The Theme in the Work
Don Quixote is a book that speaks of itself. From the prologue on, the author presents himself as the stepfather, not the father, of the son he writes; in chapter IX of Part One, the narrator confesses that he is no more than the buyer of an Arabic notebook found in the Toledo market, translated at request by a Morisco Moor; in Part Two, the characters have already read the first part and discuss its errors; and near the end the book of another author, the apocryphal one by Avellaneda, enters the story as a threat to which the gentleman responds. Language appears in three layers. That of Don Quixote, made of the books he has read, in a chivalric archaism nobody understands. That of Sancho Panza, of proverbs his master asks him to moderate. And that of the narrator, who may be being translated, copied, corrected or plagiarized, and who at the end declares, through the mouth of the pen hanging on a hook, his ownership of what he told.
In the prologue of Part One, the first sentence already announces the tone: the book is a child of the understanding that would like to be the most beautiful, the most gallant and the most discreet.
Desocupado lector: sin juramento me podrás creer que quisiera que este libro, como hijo del entendimiento, fuera el más hermoso, el más gallardo y más discreto que pudiera imaginarse, idle reader: without an oath you may believe me that I would wish this book, as the child of the understanding, to be the most beautiful, the most gallant and the most discreet that could be imagined.
In chapter II of Part One, the gentleman's language appears in action: before two girls of the trade at the door of the inn, he speaks in the Castilian of books, and they, who do not understand, laugh.
No fuyan las vuestras mercedes ni teman desaguisado alguno; ca a la orden de caballería que profeso non toca ni atañe facerle a ninguno, cuanto más a tan altas doncellas como vuestras presencias demuestran, do not flee, your graces, nor fear any harm; for it is not in keeping with the order of chivalry I profess to do wrong to anyone, much less to such high maidens as your presences show you to be.
In chapter VIII of Part One, the narrator interrupts the duel with the Biscayan because he found nothing more written about the gentleman's deeds.
Pero está el daño de todo esto que en este punto y término deja pendiente el autor desta historia esta batalla, disculpándose que no halló más escrito destas hazañas de don Quijote de las que deja referidas, but the harm in all this is that the author of this history leaves this battle pending at this point and limit, excusing himself that he found nothing more written of these deeds of Don Quixote than those he has recounted.
In chapter IX of Part One, he tells of the find, and the first movement is that of a frustrated reader.
Causóme esto mucha pesadumbre, porque el gusto de haber leído tan poco se volvía en disgusto, de pensar el mal camino que se ofrecía para hallar lo mucho que, a mi parecer, faltaba de tan sabroso cuento, this caused me much grief, because the pleasure of having read so little turned into displeasure, thinking of the poor road that offered itself to find the much that, in my view, was missing from so delightful a tale.
The Moor translates the title of the notebook aloud, and it is the name the book then gives to its first author.
volviendo de improviso el arábigo en castellano, dijo que decía: Historia de don Quijote de la Mancha, escrita por Cide Hamete Benengeli, historiador arábigo, turning the Arabic into Castilian on the spot, he said that it read: History of Don Quixote de la Mancha, written by Cide Hamete Benengeli, Arab historian.
The narrator defends the history by its source, but mocks the only possible objection to its truth.
Si a ésta se le puede poner alguna objeción cerca de su verdad, no podrá ser otra sino haber sido su autor arábigo, siendo muy propio de los de aquella nación ser mentirosos, if any objection can be raised against its truth, it could be none other than that its author was an Arab, it being very typical of those of that nation to be liars.
And soon after he states the ideal of the historian, which the book goes on to test.
habiendo y debiendo ser los historiadores puntuales, verdaderos y no nada apasionados, y que ni el interés ni el miedo, el rancor ni la afición, no les hagan torcer del camino de la verdad, cuya madre es la historia, émula del tiempo, depósito de las acciones, testigo de lo pasado, ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo por venir, historians being, as they must be, exact, truthful and not at all partisan, so that neither interest nor fear, neither rancor nor affection, make them stray from the road of truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, repository of deeds, witness of the past, example and warning of the present, admonition of what is to come.
In chapter XXXV of Part One, the priest reads aloud the novella of the Curious Impertinent and, at the end, says he cannot persuade himself that it is true, and that if it is made up, the author made it up badly.
Bien -dijo el cura- me parece esta novela, pero no me puedo persuadir que esto sea verdad; y si es fingido, fingió mal el autor, porque no se puede imaginar que haya marido tan necio que quiera hacer tan costosa experiencia como Anselmo. Si este caso se pusiera entre un galán y una dama, pudiérase llevar, pero entre marido y mujer, algo tiene del imposible, this novella seems fine to me, said the priest, but I cannot persuade myself that this is true; and if it is invented, the author invented it badly, for one cannot imagine a husband so foolish as to undertake so costly an experiment as Anselmo's. If this case were set between a gallant and a lady, it could pass, but between husband and wife it has something of the impossible.
In chapter LII of Part One, the book of 1605 closes with a verse of Ariosto, which leaves the continuation to another.
Forsi altro canterà con miglior plectio, perhaps another will sing with a better plectrum.
In the prologue of Part Two, the author answers Avellaneda's apocryphal book without naming him.
Quisieras tú que lo diera del asno, del mentecato y del atrevido, pero no me pasa por el pensamiento: castíguele su pecado, con su pan se lo coma y allá se lo haya, you would like me to call him an ass, a fool and a presumptuous fellow, but that does not even cross my mind: let his sin punish him, let him eat his own bread and be done with it.
And he promises to give Don Quixote stretched out, dead and buried, so that no one dares to raise new testimonies against him.
esta segunda parte de Don Quijote que te ofrezco es cortada del mismo artífice y del mesmo paño que la primera, y que en ella te doy a don Quijote dilatado, y, finalmente, muerto y sepultado, porque ninguno se atreva a levantarle nuevos testimonios, this second part of Don Quixote that I offer you is cut from the same craftsman and the same cloth as the first, and in it I give you Don Quixote extended and, finally, dead and buried, so that no one dares raise new testimonies against him.
In chapter III of Part Two, the rule of the historian returns through the mouth of the bachelor Carrasco, whom the gentleman asks what is said of the printed history.
uno es escribir como poeta y otro como historiador: el poeta puede contar, o cantar las cosas, no como fueron, sino como debían ser; y el historiador las ha de escribir, no como debían ser, sino como fueron, sin añadir ni quitar a la verdad cosa alguna, one thing is to write as a poet and another as a historian: the poet may tell, or sing, things not as they were but as they should have been; and the historian must write them not as they should have been, but as they were, adding or subtracting nothing from the truth.
In chapter XXIV of Part Two, the translator pays it back: Cide Hamete writes in the margin that he cannot make himself believe that all this happened to the gentleman, and that, without asserting it false or true, he writes it down.
No me puedo dar a entender, ni me puedo persuadir, que al valeroso don Quijote le pasase puntualmente todo lo que en el antecedente capítulo queda escrito [...] y si esta aventura parece apócrifa, yo no tengo la culpa; y así, sin afirmarla por falsa o verdadera, la escribo, I cannot make it clear to myself, nor can I persuade myself, that everything written in the preceding chapter happened exactly to the valiant Don Quixote [...] and if this adventure seems apocryphal, the fault is not mine; and so, without affirming it false or true, I write it down.
In chapter XLIII of Part Two, the gentleman corrects the squire's speech: a proverb used to the point does no harm, but piling and stringing proverbs at random makes the talk limp and low.
Mira, Sancho, no te digo yo que parece mal un refrán traído a propósito, pero cargar y ensartar refranes a troche moche hace la plática desmayada y baja, look, Sancho, I am not saying that a proverb brought up to the point looks bad, but piling and stringing proverbs at random makes the talk limp and low.
In chapter XLIV of Part Two, the narrator confesses the weariness of always writing on a single subject, and asks for praise for what he has left unwritten.
y decía que el ir siempre atenido el entendimiento, la mano y la pluma a escribir de un solo sujeto y hablar por las bocas de pocas personas era un trabajo incomportable, cuyo fruto no redundaba en el de su autor [...] pide no se desprecie su trabajo, y se le den alabanzas, no por lo que escribe, sino por lo que ha dejado de escribir, and he said that always keeping the understanding, the hand and the pen bound to write on a single subject and to speak through the mouths of a few persons was an unbearable labor, whose fruit did not benefit its author [...] he asks that his labor not be scorned, and that praise be given him, not for what he writes, but for what he has left unwritten.
In chapter LXII of Part Two, in Barcelona, in the print shop where the gentleman watches a book being set, he gives his opinion on translation.
el traducir de una lengua en otra, como no sea de las reinas de las lenguas, griega y latina, es como quien mira los tapices flamencos por el revés, que, aunque se veen las figuras, son llenas de hilos que las escurecen, y no se veen con la lisura y tez de la haz, translating from one language into another, unless it be from the queens of languages, Greek and Latin, is like looking at Flemish tapestries from the back, which, although the figures can be seen, are full of threads that darken them, and they cannot be seen with the smoothness and sheen of the front.
In chapter LXXII of Part Two, before don Álvaro Tarfe, who knew the Don Quixote of the apocryphal book, he asks for a declaration before the magistrate.
yo soy don Quijote de la Mancha, el mismo que dice la fama, y no ese desventurado que ha querido usurpar mi nombre y honrarse con mis pensamientos. A vuestra merced suplico, por lo que debe a ser caballero, sea servido de hacer una declaración ante el alcalde deste lugar, de que vuestra merced no me ha visto en todos los días de su vida hasta agora, y de que yo no soy el don Quijote impreso en la segunda parte, ni este Sancho Panza mi escudero es aquél que vuestra merced conoció, I am Don Quixote de la Mancha, the very one that fame speaks of, and not that unfortunate man who has wished to usurp my name and to honor himself with my thoughts. I beg Your Grace, by what he owes to being a knight, to be pleased to make a declaration before the magistrate of this place, that Your Grace has not seen me in all the days of your life until now, and that I am not the Don Quixote printed in the second part, nor is this Sancho Panza, my squire, the one Your Grace knew.
And in chapter LXXIV of Part Two, the will asks that Avellaneda be asked pardon for the occasion the gentleman gave him, and the narrator closes the history with the pen hanging on a hook.
Aquí quedarás, colgada desta espetera y deste hilo de alambre, ni sé si bien cortada o mal tajada péñola mía, adonde vivirás luengos siglos, si presuntuosos y malandrines historiadores no te descuelgan para profanarte, here you will remain, hanging from this kitchen peg and this wire, my pen, I know not whether well or badly cut, where you will live for long centuries, unless presumptuous and wicked historians take you down to profane you.
The last voice is that of the pen, which claims ownership of the hero.
Para mí sola nació don Quijote, y yo para él; él supo obrar y yo escribir; solos los dos somos para en uno, a despecho y pesar del escritor fingido y tordesillesco, for me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him; he knew how to act and I how to write; we two alone are made for one another, in spite and to the grief of the feigned writer from Tordesillas.
The novel poses the problem of the narrator three times and resolves it differently each time. In the first, the narrator says that everything was written by another, an Arab, and that this is the only possible objection to the truth of the history, and he leaves the reader to decide whom to side with (chapter IX of Part One). In the second, the book of 1605 is already the object of discussion among the characters: the bachelor brings the rule of the historian and the list of the book's errors, and the gentleman accepts it without alarm (chapter III of Part Two). In the third, the apocryphal book forces the book to close off its hero, and he closes only because the pen declares itself his owner. Two readings: it is a game that prolongs the pleasure of reading and bids farewell in a jesting tone; or it is a serious defense of authorship, in which the laughter is the care of someone who knows that what he writes can be carried off by another.
Who Embodies It
Cide Hamete Benengeli is the narrator the book pretends to follow, and the text gives him a profession: an Arab historian, whom one may distrust for being an Arab and from whom one may expect the precision that history demands. He appears at the moments when the truth of what is told is at risk: the find, the cave, the government, the apocryphal book. The gentleman, for his part, speaks the language of books, and it is with it that he presents himself to strangers. Sancho is the only one who answers it with another: that of proverbs, which pile up in such a way that the master, in chapter LXXI of Part Two, asks him to stop saying proverbs and to speak plainly and without tangle.
Where It Appears
- Part One, prologue: The author declares himself stepfather of Don Quixote and wants the book to be the most beautiful and the most discreet.
- Part One, chapter II: The gentleman speaks the language of books to two girls who do not understand him.
- Part One, chapter VIII: The narrator interrupts the duel with the Biscayan for lack of a source.
- Part One, chapter IX: The Arabic notebook, the Moor translator and the name of Cide Hamete Benengeli appear.
- Part One, chapter XXXV: The priest accepts the art of the novella he has just read, but judges it implausible, because he does not believe there is a husband as foolish as Anselmo.
- Part One, chapter LII: The book closes with verses of Ariosto and leaves the continuation to another.
- Part Two, prologue: In the prologue of 1615, Cervantes answers Avellaneda without naming him, returns the insult of old age and one-handedness as a credential, and promises to give Don Quixote dead and buried.
- Part Two, chapter III: The bachelor brings the rule of the poet and the historian, and the errors of the printed book.
- Part Two, chapter XXIV: Cide Hamete leaves a note in the margin that does not vouch for the Cave of Montesinos, since he measures it by the other adventures, and leaves the reader to decide.
- Part Two, chapter XLIV: The narrator complains of always writing on a single subject, and recalling that the novellas of Part One seemed separate from the history, admits from now on only episodes born of the characters' own deeds.
- Part Two, chapter LIX: In an inn, Don Quixote and Sancho come upon the apocryphal book in the hands of two gentlemen.
- Part Two, chapter LXII: In a print shop, the gentleman talks with a translator from Tuscan and compares translation to the wrong side of a Flemish tapestry.
- Part Two, chapter LXXII: Don Álvaro Tarfe declares before the magistrate that this is the true Don Quixote.
- Part Two, chapter LXXIV: The will asks pardon of Avellaneda, and the pen hanging on a hook closes the book.
Where the Readings Diverge
Erich Auerbach sees in Cervantes's distance from style a decisive difference from Flaubert: for Cervantes, a good novel serves no end beyond cultured entertainment.
Auerbach brings Cervantes close to Flaubert and at the same time separates them by what each asks of his style: Flaubert seeks to make style embody the divine order of the real, while Cervantes asks of literature only the cultured pleasure of diverting.For Cervantes, a good novel serves no other end than cultivated diversion, honesto entretenimiento.
Otto Maria Carpeaux sees it from the reader's side: Don Quixote will forever keep its two kinds of readers, children, who do not yet know life, and those who have been hardened by it.
Don Quixote will always keep its two classes of readers: children, who do not yet know life, and the others, harshly tried by it.
The two readings divide over what to do with the pen. For Auerbach, Cervantes's pen orders nothing beyond pleasure, and so the question of the truth of what is told never becomes a judgment. For Carpeaux, the book is read twice, once by the child and once by the adult, and the second reading is the one of the narrator's ironies that the first does not see. What decides between them is the pen hanging on the hook in chapter LXXIV of Part Two: if the book serves only amusement, the pen would need no defense from anyone; if the defense exists, then the author believes that what he wrote can be profaned, and that supposes a value beyond pastime.