Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, Chapter II, Paragraphs 1-4

Okay as we move into Chapter II, I'm going to ramp things up a bit and feed you half a chapter a day so we can actually get through this book in my lifetime. I'm also going to confine my commentary/summary to individual paragraphs instead of each sentence. So let's get on with it.

CHAPTER II

WHICH TREATS OF THE FIRST SALLY THE INGENIOUS DON QUIXOTE MADE FROM HOME

These preliminaries settled, he did not care to put off any longer the execution of his design, urged on to it by the thought of all the world was losing by his delay, seeing what wrongs he intended to right, grievances to redress, injustices to repair, abuses to remove, and duties to discharge. So, without giving notice of his intention to anyone, and without anybody seeing him, one morning before the dawning of the day (which was one of the hottest of the month of July) he donned his suit of armour, mounted Rocinante with his patched-up helmet on, braced his buckler, took his lance, and by the back door of the yard sallied forth upon the plain in the highest contentment and satisfaction at seeing with what ease he had made a beginning with his grand purpose. But scarcely did he find himself upon the open plain, when a terrible thought struck him, one all but enough to make him abandon the enterprise at the very outset. It occurred to him that he had not been dubbed a knight, and that according to the law of chivalry he neither could nor ought to bear arms against any knight; and that even if he had been, still he ought, as a novice knight, to wear white armour, without a device upon the shield until by his prowess he had earned one. These reflections made him waver in his purpose, but his craze being stronger than any reasoning, he made up his mind to have himself dubbed a knight by the first one he came across, following the example of others in the same case, as he had read in the books that brought him to this pass. As for white armour, he resolved, on the first opportunity, to scour his until it was whiter than an ermine; and so comforting himself he pursued his way, taking that which his horse chose, for in this he believed lay the essence of adventures.

TIM-ELVIS' COMMENTS ON CHAPTER II, PARAGRAPH 1:

Chapter I's erratic paragraph lengths continue in Chapter II. Paragraph 1 is particularily long and all it essentially deals with is Don Quixote setting off on his adventure.

He doesn't want to wait and deprive the world of his good deeds any longer. He straps on his armor, dons his helmet with the carboard visor, grabs a lance (spear), hops on his horse and heads out the back gate before dawn on a hot July morning. Just as he starts out, it occurs to him that technically, no one has actually made him an official knight (generally you have to be ceremoniously head bonked with a sword by another knight or king before you can join their club). Until you were officially a knight, you weren't supposed to challenge any other knights and you were supposed to wear white armor signifying that you were only a beginner. Don Quixote finally shrugs off these technicalites in the manner of Scarlett O'Hara and determines he will have the first knight he meets "knight" him and will scour his armor white when he gets a chance. He then let's his horse plod off in whatever direction he chooses, trusting fate will lead him to his first adventure.

Thus setting out, our new-fledged adventurer paced along, talking to himself and saying, "Who knows but that in time to come, when the veracious history of my famous deeds is made known, the sage who writes it, when he has to set forth my first sally in the early morning, will do it after this fashion? 'Scarce had the rubicund Apollo spread o'er the face of the broad spacious earth the golden threads of his bright hair, scarce had the little birds of painted plumage attuned their notes to hail with dulcet and mellifluous harmony the coming of the rosy Dawn, that, deserting the soft couch of her jealous spouse, was appearing to mortals at the gates and balconies of the Manchegan horizon, when the renowned knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, quitting the lazy down, mounted his celebrated steed Rocinante and began to traverse the ancient and famous Campo de Montiel;'" which in fact he was actually traversing. "Happy the age, happy the time," he continued, "in which shall be made known my deeds of fame, worthy to be moulded in brass, carved in marble, limned in pictures, for a memorial for ever. And thou, O sage magician, whoever thou art, to whom it shall fall to be the chronicler of this wondrous history, forget not, I entreat thee, my good Rocinante, the constant companion of my ways and wanderings." Presently he broke out again, as if he were love-stricken in earnest, "O Princess Dulcinea, lady of this captive heart, a grievous wrong hast thou done me to drive me forth with scorn, and with inexorable obduracy banish me from the presence of thy beauty. O lady, deign to hold in remembrance this heart, thy vassal, that thus in anguish pines for love of thee."

TIM-ELVIS' COMMENTS ON CHAPTER II, PARAGRAPH 2:
Don Quixote spends most of this paragraph talking to himself about how they will eventually write about his exploits. I find this paradoxical that Cervantes is writing about a character musing about how he will be written about. Don Quixote waxes poetic about how he is setting off at sunrise with the birds singing. Then Don Quixote starts muttering to himself how he has been wronged by his imaginary love, Dulcinea and the only reason he is out there prancing about on a horse is because she has scorned him. I think this guy was riding my bus this morning.

So he went on stringing together these and other absurdities, all in the style of those his books had taught him, imitating their language as well as he could; and all the while he rode so slowly
and the sun mounted so rapidly and with such fervour that it was enough to melt his brains if he had any. Nearly all day he travelled without anything remarkable happening to him, at which he was in despair, for he was anxious to encounter some one at once upon whom to try the might of his strong arm.

TIM-ELVIS' COMMENTS ON CHAPTER II, PARAGRAPH 3:
Don Quixote rides along muttering his random thoughts based on all of the books about knights he has read. He is riding real slow and as the sun rises he is being baked in his armor. He rides all day and nothing happens which really bums him because he is "ready to rumble" with the first bully he sees.

Writers there are who say the first adventure he met with was that of Puerto Lapice; others say it was that of the windmills; but whatI have ascertained on this point, and what I have found written in the annals of La Mancha, is that he was on the road all day, and towards nightfall his hack and he found themselves dead tired and hungry, when, looking all around to see if he could discover any castle or shepherd's shanty where he might refresh himself and relieve his sore wants, he perceived not far out of his road an inn, which was as welcome as a star guiding him to the portals, if not the palaces, of his redemption; and quickening his pace he reached it just as night was setting in. At the door were standing two young women, girls of the district as they call them, on their way to Seville with some carriers who had chanced to halt that night at the inn; and as, happen what might to our adventurer, everything he saw or imaged seemed to him to be and to happen after the fashion of what he read of, the moment he saw the inn he pictured it to himself as a castle with its four turrets and pinnacles of shining silver, not forgetting the drawbridge and moat and all the belongings usually ascribed to castles of the sort. To this inn, which to him seemed a castle, he advanced, and at a short distance from it he checked Rocinante, hoping that some dwarf would show himself upon the battlements, and by sound of trumpet give notice that a knight was approaching the castle. But seeing that they were slow about it, and that Rocinante was in a hurry to reach the stable, he made for the inn door, and perceived the two gay damsels who were standing there, and who seemed to him to be two fair maidens or lovely ladies taking their ease at the castle gate.

TIM-ELVIS' COMMENTS ON CHAPTER II, PARAGRAPH 4:
It starts to get dark and Don Quixote and his horse are tired. He looks around, hoping to find a castle to crash in. Instead he sees an Inn with two 17th Century hookers hanging out by the door. But Don Quixote sees what he wants to see. To him it is a castle with two fair maidens standing by the gate to greet him. But he is a bit disappointed that there is no dwarf hanging out the window of the castle blowing a trumpet to announce his arrival (apparently this is where the writers of Fantasy Island got the idea for the opening "Da Plane, Da Plane" scene).

Tomorrow we wrap up Chapter II.