«Every man is the architect of his own destiny» (II, 66), Don Quijote will movingly declare after his defeat at the hands of the Knight of the White Moon. Don Quijote seems to assume full responsibility for his overthrow: «I have lacked the necessary prudence, and so my presumption has brought me to disaster..»., But, without transition, he goes on to blame his horse for his defeat: «... for I should have reflected that feeble Rocinante could never withstand the mighty bulk of the Knight of the White Moon's horse». Don Quijote's semi-admission of his responsibility conveys Cervantes' conviction that even the noblest of men fall to self-deception. The knight's retraction is Cervantes' subtle brush stroke in his characterization of the loveable yet intransigent and fallible idealist. (N. from the A.)

Rodríguez Marín wonders whether Dapple ran after his master when Sancho left him behind (note 16 to chapter 34 of his edition of Don Quijote). Clemencín, on the other hand, takes no notice of this inconsistency but of repetitions such as how Sancho tried to climb to the top of the oak tree, but couldn't climb to the top, and yet did make it halfway up; and how the branch he was holding on to while trying to make it to the top broke and fell to the ground while the squire couldn't fall to the ground because he was left dangling by his suit (note 10 of his edition). Clemencín suggests a «clean up» of Cervantes' text. Translators usually abridge the passage. These repetitions, however, are strongly suggestive of the superposition of Cide Hamete's meticulous description of what happened, over Cervantes' metaphoric portrayal of Sancho as a failed social climber. (N. from the A.)

Far more obtrusive author's strings are the cord of the pack saddle in which Sancho catches his foot when he attempts to hurriedly dismount Dapple, and the loosened girth holding Don Quijote's stirrup when he attempts to dismount Rocinante (II, 30). The squire remains dangling, his face and chest touching the ground. Don Quijote falls to the ground pulling along the saddle by the stirrup. We sense it is Cide Hamete's pen recording the discomfiture which happens as Knight and Squire meet the Duchess. For a moment, master and servant look like puppets toppled by Cervantes' malicious design to suggest symbolically and graphically that their encounter with the ducal couple marks the beginning of their end, and to chastise his creatures for their character flaws: Don Quijote for his presumption, Sancho for his ambition. An analogous punishment is administered to Don Quijote at the ducal palace when a rope dangling with sheep bells and a sack full of cats also with bells is let down into his chambers with the result that the knight's face is all scratched by one of the cats -a figurative image of wooing Altisidora (II, 46). (N. from the A.)

Cervantes..., Chapter 11. (N. from the A.)

On the theme of Avellaneda's artlessness we find a charming variation of the puppet-string image when the spurious Don Quijote is being discussed (II, 59). Sancho is depicted as «a guzzler and a fool, with no humor at all». The real Sancho is incensed. He voices Cervantes' satirical scorn for Avellaneda when he says: «let him play who knows the strings» (II, 59). Clearly, the reference is to an artist's control of his instrument, in this case, the pen. (N. from the A.)

Studies on the emblematic content of the color green found in Don Quijote within the literary and the popular color symbolism traditions are «El Caballero del Verde Gabán», in Percas, Cervantes..., pp. 332-35, 359-66, 378-83; «El verde como símbolo», pp. 386-95; «Los consejos de Don Quijote a Sancho», in Cervantes and the Renaissance, ed., Michael D. McGaha (Easton, Pennsylvania: Juan de la Cuesta-Hispanic Monographs, 1980), pp. 218-22; Francisco Márquez Villanueva, «El gabán verde», in Personajes y temas del «Quijote» (Madrid: Taurus Ediciones, 1975), pp. 219-27; «La locura emblemática en la segunda parte del Quijote», in Cervantes and the Renaissance, pp. 93-100. (N. from the A.)

For a response to this article, see Elias L. Rivers. «Narrators, Readers, and Other Characters in Don Quijote». Cervantes 2.1 (1982): 96-98. (N. from the E.)

All references in the text are to the edition of Don Quijote prepared by Martín de Riquer (Barcelona: Planeta, 1962) and refer to Part, Chapter, and page, as required by context. (N. from the A.)

See Ruth El Saffar, Distance and Control in «Don Quixote» (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), pp. 30-31. See also George Haley, «The Narrator in Don Quixote: Maese Pedro's Puppet Show», Modern Language Notes, 80 (1965), 146-48, and F. W. Locke, «El sabio encantador: The Author of Don Quixote», Symposium, 23 (1969), 47-50. (N. from the A.)

E. C. Riley, «Three Versions of Don Quixote», Modern Language Review, 68 (1973), 808. (N. from the A.)