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.

Chapter Two: Ridicule or Empathy . . . or somthing else?

Gabriel Garcia Marquez has said of DQ - it contains everything. 

I would add, it contains even the omissions.

By this, I mean, the grand failings of DQ, later writers either repeated or tried to overcome. 

Chapter two offers the evidence for Cervantes omitting to show, telling instead. This is an epic failing - repeated or corrected in subsequent novelists. 

But Cervantes got there first.

. . . le asaltó un pensamiento terrible, y tal, que por poco le hiciera dejar la comenzada empresa; y fue que le vino a la memoria que no era armado caballero, y que, conforme a ley de caballería, ni podía ni debía tomar armas con ningún caballero

Being translated:

. . . he was struck by a horrible thought, which almost made him abandon this business at its beginning; it entered his mind that he had not been knighted and, according to the law of the horse-cult he could not - nor should he - take up arms against another knight.

I probably won't again translate caballería as 'horse-cult' - but the idea, obvious enough - caballo / caballeria - is that the fanciful knighthood enterprise is predicated on ownership of a quality horse and preoccupation with horsemanship and its attendant mystique; all this being limited to wealthy young men, with time on their hands, since serfs and underpaid, overworked laborers did all the work their fathers required.

But note that Cervantes simply tells us what DQ has going on his his head. Other writers would expand this conceit of description into a genre all its own: stream of consciousness.

But even in no-show-all-tell, Cervantes has his mojo going. It is a crazy idea that almost derails DQ's first crazy adventure. Are we surprised that a third insane notion impels DQ forward?

. . . Estos pensamientos le hicieron titubear en su propósito; mas, pudiendo más su locura que otra razón alguna, propuso de hacerse armar caballero del primero que topase . . . 

These thoughts made him hesitant about his project, but since his insanity trumped any rational ideas, he decided to have himself dubbed a knight by the first one he bumped into.

Is this trinity of insane notions part of Cervantes' grand satire? Is Cervantes suggesting we see DQ as a messianic figure, inhabiting an alternative universe created by his insanity?

You tell me. 

Thank goodness, the story picks up. 

DQ does go forth on Rocinante, talking to himself, and wandering all day, without food or rest.

"¿Quién duda, sino que en los venideros tiempos, cuando salga a luz la verdadera historia de mis famosos hechos . . . 

¡Dichosa edad y siglo dichoso aquel adonde saldrán a luz las famosas hazañas mías, dignas de entallarse en bronces, esculpirse en mármoles y pintarse en tablas, para memoria en lo futuro! . . .

Con éstos iba ensartando otros disparates . . . y con esto caminaba tan despacio, y el sol entraba tan apriesa y con ardor que fuera bastante a derretirle los sesos si algunos tuviera. . . .

. . . él anduvo todo aquel día, y al anochecer, su rocín y él se hallaron cansados y muertos de hambre ; y que, mirando a todas partes por ver si descubriría algún castillo o alguna majada de pastores donde recogerse, y adonde pudiese remediar su mucha necesidad, vio no lejos del camino por donde iba una venta, que fue como si viera una estrella que, no a los portales, sino a los alcázares de redención le encaminaba . Diose priesa a caminar, y llegó a ella a tiempo que anochecía.

Translation:

"Who can doubt that in fortunate future epochs, when the accurate narrative of my famous deeds is revealed . . . 

Blest age! Fortunate century! When my famous deeds will be revealed! Worthy of brass inscription! Carved in marble! Painted on tablets! Commemorated for ever!" . . . 

. . . he continued on, stringing together other absurdities . . . which caused such slow progress; but the sun rose so rapidly and so hot it would have melted his brains, if he had any . . .

. . . he rode all that day until evening when both he and his horse discovered themselves exhausted and starved. Looking around, to see if he could spot a castle or even a shepherds' shack where he might collect himself and remedy his needs, just off the road he was on, he spotted a roadhouse. It was as if he were following a star, not merely to a welcoming door but to the haven of redemption, which he had been seeking. Quickening his pace, he reached her [ the female redención - I think] just at nightfall.

Cervantes takes pains to describe the suffering of his delusional knight. Do we feel his pain? Is it enough to prompt sympathy? Empathy? 

I don't think Cervantes is interested in inspiring a reader merely to feel ridicule. You don't need to invent the modern novel form to do only that. 

By your name, shall your qualities be known . . . Really?

Chapter One

By your name, shall your qualities be known.

This seems to be the controlling idea, as the hidalgo Quixada prepares for his new life as a knight-errant.

First, his steed: 

". . . después de muchos nombres que formó, borró y quitó, añadió, deshizo y tornó a hacer en su memoria e imaginación, al fin le vino a llamar Rocinante nombre, a su parecer, alto, sonoro y significativo de lo que había sido cuando fue rocín, antes de lo que ahora era, que era antes y primero de todos los rocines del mundo."

". . . after a multitude of names being composed, erased, rejected, combined, taken apart, and turned inside out by his memory and imagination, at last he came to call him Rocinante, which seemed to him lofty, sonorous, and which signified what he had been, a hack before [rocin antes] to what he now had become - from then to now, foremost of all the hacks of all time."

Then, himself:

". . . duró otros ocho días, y al cabo se vino a llamar don Quijote. . . . como buen caballero, añadir al suyo el nombre de la suya y llamarse don Quijote de la Mancha, con que, a su parecer, declaraba muy al vivo su linaje y patria, y la honraba con tomar el sobrenombre della."

" . . . he took another eight days, and finally came to call himself don Quijote. . . . like a good knight, adding the name of his [country and kingdom] and calling himself don Quijote of la Mancha, in this way, as it seemed to him, he asserted his lineage to be very much alive and his country very much honored by his taking his surname from it."

Then, his Lady, Princess and Queen:

". . . el caballero andante sin amores era árbol sin hojas y sin fruto y cuerpo sin alma. . . . fue, a lo que se cree, que en un lugar cerca del suyo había una moza labradora de muy buen parecer, de quien él un tiempo anduvo enamorado, aunque, según se entiende, ella jamás lo supo, ni le dio cata dello. Llamábase Aldonza Lorenzo, y a ésta le pareció ser bien darle título de señora de sus pensamientos; y, buscándole nombre que no desdijese mucho del suyo, y que tirase y se encaminase al de princesa y gran señora, vino a llamarla Dulcinea del Toboso, porque era natural del Toboso; nombre, a su parecer, músico y peregrino y significativo, como todos los demás que a él y a sus cosas había puesto."

". . . A knight-errant without loves is a tree without leaves or fruit, a body without a soul. . . . there had been, as the story goes, in a locale close to his own, a very good-looking farm-girl, whom he had once fallen for, even though, so it was thought, she never knew or gave a thought to it. She was Aldonza Lorenzo and to her, it seemed to him now, fitting to bestow the title of Señora, upon whom his strivings would be centered; and searching out a name that should not disharmonize with her own and that also should point and lead to a name fit for a princess or a great señora, he hit on calling her Dulcinea of Toboso, since she was from Toboso; this was a name, so it seemed to him, musical, high-minded, profound, exactly like the other names that he had chosen for himself and his accoutrements."  

I think Cervantes invites us to see through the pitiful pretense to the humor in hidalgo Quixada's deranged preparations. 

Rocinante

Quijote's work horse is to become the grandest steed, by a change of name, with the new name a pun on the old horse's actual lot in life, a workhorse. But now a war horse. 

don Quijote

Is this name supposed to bring to mind Sir Lancelot? - Lansarote, in Spanish. 

Dulcinea of Toboso

Quijote's reverenced damsel is a farm-girl, who knows nothing of her present fanciful elevation in status, just as she knew nothing of Quixada's earlier fixation.

If we laugh at this deranged figure of a man, can we dislike him? Would it be possible to read a thousand pages about a personage you dislike?

Quijote is about (1) self-reinvention and (2) doing good in the world. 

By investing his central figure with these promptings, does Cervantes expect the reader to know, these two motivations are profoundly human and equally difficult to accomplish? Are they?

Is a name merely a superficial title, with no reference to the inner person?

Might a change of name change your character?