Capítulo III.- the "droll way" don Quijote employed to get himself knighted

Capítulo III. Donde se cuenta la graciosa manera que tuvo don Quijote en armarse caballero

Translation of this chapter heading: 

Chapter Three - Wherein is recounted the "wacky way" don Quijote employed to get himself knighted.

Ormsby translates "la graciosa manera" as "droll way."

That's pretty good. Both the ridiculous events and what we infer from Cervantes' point of view supports the idea that Cervantes wants the reader to see odd humor in this, eh, ordination. But droll is not quite up to date; wacky is.

Here is how Cervantes tells the story of the 'dubbing' of Quijote. Taking the Duke University on line version with the Ormsby translation with emphasis added.

No me levantaré jamás de donde estoy, valeroso caballero, fasta que la vuestra cortesía me otorgue un don que pedirle quiero . . .	"From this spot I rise not, valiant knight, until your courtesy grants me the boon [knighthood] I seek . . .
El ventero, que vio a su huésped a sus pies, y oyó semejantes razones, estaba confuso mirándole . . .	The landlord, seeing his guest at his feet and hearing a speech of this kind, stood staring at him in bewilderment . . .

There is a demented logic to DQ's insanity: he must get himself knighted or his mission collapses. Our knight deludes  himself, if no one else. 

. . .

El ventero . . . por tener qué reír aquella noche, determinó de seguirle el humor; y así le dijo que andaba muy acertado en lo que deseaba y pedía, y que tal prosupuesto era propio y natural de los caballeros tan principales como él parecía y como su gallarda presencia mostraba; y que él asimismo, en los años de su mocedad, se había dado a aquel honroso ejercicio, andando por diversas partes del mundo, buscando sus aventuras . . .

The landlord . . . to make sport for the night he determined to fall in with his humour. So he told him he was quite right in pursuing the object he had in view, and that such a motive was natural and becoming in cavaliers as distinguished as he seemed and his gallant bearing showed him to be; and that he himself in his younger days had followed the same honourable calling, roaming in quest of adventures in various parts of the world . .

. . . en los años de su mocedad, se había dado a aquel honroso ejercicio, andando por diversas partes del mundo, buscando sus aventuras . . . donde había ejercitado la ligereza de sus pies y sutileza de sus manos, haciendo muchos tuertos , recuestando muchas viudas, deshaciendo algunas doncellas y engañando algunos pupilos, y, finalmente dándose a conocer por cuantas audiencias y tribunales hay casi en toda España

. . .  in his younger days had followed the same honourable calling, roaming in quest of adventures in various parts of the world . . . where he had proved the nimbleness of his feet and the lightness of his fingers, doing many wrongs, cheating many widows, ruining maids and swindling minors, and, in short, bringing himself under the notice of almost every tribunal and court of justice in Spain

Again, the iconic Cervantes invokes description when he might better evoke action or even dialogue. 

Here, he describes what the landlord thinks. 

Description can become boring and, even in a 1,000 page work, looks like a shortcut. Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra, show us! Don't tell us!

But the point of this exchange is informational - it is a known criminal who is dubbing our Knight.

The ceremonial aspect of human pretension is here displayed. 

It's not just the Mafia of popular imagination that is composed of "made" wiseguys; even a crazy, medieval low-level hidalgo must be "made" before he can come into his powers. 

DQ's insane sense of mission require authorization but the ceremony does not require to be conducted by a legitimate authority. 

DQ must be ordained! The point of the ceremony is the ceremony. Never mind the complete absence of quality of the one who confers the necessary status. 

Has Cervantes buried in the narrative, a notion of self-delusion with a larger application? 

• Is a claim to an exalted mission subject to the error of pretension? 
• Does the laying on of hands, even when traced back through the centuries, amount to a pantomime? 
• If not, why not?

The landlord who dubs QD is the archetypal denizen of the criminal underworld. He is precisely the sort of whom this particular knight-errant wannabe, intends to rid the earth. 

A criminal is the very one who confers the essential favor, in a ceremony, invented in the moment.

The criminal offers the requested sanction to the delusional, self-chosen do-gooder.

Now, ordained in his grand mission, the ordinand is off! He shall right all wrongs in the wide world.