Don Quixote Ch. 96: Sancho Departs; Altisidora'

Summary

Hamete opens with a Moorish complaint that Part Two must stay on Quixote and Sancho without the novels of Part One, requests credit for what he refrains from writing, and calls the labour intolerable drudgery never equal to the author's pains, then records how written counsels dropped into the duke's hands, were read aloud by the duke, and Sancho was dispatched that evening to his island village with a great following.

Sancho, dressed as a lawyer on a mule with Dapple in silk trappings behind, tells Quixote the conducting majordomo is the Distressed One's face; Quixote says the devil will not carry him off yet and bids Sancho report his government, then weeps as Sancho kisses the duke and duchess hands and the household sees him off and Hamete promises two bushels of laughter from how he will govern.

Alone, Quixote refuses the duchess's four flower-like damsels, places a barrier between inclination and virtue, and will sleep in his clothes rather than be undressed; the duchess sends them away and he sups alone, swearing Clavileño was the quietest mount after the journey from Kandy and the duchess says Malambruno burned the horse to end his wandering and establish Quixote's valour by its ashes.

Undressing alone by two candles, he bursts two dozen stitches in a green stocking and would give silver for green silk; Hamete cries O poverty at cracked shoes, mismatched buttons, and crinkled ruffs while Quixote puts on Sancho's travelling boots and goes heavy-hearted to bed missing his squire.

From the grated window he hears Altisidora tell Emerencia she cannot sing since the stranger arrived; Emerencia bids her sing softly though the duchess sleep, and Altisidora's harp ballad mocks the knight in bed, offering petticoats, pearls, and to scratch his poll while naming herself at the end.

Don Quixote sneezes to show he hears, then shuts the window declaring himself dough and sugar-paste to Dulcinea alone, flint to all others, boiled or roast, chaste in spite of all enchanters, and stretches on his bed out of sorts while Hamete turns from the lonely knight to the great Sancho Panza's government.

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Reading When Departure and Seduction Run in Parallel

What happens when Sancho departs to his sham island while Don Quixote stays behind for poverty, chastity, and Altisidora's garden serenade. Alone, Quixote refuses the duchess's four flower-like damsels, places a barrier between inclination and virtue, and will sleep in his clothes rather than be undressed; the duchess sends them away and he sups alone, swearing Clavileño was the quietest mount after the journey from Kandy and the duchess says Malambruno burned the horse to end his wandering and establish Quixote's valour by its ashes.

That sham governorship and window romance are twin moves in one castle joke.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Hamete Benengeli

Hamete calls it "intolerable drudgery" to stay with only these two, and says the result never matched the labour, which is why the first part used novels that stand apart. He wants credit for what he does not write. The castle is about to split into a governor and a serenade, and the teller is already tired of having only two men to follow.

Continue this thoughtThe Book Withholds a Stable Author

Coming Up in Chapter 97

Sancho arrives at Barataria with bells, keys, and burlesque ceremony. Seated on the judgment bench, he weeds titled midges, then decides cases from a stick full of crowns to caps on five fingers.

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Original text

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Chapter 96

Sancho Departs; Altisidora's Serenade

LIV. HOW SANCHO PANZA WAS CONDUCTED TO HIS GOVERNMENT, AND OF THE STRANGE ADVENTURE THAT BEFELL DON QUIXOTE IN THE CASTLE It is stated, they say, in the true original of this history, that when Cide Hamete came to write this chapter, his interpreter did not translate it as he wrote it—that is, as a kind of complaint the Moor made against himself for having taken in hand a story so dry and of so little variety as this of Don Quixote, for he found himself forced to speak perpetually of him and Sancho, without venturing to indulge in digressions…

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Sancho Departs; Altisidora's Serenade

Summary

Why This Matters