"I must say, senor, your worship said quite right, that in orderto be able to swear without a weight on my conscience that I hadseen you do mad things, it would be well for me to see if it were onlyone; though in your worship's remaining here I have seen a verygreat one."
"Did I not tell thee so?" said Don Quixote. "Wait, Sancho, and Iwill do them in the saying of a credo," and pulling off his breechesin all haste he stripped himself to his skin and his shirt, andthen, without more ado, he cut a couple of gambados in the air, anda couple of somersaults, heels over head, making such a displaythat, not to see it a second time, Sancho wheeled Rocinante round, andfelt easy, and satisfied in his mind that he could swear he had lefthis master mad; and so we will leave him to follow his road untilhis return, which was a quick one.
CHAPTER XXVI
IN WHICH ARE CONTINUED THE REFINEMENTS WHEREWITH DON QUIXOTEPLAYED THE PART OF A LOVER IN THE SIERRA MORENA
RETURNING to the proceedings of him of the Rueful Countenance whenhe found himself alone, the history says that when Don Quixote hadcompleted the performance of the somersaults or capers, naked from thewaist down and clothed from the waist up, and saw that Sancho had goneoff without waiting to see any more crazy feats, he climbed up tothe top of a high rock, and there set himself to consider what hehad several times before considered without ever coming to anyconclusion on the point, namely whether it would be better and more tohis purpose to imitate the outrageous madness of Roland, or themelancholy madness of Amadis; and communing with himself he said:
"What wonder is it if Roland was so good a knight and so valiantas everyone says he was, when, after all, he was enchanted, and nobodycould kill him save by thrusting a corking pin into the sole of hisfoot, and he always wore shoes with seven iron soles? Though cunningdevices did not avail him against Bernardo del Carpio, who knew allabout them, and strangled him in his arms at Roncesvalles. But puttingthe question of his valour aside, let us come to his losing hiswits, for certain it is that he did lose them in consequence of theproofs he discovered at the fountain, and the intelligence theshepherd gave him of Angelica having slept more than two siestaswith Medoro, a little curly-headed Moor, and page to Agramante. Ifhe was persuaded that this was true, and that his lady had wrongedhim, it is no wonder that he should have gone mad; but I, how am Ito imitate him in his madness, unless I can imitate him in the causeof it? For my Dulcinea, I will venture to swear, never saw a Moor inher life, as he is, in his proper costume, and she is this day asthe mother that bore her, and I should plainly be doing her a wrongif, fancying anything else, I were to go mad with the same kind ofmadness as Roland the Furious. On the other hand, I see that Amadis ofGaul, without losing his senses and without doing anything mad,acquired as a lover as much fame as the most famous; for, according tohis history, on finding himself rejected by his lady Oriana, who hadordered him not to appear in her presence until it should be herpleasure, all he did was to retire to the Pena Pobre in company with ahermit, and there he took his fill of weeping until Heaven sent himrelief in the midst of his great grief and need. And if this betrue, as it is, why should I now take the trouble to strip starknaked, or do mischief to these trees which have done me no harm, orwhy am I to disturb the clear waters of these brooks which will giveme to drink whenever I have a mind? Long live the memory of Amadis andlet him be imitated so far as is possible by Don Quixote of La Mancha,of whom it will be said, as was said of the other, that if he didnot achieve great things, he died in attempting them; and if I amnot repulsed or rejected by my Dulcinea, it is enough for me, as Ihave said, to be absent from her. And so, now to business; come tomy memory ye deeds of Amadis, and show me how I am to begin to imitateyou. I know already that what he chiefly did was to pray and commendhimself to God; but what am I to do for a rosary, for I have not gotone?"
And then it occurred to him how he might make one, and that was bytearing a great strip off the tail of his shirt which hung down, andmaking eleven knots on it, one bigger than the rest, and this servedhim for a rosary all the time he was there, during which he repeatedcountless ave-marias. But what distressed him greatly was not havinganother hermit there to confess him and receive consolation from;and so he solaced himself with pacing up and down the little meadow,and writing and carving on the bark of the trees and on the finesand a multitude of verses all in harmony with his sadness, and somein praise of Dulcinea; but, when he was found there afterwards, theonly ones completely legible that could be discovered were thosethat follow here:
Ye on the mountain side that grow,
Ye green things all, trees, shrubs, and bushes,
Are ye aweary of the woe
That this poor aching bosom crushes?
If it disturb you, and I owe
Some reparation, it may be a
Defence for me to let you know
Don Quixote's tears are on the flow,
And all for distant Dulcinea
Del Toboso.
The lealest lover time can show,
Doomed for a lady-love to languish,
Among these solitudes doth go,
A prey to every kind of anguish.
Why Love should like a spiteful foe
Thus use him, he hath no idea,
But hogsheads full- this doth he know-
Don Quixote's tears are on the flow,
And all for distant Dulcinea
Del Toboso.
Adventure-seeking doth he go
Up rugged heights, down rocky valleys,
But hill or dale, or high or low,
Mishap attendeth all his sallies:
Love still pursues him to and fro,
And plies his cruel scourge- ah me! a
Relentless fate, an endless woe;
Don Quixote's tears are on the flow,
And all for distant Dulcinea
Del Toboso.
The addition of "Del Toboso" to Dulcinea's name gave rise to nolittle laughter among those who found the above lines, for theysuspected Don Quixote must have fancied that unless he added "delToboso" when he introduced the name of Dulcinea the verse would beunintelligible; which was indeed the fact, as he himself afterwardsadmitted. He wrote many more, but, as has been said, these threeverses were all that could be plainly and perfectly deciphered. Inthis way, and in sighing and calling on the fauns and satyrs of thewoods and the nymphs of the streams, and Echo, moist and mournful,to answer, console, and hear him, as well as in looking for herbs tosustain him, he passed his time until Sancho's return; and had thatbeen delayed three weeks, as it was three days, the Knight of theRueful Countenance would have worn such an altered countenance thatthe mother that bore him would not have known him: and here it will bewell to leave him, wrapped up in sighs and verses, to relate howSancho Panza fared on his mission.
As for him, coming out upon the high road, he made for El Toboso,and the next day reached the inn where the mishap of the blanket hadbefallen him. As soon as he recognised it he felt as if he were oncemore living through the air, and he could not bring himself to enterit though it was an hour when he might well have done so, for it wasdinner-time, and he longed to taste something hot as it had been allcold fare with him for many days past. This craving drove him todraw near to the inn, still undecided whether to go in or not, andas he was hesitating there came out two persons who at once recognisedhim, and said one to the other:
"Senor licentiate, is not he on the horse there Sancho Panza who,our adventurer's housekeeper told us, went off with her master asesquire?"
"So it is," said the licentiate, "and that is our friend DonQuixote's horse;" and if they knew him so well it was because theywere the curate and the barber of his own village, the same who hadcarried out the scrutiny and sentence upon the books; and as soon asthey recognised Sancho Panza and Rocinante, being anxious to hear ofDon Quixote, they approached, and calling him by his name the curatesaid, "Friend Sancho Panza, where is your master?"
Sancho recognised them at once, and determined to keep secret theplace and circumstances where and under which he had left hismaster, so he replied that his master was engaged in a certain quarteron a certain matter of great importance to him which he could notdisclose for the eyes in his head.
"Nay, nay," said the barber, "if you don't tell us where he is,Sancho Panza, we will suspect as we suspect already, that you havemurdered and robbed him, for here you are mounted on his horse; infact, you must produce the master of the hack, or else take theconsequences."
"There is no need of threats with me," said Sancho, "for I am nota man to rob or murder anybody; let his own fate, or God who made him,kill each one; my master is engaged very much to his taste doingpenance in the midst of these mountains; and then, offhand and withoutstopping, he told them how he had left him, what adventures hadbefallen him, and how he was carrying a letter to the lady Dulcineadel Toboso, the daughter of Lorenzo Corchuelo, with whom he was overhead and ears in love. They were both amazed at what Sancho Panza toldthem; for though they were aware of Don Quixote's madness and thenature of it, each time they heard of it they were filled with freshwonder. They then asked Sancho Panza to show them the letter he wascarrying to the lady Dulcinea del Toboso. He said it was written ina note-book, and that his master's directions were that he should haveit copied on paper at the first village he came to. On this the curatesaid if he showed it to him, he himself would make a fair copy ofit. Sancho put his hand into his bosom in search of the note-bookbut could not find it, nor, if he had been searching until now,could he have found it, for Don Quixote had kept it, and had nevergiven it to him, nor had he himself thought of asking for it. WhenSancho discovered he could not find the book his face grew deadlypale, and in great haste he again felt his body all over, and seeingplainly it was not to be found, without more ado he seized his beardwith both hands and plucked away half of it, and then, as quick ashe could and without stopping, gave himself half a dozen cuffs onthe face and nose till they were bathed in blood.
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