The Theme in the Work
In the novel there are at least four justices on stage, and none of them works alone. The king's, which arrests, sends men to the oars, and issues warrants through the Holy Brotherhood, hardly appears as a judge, only as a chain and as a Brotherhood officer. That of chivalry, which Don Quixote applies with the sword and which is summed up in the phrase that the knight-errant's law is his sword, leaves behind it Andrés more beaten and the galley slaves in flight. That of the governor, which Sancho Panza exercises in Barataria, is the one that best corresponds to what a sentence should be, but it comes from a man who has been mocked and lasts ten days. And there is that of the bandits, which in Roque Guinart's wood divides the loot by accounts, without exceeding a point. What unites them is a question of office: who is authorized to decide what is owed to each, and with what proof. The book answers crookedly, and rarely in favor of whoever has the law in writing.
In Chapter IV of Part One, the gentleman makes his first intervention of justice: he finds Andrés tied to a holm oak and orders the master to pay the wages, without investigating the reason for the punishment. The farmer, as soon as the knight leaves, beats him again.
Llamad, señor Andrés, ahora -decía el labrador- al desfacedor de agravios, veréis cómo no desface aquéste; aunque creo que no está acabado de hacer, porque me viene gana de desollaros vivo, como vos temíades, call now, Mr. Andrés, said the farmer, to the righter of wrongs; you will see how he does not right this one; though I believe it is not yet done being made, because I feel like flaying you alive, as you feared.
The episode opens a series in which knightly good intention, by not understanding the concrete situation, produces greater harm than omission.
The Andrés episode is the first of a series: knightly good intention, by not understanding the concrete situation it means to correct, produces greater harm than omission would have produced. The farmer takes from the knight's speech the proof that the boy will not be helped any more, and the punishment grows because the judge has gone away. The pattern returns with the galley slaves, in Chapter XXII.
In Chapter XV of Part One, after being beaten by the Galician muleteers, the gentleman explains to Sancho the law of the duel: wounds given with instruments that happen to be in one's hands are no affront.
no afrentan las heridas que se dan con los instrumentos que acaso se hallan en las manos; y esto está en la ley del duelo, escrito por palabras expresas: que si el zapatero da a otro con la horma que tiene en la mano, puesto que verdaderamente es de palo, no por eso se dirá que queda apaleado aquel a quien dio con ella, wounds given with instruments that happen to be found in one's hands are no affront; and this is in the law of the duel, written in express words: that if the cobbler strikes another with the last he has in his hand, though it is truly of wood, it will not for that be said that the one he struck with it is left cudgeled.
In Chapter XXII of Part One, on coming upon the galley slaves, he frees them and justifies the act by saying that it is not good for honorable men to be executioners of other men, when it is no concern of theirs.
no es bien que los hombres honrados sean verdugos de los otros hombres, no yéndoles nada en ello, it is not good that honorable men be executioners of other men, when it is no concern of theirs.
In Chapter XXX of Part One, when the priest tells of the theft from the galley slaves and Sancho accuses his master, he answers with the rule that made the act a principle.
a los caballeros andantes no les toca ni atañe averiguar si los afligidos, encadenados y opresos que encuentran por los caminos van de aquella manera, o están en aquella angustia, por sus culpas o por sus gracias; sólo le toca ayudarles como a menesterosos, poniendo los ojos en sus penas y no en sus bellaquerías, it neither touches nor concerns knights-errant to ascertain whether the afflicted, chained, and oppressed whom they meet on the roads go that way, or are in that anguish, for their faults or for their graces; it only falls to them to help them as needy, setting their eyes on their sufferings and not on their knaveries.
In Chapter XLV of Part One, at the inn, when a Brotherhood officer shows the warrant of the Holy Brotherhood for that liberation, the gentleman does not dispute the fact: he invokes the statute of the knight-errant.
¿quién fue el ignorante que firmó mandamiento de prisión contra un tal caballero como yo soy? ¿Quién el que ignoró que son esentos de todo judicial fuero los caballeros andantes, y que su ley es su espada; sus fueros, sus bríos; sus premáticas, su voluntad, who was the ignoramus that signed a warrant of arrest against such a knight as I am? Who was it that did not know that knights-errant are exempt from all judicial jurisdiction, and that their law is their sword; their jurisdictions, their mettle; their edicts, their will?
In Chapter XLII of Part Two, writing the counsels to Sancho the governor, he gives the precept that the squire will apply.
Al culpado que cayere debajo de tu juridición considérale hombre miserable, sujeto a las condiciones de la depravada naturaleza nuestra, y en todo cuanto fuere de tu parte, sin hacer agravio a la contraria, muéstratele piadoso y clemente, porque, aunque los atributos de Dios todos son iguales, más resplandece y campea a nuestro ver el de la misericordia que el de la justicia, consider the guilty man who falls under your jurisdiction a miserable man, subject to the conditions of our depraved nature, and in all that depends on you, without wronging the opposing party, show yourself merciful and clement, because, although all the attributes of God are equal, to our sight that of mercy shines and stands out more than that of justice.
In Chapter XLV of Part Two, in the first sentences of Barataria, the tailor loses the making and the farmer the cloth, and the caps go to the prisoners of the jail.
Paréceme que en este pleito no ha de haber largas dilaciones, sino juzgar luego a juicio de buen varón; y así, yo doy por sentencia que el sastre pierda las hechuras, y el labrador el paño, y las caperuzas se lleven a los presos de la cárcel, y no haya más, it seems to me that in this lawsuit there need be no long delays, but judgment at once, as a good man would judge; and so I give as sentence that the tailor lose the making, and the farmer the cloth, and the caps be taken to the prisoners in the jail, and no more.
In the case of the old men, the debtor hands the staff to the creditor in order to swear, and Sancho guesses where the money is.
Sí -dijo el gobernador-; o si no, yo soy el mayor porro del mundo. Y ahora se verá si tengo yo caletre para gobernar todo un reino, yes, said the governor; or else I am the greatest dunce in the world. And now we shall see whether I have wit to govern a whole kingdom.
And in that of the woman who says she was forced, he tests her by a gesture she herself made.
Hermana mía, si el mismo aliento y valor que habéis mostrado para defender esta bolsa le mostrárades, y aun la mitad menos, para defender vuestro cuerpo, las fuerzas de Hércules no os hicieran fuerza, sister, if you had shown the same spirit and courage to defend your body that you have shown to defend this purse, or even half as much, the strength of Hercules would not have forced you.
In Chapter XLIX of Part Two, on the night rounds, the dukes' majordomo, who is part of the jest, admits that jests turn into earnest and the jesters find themselves jested.
Cada día se veen cosas nuevas en el mundo: las burlas se vuelven en veras y los burladores se hallan burlados, every day new things are seen in the world: jests turn into earnest and the jesters find themselves jested.
In Chapter LI of Part Two, the case of the bridge, the riddle put to Sancho by a stranger, has a law without a crack.
"Si alguno pasare por esta puente de una parte a otra, ha de jurar primero adónde y a qué va; y si jurare verdad, déjenle pasar; y si dijere mentira, muera por ello ahorcado en la horca que allí se muestra, sin remisión alguna", if anyone crosses this bridge from one side to the other, he must first swear where and why he goes; and if he swears truly, let him pass; and if he says a lie, let him die for it hanged on the gallows displayed there, without any remission.
Sancho begins by trying to have it carried out in parts, and to divide the man is to kill him.
que deste hombre aquella parte que juró verdad la dejen pasar, y la que dijo mentira la ahorquen, y desta manera se cumplirá al pie de la letra la condición del pasaje, let that part of this man that swore truth be allowed to pass, and the part that told a lie be hanged, and in this way the condition of the crossing will be fulfilled to the letter.
Then he chooses the way out that his master taught him.
soy de parecer que digáis a esos señores que a mí os enviaron que, pues están en un fil las razones de condenarle o asolverle, que le dejen pasar libremente [...] se me vino a la memoria un precepto, entre otros muchos que me dio mi amo don Quijote la noche antes que viniese a ser gobernador desta ínsula: que fue que, cuando la justicia estuviese en duda, me decantase y acogiese a la misericordia, I am of the opinion that you tell those gentlemen who sent you to me that, since the reasons for condemning or acquitting him are balanced on a hair, they let him pass freely [...] there came to my memory a precept, among many others that my master don Quixote gave me the night before I became governor of this insula: that when justice was in doubt, I should lean toward and take refuge in mercy.
In Chapter LII of Part Two, when Doña Rodríguez asks for the challenge over her grievance, the gentleman says in what the office he professes consists.
que el principal asumpto de mi profesión es perdonar a los humildes y castigar a los soberbios; quiero decir: acorrer a los miserables y destruir a los rigurosos, the principal subject of my profession is to forgive the humble and punish the proud; I mean: to succor the wretched and destroy the harsh.
In Chapter LX of Part Two, in the wood, Sancho sees Roque Guinart divide the loot by accounts and concludes that justice is so good that it is used even among thieves.
Según lo que aquí he visto, es tan buena la justicia, que es necesaria que se use aun entre los mesmos ladrones, from what I have seen here, justice is so good that it is necessary to use it even among thieves themselves.
And Roque himself says why he continues what he does: the wish to avenge a wrong throws all his good inclinations to the ground.
yo, de mi natural, soy compasivo y bien intencionado; pero, como tengo dicho, el querer vengarme de un agravio que se me hizo, así da con todas mis buenas inclinaciones en tierra, que persevero en este estado, a despecho y pesar de lo que entiendo; y, como un abismo llama a otro y un pecado a otro pecado, hanse eslabonado las venganzas de manera que no sólo las mías, pero las ajenas tomo a mi cargo, I, by nature, am compassionate and well-intentioned; but, as I have said, the wish to avenge myself for a wrong done to me so throws all my good inclinations to the ground that I persevere in this state, in spite and sorrow of what I understand; and, as one abyss calls to another and one sin to another sin, vengeances have been linked together in such a way that I take upon myself not only my own but others'.
The book shows justice worsening when it is done from outside and hitting the mark when it is done from inside. Don Quixote arrives from outside, without investigating, and leaves Andrés and the galley slaves worse off; Sancho, from inside, sees the litigant's gesture, the hollow of the cane, the purse the woman did not let go of, and hits the mark. The difference is not one of character, it is of attention: one judges by the rule he brings, the other by what he has in view. But the best thing Sancho does in Barataria is his master's rule, that of mercy in doubt, and the bridge shows it: a precept that Don Quixote gave in writing serves, applied by someone who has the case before him, to free a man. Two readings: the book condemns the justice of rule and praises that of common sense; or it shows that the rule of mercy becomes justice when it falls into hands that apply it to cases.
Who Embodies It
Don Quixote is the justice that declares itself above the law. His law is the sword, his jurisdictions are his mettle, his edicts are his will, and that is the phrase he speaks before a warrant, without denying the fact. Sancho is the judge who does not know the law and deduces it from the case: in Chapter XLV of Part Two, the sentence of the caps, that of the staff, and that of the purse. Ginés de Pasamonte, the galley slave, is the law seen from the other side: he was sentenced to ten years, he is the one with the most crimes and the only one with rings at the throat and a padlock on his hands, and he is the one who, as soon as free, stones his liberator. The Duke and Duchess give Sancho a governorship as a jest and receive a judge in return.
Where It Appears
- Part One, Chapter IV: The gentleman orders a farmer to pay Andrés's wages, and Andrés is beaten again as soon as the gentleman leaves.
- Part One, Chapter XV: Beaten by the Galician muleteers, he explains the law of the duel to Sancho.
- Part One, Chapter XXII: The gentleman frees His Majesty's galley slaves, understanding that the king ought not to do violence to anyone, and the freed men receive him with stones.
- Part One, Chapter XXX: Don Quixote answers Sancho that the knight does not ascertain the guilt of those he helps.
- Part One, Chapter XLV: The Brotherhood officer shows him the warrant of the Holy Brotherhood, and he answers that the knight's law is the sword.
- Part Two, Chapter XLII: The gentleman writes Sancho the governor's counsels, among them that of mercy.
- Part Two, Chapter XLV: Sancho gives the first sentences of Barataria: the caps, the staff, the purse.
- Part Two, Chapter XLIX: On the night rounds, Sancho says he will govern the insula without pardoning a right or taking a bribe, and the majordomo marvels that an unlettered man should speak so many maxims.
- Part Two, Chapter LI: Faced with the bridge riddle, in which the traveler's oath decides between freedom and the gallows, Sancho resolves it by the precept of mercy and orders that he be let pass.
- Part Two, Chapter LII: Doña Rodríguez asks the gentleman for the challenge against her daughter's seducer.
- Part Two, Chapter LX: Sancho sees Roque Guinart divide the loot and says that justice is necessary even among thieves.
Where the Readings Diverge
Erich Auerbach says that in Cervantes the process of judging does not even begin: no one is condemned in this book, except bad books and bad plays.
In place of the tragic and the symbolic, Auerbach proposes a category of his own: a game that illuminates everything it touches without judging, because in Cervantes the very process of judging does not even open.It is not enough to say that he does not pass judgments and draws no conclusions; the process is not even begun, the questions are not even asked. No one and nothing (except bad books and bad plays) is condemned in this book [...]
Auerbach's sentence holds for the narrator, who describes without sentencing, and does not hold for the characters, who sentence all the time: the farmer, the Brotherhood officers, the gentleman, Sancho, Roque. The book has a narrator who abstains from judging and characters who do not abstain, and it is the difference between the two that makes the irony of the galley slaves episode, one of the most full of judgments in the book. What it achieves is that the reader, on seeing each one's sentence worsen or hit the case, ceases to trust any sentence that does not have the case in view. Two readings: it is a lesson in equity, which prefers the gesture to the rule; or it is a refusal to teach any justice, leaving the reader with the question of Chapter XXII of Part One, that of who has the right to be another man's executioner.