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Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra · c. 1605–1615 primary

passage 809 of 841 · CHAPTER I WHICH TREATS OF THE CHARACTER AND > CHAPTER LXVII. (4/4)

in brief
Don Quixote criticizes Sancho for misusing proverbs, then they stop to camp for the night, with Sancho regretting hardships of knighthood and Don Quixote staying awake.

“that your worship is like the common saying, ‘Said the frying-pan to the kettle, Get away, blackbreech.’ You chide me for uttering proverbs, and you string them in couples yourself.”

“Observe, Sancho,” replied Don Quixote, “I bring in proverbs to the purpose, and when I quote them they fit like a ring to the finger; thou bringest them in by the head and shoulders, in such a way that thou dost drag them in, rather than introduce them; if I am not mistaken, I have told thee already that proverbs are short maxims drawn from the experience and observation of our wise men of old; but the proverb that is not to the purpose is a piece of nonsense and not a maxim. But enough of this; as nightfall is drawing on let us retire some little distance from the high road to pass the night; what is in store for us to-morrow God knoweth.”

They turned aside, and supped late and poorly, very much against Sancho’s will, who turned over in his mind the hardships attendant upon knight-errantry in woods and forests, even though at times plenty presented itself in castles and houses, as at Don Diego de Miranda’s, at the wedding of Camacho the Rich, and at Don Antonio Moreno’s; he reflected, however, that it could not be always day, nor always night; and so that night he passed in sleeping, and his master in waking.

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topics: courage and cowardice · custom and the manners of a people · justice as a virtue

Don Quixote · Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra · 1605–1615