1
This is a paper from a symposium on Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, as is explained in the Foreword of this issue of the journal. (N. from the E.)
2
This is a paper from a symposium on Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, as is explained in the Foreword of this issue of the journal. (N. from the E.)
3
Alban Forcione, in Cervantes, Aristotle, and the «Persiles», was the first to analyze as a coherent literary response Don Quixote's anti-Aristotelian defense of the chivalric novels in I, 50. I am indebted to his insights for this part of my reading. (N. from the A.)
4
The alchemical terms used here and throughout the article come from the vast material published on alchemy in the seventeenth-century. Although much has been written on alchemy by twentieth-century commentators, perhaps the most accessible reference for an explanation of the terminology is Edinger. (N. from the A.)
5
This and all subsequent references to Don Quixote are drawn from the Cohen translation. (N. from the A.)
6
This is a point on which I have elaborated at much greater length in my article «In Praise of What is Left Unsaid». (N. from the A.)
7
The recently-published The Golden Game gives a reprinting of many of the alchemically-inspired woodcuts and commentaries that were published during the «golden age of alchemy», between 1600 and 1680. (N. from the A.)
8
It is important that the anamnesis that Serafido allows Persiles to undergo is carried out not in Spanish but in Norwegian, for, as Walter Ong has shown us, ones first language is associated with the earliest hungers and passions, and has deep links to the unconscious. Serafido, though he is officially Persiles' servant, actually functioned as another mother for Persiles. He says of Persiles, «I'm the one who raised him and the love I feel for him should lead me to go on and on...». (342). (N. from the A.)
9
All English citations to Persiles are from the Weller and Colahan translation. (N. from the A.)
10
Erich Neumann, in The Great Mother distinguishes between a feminine that has a regressive effect, and a feminine that promotes growth. The former is more associated with the engulfing mother, the latter, with the maiden. (N. from the A.)