Chap Two - Arrival at the Roadhouse

Chapter Two (cont) - Arrival at the Roadhouse

. . . luego que vio la venta se le representó que era un castillo con sus cuatro torres y chapiteles de luciente plata , sin faltarle su puente levadizo y honda cava, con todos aquellos adherentes que semejantes castillos se pintan. [. . .] a poco trecho della detuvo las riendas a Rocinante esperando que algún enano se pusiese entre las almenas a dar señal con alguna trompeta de que llegaba caballero al castillo . . .

. . . En esto sucedió acaso que un porquero, que andaba recogiendo de unos rastrojos una manada de puercos (que, sin perdón, así se llaman) , tocó un cuerno, a cuya señal ellos se recogen, y al instante se le representó a don Quijote lo que deseaba, que era que algún enano hacía señal de su venida, y así con extraño contento llegó a la venta . . .

. . . el ventero, hombre que por ser muy gordo era muy pacífico, . . . Si vuestra merced, señor caballero, busca posada, amén del lecho (porque en esta venta no hay ninguno), todo lo demás se hallará en ella en mucha abundancia.

. . . as soon as he saw the roadhouse, it represented itself to him as a castle with four turrets and silvery shining spires, and not lacking a drawbridge and moat and all other such items that would show up in the picture of a castle. [. . .] a little ways away, he slacked the reins of Rocinante, expecting some dwarf might appear on the battlements and signal with a trumpet that a gentlemen had arrived at the castle . . .

. . . it happened at that moment, by chance a swineherd, moving through the underbrush, collecting a herd of pigs (no apology, since that is what they are called) blew a horn, at which signal they came running, at that instant all this was presented in don Quijote, as that very dwarf signaling his arrival; and so with a peculiar contentment, he arrived at the roadhouse . . . 

. . . the landlord, being a very fat man, was also a placid one . . . 'If your lordship, noble sir, is seeking shelter but not lodging, since we have none left, everything else will be found here in great abundance.'

COMMENT:

Cervantes is expanding on the delusional perceptions of his hero, typically, passing these off as not trivial but certainly humorous. The delusion requires that the figures DQ encounters are perceived by him as representations from his fictional world. 

I continue to be bothered by Cervantes' habit of telling and not showing his readers what his hero (and others) are thinking. Most of the fiction that has influenced me is of a different order, with a heavier emphasis on dialogue, even interior dialogue. Here is a famous passage from Proust, which, so far, has no parallel in DQ:

"I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory — this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could, no, indeed, be of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it?"

We have skipped an important matter in this chapter, namely, DQ's beginning interactions with two women - prostitutes - whom he encounters on his arrival at the roadhouse. All this will be picked up in a later post, as these interactions emerge.

"But not lodging" - Cervantes wrote - amén del lecho - which I take as slang for - menos del lecho - literally: except the bed.