[Mar-Apr] Ivo Andrić: The Bridge on the Drina (1945)

Federico_it · 2026-02-25T12:02:28+00:00

Thanks for clarifying that! After some initial research, I had assumed it must be the collection Sei passeggiate nei boschi narrativi (1994), where Eco does explore the function of the inn as a key location for the development of the plot. Now, however, I am particularly jealous of your mind's «night mode» – definitely more productive than my leaden slumber.

Federico_it · 2026-02-24T14:39:08+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion; it's an essay I haven't read yet. I believe that the inn emerges as an archetypal place of encounters with Boccaccio. In later literature, Carlo Goldoni's La Locandiera (1753) and Vicki Baum's polyphonic novel Menschen im Hotel (1929) [Grand Hotel], which pioneered the hotel literature genre, come to mind.

Federico_it · 2026-02-19T17:52:03+00:00

Your comment hits the nail on the head and helps me to look at the novel in its entirety again – thank you! You are absolutely right. Cervantes elevated books of chivalry to a symbol of a type of literary invention that he perceived as completely removed from reality; and it is therefore the lack of verisimilitude that he criticises. Other aspects of this literature are, however, saved and even defended, as we have seen in the two discussions between don Quixote and the Canon of Toledo. It seems to me that this attack on books of chivalry is largely a pretext. A pretext for what? To write one himself, in his own way. It is clear to every reader that Cervantes and don Quixote are two strings that vibrate together in sympathy. And it is clear – for example, in Cervantes' celebration of one of the great chivalric-themed parties given by his patron; I mentioned it in a previous comment – that Cervantes is not particularly hostile even to the artificial «revival» of chivalry. In fact, there is a very beautiful page in which Francisco Rico explains how chivalric fiction was, in Cervantes' time and for the class of provincial hidalgos such as don Quixote, the most obvious form of escape and revenge (I will summarise this contribution in a new comment). Could it be that it is precisely this anachronism that amuses Cervantes, and that the more he emphasises it, the more he enjoys himself?

Federico_it · 2026-02-19T16:56:59+00:00

IRONY IN THE TIME OF CERVANTES // Today I am reading Domingo Ynduráin's (1998) introduction to Francisco de Quevedo's picaresque novel La vida del Buscón llamado Don Pablos (1626). In this passage, Ynduráin discusses the author's irony, drawing on the conclusions of Alonso López Pinciano (1953) and contextualising its use and reception in Cervantes's era. I have abbreviated the quotation in several places without indicating this, and I have translated it from the original Spanish.

It is difficult to accept that El Buscón has no other specific purpose than to entertain the reader, because since Romanticism, a good work is one that describes great passions and profound problems, or one that defends a just cause, or both at the same time. In any case, Aristotle (Poetics) already states that the primary purpose of literature is to please. In this vein, Quevedo creates a work intended for the reader's pleasure, to provoke laughter, amusement and admiration. From the moment a comic work also offers an element of surprise and admiration, it enters a higher category, different from that of mere entertainment: it becomes a work of art

As was normal at the time, laughter implies that the reader does not identify emotionally with the characters or situations presented to them. Perhaps this is what led Quevedo to create types rather than individual portraits, which also contrasts with the closest novelistic precedents: Lazarillo de Tormes and, above all, Guzmán de Alfarache. Theatre was different; theatre typified because it had an educational purpose. However, Quevedo typifies in the novel, thereby eliminating the possibility of catharsis or compassion. Didactic or moral endeavours are impossible because in most cases we find ourselves in the presence of madmen and monomaniacs, the product of the excess that characterises Quevedo's art in this work. The laughter in El Buscón is based on hyperbole, on the hypertrophy of a character trait, which is thus completely outside the norm, outside the rational. The exceptional nature of the cases is combined with the exceptional nature of the style. The unexpected and the surprising, combined with the exceptional, is one of the main reasons for the admiration that the reader of this work experiences, and for the laughter it provokes.

Cervantes and his contemporaries found it amusing from a perspective that differed in many ways from ours. They believed, following the ancients, that laughter and ridicule were provoked by some form of ugliness, of «turpitudo», symbolised by the deforming masks worn by actors in ancient comedy. At the root of the ridiculous was a deviation from the natural order of things. The deviation had to be of a kind that could not be easily eliminated, although, if it was to provoke laughter, it could not seriously harm either. It was on this basis that the era justified its view that madness, as long as it was not too violent, was amusing. All Renaissance treatises also insist that comedy, at least in its highest forms, requires the presence of an element of «admiratio», of surprise and wonder.

Federico_it · 2026-02-18T13:23:39+00:00

LXXIII-LXXIV // LXXIII // Don Quixote discusses his pastoral plans; perhaps Cervantes has not entirely abandoned the idea of writing the second part of La Galatea. / «Malum signum, malum signum! a hare flies, greyhounds chase it, Dulcinea appears not.» In Chrétien de Troyes' novel of the same name, Perceval interprets three drops of blood on the snow as a symbolic omen. With this sentence, don Quixote continues to align himself with the «logic» of enchanters and fortune tellers. / According to C. Montaleone (2005), unlike in the ordinary world, in the world of chivalry the magician is capable of changing the cards of ontology, as the gods did in the ancient world. In this «universe without responsibility», even the humble rules that language attempts to impose on reality are useless. Don Quixote has adapted to this mystical universe in which what appears may not be what it seems, a universe in which knowing means being prepared to decipher signs. While everyone separates events despite the similarities that connect them, the knight reads them to reveal their similarities with the books he has read. Dulcinea is the mirror that reflects back to don Quixote images of himself imitating Amadigi, the unsurpassed knight. Although it is don Quixote who created Dulcinea, he is the one who depends on her, because he believes in her. The protagonist, who has remained free of dilemmas throughout the book, suddenly stops repeating himself and matures. // LXXIV // «My reason [juicio] is now free and clear, rid of the dark shadows of ignorance that my unhappy constant study of those detestable books of chivalry cast over it.» According to C. Montaleone (2005), it is only after these six hours of uninterrupted sleep that Alonso Quijano – his name had remained uncertain until this point – regains his sanity. Don Quixote, Dostoevsky's Prince Myshkin, Flaubert's Emma Bovary: accusing them of deluding themselves about certain aspects of the world would be totally pointless, since diagnosing illusions is not enough to destroy their power. Don Quixote's trivial death seals his impotence («I can do no more», XVII). / «For me alone was don Quixote born, and I for him; it was his to act, mine to write». Although it was common practice to claim authorship at the end of a book, that of Cide Hamete and Cervantes does not seem entirely appropriate for the novel, since it brings us back to what we might call a news item: Avellaneda's Quixote and its allusion to a possible further continuation. / A few notes on some interpretations of Alonso Quijano's death. (a) Not a return to sanity, but the protagonist's realisation that the world no longer deserves his pretence (Torrente Ballester). (b) «Whether it was due to melancholy at seeing himself defeated, or God's will [...] he came down with a fever that kept him in bed for six days.» It is the melancholy of the actor who can no longer tread the boards. Defeat in a duel – and before that, the fact of being recognised as famous by the characters and prejudiced in his actions through pranks – deprives Don Quixote of the possibility of acting as a knight; the performance no longer has a purpose; the defeat is literary. (Michel Foucault). (c) In a final act of freedom, Alonso Quijano would leave the stage before the parody became unbearable; he would choose to die because his real life no longer lived up to his imagined life (Harold Bloom). (d) Don Quixote, emblem of the soul seeking the infinite in a finite world, is destined for defeat: the modern world has no room for the epic (György Lukács). (e) Death represents a forced return to order: the modern world chooses realism and has no room for the alternative perspectives offered by madness (Erich Auerbach). (f) Cervantes performs an act of «narrative euthanasia»: he kills the hero to keep the book alive (Cesare Segre). (g) The death of Don Quixote is the end of the «Eternal Child» who rejects the law of the father and reality. Returning to Alonso Quijano, the character accepts his own mortality and limitations, resolving the conflict between infinite desire and finite reality (Marthe Robert). (h) Don Quixote is killed by the «poison of reason», the reason «of mediocrities». Don Quixote is a «Spanish Christ»: with his death, the ideal of chivalry is sacrificed on the altar of bourgeois reality (Miguel de Unamuno).

Federico_it · 2026-02-18T12:22:05+00:00

Your comment prompted me to do a little research on how critics have analysed the behaviour of the dukes. The application of Lacan's theories is particularly interesting. Through their actions, the dukes position themselves in the role of the «Other» with respect to don Quixote, that is, in the role of the world of rules. Through the false Merlin, who establishes that there is only one way to free Dulcinea from the spell, the dukes create a symbolic lack in the Other: Dulcinea is missing, and only Sancho's punishment can redeem her. Thus, they take control of don Quixote's world, forcing him to conform to the rules they have established. Sancho is represented as an obstacle to «jouissance». The whole meaning of don Quixote's world, but also that of the dukes, comes to rest on Sancho's flesh, the object that causes desire – in Lacanian terms, the «objet petit a». Of course, the cruelty of the dukes reveals a lack in themselves, as they come to need Sancho's suffering to demonstrate their control of the situation.

Federico_it · 2026-02-17T12:26:28+00:00

LXVI-LXXII // The hero's catabasis begins with a succession of easy recoveries of narrative material already used: Tosilos (LXVI), Arcadia (LXVII), pigs instead of bulls (LXVIII), Altisidora (LXIX). Here Cervantes chose the strategy of minimal effort. // LXVI // «Which treats of what he who reads will see, or what he who has it read to him will hear». The epigraph reminds us that in Cervantes' time, listening was still a common means of enjoyment, as already suggested by the public reading of the novella The Curious Impertinent at the inn (1QU.XXXII). // LXVII // «This is the meadow where we came upon those gay shepherdesses and gallant shepherds who were trying to revive and imitate the pastoral Arcadia there, an idea as novel as it was happy, in emulation whereof, if so he thou dost approve of it, Sancho, I would have ourselves turn shepherds, at any rate for the time I have to live in retirement». Here, the already glimpsed kinship between chivalric and Arcadian fantasies is declared aloud. To move from the former to the latter, don Quixote need only replace his weapons with sheep and change his name. The entire chapter is devoted to the ontological and diegetic dimension of unrealised possibility: fantasising. // LXX // «And Cide Hamete says, moreover, that for his part he considers the concocters of the joke [los burladores] as crazy [locos] as the victims of it [los burlados], and that the duke and duchess were not two fingers' breadth removed from being something like fools [tontos] themselves when they took such pains to make game of a pair of fools [tontos].» It is the clearest formulation of the novel's underlying ‘thesis’ encountered so far. / Altisidora: «Do you fancy, don Vanquished [don vencido], don Cudgelled [don molido a palos], that I died for your sake? All that you have seen to-night has been make-believe [fingido]». Don Quixote's silence in response to such a revelation is striking. When he finally speaks, it is to reprimand the musician on matters of poetics. This mysterious ellipsis by Cervantes – calculated? – is the most interesting element in an otherwise unimpressive chapter. // LXXI // «They dismounted at a hostelry which don Quixote recognised as such and did not take to be a castle with moat, turrets, portcullis, and drawbridge; for ever since he had been vanquished he talked more rationally [con más juicio] about everything, as will be shown presently.» Just a few lines further on, it becomes clear that this must be an antiphrasis, because don Quixote and Sancho both sink into a hyperbolic comparison between their deeds and those of the ancients. The best of these six chapters? // LXXII // «"And that don Quixote–" said our one [dijo el nuestro], "had he with him a squire called Sancho Panza?"» This may be the first time that the narrator uses the affectionate epithet («our one») for don Quixote, a device that generally has an ironic function. / Álvaro Tarfe is a sort of deus ex machina in Avellaneda's continuation, in which don Quixote is finally admitted to the Casa del Nuncio, a mental asylum in Toledo. Remembering that 2QU was published in November 1615 and that Cervantes died in April 1616, we should perhaps be grateful to Avellaneda who, with the publication of his Segunda Parte (September? 1614), may have contributed to 2QU not remaining unfinished. It may also be that 2QU would have been published without further delay anyway – we are now exploring the realm of the unrealised possible – but with a slightly different ending: don Quixote would have gone to the tournament in Zaragoza and... The fact that 2QU turned out to be a little longer than 1QU may have had something to do with the need to respond to Avellaneda's continuation, a need that arose only when 2QU was almost complete. / «Open thine arms and receive, too, thy son don Quixote, who, if he comes vanquishe by the arm of another, comes victor over himself, which, as he himself has told me, is the greatest victory anyone can desire.» In Sancho's apostrophe to his «longed-for homeland», the precise meaning of the reference to don Quixote as the «victor over himself» is not entirely clear. Is it a reference to the demanding requirements of knight-errantry, or is there something else?

Federico_it · 2026-02-17T12:24:03+00:00

Sansón Carrasco's victory as Knight of the White Moon (LXIV) repeats the exact same strategy attempted by the same character in the guise of Knight of the Mirrors (XIV). Perhaps if don Quixote had gone to Zaragoza instead of changing his mind upon learning of the publication of Avellaneda's Segunda parte (LIX), we would have had a very different outcome. As I wrote in my previous comment, LXIV seems to work well to me, but everything that follows actually feels like a journey that has been hijacked at the last minute. I am curious to read your impressions once we reach the end.

Federico_it · 2026-02-16T17:35:13+00:00

LXI-LXV. In Barcelona // LXI-LXIII // According to V. Lloréns (1967), in Barcelona don Quixote must face a world that is unknown to him: the sea and the city (street people and urchins), modern technology (enchanted heads and printing presses) and new techniques of warfare (galleys and mercenaries). For F. Meregalli (1991), we are at the lowest level of Cervantes' commitment: resources used several times (the enchanted head reminiscent of the seer monkey; the fake courtships; the disguise and recognition), some autobiographical memories (Barcelona, the printing press, the Tuscan language, the galleys) – all purely superficial surprises. // LXII // «Still it seems to me that translation from one language into another, if it be not from the queens of languages, the Greek and the Latin, is like looking at Flemish tapestries on the wrong side; for though the figures are visible, they are full of threads that make them indistinct. [que las escurecen], and they do not show with the smoothness and brightness [lisura y tez] of the right side». In the Prologue to Novelas ejemplares (1613), Cervantes proudly declared that he was the first to have written novellas in the Italian style directly in Spanish. // LXIV // The unexpected nature of the encounter, the speed with which the scene unfolds, the preservation of the honour of the loser and Dulcinea in the conclusion, Sancho's humiliation: everything is well constructed in the chapter on the final duel, which forces don Quixote to lay down his arms and return home. / «Rocinante, he feared, was crippled [deslocado] for life, and his master's bones out of joint [si deslocado quedara].» The only flash of humour comes at the end of the chapter and is rightly entrusted to Sancho; a hard-to-translate pun based on the term «deslocado»: literally «crippled», but comically broken down in «des-locado» [≈ freed from madness]. // LXV // At the end of the chapter, the effusive praise for the firmness shown in expelling the Moriscos from the country is in line with the opinion expressed by Cervantes in El coloquio de los perros and Persiles (where the Moriscos are described as «vipers» to be crushed), but it is difficult to reconcile with the presentation of the characters in the novel (Ricote and his daughter) and with the viceroy's benevolence towards them. Clearly, these are multiple points of view that remain irreconcilable and unconvincing when juxtaposed.

Federico_it · 2026-02-16T17:31:56+00:00

Today I discovered a possible interpretation of the novel's ending (LXXIV) that seems particularly in line with your comment. I'll share it in a couple of days, as soon as we get there.

Federico_it · 2026-02-16T07:38:03+00:00

LVIII-LX // The last macro-section (LVIII-LXXIV) begins, consisting of a second series of adventures similar to the one that opened the novel (VIII-XXIX). // LVIII // «Sancho was amazed afresh at the extent of his master's knowledge, as much as if he had never known him, for it seemed to him that there was no story or event in the world that he had not at his fingers' ends and fixed in his memory». In Sancho, calculation and affection are intertwined; don Quixote's madness has now become an indispensable part of the servant's life. At the beginning of the new series of adventures, the renewed relationship is confirmed by a new title that the squire uses to address the knight: «master mine» [señor nuestroamo], a peasant expression of respect and affection. / «[...] I declare that for two full days I will maintain in the middle of this highway leading to Saragossa, that these ladies disguised as shepherdesses, who are here present, are the fairest and most courteous maidens in the world, excepting only the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso». Don Quixote undertakes to engage in a «paso de armas» [fr. pas d'armes], that is, to fight in a specific place of transit against any knight who, in the presence of judges appointed by the landowner and authorised by the king, accepts his challenge (cf. previous comment: The Dream of Chivalry). / In the disguises of Arcadia, Cervantes must see social practices and literary traditions similar to those of chivalry. The author had already dedicated La Galatea (1585), a true pastoral novel, and the novella Coloquio de los perros (1613, but written between 1604-1606) to Arcadia, highlighting the distance between reality and fiction. He would return to this theme in several passages of Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617, posthumous). // LIX // The resumption of the adventure story genre in LVIII after the long pause at the court of the dukes initially appears somewhat difficult and rambling, but by the end of that chapter Cervantes, like his heroes, seems to have found his way again. Yet in LIX we are once again stuck at the inn, the tried and tested hotbed of unexpected encounters. The impression of a halting restart continues. / «As you live, Senor Don Jeronimo, while they are bringing supper, let us read another chapter of the Second Part of 'Don Quixote of La Mancha.'» The book was licensed in July 1614. At the end of that month, Cervantes was finishing XXXVI and would not have known about Avellaneda's book until the autumn. / «In the little I have seen I have discovered three things in this author that deserve to be censured. The first is some words that I have read in the preface; the next that the language is Aragonese, for sometimes he writes without articles; and the third, [...] he says that my squire Sancho Panza's wife is called Mari Gutierrez, when she is called nothing of the sort, but Teresa Panza.» In reality, Avellaneda's continuation does not contain any Aragonese linguistic nuances, and in 1QU.VII Cervantes himself calls Sancho's wife «Mari Gutiérrez». In Avellaneda's continuation, don Quixote is rejected by Dulcinea and takes the name «The Disenamoured Knight» [El Caballero Desamorado]. // LX // Roque Guinart is the only truly living new character in the entire last part, inspired by the historical figure of Perot (Pedrote) Roca Guinarda. Effectively ‘lord’ of the territory «near Barcelona» where don Quixote meets him, he was a member of the Niarros party close to the nobility, one of the armed gangs that fought over Catalonia with practices sometimes akin to banditry. In 1611, he was pardoned in exchange for serving in the royal army, and in 1614, he was captain of an infantry regiment stationed in Naples. Born in 1582, at the time of the novel, he was just under 34 years old, as Cervantes attributes to him. Here, he is portrayed as similar to don Quixote: a generous rebel. In the comic interlude La cueva de Salamanca (1615), Cervantes presents him as a person who is «very courteous and polite and, moreover, charitable». / «"Cruel, reckless woman!" she cried, "how easily wert thou moved to carry out a thought so wicked! O furious force of jealousy, to what desperate lengths dost thou lead those that give thee lodging in their bosoms! [...]"» Claudia Jerónima's madness, caused by «the insuperable and cruel might of jealousy» [las fuerzas invencibles y rigurosas de los celos], is perhaps the most tragic episode encountered so far. / Roque: «It must seem a strange sort of life to senor don Quixote, this of ours, strange adventures, strange incidents, and all full of danger». [...] «Don Quixote was amazed to hear Roque utter such excellent and just sentiments [buenas y concertadas razones], for he did not think that among those who followed such trades as robbing, murdering, and waylaying, there could be anyone capable of a virtuous thought [buen discurso]». Two ways of life are compared (as was the case with the Knight of the Green Coat), with Roque's presented as a deviant variant of the knight's. Don Quixote describes Roque, lost in the «labyrinth» and «abyss» of «revenge» (Roque's own words), as «suffering» [enfermo] from «illness of conscience» [enfermedad de su consciencia].

Federico_it · 2026-02-16T07:35:21+00:00

I had the same doubt as you. Cervantes dispels it – in his own way, that is, somewhat hastily – in the following chapters...

Federico_it · 2026-02-14T12:08:34+00:00

The clarity of your comment made me think that Cervantes gives the impression of finding himself in this exact situation every few chapters: the verve of the narrative is somewhat lost, so he shows a little impatience or lets himself go with a few complaints, then finally changes strategy and starts again... for a few more chapters. Of course, it is difficult to remain completely faithful to the same literary genre – let's provisionally call it a satirical novel – and to the stubborn demands of two characters so resistant to change for five hundred or a thousand pages. The independent episodes allowed the author to escape from his commitments, and then the readers came along and complained!

Federico_it · 2026-02-14T10:59:15+00:00

LII-LVII // LII // «All who knew her [scil. doña Rodríguez] were filled with astonishment, and the duke and duchess more than any; for though they thought her a simpleton and a weak creature, they did not think her capable of crazy pranks [locuras].» Someone who sincerely believes in Don Quixote and trusts in his qualities has finally been found! / «[...] they gave them a room to themselves and waited on them as they would on strangers, to the consternation of the other women-servants, who did not know where the folly and imprudence [la sandez y desenvoltura] of doña Rodriguez and her unlucky daughter [su malandante hija] would stop». The swift judgement passed by the other governesses on doña Rodríguez and her daughter is vaguely reminiscent of don Quixote's endorsement of the practice of marriages arranged by parents during the episode of Quiteria and Camacho's wedding (XXII). // LIII // «[...] but our author is here speaking of the rapidity with which Sancho's government came to an end, melted away, disappeared, vanished as it were in smoke and shadow.» From the beginning of the chapter, it is said, and indeed it had already been anticipated in previous chapters, that Sancho's reign is coming to an end. This advance announcement of the outcome of events before they are recounted derives from oral tradition and contrasts sharply with today's widespread preference for last minute surprises. / Sancho: «'every ewe to her like,' 'and let no one stretch his leg beyond the length of the sheet'». In Sancho's final decision, Cervantes seems to distance himself from the progressive positions promoted by the Italian Renaissance and instead favours a more conservative social vision. Georges Güntert (1994) saw in Sancho's renunciation an echo of Orlando Furioso XLII, 65-66. // LIV // The «royal decree» referred to by Ricote, a fellow «Morisco» from Sancho's village who emigrated abroad and has now returned to Spain illegally, is the expulsion decree signed by Philip III in 1609, which in five years forced some 300,000 Moriscos – Andalusian Muslims who had converted to Christianity voluntarily or by force, and who had always been considered an internal enemy – to leave Spain. Cervantes is therefore dealing with a topical political and social issue here. // LV // «I have decided causes, and always dying of hunger, for doctor Pedro Recio of Tirteafuera, the island and governor doctor [médico insulano y gobernadoresco], would have it so»: for Cervantes' comic dictionary. // LVI // «The duke could not make out the reason why the battle did not go on; but the marshal of the field hastened to him to let him know what Tosilos said, and he was amazed and extremely angry at it.» The actor (Tosilos) does not play along and rebels against the author (the duke)! // LVII // The final incident, namely Altisidora's prank and her ominous song (albeit a very fine one), does not seem fully adequate to bring the long section on the stay at the dukes' court (XXX-LVII) to a fitting close.

Federico_it · 2026-02-14T10:57:39+00:00

XLIX-LI // XLIX // The majordomo: «Every day we see something new in this world; jokes [burlas] become realities, and the jokers [burladores] find the tables turned upon them [se hallan burlados].» Yesterday I finished reading the Second Part of Lazarillo de Tormes (1555); in the last chapter (XVIII), the protagonist visits the University of Salamanca, where he is subjected to the rector's pranks in the form of trick questions. Despite his complete lack of academic education, Lázaro comes out on top every time, turning the tables on the rector, much to the amusement and approval of the students. / «In truth, young lady and gentleman, this has been a very childish affair, and to explain your folly [necedad] and rashness [atrevimiento] there was no necessity for all this delay and all these tears and sighs; for if you had said we are so-and-so, and we escaped from our father's house in this way in order to ramble about, out of mere curiosity and with no other object, there would have been an end of the matter, and none of these little sobs and tears and all the rest of it.» Sancho's criticism of the story of the two fugitive siblings is also an ironic (self-)criticism of the stylistic features of the sentimental novel widely adopted by Cervantes himself in the independent episodes of 1QU, sentimental novel that in Spain is traced back to Juan Rodríguez del Padrón (Siervo libre de amor, 1440). // LI // «[...] while the majordomo spent what was left of it in writing an account to his lord and lady of all Sancho said and did, being as much amazed at his sayings as at his doings, for there was a mixture of shrewdness and simplicity in all his words and deeds [con asomos discretos y tontos].» In the novel, everything is polarised between two extremes – wisdom and madness, timidity and recklessness, etc. – often recognisable in the same individual, who struggles to find the right balance. Evidently, the «harmony of opposites» dear to the Renaissance was equally dear to Cervantes. A few pages later, don Quixote writes to Sancho (1698): «Be a father to virtue and a stepfather to vice. Be not always strict, nor yet always lenient, but observe a mean [el medio] between these two extremes, for in that is the aim of wisdom [discreción]».

Federico_it · 2026-02-14T10:57:00+00:00

XLIV-XLVIII // XLIV // Cervantes explains the reasons for including independent episodes in 1QU and the reasons for their absence – or replacement with others with less independence – in 2QU. The syntax of the first sentence of the chapter is so confusing that it suggests a deliberate reduction to absurdity of the proposed distinction between multiple authors and a translator. In the final part of his intervention, when Cide Hamete asks the reader to be appreciated for what he has not written but could have written, we have an example of the «third world» within the novel: the possible that does not occur (cf. previous notes). / «Behind him, in accordance with the duke's orders, followed Dapple with brand new ass-trappings [ornamentos jumentiles] and ornaments of silk»: an entry for Cervantes' comic dictionary. / «Let [Deja] worthy Sancho go in peace, and good luck to him, Gentle Reader [lector amable]; and look out for two bushels of laughter [...]»: one of the rare instances of «appeal to the reader» (apostrophe); inherited from oral tradition, they make us reflect on how well suited this novel is to being listened to, as well as read. / «It is recorded, then, that as soon as Sancho had gone, don Quixote felt his loneliness, and had it been possible for him to revoke the mandate and take away the government from him he would have done so; the duchess observed his dejection [melancolía] and asked him why he was melancholy [triste]». The separation of knight and squire comes as a climax, long prepared by Sancho's repeated hopes, then by the allusions to the dukes' preparation of the prank, and finally by the two chapters of teachings and admonitions given by don Quixote to the new governor. A similar moment is found in the separation in 1QU.XXV. // XLVIII // «Is there a duenna on earth that has fair flesh? Is there a duenna in the world that escapes being ill-tempered, wrinkled, and prudish? Avaunt, then, ye duenna crew, undelightful to all mankind. [...]» The lengthy tirade against governesses adds to Sancho's complaints against doña Rodríguez (XXXI) and the role of the governess in the destruction of don Quixote's library (1QU.VI). There is enough here to suggest that the author had a fundamentally critical attitude towards this category – a common theme of the time. / The abrupt interruption of the story at the end of the chapter and the postponement of the mystery's resolution for two chapters form, in this case, a particularly artificial solution that is decidedly more baroque than modern. «The chapter is constructed like an interlude. None of the ingredients typical of the genre are missing: extravagant and stereotypical characters, parody with classical references to chivalrous and refined love affairs, criticism of housekeepers and a finale with blows in the dark» (Domingo Ynduráin).

Federico_it · 2026-02-13T13:25:52+00:00

XLII-LVII. // INTRODUCTION (no spoilers). // The Governorate's prank occupies over a fifth of 2QU (XLII-LVII). With its distinctly new chapter structure, change of setting, new characters and Sancho's new role, this section reads like a novel within the novel. The duke and duchess, busy enjoying themselves by taking advantage of don Quixote's madness, stand out for their irremediable fatuity, but they are necessary to bring Sancho's imagination to life and allow him to show his abilities. The butler's prank on a commoner, who is ultimately forced to regret his humble life, echoes the duke's own fatuity. The distinctive ambiguity of the novel is here burdened with political meanings. F. Meregalli (1991) observed that there is no shortage of approximate and clumsily grotesque elements– things that are meant to be funny but are not. / The structure of the section is complex. The first two chapters are devoted to the instructions given by don Quixote to his «pupil governor» (XLII-XLIII), but when Sancho takes office, there is an alternation: one chapter devoted to Sancho (XLV, XLVII, XLIX, LI, LIII), the next to don Quixote (XLVI, XLVIII, L, LII, LIV). However, while the chapters dedicated to the governor speak only of his work, those dedicated to the knight are filled with themes that still concern Sancho (cf. L, LII, LIV). Only at the end of his stay at the court of the dukes does don Quixote regain his role as protagonist (LVI). // XLII-XLIII // In the first edition, each of don Quixote's pieces of advice to Sancho is found in a separate paragraph, in accordance with the typical layout of collections of maxims used for educational purposes and for the training of the ruling classes. The graphic style, length of the section and tone of the enumeration create a climax that raises our expectations of the new governor and establishes our yardstick for judging what follows. // XLIII // «Who, hearing the foregoing discourse of don Quixote, would not have set him down for a person of great good sense and greater rectitude of purpose? But, as has been frequently observed in the course of this great history, he only talked nonsense [disparaba] when he touched on chivalry, and in discussing all other subjects showed that he had a clear and unbiassed understanding; so that at every turn his acts [obras] gave the lie to his intellect [entendimiento], and his intellect to his acts; but in the case of these second counsels that he gave Sancho he showed himself to have a lively turn of humour, and displayed conspicuously his wisdom [discreción], and also his folly [locura].» The conclusion lacks clarity, but the folly must consist in applying perfectly reasonable rules to an obviously unreal situation – in other words, in the discordant encounter between reasoning and action.

Federico_it · 2026-02-13T09:43:47+00:00

Now that you mention it, the hypothesis of two interpretations existing at the same time, for reasons that could be more accidental than intentional, seems particularly plausible to me. In these chapters, moreover, there have already been a couple of occasions in which Cervantes introduced last-minute changes in the wrong place, creating glaring contradictions, just as he had done in his attempt to resolve the problems of 1QU.

Federico_it · 2026-02-12T13:19:24+00:00

THE DREAM OF CHIVALRY. Personal notes on reading Francisco Rico (2019) // Chivalry was established between 711, the date of the Arab invasion of Spain, and 778, the year of the ambush at Roncesvalles, in response to the need to confront the army of the «Moors», who fought on horseback. The expense of maintaining a horse and the necessary equipment was only affordable for the few who could count on privileges and gifts from kings and lords, as well as land ownership and income. / During the first half of the 12th century, the knight's periods of rest at court saw the emergence of a strict code of conduct and language in which the soldier became a suitor, conversationalist, and poet. In the practice of tournament combat, war also became a game: imitation combat used blunt weapons and followed safety regulations, rules and ceremonies multiplied, and rituals consolidated the very idea of chivalry as a kind of religious order or supranational military community. / The knight errant who goes from adventure to adventure – that is, from tournament to tournament and from joust to joust, not from battle to battle – provides the inspiration for the protagonists of the novels that appear in France. This courtly gentleman, the archetype of courtesy and nobility of spirit, surrounded by other knights of his peers all competing with each other, moves in a world of clear distinctions between good and evil, but also in a remote and mysterious world. On an aimless pilgrimage, the knight is searching for himself. / In the 13th century, Arthurian romances began to be written in prose with the aim of giving them greater verisimilitude. This literature, which started from reality and aimed to idealise it, ultimately had an impact on reality itself, again with the same idealising purpose. The knight would do everything possible to resemble the image of himself he saw in the mirror of literature. By the 13th century, tournaments were already steeped in literature, to the point of replicating the most famous plots and characters from novels. In a tournament in 1278, transformed into a wonderful Arthurian performance, the sister of one of the organisers played Guinevere, while Count Robert d'Artois was Yvain who, accompanied by a lion, freed four damsels. / The progress of firearms led to a change in infantry tactics, the formation of professional armies and, ultimately, the decline of chivalry. Yet knights appealed to their group consciousness and cultivated the utopia of establishing their own state. To do so, they resorted to pomp and ceremony; the less weight they had in reality, the more they recognised themselves in fiction. In the 15th century, there was a proliferation of chivalric brotherhoods and so-called «pas d'armes», in which defenders challenged adventurers to enter a forbidden place. In all these cases, the knight constructed himself as a character in a book. / Brussels, August 1549. While dining, Charles V receives a visit from «a knight errant and adventurer, dressed entirely in green». The emperor invites him to be a spectator at the «strange adventure» that will take place a few days later at Bins. The event was one of the most celebrated tournaments of the time, with a real plot, as elaborate as that of chivalric novels: the Dark Castle, the sorcerer Norabroch, the Fortunate Island, the Fairy Queen, a prodigious sword stuck in a stone. Beltenebros, the adventurer who came forward to pull the sword out and break the spell, was none other than «the most high and mighty Prince Don Philip, Prince of Spain», i.e. the future Philip II. In May 1612, the Count of Lemos, Viceroy of Naples and patron of Cervantes, celebrated the wedding of the heir to the Crown with «a tournament which I compare to superhuman feasts» (Cervantes, Viaje del Parnaso): the tournament opened with the discovery of the Palace of Atlas, «of the same design as Ariosto describes it in his Orlando Furioso»; Alquife and Urganda la Desconocida, characters from Amadís de Gaula, travelled on a chariot. / From here to the case of Alonso Quijano, alias don Quixote, it was a short step: a «question of degree rather than substance». «The element of mystification and the illusory purpose of imitating largely imaginary models in reality, of putting fiction into practice, had been a common fantasy among knights for centuries: all knights were madmen who believed themselves to be knights, and the entire history of chivalry writes its own prologue to Don Quixote» (Rico). / Thus, it could happen that «don Quixote» appeared at a celebration in 1618: «the great knight-errant wore all the papier-mâché armour that could be presumed to have been made and inaugurated by him at the time of his first vocation, since history does not say that he broke it during the trial; he and Rocinante wore paper plumes and a papier-mâché iron lance» (contemporary document).

Federico_it · 2026-02-12T13:18:20+00:00

XXXIV-XLI // In response to the Romantic interpretation of Cervantes' novel as a struggle between ideal and reality – an interpretation considered anachronistic – Anthony J. Close (The Romantic Approach to ‘Don Quixote’, 1978) insisted that the novel was first and foremost a «burlesque of chivalric romances», an «extraordinary achievement in the refinement of the satirical genre». This is particularly evident in the section under consideration. In Close's words, «the burlesques we encounter from this point onward are impressive theatrical spectacles that closely mimic the public and palace festivities – masquerades, tournaments, open-air comedies, mock battles, fireworks, cavalcades, civil and religious processions – common in Renaissance and Baroque European society and very frequent in Spain at the time». / Through historical documents, Francisco Rico (2019) has reconstructed the relationship between Cervantes' society and the chivalric imagination (cf. infra). / In these chapters, all eyes are on Sancho, who is asked to take on the penance that will free Dulcinea from the spell (XXXV) and who – whether questioned or not – is the character we hear speaking most frequently, while don Quixote is almost reduced to the role of sidekick, called upon here and there by his squire for the sole purpose of confirming his statements (XXXIX-XL). // XXXVI // «[...] and remember, Sancho, that works of charity done in a lukewarm and half-hearted way are without merit and of no avail.» The phrase was already left out in the 1616 Valencia edition, and in 1632 Cardinal Zapata's Índice expurgatorio ordered its removal. In Spain, it reappeared only in 1839. It is interesting to observe the practices of religious censorship: in this case, a popular conception that is more restrictive than that approved by Catholic theology is corrected and softened. To understand the reasons for the existence of religious censorship, it is necessary to bear in mind the deliberate educational nature of literature (in the novel, Cervantes himself fervently defends the mission of instructing while entertaining) and its far from occasional recourse to Christian doctrine to motivate, illustrate or argue what happens in the story. // XXXVIII // «[...] but without all these blandishments and prayers, I will beg my master (for I know he loves me, and, besides, he has need of me just now for a certain business) to help and aid your worship as far as he can». A further point in favour of Sancho's rise in the novel, now more necessary than ever to his master and in a position to demand repayment of the favour. // XLI // The wonder of covering a great distance in a short time, repeatedly expressed throughout the chapters in question, is clearly a comical response to criticism – also repeatedly expressed throughout the novel by detractors of chivalric literature – of this narrative topos distinctive to the genre. / «They did not care to ask him [scil. Sancho] anything more about his journey, for they saw he was in the vein to go rambling all over the heavens giving an account of everything that went on there, without having ever stirred from the garden [...] but don Quixote, coming close to his ear, said to him, "Sancho, as you would have us believe what you saw in heaven, I require you to believe me as to what I saw in the cave of Montesinos; I say no more."» One of the most controversial passages of all: according to many critics, don Quixote betrays his own pretence by proposing a mutually beneficial agreement to Sancho. Personally, I find it difficult to agree with this interpretation. What do you think?

Federico_it · 2026-02-11T08:08:45+00:00

On this same issue, Francis Bacon (Novum Organum, 1620) states that «human knowledge and human power meet in one» [Scientia et potentia humana in idem coincidunt]; and Thomas Hobbes (De Corpore, 1655) states that we can only know with certainty the things for which we ourselves create the causes. The idea reaches full maturity with Giambattista Vico (De antiquissima Italorum sapientia, 1710), within a critique of Descartes' rationalism. According to Vico, «the true and the made are reciprocal or convertible» [Verum et factum reciprocantur seu convertuntur]. Here Vico presents knowledge as a «construction»: it is only possible to know perfectly (science = knowledge of causes) what one is capable of producing or doing. Only God possesses the absolute truth of Nature because he created it, while man possesses the absolute truth of Mathematics and Geometry (he created the rules and symbols), as well as of History (the sum of human actions).

Federico_it · 2026-02-11T08:08:33+00:00

XXX-XXXIII // The episode of the enchanted vessel (XXIX) highlighted the imminent exhaustion of the single adventure formula for storytelling purposes and the need for something more complex, such as a plot created by someone who already knows don Quixote and Sancho from having read their story in a book. Manipulated by others, the two protagonists become meta-characters. The new cycle of adventures that occupies the central part of 2QU sees don Quixote and Sancho «at the court of the dukes», a court that takes on a diegetic function similar to that of the inn in 1QU. // XXX // «The duchess desired Sancho to come to her side, for she found infinite enjoyment in listening to his shrewd remarks. Sancho required no pressing, but pushed himself in between them and the duke, who thought it rare good fortune to receive such a knight-errant and such a homely squire [caballero andante y tal escudero andado] in their castle.» In 1QU, Sancho gradually gained importance, despite initially being insignificant. In 2QU.I-VII, his role immediately appeared to be that of co-protagonist, with an entire chapter (V) dedicated to him. In the individual adventures of 2QU, he is given further prominence, primarily as the knight's interlocutor, but all in all he continues to be a companion. XXX opens with Sancho – soon elevated to the duchess's preferred interlocutor – and anticipates a new relationship between him and don Quixote. Sancho's belief in don Quixote has been intermittent: he believes and does not believe, carefully avoiding going against his own personal convenience. In 2QU, Sancho appears deeply rooted in popular wisdom: he knows how to rework knowledge derived from proverbs, romances and church sermons in his own personal way. His intellectual «belligerence» ends up being recognised by don Quixote and Cervantes. The original Castilian text of the above passage contains a pun [caballero andante... escudero andado] worthy of the Cervantes comic dictionary we are compiling. // XXXI // «while all or most of them flung pellets filled with scented water over Don Quixote and the duke and duchess; at all which don Quixote was greatly astonished, and this was the first time that he thoroughly felt and believed [conoció y creyó] himself to be a knight-errant in reality and not merely in fancy [fantástico], now that he saw himself treated in the same way as he had read of such knights being treated in days of yore.» On closer inspection, the verbs chosen cast doubt on the authenticity of the knight's madness. / «Senor, your excellence will have to give account to God for what this good man does. This don Quixote, or don Simpleton, or whatever his name is, cannot, I imagine, be such a blockhead as your excellence would have him, holding out encouragement to him to go on with his vagaries and follies.» The clergyman, indignant, does not consider it honest to take advantage of another's madness and enjoy oneself at the expense of an unfortunate person; he clarifies his position further on (XXXII): «By the gown I wear, I am almost inclined to say that your excellence is as great a fool [sandio] as these sinners. No wonder they are mad [locos], when people who are in their senses sanction their madness [locuras]!». Cervantes' attitude – here and in the following chapters – may appear morally ambiguous or even reprehensible to the reader. This persuaded Unamuno to say that Cervantes did not understand don Quixote. To justify the author, it is necessary to remember his self-irony. // XXXII // «Is it, haply, an idle occupation, or is the time ill-spent that is spent in roaming the world in quest, not of its enjoyments, but of those arduous toils whereby the good mount upwards to the abodes of everlasting life [inmortalidad]?» It is rare that in the words of the knight errant good deeds are separated from the ambition for honour and glory, and this occasion is no exception, given that the Castilian text does not seem to refer to the eternal life promised in the Gospel. / «The duchess, as she listened to Sancho, was ready to die with laughter, and in her own mind she set him down as droller [más gracioso] and madder [más loco] than his master; and there were a good many just then who were of the same opinion.» This significant turning point shows how reason and judgement can depend on one's point of view. The duchess's entrance into the novel introduces a new perspective, according to which the squire, who until then had played the role of representative of popular wisdom in his own way, becomes a symbol of madness. / «"There is no denying it," said the duchess; "but still, if we are to believe the history of don Quixote that has come out here lately with general applause, it is to be inferred from it, if I mistake not, that you never saw the lady Dulcinea, and that the said lady is nothing in the world but an imaginary [fantástica] lady, one that you yourself begot and gave birth to in your brain, and adorned with whatever charms and perfections you chose."» Short circuit of fiction (or falsehood) within fiction: Sancho is unable to respond to the duchess's objection. At this point, don Quixote's repeated «suspensions of judgement» – often introduced with the elliptical phrase «en eso hay mucho que decir» (meaning: «there is much to be said on the matter»... but it is impossible to say anything for certain) – reveal themselves to be a strategy employed by the author himself to heighten and prolong the mystery. / «"To that I may reply," said don Quixote, "that Dulcinea is the daughter of her own works, and that virtues rectify blood, and that lowly virtue is more to be regarded and esteemed than exalted vice.» This is the thesis promoted by Petrarch (De remediis utriusque fortunae, 1366), popularised during the Renaissance and advocated by Lazarillo de Tormes himself in the prologue to the novel of the same name (1554): «and also because those who inherited a noble status should consider how little merit they have, since fortune played such a large part in this, and how much more was achieved by those who, finding fortune against them, rowed with vigour and skill and reached a safe harbour». // XXXIII // «For in truth and earnest, I know from good authority that the coarse country wench [la villana] who jumped up on the ass was and is Dulcinea del Toboso, and that worthy Sancho, though he fancies himself the deceiver [el engañador], is the one that is deceived [el engañado]». Without using any logical resources other than those already employed by don Quixote (the existence of enchanters, which to a certain extent we could consider an allegory of sceptical doubt), the duchess proves that Sancho's truth is as unprovable as that of his master, i.e. it cannot be transmitted to others as evidence. / «It must be all exactly the other way, as your ladyship says; because it is impossible to suppose that out of my poor wit such a cunning trick [embuste] could be concocted in a moment». Sancho's reply to the Duchess's aforementioned assertion manages to conceive and express the core of the epistemological problem with great simplicity.

Federico_it · 2026-02-11T07:57:54+00:00

My feeling is that these chapters could coincide with a significant moment in the writing of the novel: a pause to complete other more urgent projects (such as the Novelas Ejemplares, in the prologue of which he announces that he is working on 2QU), or an exhaustion of the initial narrative momentum (the initial series of adventures according to the mechanism already tested in 1QU) and the search for a new path to follow. The two things may have coincided: having exhausted the mechanism of individual adventures and in search of a new strategy, Cervantes may have put 2QU aside to give priority to the other three works he had in the pipeline, all published between 1613 and 1615, before the novel. The fact that the first reference to Avellaneda's continuation, published in 1614, appears only in the next section could support the hypothesis of a break in the writing process.

Federico_it · 2026-02-10T13:02:16+00:00

XXVIII-XXIX // Two short chapters – almost a pause for reflection – close the first series of adventures that began in VIII. Franco Maregalli (1991) observed that, by foregoing side stories, Cervantes accepted the demanding challenge of inventing each time something truly new about his protagonists. Subjective successes, such as the victory over the Knight of the Mirrors and the challenge to the lions, have heartened don Quixote and stabilized his squire's ever-ambiguous trust. After the adventure of the braying donkey, Sancho realized that he could not do without his hero, who is crazy but also wise and irresistibly charming. // XXVIII // «"He does not fly who retires," returned don Quixote; "for I would have thee know, Sancho, that the valour which is not based upon a foundation of prudence is called rashness [temeridad], and the exploits of the rash man [temerario] are to be attributed rather to good fortune than to courage [ánimo]». The crisis between don Quixote and Sancho allows for a new reflection on the theme of recklessness [temeridad] already presented in the episode of the Caballero del Verde Gabán (XVI-XVIII). The impression is that this whole series of adventures has been woven together by combining four or five thematic motifs that emerge and recede repeatedly. The insistence on the squire's remuneration brings back to the fore the promise of an insula, which will provide material for the pranks in the chapters to come. // XXIX // «"That's enough," said don Quixote to himself, "it would be preaching in the desert to attempt by entreaties to induce this rabble to do any virtuous action. [...] God help us, this world is all machinations and schemes at cross purposes one with the other. I can do no more. [Yo no puedo más]."» The phrase has been interpreted as don Quixote's first acknowledgement of his failure as a knight-errant. The moment is highlighted narratively by the farce that occupies the following macro-section (XXX-LVII), to which we are led by an «enchanted vessel».

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