Don Quixote Ch. 87: Merlin's Three Thousand

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Merlin's Three Thousand Lashes

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Summary

A triumphal car advances to music, larger than the sage-carts, drawn by six grey mules and ringed with white penitents holding tapers. On the throne sits a nymph in silver tissue; beside her a veiled figure rises and shows the shape of Death. This living skeleton names himself Merlin, come from the caverns of Dis because Dulcinea's plaint reached him. The remedy is not a battle. Sancho must lay three thousand three hundred lashes on his own bare buttocks, of his own free will, and they must sting.

Sancho refuses outright. Don Quixote threatens to tie him naked to a tree and double the count. Merlin says force will not count, though another hand may commute half the pain. The page playing Dulcinea scolds Sancho as soul of a pitcher, weeps on cue, and claims she can see the knight's soul stuck in his throat like a crossbow nut. Don Quixote feels his throat and finds it so. Sancho still says abernuncio, complains of abuse without gifts, and notes they are asking a governor, not a charity-boy, to whip himself.

The duke makes the island the price: softer than a ripe fig, or no government. Merlin wants an answer on the spot. Sancho bargains. He will lay the lashes when he chooses. Fly-flappers count. He need not draw blood. Merlin will keep the tally, and Dulcinea will appear the instant the number is complete. He accepts. Don Quixote kisses him. Music and muskets sound. At dawn the duke and duchess ride home delighted, for no reality could afford them more amusement.

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Why This Matters

Reading When Release Comes With a Body Bill

Merlin's triumphal car delivers not magic but a bill: three thousand three hundred lashes on Sancho's bare buttocks, voluntary yet urgent, tied to Dulcinea's release and Sancho's governorship. Merlin says the lashes must be voluntary and at Sancho's chosen time, but the page playing Dulcinea scolds him as soul of a pitcher and weeps until Quixote feels his soul stuck in his throat like a crossbow nut.

Notice when salvation is staged as a contract on someone else's skin while the hosts wait for amusement.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Merlin

Merlin does not hand Sancho a private order. He recites that the lashes must fall on buttocks "bared to heaven," three thousand and three hundred of them. The price of the lady is a verse the whole wood can hear. Sancho is being billed in front of an audience that came for the music.

Continue this thoughtPart II Steals the Authorship

Coming Up in Chapter 88

The majordomo who played Merlin prepares another joke. Next day the duchess asks whether Sancho has begun his lash penance; he says he gave himself five overnight with his hand, and she calls that slaps, not lashes.

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Original text

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Chapter 87

Merlin's Three Thousand Lashes

WHEREIN IS CONTINUED THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN TO DON QUIXOTE TOUCHING THE DISENCHANTMENT OF DULCINEA, TOGETHER WITH OTHER MARVELLOUS INCIDENTS They saw advancing towards them, to the sound of this pleasing music, what they call a triumphal car, drawn by six grey mules with white linen housings, on each of which was mounted a penitent, robed also in white, with a large lighted wax taper in his hand. The car was twice or, perhaps, three times as large as the former ones, and in front and on the sides stood twelve more penitents, all as white as snow and all with…

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Merlin's Three Thousand Lashes

Summary

Why This Matters