1. A breed of small donkeys native to Sardinia.
2 The story is based on the cycle of ballads that deals with the struggle for power among the children of Fernando I, and the siege of Zamora, in the eleventh century.
3 The lines in the ballad read: "I challenge you, Zamorans as false and lying traitors; I challenge young and old, I challenge the quick and the dead; I challenge the plants in the field, I challenge the river fishes, I challenge your bread and meat, / and also your water and wine."
5 Nicknames given to the residents of Vallodolid, Toledo, Madrid, and Sevilla, respectively.
1 As he has done before, an enraged Don Quixote addresses Sancho in more formal terms and does so throughout this paragraph.
2 Latin for "by the sign of the cross."
3 In his anger with Sancho, Don Quixote returns to the more distant form of address, which he uses for the next few paragraphs, until he begins to laugh.
4 Latin for "the great sea" or "ocean."
5 "There is no honey without gall" (No hay miel sin hiel), or "Nothing is perfect."
1 This was a common belief in Cervantes's time.
2 This phrase is based on the wordplay growing out of bestia, which can literally mean "animal" or "beast" as well as "dolt" or "dunce."
1 Hunting with falcons or other birds of prey was a pastime of the upper classes exclusively.
3 This sentence seems to be a misprint in the first edition; Martin de Riquer indicates in a footnote that two other editors, Cortejon and Schevill, suggest, in his opinion correctly, that it read as follows:
"...there's no more Sorrowful Face or Figure [there is an untranslatable wordplay involving figura ("face") and figuro (a nonexistent masculine form)]."
"Let it be of the Lions," the duke continued. "I say that..."
1 A duenna was an older woman of good family, usually a widow, in the service of a noblewoman. She wore a long headdress and wimple, something like a nun's, which distinguished her from other, usually younger, ladies-in-waiting.
2 A gesture of contempt or derision made by placing the thumb between the forefinger and middle finger or under the upper front teeth.
3 A military-religious order founded in the twelfth century; Santiago (St. James) is the patron saint of Spain.
4 A galley ship sank in the port of La Herradura, near Velez Malaga, in 1562, and more than four thousand people drowned.
1 These were artists of Greek antiquity.
2 The word in Spanish, jiron, has several meanings and can also signify a heraldic figure called a "gyron," a triangular shape that extends from the border to the center of a coat of arms. The allusion is to Dulcinea's noble blood.
3 A major figure in an important early ballad cycle, Florinda, La Cava, the daughter of Count Don Julian, had an illicit and disastrous love affair with King Don Rodrigo; according to legend, the ensuing betrayals and acts of vengeance precipitated the Moorish invasion of 711.
1 An allusion to the throne won by El Cid in Valencia.
4 A very fine cloth formerly woven in Segovia.
5 As indicated earlier, Wamba was a Visigothic king of Spain (672-680).
6 The phrase means "no matter how fine." Brocade of three piles was of the very best quality; in chapter X, Sancho exaggerated by referring to brocade of ten piles.
7 The proverb says, "You don't need here, boy, here, boy, with an old dog" (A perro viejo no hay tus, tus).
8 An idiomatic way of saying "trust and confidence." The phrase that follows is Sancho's variation on this and means just the opposite.
9 "Dead in the flower of his youth," a line from a poem by Angelo Poliziano dedicated to Micael Verino, a poet who died at the age of seventeen, during the age of the Medicis. Verino was famous for his Latin couplets, which were very widely known.
1 This is a variation on the adage about a good wife.
2 A card game.
3 The Spanish reads cazas ni cazos, a nonsensical wordplay based on caza, "the hunt," and cazo, "ladle," which seem to be the feminine and masculine forms of the same word but are not.
4 Hernan Nunez Pinciano, who compiled a famous collection of proverbs (Refranes y proverbios) published in 1555.
1 The name given to those who carried torches or candles in religious processions.
2 A sheer silk fabric.
3 The god of the underworld, associated with Pluto, Orcus, and Hades.
4 Don Quixote addresses Sancho in a more distant, formal way throughout this paragraph. As always, it indicates extreme anger.
5 A formula in the liturgy (abrenuncio) used to renounce Satan. Since Merlin is supposed to be the child of the devil, the phrase is strangely appropriate, even though Sancho mispronounces it (abernuncio).
1 This last statement ("and be advised...are worth nothing") was suppressed by the Inquisition in some editions following the Indice expurgatorio of 1632.
2 A person who was whipped publicly was displayed to the crowd mounted on a jackass.
3 An allusion to the proverb "God grant that it's oregano and not caraway," which expresses the fear that things may not turn out as hoped.
1 Sancho hears the name Trifaldi as tres faldas, or "three skirts," leading to his comments on skirts and trains.
2 Sancho's statement is taken from a story about a beardless man, frequently teased because he lacked facial hair, who said, "We have a mustache on our soul; the other kind doesn't matter to us."
3 According to Martin de Riquer, the name Candaya is probably fictional; Trapobana was the old name for Ceylon; Cape Comorin is to the south of Hindustan.
4 Maguncia is the Spanish name for the German city Mainz; Antonomasiais a rhetorical figure in which a title is used instead of a name (calling a judge "Your Honor") or a proper name instead of a common noun (calling a womanizer "Don Juan"); Archipielaseems to be related to archipielago, or "archipelago."
5 The lines, in Spanish translation, are by the Italian poet Serafino dell'Aquila (1466-1500).
6 These lines are by Commander Escriva, a fifteenth-century poet from Valencia, whose work was greatly admired by many writers of the Golden Age.
7 This was in the first edition. Martin de Riquer believes it is an intentional corruption of Ariadne, for comic purposes.
8 The last two references in the list were poetic commonplaces.
1 "Farewell," in Latin.
2 A line from Virgil's Aeneid (II, 6 and 8): "Who, hearing this, can hold back his tears?"
1 The phrase in Spanish (...mas oliscan a terceras, habiendo dejado de ser primas...) is based on wordplay that contrasts terceras ("go-betweens" or "panders") and primas (in this case, "principal party to a love affair"). The humor lies in the connection of the former term to "third" and the latter term to "first."
3 Clavileno, like Rocinante, is a composite name, made up of clavifrom clavija ("peg") and leno ("wood").
1 Sancho mentions this same Neapolitan monastery during the adventure of the Cave of Montesinos, when he blesses Don Quixote before his descent (chapter XXII).
2 A place where the Holy Brotherhood executed criminals.
3 The reference is to the myth of Phaethon.
4 A reference to an actual person, Dr. Eugenio Torralba, tried by the Inquisition of Cuenca in 1531, about whom it was said that he flew through the air on a reed.
5 The name of a Roman prison.
6 Charles, duke of Bourbon (1490-1527), fighting in the armies of Charles V of Spain, was killed during the sack of Rome.
7 Magallanes, the Spanish for Magellan, the Portuguese navigator, is used for comic effect to indicate Sancho's ignorance of courtly tales and the names of their protagonists.
8 In this phrase Cervantes takes advantage of two meanings of arrullador: "cooing" and "wooing." I have translated it as "suitor," hoping that the idea of billing and cooing is implicit in the word.
10 The wordplay here does not translate into English. Cabronis both "male goat" and "cuckold"; the sign of the cuckold is horns, as in "the horns of the mo
on" in the next sentence.
1 A formula indicating complete agreement with another person's opinions.
2 The cross that is placed at the beginning of the alphabet in a child's primer.
3 The author of a book of aphorisms, Disticha Catonis, which was so popular a text in schools that primers were called "Catos."
4 Don Quixote's advice to Sancho is one of the most famous passages in the novel. Martin de Riquer notes the difficulty of determining Cervantes's exact sources, although he states that the general influence of Erasmus is evident, and he also cites a handful of books on good government, both classical and Renaissance, available in Spanish at the time. Whatever the sources, Don Quixote's remarks to the future governor are clearly the polar opposite of Machiavelli's counsel to the prince.
5 An allusion to a fable by Phaedrus, a Latin fabulist of the first century who wrote in the style of Aesop.
6 This is based on a proverb: "I don't want it, I don't want it, just toss it into my hood."
1 This is the first half of a proverb: "When your father's the magistrate, you're safe when you go to trial."
1 Juan de Mena (1411-1456), probably the most historically significant courtly poet of the fifteenth century.
2 St. Paul, Corinthians 1.
4 The image of the impoverished gentleman who picks his teeth so that everyone will think he has eaten appeared in the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), the first picaresque novel.
5 The allusion is to a pearl that belonged to the Spanish monarchy. Since it had no equal, it was called La Sola, "the Only One."
6 According to legend, the place on the Capitoline Hill where Nero stood as he watched Rome burn.
1 The invocation is to the sun, whose rays make it necessary to move decanters around in a bucket of snow to keep them cool.
2 These are some appellations of Apollo, god of the sun.
3 A phrase from Aristotle's Physics, II, 2.
4 The name of the insula and the village, and the fact that Sancho did nothing to merit the governorship, are based on the root word barato, "cheap."
5 In other words, he has been admitted to the tailors guild. He asks to be excused because, at the time, tailors were held in exceptionally bad repute.
6 The judge's staff of office was used to take sworn testimony.
8 This story appears in Norte de los Estados, by Fr. Francisco de Osuna (Burgos, 1550).
1 A medicinal preparation for treating wounds devised in the sixteenth century by Aparicio de Zubia.
1 The physician's medical theorizing is based on the idea of the four cardinal humors.
2 A parody of the aphorism Omnis saturatio mala, panis autem pessima (i.e., "bread" instead of "partridges").
3 A traditional Spanish stew that includes chickpeas, ham, and chicken in addition to the usual meats and vegetables ordinarily found in a stew.
4 "By no means!" in Latin.
5 Recio can mean "vigorous," "violent," or "difficult"; aguerois "omen" tirteafuera is roughly equivalent to "get the hell out."
6 "Evil omen."
7 Basques were frequently appointed as secretaries because of their reputation for loyalty.
8 The root perl-is related to "pearl"; the term Cervantes uses for "palsied" or "paralyzed" is perlatico, allowing for the wordplay in these lines.
2 People from the northern mountains were considered to be noble because, compared to other Spaniards, they had relatively few Jewish or Moorish forebears in their family backgrounds.
3 If one came across a distinguished person in the street, it was a sign of respect (though it more often indicated self-interested flattery) to leave one's own route and accompany him.
4 Since there was no earlier indication of the lady's rank, Martin de Riquer believes that the printer confused this noblewoman with Dona Rodriguez's current employer.
5 An incision cut into the body to allow the discharge of harmful substances.
1 A dish of chopped meat flavored with salt, pepper, vinegar, onion, and sometimes oil and anchovies.
2 As indicated earlier, this is a traditional Spanish stew; podridaliterally means "rotten" or "putrid."
3 The identity of Andradilla is not known. A note in Shelton's translation identifies him as "Some famous cheater in Spain," but, as Martin de Riquer says, this clarifies nothing.
4 A battle game played on horseback with canes instead of lances.
5 It was a commonplace, when people suffered a misfortune, to say that it helped reduce the number of sins they would have to atone for.
1 Frequently, among the lower classes, a wife was called by the feminine form of her husband's given name.
3 This was a way of publicly insulting a woman.
4 A saying that seems to mean "A person cannot do more than give you what he has."
5 A Castilian dry measure, approximately 4.6 liters and roughly equivalent to a peck.
6 "...says how crude, how crude," a proverb aimed at the poor who prosper and then scorn their old friends.
7 "St. Augustine places that in doubt," a phrase used by students in doctrinal controversies.
8 A phrase quoted in chapter XXV; it is based on John 10:38: "...though ye believe not me, believe the works."
9 A courteous formula for inviting someone to eat with you.
1 "Be a friend to Plato, but a better friend to the truth."
2 A dry measure roughly equivalent to 1.6 bushels in Spain.
2 A phrase that alludes to the Final Judgment, suggesting punishment for sin; in English we would say, figuratively, that something we disapprove of is a "sin" or a "crime."
3 A village in the present-day province of Teruel.
1 Currently a literary term for "summer" (verano); when the year was divided into three seasons, estio was the season that began at the vernal equinox and ended at the autumnal equinox.
2 Blazing pots filled with pitch and other flammable material, which were thrown at the enemy.
3 This indicates that what has just been said is either impossible or untrue.
4 An allusion to the story of a man who sucked on an egg, and when the chick peeped in his throat, he said: "You peeped too late."
5 Shoes worn by the nobility were often decorated with holes and cutouts.
1 The equivalent phrases in Spanish, mentir por mitad de la barbaand mentir por toda la barba ("to lie through half of one's beard" and "to lie through one's whole beard"), mean essentially the same thing; unfortunately, the contrast between "half" and "whole" makes little sense in English.
2 Martin de Riquer indicates that hoodlums and thieves frequently dressed as pilgrims.
3 "Money" in German.
5 Between 1609 and 1613, public proclamations ordered the immediate expulsion from Spain of the Moriscos, who were accused of continuing to practice Islam in secret and of having a pernicious influence on Spanish society.
6 In contemporary Spanish, the word is spelled caviar.
7 This phrase is taken from a ballad that begins: "Nero, on Tarpeian Rock, / watched as Rome went up in flames; / crying ancients, screaming infants, / and not one thing caused him sorrow."
8 The word in Spanish is sagitario, which in underworld slang also meant a person who was whipped through the streets by the authorities. Martin de Riquer speculates that since this meaning seems out of place here, Sancho may simply be repeating a word he has heard Don Quixote use or is referring indirectly to the rigor of his governance by alluding to the archers of the Holy Brotherhood who executed criminals at Peralvillo.