The Golden Age Speech — Don Quixote

The goatherds welcome Don Quixote and Sancho with salted goat, cheese, acorns, and wine. Quixote insists Sancho sit as his equal because knight-errantry levels all ranks. Sancho refuses: he eats better standing, alone, without the manners required at a noble table. Quixote forces him down anyway.

After supper Quixote contemplates the acorns and launches into the Golden Age speech: a time without mine and thine, when nature fed everyone and maidens wandered safe until knights were needed. The narrator says the harangue might well have been spared. The goatherds listen gaping. Sancho eats, drinks, and says nothing.

Antonio the goatherd sings a love ballad on the rebeck. Sancho asks to sleep; Quixote blames the wine-skin. A goatherd dresses Quixote's wounded ear with rosemary and salt, and the remedy works.