Don Quixote Ch. 82: The Fair Huntress

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

The Fair Huntress

0:00

0:00 / 0:00

0:00

Summary

The fifty reals have touched Sancho's heart. He rides in silence, planning to slip home without a farewell, because even a fool can see that most of his master's acts are senseless. Fortune orders the opposite. At sunset a hawking party fills a meadow, and a lady in green on a white palfrey, a hawk on her wrist, looks to Don Quixote like a great princess. He sends Sancho with a message from the Knight of the Lions, forbidding proverbs.

The lady is a duchess who has already read the printed history. She welcomes the Knight of the Rueful Countenance and his squire, and summons the duke. Both nobles mean to fall in with the humour and treat him as a true knight-errant for as long as he stays. When Don Quixote rides up to kiss her hands, Sancho's foot catches in the pack-ropes; both master and man go down in a heap.

The duke embraces the shaken knight and will not let him kneel. Sancho, freed, compares the duchess's beauty to Dulcinea with a potter proverb, while Don Quixote sighs at his talkative squire. The duke invites them to a nearby castle. The duchess keeps Sancho at her side for his shrewd remarks, and Sancho needs no pressing.

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Reading When Hospitality Is Performance

A knight can leave a river poorer than he came and still be welcomed by a duchess who already knows his printed history, while his squire tumbles at her feet and compares her beauty to Dulcinea with a potter proverb. The duke and duchess have read Part One, plan to fall in with his humour, and invite him to a castle to treat him as a knight from the books.

Notice when fame arrives as a script the hero has not yet read.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Sancho Panza

They leave the river in bad humour, Sancho particularly, because whatever touched the stock of money "touched his heart". The fifty reals are still the wound. He is about to meet a duchess who has read the book, and he is still doing the sum from the boat.

Continue this thoughtSancho Keeps Two Ledgers Open

Coming Up in Chapter 83

Sancho is delighted to find himself the duchess's favourite, already tasting feasts like Don Diego's house. The duke rides ahead and orders the household how to receive Don Quixote; at the gate, crimson-clad lackeys lift the knight from his horse.

PreviousPrevious Chapter NextNext Chapter

Original text

1,918 wordscomplete

Chapter 82

The Fair Huntress

OF DON QUIXOTE’S ADVENTURE WITH A FAIR HUNTRESS They reached their beasts in low spirits and bad humour enough, knight and squire, Sancho particularly, for with him what touched the stock of money touched his heart, and when any was taken from him he felt as if he was robbed of the apples of his eyes. In fine, without exchanging a word, they mounted and quitted the famous river, Don Quixote absorbed in thoughts of his love, Sancho in thinking of his advancement, which just then, it seemed to him, he was very far from securing; for, fool as he…

Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.

Master this chapter. Complete your experience

Purchase the complete book to access all chapters and support classic literature

Buy atAmazon.com

Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats

The Three Musketeers

Alexandre Dumas

Explores identity & self

The Blue Castle

L. M. Montgomery

Explores identity & self

Notes from Underground

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Explores identity & self

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson

Explores identity & self

Identity & Self-Discovery Moral Dilemmas & Ethics Love & Relationships

Lessons from Don Quixote

Theme-by-theme analyses that connect this book to modern life skills.

Deep diving the literary elements.

The Fair Huntress

Summary

Why This Matters