PQ
•Ash
Class
Book-/.
—
10*
WIT AND WISDOM
OF
DON QUIXOTE.
Patch grief with proverbs.
Shakespeare.
*
^Washing?-
NEW YORK:
D.
APPLETON &
CO., 443 and 445
1867.
V
BROADWAY.
m
-\k
n
%
Entered
<
according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S67,
By D.
APPLETON &
Co.,
S
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for
the Southern District of
New
York.
y
PREFACE.
As
the priest, the friend of
endeavoring
knight
cure
to
he
(as
said of
" Mirror of Chivalry
to the
speaking in any
destroying
now and
books of chivalry, in
from condemnation,
by
it)
Quixote,
show him no respect
own
tongue,
I will
place
all
his
then saving one
one of the contributors
:
" " If
him here
I find
other language than his
will
when
malady of the
mental
the
thought
Don
;
but
if
he talks in
my
him on
own,
I
his
head in token
of regard."
"
"in
I
have got him
at
Italian, but I don't
" Nor
curate.
is
it
who
said the
barber,
understand that language."
necessary you should," replied the
" And here
the captain,
home,"
let
us pray
Heaven
to forgive
has impoverished him so
much,
by translating him into Spanish, and making him
a
Castilian.
And,
indeed,
the
same thing
will
PREFACE.
IV
happen
to all those
who
pretend to translate books
of poetry into a foreign language
their care
all
and
ability,
ble to give the translation the
is
;
for, in spite
they will find
it
of
impossi-
same energy which
found in the original."
So, in giving (or trying to so do) a translation
proverbs, poems, and
of the
Quixote,
them
so
I
aphorisms of
must be pardoned
time acknowledge
more
impoverishing
for
much, and making the knight of the
countenance an Englishman, while
my
Don
I
at the
indebtedness to the
rueful
same
many
able translators preceding me, believing, to
quote the priest again, that, " since Apollo was
Apollo
the muses, muses
;
poets, so
Don
in
and the bards were
humorous and so w himsical
book
as
from the text of Cervantes
all
T
a
Quixote was never written."
We
that
;
is
find gleaning
knightly and noble.
I
know
of no literature
the world so rich in proverbs as the Spanish
;
indeed, there exists a manuscript collection, gath-
ered
by that distinguished Spanish scholar, Juan
Yriarte, containing between twenty-five and thirty
thousand.
Yriarte devoted himself to this pursuit
with such eagerness that he offered a fee for any
new proverb brought him,
in his list
he attached a
while to each inserted
memorandum from whence
PREFACE.
it
came, and
life,
if this
V
was not from books but from
an indication of the name, the rank, and the
condition in
derived.
life
of the person from
whom
According to Trench, having
it
was
a right to
take Cervantes as the truest exponent of the Spanish character,
the
proverbs
stately
spirit
too."
humor
"
We
should be prepared to trace in
of Spain a grave thoughtfulness, a
;
to
find
them breathing the very
of chivalry and honor, and indeed of freedom
WIT AND WISDOM
OF
DON QUIXOTE.
Down
which
I
in a village of
La Mancha,
have no desire to recollect, there
long ago, one of those gentlemen
a lance
the
upon
who
name of
lived, not
usually keep
a rack, an old buckler, a lean horse,
a coursing greyhound.
Soup, composed of
somewhat more mutton than beef, the fragments
served up cold on most nights, lentils on Fridays,
pains and breakings on Saturdays, and a pigeon, by
way of addition, on Sundays, consumed three-fourths
of his income; the remainder of it supplied him
and
with a cloak of fine cloth, velvet breeches, with
slippers of the
best
week-days.
above
who
same
homespun,
in
for holidavs,
suit
of the
His family consisted of a housekeeper
forty, a niece
served
and a
which he adorned himself on
him both
not quite twenty, and a lad
in the field
and
at
home, who
could saddle the horse or handle the pruning-hook.
WIT AND WISDOM
2
The
of
age
years
gentleman bordered upon
our
fifty
he was of a strong constitution, spare-bodied,
;
of a meagre visage, a very early
Some
of the chase.
riser,
and a lover
pretend to say that his surname
was Quixada, or Quesada, for on this point his histhough, from very probable conjectorians differ
;
tures,
we may
This
is,
tory
;
let
swerve
In
conclude that
however, of
his
name was Quixana.
importance to our his-
little
suffice that, in relating
it
from the
a jot
fine, his
it,
we do
not
truth.
judgment being completely obscured,
he was seized with one of the strangest fancies that
ever entered the head of any
a belief that
it
behooved him,
madman
:
as well for the
this
was,
advance-
ment of his glory as the service of his country, to
become a knight-errant, and traverse the world,
armed and mounted, in quest of adventures, and to
practise
errant,
that
all
of
whom
had been performed by knightshe had read
redressing every
;
species of grievance, and exposing himself to dan-
gers which, being surmounted, might secure to
eternal
The
glory and renown.
him
poor gentleman
crowned emperor of Trebisond, by the valor of his arm ; and thus wrapped
in these agreeable delusions, and borne away by the
imagined himself at
least
extraordinary pleasure he found in them, he hast-
ened to put
The
rusty armor,
and had
his designs into execution.
thing he
first
was
did
which had been
lain
many
years
to scour
up some
his great-grandfather's,
neglected in a corner.
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
This he cleaned and adjusted
but he found one grand defect
3
as he could,
as well
;
the helmet was in-
complete, having only the morion
this deficiency,
;
however, he ingeniously supplied, by making a kind
of visor of pasteboard, which, being fixed to the
morion, gave the appearance of an entire helmet.
It is true
indeed that, in order to prove
he drew his sword, and gave
two
it
strength,
its
strokes, the
of which instantly demolished the labor of a
but not altogether approving of the
which
it
was destroyed, and
self against
visor,
a
first
week
facility
with
in order to secure
him-
similar misfortune, he
made another
which, having fenced in the inside with small
bars of iron, he felt
assured
of
its
strength, and,
without making any more experiments, held
it
to
be a most excellent helmet.
In the next place he visited his steed
though
this
;
and
al-
animal had more blemishes than the
horse of Gonela, which " tantum pellis et ossa fuit,"
yet, in his eyes, neither the
Bucephalus of Alexan-
der, nor the Cid's Babieca, could be
Four days was he
give him
him.
name he should
deliberating
;
for, as
would be very improper
self, it
cellent, appertaining to a
be without an appropriate
compared with
upon what
he said to him-
that a horse so ex-
knight so famous, should
name
;
he therefore en-
deavored to find one that should express what he
had been before he belonged to a knight-errant, and
he now was nothing could, indeed, be
more reasonable than that, when the master changed
also
w hat
T
:
WIT AND WISDOM
4
his state, the horse should likewise
change
his
name,
and assume one, pompous and high-sounding,
became the new order he now
as
So after
professed.
having devised, altered, lengthened, curtailed, rejected, and again framed in his imagination a variety
of names, he finally determined upon Rozinante, a
name, in his opinion, lofty, sonorous, and full of
meaning ; importing that he had been only a rozin^
a
drudge-horse, before his
now he was
that
present
before
the
all
condition,
and
rozins
the
in
world.
Having given
satisfaction,
horse a
his
he resolved to
fix
name
much
so
upon one
to his
for himself.
This consideration employed him eight more days,
when
he determined to
at length
Quixote
;
whence some of the
historians
most true history have concluded that
certainly
Quixada,
and
not
himself
call
his
Don
of this
name was
Quesada, as
others
would have it. Then recollecting that the valorous Amadis, not content with the simple appellation
of Amadis, added thereto the
name of
his
and native country, in order to render
styling himself
Amadis de Gaul
;
it
kingdom
famous,
so he, like a
good
name of his province, and
himself Don Quixote de la Mancha; whereby,
knight, also added the
called
in his opinion,
he fully proclaimed
his lineage
and
country, which, at the same time, he honored by
taking
its
name.
His armor being
made
now
perfect, his horse
furbished,
his
helmet
and himself provided with
—
!
OF DON QUIXOTE.
5
names, he found nothing wanting but a lady to be
in love with, as
A
he said
knight-errant without a mistress was a tree
without either
fruit or leaves,
and a body without a
soul
In the mean time
laborer, a
Don
neighbor of
his,
Quixote tampered with a
such an epithet can be given to one that
but shallow-brained
so
;
man
and an honest
in short,
he
many arguments, and made
said so
so
poor),
is
much, used
many
promises,
that the poor fellow resolved to sally out with
and serve him
other things,
him
Among
in the capacity of a squire.
Don
(if
Quixote told him that he ought
accompany him, for such an adventure might some time or the other occur, that by
one stroke an island might be won, where he might
leave him governor.
With this and other promises,
Sancho Panza (for that was the laborer's name) left
to be very glad to
his
w ife
T
and children, and engaged himself
as squire
x
to his neighbor.
t>'
Modesty well becomes beauty, and
laughter proceeding from slight cause
Keep your mouth
The
brave
" Where
man
excessive
is folly.
shut, and your eyes open.
carves out his
art thou, mistress
of
own
my
fortune,
heart,
Unconscious of thy lover's smart
?
WIT AND WISDOM
Ah me
Or
thou know'st not
!
thou
" If
and
art false
I find
him here
my
distress,
pitiless."
uttering any other language
than his own, I will show no respect
speaks in his
own
;
but
if
tongue, I will put him upon
he
my
head."
"
1
I
have him
in Italian,"
said the barber,
" but
do not understand him."
" Neither
is
it
any great matter, whether you
understand him or not," answered the priest
we would
willingly have excused the
;
" and
good captain
from bringing him into Spain and making him a
Castilian
for
;
he has deprived him of a great deal
of his native value
tune of
those
all
;
which, indeed,
who
skill,
the misfor-
undertake the translation of
poetry into other languages
and
is
;
for,
with
all
their care
they can never bring them on a level with
the original production."
" The
devil lurks behind the cross."
" There cannot be too much of
" What
"
A
is
saint
lost to-day
may
may sometimes
" Many go out
for
be
a
good thing."
won to-morrow."
suffer for a sinner."
wool and return shorn."
Matters of war are most subject to continual
change.
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
Every man
himself by
Truth
that
laws
all
the
is
aggrieved
is
human and
mother of
J
allowed to defend
is
divine.
history, the
rival
of
time, the depository of great actions, witness of the
example and adviser of the present, and oracle
past,
of future ages.
Love,
on a
like knight-errantry, puts all things
level.
*
"
He
After
that
Don
God
humhleth himself,
Quixote had
satisfied
will exalt."
his
hunger, he
took up a handful of acorns, and, looking on them
attentively, gave utterance to expressions like these
" Happy times, and happy
were those
ages,
which the ancients termed the Golden Age
because gold, so prized in
this
those two words,
age,
all
who
in
not
toil
then lived were ignorant of
Mine and Thine.
things were
!
our iron age, was to
be obtained, in that fortunate period, without
but because they
:
common
In that blessed
to provide
;
their
ordinary sustenance, no other labor was necessary
than to raise their hands and take
oaks, which
their sweet
tains
and relishing
fruit.
from the sturdy
them
The
classics.
familiar with
the
to taste
limpid foun-
and running streams offered them,
* Showing that Cervantes was
Latin
it
stood liberally inviting
in magnifi-
Bible, as well as
;
;
WIT AND WISDOM
8
cent
abundance,
In the
waters.
the
clefts
of rocks, and in hollow trees,
offering
every
to
their
hand, without
produce of their most delicious
interest, the fertile
The
and transparent
and provident bees formed
industrious
commonwealths,
toil.
delicious
their
stately cork-trees, impelled
by
their
own
courtesy alone, divested themselves of their light
and expanded bark, with which
their houses, supported
men began
to cover
by rough poles, only as a de-
fence against the inclemency of the heavens.
then was peace,
amity,
all
all
concord.
The
All
heavy
colter of the crooked plough had not yet dared to
force open and search into the tender bowels of our
first
mother,
who, unconstrained,
every part of her
fertile
offered,
from
and spacious bosom, what-
ever might feed, sustain, and delight those, her children, by
whom
she was then possessed."
ANTONIO.
Yes, lovely nymph, thou
I
art
my
prize
boast the conquest of thy heart,
Though nor the tongue, nor speaking
Have yet revealed the latent smart.
Thy
wit and sense assure
In them
my
Nor can he
Who
my
fate,
love's success I see
be unfortunate
dares
avow
his flame for thee.
eyes 5
OF DON QUIXOTE.
Yet sometimes
9
hast thou frowned, alas
!
And given my hopes a cruel shock
Then did thy soul seem formed of brass.
;
Thy snowy bosom
But
in the midst of thy disdain,
Thy
sharp reproaches, cold delays,
Hope from
The
Ah
of the rock.
!
behind, to ease
my
pain,
border of her robe displays.
lovely maid
!
in equal scale
Weigh well thy shepherd's truth and love,
Which ne'er, but with his breath, can fail,
Which neither frowns nor smiles can move.
If love, as shepherds
Be
So courteous
My
to say,
Mine
is
Olalia,
passion will rewarded be.
And if
The
A
wont
gentleness and courtesy,
obsequious duty paid,
grateful heart can never
sure,
my
fair,
may
move,
well persuade
due return, and claim thy love.
For, to seem pleasing in thy sight,
I dress
And,
in
My
And
myself with studious care,
my
best apparel dight,
Sunday clothes on Monday wear.
shepherds say I'm not to blame
For cleanly
dress
and spruce
attire
;
WIT AND WISDOM
10
Preserve alive love's wanton flame,
And
To
gently fan the dying
please
my
I join the
And
fair, in
mazy
fire.
ring
dance, and sportive play
;
beneath thy window sing,
oft
When
the cock proclaims the day.
first
With rapture on each charm I dwell,
And daily spread thy beauty's fame
And
still
my
tongue thy praise
Though envy
:
shall tell,
swell, or malice blame.
Teresa of the Berrocal,
When
Your
once
mistress
I praised
But a mere ape
Thanks
And
is
your delight.
the graces counterfeit
to the false
and curled
Which wary Love
I
swore 'twas
At
I
false
;
himself might cheat.
and
said she lied
boxed the clown that took her
I
boxed
;
hair,
that her anger fiercely rose
And how
I
call,
to the bugle's artful glare,
all
Thanks
you, said in spite,
you an angel
my
fairest
side,
knows.
court thee not, Olalia,
To
My
gratify a loose desire
love
is
;
chaste, without alloy
Of wanton
wish, or lustful
;
;
fire.
J
OF DON QUIXOTE.
The
church hath silken cords, that
Consenting hearts
If thou,
Thy
my
On
Nor
fair, its
swain
If not, by
its
in
tie
mutual bands
yoke
:
will try,
ready captive stands.
the saints
all
I
swear
these bleak mountains
my
ever quit
But
A
I
to dwell,
still
toilsome care,
for the cloister
and the
cell.
clergyman must be over and above good,
makes
all his
who
parishioners speak well of him.
Parents ought not to settle their children against
their will.
For never sure was any knight
So served by damsel, or by dame,
As Lancelot,
When
The
mand
is
soldier
no
he
less
man
at first
w ho
T
that
of might,
from Britain came.
executes
his
valuable than
captain's
com-
captain
who
the
gave the order.
*
It
One
is
swallow does not make
neither just nor wise to
him who commands what
Showing
is
a
summer.
fulfil
the will of
utterly unreasonable.
also his familiarity
with ./Esop.
— —
;
WIT AND WISDOM
12
CHRYSOSTOM'S SONG.
I.
Since, cruel maid,
From
Let
you force
me
to proclaim
clime to clime the triumph of your scorn,
hell itself inspire
my
tortured breast
With mournful numbers, and untune my
my
Whilst the sad pieces of
Mix
with the doleful accents of
At once
to tell
Hear, then, and
Not
to
my
griefs
listen
voice
broken heart
my
tongue,
and thy exploits.
with attentive ear
harmonious sounds, but echoing groans,
my lab'ring breast,
my raging smart.
Fetched from the bottom of
To
ease, in spite of thee,
ii.
The lion's roar, the howl of midnight wolves,
The scaly serpent's hiss, the raven's croak,
The burst of fighting winds that vex the main,
The widowed owl and turtle's plaintive moan,
With all the din of hell's infernal crew,
From my grieved soul forth issue in one sound
Leaving
my
For ah
no
The
!
senses
all
common
confused and
lost.
language can express
cruel pains that torture
my
sad heart.
in.
Yet
let
not
Echo bear the mournful sounds
Tagus rolls his yellow sands,
To where
old
Or
crowned with
Betis,
olives, pours his flood
—
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
13
But here, 'midst rocks and precipices deep,
Or
to obscure
and
silent vales
removed,
On shores by human footsteps never trod,
Where the gay sun ne'er lifts his radiant orb,
Or with the envenomed face of savage beasts
That range
the howling wilderness for food,
Will
I
Poor
privilege of grief!
my woes
proclaim the story of
Catch the sad
—while echoes hoarse
and spread
tale,
it
round the world,
IV.
Disdain gives death
suspicions, true or false,
;
O'erturn the impatient mind
:
with surer stroke
Fell jealousy destroys
;
the pangs of absence
No
;
nor firmest hope
lover can support
Can
dissipate the dread of cold neglect
Yet
I,
strange fate
!
though jealous, though
dained,
Absent, and sure of cold neglect,
And
No
amidst the various torments
ray of hope e'er darted on
Nor would
Will
Vow
I
hope
my
endure,
soul,
rather in deep despair
down, and, brooding o'er my griefs,
everlasting absence from her sight.
I sit
Can hope and
Or
;
still live.
I
fear at
once the soul possess,
hope subsist with surer cause of fear
?
Shall I, to shut out frightful jealousy,
Close
my
sad eyes,
when
every pang
I feel
dis-
!
WIT AND WISDOM
14
Presents the hideous phantom to
What
my
view
?
wretch so credulous but must embrace
when he
Distrust with open arms,
beholds
Disdain avowed, suspicions realized,
And
truth itself converted to a
Oh,
cruel tyrant of the realm of love,
Fierce Jealousy,
Or
arm with
a
lie
?
sword
this
hand,
thou, Disdain, a twisted cord bestow
VI.
Let me not blame my fate but, dying, think
The man most blest who loves, the soul most free
That love has most enthralled. Still to my thoughts
Let fancy paint the tyrant of my heart
;
Beauteous
Still let
in
me
Content to
mind
as face,
and
in
myself
find the source of her disdain
suffer, since imperial
Love
By lover's woes maintains his sovereign state.
With this persuasion, and the fatal noose,
I hasten to the doom her scorn demands,
And, dying,
offer
Uncrowned with
up
my
breathless corse,
garlands, to the whistling winds.
VII.
Oh
thou,
whose unrelenting
First drove
When
me
rigor's force
to despair, and
the sad tale of
my
now
untimely
Shall reach thy ear, though
it
to death
;
fall
deserve a sigh,
Veil not the heaven of those bright eyes in grief,
Nor
drop one pitying tear, to
tell
the world
5
OF DON QUIXOTE.
At length my death has triumphed
But dress thy face
With
o'er thy scorn
and celebrate
laughter and each circumstance of joy
The festival
Ah need I
!
My
in smiles,
1
my
of
disastrous end.
bid thee smile
?
too well
know
I
death's thy utmost glory and thy pride.
VIII.
Come,
all
ye phantoms of the dark abyss
:
Bring, Tantalus, thy unextinguished thirst,
And
Sisyphus, thy
still
returning stone
;
Come Tityus, with the vulture at thy heart
And thou, Ixion, bring thy giddy wheel
5
5
Nor
let
the toiling sisters stay behind.
Pour your united
And
in
(If a despairing
my
O'er
And
The
let
wretch such
rites
may
claim)
cold limbs, denied a winding-sheet.
the triple porter of the shades,
sister furies
With
griefs into this breast,
low murmurs sing sad obsequies
notes of
and chimeras
woe
the mournful chorus join,
Such funeral pomp alone
By beauty
dire,
befits the
wretch
sent untimely to the grave.
IX.
And
thou,
my
song, sad child of
my
despair,
Complain no more but since thy wretched fate
Improves her happier lot who gave thee birth,
;
Be
all
thy sorrows buried in
my
tomb.
:
6
WIT AND WISDOM
1
All beauty does not inspire love
some
;
the sight without captivating the affections.
please
If
all
enamour and captivate, the hearts
of mankind would be in a continual state of perbeauties were to
plexity and confusion
—
objects being
for beautiful
sentiments they inspire should also be
infinite, the
infinite.
True
love cannot be divided, and must be vol-
untary and unconstrained.
The
though
viper deserves
it
be mortal
no blame
—because
it
is
for
its
sting, al-
Na-
the gift of
ture.
Beauty
sword
in a
modest
at a distance
the other
wound
Honor and
;
woman
is
those that
come
ought not to be thought
Let him who
Let him
She
who
to
is
not too near them.
ornaments of the
are
virtue
without which the body, though
ful,
like fire or a sharp
neither doth the one burn nor
it
so.
deceived complain.
whom
faith
is
loves none can
broken despair.
make none
jealous,
sincerity ought not to pass for disdain.
The body
of a wretched swain,
Killed by a cruel maid's disdain,
In
soul,
be really beauti-
this cold
bed neglected
lies.
and
7
OF DON QUIXOTE.
He
lived, fond, hapless
youth
Th' inhuman tyranny of
Much
!
to prove
love,
Marcela's eyes.
Exerted
in
time
necessary to
is
1
know
people thor-
oughly.
We
aie sure of nothing in this
There
obliterate,
is
life.
no remembrance which time does not
nor pain which death does not terminate.
Fortune always leaves some door open
in mis-
fortune.
Sometimes we look
and
find
the rat to the rope
—the
for
one
thing
another.
Self-praise depreciates.
The
cat to the
rat
—
rope to the gallows.
Out of
the frying-pan into the
One man
much
as
The
is
fire.
no more than another, only
inas-
he does more than another.
lance never blunted the pen, nor the pen
the lance.
A
mouth without
teeth
is
like a mill
without a
stone.
The
cheer.
dead to the
bier,
and the living to good
8
WIT AND WISDOM
1
He
that seeketh danger perisheth therein.
Fear hath many eyes.
Evil to him that evil seeks.
Everybody has not discretion
to take things
by
the right handle.
He
loves thee well
who makes
thee weep.
Shut one door, and another will soon open.
Be
brief in
thy discourse,
for
what
is
prolix
cannot be pleasing.
the
Never stand begging
power to take.
A
which you have
for that
snatch from behind a bush
is
better than the
prayer of good men.
Customs come not
all
altogether, neither
were they
invented at once.
Who
To
be grateful for benefits received
of honest
God
is
sings in grief procures relief.
men
—one of
is
the duty
the sins that most offendeth
ingratitude.
Benefits conferred on base-minded people are
like drops
of water thrown into the sea.
9
:
OF DON QUIXOTE.
Retreating
1
not running away, nor
is
is
staying
wisdom when the danger overbalances the hope
it is
the part of wise
men
;
day for to-morrow, and not to venture
all
upon one
throw.
The wicked
are always ungrateful.
Necessity urges desperate measures.
1.
Love
either cruel
Or
still
is
or blind
;
unequal to the cause,
Is this distemper of the
That w ith
T
mind,
infernal torture gnaws.
11.
But Love's
a god,
and cruelty
In heavenly breasts can never dwell
Then
say by
what authority
I'm doomed to
feel the pains
of hell
in.
Of
all
Is
Sure
sufferings
Chloe then the
ill
Nor
2
my
and
fatal
my
woe,
source
?
from good can never flow,
so
much
and
to secure themselves to-
beauty gild a curse.
?
WIT AND WISDOM
20
IV.
With
hopeless misery weighed down,
seek for quiet in the grave
I'll
;
For when the malady's unknown,
A
The
in
miracle alone can save.
devil
and lays stumbling-blocks
subtle,
is
our way, over which
we
fall
without knowing
how.
In
all
misfortunes the greatest consolation
is
a
sympathizing friend.
Riches are but of
inflicted
He
Till
little
avail
against the
ills
by the hand of Heaven.
that buys and denies, his
you hedge
own
purse belies.
in the sky, the starlings will fly.
If a painter would be famous in his art, he must
endeavor to copy after the originals of the most excellent masters
;
the same rule
is
also applicable to
comwhoever aspires to a reputation
for prudence and patience, must imitate Ulysses, in
whose person and toils Homer draws a lively picall
the other arts and sciences which adorn the
monwealth
;
thus,
ture of those qualities; so also Virgil, in the char-
acter of iEneas, delineates
martial
skill,
filial
piety, courage,
and
being representations of not what they
really were, but of
what they ought
to be, in order
OF DON QUIXOTE.
to serve as
21
models of virtue to succeeding genera-
tions.
The
absent feel and fear every
From
One
Hell there
is
ill.
no retention.
should not talk of halters in the house of
the hanged.
DON QUIXOTE'S LETTER TO DULCINEA DEL TOBCSO,
High and Sovereign Lady
:
— He
who
is
stabbed by the point of absence, and pierced by the
O
arrows of love,
sweetest Dulcinea del Toboso,
greets thee with wishes for that health
joys not himself.
me
worth favor
If thy beauty despise
not, and if thy disdain
me, although inured
an
to suffering I shall
me,
still
ill
if
thy
pursue
support
which is not only severe but lasting.
good squire Sancho will tell thee, O ungrateful
and most beloved foe, to what a state I am re-
affliction
My
fair,
duced on thy account.
lieve
to
which he en-
me,
thee
:
I
am
for
thine
if
it
be thy pleasure to re-
not, do
what seemeth good
my death I shall
my own passion.
by
thy cruelty and
;
If
at
once appease
Until death thine,
The Knight
of the Sorrowful Figure.
;
;
:
WIT AND WISDOM
22
ON THE BARK OF A TREE, ADDRESSED TO DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO.
LINES DISCOVERED
Ye lofty trees, with spreading arms,
The pride and shelter of the plain
Ye humble shrubs and flowery charms,
Which
my
If
here in springing glory reign
complaints
may
pity
!
move,
Hear the sad story of my love
While with me here you pass your hours,
Should you grow faded with my cares,
I'll bribe you with refreshing showers
!
;
You
shall
be watered with
my
tears.
Distant, though present in idea,
mourn my absent Dulcinea
I
Del Toboso.
Love's truest slave, despairing, chose
This lonely wild,
This
silent witness
Which
he, though guiltless,
Unknowing why
He
this desert plain,
of the woes
must
sustain.
these pains he bears,
groans, he raves, and he despairs.
With
In vain
I grieve, in vain
Like tortured fiends
And
my
lingering fires love racks
I
soul
lament
weep,
I
howl,
burn, yet never can repent.
Distant, though present in idea,
I
mourn my absent Dulcinea
Del Toboso.
;
!
OF DON QUIXOTE.
While
I
23
through honor's thorny ways,
In search of distant glory rove,
Malignant
fate
my
repays
toil
With endless woes and hopeless love.
Thus I on barren rocks despair,
And curse my stars, yet bless my fair.
Love, armed with snakes, has
left his dart,
And now does like a fury rave
And scourge and sting on every
And into madness lash his slave.
part,
Distant, though present in idea,
I
mourn my absent Dulcinea
Del Toboso.
Let every man's
fate
God who
him, or
kill
made him.
1.
Ah
what
!
inspires
my
woful strain
Unkind
Ah what
!
augments
my
misery
Fell jealousy
Or,
say,
The
No
?
!
my patience worn
An absent lover's scorn
what hath
?
torments then that
I
endure
mortal remedy can cure
For every languid hope
By
?
disdain
is
;
slain
absence, jealousy, disdain!
11.
From
love,
my
unrelenting foe ;
These sorrows flow
!
!
!
; !;
;
WIT AND WISDOM
24
My
infant glory
overthrown,
is
By
Confirmed
in this
By
In death alone,
I
frown
wretched state
fortune's
my
the decrees of fate,
hope release
From this compounded dire disease
Whose cruel pangs to aggravate,
Fortune and love conspire with
fate
in.
Ah
what
!
will mitigate
The
Ah
what
!
my doom ?
silent
tomb
retrieve departed joy
Inconstancy
Or
say,
!
?
!
can aught but frenzy bear
This tempest of despair
?
All other efforts, then, are vain,
To
cure this foul tormenting pain,
That owns no other remedy
Than madness,
death, inconstancy.
Friendship, thou hast with nimble flight
Exulting gained the empyreal height,
In heaven to dwell, while here below
Thy
semblance reigns
From
thence to earth,
Descends
fair
mimic show
peace, celestial guest
Beneath whose
Deceit
in
at thy behest,
veil
oft lurks,
of shining hue
concealed from view.
!
OF DON QUIXOTE.
Leave, friendship
Or
If
leave thy heavenly seat,
thy livery off the cheat.
strip
he wears thy borrowed smiles,
still
And
!
25
still
unwary truth
Soon must
dark terrestrial ball
this
Into
its first
When
the
beguiles,
confusion
adverse,
are
stars
fall.
what
human
is
power ?
Who
there in the world
is
can boast of
that
having fathomed and thoroughly penetrated the intricate
and ever-changing nature of a
Would
a private
which
I
to
God
tomb
bear so
?
could find a place to serve as
I
for this
much
very spot will yield
woman
wearisome burden of
against
my
me what
inclination
I ask, if I
!
how much more
agreeable
is
the
Alas
company of
me
This
can trust
the solitary appearance of these mountains.
rocks and thickets, which give
life,
!
these
opportunities of
complaining to Heaven, than that of
faithless
man
since Nature hath not created one of
whom
could
reasonably expect
affliction, or
O
remedy
in distress
now recall
to
me
thou cruel faculty
!
tion her conduct at that
my
repose
!
the incomparable beauty
of that adored enemy of mine
ter,
!
memory, thou mortal enemy of
wherefore
I
advice in difficulty, comfort in
!
Were it
my
to represent to
not bet-
imagina-
period—that, moved by
so
WIT AND WISDOM
26
an injury,
flagrant
end
at least to
I
may
this life
strive, if
of pain
For no grievance can harass
to such extremity, while
them shut
life
not to avenge
or drive the afflicted
remains, as to
their ears against that counsel
given with the most
it,
?
make
which
humane and benevolent
is
inten-
tion.
What
guish
sudden death, to a protracted
is
life
of an-
?
Music
lulls
the dejected
All
the disordered thoughts, and elevates
spirits.
women,
let
them be never
so homely, are
pleased to hear themselves celebrated for beauty.
The
eyes of love or of idleness are like those
of a lynx.
One mischance
one misfortune
Among
is
invites another,
and the end of
often the beginning of a worse.
friends
we
ought not to stand upon
trifles.
No man
can
command
the
first
emotions of his
passions.
Every new
Where
another
?
is
fault deserves a
the
wonder one
new penance.
devil
should be like
OF DON QUIXOTE.
27
Gifts are good after Easter.
A
sparrow in the hand
worth more than a
is
bustard on the wing.
He
that will not
when he may, when he would
he shall have nay.
"
God
have heard
I
it
preached," quoth Sancho, " that
without our being
self alone,
moved
of reward or fear of punishment
am
part, I
He
a
is
Him-
to be loved with this kind of love, for
is
;
inclined to love and serve
able to do for
bumpkin,"
said
me."
Don
"The
Quixote
;
to
it
by hope
though, for
Him
for
my
what
devil take thee for
"thou
say est ever
and anon such apt things that one would almost
think thee a
scholar."
quoth Sancho, "
I
" And
cannot so
yet,
much
by
my
Squires and knight-errants are subject to
hunger and
A man
tiful
faith,"
as read."
much
ill-luck.
on
whom Heaven
has bestowed a beau-
wife should be as cautious respecting the friends
he introduces
at
home
as to her female acquaintance
abroad.
Men may
presume upon
prove and use their friends, and not
their friendship in things contrary to
the decrees of Heaven.
A
man
dishonored
is
worse than dead.
\
:
WIT AND WISDOM
28
If from equal parts
we
take equal parts, those
that remain are equal.
To
attempt voluntarily that which must be pro-
ductive of evil rather than good,
Difficult
works are
is
madness and
folly.
undertaken for the sake of
Heaven, or of the world, or both the first are such
as are performed by the saints, while they endeavor
:
to live the life of angels in their
human
frames
;
such as are performed for love of the world are encountered by those
who
ocean, traverse different
navigate
boundless
the
countries and various cli-
mates to acquire what are called the goods of fortune.
Those who
assail
hazardous enterprises for the sake
God and man
of both
are brave soldiers,
who no
sooner perceive in the enemy's wall a breach made
by a single cannon-ball, than, regardless of danger
and
full
of zeal in the defence of their
faith, their
country, and their king, they rush where death in
a thousand shapes awaits them.
culties
commonly attempted,
These
are diffi-
and, though perilous,
are glorious and profitable.
When
Peter saw the approach of rosy morn,
His soul with sorrow and remorse was torn
;
For, though from every mortal eye concealed,
The
The
guilt to his
own bosom
stood revealed
candid breast will, self-accusing,
Each conscious
fault,
:
own
though to the world unknown
Nor will th' offender 'scape internal shame,
Though unimpeached by justice or by fame.
OF DON QUIXOTE.
29
Expect not, therefore, by concealment,
sorrow
for,
;
to banish
even though you weep not openly, tears
So wept that
of blood will flow from your heart.
simple doctor, who, according to the poet, would
make
venture to
cup which the more
a trial of the
prudent Rinaldo wisely declined doing
be a poetical
this
in
worthy
it
There
no jewel
is
consists in the
perfect creature
essential
in
ermine
a
is
world so valuable as
The honor
eminently good,
we
to
all
in pursuit of
the passes leading to
virtuous and modest
it,
woman
knowing
that
which
The
is
defile
its
it,
is
the?
fur,
thej
haunts,
that
itself.
it
will
The
an ermine, and her
snow and in order to prevery different method must be taken from
character whiter than
a
which
creature with extremely white
submit to be taken rather than
it,
an im-
is
Naturalists inform us that
which they then drive
serve
why would you
friend,
should clear the path before
and that when the hunters are
spread with mire
a
women
and since
;
readily attain that virtue
her.
little
of
and, instead of laying stumbling-
;
may
Woman, my
?
blocks in her way,
her, that she
in the
woman.
is
questioned
it
and followed.
good opinion of the world
that of your wife
have
concealed moral
fiction, there is a
to be observed
chaste and virtuous
and although
;
is
;
used with the ermine.
reputation of a
woman may
also be
com-
pared to a mirror of crystal, shining and bright, but
liable to
be
sullied
by every breath that comes near
WIT AND WISDOM
30
The
it.
relic
virtuous
woman must
—-adored, but not handled
be treated like a
she should be guard-
;
ed and prized, like a fine flower-garden, the beauty
and fragrance of which the owner allows others to
enjoy only at a distance, and through iron
rails.
I.
Woman
is
formed of
Then, wherefore
What
brittle
ware
;
rashly seek to
know
force, unbroken, she will bear,
And-
strike
perhaps some
fatal
blow
?
ii.
Though
easily to
fragments tore,
'Twere equally absurd and
To
dash in pieces on the
What
vain,
floor,
never can be joined again.
in.
This maxim, then, by
facts assured,
Should henceforth be espoused by
Where'er
The
The
a
Danae
lies
devil,
when
-
y
immured,
tempting shower of gold will
when he would
son, assumes an angel form
all
fall.
entrap a cautious per-
till
he carries
his point,
the cloven foot appears.
He who
builds
on
impossibilities, should
nied the privilege of any other foundation.
Hope
is
ever born with love.
be de-
1
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
In death alone
And
I life
would
3
find,
health in racking pain
Fair honor in a traitor's mind,
Or
freedom
But since
I
in a chain.
ask what ne'er can be,
The Fates, alas decide,
What they would else have
!
granted me,
Shall ever be denied.
Castles should not be left without governors, nor
armies without generals.
The
alone
;
passion of love
is
it
is
to be conquered
by
flight
vain to contend with a power which,
though human, requires more than human strength
to subdue.
SONNET.
In the dead silence of the peaceful night,
When
The
To
others' cares are
sad account of
conscious
And when
With
my
Heaven and
in soft repose,
neglected woes
Chloris I recite.
the sun, with his returning light,
Forth from the east
My
hushed
his radiant
journey goes,
accents such as sorrow only knows,
griefs to tell
And when
is all
my
poor delight.
bright Phoebus from his starry throne
Sends rays direct upon the parched
Still
in the
mournful
tale I
Returning night renews
persevere
my
soil,
;
sorrow's
toil
;
WIT AND WISDOM
32
And though from morn to night I weep and moan,
Nor Heaven nor Chloris my complainings hear.
Are we
for truth
enamoured poets
to take all that
sing,
?
SONNET.
Believe me, nymph, I feel th' impending blow,
And
glory in the near approach of death
For when thou
My
see'st
my
;
corse devoid of breath,
constancy and truth thou sure wilt know.
Welcome to me
Welcome the
But thy loved
Oblivion's shade obscure
features,
Deep graven on my
And
of fortune,
loss
!
and fame
life,
!
and thy honored name,
heart, shall
still
endure.
these, as sacred relics, will I keep
Till that sad
My
moment when
to endless night
long-tormented soul shall take her
Alas for him
who on
flight.
the darkened deep
Floats idly, sport of the tempestuous tide,
No
port to shield him, and no star to guide
He who
gives freely gives twice.
That which
is
lightly gained
For Love sometimes
flies
is little
:
He
leisurely with an-
some he warms, and some he burns
he wounds, and others he
same
valued.
and sometimes walks
—runs with one person, and goes
other
!
instant he forms
kills
:
in
;
some
one and the
and accomplishes
his projects.
often in the morning lays siege to a fortress
OF DON QUIXOTE.
which
is
in the
33
—
evening surrenders to him
for
no force
able to resist him.
The nearer the prospect of possession,
we are for the enjoyment.
the
more
eager
Heaven always
favors the honest purpose.
Rank
is
True
nobility consists in virtue.
It is
no derogation to rank to elevate beauty
not essential in a wife.
adorned with virtue.
Time
will discover.
" Certainly, gentlemen,
those
who make
we
if
rightly consider
it,
knight-errantry their profession
often meet with surprising and most stupendous ad-
For what mortal
ventures.
time entering within
together as
we
this
in
castle,
world, at this
the
and seeing us
we
are
there that can judge that this lady by
my
the same persons which in reality
great queen
that
we
all
know
made known by fame
doubted but that
and
is
all
so
this
?
Who is
?
side
is
the
her to be, and that
I
am
Knight of the Sorrowful Figure
passes
sit
do, will imagine and believe us to be
It is,
so universally
then, no longer to be
exercise and
profession sur-
man,
more ex-
others that have been invented by
much
the more honorable as
posed to dangers.
it is
Let none presume
to tell
me
—
;
WIT AND WISDOM
34
that the
pen
This may
preferable to the sword.
is
be ascertained by regarding the end and object each
of them aims at
intention
for that
;
valued which makes the noblest end
scope and end of learning,
(in this place I
to be
most
object.
The
is
its
mean human
I
learning
speak not of divinity, whose aim
is
no other can equal
a
to guide souls to
Heaven,
for
design so infinite as that),
distributive justice,
to give a perfection to
is
bestowing upone very one
his due,
and to procure and cause good laws to be observed
an end
generous, great, and worthy of high
really
commendation, but yet not equal
for in this
is
life.
And,
brought in the night
when
man can
the greatest blessing
therefore, the
that the world received
air,
good news
first
beginning of our day
c
Glory to
men
peace on earth, and to
God on high,
And the
good-will.'
only manner of salutation taught by our great
any house they should say,
at other
give to you,*
among
you.'
c
Peace be to
He said to them, My peace I
My peace I leave to you,' Peace be
A jewel and legacy worthy of such a
times
c
this house.'
c
(
donor, a jewel so precious that without
it
there can
be no happiness either in earth or heaven.
peace
Mas-
His friends and favorites was, that entering
ter to
And
is
wish
was that which the angels
—the
they sang in the
which
whose object and end
knight-errantry tends to,
peace, which
that
to
is
the true end of
one and the same thing.
that the
end of war
is
war
;
for
This
arms and war are
Allowing, then,
this truth,
peace, and that in this
it
ex-
OF DON QUIXOTE.
end of learning,
ceis the
now weigh
us
let
35
the bodily
labors the scholar undergoes against those the warrior suffers,
and then see which are the greatest."
The method
ers at that
Don
and language
Quixote used
were such, that none of
delivering himself
time looked upon him as a
madman
;
but,
on the contrary, most of them being gentlemen
whom
in
his hear-
to
the use of arms properly appertains, they gave
him a willing attention and he proceeded in this
" These, then, I say, are the sufferings
manner
;
:
and hardships
a scholar endures.
that they are
all
may be
First poverty (not
poor, but to urge the
in this case)
and having
;
for
;
T
he that
one time in hunger,
at
at
together
eats,
;
yet his poverty
though
it
all
all
of them
not so great, but
is
its
another in cold,
another in nakedness, and sometimes in
he
to
poor enjoys no
is
happiness, but labors under this poverty in
parts,
that
he endures
more need be urged
poverty, methinks nothing
express his misery
said
w orst
still
be later than the usual hour, and
of the scraps of the rich
miss of somebody's
neither can the scholar
;
stove
or
fireside
to
sit
by
;
where, though he be not thoroughly heated, yet he
may
gather warmth, and at last sleep away the night
under a roof.
terial
I will
not touch upon other less
circumstances,
as
want of
the
linen,
maand
scarcity
of shoes, thinness and baldness of their
clothes,
and
throws a feast
their
surfeiting
in their
way
;
when good
this
is
fortune
the difficult and
uncouth path thev tread, often stumbling and
fall-
WIT AND WISDOM
36
ing, yet rising again
and pushing on,
the preferment they aim at
we have
ried
many
seen
of them, who, having been car-
by a fortunate gale through
from
a chair
they attain
till
whither being arrived,
;
govern the world
these quicksands,
all
their
;
hunger being
changed into
satiety,
warmth,
nakedness into magnificence of ap-
their
cold into
their
and the mats they used to
parel,
beds of costly
and
silks
lie
comfortable
upon, into stately
softest linen, a
reward due
to their virtue.
But yet
pared
the soldier endures, appear
to
those
inferior, as I shall in the
Don
next place
make
"
:
we began with
out."
Since, in speaking of the scholar,
his poverty
and
its
several branches,
We
us see whether the soldier be richer.
find that poverty itself
pends on
his
is
;
or
his
serves
:
upon what he can
the imminent risk of his
is
not more poor
for
wretched pay, which comes
sometimes never
often
much
Quixote, after a short pause, continued his
discourse thus
let
com-
their sufferings being
life
nakedness that
him both
for
he de-
late,
and
pillage, at
Such
and conscience.
his
finery
shall
slashed buff-doublet
and
shirt
;
and in the
midst of winter, on the open plain, he has nothing
to
warm him
issuing
But
us wait, and see whether night will
let
amends
narrow
as
but the breath of his mouth, which,
from an empty place, must needs be cold.
for these inconveniences
it is
many
his
own
fault, for
feet of earth as
he
:
if his
make
bed be too
may measure
he pleases, and
roll
out
himself
thereon at pleasure without fear of rumpling the
OF DON QUIXOTE.
sheets.
Suppose the
his degree
—
his doctoral
I
moment
37
arrived
mean, suppose the day of
cap
may then be
of
of taking
come
cover some
battle
lint, to
:
gun-shot wound, which perhaps has gone through
him of an arm or leg.
" And evens uppose that Heaven in its mercy
should preserve him alive and unhurt, he will prob-
his temples, or deprived
ably remain as poor as ever
he must be en-
for
;
gaged and victorious in many battles before he can expect high promotion
;
and such good fortune happens
you will allow, gentlemen,
few are the number of those that have reaped
the reward of their services, compared with those
only by a miracle
:
for
that
who have
The
perished in war.
who
whereas those
dead are countless
survived to be rewarded
;
may be
numbered with three figures. Not so with scholars,
who by their salaries (I will not say their perquisites) are generally handsomely provided for.
Thus
the labors of the soldier are greater, although his
reward
that
is
it is
less.
It
may be
easier
to
reward two thousand scholars
said in
than thirty thousand soldiers
:
answer to
this,
for scholars are re-
warded by employments which must of course be
given to
dier
men
of their profession
;
whereas the
sol-
can only be rewarded by the property of the
master
whom he serves
my argument.
;
and
this
defence serves to
strengthen
" But, waiving this point,
let
us consider the
parative claims to pre-eminence
:
com-
for the partisans
of each can bring powerful arguments
in
support of
WIT AND WISDOM
38
their
own
have
of letters that
It is said in favor
cause.
without them arms could not subsist
for
;
war must
come within the province of
may be alleged in reply, that
laws, and laws
its
But
the learned.
it
arms are necessaiy to the maintenance of law
arms the public roads are protected,
cities
cleared of corsairs and pirates.
arms there would be no safety
wealths, or kingdoms.
In short, without
for cities,
Besides,
it is
is
true
eminence
that
common-
just to estimate
a pursuit in proportion to the cost of
it
by
kingdoms preserved, and the seas
states defended,
Now
;
guarded,
its
attainment.
in learning
is
pur-
chased by time, watching, hunger, nakedness, verindigestion,
tigo,
already mentioned
to be a
What
man
good
is
and many other inconveniences
:
but a
man who
rises gradually
soldier endures all these,
and
the hunger and poverty which
far
more.
menace the
of letters compared to the situation of the sol-
who, besieged in some fortress, and placed as
some ravelin or cavalier, perceives that
the enemy is mining toward the place where he
stands, and yet he must on no account stir from his
post or shun the imminent danger that threatens
him ? All that he can do in such a case is to give
notice to his officer of what passes, that he may endeavor to counteract it in the mean time he must
stand his ground, in momentary expectation of
dier,
sentinel in
;
being mounted to the clouds without wings, and
then dashed headlong to the earth.
thought but a
trifling
danger,
let
And
if this
us see whether
it
be
be
—
OF DON QUIXOTE.
39
two
equalled or exceeded by the encounter of
prow
to
prow,
in the midst of the
and grappled together, so that there
room
left
no more
is
for the soldier than the two-foot plank at
the break-head
and though he sees
;
ening ministers of death
before
pieces of artillery pointed at
many
as
him
he knows that the
the bottom
him from the opposite
of the
to all their fire,
pass to force his
what
sea
is
fallen,
w ay
T
never to
which
yet,
with an undaunted
and endeavors by that narrow
into the
enemy's vessel
lies in
extremities of
;
and
if
he also
fall
war there
is
Happy those
those instruments of hell (w here, I
is
now
ages
artillery
!
verily believe,
receiving the reward of his dia-
by means of which the cowardly
and the base can deprive the bravest
a gallant spirit
pressing to glory,
the
all
no example of courage
this.
T
bolical ingenuity),
into the
In
!
which knew not the dreadful fury of
the inventor
one
is
devour him, another and
wait to
and intrepidity to exceed
While
And,
!
again in this world, than an-
rise
another succeeds without intermission
who
though
most worthy of admiration, no sooner
other takes his place
sea,
-
y
;
of his foot sends him to
inspired by honor, he exposes himself as a
heart,
mark
first slip
threat-
there are
as
not the length of a lance from his body
side,
galleys,
white sea, locked
soldier of
life.
animated with heroic ardor
comes
a
chance
ball, sent
is
by one
perhaps fled in alarm at the flash of his
own
accursed weapon, and in an instant cuts short the
life
of him
who
deserved to live for
as;es
!
When
I
WIT AND WISDOM
40
consider
taken
this, I
able an age
still it
could almost repent having under-
of knight-errantry in so detest-
this profession
;
me
gives
though no danger can daunt me,
some concern to think that powder
for
and lead may suddenly cut short
my
But Heaven's
have
done
will be
I
!
career of glory.
this satisfac-
fame
tion, that I shall acquire the greater
if I
am
ceed, inasmuch as the perils by which I
are greater than those to
sucbeset
which the knights-errant
of past ages were exposed."
The army is a school in which the miser becomes generous, and the generous prodigal.
A
covetous soldier
is
a monster
which
is
rarely
seen.
Liberality
may be
carried too far in those
who
have children to inherit from them.
We
have a saying
very true, as indeed
in Spain,
all
which,
I believe, is
proverbs are, because they
by long and sage expecontains no more than
mean,
which
I
rience
"
The church, the court, or the sea ; "
these words
as if it more fully expressed the following advice,
He that would make his fortune, ought either to
dedicate his time to the church, go to sea as a merare short sentences dictated
:
that
:
chant, or attach himself to the court
monly observed,
that
" the
king's
:
for
crumb
it is
is
the baron's batch." *
*
The
king's morsel
is
better than the lord's bounty.
comworth
:
—
OF DON QUIXOTE.
Though we
What
man
feels
love the treason,
transport in
-
41
we abhor the traitor.
can equal that which a
life
on the restoration of
his liberty
?
SONNET UPON THE GOLETA.
O
happy
souls,
by death
at length set free
From the dark prison of mortality,
By glorious deeds, whose memory never dies
From earth's dim spot exalted to the skies
What fury stood in every eye confessed
!
!
What
generous ardor
fired
While slaughtered heaps
And
each manly breast,
distained the sandy shore,
the tinged ocean blushed with hostile gore
O'erpowered by numbers, gloriously ye
Death only could such matchless courage
quell
Whilst dying thus ye triumphed o'er your foes
fame the world,
Its
its
!
fell
glory heaven, bestows
;
—
!
SONNET ON THE FORT.
I.
Lo
!
from yon ruins on the desert
Oppressed with numbers,
Three thousand
To
in th'
plain,
unequal
fight,
souls of Christian warriors slain,
happier regions winged their joyous
flight.
11.
Yet, not before, in vain, they had essayed
The
force and vigor of their dauntless
arms
:
Till wearied and reduced, though undismayed,
They welcomed
death encompassed with alarms.
:
WIT AND WISDOM
42
III.
On
Afric's coast, as records
The
tell,
scene of past and present woes,
More valiant bodies never fell,
More spotless spirits never rose.
How
seldom promises made in slavery are
membered
Good
after a release
from bondage
fortune seldom comes pure and single un-
attended by some troublesome or unexpected
cumstance.
Tossed
in a sea
of doubts and fears,
Love's hapless mariner,
Where no
To
I sail,
inviting port appears,
screen
me from
the stormy gale.
ii.
At
distance viewed, a cheering star
Conducts
A
me
through the swelling tide
brighter luminary, far,
Than
Palinurus e'er descried.
in.
My
soul attracted
Still
And
re-
!
by
follows where
its
it
blaze,
points the way,
while attentively I gaze,
Considers not
how
far I stray.
cir-
!
OF DON QUIXOTE.
43
IV.
But female
pride, reserved and shy,
Like clouds that deepen on the day,
Oft shroud it from my longing eye,
When
O
most
I
need the genial ray.
lovely star, so pure and bright
Whose splendor feeds my vital fire,
The moment thou deny'st thy light,
Thy lost adorer will expire
!
SONG.
Unconquered hope, thou bane of
fear,
And last deserter of the brave,
Thou soothing ease of mortal care,
Thou traveller beyond the grave
Thou soul of patience, airy food,
;
Bold warrant of a distant good,
Reviving cordial, kind decoy
;
Though fortune frowns and friends depart,
Though Silvia flies me, flattering joy,
Nor thou, nor love, shall leave my doting heart.
No
slave, to lazy ease resigned,
E'er triumphed over noble foes
;
The monarch fortune most is kind
To him who bravely dares oppose.
They say, Love rates his blessing high,
But who would prize an easy joy
?
WI T AND WISDOM
44
My
scornful fair then
Though
the coy beauty
grovel
I
now on
I'll
pursue,
still
denies;
earth,
'tis
true,
But, raised by her, the humble slave
may
rise.
Might overcomes.
Him
It
is
whom God
to
common
a
licitor
may
St.
shown
many important
in
;
is
the
causes
that the assiduity of the so-
hath brought a very doubtful
fortunate issue
Peter bless.
proverb that diligence
mother of success, and
experience hath
giveth,
but the truth of this
where more evinced than
in
suit to a
maxim
is
very
no-
war, where activity and
dispatch anticipate the designs of the enemy, and
obtain the victory before he has time to put himself
in a posture of defence.
The common
There
dreamt
adage that delays are dangerous
upon the
acts as spurs
are
more
tricks
in
the
town than
are
of.
Virtue
is
so powerful that of herself she will,
in spite of all the
necromancy possessed by the
inventor Zoroaster,
severe
resolution.
trial,
come
off
and shine refulgent
first
conqueror in every
in the world, as the
sun shines in the heavens.
Virtue
is
always more persecuted by the wicked
than beloved by the righteous.
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
45
Just are virtue's fears where envy domineers
Bounty
will not
stay
!
where niggards bear the
sway.
Fortune turns
those
who were
faster
Every one
The mind
the son of his
is
find
them-
consistency of what
Fiction
bles truth,
is
own
works.
receives pleasure from the beauty and
not from that which
spires.
may
bottom to-day.
selves at
ability
than a mill-wheel, and
yesterday at top,
is
is
presented to the imagination,
incongruous and unnatural.
always the better the nearer
and agreeable
resem-
it
in proportion to the prob-
bears and the doubtful credit which
it
Wherefore,
all
such
fables
suited to the understanding; of those
and written
so, as that
smoothing what
suspense, they
entertain,
is
in-
ought to be
who
read them,
impossibilities,
rough, and keeping the mind in
may
creating
by softening
it
surprise, agreeably perplex,
equal admiration and
and these never can be excited by authors
and
delight
who
for-
sake probability and imitation, in which the perfection of writing;
*& consists.
Epics
To
may be
written in prose as well as verse.
assert that there
never was an Amadis in the
world, nor any other of the knights-adventurers of
WIT AND WISDOM
4-6
whom
many
so
records remain,
sun does not enlighten, the
frost
to say that the
is
produce cold, nor
the earth yield sustenance.
The
approbation of the judicious few should far
outweigh the censure of the ignorant.
An
author had better be applauded by the few
by the many that are
that are wise than laughed at
foolish.
Our modern
formed upon
on the truth of
universally
but likewise such as are founded
history, are all, or the greatest part,
known
to
be
without either head or
as
and yet received with
who
approve and esteem
excellent performances, though they are
from deserving that
far
monstrous productions,
tail,
pleasure by the multitude,
them
only those which are
plays, not
fiction,
title
;
and
who
if
who compose, and
the actors
affirm that this and
no other method
the authors
represent them,
is
to be prac-
tised, because the multitude must be pleased
-,
that
those which bear the marks of contrivance, and
produce a fable digested according to the rules of
serve only for entertainment to four or five peo-
art,
ple of taste,
which
who
discern the beauties of the plan,
utterly escape the rest of the audience
;
and
them to gain a comfortable livemany,
than starve upon reputation
the
lihood by
with the few; at this rate, said I, if I should finthat
ish
it is
my
better for
book, after having scorched every hair
in
my
OF DON QUIXOTE.
whiskers in poring over
it,
to preserve those rules
and precepts already mentioned,
botcher,
like the sagacious
and found
It is
47
might
I
who sewed
fare at last
for nothing
customers in thread.
his
not a sufficient excuse to say that the object
in permitting theatrical exhibitions
being chiefly to
provide innocent recreation for the people,
it
is
un-
necessary to limit and restrain the dramatic author
within
strict rules
the same object
fectually attained
tator of a
of composition
is,
beyond
all
;
for I affirm that
comparison, more ef-
The
by legitimate works.
good drama
improved, by what
;
he
spec-
amused, admonished, and
diverting, affecting,
is
in the representation
is
is
and moral
cautioned against deceit,
corrected by example, incensed against vice, stimulated to the love of virtue.
,
Comedy, according
mirror of
of truth
;
life,
to Tully, ought to be the
the exemplar of manners, and picture
whereas those that are represented
age are mirrors of absurdity, exemplars of
pictures of lewdness
;
in this
folly,
and
can be more
for sure nothing
absurd in a dramatic performance, than to see the
who,
act,
was
produced a child in swaddling-clothes, appear a
full-
person,
in the first scene of the
grown man with
sent an old
man
a beard in the second
active and valiant, a
first
;
or to repre-
young
soldier
cowardly, a footman eloquent, a page a counsellor,
a king a porter, and a princess a scullion.
what
shall
we
say concerning their
Then
management of
WIT AND WISDOM
48
the time and place in which the actions have, or
may be supposed
a
comedy, the
to have
first
act of
happened
have seen
I
?
which was
Europe,
laid in
the second in Asia, and the third was finished in
Africa ; nay, had there been a fourth, the scene
would have shifted to America, so that the fable
would have travelled through all the four divisions
If imitation be the chief aim of
of the globe.
comedy, how can any ordinary understanding be
satisfied
with seeing an action that passed in the
time of King Pepin and Charlemagne, ascribed to
the
Emperor Heraclius, who, being the
personage,
is
carrying the cross into Jerusalem, and
master of the holy sepulchre, an
self
principal
represented, like Godfrey of Boulogne,
making himinfinite
num-
ber of years having passed between the one and the
other
?
Or, when a comedy
is
founded upon
fiction,
of real history introduced, and facts
to see scraps
both with regard to persons and
misrepresented
times, not with any ingenuity of contrivance, but
with the most manifest and inexcusable errors and
stupidity
;
and what
ignorant pretenders
writing,
trary
is
worst of
who
all,
call this
there
is
a set of
the perfection of
and that every attempt to succeed by a con-
method
The bow
is
no other than a wild-goose chase.
cannot remain always bent, and re-
laxation, both of
body and mind,
is
indispensable to
all.
Can you deny what
is
in everybody's
mouth.
OF DON QUIXOTE.
when
a person
in the
is
dumps
49
always then
It is
?
—he neither
said,
"
eats,
nor drinks, nor sleeps, nor answers to the pur-
pose,
I
know
not what such a one
men
other
like
Wherefore,
—
who neither
who eat and
eat,
not they
drink
and answer properly to
" The poor man
is
is
myself, that
in the
world
earldom, as
;
I
am somewhat
ment of
it,
unable to exercise the virtue
is
squire,
and
I
heart in
especially
friends,
for-
who
would
doubt of
conferring
on poor Sancho
one of the best
is
men
bestow on him an
fain
have long since promised
in
when
with an opportunity of exalting
may show my
my
my
Panza here,
they can get
asked them.
a dead thing, even as faith without
me
I
on
is
I shall, therefore, rejoice
dead.
tune presents
benefits
when
that
all
and the gratitude which consists only
liberality,
in inclination
works
enchanted."
is
and such only, are
nor drink, nor sleep, and
enchanted
of
he
surely
clear that such,
it is
ails
;
although I
his ability in the
govern-
master's
words,
his estate."
Sancho, overhearing
his
last
" Take you the trouble, Signor Don Quixote,
procure me that same earldom, which your wor-
said,
to
ship has so often promised,
and
I
have been so long
waiting for, and you shall see that I shall not want
ability to
govern
it.
But even
are people, I have heard say,
ships
;
if I
should, there
who farm these lordmuch a year, take
and, paying the owners so
upon themselves the government of the whole,
WIT AND WISDOM
50
while his lordship
so will
Just
it.
ease,
his
at
lolls
enjoying his
without concerning himself any further about
estate,
I
do, and
give
myself no more
trouble than needs must, but enjoy myself like any
" This, brother
let the world rub."
Sancho," said the canon, " may be done, as far as
duke, and
management of ycur revenue
regards the
;
but the
administration of justice must be attended to by the
and requires capacity, judgment, and,
lord himself,
above
an upright intention, without which noth-
all,
ing prospers
for
;
Heaven
assists the
good intent of
the simple, and disappoints the evil designs of the
"
cunning."
I
do not understand these philoso-
"
all that I know is, that
may as surely have the earldom as I should
know how to govern it for I have as large a soul
phies," answered Sancho
I
wish
;
I
;
as another,
and as large a body as the best of them
;
and I should be as much king of my own dominion
as any other king ; and, being so, I would do what
I pleased
my
will
tented
is
and, doing what I pleased, I should have
and, having
;
and when there
an end of
it,
be with ye, and
say,
and
let
let
will, I
the estate
it,
are
as
of earldoms."
;
con-
no more to be
come
desire, there
;
so
one blind
Heaven
man
said
no bad philosophies, as
;
"nevertheless,
more to be said upon the sub" That may be," observed
" but I am guided by the numerous
a great deal
is
ject
Quixote
should be
is
no more to
Sancho," quoth the canon
there
Don
is
us see
" These
to another."
you
my
and, being content, there
;
desired
;
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
examples offered on
51
my
subject by knights of
this
own
profession
loyal
and signal services they had received from
their
squires,
favors,
islands
;
who,
;
in
compensation
the
for
conferred upon them extraordinary
making them absolute lords of cities and
indeed, there was one whose services were
so great, that he had the presumption to accept of
But why should
a kingdom.
me
before
is
Firm Island
scruple
w ho made
T
his
Surely I
?
of conscience,
Panza, who
say more,
the bright example of the great
de Gaul,
dis
I
squire
w hen
AmaT
knight of the
may, therefore, without
make an
earl
of Sancho
one of the best squires that ever
is
served knight-errant."
Fame
hath preserved some memoirs in
cha, by which
he
it
appears that
set out the third time,
Don
went
La Manwhen
Quixote,
to Saragossa,
where
most celebrated tournament, in
which many things happened to him worthy of his
but with regard to his death and
genius and valor
he was present
at a
;
he could obtain no information, and must
burial
have remained entirely ignorant of that event, had
he not luckily met with an old physician, who had
in his
custody a leaden box, which he said he found
under the foundation of an ancient hermitage that
This box contained some skins of
parchment, on which were written in Gothic char-
was
repairing.
acters,
and Castilian verse, many of our knight's
exploits, with a description of
Dulcinea's beauty,
Rozinante's
fidelity,
figure,
Sancho's
and
Don
;
WIT AND WISDOM
52
Quixote's
own
funeral,
taphs, and panegyrics
celebrated by divers
on
his life
that could be read and fairly copied, are those
All
which
are here inserted by the faithful author of this
and surprising history, who,
immense
and
in
in
epi-
and morals.
recompense
new
for the
trouble he has undergone in his inquiries,
examining the archives of
he might publish
it
La Mancha,
him with the same
reader to favor
that
with more certainty, desires the
credit
which
in-
persons give to those books of chivalry
telligent
that pass so currently in the world
he will rest fully
to search after
satisfied
and
;
;
and herewith
and perhaps be animated
find out other histories, if not
as authentic, at least as full of invention and enter-
tainment.
The
which were written in the first skin
of parchment found in the leaden box were these
verses
:
The Academicians of Argamasilla, a town of La Mancha, on the Life and Death of the valiant Don
Quixote de la Mancha, hoc scripserunt,
MONICONGO, ACADEMICIAN OF ARGAMASILLA, ON THE SEPULTURE OF
DON QUIXOTE.
EPITAPH.
Mancha's thunderbolt of war,
The sharpest wit and loftiest muse,
The arm which from Gaeta far
To
Catai did
He who,
its
force diffuse
through love and valor's
Outstript great Amadis's fame,
fire,
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
Bid warlike Galaor
!
53
retire,
And silenced Belianis' name
He who, with helmet, sword, and
:
On
shield,
Rozinante, steed well known,
Adventures fought
in
many
a field,
Lies underneath this frozen stone.
PANIAGUADO, ACADEMICIAN OF ARGAMASILLA, IN PRAISE OF DULCINEA
DEL TOBOSO.
SONNET.
whom
She
With
Was
you see the plump and
erst th'
The
lusty
dame,
high erected chest and vigorous mien,
fair
enamored knight
Don
Quixote's flame,
Dulcinea, of Toboso, queen.
For her, armed cap-a-pie with sword and
He
shield,
trod the sable mountain o'er and o'er
For her he traversed Montiel's well-known field,
And in her service toils unnumbered bore.
Hard
And
fate
!
that death should crop so fine a flower
love o'er such a knight exert his tyrant power
A MOST INGENIOUS ACADEMICIAN OF ARGAMASILLA, IN
CAPRICHOSO,
PRAISE OF DON QUIXOTE'S HORSE ROZINANTE.
SONNET.
On
Of
the aspiring adamantine trunk
a huge tree,
whose
root, with slaughter drunk,
Sends forth a scent of war,
La Mancha's
knight,
Frantic with valor, and returned from fight,
His bloody standard trembling in the
Hangs up
his glittering
air,
armor beaming- far,
WIT AND WISDOM
54
With
fine-tempered
that
steel
whose edge
over-
throws,
Hacks, hews, confounds, and routs opposing
Unheard-of prowess
But
art
new
!
and unheard-of verse
strains invents,
new
foes.
!
glories to rehearse.
Amadis to Grecia gives renown,
Much more her chief does fierce Bellona crown.
Prizing La Mancha more than Gaul or Greece,
If
As Quixote triumphs over Amadis.
Oblivion ne'er
Whose
shall
shroud his glorious name,
very horse stands up to challenge fame
Illustrious
Rozinante, wondrous steed
Not with more generous
His rider
Or
his
erst Rinaldo's
mad
lord,
EURLADOR, THE LITTLE
!
!
pride or mettled speed,
Bayard bore,
Orlando's Brilladore.
ACADEMICIAN OF ARGAMASILLA, ON SANCHO
PANZA.
SONNET.
See Sancho Panza, view him well,
And
let this
verse his praises
His body was but small,
Yet had
'tis
tell.
true,
a soul as large as two.
No
guile he knew, like some before him,
But simple as his mother bore him,
This gentle squire on gentle ass,
Went
gentle Rozinante's pace,
Following
To
be an
And
his lord
earl
from place to place.
he did aspire,
reason good for such desire,
OF DON QUIXOTE.
But worth,
To
55
in these ungrateful times,
envied honor seldom climbs.
Vain mortals
!
give your wishes o'er,
And trust the flatterer Hope no
Whose promises, whate'er they
End in a shadow or a dream.
more,
seem,
CACHIDIABLO, ACADEMICIAN OF ARGAMASILLA, ON THE SEPULTURE OF
DON QUIXOTE.
EPITAPH.
Here
lies
Weil
Whose
an evil-errant knight,
bruised in
many
a fray,
courser, Rozinante hight,
Long
Close by
bore him
many
a
way.
his loving master's side
Lies booby Sancho Panza,
A
trusty squire of courage tried,
And
true as ever
man
saw.
TIQLTTOC, ACADEMICIAN OF ARGAMASILLA, ON THE SEPULTURE Or
DULCINEA DEL TOEOSO.
Here lies Dulcinea, once so plump,
But now her fat all melts away
For Death, with an inhuman thump,
\
Has turned her
into dust
and
clay.
Of a true breed she surely sprung,
And wanted not external grace;
Don Quixote's heart with love she stung,
And shone the glory of her race.
These were
all
the verses which could be read
;
WIT AND WISDOM
56
the rest being worm-eaten, were delivered to an
academician, that he might attempt to unravel their
meaning by conjecture.
he has performed with
This
we
task,
infinite pains
understand,
and study,
in-
tending to publish them to the world, in expectation
of the third
sally
" Forse
With God
of
altri
Don
Quixote.
cantera con miglior plettro."
nothing
is
impossible.
Despair added to misfortune impairs the health
and hastens death.
Mountains produce learned men, and philosophers are to be found within the shepherd's cot.
No
padlocks, bolts, or bars can secure a maiden
so well as her
Honey
is
own
reserve.
not for the mouth of an ass.
He must be blind, indeed, who cannot see through
a sieve.
Comparisons,
whether
as
to
sense,
courage,
beauty, or rank, are always offensive.
Scruples of conscience afford no peace.
You
have reckoned without your host.
When
the head aches,
all
the
members ache
also.
When
virtue exists in an eminent degree,
always persecuted.
it is
OF DON QUIXOTE.
To
tion
is
57
be represented otherwise than with approba-
w orse
T
There
than the worst of deaths.
are
many
as
different
opinions as there
are different tastes.
Pedlr cotufas
en el golfo,
truffles in the sea, a
signifies
to
look
proverb applicable to those
for
who
are too sanguine in their expectations and unreason-
able in their desires.
" There is no necessity for recording actions
which are prejudicial to the hero, without being essential to the history.
/Eneas was
It is
not to be supposed that
in all his actions so pure as Virgil rep-
resents him, nor Ulysses so uniformly prudent as he
is
Homer."
described by
son
\
" but
it
is
" True,"
replied
Samp-
one thing to write as a poet, and
another to write as an historian.
The
poet
may
say or sing, not as things were, but as they ought
but the historian must pen them not
to have
been
as they
ought to have been, but as they really were,
without
;
adding to or diminishing aught from the
truth."
There
is
no human history that does not contain
reverses of fortune.
While thou
art
advancing in years, age will
bring experience.
Let every man take care how he speaks or
WIT AND WISDOM
5^
writes of honest people, and not set
ture the
first
thing that
With hay
or with straw
Much knowledge
down
at a
ven-
comes uppermost.
it is all
the same.
and a mature understanding
are requisite for an historian.
Wit and humor
The
belong to genius alone.
comedy
wittiest person in the
is
he that
plays the fool.
History
is
a sacred subject, because the. soul of
truth
;
and where truth
will reside
;
yet there are
it
is
cast off
books
as if they
is,
there the divinity
some who compose and
were tossing up a dish of
pancakes.
There
is
no book so bad but something good
may be found
in
it.
Printed works
easily seen, so
fects
strictly in
less
may be
read leisurely, their de-
they are scrutinized more or
proportion to the celebrity of the
author.
"
rians,
Men
of great talents, whether poets or histo-
seldom escape the attacks of those who, with-
out ever favoring the world with any production of
their
own, take delight in criticising the works of
" Nor can we wonder at that," said Don
others."
Quixote,
among
u when we observe
divines,
who, though
dull
the
same
enough
practice
in the pul-
"
OF DON QUIXOTE.
pit
59
themselves, are wonderfully sharp-sighted in dis-
covering the defects of other preachers."
Don
indeed, Signor
wish
would be
critics
much upon
Quixote,"
less fastidious,
the motes which
works;
in the brightest
said
for,
may
be discerned even
though aliquando bonus
he was awake to produce a work with so
shade
little
blemishes
are
;
nor dwell so
dormitat Homerus, they ought to consider
and so
" True,
uI
Carrasco
how much
much light
nay, perhaps even his seeming
;
moles,
like
which are
sometimes
thought to be rather an improvement to beauty.
But
cannot be denied that whoever publishes a
it
book
to
the world, exposes himself to imminent
peril, since,
of
things, nothing
all
is
more impossi-
ble than to satisfy everybody,"
Me pondra
Will put
en la Espina de
me on
Santa Lucia; u
Lucia's thorn
St.
\
<?.,
applicable to any
uneasy situation.
Let every man
lay his
hand upon
his heart,
not take white for black, nor black for white
we
are all as
God made
us,
and
\
for
and oftentimes a great
deal worse.
Works done
in
haste are
never finished with
perfection.
There must be a time to attack and a time
and it must not be always, " St. Jago
"
and, " Charge, Spain
retreat,
!
to
!
WIT AND WISDOM
60
True
valor lies in the middle, between the ex-
tremes of cowardice and rashness.
When
the heifer
offered, be ready with the
is
rope.
When
good fortune knocks, make haste
to bid
her welcome.
Honors often change manners.
Sancho went home
in such high spirits that his
wife observed his gayety a bow-shot
off, insomuch
" What makes you
To which he anlook so blithe, friend Sancho ? "
swered " Would to Heaven, dear wife, I were not
"I know not
so well pleased as I seem to be "
what you mean, husband," replied she, " by saying
that she could not help saying,
:
!
you wish you were not so much pleased ; now, silly
as I am, I cannot guess how any one can desire not
" Look you, Teresa," answered
to be pleased."
Sancho, " I am thus merry because I am about to
return to the service of
who
am
accompany him
sides, I
am merry
hundred crowns
it
master
Don
Quixote,
going again in search after adventures, and I
is
to
my
grieves
me
;
for so
my fate wills it.
Be-
with the hopes of finding another
like those
we have
to part from you and
spent
my
;
though
children
;
Heaven would be pleased to give me bread,
dryshod and at home, without dragging me over
and
if
crags and cross-paths,
it is
be better grounded, since
plain that
it
is
my joy
would
now mingled
with
1
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
sorrow for leaving you
ing that I should
so that I
;
be glad
if it
6
was
right in say-
Heaven
pleased
I
were not so well pleased." " Look you, Sancho,"
replied Teresa, " ever since you have been a knight-
man, you talk in such a roundabout manner
nobody can understand you." " It is enough,
wife," said Sancho, "that God understands me.
errant
that
He
For
much
you
is
the understander of
for that.
And
Dapple
to take special care of
or four days to
to bear
arms
;
things
all
do you hear, wife,
it
and so
;
behooves
for these three
come, that he may be
in a condition
so double his allowance,
and get the
pack-saddle in order, and the rest of his tackling
for
we
are
not going to a wedding, but to roam
about the world, and to give and take with giants,
fiery
dragons, and goblins, and to
roarings, bellowings,
and bleatings,
be but flowers of lavender,
if
hear
all
we had
not to do
with Yano-ueses and enchanted Moors."
lieve, indeed,
deliver
tell
I
be-
I shall
not
their bread for nothing,
fail
you speedily from
w ife," answered
T
you,
"
husband," replied Teresa, " that your
squires-errant do not eat
and therefore
hissings,
which would
so
to beseech
Heaven
much
hap."
evil
Sancho, " that did
to
U
I
I
not
myself governor of an
expect,
ere
island, I
vow I should drop down dead upon the
" Not so, good husband," quoth Teresa
spot."
"
let
you
long, to
see
;
the hen live, though
live,
the world
it
and the devil take
!
Without
a
be with the
all
pip.
Do
the governments in
government you came
into
WIT AND WISDOM
62
the world, without a government you have lived
now, and without
grave, whenever it
you can be
it
carried
God.
shall please
folks are there in the world that have
ment
!
and yet they
the people.
and
as that
The
is
live,
to
till
your
How many
no govern-
and are reckoned among
best sauce in the world
is
hunger,
never wanting to the poor, they
al-
ways eat with a relish. But if perchance, Sancho,
you should get a government, do not forget me and
Consider that your son Sancho is
your children.
just fifteen years
school, if
up
old,
and
it is
he should go to
fit
his uncle the abbot means to breed him
to the church.
Consider, also, that
Mary Sanif we
cha, your daughter, will not break her heart
marry her;
for I
much mind
to a
ment
;
am
mistaken
if
she has not as
husband as you have to a govern-
and verily say
I,
better a daughter but
hum-
" In good faith,
Heaven be so good to
bly married than highly kept."
dear wife," said Sancho,
me
"
if
that I get any thing like a government, I will
match Mary Sancha so highly that there will be no
coming near her without calling her your ladyship."
u Not so, Sancho," answered Teresa ; " the best
way
is
to
marry her to her equal
\
for if
you
lift
her
from clouted shoes to high heels, and, instead of
her russet coat of fourteenpenny
farthingale
plain
and
petticoats of silk;
Molly and thou, she be
your ladyship, the
and will
fall
girl will
not
stuff,
give her a
and instead of
called madam and
know where she is,
into a thousand mistakes at every step,
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
63
showing her home-spun country stuff." " Peace,
fool " quoth Sancho, u she has only to practise two
!
or three years, and the gravity will set upon her as
if
it
it ?
were made
for her
Let her be
a lady,
" Measure
and
-,
if not,
and come of
yourself by your
w hat
T
matters
what
it
will."
Sancho,"
condition,
" and do not seek to raise yourWipe your
self higher, but remember the proverb,
neighbor's son's nose and take him into your house.'
It would be a pretty business, truly, to marry our
Mary to some great count or knight, w ho, when
the fancy takes him, would look upon her as some
answered Teresa
;
c
T
thing, and be
strange
clod-breaker's
brat,
No, not while
I live,
up
my
calling her
and
I
know
husband
child to be so used
;
I
;
country-wench,
not what
do you provide money,
Sancho, and leave the matching of her to
for
else.
have not brought
my
care
Lope Tocho, John Tocho's son, a
young man, whom we know, and I am
he has a sneaking kindness for the girl to him
there
is
lusty, hale
sure
;
she will be very well married, considering he
equal, and will be always under our eye
shall
be
all
as one, parents
\
is
and
our
we
and children, grandsons
and sons-in-law, and so the peace and blessing of
Heaven
for
will
be
among
where they
will
all
\
and do not you be
neither understand her, nor she
understand herself."
for
us
marrying her at your courts and great palaces,
" Hark you,
Barabbas," replied Sancho,
beast,
"why
and wife
would you
now, without rhyme or reason, hinder me from
;;
WIT AND WISDOM
64
marrying
my
Look
c
say,
who may
daughter with one
may be
grandchildren that
my
you, Teresa, I have always heard
He
that will not
;
bring
me
styled your lordships
?
betters
when he may, when he
will
would be wrong, now
that fortune is knocking at our door, not to open it
c
and bid her welcome.
Let us spread our sail to
he
have nay
shall
the favorable gale,
'
and
now
it
that
it
blows.'
.
.
Can't
.
you perceive, animal, with half an eye," proceeded
Sancho, " that I shall act wisely, in devoting this
body of mine
will
lift
to
some
beneficial
government
us out of the dirt, and enable
Mary Sancha
according to
my own
then wilt thou hear thyself called
Panza, and find thyself seated
pets, cushions,
of
all
and tapestry,
at
me
to
that
match
good pleasure
Donna Teresa
church upon car-
and defiance
in despite
the small gentry in the parish
;
and not be
always in the same moping circumstances, without
increase or diminution, like a picture in the hangings
;
but no more of this
;
Sanchica shall be a
countess, though thou shouldst cry thy heart out."
" Look
resa y "
before you leap, husband," answered
Te-
wish to God this quality of my
may not be the cause of her perdition
your own way, and make her duchess or prinafter all, I
daughter
take
cess, or
what you please
never be with
ways
my
;
but
I'll
assure you
consent or good-will
a lover of equality,
my
dear,
;
I
it
shall
was
al-
and can't bear
to see people hold their heads high without reason.
Teresa was
I
christened, a bare and simple name,
!
OF DON QUIXOTE,
65
without the addition, garniture, and embroidery of
Don
Donna
or
my
;
name
father's
is
Cascajo, and
mine, as being your spouse, Teresa Panza, though
by rights
as
I
should be called Teresa Cascajo
the king minds, the law binds
;
but
;
and with that
name am I contented, though it be not burdened
with a Don, which weighs so heavy, that I should
not be able to bear
the power of those
Neither will
it.
who
me
see
ess or governor's lady, to
how proud
feeder,
the
of her
tail
in
Mind Mrs. Pork-
it
was but yesterday
distaff,
and went to mass with
gown about
her head, instead of a
she toiled hard at the
veil
!
it
c
say,
she looks
put
I
dressed like a count-
but now, forsooth, she has got her fine far-
;
thingales and jewels, and holds up her head as if
we
did not
seven or
know
her.'
God
If
five senses, or as
preserve
many
me
As
never bring myself into such a quandary.
your part, spouse, you
and
islands,
may go
and be as proud
for
my
we
will not stir
to
peacock
life
one step from the
of
;
and the maid must be
men come
;
my
village
wife that deserves a good name, stays at
she were lame
for
your governments
as a
daughter and me, by the
that hopes to see the
my
in
as they be, I shall
;
but as
father
for,
home
still
the
as if
adoing,
a-wooing."
Pie that covers, discovers.
The
eye
is
grows
poor
man
is
scarcely looked at, while every
turned upon the rich
rich
and great, then
and
:
I
if
the poor
man
warrant you there
is
WIT AND WISDOM
66
work enough for your grumblers and
who swarm everywhere like bees.
backbiters,
All object present to the view, exist, and are
impressed upon the imagination, with
energy and force, than those which
member
to
have seen.
When we
set
though
any person
see
off with rich
vants,
much greater
we only re-
finely dressed,
and
apparel and with a train of ser-
we are moved to show him respect for,
we cannot but remember certain scurvy
;
matters either of poverty or parentage, that for-
merly belonged to him, but which being long gone
we only
And if, as
we
by are almost forgotten,
think of what
see before our eyes.
the preacher said,
the person so raised by good luck, from nothing,
as
it
were, to the tip-top of prosperity, be well-be-
haved, generous, and
civil,
and gives himself no
ridiculous airs, pretending to vie with the old nobility,
take
my word
for
it,
Teresa, nobody will
him with what he was, but will respect him
what he is, except, indeed, the envious, who
hate every man's good luck.
twit
for
People are always ready enough to lend their
money
to governors.
Clothe the boy so that he
what he
To
is,
this
may
be.
women
are
but what he
burden
may
look not like
born
:
they must
OF DON QUIXOTE.
obey their husbands
6j
they are ever such block-
if
heads.
He
coy when fortune's kind,
that's
may
after
seek but never find.
All knights cannot be courtiers, neither can
all
courtiers be knights.
The
knight
courtier
nor cold, hunger nor
only on a map,
travels
without fatigue or expense
;
he neither
While
thirst.
suffers heat
the true knio-ht-
errant explores every quarter of the habitable world,
and
by night and day on foot or on horseback,
is
exposed to
the vicissitudes of the weather.
all
All are not affable and well-bred
trary,
some there
All those
who
;
on the con-
are extremely brutal and impolite.
call
themselves knights, are not en-
titled to that distinction
;
some being of pure
gold,
and others of baser metal, notwithstanding the de-
But these
nomination they assume.
stand the touchstone of truth
beians,
who
last
cannot
mean
there are
ple-
sweat and struggle to maintain the ap-
pearance of gentlemen
;
and, on the
there are gentlemen of rank
to appear
;
who seem
mean and degenerate
;
other hand,
industrious
the one sort raise
themselves either by ambition or virtue, while the
other abase themselves by viciousness or sloth
that
and
we must
avail
discernment in
distinguishing
who, though they bear the same
A.
;
so
ourselves of our understanding
those
persons,
appellation, are vet
WIT AND WISDOM
68
so different in point of character.
All the genealo-
may be reduced to four
those families who from a low
the world
gies
in
The
first
are
ning have raised
and extended themselves,
they have reached the highest pinnacle of
greatness
until
human
the second are those of high extraction,
;
who have
kinds*
begin-
preserved their original dignity
sort are those
who, from
the third
;
a great foundation, have
gradually dwindled, until, like a pyramid, they ter-
The
minate in a small point.
most numerous
last,
which are the
those who have begun
who must end the same.
class, are
and continued low, and
Genealogies are involved in endless confusion,
and those only are
illustrious
and great who are
distinguished by their virtue and liberality, as well
as their riches; for the great
only a great sinner
liberality
is
The
;
man who is vicious is
man who wants
and the rich
but a miserly pauper.
gratification
which wealth can bestow
not in mere possession, nor in lavishing
prodigality, but in the wise application of
The
it.
He must
and general conduct.
bred, courteous, kind, and obliging
arrogant,
charitable,
no murmurer
;
above
man who
Of
;
be well-
not proud, nor
all,
he must be
and by two maravedis given cheerfully
to the poor he shall display as
bell.
is
with
poor knight can only manifest his rank by
his virtues
the rich
it
such a
much
generosity as
bestows large alms by sound of
man no one would doubt
his
hon-
:
OF DON QUIXOTE.
69
orable descent, and general applause will be the sure
reward of
There
riches and
his virtue.
two roads by which men may
are
honor
attain
the one by letters, the other by
:
arms.
The
path of virtue
is
narrow, that of vice
is
spacious and broad, as the great Castilian poet expresses
it
By
these rough paths of
The
immortal seats of
Denied
to those
who
toil
and pain,
we
bliss
gain,
heedless stray
In tempting pleasure's flowery way.
Fast bind,
He who
A
fast find.
shuffles
bird in the
Though
hand
there
is
it is
are all mortal
who
cuts.
worth two
is little
he that won't take
We
not he
is
in a
in the bush.
woman's
advice, yet
not over-wise.
;
here to-day and gone to-
morrow.
The lamb
No man
hours of
life
cause death
door of
life
goes to the
in this
is
is
soon as the sheep.
world can promise himself more
God
than
spit as
deaf,
him beand when he knocks at the
is
pleased to grant
;
always in a hurry, and will not be
detained either by
fair
means
or force, by sceptres
WIT AND WISDOM
7°
.
or mitres, as the report goes, and as
heard
it
we have
often
declared from the pulpit.
The hen
Many
ting aught
sits, if it
littles
make
a mickle, and he that
is
get-
losing naught.
is
While
be but upon one egg.
there are peas in the dove-cote
it
shall
never want pigeons.
A
good reversion
is
better than bad possession,
and a good claim better than bad pay.
The
A
bread eaten, the company broke up.
man must
Nothing
woman
be a man, and a
inspires a knight-errant with
a
woman.
so
much
valor as the favor of his mistress.
O envy thou root of infinite mischief, and
canker-worm of virtue
The commission of all
!
!
other vices, Sancho,
delight
;
it
but rage, rancor, and disgust.
love of fame
ciples in the
We
attended with some sort of
but envy produces nothing in the heart
that harbors
The
is
human
cannot
paths by which
all
God
is
one of the most active prin-
breast.
be
friars,
and various are the
conducts the good to heaven.
Let us keep our holy days
throw the rope
after the bucket.
in
peace, and not
1
OF DON QUIXOTE.
There
a time for jesting,
is
7
and a time when
jokes are unseasonable.
Truth may bend but never break, and
above falsehood,
rise
With
will ever
above water.
lovers the external actions and gestures
are couriers,
is
like oil
which bear authentic
tidings of
what
passing in the exterior of the soul.
A
stout heart flings misfortune.
Where you meet
with no books you need ex-
pect no bacon.
The
hare often starts where the hunter least
expects her.
There
who
a
is
remedy
will take us in his clutches spite of our teeth.
Show me who thou
what thou
Not
thou
and
I will tell
thee
with
whom
thou wert bred, but with
whom
art fed.
men
It
for
man, not
for beasts, yet
encourage melancholy too much, they be-
come no
is
better than beasts.
not courage, but rashness, for one
singly to encounter
ent,
art with,
art.
Sorrow was made
if
for every thing but death,
an army, where death
and where emperors
good and bad angels.
is
man
pres-
fight in person, assisted
by
WIT AND WISDOM
72
Good
Christians should never revenge injuries.
A sparrow
on the wing.
At
strips
in the
hand
better than a vulture
is
the conclusion of this drama of life,
death
us of the robes which make the difference
between man and man, and leaves us
all
on one
level in the grave.
From
Nor
a friend to a friend,* etc.
let it
be taken amiss that any comparison
made between
should be
animals and that of
many
edge and
men
the mutual cordiality of
for
;
much
useful
knowl-
salutary precepts have been taught
by the brute creation.
Out of
the abundance of the heart the
mouth
speaketh.f
We
may
learn gratitude
from cranes, foresight from
as well
ants,
as
vigilance
modesty from
ele-
phants, and loyalty from horses.
SONNET.
Bright authoress of
my
good or
ill,
Prescribe the law I must observe;
My
heart, obedient to thy will,
Shall never
* " From
from
a friend to a friend, a
its
duty swerve.
bug in the eye,"
is
plied to the false professions of friendship.
j-
Cervantes makes frequent use of Bible quotations.
a proverb ap-
OF DON QUIXOTE.
my
you refuse
If
The
But
if
your ears
shall
Though
Hard
And
my fate
would drink my woe.
contraries
as the
Take
thee,
it,
;
himself the tale relate.
my
heart compose,
diamond's
soft as yielding
To
know,
anguish seals
stifled
Love
griefs to
J$
my
wax
that flows,
fair, 'tis still
for every
frame,
solid
the same.
stamp prepared
;
Imprint what characters you choose
The faithful tablet, soft or hard,
The dear impression ne'er shall
The
sorrows that
affections,
may
arise
->
lose.
from well-placed
ought rather to be accounted blessings
than calamities.
Good
fare lessens care.
Covetousness bursts the bae.
Other
There
folks'
is
burdens break the
ass's back.
no road so smooth but
it
has
its
stum-
bling-places.
Madness
will
have more followers than discre-
tion.
Comparisons
in grief lessen
its
weight.
If the blind lead the blind, both
the ditch.
may
fall
into
—
WIT AND WISDOM
74
If
we have
a
good
loaf,
us not
let
look for
cheese-cakes.
A
good paymaster needs no pledge.
Nobody knows
the heart of his neighbor
;
some
go out for wool and come home shorn.
The
conquered must be
at the discretion
of the
conqueror.
It
more
easy to undertake, but
is
difficult
to
finish a thing.
Heaven knows
The
the truth of
ancient sages,
all
who were
things.
not enlightened
with the knowledge of the true God, reckoned the
gifts
of fortune and nature, abundance of friends,
and increase of dutiful children, as constituting part
of the supreme happiness.
Letters without virtue are like pearls on a dunghill.
Poetry
I
regard as a tender virgin, young and
whom
extremely beautiful,
namely,
all
divers other
virgins
—are assiduous to en-
the other sciences-
rich, to polish,
and adorn.
She
is
to be served
them, and they are to be ennobled through her.
this
same
dragged
virgin
is
by
But
not to be rudely handled, nor
through the
streets,
nor exposed in the
market-place, nor posted on the corners of gates of
OF DON QUIXOTE.
She
palaces.
knows how
75
of so exquisite a nature that he
is
who
to treat her will convert her into gold
of the most inestimable value.
He who
her should guard her with vigilance
;
possesses
neither suffer-
ing her to be polluted bv obscene, nor degraded by
no wise venal, she
fair
Although she must be
and frivolous works.
dull
is
not, therefore, to despise the
reward of honorable labors, either
dramatic
near her,
and
this
whoever
must she be approached bv the
neither
term
is
who have no
is
in heroic or
Buffoons must not come
composition.
ignorant vulgar,
in
sense of her charms
equally applicable to
ignorant
is
with the qualifications
self to poetry, will
vulgar.
I
all
;
ranks, for
He, therefore, who,
have named, devotes him-
be honored and esteemed bv
all
nations distinguished for intellectual cultivation.
Indeed,
it is
generally said that the gift of poesy
is innate— that is, a poet is born a poet, and thus
endowed by Heaven, apparently without study or
art, composes things which verify the saving, Est
Thus
who
improves himself by art, rises far above him who is
merely the creature of study.
Art may improve,
dens in nobis, etc.
but cannot surpass nature
the
;
poet of nature,
and, therefore,
it is
the
union of both which produces the perfect poet.
Let him
in all
its
viduals,
their
direct the shafts
of satire against vice,
them at indisome who, rather than not indulge
various forms, but not level
like
mischievous wit, will hazard a disgraceful ban-
WIT AND WISDOM
76
ishment to the
Isles of Pontus.
If the poet be cor-
rect in his morals, his verse will partake of the
purity
:
the pen
such will be his productions.
his conceptions are,
The
wise and virtuous subject
poetic genius
who
is
gifted with a
ever honored and enriched by his
is
sovereign, and
same
the tongue of the mind, and what
is
crowned with the leaves of the
tree
which the thunderbolt hurts not, as a token that all
should respect those brows which are so honorably
adorned.
Forewarned, fore-armed
;
to be prepared
is
half
the victory.
It
a nobler sight to behold a knight-errant
is
widow
assisting a
in solitude than a courtier-knight
complimenting a damsel in the
Well
know
I
city.
that fortitude
is
a virtue placed
between the two extremes of cowardice and rashness
:
but
it
is
better the valiant should rise to the
extreme of temerity than sink to that of cowardice
for, as
it is
become
:
easier for the prodigal than the miser to
liberal,
so
it
is
much
easier for the rash
than the cowardly to become truly brave.
In enterprises of every kind,
the
game by
for
it
a card too
much
it
is
better to lose
than one too
little
;
sounds better to be called rash and daring
than timorous and cowardly.
" Signor Don Diego de Miranda, your
sir,
has informed
me
father,
of the rare talents you possess,
;
!
!
OF DON QUIXOTE.
JJ
and particularly that you are a great poet."
tainly not a great poet,"
true I
am
;
but I have no claim to the
Don
modesty," answered
dislike this
my
title
u
upon me."
pleased to confer
is
\
fond of poetry, and honor the works of
good poets
father
Lorenzo
replied
" Cer" it is
I
Quixote
do not
;
"
for
poets are usually very arrogant, each thinking himself the greatest in the
without an exception,"
"and
surely there
may
" There
world."
be
Don
no
rule
" Very few,
too conscious of their real merits."
believe," said
is
Don Lorenzo;
some who do not appear
answered
Quixote.
THE TEXT.
Could
I recall
departed joy,
Though barred the hopes of greater
Or now the future hours employ
That must succeed my
gain,
present pain.
THE PARAPHRASE.
All fortune's blessings disappear,
She's fickle as the
wind
;
And now I find her as severe
As once I thought her kind.
How
How
soon the fleeting pleasures passed
long the lingering sorrows
Unconstant goddess,
Do
last
in thy haste,
not thy prostrate slave destroy
I'd ne'er complain, but bless
Could I recall departed joy.
my
fate,
I
—
WIT AND WISDOM
j8
a
Of
thy
all
gifts I
beg but
this
;
mankind with more,
Transport them with redoubled
But only mine restore.
Glut
all
bliss,
With thought of pleasure once possessed,
now as cursed as I was blessed
Oh, would the charming hours return,
How pleased I'd live, how free from pain,
I'm
:
I ne'er
would
would mourn,
pine, I ne'er
Though barred the hopes of greater gain.
But oh, the blessing
Not
I
implore
can give
fate itself
!
Since time elapsed exists no more,
No
power can bid
it
live.
Our days soon vanish into naught,
And have no being but in thought.
Whate'er began must end
In vain
we
twice would youth enjoy,
In vain would
Or now
at last,
we
recall the past,
the future hours employ.
Deceived by hope, and racked by
No
I'll
longer
life
then no more
can please
its
fear,
;
torments bear,
Since death so soon can ease.
This hour
A
rising
I'll
doubt
Assist, ye
die—but,
my
let
me
powers that rule
Alarm my thoughts, my rage
Convince
my
pause
courage awes.
my
fate,
restrain,
soul there's yet a state
That must succeed my present pain.
OF DON QUIXOTE.
O
how
Flattery,
potent
is
79
thy sway
How
J
wide the bounds of thy pleasing jurisdiction
!
ON THE STORY OF PYRAMUS AND THI3BE.
SOXXET.
The nymph who Pyramus
with love inspired
Pierces the wall, with equal passion fired
Cupid from
And
distant
Cyprus thither
:
flies,
views the secret breach with laughing eves.
Here
silence, vocal,
mutual vows conveys,
And whispering eloquent, their love betravs
Though chained by fear, their voices dare not
:
Their
souls, transmitted
Ah, woful
pass,
through the chink, embrace.
story of disastrous love
!
Ill-fated haste that did their ruin
prove
One
And
memories
!
death, one grave, unite the faithful pair,
in
No
one
common fame
their
share.
parents can see the deformity of their
children, and
still
stronger
is
this self-deception
own
with
respect to the offspring of the mind.
At
parting,
Don Lorenzo
I
:
Don
"
I
Quixote addressing himself to
know not," said he, " whether
have already told your worship, but
me now
repeat the intimation, that
if I
have,
when you
let
are
inclined to take the shortest and easiest road to the
inaccessible
summit of the temple of fame, you
have no more to do, but to leave on one
path of poetry, which
is
side the
pretty narrow, and follow
WIT AND WISDOM
80
that of knight-errantry, which,
though the narrowest
of
to the throne of
all
others, will conduct
you
em-
of a straw."
pire in the turning
Riches are able to solder abundance of flaws.
Every sheep
to
its like.
Let every goose a gander choose.
" If love only were to be considered," said Don
Quixote, " parents would no longer have the privilege
those
Were
of judiciously matching their children.
daughters
to choose for themselves, there are
left
who would
prefer their father's serving-man,
throw themselves away on some fellow they
or
might chance to see in the street
haps, an impostor and
gentleman
:
:
mistaking, per-
swaggering poltroon for a
since passion too easily blinds the un-
derstanding, so indispensably necessary in deciding
on that most important point, matrimony, which
is
peculiarly exposed to the danger of a mistake, and
therefore needs
all
the caution that
human prudence
can supply, aided by the particular favor of Heaven.
A
person
he
is
for
some
who
proposes to take a long journey,
prudent, before he sets forward will look out
not he
safe
who
and agreeable companion
undertakes a journey for
same precaution,
is
if
to be his
other situations
which,
especially as
companion
?
at
The
his
;
and should
life
use the
fellow-traveller
bed and board, and
wife
is
in all
not a commodity
when once bought, you can exchange
or
;!
OF DON QUIXOTE.
return
;
8l
the marriage bargain, once struck,
ocable.
It is
irrev-
is
once thrown about
a noose which,
the neck, turns to a Gordian knot, and cannot be
unloosed
By
till
cut asunder by the scythe of death."
" by-and-by " one
the streets of
arrives at
the house of never.
God who
gives the
wound
sends the cure.
Nobody knows what is to come. A great many
come in between this and to-morrow and in
one hour, yea, in one minute, down falls the house.
I have seen rain and sunshine at the same moment
a man may go to bed well at night, and not be able
and tell me who can boast
to stir next morning
hours
;
;
of having- driven a nail in fortune's
Between the yes and no of
a
wheel
?
woman
I
would
not undertake to thrust the point of a pin.
" Love, as I have heard say, wears spectacles,
through which copper looks like gold, rags like rich
"A
apparel, and specks in the eye like pearls."
"
curse on thee, Sancho," said Don Quixote
what
;
wouldst thou be
at
?
When
proverbs begins, Judas alone
— can have patience
for
nails
wish he had thee
!
Tell me, animal
and wheels, or of any
I am not understood," reSancho, " no wonder that what I say passes
nonsense.
stand
—-I
to the end.
what knowest thou of
u Oh, if
thing else ? "
plied
once thy stringing of
myself:
But no matter
neither
have
I
said
—
I
under-
many
foolish
for that
WIT AND WISDOM
82
things, only your worship
—not
cricket, fool
!
" Critic
such a cricket."
is
—thou
corrupter of good lan-
" Pray,
guage," said the knight.
sir, do not be so
sharp upon me," answered Sancho, " for I was not
know
bred at court, nor studied in Salamanca, to
my
whether
words have a
As Heaven
many.
letter short, or
shall save
me,
it is
one too
unreason-
able to expect that beggarly Sayagues should talk
Toledans
like
—nay,
even some of them are not
over-nicely spoken."
Purity, propriety, and elegance of style, will al-
ways be found among
men.
I
have heard
polite, well-bred,
of your fencers, that they
said
it
and sensible
can thrust you the point of a sword through the eye
of a needle.
O
happy thou above
all
on the face of
that live
the earth, who, neither envying nor envied, canst
take thy needful rest with tranquillity of soul
ther
persecuted by enchanters, nor
their
machinations
say, sleep
keep thee
on
!
!
Sleep on
No jealousies
—
nei-
:
affrighted
by
a hundred times I
on thy
in perpetual watchings,
lady's
account
nor do anxious
how
thoughts of debts unpaid awake thee
;
on the morrow thou and thy
straitened fam-
ily shall
be provided
for.
not, nor does the vain
thee
;
for thy chief
since to
me
is
little
Ambition
pomp
concern
is
nor care
disquiets thee
of the world disturb
the care of thy ass
;
committed the comfort and protec-
;
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
tion of thine
own
person
:
a
burden imposed on the
The
master by nature and custom.
and the master
lies
83
servant sleeps,
awake, considering how he
The
him kindness.
maintain, assist, and do
is
to
pain
of seeing the heavens obdurate in withholding the
moisture
who
only the master,
of
refresh the
necessary to
sterility
is
and famine,
bound
touches
earth,
to provide in times
for those
who
served him in
the season of fertility and abundance.
If he
A
is
poor he cannot think to wed Quiteria.
pleasant fancy, forsooth, for a fellow
who
has
not a groat in his pocket to look for a yoke-mate
above the clouds.
man
Faith,
sir,
in
my
opinion a poor
should be contented with what he finds, and
not be seeking for truffles at the bottom of the sea.
CUPID'S ADDRESS.
I
am
the god
Through
whose pow er extends
T
the wide ocean, earth, and sky
To my
soft sway all nature bends,
Compelled by beauty to complv.
Fearless I rule, in calm and storm,
Indulge
my
pleasure to the
full
Things deemed impossible perform,
Bestow, resume, ordain, annul.
Cupid, having finished his address, shot an ar-
row over
the castle, and retired to his station
which Interest stepped
forth,
and
movements, the music ceasing, he
after
said
:
two
;
upon
similar
;
:
:
:
:
WIT AND WISDOM
84
My
power exceeds the might of
love,
For Cupid bows to me alone
Of all things framed by Heaven above,
The most respected, sought, and known.
My
name is Interest ; mine aid
But few obtain, though all desire
Yet
shall thy virtue,
My
beauteous maid,
constant services acquire.
then withdrew, and Poetry advanced
Interest
and, fixing her eyes on the damsel of the
;
castle,
she said
Let Poetry, whose
strain divine
The wondrous power
Her
heart to thee, fair
of song displays,
nymph, consign,
Transported in melodious lays
If haply thou wilt not refuse
To
grant
Thy fame
my
shall,
Surmount the
supplicated boon,
wafted by the muse,
circle of the
moon.
Poetry having retired from the side of Interest,
Liberality advanced
;
and, after making her move-
ments, said
My
name
is
Liberality,
Alike beneficent and wise,
To
shun wild prodigality,
And
sordid avarice despise.
Yet, for thy favor lavish grown,
A
prodigal I
mean
to prove,
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
An
honorable vice,
But giving
I
85
own,
the test of love.
is
So much thou art worth as thou
much thou hast as thou art worth.
There
are only
two
and so
hast,
world
families in the
we
are apt to feel
more often the
the
Nowa-
have somethings and the have nothings.
days
:
pulse of
property than of wisdom.
SANCHO PANZA ON DEATH.
" In good
is
no trusting
Mrs. Ghostly,
to
I
mean Death, who
gobbles up the goslin as well as the goose
I
have heard
" there
sooth, signor," said the squire,
our curate
and, as
;
down
observe, tramples
the lofty turrets of the prince as well as the lowly
That same
cottage of the swain.
lady,
powerful than coy, knows not what
and squeamish; but
;
she
is
all
is
more
to be dainty
and crams
nations, degrees, and
none of your laborers that take
their afternoon's nap, but
down
who
eats of every thing,
her wallet with people of
conditions
it is
mows
at all hours, cutting
the dry stubble as well as the green grass
nor does she seem to chew, but rather swallows
and devours every thing that
she
is
fied
;
gnawed by
a dog's
and though she has no
herself dropsical, and
lives
of
all
the people
so
falls in
hunger that
her
is
way
never
belly, plainly
thirsty as to drink
upon
earth, just as
swallow a draught of cool water."
;
for
satis-
shows
up the
one would
" Enough,
WIT AND WISDOM
86
friend Sancho,"
in this place
cried the knight, interrupting
u keep thyself
;
well,
now thou
and beware of stumbling again; for
order,
him
art in
really a
good preacher could not speak more to the purpose
than thou hast spoken upon Death, in thy rustic
manner of expression
I say
:
unto thee, Sancho,
if
thy discretion was equal to thy natural parts, thou
mightest ascend the pulpit, and go about teaching
" He
and preaching to admiration."
who
preacher
u and
is
that
is all
sufficient,"
a
is
good
liver,"
good
a
is
answered Panza,
know." " And that
the knight; "yet I shall never
the divinity I
said
God
understand or comprehend, as the fear of
the beginning of wisdom,
how
thou,
who
art
is
more
Maker, should be so
" Signor," replied Sancho, " I desire your
worship would determine in your own affairs of chivafraid of a lizard than of thy
"
wise
?
alry,
without taking the trouble to judge of other
people's valor or fears
God
pretty a fearer of
any neighbor's
worship,
let
thing else
is
me
idle
child
;
;
for
as
my own
part, I
am
one would desire to see
as
in
wherefore, I beseech your
discuss this
chat, of
same scum
which we
;
for every
shall
be able to
give a bad account in the other world."
An
ass with
golden trappings makes a better
appearance than a horse with a pack-saddle.
" That ought not
aims
at a virtuous
no end
is
to be called deception
end," said
Don
Quixote
;
which
" and
more excellent than the marriage of
true
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
lovers
87
though love," added he, " has
;
its
enemies,
and none greater than hunger and poverty, for love
gayety, joy, and content."
is all
" The poor man of honor
serve
jewel
that
and when that
;
of his honor, which
chaste
a poor
(if
man can
de-
possesses, in a beautiful wife, a
title)
taken away, he
is
is
murdered
woman, whose husband
is
deprived
and
a beautiful
:
poor, deserves to
is
be crowned with laurel and palms of triumph
for
;
who
hawk
beauty alone attracts the inclinations of those
behold
it
;
just as the royal eagle
stoop to the savory lure
but
;
and soaring
if that
cumbered by poverty and want,
it
beauty
in-
is
likewise at-
is
tacked by ravens, kites, and other birds of prey
and
if
she
who
possesses
of her
Take
husband.
"
Basilius," added the knight,
a certain sage, that there
the whole world
all
deserves to be called the
these assaults, she well
crown
firmly withstands
it
it
notice,
dearest
was the opinion of
was but one good wife
in
and he advised every husband to
;
believe she had fallen to his share, and accordingly
be
satisfied
with his
nor hitherto have
lot.
my
to advise
him who asks
place, I
may
am
not married,
I entertained the least
changing
that he
myself
I
condition
find a
;
thought of
nevertheless, I wnll venture
my advice,
woman to his
would exhort him
reputation than to fortune
to
;
in
such a manner,
wish
:
in the first
pay more regard to
for a virtuous
woman
does not acquire a good name, merely by being
vir-
;
WIT AND WISDOM
Od
tuous
she must likewise maintain the exteriors of
\
much
deportment, for the honor of the sex suffers
more from
and freedom of behavior
levity
than from any private misdeeds.
woman
a good
to thy house,
it
If thou bringest
be an easy task
will
and even improve her virtue
preserve
to
in public,
;
but,
shouldst thou choose a wife of a different character,
it
abundance of pains to mend her
will cost thee
for
not very practicable to pass from one ex-
is
it
treme to another
though
possible,
do not say
I
:
I hold
it
altogether im-
is
it
much
for a matter of
dif-
ficulty."
The ox
that
Sancho,
who had been
discourse,
said
is
loose
is
best licked.
attentive to the student's
" Tell me,
:
sir
—so
may Heaven
send you good luck with your books
me
solve
—but know you
—who was
can, since
I
the
every thing
—can you
first
man
re-
you know
that scratched
head ? I, for my part, am of opinion, it must
have been our father Adam." "Certainly," anhis
swered the scholar
Adam
for there
had a head and hair
he, being the
have been the
is
"
;
what
the
first
man in the
who scratched
said
Sancho
;
tion,
which
world, must needs
his
head."
" but
tumbler in the world
brother," answered the scholar,
mine that point
no doubt but
is
and, this being granted,
first
first
I think,"
who was
;
till
I will
I
have given
surely do
"
it
when
I
tell
?
"
" That
me now,
" Truly,
cannot deter-
some consideraI return
to
my
OF DON QUIXOTE.
books, and will satisfy you
again, for I
" Look
hope
this will
when we
my
I
see each other
not be the
ye, sir," replied Sancho,
about the matter, for
89
" be
have already
last
time."
no trouble
at
hit
upon the
Know, then, that the first
when he was cast or thrown
headlong from heaven, and came tumbling; down
answer to
question.
tumbler was Lucifer,
to the lowest abyss."
ote,
"thou hast
some there
said
"Sancho," quoth Don Quixmore than thou art aware of;
who bestow much labor in examining and explaining things which when known
for
are not
I
are
worth recollecting."
am
of this
thoroughly
life
pass
satisfied
away
like
a
that
all
shadow
the pleasures
or dream, or
fade like a flower of the field.
Patience, and shuffle the cards.
We are
Tell
thou
me
all
bound
thy
to respect the aged.
company and
I will tell thee
what
art.
Whatever
The
is
uncommon
hypocrite,
who
appears impossible.
cloaks his knavery,
dangerous to the commonwealth than he
who
is
less
trans-
gresses in the face of day.
He who
only wears the garb of piety does less
harm than the professed
I
sinner.
had rather serve the king
in his
wars abroad,
than be the. lackey of any beggarly courtier at home.
WIT AND WISDOM
90
There is nothing more honorable, next to the
which you owe to God, than to serve your
service
king and natural lord, especially in the profession
of arms, which,
exceeds
it
than learning, far
if less profitable
More
in glory.
great families,
it is
have been established by learning, yet there
the
character
martial
certain
a
true,
is
in
which
splendor,
But
you a piece of advice, which,
believe me, you will find worth your attention.
Never suffer your mind to dwell on the adverse
seems to exalt
allow me,
sir,
is
life
death, and
orous
other pursuits.
for the worst
;
when
can
that
befall
attended with honor there
no event so glorious.
is
all
to offer
events of your
you
above
far
it
Caesar, that val-
Julius
Roman, being asked which was
the kind of
death to be preferred, " That," said he, " which is
Though he answered
sudden and unforeseen "
!
who knew not the true God, yet
human infirmity, it was well said. For,
a heathen,
like
considering
supposing you should be cut off in the very
first
encounter, either by cannon-shot or the springing
of a mine, what does
it
signify
?
it
is
but dying,
which is inevitable, and, being over, there it ends.
Terence observes that the corpse of the man who
is
slain in battle looks better
who
has saved himself by
than the living soldier
flight
;
and the good
dier rises in estimation according to the
his
obedience to those
serve, moreover,
my
who command
sol-
measure of
him.
Ob-
son, that a soldier had better
smell of gunpowder than of
musk; and
if
old age
1
OF DON QUIXOTE.
9
overtakes you in this noble profession, though lame
and maimed, and covered with wounds,
you
honor
also covered with
;
poverty itself cannot deprive you.
indeed,
you
are secure
for care
;
it
will find
and of such honor
is
as
From poverty,
now taken that
veteran and disabled soldiers shall not be exposed to
many do
want, nor be treated as
when
their negro slaves,
them out of their
them freedom,
hunger, from which they can
old and past service, turning
houses, and, under pretence of giving
leave
them
have no
slaves to
relief but in death.
There
are often rare abilities lost to the world,
that are but ill-bestowed
how
to
employ them
on those w ho do not know
T
to advantage.
If the abbot sings well, the novice
comes not
far
behind him.
Who
reads and travels
much,
sees
and learns
much.
It is the prerogative
prehend
all
There
God
of
To Him
Every thing
or future.
all
things.
is
alone to truly
there
is
com-
nothing past
present.
nothing that Time, the discoverer of
is
things, will not bring to light,
even though
it
be
hidden in the bowels of the earth.
Length begets
Heaven
est distress.
is
loathing.
merciful and sends relief in the great-
WIT AND WISDOM
92
Affectation
is
the devil.
Heaven help every one
but
let
what
to
their just due,
is
us have plain dealing.
When
The
When
choler once
tongue
born,
curb doth scorn.
all
man
a brave
is
flies,
he must have discov-
ered foul play.
To
retire is
not to
Other men's pains
He who
errs
Himself
to
In
this
sit
and mends,
sin
and
kiss the rod,
in the sight of
If you obey the
You may
are easily borne.
Heaven commends.
Those who
Find favor
fly.
God.
commands of your
lord,
as a guest at his board.
world there
nothing but plots and
is
counterplots, mines, and countermines.
Where
there
is
plenty,
dinner
is
soon
made
ready.
Often the hare
starts
where she
least
ex-
called
Na-
is
pected.
I
ture
have heard
is
it
like a potter,
said, that the
who,
if
power
he can make one beau-
OF DON QUIXOTE.
vessel, can in
tiful
like
93
manner make two,
three,
and a hundred.
ay,
Wit and gay
conceits proceed not from dull
heads.
Every man must speak of
he
may
his
wants wherever
be.
Modesty
as
is
becoming
a knight-errant as cour-
age.
The
master
Who
sets
his servants.
up for a talker and a wit, sinks
at the
into a contemptible buffoon.
The weapons
men,
respected in proportion to the
good breeding of
discretion and
first trip
is
of gownsmen, like those of
wo-
are their tongues.
Keep company with
the good, and you will be
one of them.
Not where you were
born, but where you were
bred.
An
Well
sheltered shall he be
Who
leans against a sturdy tree.
affront
only gives
given
;
it,
must come from a person who not
but
an injury
He who
who can maintain
may come from any
it
when
it
hand.
can receive no affront can give none.
is
WIT AND WISDOM
94
One must
He who
To
long to see much.
live
long must suffer much.
lives
deprive a knight-errant of his mistress,
is
to
rob him of the eyes with which he sees, the sun by
which he
he
is
enlightened, and the support by which
maintained
is
have many times
I
:
said,
and
now
I repeat the observation, that a knight-errant with-
out a mistress,
is
like a tree
without leaves, a build-
ing without cement, and a shadow without the sub-
stance by which
it is
produced.
Possessing beauty without blemish, dignity without pride, love with
modesty, politeness springing
from courtesy, and courtesy from good-breeding,
and, finally, of illustrious descent
that
is
for the beauty
;
of a noble race, shines with more splendor
than that which
meanly born.
is
Virtue ennobles blood, and a virtuous person of
humble
birth
is
more estimable than
a vicious per-
son of rank.
must inform your graces, that Sancho Panza
is one of the most pleasant squires that ever served
a knight-errant sometimes his simplicity is so arch,
that to consider whether he is more fool or wag,
I
:
yields
to
abundance of pleasure ; he has roguery enough
pass for a knave, and absurdities
confirm him a fool
lieves
every thing
going to
;
;
discharge
sufficient
to
he doubts every thing, and be-
and often, when
nonsense, he
I think
will
utter
he
is
apo-
:
OF DON QUIXOTE.
thegms that
I
him to the skies in a word,
would not exchange him for any other squire,
will raise
even with a
city to
:
boot
doubt whether or not
him
so
95
to that
good
as
perceive in
so that,
;
and therefore
will
it
am
I
in
be expedient to send
government which your grace has been
although I can
to bestow upon him
;
him
when
a certain aptitude for such an office
his
understanding
ished, he will agree with
king with his customs
;
is
a very
little
pol-
any government,
like the
we know by
repeated
for
experience, that great talents and learning are not
necessary in a governor, as there are a hundred at
least,
who govern
hardly read
intention
is
their
like gerfalcons,
mother tongue
though they can
:
provided their
righteous, and their desire to do justice,
they will never want counsellors to direct them in
every transaction, like your military governors,
being
illiterate
themselves, never decide without
the advice of an assessor.
I shall advise
ruption to eschew, but never quit his due
culcate
some other small matters
head, which, in process of time,
his
own
interest, as well as to the
island under his
The
who
him
;
cor-
and
that are in
may redound
in-
my
to
advantage of the
command.
customs of countries, or of great men's
houses, are good as far as they are agreeable.
The
pismire found wings to her sorrow.
There's as good bread baked here as in France.
WIT AND WISDOM
96
By
night
all cats
Sure the
Who
are gray.
man
his lot
Of
rue,
the birds in the air
God Himself
And
may
has not broke his fast by two.
takes the care.
four yards of coarse cloth of
warmer than
as
from
travelling
many of
this
Cuenza
in
world to the next, the road
is
;
The
no wider for the prince than the peasant.
pope's body takes up no
more room than
sexton, though a loftier person
;
like
it
we
or not.
have heard say the devil lurks behind the
I
all
;
not
is
gold that
ploughtail
Bamba was
and from
his riches
down
that of the
for in the grave
must pack close together, whether we
cross
are
and
fine Segovia serge
to
glitters.
From
the
raised to the throne of Spain,
and revels was Roderigo cast
be devoured by serpents
—
if
ancient bal-
lads tell the truth.
None shall dare the loaf to steal
From him that sifts and kneads the
An
old dog
No man
ops are
is
is
not to be coaxed with a crust.
ever a scholar at his birth, and bish-
made of men, not of
There
is
a
meal.
Judge
in
stones.
heaven who knows the
heart.
A
good name
is
better than tons of gold.
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
He who
97
has been a good squire will never be a
bad governor.
A
bad cloak often covers a good drinker.
When
God's help
Flame may
music
is
is
give light, and bonfires
w e may
may
illumi-
be burnt by them
easily
;
but
always a sign of feasting and merriment.
THE ENCHANTER'S ERRAND.
Merlin
I
am, miscalled the
devil's
son
In lying annals, authorized by time
Monarch supreme, and
Of
magic
art
great depositary
and Zoroastic
skill
;
Rival of envious ages, that would hide
The
glorious deeds of errant cavaliers,
Favored by
Though
To
me
and
my
peculiar charge.
vile enchanters,
still
on mischief bent,
plague mankind their baleful art employ,
Merlin's soft nature, ever prone to good,
His power inclines to bless the
In Hades' chambers, where
Was
forming
spells
human
my
race.
busied ghost
and mystic characters,
Dulcinea's voice, peerless
Tobosan maid.
With mournful accents reached my pitying
knew her woe, her metamorphosed form,
I
be
?
better than early rising.
r
nate, yet
who can
a friend drinks one's health,
so hard-hearted as not to pledge him
ears
;
:
!
WIT AND WISDOM
98
From
To
high-born beauty in a palace graced,
the loathed features of a cottage wench.
With sympathizing
grief I straight revolved
The numerous tomes
And in the hollow of
My
To
of
my
this skeleton
soul enclosing, hither
the cure of such
tell
O
glory thou of
In polished
steel
detested art,
all
am
I
come,
uncommon
ills.
that case their limbs
and fenceful adamant
Light, beacon, polar star, and glorious guide
Of all who,
from the lazy down,
starting
Banish ignoble sleep for the rude
And
toil
hardy exercise of errant arms
Spain's boasted pride,
Whose
fame
!
to beauty's pristine state restore
enchanted dame, Sancho, thy
Must
!
matchless knight,
valiant deeds outstrip pursuing
Wouldst thou
The
La Mancha's
faithful squire,
brawny buttocks, bare exposed,
to his
Three thousand and
may
three hundred stripes apply,
and give him smarting pain
Such
as
The
And
authors of her change have thus decreed,
sting
this is Merlin's errand
The
golden load
Gifts will
make
is
from the shades.
a light burden.
their
way through
Pray devoutly and hammer on
One
take
Let the
is
worth two
I'll
stone walls.
stoutly.
give thee's.
devil fetch the devil.
OF DON QUIXOTE.
99
men
All times are not alike, nor are
humor
Leave
A
always in a
for all things.
fear to the cowardly.
stout heart quails misfortune.
Letters written in blood cannot be disputed.
If
you seek advice about your own concerns,
one will say
is
it
white and another will swear
it is
black.
Nothing
reasonable
so
is
and cheap
as
good
manners.
He
is
safe
who
has good cards to play.
Avarice bursts the bag, and the covetous governor doeth ungoverned justice.
The
law's measure
Is the king's pleasure.
The game
as
one too few
is
;
as often lost
by a card too many
but a word to the
w ise
T
is
sufficient.
The tyrant fair whose beauty sent
The throbbing mischief to my heart,
The more my anguish to augment,
Forbids me to reveal the smart.
Come, Death, with
gently-stealing pace,
And take me unperceived away,
Nor let me see thy wished-for face,
Lest joy
my
fleeting life should stay.
WIT AND WISDOM
100
While
there
is life
there
is
hope.
Bishops are made out of learned men, and
may
not kings and emperors be
aliers
?
A
luck
why
made out of cav-
is
knight-errant with but two grains of good
next in the order of promotion to the great-
est lord in the land.
Let every beard be shaved according
to
the
owner's fancy.
Delay breeds danger.
When
Have
When
the heifer you receive,
a halter in your sleeve.
a thing
is
once begun,
is
it
almost half
finished.
Who
sits
There
is
in the saddle
must get up
first.
command and
nothing so sweet as to
be obeyed.
It
a pleasant thing to govern, even though
is
it
be but a flock of sheep.
Containing the Instructions tvhich
to
Sancho
ment
;
Panza
Don
went
with other well-considered
The duke and
with the
before he
afflicted
to
Quixote gave
his
Govern-
?natters.
duchess being so well pleased
duenna, were encouraged to pro-
ceed with other projects, seeing that there was noth-
1
OF DON QUIXOTE.
10
ing too extravagant for the credulity of the knight
The
and squire.
necessary orders were accordingly
issued to their servants
and vassals with regard to
toward Sancho in
their behavior
The
the promised island.
government of
his
day after the
flight
of
Clavileno, the duke bade Sancho prepare, and get
himself in readiness to assume his
islanders
in
were already wishing
May.
since
my
journey to heaven,
governor has partly cooled
to
him
for
Sancho made a low bow, and
when
and saw the earth so very small,
is it
office,
command on
mustard-seed
a spot
where
:
:
is
for
I
my
for
his
as for rain
said,
" Ever
looked
down
desire to be a
what mighty matter
no bigger than a grain of
pomp
the majesty and
of
governing half a dozen creatures no bigger than
hazel-nuts
offer
?
If your lordship will be
me some
pleased to
small portion of heaven, though
be but half a league,
I
would jump
at
it
it
sooner than
for the largest island in the world."
" Look you, friend Sancho," answered the duke,
" I can give away no part of heaven, not even a
for God has reserved to Himself the
nail's breadth
but what it is in my power
disposal of such favors
and the
to give, I give you with all my heart
island I now present to you is ready made, round
;
;
;
and sound, well-proportioned, and above measure
fruitful, and where, by good management, you may
yourself, with the riches of the earth, purchase an
inheritance in heaven."
Sancho, "
let this island
" Well, then," answered
be forthcoming, and
it
shall
:
WIT AND WISDOM
102
go hard with
me
but I will be such a governor that,
in spite of rogues,
it
heaven
me
will take
out of covetousness that I forsake
Nor
in.
is
my humble
cottage and aspire to greater things, but the desire I
" If
"
once you taste it, Sancho," quoth the duke,
you
will lick your fingers after it
so sweet it is to command and be obeyed. And certain I am, when
your master becomes an emperor, of which there is
no doubt, as matters proceed so well, it would be
impossible to wrest his power from him, and his
have to
taste
what
to be a governor."
is
it
:
only regret will be that he
had
it
not sooner.
55
" Faith, sir, you are in the right, 55 quoth Sancho,
" it is pleasant to govern, though it be but a flock
" Let me be buried with you, Sancho, 55
replied the duke, "if you know not something of
every thing, and I doubt not you will prove a pearl
But enough of this for the present
of a governor.
to-morrow you surely depart for your island, and
this evening you shall be fitted with suitable apparel
of sheep.
and with
" Clothe
still
55
all
things necessary for your appointment.
me
as
you
will,
be Sancho Panza.
duke
;
55
Sancho, "
said
" That
55
is
true,
" but the garb should always be
the office and rank of the wearer
55
I
55
shall
said the
suitable to
for a lawyer to
:
be habited like a soldier, or a soldier like a priest,
would be preposterous
;
and you, Sancho, must be
clad partly like a scholar
as, in
and partly
like a soldier
;
the office you will hold, arms and learning
are united.
55
" As
for
learning,
55
replied
Sancho,
OF DON QUIXOTE.
"
I
of that, for
I
am
I
make my
able to
know my
hardly
good governor,
but to be a
enough that
and
much
have not
ABC;
IO3
be
will
it
Christ-cross
as to arms, I shall handle such as are given
:
me
" With so good
I fall, and so God help me."
an intention," quoth the duke, " Sancho cannot do
till
wrong."
Here they were joined by
Don
Quixote,
who
understanding the subject of their conversation, and
the short space allotted to Sancho to prepare for his
departure, took the squire by the hand, with the
duke's permission, and led him to his apartment, in
him how to behave in his office.
Having entered the chamber he locked the door,
T
order to instruct
and obliging Sancho to
this effect, in a
"
I
return
sit
down by him, spoke
grave and solemn tone
thanks
infinite
to
:
Heaven,
Sancho, for having ordained that, before
have met with the
least success,
gone forth to bid thee welcome.
promotion
;
I
friend
myself
good fortune hath
I,
who had
anced the remuneration of thy service in
prosperity, find
to
bal-
my own
myself in the very rudiments of
while thou, before thy time, and con-
trary to all the laws of reasonable progression, findest
thy desire accomplished
solicit,
:
other people bribe,
importune, attend levees, entreat, and per-
severe, without obtaining their suit
;
and another
comes, who, without knowing why or wherefore,
finds himself in possession of that office to
many
people laid claim
:
which so
and here the old saying
is
WIT AND WISDOM
104
c
aptly introduced,
art doubtless
or
industry
;
in
a
rising early
exerting the least
without any pretension more or
less
than
upon by knight-errantry,
breathed
seest thyself created governor of
was
worth
is
comparison to me,
indeed,
or,
late,
of being
that
pound of good luck
an ignorant dunce, without
up
sitting
A
Thou, who,
ton of merit.'
a matter of moonshine.
an island
as if
All this I observe,
it
O
Sancho, that thou mayst not attribute thy success
to thy
own
deserts
but give thanks to heaven for
:
having disposed matters so beneficially in thy be-
and then make thy acknowledgments to that
half,
grandeur which centres in the profession of knighterrantry.
what
lieve
Thy
I
me who am
heart being thus predisposed to be-
have
O my
be attentive,
said,
son, to
thy Cato, thy counsellor, thy north-
pole and guide, to conduct thee into a secure harbor
from the tempestuous sea into which thou
to be engulfed
are
are,
for great posts
no other than
" In the first
God
and
;
:
the fear of
and
art
offices
going
of state
a profound gulf of confusion.
place,
God
O
is
my
son,
you are
the beginning of
to fear
wisdom
if you are wise you cannot err.
" Secondly, you must always remember who you
and endeavor to
others the most
know
difficult.
yourself; a study of
This self-knowledge
all
will
hinder you from blowing yourself up like the frog
in order to rival the size of the
you succeed
ox
:
if,
therefore,
in this learning, the consideration of
thy having been a swineherd will, like the pea-
;
OF BON QUIXOTE.
IO5
cock's ugly feet, be a check upon thy folly and
"
pride."
was
I
own
once took care of hogs, when
I
Sancho
a boy," said
u
;
employment, and took care of geese
I quitted that
but I apprehend that matter
quence, for
all
" and,
:
not of great conse-
governors are not descended from the
" No,
kingly race."
is
I
grew up,
but, after I
sure," answered the knight
for that reason, those
who
are not of noble
ought to sweeten the gravity of their
extraction
function with mildness and affability
;
which, being
prudently conducted, will screen them from those
murmurs that no station can escape.
" Conceal not the meanness of thy family, nor
malicious
think
from peasants
disgraceful to be descended
it
when
for,
is
it
seen that
thou
art
not
:
thyself
ashamed, none will endeavor to make thee so; and
deem
man
it
more meritorious
than a lofty sinner.
humble
number of
to be a virtuous
Infinite
is
the
those who, born of low extraction, have risen to
the highest dignities, both in church and state
of this truth I could
"
tire
If thou takest virtue for the rule of
valuest thyself
upon acting
princes
mon
;
for blood
property, and
moreover, an
This being
dred
visit
affront
is
may
if,
and
be acquired by
life,
and
conformably
inherited, but virtue
intrinsic
so,
in all things
no cause to envy
thereto, thou wilt have
;
thee with examples.
lords
is
all
;
a
it
and
comhas,
worth which blood has not.
peradventure, any one of thy kin-
thee in thy government, do not slight nor
him
;
but receive, cherish, and
make much
::
WIT AND WISDOM
106
of him
for in so doing
;
who
thou wilt please God,
allows none of His creatures to be despised
and
;
thou wilt also manifest therein a well-disposed nature.
"
If thou takest thy wife with thee (and
who
well for those
are appointed to
to be long separated
their families), teach, in-
often happens that
it
wise governor can acquire
foolish
"
the consideration a
all
is
by an
lost
ill-bred
is
possible),
become
a
widower (an event
and thy station
entitles thee to a
hook
better match, seek not one to serve thee for a
and angling-rod, or a
*
and
woman.
If thou shouldst
which
not
and polish her from her natural rudeness
struct,
for
from
it is
governments
friar's
hood
to receive alms
me, whatever the judge's wife
receives, the husband must account for at the general judgment, and shall be made to pay fourfold
in
:
for,
believe
which he has rendered no account
for all that of
during his
life.
" Be not under
it
on
is
the dominion of thine
the vice of the ignorant,
their
own
who
own
will
vainly presume
understanding.
" Let the
sion, but not
tears of the poor find
more
justice,
more compas-
from thee than the ap-
plications of the wealthy.
" Be equally
* The phrase No
who, when charity
is
solicitous
to
sift
out
the
truth
quiero de tu capllla alludes to the practice
of
friars,
hoods to receive
it,
while
offered, hold out their
they pronounce a refusal with their tongues.
OF DON QUIXOTE.
IO7
amidst the presents and promises of the rich and
the sighs and entreaties of the poor.
" Whenever
of the law,
the delinquent
equity
may
justly
temper the rigor
not the whole force of
let
:
for
it
is
it
bear upon
better that a judge should
lean on the side of compassion than severity.
"
If,
perchance, the scales of justice be not cor-
rectly balanced, let the error be imputable to pity,
not to gold.
"
If,
perchance, the cause of thine
enemy come
before thee, forget thy injuries, and think only on
the merits of the case.
" Let not
man's cause
;
private affection blind thee in another
for the errors
thou shalt thereby com-
mit are often without remedy, and at the expense
both of thy reputation and fortune.
"
to
When
demand
a beautiful
woman comes
justice, consider
before thee
maturely the nature of
her claim, without regarding either her tears or her
sighs, unless
thou wouldst expose thy judgment to
the danger of being lost in the one, and thy integrity in the other.
" Revile not with words him
to correct with deeds
unhappy
w retch
T
is
:
whom
thou hast
the punishment which the
doomed
to suffer
is
sufficient,
without the addition of abusive language.
"
When
lect the frail
much
as
the criminal stands before thee, recol-
and depraved nature of man, and, as
thou canst, without injustice to the
ing party,
show
pity
and clemency
;
for,
suffer-
though
WIT AND WISDOM
105
God
the attributes of
His mercy
and
is
all
equally adorable, yet
more shining and
attractive in our eyes,
are
with greater lustre, than His justice.
strikes
" If you observe, and conduct yourself by these
and precepts, Sancho, your days
rules
upon the face of the earth
;
your fame will be eter-
your reward complete, and your
nal,
terable
;
will be long
unut-
felicity
your children will be married according to
your wish
;
they and their descendants will enjoy
you shall live in peace and friendship with
mankind when your course of life is run, death
will overtake you in a happy and mature old age,
titles
;
all
;
and your eyes will be shut by the tender and
deli-
cate hands of your posterity, in the third or fourth
generation.
" The remarks
I
have hitherto made are docu-
ments touching the decoration of your soul
now you
will listen to the directions I
;
and
have to give
concerning thy person and deportment."
Of
the Second Sei'ies of Instructions
to
Who
that
Don
Quixote gave
Sancho Panza.
has duly considered
Don
Quixote's
would not have taken him
for a person of singular intelligence and discretion ?
But, in truth, as it has often been said in the progress of this great history, he raved only on the subinstructions to his squire
ject of chivalry
;
on
all
others he
manifested a
sound and discriminating understanding; wherefore
his
judgment and
his actions
appeared continually
OF DON QUIXOTE.
But, in these second instructions given
at variance.
Sancho, which showed
to
dom and
much
ingenuity, his wis-
frenzy are both singularly conspicuous.
During the whole of
Sancho listened
private
this
conference,
to his master with great attention,
and endeavored so to
mind
IO9
register
his
counsel in his
that he might thereby be enabled to bear the
burden of government and acquit himself honorably,
Don
Quixote
u As
now
proceeded
:
to the regulation of thine
own
domestic concerns," said he, " in the
Sancho,
Keep
enjoin thee to be cleanly in
I
person and
place,
first
things.
all
the nails of thy fingers constantly and neatly
pared, nor suffer
them
to
grow
as
some
do,
who
ignorantly imagine that long nails beautify the hand,
and account the excess of that excrement simply a
finger-nail,
w hereas
T
is
—
a foul
lizard-hunting kestrel
A
of the
rather the talon
it
and unsightly object.
slovenly dress betokens a careless mind
in the case of Julius Caesar,
it
may
or, as
;
be attributed to
cunning.
" Examine prudently the income of thy
and
if it will afford
vants, give
office,
thee to give liveries to thy ser-
them such
as
are
rather than gaudy and modish
;
decent and lasting,
and what thou
thus save in thy servants bestow on the poor
shalt
—
;
so
thou have attendants both in heaven and earth
a provision
think
shalt
which our vain-glorious great never
of.
" Eat
neither garlic nor onions, lest the smell
;
WIT AND WISDOM
110
Walk
betray thy rusticity.
with gravity, and speak
deliberately, but not so as to
thyself
for affectation
;
" Eat
seem
to be listening to
odious.
is
dinner and less at supper
little at
health of the whole body
is
for the
;
tempered in the labora
tory of the stomach.
" Drink with moderation;
for
inebriety never
keeps a secret nor performs a promise.
" In
the next place, Sancho, do not intermix in
thy discourse such a multitude of proverbs as thou
wert wont to do
;
for
though proverbs are concise
and pithy sentences, thou dost so often drag them
in
by the head and shoulders that they look more
of distraction than well-chosen apo-
like the ravings
thegms."
" That defect God himself must remedy," said
Sancho " for I have more proverbs by heart than
would be sufficient to fill a large book and, when
I speak, they crowd together in such a manner as
;
;
to
quarrel for utterance
;
my
so that
tongue
dis-
charges them just as they happen to be in the way,
whether they are or are not to the purpose
will take care
may be
c
Where
but I
:
henceforward to throw out those that
suitable to the gravity of
my
office
for,
;
there's plenty of meat, the supper will soon
be complete
; '
c
He
that shuffles does not cut
good hand makes a short game
a good brain to
know when
; '
to give
and,
c
;
c
'
A
It requires
"
and retain/
" Courage, Sancho," cried Don Quixote
" squeeze, tack, and string your proverbs together
•>
OF DON QUIXOTE.
My
here are none to oppose you.
me, and
whip the
I
whole
forth a
and
mother whips
I exhorting thee
in
an instant thou hast
litany of
them, which are as
to suppress thy proverbs,
spewed
Here am
top.
Ill
Remem-
foreign from the subject as an old ballad.
ber, Sancho, I do not say that a proverb properly
applied
amiss
is
;
throw
but, to
and
in,
string to-
gether old saws helter-skelter, renders conversation
mean and
altogether
"
When
despicable.
you appear on horseback, do not lean
backward over the
from the horse's
legs stiffly
nor stretch out your
saddle,
belly, nor let
dangling in a slovenly manner, as
the back of Dapple
;
for
some
some like gentlemen.
" Be very moderate
if
ride like jockeys,
sleeping
in
them hang
you were upon
;
for
he
and
who
does not rise with the sun cannot enjoy the day
and observe,
prosperity
O
Sancho, industry
;
the mother of
is
and laziness, her opposite, never saw
;
the accomplishment of a good wish.
" This
me
occurs to
my
offer,
art
all
is
at
the advice,
present
friend
Sancho, that
hereafter, as
;
occasions
instructions will be ready, provided thou
mindful to inform
me
of the state of thy af-
fairs."
"
all
Sir,"
answered Sancho, "
me
your worship has told
profitable
;
I see
is
very well that
wholesome and
but what shall I be the better for
my
cannot keep
it
easily forget
what you have
in
head
?
it if
I
It is true, I shall
not
said about paring
my
;
WIT AND WISDOM
112
nails,
and marrying again
if
the opportunity offers
;
but for your other quirks and quillets, I protest they
have already gone out of
year's clouds
;
my
head as clean as
and, therefore,
me
let
last
have them in
though I cannot read them myself, I
them to my confessor, that he may repeat
and drive them into me in time of need."
" Heaven defend me " said Don Quixote,
" how scurvy doth it look in a governor to be
writing
for,
;
will give
!
unable to read or write
needs
tell
thee
taught to read, or
!
Indeed, Sancho, I must
when
that
a
man
left-handed,
is
it
has not been
argues that his
parentage was very low, or that, in early
life,
he
was so indocile and perverse that his teachers could
beat nothing good into him.
Truly this is a great
defect in thee, and therefore
learn to write, even if
it
I
would have thee
were only thy name."
" That I can do already," quoth Sancho ; " for
when I was steward of the brotherhood in our village, I learned to make certain marks like those
upon wool-packs, which, they
my
name.
my
ness in
me
:
there
me, stood
told
for
But, at the worst, I can feign a lame-
and get another to sign for
right hand,
is
a
remedy
and, having the staff in
for every thing but death
my
hand, I can do what
I
whose
being governor, am, I
Besides, as your worship knows, he
please.
—
mayor * and I,
trow, something more than mayor.
father
is
* The
his trial."
entire proverb
is
iC
:
He whose
father
is
mayor goes
safe to
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
" Ay,
bo-peep
come
them come
ay, let
—
ay, fleer
whom God
savory
that
and backbite
loves
-,
—
man's blunders pass current
list,
me
wool and go back shorn
for
II3
and play
at
may
His home is
but they
;
4
:
besides,
c
The
maxims
for wise
rich
;
so
'
that I, being a governor, and therefore wealthy, and
bountiful to boot
—
as
—nobody will
I intend to be-
No,
me.
see any blemish in
no, let the -clown
daub himself with honey, and he
As much
c
flies.
worth,
the rich
as
you have,
said
my grandam
who
can."
5
will
just so
never want
much you
are
revenge yourself upon
;
" Heaven confound thee " exclaimed Don
Quixote " sixty thousand devils take thee and thy
proverbs
This hour, or more, thou hast been
stringing thy musty wares, poisoning and torturing
me without mercy. Take my word for it, these
!
;
!
proverbs will one day bring thee to the gallows
;
provoke thy people to rebellion
!
—they
will surely
Where
dost thou find
apply them, idiot
?
them
for I toil
?
How
shouldst thou
and sweat
as if I
were
delving the ground to utter but one, and apply
it
properly."
" Before Heaven, master of mine," replied
Sancho, " your worship complains of very trifles.
Why,
make
in
the devil's name, are you angry that
use of
my own
goods
?
for other stock I
J
have
none, nor any stock but proverbs upon proverbs
and just
now
I
have four ready to pop out,
all
pat
—
;
WIT AND WISDOM
114
and
fitting as pears in a
pannier
my name." *
"Then art thou vilely
Silence
—but
am dumo
I
is
less,
would
I
come
know
fain
my own memory,
me,
for the soul of
I
Neverthe-
these four proverbs that
so pat to the purpose
maging
Don
miscalled," quoth
Quixote, "being an eternal babbler.
;
have been rum-
for I
which
no bad one, but
is
can find none."
" Can there be better," quoth Sancho, " than
Never venture your fingers between two eyeteeth
and with c Get out of my house what
—
c
;
—
'
my
would you have with
ing
;
the
and,
c
stone
pitcher.'
a hair.
Whether
?
there
'
no argu-
is
the pitcher hits the stone, or
pitcher,
it
goes
ill
with the
All these, your worship must see,
fit
to
Let no one meddle with the governor or
he will come off the worst,
his deputy, or
who
the
hits
wife
him
like
between two eye-teeth, and
though they were not eye-teeth, 'tis enough if they
claps* his finger
To
be but teeth.
what a governor
more than
replying, any
to
c
says, there
Get out of
my
is
no
house
Then as
what business have you with my wife ?
to the stone and the pitcher—a blind man may see
So he who points to the mote in another
that.
'
man's eye, should
may
first
look to the
beam
in his
not be said of him, the dead
that
it
was
afraid of her
that
was
flayed.
own,
woman
Besides, your
worship knows well that the fool knows more
his
own house
* The proverb
is
than the wise in that of another."
:
" To keep
silence well
is
called Santo."
in
OF DON QUIXOTE.
" Not
u
knows
other house
upon
fault will
;
or any
not to be erected
is
But here
as folly.
thou governest
for, if
15
Quixote
own
ill,
let
it
though the
How-
be thine, the shame will be mine.
am
ever, I
knowledge
for
;
Sancho,
rest,
nothing, either in his
bad a foundation
so
Don
Sancho," answered
so,
fool
tjie
I
comforted in having given thee the best
thee in
my power and therein having done my
am acquitted both of my obligation and
so God speed thee, Sancho, and govern
thy government, and deliver me from the
fears
entertain
counsel in
duty, I
promise
;
:
I
that
topsy-turvv
island
vent by
telling
!
that
cass of thine
is
indeed, I
might pre-
duke know what thou
letting the
him
thou wilt turn the whole
—which,
that paunch-gut and
all
nothing but a sack
full
art,
and
little
car-
of proverbs
and impertinence."
" Signor,"
really thinks
ment,
amen.
of
I
my
sist,
am
I
renounce
I
this
from
it
for,
my
as
while
and poor, are equal
sider,
if
your worship
not qualified for that govern-
henceforward forever,
whole body
;
breadth
nail's
and
I
can sub-
Sancho, upon a crust of bread and an
onion, as well
;
"
have a greater regard for a
soul than
as bare
tridges
Sancho,
replied
on capons and par-
governor
we
all.
sleep, great
and small, rich
If your worship will con-
your worship will find that you yourself put
scheme of government
my own
bustard
;
part, I
and,
6
into
know no more
if
my
head
:
as for
of the matter than a
you think the governorship
will be
"
WIT AND WISDOM
Il6
means of
the
my
going to the devil,
governor to
!
thou hast uttered,
last reflections
an excellent natural
naught
:
recommend
righteously
Heaven always
now
in
thyself to
hast
which
all
God, and
intention
first
thy
all
transactions
favors the upright
us go in to
let
Thou
disposition, without
1
;
thy intention and unshaken purpose be,
let
deal
to
pronounce thee
I
islands.
endeavor to avoid errors in the
mean,
" from these
cried the knight,
worthy to govern a thousand
is
as a
hell-fire."
" Before God "
science
would much
I
Sancho to heaven, than
rather go as simple
dinner
;
design.
for
;
And
believe their
for I
graces wait for us."
Without
"
O
poverty, poverty
!
I
know
induce the great Cordovan poet to
unrequited
from
ble,
no
discretion there can be
gift.
my
I,
wit.
not what should
call
though a Moor,
am
thee a holy
very sensi-
correspondence with Christians, that
holiness consists in charity, humility, faith, poverty,
and obedience
;
yet, nevertheless, I will affirm that
who can sit down content
we mean that kind of poverty
greatest saints alludes, when he
he must be holy indeed,
with poverty, unless
to
which one of the
" Possess of all things
says,
and
this
is
as not possessing
called spiritual poverty.
poverty, which
is
them
:
But thou second
the cause I spoke of,
why
wouldst
thou assault gentlemen of birth rather than any
other class of people
?
Why
dost
thou compel
OF DON QUIXOTE.
them
to
coats
one button of
cobble their shoes, and wear upon their
third of glass
silk,
Why
?
we
circumstance
man
another of hair, and a
must
yellow and ill-starched
?
"
learn the
he
But, thus
starch.)
117
of noble pedigree
ister cordials to his
!
their ruffs be generally
(By the by, from
this
antiquity of ruffs
and
proceeds
who
is
"
:
O
wretched
obliged to admin-
honor, in the midst of hunger
and solitude, by playing the hypocrite with a toothpick,
which he
affects to use in the street,
though
he has eat nothing to require that act of cleanliness
wretched he,
:
say,
I
whose honor
ever
is
apt to be startled, and thinks that everybody at a
upon
league's distance observes the patch
his
his shoe,
greasy hat, and his threadbare cloak, and even
the hunger that consumes him."
Better a blush on the face than a stain in the
heart.
Look
not in
last
year's
nests
for
this
year's
birds.
A SERENADE.
And
he forthwith imagined that some damsel
belonging to the duchess had become enamoured of
him
:
though somewhat
he resolved to
to yield
;
so,
fearful of the beautiful foe,
fortify his heart,
and on no account
commending himself w ith
T
fervent de-
votion to his mistress, Dulcinea del Toboso, he
determined to
damsel
listen to the
know he was
music
;
and, to
let
the
there, he gave a feigned sneeze,
:
:
WIT AND WISDOM
Il8
at
which they were not
sired
above
The
harp being
a
little
pleased, as they de-
things that he should hear them.
all
now
tuned, Altisidora began the
following song
TRANSLATION.
JARVIS'S
Wake,
sir
now
knight,
love's invading,
Sleep in Holland sheets no
When
nymph
a
is
more
;
serenading,
'Tis an arrant shame to snore.
Hear a damsel tall and tender,
Moaning in most rueful guise,
With
By
To
heart almost burned to cinder
the sunbeams of thine eyes.
from
free damsels
Is,
they say, your daily care
Can you then deny
To
disaster
a
wounded
a plaster
virgin
x
here
£>
Tell me, doughty youth,
With such humors and
Was't some
Or
?
who
cursed thee
ill-luck
?
sullen bear dry-nursed thee,
she-dragon gave thee suck
?
Dulcinea, that virago,
Well may brag of such
Now
her fame
From Toledo
Would
up, and
is
to
a Cid,
may go
Madrid.
she but her prize surrender,
(Judge
how on
thy face I dote
!)
—
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
1
In exchange I'd gladly send her
My
best
Happy
I,
But
to
gown and
petticoat.
would fortune doom me
have
me
near thy bed,
currycomb thee,
Stroke thee, pat thee,
And
But
hunt o'er thy knightly head.
ask too much, sincerely,
I
And
doubt
I
I'd but kiss
I ne'er
must
your toe, and
do't,
fairly
Get the length thus of your
How
foot.
and what riches
I'd rig thee,
Should be heaped upon thy bones
Caps and socks, and cloaks and breeches,
!
Matchless pearls and precious stones.
Do
not from above, like Nero,
me
See
But
to
burn and
quench
my
my woe,
my hero,
slight
fires,
Cast a pitying eye below.
I'm a
virgin-pullet, truly
One more
A mere
Wind
am
if
I'm yet
and limb,
My
I
;
tender ne'er was seen
chicken fledged but newly
Hang me
hair dangles to
straight too
:
—
if
:
:
fifteen.
all's tight
my
9
about me,
feet
you doubt me,
Trust your eyes, come down and
see't.
1
:;
;
WIT AND WISDOM
120
bob nose has no fellow,
I've a
And
a sparrow's
mouth
as rare
Teeth like bright topazes, yellow
Yet I'm deemed a beauty here.
You know what
(If
a rare musician
you hearken) courts your choice
I dare say
my
->
disposition
my
Is as taking as
voice.
Here ended the song of the amorous
and began the alarm of the courted
Altisidora,
Don
Quixote
who, fetching a deep sigh, said within himself:
"Why am I so unhappy a knight-errant that no
damsel can see but she must presently
me
with
Why
?
in love
fall
the peerless Dulcinea so un-
is
lucky that she must not be suffered singly to enjoy
this
my
incomparable constancy
would ye have with her
persecute her
why do
creature
let
her in the conquest of
and the surrender of
enamoured multitude,
am
my
soul.
Take
all
others
flint.
and well-born
nature
;
is
all
me
To
To
am
her
me,
beautiful, discreet, lively, modest,
the rest of her sex foul, foolish,
and base-born.
sent
my
notice,
that to Dulcinea alone I
honey, and to the rest of ye, aloes.
Dulcinea alone
fickle,
do ye
to fifteen,
Leave, leave the poor
?
paste and sugar, and to
I
why
her triumph and glory in the lot which
love bestowed upon
heart,
Queens, what
Damsels from fourteen
?
ye plague her
;
?
Empresses,
?
into
To
be hers, and hers alone,
the world.
Let Altisidora
"
OF DON QUIXOTE.
121
weep or sing, let the lady despair on whose account
was buffeted in the castle of the enchanted A'loor
boiled or roasted, Dulcinea's I must be, clean, wellI
\
bred, and chaste, in spite
powers on
We
are
of
all
the necromantic
earth.
see that governors,
sometimes directed
though otherwise
their
in
fools,
by the
decisions
hand of God.
Time
is
ever moving
;
nothing ever can impede
his course.
An
understanding in the beo-inning;
effectual
cure
those
for
who
are
is
often an
indiscreetly
in
love.
At eleven
o'clock
Don
Quixote retired
to his
apartment, and finding a lute there, he tuned
it,
opened the window, and, perceiving there was some-
body walking
in the garden, he ran over the strings
of the instrument
nicely as he
throat
,
and, having tuned
;
could,
he coughed and
it
again as
cleared
his
and then, with a voice somewhat hoarse,
yet not unmusical,
he
sang
the
which he had composed himself
following
that very day
THE ADVICE.
MATTEAUX's TRANSLATION.
Love, a strong designing
foe,
Careless hearts with ease deceives
Can thy breast
Which your
resist his
sloth
-,
blow,
unguarded leaves
?
song,
:
; ; ;
:
;
WIT AND WISDOM
122
If you're idle, you're destroyed,
All his art on you he
tries
But be watchful and employed,
Straight the baffled tempter
Maids
Must
modest grace admired,
for
would
If they
flies.
their fortunes raise.
in silence live retired
:
'Tis their virtue speaks their praise.
The
divine
Tobosan
Dulcinea, claims
fair,
me whole
Nothing can her image
tear
'Tis one substance with
Then
let
my
soul.
fortune smile or frown.
Nothing
shall
my
faith
remove
Constant truth, the lover's crown,
Can work
miracles in love.
THE SAME AS TRANSLATED BY SMOLLETT,
Love, with idleness combined,
Will unhinge the tender mind
But to few, to work and move,
Will exclude the' force of love.
Blooming maids
Must
in virtue
Modesty
And
A
a
that
dower
:
will raise,
be a trumpet of their praise.
cavalier will sport
With
would be married^
be unwearied
and play
a damsel frank and gay
j
;
:
OF DON QUIXOTE.
when wedlock
But,
Choose
is
1
his aim,
maid of sober fame.
a
Passion kindled in the breast,
By
a stranger or a guest,
Enters
And
w ith
T
fleets
Love
the rising sun,
before his race be run
:
comes so suddenly,
Ever on the wing to fly,
that
Neither can nor will impart
Strong impressions to the heart.
Pictures
drawn on
show
pictures,
Strange confusion to the view
Second beauty
finds
:
no base,
Where a first has taken place
Then Dulcinea still shall reign
:
Without
Nor
a rival or a stain
;
shall fate itself control
Her sway,
or blot her
my
from
soul
Constancy, the lover's boast,
I'll
maintain whate'er
This,
This
my
will
cost
it
virtue will refine
stamp
my
\
joys divine.
THE SAME AS TRANSLATED BY
Love, with idleness
:
is
JARVIS.
friend,
O'er a maiden gains
its
But
let
employment
Fill
up every careful moment
business and
These an
end
:
antidote will prove
'Gainst the pois'nous arts of love.
23
—
;
:
:
WIT AND WISDOM
124
Maidens
that aspire to marry,
In their looks reserve should carry
Modesty
And
their price should raise,
be the herald of their praise.
whom
Knights,
With
the free
toils
may
of arms employ,
laugh and toy
;
But the modest only choose
When
Love
With
Love
they
tie
the nuptial noose.
that rises with the sun,
his setting
beams
is
gone
that guest-like visits hearts,
When
the banquet's o'er, departs
:
And the love that comes to-day,
And to-morrow wings its way,
Leaves no traces on the
soul,
Its affections to control.
Where
a sovereign beauty reigns,
Fruitless are a rival's pains
O'er a finished picture
who
E'er a second picture drew
?
Fair Dulcinea, queen of beauty,
Rules
my
heart,
and claims
its
duty,
Nothing there can take her place,
Naught her image can erase.
Whether
fortune smile or frown,
Constancy's the lover's crown
And,
its
force divine to prove,
Miracles performs in love.
Copious drinking consumes the radical moisture which
is
the essence of
life.
OF DON QUIXOTE.
1
25
Simple medicines are more esteemed than those
compound in the simple, there can be no
in the compound, all is hazard and un-
that are
:
mistake
5
certainty.
If
we must
be prepared for battles that threaten
us, at least let us
be well fed
:
for the
stomach sup-
ports the heart, and the heart supports the
The
devil will never give
man.
you a high nose
if
a
nose will serve your turn.
flat
All
is
not gold that
Walls have
I
am
are, or
fully
glitters.
ears.
convinced that judges and governors
ought to be, made of brass, so as that they
may
who
not feel the importunity of people of business,
and
at all seasons,
expect to be heard and dispatched at
to their
own
affairs
come what
;
and
if
all
will, attending
hours
only
the poor devil of a judge
does not hear and dispatch them, either because
is
not in his power, or
it
it
happens to be an unsea-
sonable time for giving audience, then they grumble
and backbite, gnaw him to the very bones, and even
bespatter his
business
!
whole generation.
foolish
man
of business
Ignorant
!
man
of
be not in such a
;
wait for the proper season and con-
for judges are
come not at meals and sleeping-time
made of flesh and blood, and must
violent hurry
juncture, and
give to nature that which mature requires.
\
WIT AND WISDOM
126
Good
physicians deserve palms and laurels.
Either
we
Let us
all live
we
are, or
are not.
and eat together
in
harmony and
good friendship.
When God
upon
sends the morning, the light shines
all.
Make
yourselves honey, and the
flies
will de-
vour you.
Your
idle
and lazy people in a commonwealth,
are like drones in a beehive,
which only devour the
honey the laboring bees gather.
Every day produces something new in the world
and the biters are bit.
:
jests turn into earnest,
They who
expect snacks should be modest, and
take cheerfully whatever
haggle with the winners
to be sharpers, and
given them, and not
is
;
unless they
know them
their gains unfairly gotten.
Cheats are always
at the
mercy of
their
accom-
plices.
The maid
stays at
home
that
would keep her good name,
were lame. A hen and a
as if she
housewife, whatever they cost,
ding will surely be
I
ween,
is
Seeing
Good
lost.
And
if
once they go gad-
she that longs to see,
as desirous to be seen.
is
believing.
fortune wants only a beginning.
OF DON QUIXOTE.
When
of
J
27
th^y offer thee a government, lay hold
it.
When
an earldom
clutches on
When
is
put before thee, lay thy
it.
they throw thee some beneficial bone,
snap at the favor
not, sleep
if
;
on and never an-
swer to good fortune and preferment when they
knock
at thy door.
Truth
always
will
rise
uppermost, as
rises
oil
above water.
According- to reason, each thins; has
When
side of
justice
its
season.
doubtful, I should lean to the
is
mercv.
Sancho, having plentifully dined that day, in
of
spite
all
the aphorisms of Dr. Tirteafuera,
the cloth was removed, in
letter
from
Don
Quixote to the governor.
ordered the secretary to read
was nothing
there
read
it
aloud.
in
The
over accordingly, u
may
it
it
a
Sancho
to himself,
and
if
for secret perusal, then to
secretary, having
My
when
came an express with
lord," said
first
run
he, " the
it
letter
not only be publicly read, but deserves to be
engraved in characters of gold
Don Quixote
de la
Mancha
to
;
and thus
it is
"
:
Sancho Panza, Gov-
ernor of the Island of Barataria.
"
When
I
expected to have had an account of
thy carelessness and blunders, friend Sancho,
I
was
WIT AND WISDOM
128
agreeably disappointed with news of thy wise behavior
can
which
for
;
man
the fool into a
with
all
discretion
thanks to Heaven, that
I return
from
raise the lowest
their poverty,
of sense.
and
;
would observe
and turn
hear thou governest
nevertheless, thou
that,
retainest the humility of the
I
I
meanest creature.
to thee, Sancho, that
it
But
often
is
expedient and necessary, for the due support of
authority, to act in contradiction to the
The
of the heart.
is
raised to a high
personal adornments of one that
;
and not with
his
former low-
thy apparel, therefore, be good and be-
let
:
coming
must correspond with
situation
his present greatness,
liness
humility
the hedgestake,
for
when
decorated no
what it really is. I do not mean
thou shouldst wear jewels, or finery ; nor, being
longer, appears
that
a judge,
would
I
have thee dress
like a soldier
but
;
adorn thyself in a manner suitable to thy employ-
To
ment.
gain the good-will of thy people, two
things,
among
serve
one
I
:
is,
others, thou
have already told thee
especial
care
scarcity
of food
of
all
few
must not
to be courteous to all
that
afflictions,
the other
ob-
to
fail
that, indeed,
is,
to
take
to
no
with the poor, hunger
is,
be exposed
people
the
for,
;
;
—
the most insupportable.
edicts, but let those
be good
see that they are well observed
;
;
Publish
and, above
all,
for edicts that are
not kept are the same as not made, and serve only
to
show
that the prince, though he had
authority to
make
wisdom and
them, had not the courage to
OF DON QUIXOTE.
insist
upon
their
Laws
execution.
and are not enforced, become
croaking subjects
Be
a^
first
like
that
feared, then despised
not always severe, nor always mild
;
happy mean between them, which
is
the markets
is
threaten,
King Log, whose
him.
Be
father to virtue, and a step-father to vice.
of discretion.
;
the true point
for there the presence of the
:
such attention
the prisoner hoping for release
butchers,
who
weights
and the same
then dare
is
make
effect
is
governor
a comfort to
a terror to the
it is
-,
not
of false
use
produced on
all
Shouldst thou unhappily be secretly
other dealers.
inclined to avarice, to gluttony, or
hope thou
but choose the
Visit the prisons, the shambles, and
highly necessary
;
29
I
T
I
avoid showing thyself guilty of
art not,
when
these vices
:
with thee
discover
for,
women, w hich
who
those
thy ruling
are concerned
passion,
they will
on that quarter, nor leave thee till they
View and review,
have effected thy destruction.
consider and reconsider, the counsels and docu-
assault thee
ments
I
gave thee in writing before thy departure
hence to thy government
;
and
find a choice supply to sustain thee
and
wilt
through the
toils
which governors must continually
Write to thy patrons, the duke and
difficulties
encounter.
duchess, and
is
them thou
in
show
thyself grateful
;
for ingratitude
the daughter of pride, and one of the greatest
sins
;
whereas he
who
is
grateful
have done him service, thereby
to
those
testifies that
he
be grateful also to God, his constant benefactor.
that
will
WIT AND WISDOM
I30
"
My
lady duchess has dispatched a messenger
to thy wife
Teresa with thy hunting-suit, and
a present from herself.
moment.
I
also
We expect an answer every
have been a
little
out of order with a
me, not much to
was nothing for,
if there are enchanters who persecute me, there are
Let me know if the stewothers who defend me.
ard who is with thee had any hand in the actions
certain cat-clawing
the advantage of
my
which
befell
nose
but
;
it
;
of the Trifaldi, as thou hast suspected: and give
me
advice, from time to time, of
to thee, since the distance
I
for luxury
that happens
between us
think of quitting this idle
was not born
all
and
life
ease.
so short.
is
very soon
A
for I
;
circumstance
has occurred which may, I believe, tend to deprive
me
of the favor of the duke and duchess
though
it
afflicts
mination, for
me much,
it
must comply with the
I
my
affects not
but,
;
deter-
duties of
profession in preference to any other claim
;
as
my
it is
often said, Amicus Plato, sed magis arnica Veritas,
I
write this in Latin, being persuaded that thou hast
learned that language since thy promotion.
well, and
God have
thee in His keeping
:
Fare-
so mayst
thou escape the pity of the world.
" Thy
friend,
Don Quixote de la Mancha."
it
Sancho gave great attention to the letter ; and
was highly applauded, both for sense and integ-
rity,
by everybody that heard
it.
After that, he
:
OF DON QUIXOTE.
from
rose
I3I
and calling the secretary, went
table,
without any further delay, and locked himself up
with him in his chamber, to write an answer to his
master,
Don
Panza
Sancho
"
am
I
Quixote, which was as follows
to
Don Shdxote
so taken
not yet had time to
well or
I
me
with
ill
am more
Mancha.
de la
up with business that
let
you know whether
in this
I
have
it
goes
same government, where
hunger-starved than
when you and
wandered through woods and wildernesses.
" My lord duke wrote to me the other day
inform
me
to
island
of some spies that were got into
kill
me
to
this
but as yet I have discovered
\
none but a certain doctor, hired by the
kill all
I
the governors that
come near
it.
islanders to
They
call
him Dr. Pedro Rezio de Anguero, and he was born
at Tirteafuera.
His name is enough to make me
fear he will be the death of me.
This same doctor
says of himself, that he does cure diseases when you
have them but when you have them not, he only
The physic
pretends to keep them from coming.
he uses, is fasting upon fasting, till he turns a body
to a mere skeleton
as if to be wasted to skin and
In short, he
bones were not as bad as a fever.
;
;
starves
me
to death
;
so that,
when
I thought, as
being a governor, to have plenty of good hot victuals
and cool
bed, I
"
I
liquor,
am come
and to repose on a
to do
penance
soft feather-
like a hermit.
have not yet so much as fingered the
least
;
WIT AND WISDOM
132
penny of money,
how
and
either for fees or
comes
it
any thing
me
no better with
to be
I
else
cannot
imagine, for I have heard that the governors
come
or at least a
gift,
town before they
is
who
wont to have a very good
very round sum given them by the
to this island are
enter.
And
they say, too, that this
the usual custom, not only here, but in other places.
" Last
night, in going
mighty handsome damsel
brother of hers in
man-waiter
make her
my
woman's
rounds, I met with a
boy's clothes, and a
in
his wife, as
My
apparel.
love with the
fell in
he says.
girl,
As
gentle-
and intends to
for the youth, I
have pitched on him to be my son-in-law. To-day
we both design to talk to the father, one Diego de
la
Liana,
who
is
a gentleman,
and an old Christian
every inch of him.
"
I visit
the markets as you advised me, and
yesterday found one of the hucksters selling hazel-
She pretended they were
nuts.
all
new
;
but I
found she had mixed a whole bushel of old, empty,
rotten nuts
the
With
same quantity of new.
adjudged them to be given to the hospital
that, I
boys,
among
who know how
to
pick the good from the
bad, and gave sentence against her that she should
not
come
into
the market for fifteen
days
;
and
people said I did well.
"
I
am
mighty well pleased that
has written to
my
wife,
the token you mention.
my lady
duchess
Teresa Panza, and sent her
It shall
go hard but
requite her kindness one time or other.
I will
Pray give
OF DON QUIXOTE.
my
service to her
not cast her
;
and
in a
gift
1
33
her from me, she has
tell
broken sack,
something
as
more than words shall show.
" If I might advise you, and had my wish, there
should be no falling out between your worship and
my lord and lady for, if you quarrel with them, it
is I must come by the worst for it.
And, since you
mind me of being grateful, it will not look well in
you not to be so to those who have made so much
of you at their castle.
" If my wife, Teresa Panza, writes to me, pray
;
me the letter for I have
know how fares it with her, and
pay the postage and send
a
mighty desire to
my
;
So Heaven protect your
house and children.
worship from evil-minded enchanters, and bring
and sound out of
safe
much
very
tor
this
doubt, seeing
government
how
I
am
;
me
which
treated by
I
Doc-
Pedro Rezio.
u Your worship's servant,
" Sancho Panza, the Governor."
r
Teresa Panza' s Letter
"
and
I
her Husband^ Sancho Panza.
received thy letter, dear Sancho of
I
promise and swear to thee, on the
Catholic Christian,
of running
when
to
I
I
mad with
my
was within two finger-breadths
joy
;
and take notice, brother,
heard thou wast a governor,
I
had
like to
have dropped down dead with pure pleasure
thou knowest they say sudden joy
deadly sorrow
:
soul,
faith of a
kills
;
for
as well as
thy daughter Sanchica scattered her
WIT AND WISDOM
134
water about insensibly, out of mere satisfaction
;
thy hunting-suit lay before me, the string of corals
sent by lady duchess
letters
were
presence
all
my
in
and
;
was
a
dream
conceive that a goatherd should
ernor of islands
?
my
'
mother
deal
:
this I
'
if I live
I
said,
neck, the
my
;
who
for
come
could
to be gov-
Thou knowest, my friend, that
One must live long to see a great
mention because
longer
my
imagined and believed, that
yet, I
saw and handled was
I
round
tied
hand, and the messenger in
I
hope to see more
for I do not intend to stop until
;
see thee a farmer or collector of the revenue
them
who
which, though they carry those
offices
:
abuse
to the devil, are, in short, always bringing in
the penny.
My
"
lady duchess will
tell
thee
am of going to court
know thy pleasure for
consider of
honor there by riding
my
:
;
" The
in
I will
how
it,
desirous 1
and
let
me
endeavor to do thee
coach.
curate, barber, bachelor,
and even the
sexton, cannot believe thou art a governor, and say
the whole
like
all
is
a deception, or matter of enchantment,
the affairs of thy master,
Don
Quixote.
Sampson vows he will go in quest of thee, and
drive this
government out of thy head,
as well as
Don Quixote's skull I say
nothing, but laugh in my own sleeve, look at my
beads, and contrive how to make thy hunting-suit
the madness out of
into a
sent
gown and
:
petticoat for our daughter.
some acorns
to
my
I
have
lady duchess, and I wish
OF DON QUIXOTE.
they were of gold
if
send
:
me some
I35
strings of pearls,
The news
they are in fashion in thy island.
our town are these
the
:
widow of
the
matched her daughter with a bungling
painter,
came here and undertook
him
work.
sort of
all
corporation employed
to paint the king's
He
over the gate of the town-house.
two ducats for the
hand so he fell to
job,
arms
asked them
which they paid before-
made nothing of
the end of which he had
he could not bring
said
who
The
and worked eight days,
it
;
trumpery, and returned
of
has
hill
hand
his
the
paint
to
money
;
yet,
at
and
it,
such
for
all
that,
he married in the name of a good workman.
The
truth
is,
he has
his brushes
left
and taken up
the spade, and goes to the field like a gentleman.
Pedro de Lobo's son has taken orders and shaved
his
crown, meaning to be a
Mingo
upon
Silvato's niece, hearing of
a promise of marriage.
this year,
in all
nor
is
it,
is
suing
company of
foot-soldiers passed
through here, and carried off with them three
—I
v/ill
not say
return, and
now
mayhap they
girls
will
or other marry them, with
day,
a
that she
it.
;
which she drops
help her toward
no need to work,
without
they are
all
Sanchica makes bone-lace, and gets
maravedis
saving-box, to
but
who
somebody
their faults.
eight
him
We have had no olives
there a drop of vinegar to be had
A
the town.
Minguilla,
priest.
The
is
into
a
household stuff;
a governor's daughter, she has
for
thou wilt give her a portion
fountain in our market-place
is
WIT AND WISDOM
136
A
dried up.
there
may
they
and about
this,
grant thee
I
thunderbolt
all
alight
my
upon the
fell
And
going to court.
more years than myself,
would not
and
expect an answer to
I
!
pillory,
so
God
many,
leave thee behind me.
willingly
or as
for
" Thy wife,
" Teresa Panza."
To
to
think that the
The
and
spring,
life
are always
an erroneous fancy.
;
to
change
summer succeeds
the
autumn the summer, winter the autumn, and
petual round
its
is
seems continually
with circular motion
So time proceeds in
then spring again.
to
state
face of things rather
roll
of this
affairs
remain in the same
;
only the
life
of
end, swifter than time
man
is
For even by the
out that of faith,
light
many have
per-
ever hastening
without hopes to
itself,
be renewed, unless in the next, that
infinite.
this
is
unlimited and
of nature, and with-
discovered the swift-
ness and instability of this present being, and the
duration of the eternal
"
I
know
St.
life
Peter
every one does well
which he was bred.
is
which
is
well at
Rome," meaning
to follow the
Let no one stretch
his feet
expected.
employment
to
beyond the length
of his sheet.
When
thou
art in
Rome
follow the fashions of
Rome.
Sweet
is
our love of native land.
OF DON QUIXOTE.
The
prudent
man who
1
37
expecting to be de-
is
prived of his habitation looks out for another before
he
is
turned cut of doors.
Well-got wealth may meet
But
•
Bread
We
comes
ill-got
is
wealth destroys
relief for all
kind of
disaster,
master.
its
grief.
can bear with patience the
ill-luck
that
alone.
Man
projects in vain,
For God doth
As
is
the season.
Let no man presume
Of this
cup
ordain.
the reason,
is
Such
still
to think,
I will not drink
:
Where the flitch we hoped to find,
Not even a hook is left behind.
Keep
a safe conscience,
and
let
people say what
they will.
It
is
impracticable to
as
tie
up the tongue of
malice, as to erect barricades in the open fields.
" If
a governor resign his ofEce in
good circum-
must have been an oppressor
poverty attends him in his re-
stances, people say he
and a knave
;
and
if
treat,
they set him
" For
this
down
as
an
they will think
me more
fool than
and fool."
idiot
time," answered Sancho,
"
I
am
knave."
certain
WIT AND WISDOM
I38
A
law neglected
is
the same as
if it
had never
been enacted.
Give always
to the cat
What was kept for the
And let it be thy view
rat,
All mischief to eschew.
It is fitting that all
show
who
themselves grateful,
receive a benefit should
though
be only a
it
trifle.
SONG OF ALTISIDORA.
Stay, cruel knight,
Take not thy flight,
Nor spur thy battered jade
;
Thy haste restrain,
Draw in the rein,
And
hear a love-sick maid.
Why
No
dost thou
snake
am
I
?
I,
That poison those
Gentle
fly
I
love
:
am
As any lamb,
And harmless as a dove.
Thy cruel scorn
Has
A
left forlorn
nymph whose charms may
With theirs who sport
vie
In Cynthia's court,
Though Venus'
self
Since, fugitive knight, to
Barabbas's fate
still
were by.
no purpose
I
woo
pursue and undo thee
!
thee,
OF DON QUIXOTE.
Like ravenous
That
Soon
takes
My
And
39
kite
its flight
has stol'n a chicken,
as't
Thou
1
bear' st
away
heart, thy prey,
me
leav'st
Three
And
here to sicken.
night-caps, too,
garters blue,
That did to legs belong
Smooth to the sight
As marble
And
Two
white,
almost as strong.
faith,
thousand groans,
As many moans,
And
sighs
enough
to fire
Old Priam's town,
And
Did
burn
it
down,
again aspire.
it
Since, fugitive knight, to
Barabbas's fate
May
still
no purpose
Sancho ne'er
His buttocks bare
Fly-flap, as
And
To
thou
1
woo
pursue and undo thee
is
his duty
still
;
want
disenchant
Dulcinea's injured beauty.
May
still
transformed,
And
still
deformed,
Toboso's nymph remain,
!
thee,
;
WIT AND WISDOM
140
In recompense
Of thy offence,
Thy scorn and cold
When
Thy
disdain.
thou dost wield
sword
in field,
In combat, or in quarrel,
Ill-luck
and harms
Attend thy arms,
Instead of fame and laurel.
Since, fugitive knight, to
Barabbas's fate
May
no purpose
I
woo
pursue and undo thee
thy disgrace
every place,
Fill
Thy
still
falsehood ne'er be hid,
But round the world
Be
From
If,
tossed and hurled,
Seville to
Madrid.
brisk and gay,
Thou
sitt'st
At ombre
May
to play
or at chess,
ne'er spadille
Attend thy
will,
Nor luck thy movements bless.
Though thou with care
Thy corns dost pare,
May blood the penknife
May thy gums rage,
And naught assuage
The pain of tooth that's
follow
hollow.
!
thee,
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
141
«
Since, fugitive knight, to no purpose I
Barabbas's fate
Liberty
one of the most precious
is
woo
pursue and undo thee
still
gifts
Heaven hath bestowed on man, exceeding
treasures
and for
which
all
the
which earth encloses, or which ocean hides
this blessing, as well as for
and ought to venture
captivity and
human
thee,
!
life itself:
restraint
honor,
we may
on the other hand,
the greatest evils that
are
nature can endure.
I
make
this
observa-
because thou hast seen the delicacies
tion, San'cho,
and the plenty with which we were entertained
that castle
;
in
yet, in the midst of those savory ban-
quets and ice-cooled potations, I thought myself
confined within the very
I did
straits
of famine, because
not enjoy the treat with that liberty which I
should have
felt,
had
it
been
my
own.
Obligations incurred by benefits and favors received, are fetters
Happy
sel
is
which hamper the free-born
he to
whom Heaven
of bread, for which he
Heaven
is
soul.
hath sent a mor-
obliged to none but
itself.
The man
Who
in
knows
wisdom must be
in giving
where
old
to hold.
All times are not the same, nor equally fortu-
and those incidents which the vulgar call
omens, though not founded on any natural reason,
nate
;
have, even by persons of sagacity, been held and
;
WIT AND WISDOM
142
deemed
as fair
One
of these super-
in the
morning, goes
and fortunate.
omen-mongers rises
abroad, chances to meet a
stitious
beatified St. Francis
belonging to the
friar
and as
;
he had encountered
if
a dragon in his way, runs back to his
with fear and consternation.
by accident scatters the
which
and melancholy are scattered through
fear
his heart
;
salt
own house
Another Foresight
upon the table, by
as if
Nature was obliged to
misfortunes by such
as a prudent
trivial signs
man and
foretell future
and tokens
fall in
his
soldiers
looked upon
accident as a bad omen, he embraced the
seeming eagerness, saying, "
Love
;
for I
Thou
have thee safe
in
game both
my
arms."
;
like
Death, he pursues
a soul fairly in his clutches, his
first
of
all
and
in the stately palaces of kings
When
it
with
shalt not 'scape
the humble huts of shepherds.
deprive
soil
this
has no respect of persons, and laughs at
the admonitions of reason
his
Scipio,
landing upon the coast of Afric,
and perceiving that
me, Afric
where-
a good Christian will not so
minutely scrutinize the purposes of Heaven.
chancing to
:
shame and
Beauty, they say,
is
he has got
business
is
to
fear.
the chief thing in love-mat-
ters.
" Hearken to me, Sancho," said Don Quixote
there are two kinds of beauty—the one of the
That of the mind
mind, the other of the body.
"
shines forth in good sense and good conduct
;
in
;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
modesty,
and
liberality,
courtesy
I43
and
;
these
all
may be found in one who has no perattractions
and when that species of beauty
qualities
sonal
;
captivates,
passion.
some
it
I well
but I
;
produces
man
spire
love, provided
Of
all
it
is
if
am
not hand-
not deformed
may
he be not hideous,
;
in-
he has those qualities of the
my
men commit, though some
opinion, ingratitude
truly said that hell
From
am
have mentioned."
the sins that
say pride, in
that I
also that I
of worth,
I
vehement and superior
know, Sancho,
know
and a
mind which
a
is
the worst
is
of the ungrateful.
full
that foul crime I have endeavored to abstain
ever since
I
enjoyed the use of reason
cannot return the good
benefits, I substitute
my
be not enough,
if this
done
offices
desire to repay
I publish
them
;
and
me by
:
them
for
if I
equal
\
and
he
who
proclaims the favors he has received, would return
them
if
receiver
he could
is
:
and generally the power of the
unequal to that of the giver
bounty of Heaven, to which no
equal return.
man
:
like the
can make an
But, though utterly unable to repay
the unspeakable beneficence of God, gratitude affords
a
humble compensation
suited to our limited
powers.
Lay
a bridge of silver for a flying
Let Martha
He
die, so that she
enemy.
be well fed.
that has skill should handle the quill.
WIT AND WISDOM
144
There
no greater
is
folly
than to give way to
despair.
Patience often
falls
to
when
the ground
it
is
overloaded with injuries.
Alexander the Great ventured to cut the Gordian
knot, on the supposition that cutting would be as
untying
effectual
as
violence,
became
it
:
and, notwithstanding this
sole master of all Asia.
u Be not concerned,"
unkindness
to stand
;
is
Roque, addressing
by thus stumbling, you may chance
more
strange and
men,
said
Don Quixote, " nor tax Fortune with
himself to
firmly than ever
circuitous ways,
wont
:
for
Heaven, by
incomprehensible to
to raise the fallen, and
enrich the
needy."
Oh, maddening
thy effects
Justice
sting of jealousy,
how
deadly
!
must needs be a good
necessary even
among
" Signor Roque,"
thing, for
it
is
thieves.
said he,
u the beginning of
a
cure consists in the knowledge of the distemper,
and
in the patient's willingness to take the
cines prescribed to
sick
;
cian,
him by
his physician.
medi-
You
are
you know your malady, and God, our physiis
ready with medicines that, in time, will cer-
tainly effect a cure.
Eesides, sinners of good un-
derstanding are nearer to
amendment than those
OF DON QUIXOTE.
who
is
are devoid of
it
;
I45
and, as your superior sense
manifest, be of good cheer, and hope for your
recovery.
If in
would take the
shortest
entire
that of your salvation,
desirable
this
way, and
and
work you
once enter
come with me, and
teach you to be a knight-errant
true, full of labors
at
—
I will
a profession,
disasters, but
placed to the account of penance, will not
you
lead
to
The
honor and
it is
which, being
fail
to
felicity."
abbot must eat that sings for his meat.
Courtesy begets courtesy.
The
jest that gives pain
is
no
jest.
That pastime should not be indulged which
tends to the detriment of a fellow-creature.
The
fire
by
virtue
No
its
is
discovered by
own
its
own
light
;
so
is
excellence.
renown equals
splendor that which
in
is
acquired by the profession of arms.
Virtue
demands
our
homage wherever
it
is
found.
Women
are
commonly
impatient and inquisi-
tive.
By
sition
a
man's actions may be seen the true dispo-
of his mind.
" Body of me,"
said
Don
Quixote, " what a
—
;
;
WIT AND WISDOM
I46
progress you have made, signor, in the
guage
Tuscan
lan-
would venture a good wager that where
the Tuscan says place, you say, in Castilian, plaze
and where he says piu, you say mas 1 and sit you
I
!
by the word arriba ; and giu by abaxo."
translate
"
"
do
I
so,
most certainly," quoth the author
for such are the corresponding
words."
" And yet, I dare say, sir," quoth Don Quixote, " that you are scarcely known in the world
but it is the fate of all ingenious men.
What abilities are lost, what genius obscured, and what talents
despised
Nevertheless, I cannot but think that
!
translation
it
from one language into another, unless
be from the noblest of
Latin,
is
like
tapestry, where,
are
all
languages,
Greek and
presenting the back of a piece of
though the figures are seen, they
obscured by innumerable knots and ends of
thread
;
very different from the smooth and agree-
able texture of the proper face of the
translate
requires
work
;
and to
easy languages of a similar construction
no more
from another.
translating
is
talent than transcribing
But
I
would not hence
not a laudable exercise
may be worse and more
Nor can my observation
:
one paper
infer that
for a
man
unprofitably employed.
apply to the two cele-
brated translators, Doctor Christopher de Figueroa,
Pastor Fido,' and Don John de Xaurigui,
Aminta;' who, with singular felicity, have
made it difficult to decide which is the translation
and which is the original.
But tell me, signor, is
in his
c
in his
c
;;
OF DON QUIXOTE.
book printed
this
I print
your charge, or have you sold
"
at
some bookseller ?
on my own account," answered
the copyright to
"
it, sir,
" and expect
the author,.
147
a thousand ducats by this
impression of two thousand copies
first
;
at six reals
each copy they will go off in a trice."
" 'Tis
" though
mighty well,"
Don
quoth
Quixote
you know but little of the tricks
of booksellers, and the juggling there is amongst
fear
I
Take my word
them.
for
it
5
you
will find a bur-
den of two thousand volumes upon your back no
trifling
matter
—
especially if the
book be
deficient
in sprightliness."
" What,
have
paid
me
me
sir
give
!
" cried the author, u would you
my
three
labor to a bookseller,
maravedis for
it,
abundant, and say I was favored
is
not
my
profit is
object
what
I
:
of that
now
I
?
am
seek, without
w ho,
T
if
he
would think it
No, sir, fame
already secure
which fame
is
nothing."
" Well, Heaven prosper you, sir " said the
knight, who, passing on, observed a man correcting a sheet of a book entitled " The Light of the
Soul."
On seeing the title, he said, " Books of
this kind, numerous as they already are, ought still
for numerous are the benighted
to be encouraged
He went
sinners that require to be enlightened."
forward and saw another book under the corrector's
hand, and, on inquiring the title, they told him it
!
;
was the second
part
of the ingenious gentleman
:
WIT AND WISDOM
I48
Don
Quixote de
of Tordesillas.
Don
quoth
thought
but
;
its
Martinmas
of that book/'
as general history
will
now
come,
as
for
it
does
to truth and probability
valuable in proportion as
is
I
its
of invention are only so far
come near
as they
a one,
" and, on my conscience,
;
Works
to every hog.
good
know something
I
Quixote
had been burnt long before
it
stupidity
Mancha, written by such
la
"
it
is
authentic."
Rashness
make men
There
is
not valor
is
a
remedy
Between
A
doubtful hopes ought to
for all things except death.
said
long race
He whom Heaven
They
:
resolute, not rash.
that give
Where
and done
may be
run.
may
favors,
St.
Peter bless.
must take.
there are hooks,
we
do not always find
bacon.
Good
expectation
To-day
He
for you,
is
better than bad possession.
and to-morrow for me.
that falls to day
may
rise
to-morrow.
Great hearts should be patient under misfortunes as well as joyful
I
when
all
have heard say, she they
goes well.
call
Fortune
is
a
drunken, freakish dame, and withal so blind that
of don qyixoTE.
she does not see what she
whom
she raises, nor
One
about
is
thing I must
chance, but
Heaven
every
—and
man
The
whom
neither
thee, there
tell
;
no such
is
nor do the events
whether good or
evil, proceed from
from the particular appointment of
out,
fall
;
she pulls down.
thing in the world as fortune
which
149
is
hence comes the usual saying, that
the
maker of
his
own
fortune.
faults of the ass should not
be
laid
on the
pack-saddle.
When
it
rains,
let
the shower
fail
upon
my
cloak.
" Observe, Sancho,"
is
said
a great deal of difference
tude.
It is
in love
Don
between love and
grati-
very possible for a gentleman not to be
but, strictly speaking,
;
Quixote, " there
it
is
impossible he
should be ungrateful/'
The
sin will cease
when
the temptation
is
re-
moved.
The
heart will not grieve for
what the eye doth
not perceive.
What
prayers can ne'er gain, a leap from
a
hedge may obtain.
Proverbs are short maxims of
human wisdom,
the result of experience and observation, and are
the gifts of ancient sages
:
yet the proverb
which
is
WIT AND WISDOM
150
not aptly applied, instead of being wisdom,
stark
is
nonsense.
of a good servant to sympathize
It is the part
with his master's pains.
" Methinks," quoth Sancho, " that
not be suffering
much when he can
man
a
can-
turn his brain
to verse-making."
'
"
No
SANCHO PANZA ON
entiendo
eso,"
SLEEP.
Sancho
replico
"
;
solo
entiendo que en tanto que duermo, ni tengo temor,
ni esperanza, ni trabajo, ni gloria
que invento
el
manos pensamientos, manjar que
agua que ahuyenta
frio
que templa
;
y bien haya
el
sueno, capa que cubre todos los hu-
el ardor,
con que todas
quita la hambre,
fuego que calienta
la sed,
y finalrnente
el frio,
moneda gene-
cosas se compran, balanza y
peso que iguala al pastor con el rey, y al simple con
ral
el
discreto.
las
cosa tiene mala
Sola una
segun he oido decir, y es que se parece a
pues de un dormido a un muerto hay
el
la
sueno,
muerte,
muy
poca
diferencia."
"
"
I
know not what that means," replied Sancho
know that while I am asleep, I have neither
;
I only
fear,
nor hope, nor trouble, nor glory.
light
on him who
first
invented sleep
the mantle that shrouds
food that dispels hunger
thirst
;
the
fire
that
all
;
Blessings
Sleep
!
human thoughts;
is
the
the drink that quenches
warms
the cold
\
the cool
"
OF DON QUIXOTE.
breeze that moderates heat
word, the general
in a
;
151
coin that purchases every commodity
the weight
;
and balance that makes the shepherd even with
There
sovereign, and the simple with the sage.
only one bad
sleep
resembles death
it
:
circumstance, as
have heard,
I
inasmuch
;
man
dead corse and a sleeping
his
there
between
as
is
is
in
a
no apparent
difference.
" Enjoy thy repose,"
wast born to sleep and
watch
I to
of night that remains,
little
Don
said
with a short madrigal, which
composed
to thee,
Amor, cuando yo
Mas
Que es
Tanta
Que
Que
j
O
I
in
of
have
this evening,
my own
mind."
pienso
y fuerte,
:
al paso,
puerto en este
mar de mi tormento,
alegria siento.
vida se esfuerza, y no
me mata,
muerte me torna
le
paso.
el vivir
la
a dar la vida.
condicion no oida,
La que conmigo muerte
O
my thoughts
my reflections
acabar mi mal inmenso
en Uegando
la
Asi
asi
love,
when,
I sigh,
" thou
and, during the
;
En el mal que me das terrible
Voy corriendo a la muerte,
Pensando
;
I will give
the rein, and cool the furnace
unknown
Quixote
y vida trata
!
sick of heart-felt grief,
and drag thy cruel chain,
:
WIT AND WISDOM
152
To death I fly, the sure relief
Of those who groan in lingering
But coming to the
pain.
fatal gates,
The port in this my sea of woe,
The joy I feel new life creates,
And bids my spirits brisker flow.
Thus dying every hour I live,
And living I resign my breath
:
Strange power of love, that thus can give
A
Till
dying
Heaven
life
and living death
in pity to the
Shall give Altisidora
!
weeping world,
back to day,
By Quixote's scorn to realms of Pluto hurled,
Her every charm to cruel death a prey
While matrons throw their gorgeous robes
;
away,
To mourn a nymph by cold disdain betrayed
To the complaining lyre's enchanting lay
I'll
:
sing the praises of this hapless maid,
In sweeter notes than Thracian Orpheus ever played.
Nor shall my numbers with my life expire,
Or this world's light confine the boundless
song
To
thee, bright maid, in
death
I'll
touch the
lyre,
And to my soul the theme
When, freed from clay,
among,
shall
the
still
belong.
flitting
ghosts
OF DON QUIXOTE.
My
the Stygian shores around,
spirit glides
Though
153
the cold hand of death has sealed
my
tongue,
Thy praise
And Lethe's
the infernal caverns shall rebound,
sluggish
waves move slower
to the
sound.
Better
me
kill
outright
than break
my
back
with other men's burdens.
Sleep
is
the best cure for waking troubles.
Devils, play or not play, win or not win, can
never be content.
History that
vive for ages
is
good, faithful, and true, will sur-
but should
;
qualities, its passage will
dle
it
have none of these
be short between the cra-
and the grave.
As
indeed,
for dying for love
may
it is all
a jest
;
your lovers,
easily say they are dying, but that they
will actually give
" Madam,"
up the ghost
said he,
" your
—
believe
it—Judas.
ladyship should
know
stant
good damsel's suffering
remedy whereof is honest and conemployment. Lace, she tells me, is much
worn
in purgatory
that the chief cause of this
is
idleness, the
how
to
make
it,
;
let
and since she cannot but know
her stick to that
fingers are assiduously
the images that
now
;
for,
while her
employed with her bobbins,
haunt her imagination will
WIT AND wisdom
154
keep aloof, and leave her mind tranquil and happy.
This, madam,
is
" And mine,
my
in
for
life
my
opinion and advice."
too," added Sancho,
"
for I never
heard of a lacemaker that died for love
your damsels that bestir themselves
;
some
at
honest labor, think more of their work than of their
sweethearts.
I
know
it
digging, I never think of
bless her
I love
!
Railing
by myself; when
my
Teresa, though,
her more than
among
lovers
is
I
my
am
God
very eyelids."
the next neighbor to
forgiveness.
The
ass will carry the load, but not a double
load.
When
A
money's paid before
broken limb
it's
due,
will straight ensue.
Delay breeds danger.
Pray to God devoutly,
And hammer away stoutly.
"
I will give thee,"
is
good; but "Here, take
it," is better.
A
sparrow in the hand
is
worth an eagle on the
wing.
"
No
more proverbs, for God's sake," quoth
Don Quixote; " for, methinks, Sancho, thou art
losing ground,
plainly, as I
it
and returning to
Sicut erat.
Speak
have often told thee, and thou wilt
worth a loaf per cent, to thee."
find
!
OF DON QUIXOTE.
"
I
replied
know
how
not
Sancho
"
;
I
I
came by
155
this
unlucky trick/'
cannot bring you in three words
you a
to the purpose without a proverb, nor give
proverb which, to
pose
—but
The
thinking,
I will try to
straw
The
my
not to the pur-
mend."
make
too hard to
is
is
pipes of.
knight and squire ascended a
little
nence, whence they discovered their village
emi-
which
;
Sancho no sooner beheld than, kneeling down, he
said
" Open
:
thine eyes,
O
my
beloved country
and behold thy son, Sancho Panza, returning to thee
whipped
again, if not rich, yet well
arms, and receive thy son
Don
!
Open
Quixote too
!
thine
who,
though worsted by another, has conquered himself,
which, as
tory
!
I
have heard
Money
I
been soundly banged,
man."
" Leave these
Quixote,
"and
say,
is
the best kind of vic-
have gotten, and though
let
I
have come
fooleries,
I
have
off like a gentle-
Sancho," quoth
Don
us go directly to our homes,
where we will give full scope to our imagination,
and settle our intended scheme of a pastoral life."
It must here be mentioned that Sancho Panza,
by way of sumpter-cloth, had thrown the buckram
robe painted with flames, which he had worn on the
night of Altisidora's revival,
upon
his ass.
wise clapped the mitre on Dapple's head
—
He
in short,
never was an ass so honored and bedizened.
priest
like-
and bachelor, immediately recognizing
The
their
WIT AND WISDOM
I56
Quixote alighted, and embraced them
mean
Don
toward them with open arms.
friends, ran
In
cordially.
whose keen eyes nothing
can escape, came flocking from all parts.
" Ho " cries one, " here comes Sancho Panza's
the
time, the boys,
!
ass, as
gay as a parrot, and
"
leaner than ever
Don
Quixote's old horse,
!
Thus, surrounded by the
children, and
accom-
panied by the priest and the bachelor, they pro-
ceeded through the village
till
they arrived at
Don
Quixote's house, where, at the door, they found the
housekeeper and the niece,
of his
arrival.
It
who had
already heard
had likewise reached the ears of
Sancho's wife, Teresa, who, half-naked, with her
hair about her ears,
and dragging Sanchica
ran to meet her husband
;
after her,
and seeing him not
so
well equipped as she thought a governor ought to
be, she said
husband
This,
I
?
:
" What makes you come
thus, dear
methinks you come afoot and foundered
trow,
is
!
not as a governor should look."
" Peace, wife," quoth Sancho
;
"
not so easily found as the pin to hang
the bacon
it
on.
is
Let
home, and there you shall hear wonders. I
have got money, and honestly, too, without wrongus go
ing anybody."
" Hast thou got money, good husband
then,
'tis
ill, it
will
well,
however
it
be gotten,
for,
?
—nay,
well or
have brought up no new custom in the
world."
All things human, especially the lives of men,
OF DON QUIXOTE.
157
are transitory, ever advancing from their beginning
and
to their decline
" The
final
determination.
greatest folly," said Sancho,
can commit
in this
world,
"
that a
to give himself
is
death without any good cause for
it,
man
up to
but only from
melancholy."
THE WILL OF DON QUIXOTE.
"
Don Quixote, " that
death advances fast upon me
let us then be
serious, and bring me a confessor, and a notary
for a man in my state must
to draw up my will
feel,
I
good
said
sirs,"
;
:
not
is
Let the notary be sent
with his soul.
trifle
for, I
my
beseech you, while
taking
The
my
friend here, the priest,
confession."
having listened to
priest,
his
dying friend's
came out of the room, and told them
the good Alonzo Quixano was near his end,
confession,
that
and certainly
vised
them
senses
in his right
to go in, as
should be made.
it
These
was
full
faithful squire,
he therefore adtime that his will
tidings gave a terrible stab
to the overcharged hearts of the
ing,
;
two
ladies
and
his
whose eyes overflowed with weep-
and whose bosoms had well-nigh burst with a
thousand sighs and groans
owned,
as
;
we have somewhere
in the character of
the capacity of
Don
for, indeed,
it
must be
observed, that whether
Alonzo Quixano the good, or
Quixote de
la
in
Alancha, the poor
gentleman had always exhibited marks of a peaceable temper and agreeable demeanor, for which he
WIT AND WISDOM
158
was beloved, not only by his own family, but also
by all those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.
The
of the company, wrote the preamble of the
rest
which
will, in
all
notary entering the apartment with the
Don
Quixote disposed of
the necessary Christian forms
to the legacies, he said
" Item
:
tain
his soul in
then proceeding
:
Whereas, Sancho Panza, whom,
made my squire, has
sum of money for my use
madness,
\
in his
I
in
my
hands a cer-
and, as divers ac-
;
counts, disbursements, and pecuniary transactions
have passed between
us,
it
is
my
will that
he
shall
not be charged or brought to account for the said
money
any overplus,
but, if there be
;
deducted the payment of what
I
he has
after
owe him, the said
which must be a mere trifle, shall be his
own, and much good may it do him and as, duroverplus,
:
my
ing
disorder, I contributed to his being
made
would now, while I enjoy
upon him, were it in my
power, a whole kingdom, which he richly deserves
governor of an island,
my
I
perfect senses, confer
for the
innocency of
his heart,
and the
fidelity
of
his service."
Then
turning to the disconsolate squire,
give me, friend,"
said
he,
"
for having
" For-
been the
cause of thy appearing in the eye of the world a
madman,
own
like
myself;
by drawing thee into
my
erroneous notions concerning the existence and
adventures of knights-errant."
OF DON QUIXOTE.
" Gentlemen,"
ceed
I
fair
and
Don
was
said
softly
I
:
Quixote de
Quixote, "
Don
us pro-
let
I
;
;
And
formerly styled, Alonzo Quixano the Good.
may my repentance and
59
am now sane
Mancha I am now, as
was mad,
la
1
sincerity restore
Now
esteem you once had for me.
me
to the
the notary
let
proceed.
" Item
bequeath to Antonia Quixano,
I
:
niece, here
present,
cies
;
and the
wages due to
been in
my
all
my
payment of
sonal, after the
to
first
my
estate,
all
my
real
my
and per-
debts and lega-
be discharged shall be the
housekeeper for the time she has
service,
and twenty ducats besides
for a
of mourning.
suit
"
I
appoint for
my
executors signor the priest
and signor bachelor Sampson Carrasco, here present.
" Item
Quixano,
shall
It
:
my
is
also
my
will
that,
if
Antonia
niece, should be inclined to marry,
it
man who, upon the strictest
found to know nothing of books
be only with a
inquiry, shall be
of chivalry
;
and, in case
it
appear that he
quainted with such books, and that
my
is
ac-
niece, not-
withstanding, will and doth marry him, then shall
she forfeit
ecutors
all I
may
have bequeathed her, which
my
ex-
dispose of in pious uses as they think
proper.
"And,
my
finally, I
executors, that
if
beseech the said gentlemen,
haply they should
knowledge of the author of
a
come
to the
certain history dis-
WIT AND WISDOM
l60
c
persed abroad, entitled
Don
Achievements of
they will, in
Quixote de
Part of the
Mancha,' that
la
my
me
to forgive
The Second
name, most earnestly entreat him
for having been the innocent cause
of his writing such a number of absurdities as that
performance contains
;
for I quit this life with
some
scruples of conscience arising from that consideration."
The
he was seized
will being thus concluded,
with a fainting-fit, and
length in the bed
so that
;
himself at
stretched
all
the
alarmed, and ran to his assistance
full
company were
:
during three
days which he lived after the will was signed and
sealed, he frequently fainted,
was
victuals, the
soul,
and the whole family
Nevertheless, the niece ate her
in confusion.
housekeeper drank to the repose of
and even Sancho cherished
for the prospect of succession either dispels or
erates that affliction
which an
his
his little carcass
;
mod-
heir ought to feel at
the death of the testator.
At
ceived
last
all
Don
Quixote expired,
after
having re-
sacraments, and, in the strongest
the
terms, pathetically enforced, expressed his abomi-
nation against
all
observed, that in
books of chivalry
all
;
and the notary
the books of that kind which
he had perused, he had never read of any knighterrant who died quietly in his bed, as a good Chris-
Don
who, amidst the tears and
up the ghost, or
The curate was
other words, departed this life.
tian, like
Quixote
lamentations of
in
all
;
present, gave
:
OF DON QUIXOTE.
no sooner
l6l
certified of his decease.,
make
the notary to
than he desired
out a testimonial, declaring that
Alonzo Qiiixano the Good, commonly called Don
Quixote de la Mancha, had taken his departure
from
this life,
and died of a natural death
other author, different from Cid
Hamet
that
;
no
Benengeli,
should falsely pretend to raise him from the dead,
and write endless
histories of his achievements.
This was the end of that extraordinary gentle-
man
of
La Mancha, whose
was careful
birthplace Cid
to conceal, that all the
Hamet
towns and
lages of that province might contend for the
of having produced him, as did the seven
Greece
The
for
the glory of giving birth
vil-
honor
cities
of
Homer.
to
lamentations of Sancho, the niece, and the
housekeeper, are not here given, nor the
new
epi-
tomb of the deceased knight, except
following one, composed by Sampson Carrasco
taphs on the
the
:
Here
lies
Who
never had a sense of fear
So high
He
the valiant cavalier,
his
matchless courage rose,
reckoned death among
his
vanquished
Wrongs to redress, his sword he drew,
And many a caitiff giant slew
\
His days of
In death
life,
though madness stained,
his sober senses
THE END.
he regained.
foes.
.
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