History Literature / DonQuixote

* ''Theatre/ManOfLaMancha'', musical created in 1964.

* ''Moxia Zhuan'' ("The story of the Enchanted Knight"), the first version of ''Don Quixote'' published in China, is a 1922 [[ForeignRemake remake]] of Part I by Lin Shu, who didn't speak Spanish or any western language, but transcribed the story as it was narrated to him by a friend reading from an English 18th century translation. The story is slightly different due to a mix of [[BlindIdiotTranslation translation errors]], [[GossipEvolution broken telephone]], CulturalTranslation, and AuthorAppeal: Don Quixote is a more dignified character ''because'' he keeps true to older traditions and is inconformist with the absurds of modernity, Sancho is his disciple instead of his servant, and all references to Christianity are excised, so the curate is a doctor. It went [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes out of print]] in 1934 until it was rediscovered by the Cervantes Institute and published in Mandarin and Spanish in 2021.

* ''Moxia Zhuan'' ("The story of the Enchanted Knight"), the first version of ''Don Quixote'' published in China, is a 1922 [[ForeignRemake remake]] of Part I written by Lin Shu, who didn't speak Spanish or any western language, but transcribed the story as it was narrated to him by a friend reading from an English 18th century translation. The story is slightly different due to a mix of [[BlindIdiotTranslation translation errors]], [[GossipEvolution broken telephone]], CulturalTranslation, and AuthorAppeal: Don Quixote is a more dignified character ''[[MisaimedFandom because]]'' he keeps true to older traditions and is inconformist with the absurds of modernity, Sancho is his disciple instead of a servant, and there are no references to Christianity so the curate is a doctor. It went [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes out of print]] in 1934 until it was rediscovered by the ''Instituto Cervantes'' and published both in Mandarin and Spanish in 2021.

* CombatPragmatist: Bernardo del Carpio is one of Alonso Quixano's favorite knights, because he found the way to defeat [[NighInvulnerable Roland]] [[AWizardDidIt the enchanted]]: instead of attacking him with a sword, Bernardo just strangled him.

*** In Part I, Chapter I: Bernardo del Carpio is one of Alonso Quixano's favorite knights, because he found the way to defeat [[NighInvulnerable Roland]] [[AWizardDidIt the enchanted]]. Roland was invulnerable to bladed weapons everywhere except the soles of his feet, so he worse shoes with 7 iron soles. To counter this instead of attacking him with a sword, [[CombatPragmatist Bernardo simply strangled Roland]]... Cool, isn't it? [[TheOldestOnesInTheBook But not as cool as the first time this tale was told]], [[UnreliableNarrator as our narrator]] [[LampshadeHanging reminds us]].

*** In Part I, Chapter I: Bernardo del Carpio is one of Alonso Quixano's favorite knights, because he found the way to defeat [[NighInvulnerable Roland]] [[AWizardDidIt the enchanted]]: instead of attacking him with a sword, [[CombatPragmatist Bernardo simply strangled Roland]]... Cool, isn't it? [[TheOldestOnesInTheBook But not as cool as the first time this tale was told]], [[UnreliableNarrator as our narrator]] [[LampshadeHanging reminds us]].

** Parodied in Chapter LVIII of the Second Part: Don Quixote meets some beautiful shepherdesses who are part of a crew of noble and rich people who invoke this trope by retiring to a forest to play to be shepherds and shepherdesses. They are so sophisticated that they have studied two poems from Garcilaso (in Spanish) and Camoes (in Portuguese). [[{{Irony}} Only the truly rich city mouse can afford to live in a happy Arcadia]].

*** The first advice of his friend is for Cervantes to write the commendatory verses himself, and then claim they came from some famous or powerful characters of his time, even claiming that some of them were famous poets, basically, to pull a DanBrowned. The truth is that a lot of the powerful Spanish people of his time could not be poets, and were even illiterate.

* DanBrowned: This trope is lampshaded by Cervantes... and then played for laughs. In the Preface of the Author, Part I, Cervantes denounces authors who claim that the verses they use in the preface of the book commending that work (a common literary practice at the time) were made by personages identified as famous poets, when with a little research we easily discover they were not, or worse yet, [[EpicFail they were illiterate]]. Simply put, [[LampshadeHanging he defines this trope]] in the 17th century. And then, Cervantes proceeds to [[PlayedForLaughs make "some commendatory verses" whose authors are some wizards, knights and damsels protagonist of other chivalry books]].
** Invoked again in Part II, when Don Quixote and Sancho read Avellaneda's fanfic sequel and disparage him for getting the most basic stuff about them wrong.
--->''[A]nd he who in this part so important errs, could very well be feared to err in all others of the story.''
--->--'''Don Quixote'''

** In Chapter I Part I, the narrator notes that [[Literature/TheSongOfRoland the history of Reinaldos de Montalban mentions]] [[CriticalResearchFailure an idol of Mahomet made of gold]].

The story is that of an old ''hidalgo'' named Alonso Quijano, who is so obsessed with chivalric novels that he's lost a few screws and decided that he is a vagrant knight. Quijano renames himself as "Don Quixote de La Mancha" and decides to win eternal fame through the besting of criminals and general upholding of the Chivalric Code. Unfortunately for a lot of innocent people, his delusions make him pick fights with innocent bystanders, some of whom do not fight back because Don Quixote is obviously crazy. Of course, there are also strangers who are not so sympathetic. After one delivers a brutal beating to Don Quixote, a neighbor from his village meets the wounded Don Quixote and takes him home, where his friends and family burn the cursed books of chivalry and claim that AWizardDidIt (literally) to try to cure him. However, he soon returns to his delusion and journey. This time he manages to convince a simple farm-hand, Sancho Panza, to become his squire and sidekick for the promise of a governorship in the future. They experience many adventures, including the famous one where Don Quixote attacks some windmills thinking they are ferocious giants. [[note]] The band Music/TheyMightBeGiants was named after the film ''Film/TheyMightBeGiants'', which paralleled ''Don Quixote'' with the main character's delusions that he is Literature/SherlockHolmes. [[/note]] At the end of the book, Don Quixote’s friends trick him by making him believe he is enchanted and take him back to his village.

The first part of the novel was published in 1605, when stories of chivalry were pushing CondemnedByHistory and Don Quixote's dreams of reviving chivalric ways were really a strange, misbegotten idea. However, Miguel de Cervantes had a clear distaste for them, in no small part because he was an ex-soldier who lost the mobility of his left arm in the UsefulNotes/BattleOfLepanto [[note]] Cervantes was famously nicknamed "The One-Armed of Lepanto", or "el Manco de Lepanto" [[/note]] and spent several years in prison. Having had such harsh experiences, [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids he found such idealistic stories completely absurd]], and thought that they were too disconnected from reality. And out of such distaste, he decided to write this story [[DeconstructiveParody to pick them apart and openly mock them]].

The novel became a popular success (although that success was nothing unheard of compared to other contemporary titles, and it certainly wasn't a hit with Spanish critics of the day), and was reprinted several times in the next decade, even being translated into French and English. But most notable was the change in Spanish popular culture. Within a few months of its printing, virtually all of Spain knew about Don Quixote’s exploits: {{Memetic Mutation}}s arose, chivalric romances became popular again, and even apocryphal "continuations" appeared. In the novel, Don Quixote mocks the tropes and cliches of these stories, yet leads an ironic revival of their traditions through his good nature and willingness to go challenge society's beliefs. Cervantes' story achieved the same thing in reality as in the story, while at the same time reinventing literature by creating the novel in its modern form.

-->'' "It seems to me," said Sancho, "that the knights who behaved in this way had provocation and cause for those follies and penances; but what cause has your worship for going mad? What lady has rejected you, or what evidence have you found to prove that the lady Dulcinea del Toboso has been trifling with Moor or Christian?"''
-->'' "There is the point," replied Don Quixote, "and that is the beauty of this business of mine; no thanks to a knight-errant for going mad when he has cause; the thing is to turn crazy without any provocation, and let my lady know, if I do this in the dry, what I would do in the moist" ''

** The Disney film ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'' is arguably a retelling of this story with Bolt in the place of [[spoiler:Don Quixote]], Rhino filling the role of [[spoiler:Sancho Panza]], Penny playing [[spoiler: Dulcinea]], Mittens standing in for [[spoiler: Cordonza]], and the hamsterball is [[spoiler: Rocinante]]. The windmill is the [[spoiler: television show ''Bolt'']] but there is a real windmill too.

--> ''One of the squires in attendance upon the coach, a Biscayan, was listening to all Don Quixote was saying, and, perceiving that he would not allow the coach to go on, but was saying it must return at once to El Toboso, he made at him, and seizing his lance addressed him in bad Castilian and worse Biscayan after his fashion, "Begone, caballero, and ill go with thee; by the God that made me, unless thou quittest coach, slayest thee as art here a Biscayan."''
--> ''Don Quixote understood him quite well, and answered him very quietly, "If thou wert a knight, as thou art none, I should have already chastised thy folly and rashness, miserable creature." To which the Biscayan returned, "I no gentleman!—I swear to God thou liest as I am Christian: if thou droppest lance and drawest sword, soon shalt thou see thou art carrying water to the cat: Biscayan on land, hidalgo at sea, hidalgo at the devil, and look, if thou sayest otherwise thou liest."''

--> ''"I was mad, now I am in my senses; I was Don Quixote of La Mancha, I am now, as I said, Alonso Quixano the Good."''

--> ''... though Don Juan wished Don Quixote to read more of the book to see what it was all about, he was not to be prevailed upon, saying that he treated it as read and pronounced it utterly silly; and, if by any chance it should come to its author's ears that he had it in his hand, he did not want him to flatter himself with the idea that he had read it; for our thoughts, and still more our eyes, should keep themselves aloof from what is obscene and filthy.''

--> ''..."if a hunted cat, surrounded and hard pressed, turns into a lion, God knows what I, who am a man, may turn into..."''

--->''Hearing this, Altisidora, with a show of anger and agitation, exclaimed, "God's life! Don Stockfish, soul of a mortar, stone of a date, more obstinate and obdurate than a clown asked a favour when he has his mind made up, if I fall upon you I'll tear your eyes out! Do you fancy, Don Vanquished, Don Cudgelled, that I died for your sake? All that you have seen to-night has been make-believe; I'm not the woman to let the black of my nail suffer for such a camel, much less die!"''
--->''"That I can well believe," said Sancho; "for all that about lovers pining to death is absurd; they may talk of it, but as for doing it-Judas may believe that!"''

--> ''"[[BoredWithInsanity Good news for you, good sirs, that I am no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but Alonso Quixano, whose way of life won for him the name of Good]]. Now am I the enemy of [[KnightInShiningArmor Amadis of Gaul]] [[FollowTheLeader and of the whole countless troop of his descendants]]; [[ClicheStorm odious to me now are all the profane stories of knight-errantry]]; [[HeelRealization now I perceive my folly]], [[TheNewRockAndRoll and the peril into which reading them brought me]]; [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime now, by God's mercy schooled into my right senses, I loathe them.]]"''

--> ''On many of his readers in Spain, and most of his readers out of it, the significance of his choice of a country for his hero is completely lost. It would be going too far to say that no one can thoroughly comprehend "Don Quixote" without having seen La Mancha, but undoubtedly even a glimpse of La Mancha will give an insight into the meaning of Cervantes such as no commentator can give. Of all the regions of Spain it is the last that would suggest the idea of romance. Of all the dull central plateau of the Peninsula it is the dullest tract. There is something impressive about the grim solitudes of Estremadura; and if the plains of Leon and Old Castile are bald and dreary, they are studded with old cities renowned in history and rich in relics of the past. But there is no redeeming feature in the Manchegan landscape; it has all the sameness of the desert without its dignity; the few towns and villages that break its monotony are mean and commonplace, there is nothing venerable about them, they have not even the picturesqueness of poverty; indeed, Don Quixote's own village, Argamasilla, has a sort of oppressive respectability in the prim regularity of its streets and houses; everything is ignoble; the very windmills are the ugliest and shabbiest of the windmill kind''.

--> ''...is that he goes wrong and departs from the truth in the most important part of the history, for here he says that my squire Sancho Panza's wife is called Mari Gutierrez, when she is called nothing of the sort, but Teresa Panza; and when a man errs on such an important point as this there is good reason to fear that he is in error on every other point in the history." ''
--> '' "A nice sort of historian, indeed!" exclaimed Sancho at this; "he must know a deal about our affairs when he calls my wife Teresa Panza, Mari Gutierrez; take the book again, señor, and see if I am in it and if he has changed my name."''

---> ''I would have thee know, Sancho, that the famous Amadis of Gaul was one of the most perfect knights-errant—I am wrong to say he was one; he stood alone, the first, the only one, the lord of all that were in the world in his time. A fig for Don Belianis, and for all who say he equaled him in any respect, for, my oath upon it, they are deceiving themselves! ... In the same way Amadis was the polestar, day-star, sun of valiant and devoted knights, whom all we who fight under the banner of love and chivalry are bound to imitate.''

--> ''Roque on coming up asked Sancho if his men had returned and restored to him the treasures and jewels they had stripped off Dapple. Sancho said they had, but that three kerchiefs that were worth three cities were missing.''
--> ''"What are you talking about, man?" said one of the bystanders; "I have got them, and they are not worth three reals."''
--> ''"That is true," said Don Quixote; "but my squire values them at the rate he says, as having been given me by the person who gave them."''

--> ''On this point the landlord told him he was mistaken; for, though not recorded in the histories, because in the author's opinion there was no need to mention anything so obvious and necessary as money and clean shirts, [[FridgeLogic it was not to be supposed therefore that they did not carry them,]]''

---> ''"All this that I have now repeated I said to him, and much more which I cannot recollect; but it had no effect in inducing him to forego his purpose; he who has no intention of paying does not trouble himself about difficulties when he is striking the bargain.''

--> ''"I have little to do with that," replied the innkeeper; "pay me what you owe me, and let us have no more talk of chivalry, for all I care about is to get my money."''

--> ''The instant Don Quixote heard his own name be started to his feet and listened with open ears to catch what they said about him, and heard the Don Jeronimo who had been addressed say in reply, "Why would you have us read that absurd stuff, Don Juan, when it is impossible for anyone who has read the First Part of the history of 'Don Quixote of La Mancha' to take any pleasure in reading this Second Part?"''
--> ''"For all that," said he who was addressed as Don Juan, "we shall do well to read it, for there is no book so bad but it has something good in it. What displeases me most in it is that it represents Don Quixote as now cured of his love for Dulcinea del Toboso."''
--> ''On hearing this Don Quixote, full of wrath and indignation, lifted up his voice and said, "Whoever he may be who says that Don Quixote of La Mancha has forgotten or can forget Dulcinea del Toboso, I will teach him with equal arms that what he says is very far from the truth; for neither can the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso be forgotten, nor can forgetfulness have a place in Don Quixote; his motto is constancy, and his profession to maintain the same with his life and never wrong it."''

--->'''Don Quixote''': Is it so good?
--->'''Gines de Pasamonte''': So good is it, that a fig for ''Literature/LazarilloDeTormes'', and all of that kind that have been written, or shall be written compared with it: all I will say about it is that it deals with facts, and facts so neat and diverting that no lies could match them.

--> ''"But consider, brother," said the curate once more, "there never was any Felixmarte of Hircania in the world, nor any Cirongilio of Thrace, or any of the other knights of the same sort, that the books of chivalry talk of; the whole thing is the fabrication and invention of idle wits, devised by them for the purpose you describe of beguiling the time, as your reapers do when they read; for I swear to you in all seriousness there never were any such knights in the world, and no such exploits or nonsense ever happened anywhere."''
--> ''"Try that bone on another dog," said the innkeeper; "as if I did not know how many make five, and where my shoe pinches me; don't think to feed me with pap, for by God I am no fool. It is a good joke for your worship to try and persuade me that everything these good books say is nonsense and lies, and they printed by the license of the Lords of the Royal Council, as if they were people who would allow such a lot of lies to be printed all together, and so many battles and enchantments that they take away one's senses."''

--> ''"...and I know not what could have led [[DirectLineToTheAuthor the author]] to have recourse to [[ShowWithinAShow novels]] and [[{{Filler}} irrelevant stories]], when he had [[ItsAllAboutMe so much to write about in mine]]; no doubt he must have gone by the proverb 'with straw or with hay, etc.,' for by merely setting forth my thoughts, my sighs, my tears, my lofty purposes, my enterprises, [[DoorStopper he might have made a volume as large, or larger than all the works of El Tostado]] [[note]]Alfonso de Madrigal, philosopher whose works "have more than twenty volumes"[[/note]] would make up"''.

---> ''"and bear in mind, my son, that a good hope is better than a bad holding, and a good grievance better than a bad compensation"''

These are the very first lines of ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' ("''El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha''" in the original Spanish), often shortened to just ''Don Quixote''. The novel was written by Spanish writer and satirist Creator/{{Miguel De Cervantes}}. Cervantes wrote the story in two parts, the first part published in 1605 and the second in 1615.

[[quoteright:275:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/quijote_picasso-blog2.jpg]][[caption-width-right:275: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, sketched by Creator/PabloPicasso]]

->''“En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.”''

->“In a place in La Mancha, the name of which I don't want to recall, there lived, not long ago, one of those gentlemen with a lance on the rack, an old shield, a worn-out horse, and a racing greyhound.”

These are the very first lines of ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' (“''El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha''” in the original Spanish), often shortened to just ''Don Quixote''. The novel was written by Spanish writer and satirist Creator/{{Miguel De Cervantes}}. Cervantes wrote the story in two parts, the first part published in 1605 and the second in 1615.

''Don Quijote'' is commonly cited in literary criticism as "the first modern novel", and is probably among the most influential books of all time (just take a look at Wiki/TheOtherWiki's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_influenced_by_Don_Quixote list]]). It's also widely considered to be the best book ever written in the Spanish language, and nowadays almost every Spanish-speaking kid will have to read and study it in school at one point or another, similar to how every kid in the USA and UK must read and study Shakespeare (Cervantes' close contemporary).

* ''Donkey Xote'', 2007 Spanish CGI animated film.

%%* WalkingTheEarth

** All the first part of the novel, Sancho has ride with Don Quixote [[StandardHeroReward under the promise of a governorship]]. At chapter VII of the second part, Sancho demands a salary for his work. [[GenreSavvy Don Quixote claims that he had never read a Chivalry book where a squire would get a wage and he will never disturb the ancient usage of Knight – Errantry]], so he invokes this trope telling Sancho:

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: First line: "In a village of La Mancha the name of which I have no desire to recall." It's even lampshaded in the very last chapter: Part II, chapter 74: ''"Such was the end of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, whose village Cide Hamete would not indicate precisely, in order to leave all the towns and villages of La Mancha to contend among themselves for the right to adopt him and claim him as a son, as the seven cities of Greece contended for Homer".'' Which, guess what, is what happened.

* UnreliableNarrator: Several layers of this, actually. Lampshaded, even: In the very first paragraph, Don Quixote's literary portrait has the narrator NOT telling us the name of Don Quixote's town, and the narrator admits he doesn't know very well if his name was Quixada, Quesada, or Quexana. For the people of the seventeen century, this was an infringement of a very well known rule of the literary portrait, and so they immediately had the real impression that the author was a liar. Also, [[DirectLineToTheAuthor the original author (Cide Hamete Benengeli) and the Translator (an anonymous Moor)]] comment the text when the plot is being implausible, and the second author (Cervantes), [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial constantly remind us that this is a true history]]. All these tricks show that Cervantes clearly want the reader realizes that this tale cannot be true. Not to mention the fact that the so called original author has an Arabic name. At that time in Spain, Arabs were thought to be liars.

** A special mention deserves the Spanish word ''insula'', GratuitousLatin that means ''island'' or ''place limited and isolated'', the StandardHeroReward Don Quixote has promised to Sancho. [[YouKeepUsingThatWord Sancho keeps using that word]] even when he doesn't know what it is.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Sancho doesn't really understand that the ''insula'' he was promised as a StandardHeroReward by Don Quixote means an ''island'', as we see at Chapter II of the Second part:
--> ''"May evil ''insulas'' [islands] choke thee, thou detestable Sancho," said the niece; "What are ''insulas'' [islands]? [[IsItSomethingYouEat Is it something to eat]], glutton and gormandiser that thou art?"''
--> ''"It is not something to eat," replied Sancho, "but something to govern and rule, and better than four cities or four judgeships at court."''

* FanDisillusionment: After two novels being a literal AscendedFanboy UpToEleven of the ChivalricRomance, Don Quixote must accept in the last chapter that the ClicheStorm that he read as the adventures of a KnightErrant is [[DeconstructedTrope not as joyous as he thought it would be]]:

* IdiotHero: If not the {{Trope Maker|s}}, pretty much the TropeCodifier, though it's subverted: Don Quixote is not an idiot, and we know it since the very beginning of the novel. He is a very intelligent, well-educated man, who is perfectly normal as long as he is not talking about his obsessions. Of course, [[TooDumbToLive when he is indulging his chivalry fantasies... well...]] UpToEleven if you think that in the end when he denies chivalry, Don Quixote is portrayed as the OnlySaneMan and even as [[MessiahCreep the ideal man]]. Part I, chapter 30:

** Don Quixote consider Amadis of Gaul the UrExample UpToEleven:

* UpToEleven: Every major female character on Part 1 tops the beauty of all preceding ladies of the novel. Even when the previous most beautiful girls are present, everyone is amazed by the incomparable beauty of the newly introduced, challenging the reader to imagine them increasingly better good looking. It finally peaks with Leandra, whose beauty was famous even in the halls of the royalty of distant cities. It seems it "overflows" in Part II, where the person Sancho chooses to be the new Dulcinea is described as the ugliest woman you can imagine. How? AWizardDidIt!, and the plot becomes to try to disenchant her.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Deconstructed in the [[ShowWithinAShow Novel Within a Novel]], ''The Ill-Advised Curiosity'' where [[TooDumbToLive Anselmo]] asks his best friend Lotario to test the fidelity of his wife, Camila. In any other story, Camila will pass the test and everyone will have lived HappilyEverAfter. In the novel, Camila and Lotario became lovers, [[EveryoneDiesEnding causing the tragic deaths of the three]].

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Deconstructed in the [[ShowWithinAShow Novel Within a Novel]], ''The Ill-Advised Curiosity'' where [[TooDumbToLive Anselmo]] asks his best friend Lotario to test the fidelity of his wife, Camila. In any other story, Camila will pass the test and everyone will have lived HappilyEverAfter. In the novel, Camila and Lotario became lovers, [[KillThemAll causing the tragic deaths of the three]].

** Don Quixote mentions the Nine Worthies: Nine characters who personified the ideal values of a brave knight. They were three pagans (Alexander The Great, Hector, and Julius Caesar), three Jewish (Joshua, Salomon, and Juda Maccabee) and three Christians (King Arthur, Charlomagne, and Godfrey of Bouillion). All of those figures are still very well-known, but most people are not familiar with the idea of all of them united in a single rhetoric concept. When Quixote was wounded by some BadassBystander and helped by some neighbor, and the neighbor claims Don Quixote is not a KnightErrant, Don Quixote claims: "I know who I am," and adds, "and I know that I may be not only those I have named, but all the [[Literature/TheSongofRoland Twelve Peers of France]] and even all the Nine Worthies, since my achievements surpass all that they have done all together and each of them on his own account." Justified, since Quixote is FanDumb about ChivalricRomance and he must know everything about [[KnightErrant knights errant]]. The real ironic part is that in-universe Quixote is only a LoonyFan who cannot match them, but in RealLife, more people know who is Don Quixote that the Nine Worthies... so this BadassBoast became HilariousInHindsight.

* ''The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda'', 1990-1991 Hanna-Barbera animated series.

* ShoutOut: Hundreds upon hundreds of them, although many would be unrecognizable to the modern reader. Chapter I part I mentions Creator/{{Aristotle}}, philosopher widely regarded as the greatest abstract thinker of western civilization. Even he has no chance to make sense of the purple prose that plagued chivalry books. Also in Chapter III, Part II, Don Quixote's opinion about history and poetry reflects the theory exposed in Aristotle's ''Literature/{{Poetics}}''.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Don Quixote travels to Barcelona, a province of the Spanish Empire facing a CivilWar. Sancho, being the ButtMonkey, get lost at night in a forest whose trees are filled with feet wearing shoes and stocking. Don Quixote [[CasualDangerDialog calmly explains that]] [[CrushingThePopulace the authorities hang outlaws by twenties and thirties when they catch them]].