he is, unless it be your envious spirits, from whose taunts no prosperous fortune can be free." "I do not understand you, husband," quoth Teresa; "even follow your own inventions, and do not puzzle my brains with your harangues and retricks. If you are so devolved to do as ye say ""Resolved, you should say, wife," quoth Sancho, " and not devolved." Prythee, husband," said Teresa, "let us have no words about that matter: I speak as heaven is pleased I should; and for hard words, I give my share to the curate. All I have to say now is this, if you hold still in the mind of being a governor, pray even take your son Sancho along with you, and henceforth train him up to your trade of governing; for it is but fitting that the son should be brought up to the father's calling." "When once I am governor," quoth Sancho, "I will send for him by the post, and I will send thee money withal; for I dare say I shall want none; there never wants those that will lend governors money when they have none. But then be sure you clothe the boy so, that he may look not like what he is, but like what he is to be." "Send you but money," quoth Teresa, “and I will make him as fine as a May-day garland." * "So then, wife," quoth Sancho, "I suppose we are agreed that our Moll shall be a countess." "The day I see her a countess," quoth Teresa, "I reckon I lay her in her grave. However, I tell you again, even follow your own inventions; you men will be * Como un palmito, in the original; i. e. As fine as a palm branch. In Italy and Spain they carry, in procession, on Palm Sunday, a palm-branch, the leaves of which are platted and interwoven with great art and nicety. masters, and we poor women are born to bear the clog of obedience, though our husbands have no more sense than a cuckoo." Here she fell a weeping as heartily as if she had seen her daughter already dead and buried. Sancho comforted her, and promised her, that though he was to make her a countess, yet he would see and put it off as long as he could. Thus ended their dialogue, and he went back to Don Quixote, to dispose every thing for a march. CHAPTER VI. WHAT PASSED BETWEEN DON QUIXOTE, HIS NIECE, AND THE HOUSEKEEPER; BEING ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CHAPTERS IN THE WHOLE HISTORY. WHILE Sancho Panza and his wife Teresa Cascajo had the foregoing impertinent* dialogue, Don Quixote's niece and housekeeper were not idle, guessing by a thousand signs that the knight intended a third sally. Therefore they endeavored by all possible means to divert him from his foolish design, but all to no purpose; for this was but preaching to a rock, and hammering cold stubborn steel. But among other arguments; "In short, sir," quoth the housekeeper, " If you will not be ruled, but will * So it is in the original, viz. impertinente platica; but Mr. Jarvis, very justly, suspects the irony to be here broke by the transcriber or printer, and not by the author himself, and that it should be (importante) important, which carries on the grave ridicule of the history. needs run wandering over hill and dale, like a stray soul between heaven and hell, seeking for mischief, for so I may well call the hopeful adventures which you go about, I will never leave complaining to heaven and the king, till there is a stop put to it some way or other." "What answer heaven will vouchsafe to give thee, I know not," answered Don Quixote: "neither can I tell what return his majesty will make to thy petition. This I know, that were I a king, I would excuse myself from answering the infinite number of impertinent memorials that disturb the repose of princes. I tell thee, woman, among the many other fatigues which royalty sustains, it is one of the greatest to be obliged to hear every one, and to give answer to all people. Therefore, pray trouble not his majesty with any thing concerning me." "But pray, sir, tell me,” replied she, “are there not a many knights in the king's court?" "I must confess," said Don Quixote, "that, for the ornament, the grandeur, and the pomp of royalty, many knights are, and ought to be, maintained there." then," said the woman, "would it not be better for your worship to be one of those brave knights, who serve the king their master on foot in his court?" "Hear me, sweet-heart," answered Don Quixote, "all knights cannot be courtiers, nor can all courtiers be knights-errant. There must be of all sorts in the world; and though we were all to agree in the common appellation of knights, yet there would be a great difference between the one and the other. For your courtiers, without so much as stirring out of their chambers or the shade and shelter of the court, "Why can journey over all the universe in a map, without the expense and fatigue of travelling, without suffering the inconveniences of heat, cold, hunger, and thirst; while we who are the true knight-errants, exposed to those extremities, and all the inclemencies of heaven, by night and by day, on foot as well as on horseback, measure the whole surface of the earth with our own feet. Nor are we only acquainted with the pictures of our enemies, but with their very persons, ready upon all occasions and at all times to engage them, without standing upon trifles, or the ceremony of measuring weapons, stripping, or examining whether our opponents have any holy relics, or other secret charms about them; whether the sun be duly divided, or any other punctilios and circumstances observed among private duellists; things which thou understandest not, but I do: And must further let thee know, that the true knighterrant, though he met ten giants, whose tall, aspiring heads not only touch but overtop the clouds, each of them stalking with prodigious legs like huge towers, their sweeping arms like masts of mighty ships, each eye as large as a mill-wheel, and more fiery than a glass-furnace; yet he is so far from being afraid to meet them, that he must encounter them with a gentle countenance, and an undaunted courage, assail them, close with them, and if possible vanquish and destroy them all in an instant; nay, though they came armed with the scales of a certain fish, which they say is harder than adamant, and instead of swords had dreadful sabres of keen Damascan steel, or mighty maces with points of the same metal, as I have seen them more than a dozen times. I have condescended to tell thee thus much, that thou may'st see the vast difference between knights and knights; and I think it were to be wished that all princes knew so far how to make the distinction, as to give the preeminence to this first species of knights-errant, among whom there have been some whose fortitude has not only been the defence of our kingdom, but of many more, as we read in their histories." "Ah! sir," said the niece, "have a care what you say; all the stories of knights-errant are nothing but a pack of lies and fables, and if they are not burnt, they ought at least to wear a Sanbenito,* the badge of heresy, or some other mark of infamy, that the world may know them to be wicked, and perverters of good manners." "Now, by the powerful sustainer of my being," cried Don Quixote, "wert thou not so nearly related to me, wert thou not my own sister's daughter, I would take such revenge for the blasphemy thou hast uttered, as would resound through the whole universe. Who ever heard of the like impudence? That a young baggage, who scarce knows her bobbins from a bodkin, should presume to put in her oar, and censure the histories of knights-errant ! What would Sir Amadis have said, had he heard this! But he undoubtedly would have forgiven thee, for he was the most courteous and complaisant knight of his time, especially to the fair sex, being a great protector of damsels; but thy words might have reached the ears of some, that would have * A coat of black canvas, painted over with flames and devils, worn by heretics when going to be burnt, by order of the Inquisition. |