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Miqeul de Cervantes >> Don Quixote (page 153)


"Very true," said Samson, "and good Sancho Panza's view of thesecases is quite right."

"Sirs, not so fast," said Don Quixote, "'in last year's neststhere are no birds this year.' I was mad, now I am in my senses; I wasDon Quixote of La Mancha, I am now, as I said, Alonso Quixano theGood; and may my repentance and sincerity restore me to the esteem youused to have for me; and now let Master Notary proceed.

"Item, I leave all my property absolutely to Antonia Quixana myniece, here present, after all has been deducted from the mostavailable portion of it that may be required to satisfy the bequests Ihave made. And the first disbursement I desire to be made is thepayment of the wages I owe for the time my housekeeper has servedme, with twenty ducats, over and above, for a gown. The curate and thebachelor Samson Carrasco, now present, I appoint my executors.

"Item, it is my wish that if Antonia Quixana, my niece, desires tomarry, she shall marry a man of whom it shall be first of allascertained by information taken that he does not know what books ofchivalry are; and if it should be proved that he does, and if, inspite of this, my niece insists upon marrying him, and does marry him,then that she shall forfeit the whole of what I have left her, whichmy executors shall devote to works of charity as they please.

"Item, I entreat the aforesaid gentlemen my executors, that, ifany happy chance should lead them to discover the author who is saidto have written a history now going about under the title of 'SecondPart of the Achievements of Don Quixote of La Mancha,' they beg of himon my behalf as earnestly as they can to forgive me for having been,without intending it, the cause of his writing so many and suchmonstrous absurdities as he has written in it; for I am leaving theworld with a feeling of compunction at having provoked him to writethem."

With this he closed his will, and a faintness coming over him hestretched himself out at full length on the bed. All were in a flutterand made haste to relieve him, and during the three days he livedafter that on which he made his will he fainted away very often. Thehouse was all in confusion; but still the niece ate and thehousekeeper drank and Sancho Panza enjoyed himself; for inheritingproperty wipes out or softens down in the heir the feeling of griefthe dead man might be expected to leave behind him.

At last Don Quixote's end came, after he had received all thesacraments, and had in full and forcible terms expressed hisdetestation of books of chivalry. The notary was there at the time,and he said that in no book of chivalry had he ever read of anyknight-errant dying in his bed so calmly and so like a Christian asDon Quixote, who amid the tears and lamentations of all presentyielded up his spirit, that is to say died. On perceiving it thecurate begged the notary to bear witness that Alonso Quixano the Good,commonly called Don Quixote of La Mancha, had passed away from thispresent life, and died naturally; and said he desired this testimonyin order to remove the possibility of any other author save CideHamete Benengeli bringing him to life again falsely and makinginterminable stories out of his achievements.

Such was the end of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, whosevillage Cide Hamete would not indicate precisely, in order to leaveall the towns and villages of La Mancha to contend among themselvesfor the right to adopt him and claim him as a son, as the seven citiesof Greece contended for Homer. The lamentations of Sancho and theniece and housekeeper are omitted here, as well as the new epitaphsupon his tomb; Samson Carrasco, however, put the following lines:

A doughty gentleman lies here;A stranger all his life to fear;Nor in his death could Death prevail,In that last hour, to make him quail.He for the world but little cared;And at his feats the world was scared;A crazy man his life he passed,But in his senses died at last.

And said most sage Cide Hamete to his pen, "Rest here, hung up bythis brass wire, upon this shelf, O my pen, whether of skilful make orclumsy cut I know not; here shalt thou remain long ages hence,unless presumptuous or malignant story-tellers take thee down toprofane thee. But ere they touch thee warn them, and, as best thoucanst, say to them:

Hold off! ye weaklings; hold your hands!Adventure it let none,For this emprise, my lord the king,Was meant for me alone.

For me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him; it was his to act,mine to write; we two together make but one, notwithstanding and inspite of that pretended Tordesillesque writer who has ventured orwould venture with his great, coarse, ill-trimmed ostrich quill towrite the achievements of my valiant knight;- no burden for hisshoulders, nor subject for his frozen wit: whom, if perchance thoushouldst come to know him, thou shalt warn to leave at rest where theylie the weary mouldering bones of Don Quixote, and not to attempt tocarry him off, in opposition to all the privileges of death, to OldCastile, making him rise from the grave where in reality and truthhe lies stretched at full length, powerless to make any thirdexpedition or new sally; for the two that he has already made, so muchto the enjoyment and approval of everybody to whom they have becomeknown, in this as well as in foreign countries, are quite sufficientfor the purpose of turning into ridicule the whole of those made bythe whole set of the knights-errant; and so doing shalt thou dischargethy Christian calling, giving good counsel to one that bearsill-will to thee. And I shall remain satisfied, and proud to have beenthe first who has ever enjoyed the fruit of his writings as fully ashe could desire; for my desire has been no other than to deliverover to the detestation of mankind the false and foolish tales ofthe books of chivalry, which, thanks to that of my true Don Quixote,are even now tottering, and doubtless doomed to fall for ever.Farewell."

End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes

Project Gutenberg's Etext of Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes#1 in our series by CervantesTranslated by John Ormsby

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Don Quixote

by Miqeul de Cervantes [Saavedra]

Translated by John Ormsby

July, 1997 [Etext #996]

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Title: Don Quixote
Author: Miqeul de Cervantes
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