Don Quixote Ch. 109: Quixote Takes Leave and

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Quixote Takes Leave and Altisidora's Serenade

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Summary

Don Quixote decides castle idleness ill suits a knight-errant, and that heaven will ask an account of such seclusion. He asks the duke and duchess for leave. They consent, sorry to lose him. The duchess gives Teresa's letters to Sancho, who weeps that grand hopes of government have ended in the old road, then comforts himself that the acorns were gratitude, not a bribe. Naked he went in, naked he comes out; he neither loses nor gains.

At dawn he appears armoured in the courtyard. The majordomo who played Trifaldi has given Sancho two hundred gold crowns for the road, unknown as yet to his master. Then Altisidora lifts her voice from among the damsels and sings that the knight stole three kerchiefs and a pair of garters, jilted a maiden, and should take Barabbas with him. Each stanza ends on the same curse.

Don Quixote conjures Sancho to tell the truth. Sancho has the kerchiefs, but the garters as much as over the hills of Úbeda. The duke threatens combat until Don Quixote says he will restore the kerchiefs and has never been a thief. Altisidora confesses she has the garters on, having looked for her ass while mounted on it. They ride for Saragossa.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Reading When Farewell Becomes Accusation and Confession

What happens when Don Quixote takes leave, Altisidora accuses him of kerchiefs and garters, and confesses she wears the garters herself. Quixote conjures Sancho to tell the truth; Sancho has the kerchiefs but the garters as much as over the hills of Úbeda; the duke threatens combat until Quixote says the kerchiefs I will restore and I have never been a thief; Altisidora confesses she has got the garters on, having fallen into the blunder of looking for his ass being all the while mounted on it, and they ride for Saragossa.

That castle hospitality can end in comic theft charges resolved by proverb and self-exposure.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: The duchess

Altisidora sings the theft at the gate, and the duchess, who knows her as "bold, lively, and impudent," is astonished. The history finds her "not being prepared for the joke," and the surprise is all the greater. The house has been staging its guest, and this time the girl has gone past the trick it thought it was in.

Continue this thoughtPart II Steals the Authorship

Coming Up in Chapter 110

When Don Quixote sees himself in open country, free of Altisidora's attentions, he tells Sancho that freedom is one of the most precious gifts heaven has bestowed, and that even amid dainty banquets he felt hungry because he did not enjoy them as his own.

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Original text

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Chapter 109

Quixote Takes Leave and Altisidora's Serenade

CHAPTER LVII. WHICH TREATS OF HOW DON QUIXOTE TOOK LEAVE OF THE DUKE, AND OF WHAT FOLLOWED WITH THE WITTY AND IMPUDENT ALTISIDORA, ONE OF THE DUCHESS’S DAMSELS Don Quixote now felt it right to quit a life of such idleness as he was leading in the castle; for he fancied that he was making himself sorely missed by suffering himself to remain shut up and inactive amid the countless luxuries and enjoyments his hosts lavished upon him as a knight, and he felt too that he would have to render a strict account to heaven of that indolence and…

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Quixote Takes Leave and Altisidora's Serenade

Summary

Why This Matters