Wilhelm Marstrand, Don Quixote og Sancho Panza ved en skillevej, uden datering (efter 1847). Wikimedia Commons.
Can there be anything more daunting than writing about Don Quixote? In the same way as Shakespeare, Cervantes is such a towering figure in world literature that any task related to writing about him seems equally monumental. And is there anything left to say about this great novel?
I do have one advantage: I am a first-time reader, and so my observations might be a little fresher – more naiive, certainly – but not weighed down by the critical mass of opinion. And there are plenty of opinions on Don Quixote: from Franz Kafka to Vladimir Nabokov to Jorge Luis Borges to Harold Bloom.
I first started reading Don Quixote (full title: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha or The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha) – on Christmas Day, 2021. My initial experience taught me that translations do matter, since the one I picked up, by a French Huguenot called Pierre Antoine Motteux (1700), proved a slog and I quickly gave up on it.
I should add that I read the book alongside Professor Roberto González Echevarría’s excellent Open Yale course (available free of charge either as videos or podcasts). This helped me to get a grasp on the Spanish Golden Age, along with many of the details which, in the reading of Cervantes, are so important.
We began by learning that the novel was published in two parts (1605 and 1615, respectively) and that the first English translation (by Thomas Shelton) appeared in 1611. We considered the significance of the title, including words like “hidalgo” (a kind of petty nobleman), for which Professor González provided a definition from Sebastián de Covarrubias’s Spanish dictionary (published, handily, in 1611).
As I don’t speak the language, it was good to learn about the amusing puns and elements of wordplay in Cervantes’s character names. The “ote” of “Quixote” relates to something grotesque; as in the Spanish word “gordote” (“fatso”). The character Maritornes – a prostitute – combines “Mary” and “tornes”, to turn around (making her a kind of “reversed virgin”). These are just a few of the gems available on the Yale course, which helped me to engage in a deeper reading than I would have been capable of alone.
I then heard about a translation by the Irish scholar Walter Starkie – a fascinating character in his own right – and picked up his translation in August 2022 (I went for the unabridged version of 1964, which required buying a second-hand copy from the United States). Starkie’s Quixote has a slightly Irish flavour, which I enjoyed, and the humour of the piece came across brilliantly. It took me five months to read the whole thing, albeit with a break of almost a month between Books One and Two.
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, drawing by Pablo Picasso, 1955. The Knight's form evokes a Spanish inverted question mark.
Gustave Doré's illustrations to Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote: the famous windmills scene from Part One, Chapter 8.
Title page of Avellaneda's fake Part Two.
The book’s humour struck me as incredibly fresh for something written more than 400 years ago. The chapters are short, so you do feel as if you’re making progress.
I was surprised to discover how much I enjoyed Cervantes’ “stories within stories” in Part One (inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron). Yet 17th-century readers were apparently less pleased with this aspect, and – always alert criticism – Cervantes amended his strategy in Part Two, making this section more self-referential and satirical in tone.
One question I have taken to asking fellow Cervantistas is: which Part of Don Quixote do you think is the best? Talking to a Spanish friend at Christmas, she thought Part One was superior, but I am drawn to the madcap Part Two, which feels at times more like a Postmodernist text than something written in the 17th century.
One of my favourite aspects of Part Two are the jokes about Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda: the man who published a sequel to Don Quixote before Cervantes had finished the second volume of his work. Avellaneda is a pseudonym, and the real identity of the writer has never been discovered. Nevertheless, in publishing Segundo tomo del ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (or Second Book of the Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha), in 1614, Avellaneda so annoyed the great author that Cervantes felt it necessary to lampoon his rival in Part Two.
At one point, Don Quixote and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, meet one of Avellaneda’s characters, and the pair call a notary and get the man to swear under oath that Cervantes’ Don Quixote is the real one. The literary trolling is hilarious.
When opening Starkie’s translation for the first time, I felt a bit like Stout Cortez, when “with eagle eyes/He stared at the Pacific…” Cervantes’ work is simultaneously a vast mountain to climb and exciting new territory. But the effort is well worth it. Reading slowly feels at odds with 21st-century life, but Don Quixote deserves to be consumed gradually alongside day-to-day activities. Then you will get to know the characters, and, hopefully, come to regard them as friends.
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After 10 years of research, I dare to write you this initiation :
1) “ In the same way as Shakespeare, Cervantes is such a towering figure in world literature,” you noticed. Great view, because both Cervantes and Shakespeare were stooges for Francis Bacon. Cervantes sold his name to the English to survive, Shakespeare was used by FB because he did not want the plays he wrote and could not have them performed under his own name.
2) “whose full title is ‘El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha),” you say, but not quite correctly. The English original.. and it is the original text.. ( yes, you are new in the field and just beginning) is: ‘El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha” compuesto por Miguel de Cervantes.. meaning composed by.. The original title is: “The history of the valorous and wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha”. The area where the story takes place was called Mancha, but Don Quixote was not named after La Mancha with a capital letter -L- (47): that indicates an administrative area of modern Spain. Previously, Mancha was only an administrative whole that remained under the control of the Taifa (kingdom) of Toledo. No capital letter for the place called Mancha, a plain where mainly spawning grass grew, a dry grass species, which the Arabs called manχa: so, Don Quixote of the Manxa, of the flounder! In 1691, so many years after the books on Don Quixote, a region has been established called La Mancha with Toledo as capital. The name of the English Channel is called in French “ la Manche”, the sleeve. Don Quixote is therefore both (land)knight of the grass and (see)knight of the channel: Don Quixote of the Mancha. Never Don Quixote de La Mancha.. that is the mistake every translator makes. And the third meaning, the one with a smile: la mancha is Spanish for the spot, the dirt-mark.
3) “then (I) heard about a translation by the Irish scholar,” you confess.. but why do you read a translation of a translation!?
You can read on the back of my book ( the deciphering of the Don Quixote & the unmasking of Avellaneda, 2022.. a translation of my 2015 book)
The original “Don Quixote” is an English book. The Spanish translations appeared in 1605 and 1615, much earlier than the original English publications in 1612 and 1620. Between these two periods, in 1614, a “false” Don Quixote was published under the name Avellaneda. The original English text was never released.
Francis Bacon was the brain behind the three books of Don Quixote; he wrote the part of the hero.
Ben Jonson took on the role of Sancho Panza, John Donne wrote the poems, “the two friends” Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher were assigned the task of writing loose stories. These authors made use of the library owned by Robert Cotton.
The printer, William Stansby, inserted concealed clues into the text, in order for the reader to be able to draw conclusions…
The Spanish translations were carried out by Thomas Shelton (DQI + DQII) and James Mabbe (the “bogus” DQ).
Miguel de Cervantes was just a poor Spanish writer who had sold his name to survive. He had told his life-story to the English, so that it could be processed into the DQ.
The original “Don Quixote” is an English book. The Spanish translations appeared in 1605 and 1615, much earlier than the original English publications in 1612 and 1620. Between these two periods, in 1614, a “false” Don Quixote was published under the name Avellaneda. The original English text was never released.
Francis Bacon was the brain behind the three books of Don Quixote; he wrote the part of the hero.
Ben Jonson took on the role of Sancho Panza, John Donne wrote the poems, “the two friends” Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher were assigned the task of writing loose stories. These authors made use of the library owned by Robert Cotton.
The printer, William Stansby, inserted concealed clues into the text, in order for the reader to be able to draw conclusions…
The Spanish translations were carried out by Thomas Shelton (DQI + DQII) and James Mabbe (the “bogus” DQ).
Miguel de Cervantes was just a poor Spanish writer who had sold his name to survive. He had told his life-story to the English, so that it could be processed into the DQ.
4) “ that the first English translation (by Thomas Shelton) appeared in 1611,” you say, but change this to “and the original English edition appeared in 1612”.
5) “The “ote” of “Quixote” relates to something grotesque,” you think..
‘A name in his conceit harmonious, strange and significative.’ DQI p.7 You have read this at Mancha, now again the 3 meanings at Quixote:
It happens on purpose in the steganography. The intention is to disguise the meaning of a word in such a way that you do not realise that there is a secret behind a word. The Englishman F.B., when he was training at the embassy in France as a young man, came across the names of Spaniards more often: names were listed and noted. Strange names with which Francis thought in French: Don Qui? Don Who? in English that would sound as Don Key? or together Donkey. Three meanings in one, therefore that indent in between only in DQI, in other words you can also pronounce this word as a whole: three options, one with a wink. And now the finishing touch: To the reader, DQI p. A, the writer emphasises the name Don Quixote differently; he deliberately writes Don Qui-xote in the middle of a sentence, so with an emphasis on -x-ote. This suffix, from the French verb ‘ôter’, means to take away: “qui – X- ote”: who takes -X- away: the great unknown. This is what the DQ is all about.. -X- And that’s another story.. too extensive to explain here.
6) “written more than 300 years ago,” you can say “written more than 400 years ago.”…
7) “in Part Two, making this section more self-referential and satirical in tone,” you think.. but you are not allowed to know from the beginning
a) that this is a history of initiation. Part Two is more philosophical..
The DQ is an initiation not of one person, but of mankind.. the happiness of humanity!
“he that professes it must be skilfull in the Lawes, …He must be a Divine, …Hee must bee a Physician.” Of course, the initiation is mentioned backwards..
b) that the meaning is not ‘that men would vtterly abhor the fabulous impertinent and extrauagant bookes of Chiualries’,
but to maintain and to protect the chivalry epics. The DQ is the very last version of the romance of chivalry.
c) that the real meaning of the DQ is to pass on a huge secret concerning the destiny of the planet Earth: the place of the Holy Grail.
8) “Avellaneda is a pseudonym, and the real identity of the writer has never been discovered,” you still think.. I have published my book in 2015.. and written many comments.. but no-one wants to accept or read my book, not in English, not in Dutch. I have more than 101 proofs. But who cares?
“Segundo tomo del ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (or Second Book of the Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha),”you write.. and there you go again..La Mancha..OMG. It was so nice of the Sireniacal Gentlemen to write.. tomo and not part.. it’s so genius! Beginning with: The Avellaneda begins: ‘El sabio Alisolán, historiador no menos moderno que verdadero..’ The wise Alisolán, historian no less modern than true.. If there is an indication then it is in this name again: El sa… BIO ALISOLÁN is an anagram of O(H) ISLA ALBIÓN. Albion was the name England had in antiquity, but more or less in a humoristic way, ‘you insolent Albion!
9) “Robert Cotton = don Álvaro Tarfe. Cotton is álgodon in Spanish: Don Álvaro Tarfe minus Algodón; rests -go- ( in those days -goe- but you do not pronounce the -e- that’s why you can erase that letter) You goe – in Spanish is Usted va: just cross off go for va.. leaves us “ro Tarfe, this is an anagram of O FRATER.. The name frater means brot(h)er; this is an anagram of Robert: O(h) Robert Cotton is an anagram of don Álvaro Tarfe. ( Robert Cotton os the owner of the best library at that time.. it is the beginning of the British library!)
10) It’s not important who wrote the DQ! But why?
I hope you are not angry now..
friendly greetings from the Netherlands
Jettie H. van den Boom
Thank you for your comments Jettie.