The canon gazed at him, wondering at the extraordinary nature of his

madness, and that in all his remarks and replies he should show such

excellent sense, and only lose his stirrups, as has been already said,

when the subject of chivalry was broached. And so, moved by compassion,

he said to him, as they all sat on the green grass awaiting the arrival

of the provisions:

"Is it possible, gentle sir, that the nauseous and idle reading of books

of chivalry can have had such an effect on your worship as to upset your

reason so that you fancy yourself enchanted, and the like, all as far

from the truth as falsehood itself is? How can there be any human

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understanding that can persuade itself there ever was all that infinity

of Amadises in the world, or all that multitude of famous knights, all

those emperors of Trebizond, all those Felixmartes of Hircania, all those

palfreys, and damsels-errant, and serpents, and monsters, and giants, and

marvellous adventures, and enchantments of every kind, and battles, and

prodigious encounters, splendid costumes, love-sick princesses, squires

made counts, droll dwarfs, love letters, billings and cooings,

swashbuckler women, and, in a word, all that nonsense the books of

chivalry contain? For myself, I can only say that when I read them, so

long as I do not stop to think that they are all lies and frivolity, they

give me a certain amount of pleasure; but when I come to consider what

they are, I fling the very best of them at the wall, and would fling it

into the fire if there were one at hand, as richly deserving such

punishment as cheats and impostors out of the range of ordinary

toleration, and as founders of new sects and modes of life, and teachers

that lead the ignorant public to believe and accept as truth all the

folly they contain. And such is their audacity, they even dare to

unsettle the wits of gentlemen of birth and intelligence, as is shown

plainly by the way they have served your worship, when they have brought

you to such a pass that you have to be shut up in a cage and carried on

an ox-cart as one would carry a lion or a tiger from place to place to

make money by showing it. Come, Senor Don Quixote, have some compassion

for yourself, return to the bosom of common sense, and make use of the

liberal share of it that heaven has been pleased to bestow upon you,

employing your abundant gifts of mind in some other reading that may

serve to benefit your conscience and add to your honour. And if, still

led away by your natural bent, you desire to read books of achievements

and of chivalry, read the Book of Judges in the Holy Scriptures, for

there you will find grand reality, and deeds as true as they are heroic.

Lusitania had a Viriatus, Rome a Caesar, Carthage a Hannibal, Greece an

Alexander, Castile a Count Fernan Gonzalez, Valencia a Cid, Andalusia a

Gonzalo Fernandez, Estremadura a Diego Garcia de Paredes, Jerez a Garci

Perez de Vargas, Toledo a Garcilaso, Seville a Don Manuel de Leon, to

read of whose valiant deeds will entertain and instruct the loftiest

minds and fill them with delight and wonder. Here, Senor Don Quixote,

will be reading worthy of your sound understanding; from which you will

rise learned in history, in love with virtue, strengthened in goodness,

improved in manners, brave without rashness, prudent without cowardice;

and all to the honour of God, your own advantage and the glory of La

Mancha, whence, I am informed, your worship derives your birth."




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