101
«Concerning Change», p. 243. (N. from the A.)
102
Riley has noted some of Cide Hamete's shortcomings, and then has added the following: «But our principal doubts about Benengeli's reliability as a historian are planted in us by what Cervantes says about him on certain occasions». «Three Versions», p. 809. Mia I. Gerhardt, a generally careful and discerning reader of Cervantes' novel, fails completely to see the irony in certain statements by and about Cide Hamete Benengeli in Part II. She says, for example, that he is presented «comme un historien très scrupuleux» and that after Don Quijote's comment about lying Moors in II, 3, Cide Hamete «n'est plus déprécié nulle part». Don Quijote, la vie et les livres (Amsterdam: N. V. Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1955), pp. 27, 33. (N. from the A.)
103
Recall that in Part I Cervantes was worried about the fact that the historian on whom he had to depend was a lying Moor (I, 9, 102-103). In Part II the characters take up the same refrain: Don Quijote is disconsolate over the idea that his historian is Moorish and therefore a congenital liar (3, 597); Don Quijote and Sancho Panza specifically criticize the work of Cide Hamete (3, 602 and 4, 606, respectively). (N. from the A.)
104
See Allen, Hero or Fool, II, 9-11, for relevant observations concerning items 2, 3, 5, 6, and 10 in this list. (N. from the A.)
105
Several critics have cited these words as a high point in Don Quijote's chivalric madness, often in conflict with their own previous statements about the protagonist. The most interesting reactions come, as one might expect, from those who see Don Quijote as playing or acting throughout the novel. Arturo Serrano Plaja triumphantly stresses the literal truth of these words: «Por una vez, así como de pasada, el historiador nos dice todo: que don Quijote antes nunca se había creído caballero verdadero, sino fantástico. ¿Pero acaso eso, exactamente eso, no es lo que se llama, lisa y llanamente, jugar? ¿Se puede decir más claro que don Quijote, hasta ahora por lo menos, jugaba al caballero como jugaba al enamorado?» Realismo «mágico» en Cervantes: «Don Quijote» visto desde «Tom Sawyer» y «El Idiota» (Madrid: Gredos, 1967), p. 86. Mark Van Doren, the original and still the best proponent of the «Don Quijote actor» reading of the novel, expresses doubt concerning the reliability of the statement: Don Quixote's Profession (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958), p. 59. Gonzalo Torrente Ballester provides a careful discussion of the implications involved in either accepting or rejecting Cide Hamete Benengeli's comment, concluding: «De todas suertes, la frase aislada o en su contexto constituye un escollo difícil de salvar para cualquier interpretación». El «Quijote» como juego (Madrid: Guadarrama, 1975), pp. 206-207. (N. from the A.)
106
From the beginning of the second part Don Quijote has been afraid of what Sancho might say. When the latter burst in upon the conversation he was sustaining with the priest and the barber, Don Quijote was «temeroso que Sancho se descosiese y desbuchase algún montón de maliciosas necedades, y tocase en puntos que no le estarían bien a su crédito» (II, 2, 592). When he first sent his squire to approach the Duchess, Don Quijote warned him, «Y mira, Sancho, cómo hablas» (II, 30, 808). Then Don Quijote apologized to the Duchess, saying that she must believe that «no tuvo caballero andante en el mundo escudero más hablador». When the lady described Sancho as «gracioso y donairoso... [and] discreto», Don Quijote could only add: «Y hablador» (p. 811). (N. from the A.)
107
Allen also notes examples of the historian's «insensitivity» toward Don Quijote: Hero or Fool, II, 11. To Allen's observations I would add the statement in II, 72, when knight and squire are on their way home, that they travelled for a day and night «sin sucederles cosa digna de contarse, si no fue que en ella acabó Sancho su tarea» (pp. 1125-26), i.e., that Sancho finally completed his lashes and thus fulfilled the conditions for disenchanting Dulcinea. To pass off the accomplishment of the task that has most preoccupied Don Quijote since II, 10 as a mere afterthought is, to say the least, «insensitive». (N. from the A.)
108
The manner in which the identity of the animals ridden by the three girls is handled can not only cast doubt on the reliability of the historian but also impugn that of the editor. (N. from the A.)
109
In this passage it appears as though Cervantes is comparing Cide Hamete's text against others and notes the discrepancy in numbers. But whether the editor's comment is read so as to blame the inconsistency on Cide Hamete or to indicate that the latter's opinion is merely one of several possibilities, the effect is essentially the same as that produced by the other passages cited in this list. (N. from the A.)
110
Throughout the Espejo de príncipes y caballeros, 6 vols., ed. Daniel Eisenberg (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1975), the «translator/editor», i.e., the author Diego Ortúñez de Calahorra, occasionally comments in first person on the «history» written by the wizard Artimidoro (assisted by the wizard Lirgandeo). This type of commentary is sometimes found in the opening section of a chapter and generally ends with some variant of «dice la historia que...,» in a form very similar (except for the general absence of intentional humor) to that used by Cervantes. Particularly noteworthy is the long introductory passage to Chapter 38 of Book III (Espejo, VI, 88-92, to which Eisenberg calls attention as resembling Cervantes' practice in Don Quijote. While annotating this passage (p. 89, n. 8), Eisenberg notes that a scholarly study of the «traductor independiente» who comments on his text would be a valuable contribution to our understanding both of the romances of chivalry and of Don Quijote. (N. from the A.)