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2. This was the popular name for Aesop among the uneducated.

3. This is Sancho’s misunderstanding of the name Elisabat.

4. Peña Pobrecan be translated as “Poor Rock” or “Bare Rock” or, to retain the alliteration, “Mount Mournful.”

5. The figure of Opportunity was traditionally represented as bald except for one lock of hair, which, like the proverbial brass ring, one had to grasp and hold on to.

7. Over the years, the question of exactly when Sancho’s donkey was stolen has been a matter of some controversy among Cervantine scholars. According to the first edition, published in 1605, this is the initial indication that a theft has taken place. In the second edition, however, published a few months after the first, a passage inserted in chapter XXIII states that Ginés de Pasamonte, the galley slave, steals the donkey while Sancho is sleeping. Martín de Riquer, editor of the text on which this translation is based, adheres consistently to the first edition, citing the added passage in a footnote but not including it in the body of the text. In brief, then, through an oversight of Cervantes or the printer, Juan de la Cuesta, the first edition does not prepare the reader for the fact that the donkey has been stolen; despite subsequent corrections, in the second part of Don Quixote, published in 1615, Cervantes alludes to this omission in chapter III and apparently accepts criticism of the omission as valid.

8. This is Sancho’s corruption of a Latin phrase in the service for the dead: Quia in inferno nulla est redemptio.

9. In the passage regarding the theft of the donkey, which was inserted in chapter XXIII in the second edition, Don Quixote offers Sancho his own donkeys as compensation for his loss.

10. In an apparent oversight, Cervantes wrote “Perseus” instead of “Theseus.”

1. This phrase was considered irreverent, and in the second edition it was replaced by “And for a rosary he took some large galls from a cork tree, which he strung together and used as prayer beads.”

1. A Visigoth who ruled Spain in the seventh century (672–680).

1. This appears to be a reference to the duke of Osuna.

1. In the first edition, this was the epigraph for chapter XXX, while the one for chapter XXIX appeared before chapter XXX. In other words, the epigraphs were reversed.

2. The kind of gentle horse normally ridden by women and referred to frequently in novels of chivalry; Cervantes uses the term for comic effect since Dorotea is riding a mule.

3. In other words, Sancho will turn them into silver and gold.

5. Meona means “urinating frequently” and is often used to describe newborn infants.

1. In this context, religion signifies the order of chivalry.

2. Azote means “whip” or “scourge”; gigote is “fricassee” or “hash.”

3. The humor in Dorotea’s statement (comparable to her not being able to recall Don Quixote’s name) lies in the fact that Osuna is landlocked and that La Mancha is part of Spain, and not the reverse, as she implies.

4. This is the first reference, in either the first or second edition of the novel, to the theft of Don Quixote’s sword.

5. As indicated earlier, when he is extremely angry Don Quixote changes the way he addresses Sancho, moving from the second person singular to the more distant second person plural. This is the second time he has done so, and he maintains his irate distance until the end of the paragraph.

6. At this point, in the second edition, Ginés de Pasamonte reappears, riding Sancho’s donkey. Sancho begins to shout at him, calling him a thief, and Ginés runs away, leaving the donkey behind. Sancho is overjoyed, especially when Don Quixote says that this does not nullify the transfer of the three donkeys he had promised him earlier.

1. A fanega is approximately 1.6 bushels.

2. As a sign of respect, the recipient of a letter from a person of high station touched it to his or her head before opening it.