Pleased with the Distressed Duenna joke, the duke and duchess instruct their household and tell Sancho to prepare for his island on the morrow; Sancho, fresh from heaven, says governing a mustard-seed earth no longer tempts him so much, though he still wants to taste office and will dress however they please, saying however he is dressed he will be Sancho Panza.
The duke promises a real fertile island, warns he will eat his fingers off after government, and says Sancho must go partly as lawyer, partly as captain though he knows only the Christus in memory; Don Quixote then takes him aside, closes the door, and speaks as Cato and polestar through a mighty gulf of troubles.
He bids Sancho fear God, know himself lest he puff up like the frog against the ox, glory in peasant birth, choose virtue over blood, welcome kin, teach a rough wife, beware a judge's greedy spouse, avoid arbitrary law, weigh rich and poor equally, lean to mercy over rigour, judge enemies and weeping women without passion, and remember mercy brighter than justice.
If Sancho follows these mind-adornments his days will be long and his fame eternal; Quixote ends by saying he will now counsel the body in the next chapter.
Coming Up in Chapter 95
Hamete pauses to praise Quixote's practical wisdom and records a second set of counsels for Sancho's conduct on Barataria. Quixote tells him to cut nails, dress orderly, and fix the advice in memory for his government.
