Friday, October 25, 2013

Don Quijote and the Basque Again

     Good God, who could easily recount the rage that now filled the heart of our La Manchan, having been dealt such a setback!  The best we can say is that he reared up once again in his stirrups, took a two-handed grip on his sword, and swung so savagely at the Basque, hitting him squarely on the coach-cushion and on the head that, though the cushion had offered him first-rate protection, not it was as if a mountain had fallen on him, and blood began to pour out of his nostrils and his mouth, and also from his ears, and it looked as if he would fall off his mule, as indeed without any doubt he would, had he not clutched at the animals neck.  But still, his feet fell out of the stirrups, and in a moment his arms slipped away, and his mule, terrified by fearful blow, began to run through the fields, and after a few leaps threw his master to the ground.
     Don Quijote was watching all this with great calm, and when he saw the Basque fall, he leaped off his horse and ran quickly toward him, then put the point the point of his sword between the Basque's eyes and ordered him to surrender, or have his head cut off.  The Basque was so shaken he could not speak a word, and it would have gone very badly for him, given Don Quijote's blind rage, except that the ladies in the coach, who had to this point been watching the combat in great distress, hurried over and most earnestly begged our knight to show them the greater grace, and extend to them the great favor, of sparing the life of their page.  To which Don Quijote replied, soberly and with great pride:
     "Certainly, lovely ladies: I am deeply pleased to do as you ask of me.  But only on one condition, and that is that this knight must promise and agree to journey to Toboso and present himself on my behalf to the peerless Dona Dulcinea, so that she may dispose of him as it best pleases her."
     Frightened and miserable not disputing a word or asking who Dulcinea might be, the ladies promised that their page would do everything that Don Quijote had ordered to be done.

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Miguel De Cervantes' Don Quijote, Volume 1, Chapter 9, page 53
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     Cervantes uses excessive description in these ten sentences.  He draws a picture in the reader's mind, but I am going to rewrite it in shorter sentences.

     Angry at the Basque for insulting him, Don Quijote hit the Basque with his sword.  The Basque blocked the blow with the cushion, but he was still wounded.  Blood flowed from his nose, mouth, and ears.  He tried desperately to stay on his mule, but it threw him to the ground in terror.
     Don Quijote approached the Basque and held his sword to the confused man's throat.  Don Quijote commanded the him to surrender, but the Basque was too dazed.  Just then, the women, who had been watching the coach, ran and begged Don Quijoting not to hurt their squire.
     "As long as your squire goes to Dona Dulcinea in Toboso and does what she says, I will not touch him." Replied Don Quijote.
     The terrified ladies agreed.

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