Back to Part I, Sancho's charges, Back to Part II, Counting hogs, Back to Part III, Quixote's last stand ,
Alonzo the Good and Donna Shirlee rode into town and found the Bachelor, Barber and Curate together in great despair as they had not heard of Don Quixote and his exploits for nigh onto two fortnights and as news travels fast in that area of La Mancha, they were much afraid that ill had become the knight-errant and Sancho. On finding their friend in such good health, and with a madam-to-be, they went to the mission church and rang the bell. To the crowd assembled, the introduction of Dame Shirlee was made and the townsfolk were asked to welcome Sancho on his arrival.
A great feast was held and to it was offered one of the barrows which Sancho had acquired by his passage through the rush of hogs. Thus were the villagers and the world introduced to pork barbecue which is of enough import to make the telling of this tale worthwhile.
Many years past and there was much happiness in the village. As all men must meet their maker so was the fate of Don Quixada as written by Cide Hamete. And it should be added, in time, his bride and their many friends joined him in the final rites of the Church.
"Who was it said that, Cervantes sneered (smiled) Spain's chivalry away?
(Byron in Don Juan wrote:
Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away;
A single laugh demolish'd the right arm
Of his own country; - seldom since that day
Has Spain had heroes.)
I know not; and the author of such a line scarcely deserves to be remembered. How the rage for scribbling tempts people at the present day to write about lands and nations of which they know nothing, or worse than nothing! Vaya! (Let it pass.) It is not from having seen a bull-fight at Seville or Madrid, or having spent a handful of ounces at a posada (inn) in either of those places, kept perhaps by a Genoese or a Frenchman, that you are competent to write about such a people as the Spaniards, and to tell the world how they think, how they speak, and how they act. Spain's chivalry sneered away! Why, there is every probability that the great body of the Spanish nation speak, think, and live precisely as their forefathers did six (now seven) centuries ago."*
*** Back to Part I, Epilog - The Beginnings, Back to Part II, Counting hogs, Back to Part III, Quixote's last stand ,
*****
*Perhaps George Barrow, Cervantes and the learned ones will forgive Sidi Mahtrow for his contributions to the tale of Don Quixote and his friends as he places the Hildago of La Mancha in a more favorable light, not as a mad-man, but as ingenuous, not ingenious, a gentleman who saw the world as it was and not as his fellow travelers wished it to be.
****
Joe Wortham's Home Page , About Joe Wortham
Please send comments to: [email protected]