Don Quixote Ch. 43: The Muleteer's Song and

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

The Muleteer's Song and the Halter Trap

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Summary

The muleteer's song continues at dawn, and Dorothea wakes the Judge's daughter Clara so she will not miss the voice. Clara begs to be left deaf to it: the singer is not a muleteer but an Aragonese gentleman who saw her from his window in Madrid, courted her with signs, and now follows her disguised on the road because her father is taking her away.

Whispering so Luscinda will not hear, Clara tells Dorothea the whole secret: she never spoke to him, yet loves him enough to die of sorrow when he sings; she will not marry without her father's knowledge, and only wants him to turn back. Dorothea laughs at her childlike talk, promises to set things right when day comes, and they sleep.

Only Maritornes and the landlady's daughter stay awake. They call Don Quixote from the hayloft hole to the "gilt window," hear his long plea to Dulcinea and the moon, and trick him into giving his hand, which Maritornes ties with Sancho's halter to the straw-loft bolt while he stands on Rocinante's saddle. He curses enchantment and bellows like a bull until four armed travellers knock at the gate. Quixote orders them to wait for sunrise as if the inn were a castle; when their horse sniffs Rocinante, the nag shifts and the knight hangs by one wrist in strappado agony as the chapter breaks.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Reading Love in Disguise

Feeling often travels under another name when rank or a parent blocks the open path. Clara knows the muleteer is an Aragonese gentleman who followed her in disguise, yet she has never spoken to him and only loves through signs and songs; Dorothea promises to help when day comes.

Notice when love is hiding in a costume and to protect it without treating every earnest heart as safe to tie to a stranger's window.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Dorothea

Dorothea shakes Clara awake at dawn so she will not miss the singer, and says she does it that the girl may "have the pleasure of hearing" the voice. She has decided the song is a gift before she knows who it is for. The kindness arrives first, and the secret has to follow it into the room.

Read the full psychological reading

Coming Up in Chapter 44

Maritornes cuts Quixote down from a hayloft halter after his bellowing wakes the whole inn. Servants hunt Doña Clara's disguised lover Don Luis and find him still singing under the window.

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Original text

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Chapter 43

The Muleteer's Song and the Halter Trap

LIII. WHEREIN IS RELATED THE PLEASANT STORY OF THE MULETEER, TOGETHER WITH OTHER STRANGE THINGS THAT CAME TO PASS IN THE INN Ah me, Love’s mariner am I On Love’s deep ocean sailing; I know not where the haven lies, I dare not hope to gain it. One solitary distant star Is all I have to guide me, A brighter orb than those of old That Palinurus lighted. And vaguely drifting am I borne, I know not where it leads me; I fix my gaze on it alone, Of all beside it heedless. But over-cautious prudery, And coyness cold and…

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The Muleteer's Song and the Halter Trap

Summary

Why This Matters