51
«The Refracted Image: Porras and Cervantes». (N. from the A.)
52
Cf. Poesías sueltas, pp. 5, 15 («del ancho suelo hispano»
) and p. 8 («nuestro hispano suelo»
); also p. 5 («fina malla
) and p. 16 («malla»
rhyming, as in the elegy, with «batalla»
).
(N. from the A.)
53
See Mancing 122-25 for a concise survey of the two camps. (N. from the A.)
54
Several critics have noted other parallels between the readers in and out of the text. For example, Riley observes that «No one can have failed to notice the readiness of Cervantine characters to tell and to listen to tales. They are an agreeable pastime for the audiences in the novels as well as the reader»
(84), and Mancing insists that «The most important secondary characters of part II share with the critics discussed in I, 20, the inability to see the Don Quijote who stands before them; they continue to react to the Don Quijote of the early chapters of part I. [...] Cervantes has managed to merge reality and fiction on still another level»
(188).
(N. from the A.)
55
See also Haley, who observes that «in proposing to discredit the chivalric novel, Cervantes does not suggest that we not read chivalric novels, but only that we read them properly for what they are, outlandish and sometimes beautiful lies, fiction rather than history»
(164, my emphasis). Hart, commenting on Haley's remark, adds that «Don Quixote is an attack on a way of reading -not just of reading the romances of chivalry, but of reading itself»
(130, my emphasis).
(N. from the A.)
56
The delightful is opposed to the other chief function of imaginative literature for Horace, the instructive: «Aut prodesse volunt aut delectare poetae / aut simul et iucunda et idonea dicere vitae»
(333-34).
(N. from the A.)
57
The gradual identification of the reader with Don Quixote that Allen and others have skillfully pointed out, if valid, would be another way that Cervantes succeeds in undermining the reader's critical distance. (N. from the A.)
58
Similar reactions actually begin to appear in the second half of part 1: «No quisieron [el cura y el barbero] cansarse en sacarle del error en que estaba pareciéndoles que, pues no le dañaba nada la conciencia, mejor era dejarle en él, y a ellos les sería de más gusto oír sus necedades»
(325; 1, 26); «Agradeciéronselo [a Don Quijote] los que le conocían, y dieron al oidor cuenta del humor estraño de don Quijote, de que no poco gusto recibió»
(520; 1, 43). This type of response occurs with notably increasing frequency, however, in part 2. Mancing does an admirable job of showing how the initiative in seeking chivalric adventures is slowly ceded by Don Quixote to those around him. Not surprisingly, the transfer of roles begins to occur in the second half of part 1 (when gusto first begins to disappear from Don Quixote's reactions) and gains force above all in part 2 (where there is a critical lack of gusto).
(N. from the A.)
59
This essay is a revised and expanded version of the paper delivered at the Fifth Annual Southern California Cervantes Symposium at Pomona College in Claremont, California (April 17, 1993). The author expresses his sincere gratitude to Professor Michael McGaha for the encouragement offered in its composition and revision. (N. from the A.)
60
The following essay is a revised version of a paper delivered at the Fifth Annual Southern California Cervantes Symposium, held at Pomona College, April 17, 1993. My sincerest thanks to Michael McGaha. (N. from the A.)