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By Root 946 0

name appears in a novel of chivalry, Clamades y Clarmonda (1562); in later editions of Don Quixote it was changed to “Sobradisa,” a kingdom mentioned in Amadís of Gaul.

1. Don Quixote’s soliloquy incorporates all the elements traditionally associated with the classical idea of the Golden Age.

2. A precursor of the violin, mentioned frequently in pastoral novels.

1. The lines are from Orlando furioso. “Roland” is the English (and French) for “Orlando.” The Spanish version of the name is “Roldán.”

2. Virgil requested that the Aeneid be burned at his death.

1. According to a medieval legend, the wounds of a murder victim would bleed in the presence of the killer.

1. There is a Yanguas in the modern province of Soria and another in the province of Segovia; in the first edition, however, Cervantes calls the drovers “Galicians.” For the sake of clarity, I have called them “Yanguesans,” which is how they are referred to in part II.

2. Sancho misremembers the name (Fierabrás) associated with the healing potion.

3. The humor here stems from wordplay based on costas (“costs”) and costillas (“ribs”).

4. The “merry god” is Bacchus.

5. Cervantes erroneously describes the city entered by Silenus as having one hundred gates, which refers to Egyptian Thebes; Silenus rode into Thebes in Boeotia, which had seven gates.

1. A span is approximately eight inches.

2. Sancho is mistaken (or lying): he and Don Quixote have been traveling for three days.

3. According to Martín de Riquer, muledrivers were usually Moriscos, and Cervantes is suggesting a connection between this character and Cide Hamete Benengeli.

4. A book of chivalry based on an earlier French poem and published in Spanish in 1513.

1. The phrase recalls the opening of a traditional ballad about El Cid.

2. A coin of little value, worth about one-sixth of a maravedí.

3. Tossing a dog in a blanket was a Carnival diversion.

4. An ancient Spanish coin of very little value.

1. The reference is to Amadís of Greece, the great-grandson of Amadís of Gaul.

2. The Greek and Roman name for Sri Lanka. The names of the warriors in this section are parodies of the kinds of grandiloquent names typical of novels of chivalry (Alifanfarón is roughly equivalent to “Alibombast,” Pentapolínto “Pentaroller”). The listing of combatants appears to be a brief detour by Cervantes into the world of the epic poem.

3. The names in this section suggest ludicrous associations: Laurcalco, “Laurelfacsimile”; Micocolembo, “Monkeywedge”; Brandabarbarán de Boliche, “Brandabarbarian of Ninepins”; Timonel de Carcajona, “Helmsman of Guffawjona”; Nueva Vizcaya, “New Basqueland”; Miulina, “Mewlina”; Alfeñiquén del Algarbe, “Mollycoddle of Babble”; Pierres Papín, “Pierres Bonbon”; Espartafilardo del Bosque, “Esparragrass of the Forest.”

4. In heraldry, these are blue and white cups, or bells, that fit together perfectly.

5. The legend, Rastrea mi Suerte, is ambiguous and can be interpreted in several ways, including “Look into my fate,” “Delve into my fate,” “My fate creeps along,” and “Follow [the trail of] my fate.”

7. The Spanish word peladilla can mean either “pebble” or “sugared almond.” In the next sentence, Cervantes confirms the wordplay by using almendra, directly equivalent to “almond.”

8. Andrés Laguna, an eminent sixteenth-century physician, translated and commented on the medical treatise by Dioscorides, a Greek physician of the first century C.E.

1. Sancho does not remember the name “Mambrino” and confuses it with malandrín (“scoundrel” or “rascal”).

2. The reference is to soldiers who wore shirts of a specific color over their armor during night battles so they would not be mistaken for the enemy.

3. All of these are fictional except for the Knight of the Griffon, a count who lived during the reign of Philip II.

4. This is part of a phrase established by the Council of Trent for excommunicating those who committed violence against a member of the clergy.

5. The