in it?

Sancho swears he saw the giant's blood run, and Don Quixote, awake, takes the giant for dead and kneels before the priest. What does each of them need to be true in that scene, and what does the innkeeper, who pays for the wineskins, see in its place?

Don Fernando listens to Luscinda, to Dorothea, and to the group surrounding him, and it is to Dorothea that he says he has been conquered. What does each argument set off in him, and why is it Dorothea's word, and not Luscinda's, that disarms him?

Sancho accepts his master's fiction up to the point where it costs him his body, and Dorothea sustains it for reasons that are not the gentleman's. What does each of those surrounding Don Quixote gain by keeping up the deception of Princess Micomicona, and at what point does Sancho refuse to follow it?

Don Quixote proves that the soldier deserves more than the man of letters and, in the same speech, laments living in an age of gunpowder. What does the argument set as the measure of worth, and what does the lament say about what he expects of his own calling?

The father gives each son a share of the inheritance and a path: Church, sea, or royal household. What does he promise each path, and what does the captive say he obtained from his own in twenty-two years?

Zoraida writes to a captive she has never seen and sets a condition: that he be a gentleman. What does she want from the escape, what is she risking, and why does the renegade's plan win out over the one she herself had proposed?

Agi Morato gives two reasons for his daughter's conversion, profit and the dishonesty of the Christians' land, and Zoraida gives a third, the haste of her soul. What does each of the three see in the escape, and who decides each step in the account the captive gives?

The priest tells the magistrate the captain's life as if it were that of a comrade of his, instead of presenting the brother right away. What does he gain by the roundabout, and what does the magistrate's answer say about what the captive feared?

Doña Clara says that the singer taken for a mule boy is lord of places and of her soul, and Don Quixote sees a castle window where there is a hole in the hayloft. What does each one see behind the appearance, and what does each one need to be true?

Don Quixote asks the princess's leave to go to the aid of the innkeeper, and stops before the guests because they are people of common rank; then he swears by the order of chivalry that the basin is the helmet and leaves the packsaddle to the opinion of others. In which of these gestures does he obey the rule he professes, and in which does the rule serve him as a pretext?

Don Fernando puts the inn to a vote on whether the object is a packsaddle or trappings, and Don Quixote finally calms the quarrel by asking the magistrate and the priest to play King Agramante and King Sobrino. What does the vote decide, what does the fiction of Agramante's camp achieve, and what does the Holy Brotherhood's warrant show that neither of the two decides?

The constables drop the warrant when the priest says the gentleman is mad, and the priest uses to take him the same language on which the gentleman lives. What does he willingly accept in that prophecy, what leads him to believe without suspicion, and what does Sancho, who recognized them all, know and fail to say?

The canon condemns books of chivalry because they lack form and verisimilitude, and the gentleman in the cage lives according to them. What does the canon demand of a good fable, and what does the very scene of the oxcart show about the priest having staged the trick with the taste of these same books?

The canon wrote a hundred leaves of a book of chivalry, gave up because of the people, and speaks of an examiner for comedies, and the priest wants the same for the new books. What does each of them demand of the public and of the authors, and what does that say about what they did with Don Quixote's library?

Sancho proves that his master is not enchanted because he eats, drinks, and answers, and the gentleman replies that there are many kinds of enchantment and that, if he were not enchanted, he would be defrauding the needy. What does Sancho want to prove with this, what does the gentleman protect in his reply, and why can the canon, who also takes pleasure in reading, not persuade him?

Don Quixote defends the books with the license of kings and with the scene of a lake of pitch, the canon asks for verisimilitude, and Sancho turns the county into income. What does each of the three want from the adventure they are discussing, and what proof does each offer that it is worth the trouble?

Eugenio tells that Leandra fell in love with the tinsel and the feats of a soldier who recounted outfits and battles, and that after being robbed she assured everyone that her honor remained intact. What does each of those around her (her father, the suitors, the soldier, and she herself) want to be true in this story, and what would she herself want?

The book closes with the gentleman in bed in his village, the promise of a third sally, and a lead box with epitaphs for all three. What does the narrator hand over to the reader and what does he keep back, and why is the last request one of credit equal to what is given to books of chivalry?

Cervantes tells the reader that he will not call the rival an ass, a dolt, or an upstart, and the phrase puts all three words on paper. What does the prologue gain from a refusal put in this way?

He promises to give the reader a Don Quixote "dead and buried." Why does the character's death protect the book against anyone who wants to continue it?

The priest agrees with the barber not to touch on knight-errantry and, minutes later, it is he who raises the subject of the Turk. What does he want to know, and what does Don Quixote's reply tell him?

The barber tells the story of the Seville licentiate as a tale that "came as if made to measure," and Don Quixote answers that comparisons are odious. How does the gentleman read the story, and what does he refuse in it?

Don Quixote demands that Sancho tell him the truth "without adding to the good or subtracting from the bad," and Sancho sets the condition that the master not get angry. Why does each of them know that the question is dangerous?

Sancho tells him that their story is already in print, with his name and Dulcinea's, and Don Quixote answers that the author must be a wise enchanter. What does that explanation spare him from having to think about?

Don Quixote takes comfort in thinking that the history of a knight-errant must be true, and is dismayed to learn that its author is a Moor. What does he fear the history has told of his loves?

Carrasco says the poet tells things as they ought to be and the historian as they were. Why does this rule answer Don Quixote's complaint about the beatings, and what is Cervantes's book, for the reader, according to this rule?

Carrasco points out as an error in the history that Sancho rides the grey ass before the donkey reappears, and Sancho answers that the historian was mistaken or the printer was careless. What does this answer do to the idea that the book of the two of them is an exact account?

Sancho says he would not ask for an insula, but would not refuse it if heaven gave it to him, and Carrasco answers that offices change customs. Who is more right about what an office does to the one who receives it?

Teresa says she prefers to live without government, but asks that, if Sancho has one, he not forget her or the children. What does she fear to lose, and what does she accept to gain?

The translator of the Arabic manuscript declares the chapter apocryphal because Sancho speaks with too much subtlety. What does the book gain by leaving that doubt in the text?

The niece says he is a knight without being one, because gentlemen can be knights and the poor cannot, and Don Quixote answers with the four kinds of lineage. What does his answer concede, and what does she avoid?

Don Quixote says there are two roads to honor, that of letters and that of arms, and that he has more arms than letters. What does the niece show she knows about him by calling him a poet and a preacher?

Don Quixote answers Sancho's request for a wage by saying that no knight-errant ever paid his squire, and that the reward is an insula or something equivalent. Which part of this answer comes from what he has read, and which part from what he is able to pay?

Carrasco offers himself as a squire, and Sancho, who just a moment ago was arguing over wages, swears loyalty with tears in his eyes. What does the bachelor's offer change in what Sancho fears?

Sancho says he saw Dulcinea sifting wheat behind fences, and Don Quixote answers that an enchanter's envy changes things. What does the explanation do to Sancho's memory?

Sancho concludes that it is better to be a friar than a knight-errant, and the master answers that chivalry is religion. What does each one want from fame, and why does Don Quixote's answer not close the discussion?

Don Quixote tells Sancho that he has never seen Dulcinea and is in love by hearsay. Why does he still insist that Sancho has seen the lady sifting wheat?

Sancho confesses that his visit to Dulcinea was also by hearsay, and Don Quixote answers that there are times for jesting. What does the master's refusal force Sancho to do in the next chapter?

Sancho predicts that if the master does not believe him he will swear, and if the master swears, he will swear again. What does Sancho's decision borrow from what Don Quixote said in chapter VIII?

Don Quixote sees three farm girls and attributes the difference to an enchanter who put clouds in his eyes. What other explanations does the text leave in view, and why does he not take them?

Don Quixote says it is necessary to "touch the appearances," and in the same chapter he corrects the portrait of Dulcinea that Sancho gave him. Which appearances does he agree to touch in this chapter, and which does he leave untouched?

To stop his master, Sancho gathers three arguments: the stones, the rashness, and the rule of chivalry. Which one makes him give up, and what does that show about what Don Quixote takes most seriously?

Don Quixote and Sancho agree that death strips men of the robes of their roles. What role does each of the two play, at this point in the book, and who decides that it is so?

On hearing from the Knight of the Wood that all the knights of La Mancha confessed Casildea's beauty, Don Quixote protests only before Sancho, in a low voice. What does he say afterward to the stranger, and what does he prefer to keep silent?

The Knight's squire says that insular governments carry a load of thoughts and discomforts, and that it would be better to return to the village. Which part of this warning does Sancho accept in this chapter, and which part does he let pass?

Sancho calls his master a madman and, a few speeches later, swears to love him like the very threads of his heart. What reasons does he give for each phrase, and what does the chapter leave unsaid?

The Knight of the Wood says he defeated Don Quixote and took his glory. What rules for the duel did the two agree on before going to sleep, and who laid them down?

Don Quixote requires the defeated man to confess that the knight who won was not Don Quixote, just as he believes the defeated man is not Carrasco. What does each one gain from this crossed confession, and what does each one lose?

Tomé Cecial asks who is madder, the one who is so because he cannot help it or the one who is so by choice. What does Carrasco answer, and what does he himself decide to do next?

According to the narrator, the bachelor's plan failed only because Don Quixote came to understand that the bachelor was not the bachelor. Which passages of chapter XIV support this sentence?

Don Quixote reasons that Carrasco would have no motive to come and fight him, and Sancho answers with a question about two other men who resembled each other. Why does Sancho not press the point, and what does the reader know that the master does not?

Don Diego asks whether anyone doubts that the chivalry stories are false, and Don Quixote answers "I doubt it." What does that doubt say about how he reads, and why does Don Diego take him for a madman again, only to give up on that later?

The lion turns its back and lies down, and Don Quixote takes the scene as a victory. What part of the outcome does he credit to himself, what part to the lion, and what part to the lion-keeper, and what does each one leave unsaid?

Don Diego, silent, concludes that his guest is a sane madman and a madman who passes for sane. What words and gestures in the chapter support each half of the phrase?

Don Lorenzo doubts that there have been knights-errant with so many virtues. What does Don Quixote answer to this doubt, and what kind of proof does he fail to offer?

Don Lorenzo changes his mind about the guest between the first glance and the hour of the sonnet. At what point in the conversation does he judge him bizarre, and what does the narrator say about the force that persuades him?

Don Quixote says Basilio deserved to marry Queen Guinevere and, a few lines later, that parents should have the choice of their daughters' husbands. How does the gentleman himself make both things fit into the same conversation?

Don Quixote and Sancho speak of love as a kind of blindness: the eyes of understanding covered, the spectacles that make gold out of copper. What does each one conclude from this for the one who is about to marry, and which of the two gives the young woman more reason?

Don Quixote guesses at once whom the beneficed clergyman who composed the dance of Love and Interest serves. What signs in the dance lead him to this, and what does Sancho conclude?

Sancho says there are only two lineages, having and not having. What measure of value does the gentleman set against that phrase in this chapter, and what is left unanswered?

Quiteria remains silent, "harder than marble," and then says she gives her hand with the freest will she has. What in the text supports that she knew of the trick, and what supports that she did not?

Don Quixote defends Basilio's trick by comparing love and war, and sets a condition. What is it, and how does the gentleman reconcile the reason he gives Basilio with what he said, in chapter XIX, about who chooses the husband?

Don Quixote absolves Basilio's trick because of the end it serves. Would the same criterion absolve any deception whose end seemed good to the one who practices it?

Sancho holds the rope and counts fathoms. What does the rope teach the two who wait outside about what happens below, and what does it fail to teach?

Don Quixote tests himself by feeling his body, to know whether he is awake, and concludes that he is the same as above. What part of what he recounts does the test cover, and what part does it leave out?

Sancho offers two explanations for what his master recounts: time there runs differently, or Merlin put the story into his head. Which of them does he agree with, and why does he choose precisely that one?

The lady asks for the loan by bringing a pledge and promising to return it quickly. What effect does the book achieve by placing the need for money in the middle of a vision of enchanted beings?

Cide Hamete says that the adventure of the cave seems to him beyond reasonable bounds and that, at the same time, the gentleman would not lie. What does the historian gain by putting this doubt in writing, and what does the reader lose?

The cousin uses Durandarte's words as historical proof of the antiquity of the card suits. What kind of reading is this, and why does the book put it in the mouth of a humanist?

Sancho wants the monkey to say whether the cave was real, and Don Quixote accepts, though he has just suspected the monkey works by a pact with the devil. What does each of them expect to hear, and what does the monkey's answer give back to them?

The man with the lances says that the shame of the braying passed from village to village until it became war. Which parts of the account make the offense grow, and which of them will Don Quixote himself have to face further on?

Master Pedro defends the theater as a work of improprieties that are applauded all the same, and Don Quixote grants him the point. What part of that concession does he forget when he rises, and what makes him forget it?

The gentleman pays without disputing the damage he caused, but refuses to pay for the noseless Melisendra. What, in his reasoning, separates the figure he broke from the lady who is safe in France?

The gentleman says that no private individual can affront an entire people, and right afterward a bray from Sancho provokes the whole squadron. What does Don Quixote's argument take into account, and what does it leave out?

Cide Hamete explains who Master Pedro was and how the monkey worked, and blames the printers for the lack of an explanation about the gray donkey in the first volume. What effect does knowing the puppeteer's trick now have on the reading of chapter XXV?

The defense that Don Quixote makes of retreat is a doctrine about valor. Which part of Sancho's complaint does this doctrine answer, and which part does it leave unanswered?

The master laughs at Sancho's reckoning before he gets angry with it. What in the reckoning amuses him, and what offends him, to the point of calling the squire a donkey?

Don Quixote proposes to Sancho a test to find out whether they have crossed the equinoctial line, and the test answers that they have not. Why does the gentleman not take the result into account, and what does the new explanation he gives shortly afterward prove?

In the First Part, the gentleman saw giants where Sancho saw windmills. Here he admits that the water mills look like water mills and attributes that to enchantment. What does the theory gain and what does it lose with this concession?

The duchess recognizes Don Quixote by the printed book, not by what he does before her. What changes for the gentleman, and for the reader, when someone receives him for what he has read?

Sancho talks with the duchess without asking his master's leave, and the duchess praises him for it. What does the castle offer him that the road does not?

The dukes receive Don Quixote as the books command, and the narrator says that this was "the first day" on which he believed himself a true knight. What does this certainty owe to those who stage it, and what changes when the scenery is taken down?

Sancho tells the story of the seat at the table, at the dukes' table, before the master and the ecclesiastic. To whom is it addressed, and who understands it?

Don Quixote tells the ecclesiastic that the reproof should have been gentle and should have known the sin, and afterward affirms that the grievance he received does not affront him. What argument takes him from anger to distinction, and what does that say about the way he measures his own honor?

The duchess resolves to believe that Dulcinea exists and has Sancho washed. At what point in the chapter are the gentleman and the squire treated with equal ceremony, and at what point does the squire protest the difference?

Sancho says he feigned Dulcinea's enchantment to escape his master's quarrels, and in the same chapter he says he wishes to believe what his master told of the cave. At what point in the conversation with the duchess does he change position, and what leads him to change?

Asked why he follows a master whom he holds to be mad, Sancho cites the common place, the bread eaten, and fidelity, and only afterward speaks of the island. Which motive seems to weigh more in the answer, and what difference does it make that he gives it to the duchess, who promised him the government?

The duke and duchess choose the case of Montesinos's cave to play the trick on Don Quixote. What does that choice give them, and what does it demand of what the gentleman told in the cave?

Sancho flees the boar by hanging from a tree, and soon after he tells the duke that the good governor stays at home. What relation does the chapter allow us to see between the flight and the doctrine?

Sancho accepts the three thousand three hundred lashes with conditions that he himself proposes and that Merlin grants. What are they, and what does he gain from each?

On hearing the veiled "Dulcinea," Don Quixote says he has his soul stuck in his throat, and Sancho complains of the way she begs. What does each of the two hear in the same words?

Sancho dictates a letter to his wife in which he calls himself governor and promises money. What does the duchess correct in it, and what does she let pass?

Don Quixote answers the entrance of the Doleful Duenna with a praise of knights-errant addressed to the absent cleric. What does he now affirm that he did not affirm at the table, and what does he ignore when he speaks?

Sancho fears that the duenna will get in the way of the promise of the government, and Doña Rodríguez returns the accusation to the squires. What arguments does each of the two use, and what do they have in common?

Sancho advises that the dukes receive the countess "for what she is as a countess" and not "for what she is as a duenna." What rule of courtesy does he cite, and from whom did he learn it?

The Trifaldi blames the poets for her fall and soon acknowledges that it was her simplicity and her frivolity. Whom does she blame last, and what part of the account shows that she is not wholly innocent?

Sancho responds to the Doleful Duenna's praises by saying he wants a bearded soul and whiskers when he leaves this life. What does he prefer in this passage, the goodness attributed to him or the service he can render?

Sancho defends Antonomasia's marriage to Don Clavijo by appealing to the rules of his master. What rule is that, and what qualification does Don Quixote add to his words?

Malambruno punishes the bearded duennas instead of with death. What penalty does she say it is, and what does the text suggest is worse for the one who suffers it than death?

Sancho refuses to mount the wooden horse, complains that the squire is not named in the feats, and at the end of the chapter decides to accompany his master. What makes him change his mind, and what part of the complaint goes unanswered?

Doña Rodríguez says that, bearded or smooth, duennas too were born of a mother like other women. What does she answer to the opinion of the Toledan apothecary, and what does she leave unsaid?

Sancho says he saw the earth like a mustard seed and that he played with seven goats of different colors in the sky, and Don Quixote says he is lying or dreaming. What does each of the two defend in this dispute, and what does Don Quixote propose to Sancho at the end?

The duke promises Sancho that the Insula "is neither movable nor fugitive" and names the price he wants for it. What is that price, and what does Sancho accept in exchange?

Returning from Clavileño's flight, Sancho finds the government a small thing and prefers half a league of heaven to the largest insula, but he accepts the post. What reason does he give for wanting to govern, and what does the duke foresee for whoever tastes command?

Don Quixote orders Sancho to make a show of the humility of his lineage and, in the same speech, to teach and polish his wife of her natural roughness. How do the two orders fit together, and what does each one protect?

The narrator says that Don Quixote, in the second counsels, "raised his discretion and his madness to a high point." Which of the counsels in this round come from a sensible man, and which from a gentleman who looks at the world through chivalry?

Sancho knows how to sign his name, but he says he will pretend his hand is crippled and let someone else sign. What does the scene show of what he thinks of power, and what does his master answer him?

Sancho swears that the face of the steward is that of the Doleful Duenna, and Don Quixote replies that the face of the Doleful Duenna is the steward's, but the steward is not the Doleful Duenna. What proof does each one have, and why does the gentleman postpone the inquiry?

Don Quixote answers Altisidora "to himself," without her hearing, and slams the window shut. What do the answer and the gesture show of what he understood of the scene, and of what she was?

The steward calls the governor "Don Sancho Panza," and Sancho answers that his father, his grandfather, and all the Panzas were Sancho without any additions. What relation does the refusal have to what his master advised him before he left?

In the cases of the staff and of the purse, Sancho decides by what he sees the litigants do. In the case of the hoods, he decides without seeing anything new. What does the text say helped each decision, and why does the narrator leave the scribe in doubt about whether Sancho is a fool or discreet?

In asking for a lute, Don Quixote says that in the beginnings of love, quick disillusionments are qualified remedies. What disillusionment does he think he is giving Altisidora, and how much of the scene depends on her really being in love?

The cat that leaps at his face is, for Don Quixote, an enchanter. For the duke and duchess, who open the door with the master key, it is the result of a prank. How much control do they retain over what they set up, and what does the gentleman keep of his conduct after the beating?

The physician removes each dish with a reason from medicine, and Sancho ends up demanding food. Who in fact commands the governor's table, and who gives the physician the authority to do so?

The duke warns by letter of an assault and of four disguised persons. What effect does the warning have on what Sancho decides to do with the physician, the bread and the grapes, and on the way he receives the farmer who arrives soon after?

Don Quixote swears fidelity to Dulcinea aloud before seeing who comes in, and afterward he asks Doña Rodríguez for "security." What does each moment show of what he fears from the visit, and what does he hope to get from it?

Doña Rodríguez says that the duke makes "merchant's ears" at the wrong done to her daughter. What reason does she give, what does that say about who has the last word in the house, and who is sought out in his place?

The majordomo says that "the jokes turn into truths and the tricksters find themselves tricked." What in Sancho's behavior that night leads him to say it, and what escapes from what the tricksters ordered?

On the rounds, Sancho judges the case of the gambling, that of the weaver, that of the girl, and that of the brother. In which of them does he apply a penalty and which does he let go? What decides the difference?

The Moor reveals who the executioners of Doña Rodríguez and Don Quixote were, and why. What does the affront of a duenna change in the dukes' game, which until then was only a joke?

Teresa, Sanchica, the priest, and Sansón read the same letters and see the same necklace. What does each one conclude, and how does the page answer the bachelor's doubt?

Sancho first proposes dividing the man on the bridge and then letting him pass. What does the stranger answer to the first solution, what reason does Sancho give for the second, and where does he say he took it from?

Don Quixote warns that a matter may put him in disgrace with the dukes, and Sancho asks him not to quarrel with them. What does each one owe the dukes, and how does each measure the debt?

Don Quixote renounces his hidalguía to challenge a farmer, he who in chapter XI did not want to draw his sword against one who was not a knight. What has changed, and who gives him the field?

Teresa's two letters ask for different things: money to go to court, a coach, acorns as big as ostrich eggs, pearls. What does each request show of what she understands the government to be, and what do the duchess and her husband owe her?

During the feigned attack, Sancho only wants the Insula to finish being lost, and on hearing "victory" he asks for wine. What does the scene show of how he thinks about power, and what does it show of those who trick him?

Sancho refuses to give an account and says that leaving "naked" shows he governed well. What proof does he offer, who accepts it, and what other proof did the book give him along the way?

Ricote calls the king's decision inspired and, in the next sentence, calls the punishment it brought terrible. What does the coexistence of the two things in the same voice show of the one who utters them, and what changes if the listener is an Old Christian neighbor?

Sancho refuses the two hundred escudos, says it would be treason to the king, and promises not to denounce his friend. Between the king and Ricote, whom does the refusal serve, and at what point do the two duties stop coinciding?

Inside the pit, Sancho compares his situation with that of his master in the cave of Montesinos: his master found delights, and he will find toads and snakes. What does the comparison show of what Sancho thinks an adventure owes to the one who lives it?

Sancho swears that he is not dead, and Don Quixote is only convinced when the gray ass brays. Why does the animal's proof suffice where the squire's word did not, and what has the bray already been worth as proof earlier in this volume?

In accounting to the dukes, Sancho says he entered the government naked and came out naked, and that he neither lost nor gained. What part of what happened in Barataria does the phrase leave out, and what does that say about whom he supposes is listening?

Tosilos gives up, invoking the fear of conscience, and the narrator says the motive was Love. Which of the two reasons does the scene support, and what changes for the duke, who instructed him to win without wounding, depending on which one is chosen?

The daughter of Doña Rodríguez agrees to marry the lackey, "because she would rather be the lawful wife of a lackey than the mistress and deceived woman of a knight". What does the sentence say about what she was seeking when she brought the case to the dukes, and how does it compare with what Don Quixote believed he was defending on the field?

Altisidora's refrain borrows from Virgil and Ariosto the epithets of the cruel lover who flees. What does the parody demand of the listener, and what do the dukes gain by having her sing it at the farewell and in front of everyone?

Don Quixote responds to the accusation of theft and leaves unanswered the accusation of lack of love. Which part of the complaint does he judge applies to him, and what might the silence about the other part say?

Don Quixote praises liberty and explains that, amid the duke's banquets, he felt himself in the narrowness of hunger. What obligation held him in the castle, and how does Sancho's purse over his heart teach another way of living with the same obligation?

Before the holy knights, Don Quixote says he fights in a human way and that his judgment could improve if Dulcinea came out of the enchantment. What does the conditional reveal about how he thinks of his own madness, and to whom does he say it?

Sancho calls his master sane in front of the shepherds, and the knight is angrier at the interruption than at the words. Which part of the anger comes from the content of the defense, and which part comes from who makes it?

Don Quixote leafs through the apocryphal book and finds three faults, the last being the error about Sancho's wife's name. What standard of truth does this objection presuppose, and which part of the history of which he is a part does that standard fail to reach?

As they hear him recount Dulcinea's enchantment, the two gentlemen at times take him for discreet and at other times he slips into seeming a madman to them. What in the account seems discreet to them, what seems madness, and what decides the boundary between the two?

Don Quixote decides not to go to Zaragoza in order to prove that he is not the Don Quixote of the other book. In what sense does a character prove who he is by changing course, and who makes the book decide this, he or the author?

Sancho knocks his master down and says that he neither removes nor sets up a king, but helps himself, for he is his own lord. What does he defend in the scene, the body or the will, and how does the phrase compare with the promise to whip himself that he himself made?

Roque shares out the theft with rigor and splits one of his own men's heads over a word. What does the distributive justice that Sancho praises leave out, and what does the episode show of what it demands of the one who exercises it?

Roque says that one vengeance calls another, and Don Quixote replies that the beginning of health is knowing the illness. What does Roque's diagnosis of himself have in common with the knight's advice, and where do the two differ?

Claudia fires at Don Vicente over a piece of news he says was false. What does the scene show of how she decided, and what does the presence of Roque, Sancho, and Don Quixote allow or prevent after the shot?

The knights of Barcelona greet Don Quixote as the true, the lawful, and the faithful one, not as the apocryphal one. What does this greeting presuppose that they have read, and how has the place of the rival book changed since the night at the inn?

Roque sleeps apart from his men for fear of being handed over by them. What relation does the scene suggest between the rigor with which he governs the band and the safety of the one who governs it?

The head answers that it does not judge thoughts or desires, and it answers a woman that her husband's love is seen in his deeds. What kind of question does the trick avoid, and what does that say about the way it was made?

Don Quixote asks the head whether the cave was true or a dream, and hears that "it has a bit of everything." What does the answer confirm, what does it leave open for him, and how does it compare with what the narrator said about the cave when he cast doubt on it?

The narrator says that Don Antonio wants to show his guest's follies without harm to him, because jokes that hurt are not jokes. Which parts of the day (the balcony, the sign on the back, the ball, and the head) respect that rule, and which put it to the test?

Don Quixote says that fictional stories are worth as much as they come close to truth or its likeness. By his standard, is the bronze head, which the narrator explains right afterward, better or worse than the book of Tordesillas?

Don Quixote, seeing Sancho passed from arm to arm by the oarsmen, asks the general whether it is a ceremony, and immediately proposes to the squire that he put himself among the lashed men. What relation does he establish between the punishment of the oarsmen and the disenchantment of Dulcinea, and what does Sancho conclude from the same scene?

The viceroy wants to spare the rais before knowing that it is a woman, and the general wants to hang him. What reason does the narrator give each of them, and what changes in the decision when she tells her story?

Don Quixote tells the Knight of the White Moon that, if he had seen Dulcinea, he would not have undertaken the quest, and accepts the challenge with one exception. What is the exception, and what does he avoid saying when he rejects the other's thesis?

Fallen, Don Quixote confesses Dulcinea's beauty and asks the victor to take his life. What does the Knight of the White Moon reply, what does he demand in return, and what limit does Don Quixote place on his promise?

Carrasco says he wants Don Quixote's good, and Don Antonio says that he harms the world. What argument does each give, and what does the second concede that his own position goes against?

Sancho proposes to Don Quixote that they return home and shows what he himself lost with the end of the government, and Don Quixote replies with a promise. What loss does Sancho claim, and with what promise does Don Quixote cover it?

Don Quixote begins the chapter by saying that misfortune, not cowardice, took away his glories, and soon after says that each person is the maker of his own fortune. What part of the defeat does he now take upon himself, and what does he say still belongs to him?

Tosilos denies that there was any enchantment and tells what happened to him after the battle, yet Don Quixote still takes him to be enchanted. What does each of them hold to be true about the footman, and how does Sancho sum up his master in front of him?

Don Quixote says that deeds done for love differ from deeds done out of gratitude, and that a knight may be unloving but not ungrateful. What does he owe Altisidora under this rule, and what does he reserve for Dulcinea?

Don Quixote proposes that they spend the year of retreat as shepherds, and gives pastoral names to himself, to Sancho, and to the acquaintances of the village. What are the names, and what fear does Sancho raise about his daughter?

Sancho praises sleep and then points out what is bad about it. What does Sancho say sleep does to the shepherd and the king, what does he identify as its flaw, and what observation does Don Quixote make about the way he spoke?

Don Quixote says that being trampled by the pigs is heaven's punishment for his sin, and Sancho answers with another punishment. What objection does Sancho raise against the idea that his master's penalty reaches the squire?

Rhadamanthus orders Sancho to be given slaps, pinches, and pinpricks, and the duennas approach. Against which part of the punishment does Sancho protest most loudly, and what makes him accept the rest?

When Altisidora stirs, Don Quixote kneels before Sancho and asks for the lashes of disenchantment. What answer does he receive, and what payment does Altisidora offer Sancho?

Cide Hamete tells that Sansón Carrasco informed the dukes and that the dukes staged the funeral. What reason does the bachelor give for the transformations he made, and what judgment does the narrator pass on the mockers?

Altisidora tells what she saw at the gate of hell, and Don Quixote responds aside about the book. What do the devils do with the books, and what proof does he give that the book named is not his?

Sancho proposes to his master a price per lash and, after a few of them, asks for more. What calculation does he make, and what happens in the middle of the task that shows he has stopped whipping himself?

Before the paintings of Helen and Dido, Don Quixote speaks of the painter and the writer of the new Don Quixote. What comparison does he make with the painter of Úbeda, and what does the poet Mauleón add?

Don Álvaro Tarfe says he has known another Don Quixote and another Sancho, and Don Quixote asks him whether he resembles that one. What does Tarfe answer about the two pairs, and what explanation does he finally give for having two Don Quixotes before him?

Don Quixote says he does not know whether he is good, but he knows he is not the bad one, and asks for a declaration before the magistrate. What proof does he give that he is not the Don Quixote of Avellaneda's book, and what does the narrator comment on the usefulness of the declaration?

Don Quixote reads the boy's phrase and the fleeing hare as a bad omen. What reading does Sancho give to that same hare, and what does he do to undo the first premonition?

The priest and the bachelor agree to become shepherds with Don Quixote, and the housekeeper and the niece protest. What, according to the narrator, moves each pair to react this way, and what argument does the housekeeper give?

On waking, Don Quixote says that he has free and clear judgment and that what grieves him is that the disillusionment came too late; Sansón Carrasco answers that this is no time for him to become a hermit. What does the gentleman say he wants to leave with his death, and what proof has just convinced his friends that he is sane?

In the will, Alonso Quijano leaves Sancho whatever he has from their accounts together, sets a condition on his niece's marriage, and asks the executors to ask the author of the apocryphal book to forgive him. What does each clause reveal of what he thinks of the books of chivalry, and of those who served them?

At the end, Cide Hamete addresses his pen, says that Don Quixote was born only for him, and gives the reason for having written. What does he tell the pen to say to whoever wants to take it down, and what reason does he declare for having written the story?

Don Quixote tells Sancho that Dulcinea is Aldonza Lorenzo and that he pictures her in his imagination (chapter XXV of Part One). In Part Two, he confesses that he has never seen her and that he is enamored by hearsay (chapter IX of Part Two), and he sustains Sancho's illusion even against the smell of raw garlic (chapter X of Part Two). Is his love for the woman Dulcinea is, for the one he makes her to be, or for the gesture of loving as the books teach?

Marcela says that she was born free, and that whoever is loved for beauty is not obliged to love in return (chapter XIV of Part One), and the gentleman defends her with a sword she did not ask for. Does he defend her freedom, or the image he makes of himself as protector of maidens?

In freeing the galley slaves, Don Quixote says that it is not good for honorable men to be the executioners of other men (chapter XXII of Part One), and then lays down the rule that it falls to the knight to see the punishment and not to inquire into the guilt, to defend himself against Sancho's accusation (chapter XXX of Part One). It is the only good deed he does wholly, and its payment is stones. Is the rule justice, or a blindness that serves as a shield?

The priest reads aloud the novella of The Curious Impertinent and, at the end, approves it, but says he cannot believe that a husband would ask for such a proof (chapter XXXV of Part One). Why does Cervantes place, in the middle of a book about someone who takes fiction for truth, a novella that its listeners find well written and implausible?

Imprisoned in the cage by his friends, who use the style of the books, the gentleman accepts the enchantment (chapter XLVI of Part One), and Sancho proves that his master is not enchanted, because he eats, drinks, and relieves himself (chapter XLIX of Part One). What can a proof prove to someone who has a ready doctrine for every refutation?

Sancho invents the enchantment of Dulcinea to escape a message he never delivered (chapter X of Part Two), the duchess tells him that the one deceived is he (chapter XXXIII of Part Two), and Merlin imposes on him the lashes that would undo the lie (chapter XXXV of Part Two). Once it has been told, whose lie is it: that of the one who invented it, the one who took it up, or the one who pays for it?

The gentleman changes course so as not to go to Saragossa and prove that he is not the Don Quixote of the false book (chapter LIX of Part Two). Don Álvaro Tarfe, a character from that book, declares before a magistrate that this one is the true one (chapter LXXII of Part Two). What does a character gain when another character, and not the author, attests that he is who he says he is?

The bachelor wins on the beach of Barcelona in order to cure him (chapter LXIV of Part Two), and the cure works: Alonso Quijano wakes with free and clear judgment and dies saying that he was mad and is now sane (chapter LXXIV of Part Two). The epitaph says that he died sane and lived mad, and the objection of Don Antonio Moreno, that sanity would never be worth the pleasure of madness, goes unanswered (chapter LXV of Part Two). Is the cure a victory for the bachelor, a loss for the reader, or both?