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Often appears with: the passions and the emotions · justice as a virtue · fate, destiny, and necessity · education and the training of the young · reason and the intellect · perception and the senses · will, choice, and freedom · religious persecution and toleration · the fear of death · prayer and worship · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · crime and punishment
Usually: detachment (83) · narrative (69) · argument (46) · confronting death (46) · the test or trial (38) · crisis of belief (36) · skepticism (36) · curiosity (32) · lament (29) · reflection (28)
“To the devil and Barabbas with such books, that have brought to ruin in this way the finest understanding there was in all La Mancha!” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · wit
“We forced him to release his hold with no little difficulty, and without another word he left us, and rushing off plunged in among these brakes and brambles” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · vivid
“For Don Quixote had already described how he had seen the man go bounding along the mountainside, and he was now filled with amazement” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · observation
“But I, how am I to imitate him in his madness, unless I can imitate him in the cause of it? For my Dulcinea, I will venture to swear, never saw a Moor in her life, as he is, in his proper costume, and she is this day as the mother that bore her, and I should plainly be doing her a wrong if, fancying anything else, I were to go mad with the same kind of madness as Roland the Furious.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · insight
“And if this be true, as it is, why should I now take the trouble to strip stark naked, or do mischief to these trees which have done me no harm, or why am I to disturb the clear waters of these brooks which will give me to drink whenever I have a mind? Long live the memory of Amadis and let him be imitated so far as is possible by Don Quixote of La Mancha,” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · precept
“The priest stood waiting for the answer of Luscinda, who for a long time withheld it; and just as I thought she was taking out the dagger to save her honour, or struggling for words to make some declaration of the truth on my behalf, I heard her say in a faint and feeble voice, ‘I will:’ Don Fernando said the same, and giving her the ring they stood linked by a knot that could never be loosed.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · vivid
“for I myself can perceive that the effect of the recollection of my misfortunes is so great and works so powerfully to my ruin, that in spite of myself I become at times like a stone, without feeling or consciousness;” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · vivid
“The difference between the two sorts of madmen is, that he who is so will he nil he, will be one always, while he who is so of his own accord can leave off being one whenever he likes.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · wit
“The companionship of one’s wife is no article of merchandise, that, after it has been bought, may be returned, or bartered, or changed; for it is an inseparable accident that lasts as long as life lasts; it is a noose that, once you put it round your neck, turns into a Gordian knot.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · insight
“Maybe it will be the same with this historian; that he will not venture another time to discharge the weight of his wit in books, which, being bad, are harder than stones.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · wit
“...he cast suspicion on the governor, and made his relations appear covetous and heartless, and himself so rational that the chaplain determined to take him away with him that the Archbishop might see him, and ascertain for himself the truth of the matter.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · observation
“You cured!’ said the madman; ‘well, we shall see; God be with you; but I swear to you by Jupiter, whose majesty I represent on earth, that for this crime alone, which Seville is committing to-day in releasing you from this house, and treating you as if you were in your senses, I shall have to inflict such a punishment on it as will be remembered for ages and ages, amen.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · vivid
The translator argues Muhammad’s Qur’anic authorship is best explained by sincere monotheistic conviction and self-deception, then moves into exhortations to Muhammad at Mecca: proclaim God’s unity, forgive, warn against dividing the scripture, and worship until certainty comes.
heavens and the earth and all that between them is, but for a worthy end.17 And verily, "the hour" shall surely come. Wherefore do thou, Muhammad, forgive with kindly forgiveness, For thy Lord! He is the Creator, the Wise. We have already given thee the seven verses of repetition18 and the glorious Koran. Strain not thine eyes after the good things we have bestowed on some of the unbelievers: afflict not thyself o…
Verses explain setbacks as from oneself and God’s will, describe those who falsely claim they would have fought, deny that the slain on God’s path are dead, and insist the hypocrites’ dissimulation will be exposed.
a reverse hath befallen you,50 the like of which ye had before inflicted, say ye, "Whence is this?" SAY: It is from yourselves. For God hath power over all things. And that which befel you on the day when the armies met, was certainly by the will of God, and that he might know the faithful, and that he might know the hypocrites! And when the word was "Advance, fight on the path of God, or drive back the foe,"-they s…
Eurylochus’ men reach Circe’s house and hear her singing at the loom, but Circe drugs them, turns them into pigs, and Eurylochus reports the disappearance of the rest.
cast lots in a helmet, and the lot fell upon Eurylochus; so he set out with his twenty-two men, and they wept, as also did we who were left behind. “When they reached Circe’s house they found it built of cut stones, on a site that could be seen from far, in the middle of the forest. There were wild mountain wolves and lions prowling all round it—poor bewitched creatures whom she had tamed by her enchantments and dru…
A vivid case: a young woman in an open house shows early plague signs, the mother discovers fatal tokens and panics for hours; the daughter dies rapidly from spreading gangrene and the mother dies later.
resolved to put her to bed, and prepared to give her things to sweat, which was the ordinary remedy to be taken when the first apprehensions of the distemper began. While the bed was airing the mother undressed the young woman, and just as she was laid down in the bed, she, looking upon her body with a candle, immediately discovered the fatal tokens on the inside of her thighs. Her mother, not bein…
The narrator describes his early fear during the plague, witnessing sufferers dying or killing themselves, wavering in resolve, turning to fasting and meditation, and receiving counsel from his physician friend Heath.
till my experience showing me the folly, I began to be wiser so late that I had scarce time to store myself sufficient for our common subsistence for a month. I had in family only an ancient woman that managed the house, a maid-servant, two apprentices, and myself; and the plague beginning to increase about us, I had many sad thoughts about what course I should take, and how I should act. The many …
After banishment and withdrawal from politics, Lucullus’s mental decline is attributed to a potion given by Callisthenes, and his death prompts public mourning and disputes over burial.
a halter and blows about him, and seeming rather to have been taken off by those who suborned him. These things kept Lucullus at a greater distance from the republic. But when Cicero was banished the city, and Cato sent to Cyprus, he quitted public affairs altogether. It is said, too, that before his death, his intellects failed him by degrees. But Cornelius Nepos denies that either age or sickness impaired his mi…
On the way to Babylon Alexander ignores warnings, reads omens (crows, defective liver), moves his tent to avoid danger, and experiences visions of Dionysius; Antipater and Cassander trigger his fear.
river into the sea. Though Alexander declined this proposal, yet now he spent a great deal of time with workmen to invent and contrive others even more extravagant and sumptuous. As he was upon his way to Babylon, Nearchus, who had sailed back out of the ocean up the mouth of the river Euphrates, came to tell him he had met with some Chaldaean diviners, who had warned him against Alexander's going thither. Alexande…
Kant notes that necessary external things enable internal experience, but particular seeming external experiences in dreams or madness may be imaginary reconstructions from prior perceptions, judged by criteria of real experience.
spontaneity which characterizes every act of imagination. For merely to imagine also an external sense, would annihilate the faculty of intuition itself which is to be determined by the imagination. Remark II. Now with this view all empirical use of our faculty of cognition in the determination of time is in perfect accordance. Its truth is supported by the fact that it is possible to perceive a determination of tim…
At the village home, the curate and barber hear the housekeeper and niece explain that chivalric books have caused Don Quixote’s madness, and the peasant finally informs them he is Don Quixote.
world in quest of adventures. To the devil and Barabbas with such books, that have brought to ruin in this way the finest understanding there was in all La Mancha!” The niece said the same, and, more: “You must know, Master Nicholas”—for that was the name of the barber—“it was often my uncle’s way to stay two days and nights together poring over these unholy books of misventures, after which he would fling the book …
They stop for Don Quixote’s second outbreak during the reading, then later wall up the library space as books are burned, and when he wakes he claims a magician stole the room.
“The ‘Galatea’ of Miguel de Cervantes,” said the barber. “That Cervantes has been for many years a great friend of mine, and to my knowledge he has had more experience in reverses than in verses. His book has some good invention in it, it presents us with something but brings nothing to a conclusion: we must wait for the Second Part it promises: perhaps with amendment it may succeed in winning the full measure of gr…
Near Puerto Lápice Don Quixote tells Sancho he must not defend him against knights, and when two Benedictine friars and a coach appear, Don Quixote wrongly thinks magicians are kidnapping a princess and attacks a friar.
“I will do so, I promise you,” answered Sancho, “and will keep this precept as carefully as Sunday.” While they were thus talking there appeared on the road two friars of the order of St. Benedict, mounted on two dromedaries, for not less tall were the two mules they rode on. They wore travelling spectacles and carried sunshades; and behind them came a coach attended by four or five persons on horseback and two mule…
The goatherd describes how the youth, later found lodged in a cork tree hollow, alternates between courtly calm and sudden madness, attacking a man named Fernando, driven by suspected grave betrayal and needing treatment in Almodóvar.
himself to be of good birth and courtly breeding, and rustics as we were that listened to him, even to our rusticity his gentle bearing sufficed to make it plain. “But in the midst of his conversation he stopped and became silent, keeping his eyes fixed upon the ground for some time, during which we stood still waiting anxiously to see what would come of this abstraction; and with no little pity, for from his behavi…
Don Quixote hears that the owner they found is the same ragged, naked, mad youth, then the youth appears at once, greets Don Quixote, and they embrace while the youth is recognized as the Ragged One of the Sorry Countenance.
to what you have asked me; and be sure that the owner of the articles you found is he whom you saw pass by with such nimbleness and so naked.” For Don Quixote had already described how he had seen the man go bounding along the mountainside, and he was now filled with amazement at what he heard from the goatherd, and more eager than ever to discover who the unhappy madman was; and in his heart he resolved, as he had …
Don Quixote angrily denies the rumor about Queen Madasima, triggering Cardenio’s mad fit: he attacks Don Quixote with a stone, Sancho and the goatherd exchange blows, Don Quixote stops the fight, and asks again to find Cardenio’s whereabouts to learn the story’s end.
like a great scoundrel, and I will give him to know it, on foot or on horseback, armed or unarmed, by night or by day, or as he likes best.” Cardenio was looking at him steadily, and his mad fit having now come upon him, he had no disposition to go on with his story, nor would Don Quixote have listened to it, so much had what he had heard about Madasima disgusted him. Strange to say, he stood up for her as if she we…
Don Quixote and Sancho argue about how much “mad” performance Sancho should witness, while Don Quixote plans penances on herbs and uses broom branches as navigation marks for Sancho’s return.
mean to go at once without seeing the fooleries your worship is going to do; I’ll say I saw you do so many that she will not want any more.” “At any rate, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “I should like—and there is reason for it—I should like thee, I say, to see me stripped to the skin and performing a dozen or two of insanities, which I can get done in less than half an hour; for having seen them with thine own eyes, th…
Sancho departs after receiving Don Quixote’s blessing, lays broom branches, returns after seeing at least one “mad act,” and Don Quixote strips and performs somersaults as agreed.
come out upon the plain; these will serve thee, after the fashion of the clue in the labyrinth of Theseus, as marks and signs for finding me on thy return.” “So I will,” said Sancho Panza, and having cut some, he asked his master’s blessing, and not without many tears on both sides, took his leave of him, and mounting Rocinante, of whom Don Quixote charged him earnestly to have as much care as of his own person, he …
Alone on a high rock, Don Quixote debates whether to imitate Roland the Furious or Amadis of Gaul, concluding that his Dulcinea has no cause for jealous madness and choosing grief without losing his senses.
IN WHICH ARE CONTINUED THE REFINEMENTS WHEREWITH DON QUIXOTE PLAYED THE c26a.jpg (111K) Full Size Returning to the proceedings of him of the Rueful Countenance when he found himself alone, the history says that when Don Quixote had completed the performance of the somersaults or capers, naked from the waist down and clothed from the waist up, and saw that Sancho had gone off without waiting to see any more crazy f…
Cardenio, recognized by the curate, explains that he is often driven by recollection into a madness-like condition, yet asks them to hear his full story of misfortunes before offering consolation.
As they, both of them, desired nothing more than to hear from his own lips the cause of his suffering, they entreated him to tell it, promising not to do anything for his relief or comfort that he did not wish; and thereupon the unhappy gentleman began his sad story in nearly the same words and manner in which he had related it to Don Quixote and the goatherd a few days before, when, through Master Elisabad, and Don …
Cardenio explains that after Luscinda is bound in marriage, he emerges, tries to act out righteous vengeance, but instead flees the city on horseback, cursing Luscinda and Don Fernando in the dark.
him, but that the details he mentioned interested them greatly, being of a kind by no means to be omitted and deserving of the same attention as the main story. “To proceed, then,” continued Cardenio: “all being assembled in the hall, the priest of the parish came in and as he took the pair by the hand to perform the requisite ceremony, at the words, ‘Will you, Señora Luscinda, take Señor Don Fernando, here present,…
Cardenio continues his story: he wanders the mountains for days, plans to end his life, but his mule dies; he survives with goatherds’ help, intermittently lapsing into madness in solitudes.
on his hand in the attitude of one deep in thought, without taking any part in the efforts that were being made to recover his bride from her fainting fit. “Seeing all the household in confusion, I ventured to come out regardless whether I were seen or not, and determined, if I were, to do some frenzied deed that would prove to all the world the righteous indignation of my breast in the punishment of the treacherous…
Cardenio explains that his misfortunes and memories leave him emotionally numb and hopeless, asking others to hear his story rather than offer consolation that cannot help him.
my soul, for in myself I feel no power or strength to release my body from this strait in which I have of my own accord chosen to place it. “Such, sirs, is the dismal story of my misfortune: say if it be one that can be told with less emotion than you have seen in me; and do not trouble yourselves with urging or pressing upon me what reason suggests as likely to serve for my relief, for it will avail me as much as t…
Sancho bursts in from the garret claiming Don Quixote has decapitated a giant, while the curate doubts it because the giant is “two thousand leagues” away.
WHICH TREATS OF THE HEROIC AND PRODIGIOUS BATTLE DON QUIXOTE HAD WITH CERTAIN SKINS OF RED WINE, AND BRINGS THE NOVEL OF “THE ILL-ADVISED CURIOSITY” TO A CLOSE There remained but little more of the novel to be read, when Sancho Panza burst forth in wild excitement from the garret where Don Quixote was lying, shouting, “Run, sirs! quick; and help my master, who is in the thick of the toughest and stiffest battle I ev…
The landlord and others enter and find Don Quixote asleep in a ridiculous costume, having slashed wine skins in his dreams so the room is full of spilled red wine like blood.
wicked life; for I saw the blood flowing on the ground, and the head cut off and fallen on one side, and it is as big as a large wine-skin.” “May I die,” said the landlord at this, “if Don Quixote or Don Devil has not been slashing some of the skins of red wine that stand full at his bed’s head, and the spilt wine must be what this good fellow takes for blood;” and so saying he went into the room and the rest after …
The narrator begins a new chapter: the curate and barber avoid seeing Don Quixote for nearly a month, then visit him; niece and housekeeper say he improves, and Don Quixote discusses politics intelligently until the curate tests him.
And if this story does not suit him, you may, dear reader, tell him this one, which is likewise of a madman and a dog. In Cordova there was another madman, whose way it was to carry a piece of marble slab or a stone, not of the lightest, on his head, and when he came upon any unwary dog he used to draw close to him and let the weight fall right on top of him; on which the dog in a rage, barking and howling, would ru…
In Seville, a law graduate imprisoned in the madhouse writes to the Archbishop claiming he has regained his reason; after inquiry, a chaplain converses with him and begins arranging his release.
so pat to the purpose just now that I should like greatly to tell it.” Don Quixote gave him leave, and the rest prepared to listen, and he began thus: “In the madhouse at Seville there was a man whom his relations had placed there as being out of his mind. He was a graduate of Osuna in canon law; but even if he had been of Salamanca, it was the opinion of most people that he would have been mad all the same. This gr…
A furious madman claims he is Jupiter and threatens Seville by withholding rain for three years, while the licentiate replies that he is Neptune and insists he will rain anyway.
madness of ours comes of having the stomach empty and the brains full of wind. Take courage! take courage! for despondency in misfortune breaks down health and brings on death.’ “To all these words of the licentiate another madman in a cage opposite that of the furious one was listening; and raising himself up from an old mat on which he lay stark naked, he asked in a loud voice who it was that was going away cured …
The barber apologizes for the rain remark, the curate raises doubts about whether the described knights-errant truly existed, and Don Quixote answers that he has “seen” them through philosophy and testimony.
barber has told us, will not send rain, here am I, and I will rain when I please. I say this that Master Basin may know that I understand him.” “Indeed, Señor Don Quixote,” said the barber, “I did not mean it in that way, and, so help me God, my intention was good, and your worship ought not to be vexed.” “As to whether I ought to be vexed or not,” returned Don Quixote, “I myself am the best judge.” Hereupon the c…
Outside the room, the niece and housekeeper confront Sancho, accusing him of deluding Don Quixote, while Sancho defends his claim that Don Quixote promised him an island.
WHICH TREATS OF THE NOTABLE ALTERCATION WHICH SANCHO PANZA HAD WITH DON QUIXOTE’S NIECE, AND HOUSEKEEPER, TOGETHER WITH OTHER DROLL MATTERS p02a.jpg (159K) Full Size The history relates that the outcry Don Quixote, the curate, and the barber heard came from the niece and the housekeeper exclaiming to Sancho, who was striving to force his way in to see Don Quixote while they held the door against him, “What does th…
Don Quixote privately rebukes Sancho for claiming he “took” him from his cottage, then asks what villagers think of him; Sancho reports that people see Don Quixote as a madman.
“I promise you,” said the curate, “the niece or the housekeeper will tell us by-and-by, for they are not the ones to forget to listen.” Meanwhile Don Quixote shut himself up in his room with Sancho, and when they were alone he said to him, “It grieves me greatly, Sancho, that thou shouldst have said, and sayest, that I took thee out of thy cottage, when thou knowest I did not remain in my house. We sallied forth tog…
Don Quixote waits for Samson Carrasco, doubts the truth of a written history about his deeds, and worries it may be distorted by a Moorish author, especially regarding Dulcinea’s honor; Carrasco arrives and praises the published history.
OF THE LAUGHABLE CONVERSATION THAT PASSED BETWEEN DON QUIXOTE, SANCHO PANZA, AND THE BACHELOR SAMSON CARRASCO p03a.jpg (131K) Full Size Don Quixote remained very deep in thought, waiting for the bachelor Carrasco, from whom he was to hear how he himself had been put into a book as Sancho said; and he could not persuade himself that any such history could be in existence, for the blood of the enemies he had slain w…
The narrative explains that the “Knight of the Mirrors” was Samson Carrasco acting with the curate and barber, using Tom Cecial as his disguised squire, and it includes their talk about whose madness is worse after the failed attempt.
WHEREIN IT IS TOLD AND KNOWN WHO THE KNIGHT OF THE MIRRORS AND HIS SQUIRE WERE p15a.jpg (122K) Full Size Don Quixote went off satisfied, elated, and vain-glorious in the highest degree at having won a victory over such a valiant knight as he fancied him of the Mirrors to be, and one from whose knightly word he expected to learn whether the enchantment of his lady still continued; inasmuch as the said vanquished kn…
Don Quixote continues traveling in pride, believes he can still disenchant Dulcinea, and reasons with Sancho about how enemies like Carrasco must have been magically substituted to preserve Don Quixote’s swordwork.
OF WHAT BEFELL DON QUIXOTE WITH A DISCREET GENTLEMAN OF LA MANCHA p16a.jpg (85K) Full Size Don Quixote pursued his journey in the high spirits, satisfaction, and self-complacency already described, fancying himself the most valorous knight-errant of the age in the world because of his late victory. All the adventures that could befall him from that time forth he regarded as already done and brought to a happy issu…
Sancho says he doubts the “true account” because his Dulcinea transformation was his own trick, and then a well-dressed gentleman in green joins them by riding up and speaking courteously.
of victory out of my grasp. For all that, however, I console myself, because, after all, in whatever shape he may have been, I have been victorious over my enemy.” “God knows what’s the truth of it all,” said Sancho; and knowing as he did that the transformation of Dulcinea had been a device and imposition of his own, his master’s illusions were not satisfactory to him; but he did not like to reply lest he should sa…
Sancho, hurrying with paid-for curds in Don Quixote’s helmet, causes the “whey” to drip on his face, and Don Quixote believes an upcoming terrible adventure is at hand.
WHEREIN IS SHOWN THE FURTHEST AND HIGHEST POINT WHICH THE UNEXAMPLED COURAGE OF DON QUIXOTE REACHED OR COULD REACH; TOGETHER WITH THE HAPPILY ACHIEVED ADVENTURE OF THE LIONS p17a.jpg (137K) Full Size The history tells that when Don Quixote called out to Sancho to bring him his helmet, Sancho was buying some curds the shepherds agreed to sell him, and flurried by the great haste his master was in did not know what …
Don Diego tells his son Lorenzo that Don Quixote is both madness and wisdom, and Lorenzo discusses with Don Quixote, who asks about his poetry and the sciences he studied.
make of this gentleman you have brought home to us, sir? For his name, his appearance, and your describing him as a knight-errant have completely puzzled my mother and me.” “I don’t know what to say, my son,” replied. Don Diego; “all I can tell thee is that I have seen him act the acts of the greatest madman in the world, and heard him make observations so sensible that they efface and undo all he does; do thou talk…
Don Quixote argues that parents must choose marriage partners and warns against love-driven decisions, then the licentiate says Basilio shows symptoms of madness and will likely die the next day after Quiteria says “yes.”
“the youth deserves to marry, not merely the fair Quiteria, but Queen Guinevere herself, were she alive now, in spite of Launcelot and all who would try to prevent it.” “Say that to my wife,” said Sancho, who had until now listened in silence, “for she won’t hear of anything but each one marrying his equal, holding with the proverb ‘each ewe to her like.’ What I would like is that this good Basilio (for I am beginni…
Don Quixote insists he saw Dulcinea and two other country girls in enchanted form, and Sancho declares him mad while asking how Dulcinea was recognized and what happened.
you saw and discoursed with down there, stuffed your imagination or your mind with all this rigmarole you have been treating us to, and all that is still to come.” “All that might be, Sancho,” replied Don Quixote; “but it is not so, for everything that I have told you I saw with my own eyes, and touched with my own hands. But what will you say when I tell you now how, among the countless other marvellous things Mont…
Cide Hamete is praised for careful storytelling as the duennas reveal bearded faces after Malambruno pricks and roughens them, and Sancho jokes that shaving is unaffordable while Don Quixote promises to cure them.
OF MATTERS RELATING AND BELONGING TO THIS ADVENTURE AND TO THIS MEMORABLE HISTORY p40a.jpg (129K) Full Size Verily and truly all those who find pleasure in histories like this ought show their gratitude to Cide Hamete, its original author, for the scrupulous care he has taken to set before us all its minute particulars, not leaving anything, however trifling it may be, that he does not make clear and plain. He por…
Sancho challenges the assembled shepherds, asking whether any priest or knight could match Don Quixote’s public claim and offer, emphasizing that the proclamation sounds like mad talk to outsiders.
of doubt. But spare yourselves the trouble, ladies, of pressing me to stay, for the urgent calls of my profession do not allow me to take rest under any circumstances.” At this instant there came up to the spot where the four stood a brother of one of the two shepherdesses, like them in shepherd costume, and as richly and gaily dressed as they were. They told him that their companion was the valiant Don Quixote of L…
The bookish squire argues with his village curate and barber about which knight is best, but his obsession grows until he believes impossible battles and enchantments are real history.
as is there proposed, which no doubt he would have done, and made a successful piece of work of it too, had not greater and more absorbing thoughts prevented him. Many an argument did he have with the curate of his village (a learned man, and a graduate of Siguenza) as to which had been the better knight, Palmerin of England or Amadis of Gaul. Master Nicholas, the village barber, however, used to say that neither of…
Unable to rise, Don Quixote draws on ballads of Baldwin and the Marquis of Mantua, repeating lines while a peasant from his village approaches, thinks he is mad, and finally identifies him as Senor Quixada.
IN WHICH THE NARRATIVE OF OUR KNIGHT'S MISHAP IS CONTINUED Finding, then, that, in fact he could not move, he thought himself of having recourse to his usual remedy, which was to think of some passage in his books, and his craze brought to his mind that about Baldwin and the Marquis of Mantua, when Carloto left him wounded on the mountain side, a story known by heart by the children, not forgotten by the young men, …
In the house, the curate and barber discuss burning the “books of chivalry” blamed for his madness; the niece narrates Quixada’s past violence and potions, and the peasant identifies the roles of Baldwin/Mantua and Rodrigo/Abindarraez in Don Quixote’s rant.
world in quest of adventures. To the devil and Barabbas with such books, that have brought to ruin in this way the finest understanding there was in all La Mancha!" The niece said the same, and, more: "You must know, Master Nicholas"--for that was the name of the barber--"it was often my uncle's way to stay two days and nights together poring over these unholy books of misventures, after which he would fling the boo…
Freud argues that lingering on touching and looking can start from normal erotic processes, but becomes perverse when it fixes on genitals, overcomes loathing, or replaces the normal aim, linking shame to suppression of voyeurism.
object causes much pleasure and produces a supply of new excitement. Hence, the lingering at the touching can hardly be considered a perversion if the sexual act is proceeded with. The same holds true in the end with looking which is analogous to touching. The manner in which the libidinous excitement is frequently awakened is by the optical impression, and selection takes account of this circumstance--if this teleo…
Freud claims perversions vary from normal and do not automatically indicate disease, but become morbid through exclusiveness and fixation; he adds that psychic resistances like shame and loathing shape them, and that neurosis is the “negative” of perversion.
3. GENERAL STATEMENTS APPLICABLE TO ALL PERVERSIONS *Variation and Disease.*--The physicians who at first studied the *perversions* in pronounced cases and under peculiar conditions were naturally inclined to attribute to them the character of a morbid or degenerative sign similar to the *inversions*. This view, however, is easier to refute in this than in the former case. Everyday experience has shown that most of …
Freud argues that psychoanalysis of “psychoneurotics” shows their symptoms are expressions of sexual motives and repressed wishes, especially via repression, conversion of ideas into bodily symptoms, and a flight from sexual cognition in hysteria.
if they have become developed in the individual before the sexual impulse has attained its full strength, it is really they which have directed it in the course of development.[23] We have furthermore remarked that some of the examined perversions can be comprehended only by assuming the union of many motives. If they are amenable to analysis--disintegration--they must be of a composite nature. This may give us a hi…
He links neurosis to perverse tendencies in the unconscious, claiming inversion tendencies, anatomical transgressions, and contrasting perversions like peeping/exhibitionism and cruelty appear as symptom-creators, while fetichism shows special diagnostic absence.
from intellectual occupation with the sexual problem, the consequence of which in pronounced cases is a complete sexual ignorance, which is preserved till the age of sexual maturity is attained.[24] This feature, so characteristic of hysteria, is not seldom concealed in crude observation by the existence of the second constitutional factor of hysteria, namely, the enormous development of the sexual craving. But the …
Freud proposes that “partial impulses” arise from erogenous zones and combine many motives, and he offers a framework for why psychoneuroses show apparent excess sexual perversions, shaped by puberty, repression, and restricted gratification.
the unconscious streams of thought of the neuroses which would correspond to an inclination towards fetichism; a circumstance which throws light on the psychological peculiarity of this well understood perversion. Beta. Wherever any such impulse is found in the unconscious which can be paired with a contrasting one, it can regularly be demonstrated that the latter, too, is effective. Every active perversion is here …
He explains how oral and anal uses treat mouth and anus as genitals-like erogenous zones in hysteria, while other neuroses can shift sexual aim-making to more distant psychic apparatus regions like the eye in exhibitionism.
mucous membrane proceeding from them, become the seat of new sensations and innervating changes in a manner similar to the real genitals when under the excitement of normal sexual processes. The significance of the erogenous zones in the psychoneuroses, as additional apparatus and substitutes for the genitals, appears to be most prominent in hysteria though that does not signify that it is of lesser validity in the …
Freud argues that there is a congenital basis for perversions in every person, where infantile sexual impulses may develop into perverts, be repressed into neuroses, or be restricted into normal sexual life.
of the sexual object should notionally be strictly separated from the mixing of the sex characteristics in the subject. A certain amount of independence is unmistakable also in this relation. [12] Although psychoanalysis has not yet given us a full explanation for the origin of inversion, it has revealed the psychic mechanism of its genesis and has essentially enriched the problems in question. In all the cases exam…
In the dungeon, Christian laments his misery and debates whether life or death is better, questioning whether he should submit to the Giant’s rule.
to go back, but it was so dark, and the flood was so high, that in their going back they had like to have been drowned nine or ten times. {283} Neither could they, with all the skill they had, get again to the stile that night. Wherefore, at last, lighting under a little shelter, they sat down there until the daybreak; but, being weary, they fell asleep. Now there was, not far from the place where they lay, a castle…
The poems “The Show” and “Mental Cases” depict war’s aftermath as nightmarish scenes of worms and shattered minds, asking who these men are and blaming dead memories for their torment.
rose or why, And saw a sad land, weak with sweats of dearth, Gray, cratered like the moon with hollow woe, And fitted with great pocks and scabs of plaques. Across its beard, that horror of harsh wire, There moved thin caterpillars, slowly uncoiled. It seemed they pushed themselves to be as plugs Of ditches, where they writhed and shrivelled, killed. By them had slimy paths been trailed and scraped …
“The Dead-Beat,” “Exposure,” and parts of “Spring Offensive” show soldiers’ collapse, numbness, and near-death waiting in snow and cold, culminating in men facing a “last hill” under imminent attack.
We sent him down at last, out of the way. Unwounded;--stout lad, too, before that strafe. Malingering? Stretcher-bearers winked, "Not half!" Next day I heard the Doc.'s well-whiskied laugh: "That scum you sent last night soon died. Hooray!" Exposure I Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us . . . Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . . Low drooping flares co…
Diaz, with Hernando de Aguilar and Hinojosa, follows a rivulet to signal-marked trees, discovers deserted huts with maize plantations, captures Indians and women overnight, and returns to Cortes; Sandoval jokes about Ircio.
to refuse any longer, and I desired that Hernando de Aguilar and a certain Hinojosa might accompany me, both of whom were men I well knew could bear any fatigues. We three then set out from our camp, and followed the course of a rivulet to some considerable distance, until we came in view of a hill lying on the opposite side of the water, and on which we observed several branches of trees that had been stuck in the …
He explains why American writers become inflated when they try poetic diction: citizens obsess over small personal affairs, so they crave vast conceptions and push both authors and public into gigantic, incoherent imagery that turns into monsters.
I have frequently remarked that the Americans, who generally treat of business in clear, plain language, devoid of all ornament, and so extremely simple as to be often coarse, are apt to become inflated as soon as they attempt a more poetical diction. They then vent their pomposity from one end of a harangue to the other; and to hear them lavish imagery on every occasion, one might fancy that they never spoke of anyt…
The introduction details Nietzsche’s influenza in the Santa Margherita–Genoa period, his despondency at first reception, and his gloomy spring in Rome leading to composition of “The Night-Song.”
say, from the beginning to about the middle of February 1883. “The last lines were written precisely in the hallowed hour when Richard Wagner gave up the ghost in Venice.” With the exception of the ten days occupied in composing the first part of this book, my brother often referred to this winter as the hardest and sickliest he had ever experienced. He did not, however, mean thereby that his former disorders were t…
She continues the Rome episode, linking the heat and circumstances to Nietzsche’s decision to pause Zarathustra, and then describes renewed creativity after returning to Switzerland in late June.
loneliest of all songs was composed—‘The Night-Song’. About this time I was obsessed by an unspeakably sad melody, the refrain of which I recognised in the words, ‘dead through immortality.’” We remained somewhat too long in Rome that spring, and what with the effect of the increasing heat and the discouraging circumstances already described, my brother resolved not to write any more, or in any case, not to proceed …
In “Invocation” and “Repression of War Experience” Sassoon contrasts heavenly beauty and remembered paradise with the intrusive horrors of war, including sounds of “whispering guns” and guilt about soldiers’ madness.
INVOCATION Come down from heaven to meet me when my breath Chokes, and through drumming shafts of stifling death I stumble toward escape, to find the door Opening on morn where I may breathe once more Clear cock-crow airs across some valley dim With whispering trees. While dawn along the rim Of night's horizon flows in lakes of fire, Come down from heaven's bright hill, my song's desire. Belov'd and faithful, teach…
Montaigne rejects sorrow as foolish and base, noting the Stoics forbid it, and explains through stories (Psammenitus, and a recent prince at Trent) how grief may surface differently when earlier pain is already present.
OF SORROW No man living is more free from this passion than I, who yet neither like it in myself nor admire it in others, and yet generally the world, as a settled thing, is pleased to grace it with a particular esteem, clothing therewith wisdom, virtue, and conscience. Foolish and sordid guise! --["No man is more free from this passion than I, for I neither love nor regard it: albeit the world hath undertaken, as …
Montaigne admits he himself flinches at sudden harquebus fire, then distinguishes Stoic philosophers from ordinary people: the wise may tremble at first impressions, but must keep judgment unshaken.
harquebuse thunders in my ears on a sudden, and in a place where I am not to expect it, which I have also observed in others, braver fellows than I. Neither do the Stoics pretend that the soul of their philosopher need be proof against the first visions and fantasies that surprise him; but, as to a natural subjection, consent that he should tremble at the terrible noise of thunder, or the sudden clatter of some fall…
Montaigne describes fear as a passion that dethrones judgment, causing soldiers to misread reality as enemies, to run blindly into danger, or even to become mentally frozen, and he cites episodes from sieges and battles.
OF FEAR "Obstupui, steteruntque comae et vox faucibus haesit." ["I was amazed, my hair stood on end, and my voice stuck in my throat." Virgil, AEneid, ii. 774.] I am not so good a naturalist (as they call it) as to discern by what secret springs fear has its motion in us; but, be this as it may, 'tis a strange passion, and such a one that the physicians say there is no other whatever that sooner dethrones o…