Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (mobile ebook reader .txt) 📖

as the most remarkable of the descendants of Nuño Alfonso; but, strange to say, though he wrote in 1648, he does not seem to be aware that he is speaking of the author of Don Quixote. Perhaps the good Dryasdust had never heard of such a book. ↩

La Pata, a fort near Oran. ↩

Babazoun, “the gate of the sheep,” the south gate of Algiers. ↩

The Arnaut Mami was the captor of the Sol galley on board of which Cervantes and his brother Rodrigo were returning to Spain. He was noted for his cruelty, and was said to have his house full of noseless and earless Christians. ↩

An Algerine coin equal to about thirty-six reals. ↩

A wind from the north, so called from coming across the Alps. ↩

Cervantes gives the popular name by which the spot is known. Properly it is “Kubba Rumia,” “the Christian’s tomb;” that being the name given to the curious circular structure about which there has been so much discussion among French archaeologists. ↩

The Sierra Tejeda, to the south of Alhama, is apparently that which Cervantes means. ↩

About eighteen miles to the east of Málaga, at a little distance from the coast. ↩

Cervantes apparently forgets that they had supped already. ↩

If so, the judge’s views of the value of evidence were peculiar. How could the curate, for instance, have known that the Frenchmen robbed his friend, if he had never been able to learn whether he reached Spain or had been carried off to France? ↩

In this translation an attempt has been made to imitate the prevailing rhyme of the Spanish ballad, the double assonant in the second and fourth lines. ↩

Surgit Palinurus, et⁠ ⁠…
Sidora cuncta notat tacito labentia coelo.

—⁠Aeneid iii

↩

“Clara estrella.” ↩

Proverb 190. ↩

“Tria virginis ora Dianae.” —⁠Aeneid iv 511 ↩

I.e. Daphne. ↩

Cecear⁠—to call attention by making a hissing sound such as the Andalusians produce when they have to pronounce ce. ↩

Magicians that figure in The Knight of Phoebus. ↩

There is some inconsistency here. How could Don Quixote fall almost to the ground, if when standing on Rocinante he was tied up so tightly as we are told? Hartzenbusch, more suo, has an ingenious explanation, by which he avoids the simpler one, that Cervantes never gave a thought to the matter. The strappado was inflicted by tying the hands of the victim behind his back and then hanging him by the wrists from a crossbeam or bough of a tree. Examples of it may be seen among Callot’s sketches. There is something almost ghastly in its introduction here as an illustration which must as a matter of course be familiar to every reader. ↩

Proverb 204. “Laws go as kings like:” a very old proverb, said to owe its origin to the summary manner in which Alfonso VI at Toledo settled the question as to which of the rival rituals, the French or the Musarabic, was to be adopted. It was agreed to try them by the test of fire, and the latter came out victorious, on which the king, who favored the other, flung it back into the flames. ↩

V Orlando Furioso, canto xxvii. Agramante was the leader of the Mohammedan kings and princes assembled at the siege of Paris, of whom Sobrino was one. ↩

Escote; old French escot. ↩

I.e. Augustus. ↩

Proverb 77. ↩

Proverb 222. ↩

Proverb 9. Generally mistranslated “than is dreamt of,” as if it was sueña instead of suena. ↩

Proverb 196. ↩

This resembles the scene in the Morgante Maggiore (xii 88), where Orlando is seized and bound by the pagans. ↩

A name formed from mentir, to tell lies. ↩

Here, for once, Hartzenbusch has overlooked an inconsistency. In Chapter XLV we were told the officers were three in number. Farther on it will be seen that they carried crossbows, not muskets. ↩

Rinconete y Cortadillo is the third of the Novelas Ejemplares published by Cervantes in 1613. From this we may assume that the Curioso Impertinente was written about the same time, i.e. during his residence in Seville. ↩

Suma de las Súmulas, Alcalá 1557, by Gaspar Carillo de Villalpando, a theologian who distinguished himself for learning and eloquence at the Council of Trent. ↩

Proverb 209. ↩

A title sometimes given to ecclesiastics in lieu of “Reverence.” ↩

Proverbial phrase⁠—“Adobadme esos candiles.” ↩

Proverbs 112 and 117. ↩

Proverb 178. ↩

Proverb 69. ↩

Alluding to Belianis of Greece, who when only sixteen cut a knight in two at Persepolis. ↩

Literally, “the more of the doubtful,” meaning the more of that which is not manifestly impossible. ↩

In the original it is burlado, “scoffed at,” which makes no sense. Hartzenbusch suggests vitoreado, but I think alabado is the more likely word and suits the context better. ↩

Alluding to the proverb (216)