Don Quixote: Chapters 33-39

Up to page 371

Italics are what I penciled in the margins

The block quotes are quotes from the book.

Everything else are just my thoughts as I’m typing along here

 

 

 

Chapter 33

In which the story in the story begins. 2 friends, Lothario and Anselmo are introduced and show their true, base natures.

 

…that the thing which disquiets me is, a desire to know whether my wife Camilla be as good and as perfect as I imagine her to be;

Of course not! She’s human too, you dolt

 

…doing a thing in itself so detestable as that you require of me?

A good friend warns as well as encourages

 

…one should not lay stumbling-blocks in her way to make her trip and fall, but rather remove them, and clear the way before her, that she may without hindrance advance towards her proper perfection,

The duty of a husband is to help his wife, not test her

 

I fly the good and pursue the evil.

…

And therefore some art must be made use of to cure me; and it may be done with ease only by your beginning to court Camillia.

Anselmo is a scumbag!!!!

 

Lothario….finding he[Anselmo] threatened to impart his extravagant desire to some other person, resolved, in order to avoid a greater evil, to gratify him and undertake what he desire,…

Why?!? How is a scandal a greater evil than the evil of trying to seduce your best friend’s wife, at his behest? Ugh

 

But what he had said was sufficient to leave Lothario abashed and confounded: who, thinking his honour touched by being caught in a lie,…

What about the “honor” of his friend and wife?

 

…quite overturned Lothario’s integrity.

Sin destroys, period.

 

 

Chapter 34

In which the story of Lothario, Anselmo and Camilla continue.

 

…but you had first seen, in his eyes, in his sighs, in his expressions, in his promises, and his presents…

how worthy Lothario was of your love.

What kind of sick twisted thinking is THAT!?!?

 

He is…faithful…honourable…

I don’t think so

 

…and I am afraid of some unlucky event from this quarter.

Your sins WILL find you out

 

Anselmo now remained…deceived.

…

and the iniquity, until then so artfully concealed…cost poor Anselmo his life.

Ha!

 

 

Chapter 35

In which the end of the story within the story concludes. And we get an interlude from the inn where Don Quixote fights in his dreams and kills a giant, which turns out to be an 18gallon wine skin.

 

He [Quixote] was in his shirt, which was not quite long enough before to cover his thighs, and was six inches short behind;

Swinging in the breeze. Ohhh, I can’t cover my mental eyes. Stab, stab, stab

 

Anselmo perceived somebody walking in Leonela’s chamber…he saw a man leap down from the window into the street; and running hastily to stop him, or to see who he was, he could do neither: for Leonela clung about him crying:

“Dear sir, be calm…he is my husband”

Anselmo would not believe Leonela, but, blind with rage, drew his poniard, and offered to stab her, assuring, that, if she did not tell him the whole truth, he would kill her;

 

A bit of an over reaction to his maid’s husband, don’t you think?

 

This was the end of them all, an end sprung from an extravagant rashness at the beginning.

Anselmo wants to be cuckolded, but when he is, it kills him. What a fool and what a horrible friend Lothario was.

 

 

Chapter 36

In which Cardenio [the madman] is reunited with his love Lucinda, Dorothea gets her man Fernando and Sancho is devastated upon realizing that Dorothea is not an actual Princess.

 

…that the generous heart of Don Fernando, being nourished with noble blood, was softened…

yes, SO noble. Sleeps around, steals his friends love, abandons his wife, kidnaps an almost nun. Yep, REAL noble.

 

Chapter 37

A noble and his moorish lady join everyone at the inn. Quixote begins to discourse on Knight Warranty.

 

‘I tell thee, Sancho,’ said  Don Quixote, ‘thou art an ass;’

From the horses mouth

 

Don Quixote went on with his discourse in such a manner, and in such proper expressions, that none of those who heard him at that time could take him for a madman.

Madness was equated to craziness at all times in their minds

 

 

Chapter 38

In which Quixote blabbers on. The mysterious noble prepares to tell his tale. Not much Quixote in the lst few chapters.

 

To this arms answer, that laws cannot be supported without them: for by arms republics are defended, kingdoms are preserved, cities are guarded, highways are secured, and the seas are cleared from corsairs and pirates;

♪War♪Huh, What is it good for?!?♪ 

Apparently more than that idiot who wrote that song realized

 

‘A blessing on those happy ages, strangers to the dreadful fury of those devilish instruments of artillery, whose inventor, I verily believe, is now in hell receiving the reward of his diabolical invention; by means of which it is in the power of a cowardly and base hand to take away the life of the bravest cavalier,and to whichis owing, that without knowing how, or from whence, in the midst of that resolution and bravery, which inflames and animates gallant spirits, comes a chance ball, shot off by one, who, perhaps, fled and was frighted at the very flash in the pan, and in an instant cuts short and puts an end to the thoughts and life of him who deserved to have lived for many ages.

Holy smokes, that was ONE sentence. He makes Paul seem withdrawn and downright taciturn.

 

Chapter 39

In which a long speech is given about various battles and names which leads to the revelation that the Mystery Noble knows Don Fernando’s brother.

BORING

 

Quixote fighting the Giants, err, Giant Wineskins that is