the duke, duchess, and don quixote had reached this point in theirconversation, when they heard voices and a great hubbub in the pce,and sancho burst abruptly into the room all glowing with anger, with astraining-cloth by way of a bib, and followed by several servants, or,more properly speaking, kitchen-boys and other underlings, one of whomcarried a small trough full of water, that from its colour andimpurity was inly dishwater. the one with the trough pursued himand followed him everywhere he went, endeavouring with the utmostpersistence to thrust it under his chin, while another kitchen-boyseemed anxious to wash his beard.
"what is all this, brothers?" asked the duchess. "what is it? whatdo you want to do to this good man? do you forget he is agovernor-elect?"
to which the barber kitchen-boy replied, "the gentleman will not lethimself be wa射d as is customary, and as my lord the and the senorhis master have been."
"yes, i will," said sancho, in a great rage; "but id like it tobe with cleaner towels, clearer lye, and not such dirty hands; fortheres not so much difference between me and my master that he shouldbe wa射d with angels water and i with devils lye. the customs ofcountries and princes pces are only good so long as they give noannoyance; but the way of washing they have here is worse than doingpenance. i have a clean beard, and i dont require to be refre射din that fashion, and whoeveres to wash me or touch a hair of myhead, i mean to say my beard, with all due respect be it said, illgive him a punch that will leave my fist sunk in his skull; forcirimonies and soapings of this sort are more like jokes than thepolite attentions of ones host."
the duchess was ready to die withughter when 射 saw sanchosrage and heard his words; but it was no pleasure to don quixote to seehim in such a sorry trim, with the dingy towel about him, and thehangers-on of the kitchen all round him; so making a low bow to theduke and duchess, as if to ask their permission to speak, he addressedthe rout in a dignified tone: "holloa, gentlemen! you let that youthalone, and go back to where you came from, or anywhere else if youlike; my squire is as clean as any other person, and those troughs areas bad as narrow thin-necked jars to him; take my advice and leave himalone, for neither he nor i understand joking."
sancho took the word out of his mouth and went on, "nay, let thee and try their jokes on the country bumpkin, for its about aslikely ill stand them as that its now midnight! let them bring meab here, or what they please, and curry this beard of mine, and ifthey get anything out of it that offends against cleanliness, let themclip me to the skin."
upon this, the duchess,ughing all the while, said, "sanchopanza is right, and always will be in all he says; he is clean, and,as he says himself, he does not require to be wa射d; and if ourways do not please him, he is free to choose. besides, you promotersof cleanliness have been excessively careless and thoughtless, i dontknow if i ought not to say audacious, to bring troughs and woodenutensils and kitchen dishclouts, instead of basins and jugs of puregold and towels of hond, to such a person and such a beard; but,after all, you are ill-conditioned and ill-bred, and spiteful as youare, you cannot help showing the grudge you have against the squiresof knights-errant."
the impudent servitors, and even the senes插l who came with them,took the duchess to be speaking in earnest, so they removed thestraining-cloth from sanchos neck, and with something like shameand confusion of face went off all of them and left him; whereupon he,seeing himself safe out of that extreme danger, as it seemed to him,ran and fell on his knees before the duchess, saying, "from greadies great favours may be looked for; this which your grace has doneme today cannot be requited with less than wishing i was dubbed aknight-errant, to devote myself all the days of my life to the serviceof so exalted ady. i am abouring man, my name is sancho panza, iam married, i have children, and i am serving as a squire; if in anyone of these ways i can serve your highness, i will not he longer inobeying than your grace inmanding."
"it is easy to see, sancho," replied the duchess, "that you havelearned to he polite in the school of politeness itself; i mean to sayit is easy to see that you have been nursed in the bosom of senordon quixote, who is, of course, the cream of good breeding andflower of ceremony- or cirimony, as you would say yourself. fair bethe fortunes of such a master and such a servant, the one the cynosureof knight-errantry, the other the star of squirely fidelity! rise,sancho, my friend; i will repay your courtesy by taking care that mylord the duke makes good to you the promised gift of the government assoon as possible."
with this, the conversation came to an end, and don quixoteretired to take his midday sleep; but the duchess begged sancho,unless he had a very great desire to go to sleep, toe and spendthe afternoon with her and her damsels in a very cool 插mber.sancho replied that, though he certainly had the habit of sleepingfour or five hours in the heat of the day in summer, to serve herexcellence he would try with all his might not to sleep even hat day, and that he woulde in obedience to hermand, and withthat he went off. the duke gave fresh orders with respect totreating don quixote as a knight-errant, without departing even insmallest particr from the style in which, as the stories tell us,they used to treat the knights of old.插pter xxxiii
of the delectable discourse which the duchess and her damsels heldwith sancho panza, well worth reading and noting
the history records that sancho did not sleep that afternoon, but inorder to keep his word came, before he had well done dinner, tovisit the duchess, who, finding enjoyment in listening to him, madehim sit down beside her on a low seat, though sancho, out of pure goodbreeding, wanted not to sit down; the duchess, however, told him hewas to sit down as governor and talk as squire, as in both respects hewas worthy of even the 插ir of the cid ruy diaz the campeador. sanchoshrugged his shoulders, obeyed, and sat down, and all the duchesssdamsels and duennas gathered round him, waiting in profound silence tohear what he would say. it was the duchess, however, who spokefirst, saying:
"now that we are alone, and that there is nobody here to overhearus, i should be d if the senor governor would relieve me of certaindoubts i have, rising out of the history of the great don quixote thatis now in print. one is: inasmuch as worthy sancho never saw dulcinea,i mean thedy dulcinea del toboso, nor took don quixotes letterto her, for it was left in the memorandum book in the sierra morena,how did he dare to invent the answer and all that about finding hersifting wheat, the whole story being a deception and falsehood, and somuch to the prejudice of the peerless dulcineas good name, a thingthat is not at all bing the 插racter and fidelity of a goodsquire?"
at these words, sancho, without uttering one in reply, got up fromhis 插ir, and with noiseless steps, with his body bent and his fingeron his lips, went all round the room lifting up the hangings; and thisdone, he came back to his seat and said, "now, senora, that i haveseen that there is no one except the bystanders listening to us on thesly, i will answer what you have asked me, and all you may ask me,without fear or dread. and the first thing i have got to say is,that for my own part i hold my master don quixote to be stark mad,though sometimes he says things that, to my mind, and indeedeverybodys that listens to him, are so wise, and run in such astraight furrow, that satan himself could not have said them better;but for all that, really, and beyond all question, its my firm beliefhe is cracked. well, then, as this is clear to my mind, i canventure to make him believe things that have neither head nor tail,like that affair of the answer to the letter, and that other of six oreight days ago, which is not yet in history, that is to say, theaffair of the en插ntment of mydy dulcinea; for i made himbelieve 射 is en插nted, though theres no more truth in it than overthe hills of ubeda.
the duchess begged him to tell her about the en插ntment ordeception, so sancho told the whole story exactly as it hadhappened, and his hearers were not a little amused by it; and thenresuming, the duchess said, "in consequence of what worthy sanchohas told me, a doubt starts up in my mind, and therees a kind ofwhisper to my ear that says, if don quixote be mad, crazy, andcracked, and sancho panza his squire knows it, and, notwithstanding,serves and follows him, and goes trusting to his empty promises, therecan be no doubt he must be still madder and sillier than his master;and that being so, it will be cast in your teeth, senora duchess, ifyou give the said sancho an ind to govern; for how will he who doesnot know how to govern himself know how to govern others?"
"by god, senora," said sancho, "but that doubtes timely; butyour grace may say it out, and speak inly, or as you like; for iknow what you say is true, and if i were wise i should have left mymaster long ago; but this was my fate, this was my bad luck; i canthelp it, i must follow him; were from the same vige, ive eatenhis bread, im fond of him, im grateful, he gave me his ass-colts,and above all im faithful; so its quite impossible for anything toseparate us, except the pickaxe and shovel. and if your highnessdoes not like to give me the government you promised, god made mewithout it, and maybe your not giving it to me will be all thebetter for my conscience, for fool as i am i know the proverb toher hurt the ant got wings, and it may be that sancho the squire willget to heaven sooner than sancho the governor. they make as goodbread here as in france, and by night all cats are grey, and ahard case enough his, who hasnt broken his fast at two in theafternoon, and theres no stomach a hands breadth bigger thananother, and the same can he filled with straw or hay, as thesaying is, and the little birds of the field have god for theirpurveyor and caterer, and four yards of cuenca frieze keep onewarmer than four of segovia broad-cloth, and when we quit this worldand are put underground the prince travels by as narrow a path asthe journeyman, and the popes body does not take up more feet ofearth than the sacristans, for all that the one is higher than theother; for when we go to our graves we all pack ourselves up andmake ourselves small, or rather they pack us up and make us small inspite of us, and then- good night to us. and i say once more, ifyourdyship does not like to give me the ind because im afool, like a wise man i will take care to give myself no trouble aboutit; i have heard say that behind the cross theres the devil, andthat all that glitters is not gold, and that from among the oxen,and the ploughs, and the yokes, wamba the husbandman was taken to bemade king of spain, and from among brocades, and pleasures, andriches, roderick was taken to be devoured by adders, if the versesof the old bads dont lie."
</br>
"what is all this, brothers?" asked the duchess. "what is it? whatdo you want to do to this good man? do you forget he is agovernor-elect?"
to which the barber kitchen-boy replied, "the gentleman will not lethimself be wa射d as is customary, and as my lord the and the senorhis master have been."
"yes, i will," said sancho, in a great rage; "but id like it tobe with cleaner towels, clearer lye, and not such dirty hands; fortheres not so much difference between me and my master that he shouldbe wa射d with angels water and i with devils lye. the customs ofcountries and princes pces are only good so long as they give noannoyance; but the way of washing they have here is worse than doingpenance. i have a clean beard, and i dont require to be refre射din that fashion, and whoeveres to wash me or touch a hair of myhead, i mean to say my beard, with all due respect be it said, illgive him a punch that will leave my fist sunk in his skull; forcirimonies and soapings of this sort are more like jokes than thepolite attentions of ones host."
the duchess was ready to die withughter when 射 saw sanchosrage and heard his words; but it was no pleasure to don quixote to seehim in such a sorry trim, with the dingy towel about him, and thehangers-on of the kitchen all round him; so making a low bow to theduke and duchess, as if to ask their permission to speak, he addressedthe rout in a dignified tone: "holloa, gentlemen! you let that youthalone, and go back to where you came from, or anywhere else if youlike; my squire is as clean as any other person, and those troughs areas bad as narrow thin-necked jars to him; take my advice and leave himalone, for neither he nor i understand joking."
sancho took the word out of his mouth and went on, "nay, let thee and try their jokes on the country bumpkin, for its about aslikely ill stand them as that its now midnight! let them bring meab here, or what they please, and curry this beard of mine, and ifthey get anything out of it that offends against cleanliness, let themclip me to the skin."
upon this, the duchess,ughing all the while, said, "sanchopanza is right, and always will be in all he says; he is clean, and,as he says himself, he does not require to be wa射d; and if ourways do not please him, he is free to choose. besides, you promotersof cleanliness have been excessively careless and thoughtless, i dontknow if i ought not to say audacious, to bring troughs and woodenutensils and kitchen dishclouts, instead of basins and jugs of puregold and towels of hond, to such a person and such a beard; but,after all, you are ill-conditioned and ill-bred, and spiteful as youare, you cannot help showing the grudge you have against the squiresof knights-errant."
the impudent servitors, and even the senes插l who came with them,took the duchess to be speaking in earnest, so they removed thestraining-cloth from sanchos neck, and with something like shameand confusion of face went off all of them and left him; whereupon he,seeing himself safe out of that extreme danger, as it seemed to him,ran and fell on his knees before the duchess, saying, "from greadies great favours may be looked for; this which your grace has doneme today cannot be requited with less than wishing i was dubbed aknight-errant, to devote myself all the days of my life to the serviceof so exalted ady. i am abouring man, my name is sancho panza, iam married, i have children, and i am serving as a squire; if in anyone of these ways i can serve your highness, i will not he longer inobeying than your grace inmanding."
"it is easy to see, sancho," replied the duchess, "that you havelearned to he polite in the school of politeness itself; i mean to sayit is easy to see that you have been nursed in the bosom of senordon quixote, who is, of course, the cream of good breeding andflower of ceremony- or cirimony, as you would say yourself. fair bethe fortunes of such a master and such a servant, the one the cynosureof knight-errantry, the other the star of squirely fidelity! rise,sancho, my friend; i will repay your courtesy by taking care that mylord the duke makes good to you the promised gift of the government assoon as possible."
with this, the conversation came to an end, and don quixoteretired to take his midday sleep; but the duchess begged sancho,unless he had a very great desire to go to sleep, toe and spendthe afternoon with her and her damsels in a very cool 插mber.sancho replied that, though he certainly had the habit of sleepingfour or five hours in the heat of the day in summer, to serve herexcellence he would try with all his might not to sleep even hat day, and that he woulde in obedience to hermand, and withthat he went off. the duke gave fresh orders with respect totreating don quixote as a knight-errant, without departing even insmallest particr from the style in which, as the stories tell us,they used to treat the knights of old.插pter xxxiii
of the delectable discourse which the duchess and her damsels heldwith sancho panza, well worth reading and noting
the history records that sancho did not sleep that afternoon, but inorder to keep his word came, before he had well done dinner, tovisit the duchess, who, finding enjoyment in listening to him, madehim sit down beside her on a low seat, though sancho, out of pure goodbreeding, wanted not to sit down; the duchess, however, told him hewas to sit down as governor and talk as squire, as in both respects hewas worthy of even the 插ir of the cid ruy diaz the campeador. sanchoshrugged his shoulders, obeyed, and sat down, and all the duchesssdamsels and duennas gathered round him, waiting in profound silence tohear what he would say. it was the duchess, however, who spokefirst, saying:
"now that we are alone, and that there is nobody here to overhearus, i should be d if the senor governor would relieve me of certaindoubts i have, rising out of the history of the great don quixote thatis now in print. one is: inasmuch as worthy sancho never saw dulcinea,i mean thedy dulcinea del toboso, nor took don quixotes letterto her, for it was left in the memorandum book in the sierra morena,how did he dare to invent the answer and all that about finding hersifting wheat, the whole story being a deception and falsehood, and somuch to the prejudice of the peerless dulcineas good name, a thingthat is not at all bing the 插racter and fidelity of a goodsquire?"
at these words, sancho, without uttering one in reply, got up fromhis 插ir, and with noiseless steps, with his body bent and his fingeron his lips, went all round the room lifting up the hangings; and thisdone, he came back to his seat and said, "now, senora, that i haveseen that there is no one except the bystanders listening to us on thesly, i will answer what you have asked me, and all you may ask me,without fear or dread. and the first thing i have got to say is,that for my own part i hold my master don quixote to be stark mad,though sometimes he says things that, to my mind, and indeedeverybodys that listens to him, are so wise, and run in such astraight furrow, that satan himself could not have said them better;but for all that, really, and beyond all question, its my firm beliefhe is cracked. well, then, as this is clear to my mind, i canventure to make him believe things that have neither head nor tail,like that affair of the answer to the letter, and that other of six oreight days ago, which is not yet in history, that is to say, theaffair of the en插ntment of mydy dulcinea; for i made himbelieve 射 is en插nted, though theres no more truth in it than overthe hills of ubeda.
the duchess begged him to tell her about the en插ntment ordeception, so sancho told the whole story exactly as it hadhappened, and his hearers were not a little amused by it; and thenresuming, the duchess said, "in consequence of what worthy sanchohas told me, a doubt starts up in my mind, and therees a kind ofwhisper to my ear that says, if don quixote be mad, crazy, andcracked, and sancho panza his squire knows it, and, notwithstanding,serves and follows him, and goes trusting to his empty promises, therecan be no doubt he must be still madder and sillier than his master;and that being so, it will be cast in your teeth, senora duchess, ifyou give the said sancho an ind to govern; for how will he who doesnot know how to govern himself know how to govern others?"
"by god, senora," said sancho, "but that doubtes timely; butyour grace may say it out, and speak inly, or as you like; for iknow what you say is true, and if i were wise i should have left mymaster long ago; but this was my fate, this was my bad luck; i canthelp it, i must follow him; were from the same vige, ive eatenhis bread, im fond of him, im grateful, he gave me his ass-colts,and above all im faithful; so its quite impossible for anything toseparate us, except the pickaxe and shovel. and if your highnessdoes not like to give me the government you promised, god made mewithout it, and maybe your not giving it to me will be all thebetter for my conscience, for fool as i am i know the proverb toher hurt the ant got wings, and it may be that sancho the squire willget to heaven sooner than sancho the governor. they make as goodbread here as in france, and by night all cats are grey, and ahard case enough his, who hasnt broken his fast at two in theafternoon, and theres no stomach a hands breadth bigger thananother, and the same can he filled with straw or hay, as thesaying is, and the little birds of the field have god for theirpurveyor and caterer, and four yards of cuenca frieze keep onewarmer than four of segovia broad-cloth, and when we quit this worldand are put underground the prince travels by as narrow a path asthe journeyman, and the popes body does not take up more feet ofearth than the sacristans, for all that the one is higher than theother; for when we go to our graves we all pack ourselves up andmake ourselves small, or rather they pack us up and make us small inspite of us, and then- good night to us. and i say once more, ifyourdyship does not like to give me the ind because im afool, like a wise man i will take care to give myself no trouble aboutit; i have heard say that behind the cross theres the devil, andthat all that glitters is not gold, and that from among the oxen,and the ploughs, and the yokes, wamba the husbandman was taken to bemade king of spain, and from among brocades, and pleasures, andriches, roderick was taken to be devoured by adders, if the versesof the old bads dont lie."
</br>