Merlin's Three Thousand Lashes — Don Quixote

A triumphal car advances to music, bearing penitents with tapers and a nymph beside Merlin, who rises as Death and recites how Dulcinea's enchantment can end only if Sancho lays three thousand three hundred lashes on his own bare buttocks.

Sancho refuses outright; Quixote threatens to tie him naked to a tree and double the count. 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.

Sancho still says abernuncio, complains of abuse without gifts, and notes he is a governor, not a charity-boy. The duke warns he must become softer than a ripe fig or lose the island; Merlin demands an instant answer.

Sancho bargains: he will administer the lashes when he chooses, Merlin will keep count, fly-flappers count, and he need not draw blood. He accepts the penance; Quixote kisses him, music and muskets sound, Dulcinea curtseys, and at dawn the duke and duchess return delighted, for no reality could afford them more amusement.