In what seems to me
to be a cruel twist to further their plot, the priest, barber, and
Dorotea cage Don Quixote and to return him to his home. Although
Sancho is perceived by others as buying into Don Quixote's mad vision
of knight errantry, in this week's selection (chapters 44-49), Sancho
demonstrates to the contrary sound observations about how others are
treating his master. Consider this passage for instance:
“I can't believe it!” Said the barber. “You too, Sancho? In the
same guild as your master? By God, you've taken in so much of his
lunacy and knighthood, it looks like you'll be keeping him company in
the cage and be as enchanted as he is! It was an unlucky day for you
when he made you pregnant with his promises, an evil hour when you
got that ínsula
you want so much into your head.”
“I'm not pregnant by anybody,”
responded Sancho, “and I'm not a man who'd let himself get pregnant
even by the king, and though I'm poor I'm an old Christian, and I
don't owe anything to anybody, and if I want ínsulas,
other people want things that are worse; each man is the child of his
actions, and because I'm a man I could be a pope, let alone the
governor of an ínsula,
especially since my master could win so many he might not have enough
people to give them to. Your grace should be careful what you say,
Señor
Barber, because there's more to life than trimming beards, and
there's some difference between one Pedro and the other. I say this
because we all know one another, and you can't throw crooked dice
with me.” (p. 411)
The
barber may be unimpressed, but
I am impressed. Sancho's
belief in might be
described as impossible
dreams seems to speak to Don Quixote's dreams as well as Sancho's
own. Despite Sancho's strange proverbs, he seems to be onto
something.
I'll leave you with
this thought. After all the excitement at the inn and Don Quixote's
imprisonment, and despite the pauses for long speeches, I have to
agree with Sancho:
“Good God! What my master says about enchantments in this castle is
true! You can't have an hour's peace here!” (p. 396)
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