# Don Quixote (Cervantes/Ormsby)/Volume 1/Commendatory Verses

COMMENDATORY VERSES.
URGANDA THE UNKNOWN
TO THE BOOK OF DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA.
* If to be welcomed by the good,
* O Book! thou make thy steady aim,
* No empty chatterer will dare
* To question or dispute thy claim.
* But if perchance thou hast a mind
* To win of idiots approbation.
* Lost labor will be thy reward,
* Though they'll pretend appreciation.
* They say a goodly shade he finds
* Who shelters 'neath a goodly tree;
* And such a one thy kindly star
* In Béjar hath provided thee:
* A royal tree whose spreading boughs
* A show of princely fruit display;
* A tree that bears a noble Duke,
* The Alexander of his day.
* ​Of a Manchegan gentleman
* Thy purpose is to tell the story,
* Relating how he lost his wits
* O'er idle tales of love and glory,
* Of "ladies, arms, and cavaliers:"
* A new Orlando Furioso—
* Innamorato, rather—who
* Won Dulcinea del Toboso.
* Put no vain emblems on thy shield;
* All figures—that is bragging play.
* A modest dedication make.
* And give no scoffer room to say,
* "What! Álvaro de Luna here?
* Or is it Hannibal again?
* Or does King Francis at Madrid
* Once more of destiny complain?"
* Since Heaven it hath not pleased on thee
* Deep erudition to bestow.
* Or black Latino's gift of tongues,
* No Latin let thy pages show.
* Ape not philosophy or wit,
* Lest one who can not comprehend,
* Make a wry face at thee and ask,
* "Why offer flowers to me, my friend?"
* ​Be not a meddler; no affair
* Of thine the life thy neighbors lead:
* Be prudent; oft the random jest
* Recoils pon the jester's head.
* Thy constant labor let it be
* To earn thyself an honest name,
* For fooleries preserved in print
* Are perpetuity of shame.
* A further counsel bear in mind:
* If that thy roof be made of glass,
* It shows small wit to pick up stones
* To pelt the people as they pass.
* Win the attention of the wise,
* And give the thinker food for thought;
* Whoso indites frivolities,
* Will but by simpletons be sought.
AMADIS OF GAUL
TO DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA.
SONNET.
Thou that didst imitate that life of mine, When I in lonely sadness on the great Rock Peña Pobre sat disconsolate. In self-imposed penance there to pine; Thou, whose sole beverage was the bitter brine Of thine own tears, and who withouten plate Of silver, copper, tin, in lowly state Off the bare earth and on earth's fruits didst dine; Live thou, of thine eternal glory sure. So long as on the round of the fourth sphere The bright Apollo shall his coursers steer. In thy renown thou shalt remain secure. Thy country's name in story shall endure, And thy sage author stand without a peer.
DON BELIANIS OF GREECE
TO DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA.
SONNET.
In slashing, hewing, cleaving, word, and deed, I was the foremost knight of chivalry, Stout, bold, expert, as e'er the world did see; Thousands from the oppressor's wrong I freed; Great were my feats, eternal fame their meed; In love I proved my truth and loyalty; The hugest giant was a dwarf for me; Ever to knighthood's laws gave I good heed. My mastery the Fickle Goddess owned, And even Chance, submitting to control. Grasped by the forelock, yielded to my will. Yet—though above yon hornèd moon enthroned My fortune seems to sit—great Quixote, still Envy of thy achievements fills my soul.
THE LADY ORIANA
TO DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO.
SONNET.
* Oh, fairest Dulcinea, could it be!
* It were a pleasant fancy to suppose so—
* Could Miraflores change to El Toboso,
* And London's town to that which shelters thee!
* Oh, could mine but acquire that livery
* Of countless charms thy mind and body show so!
* Or him, now famous grown—thou mad'st him grow so—
* Thy knight, in some dread combat could I see!
* Oh, could I be released from Amadis
* By exercise of such coy chastity ​As led thee gentle Quixote to dismiss!
* Then would my heavy sorrow turn to joy;
* None would I envy, all would envy me,
* And happiness be mine without alloy.
GANDALIN, SQUIRE OF AMADIS OF GAUL,
TO SANCHO PANZA, SQUIRE OF DON QUIXOTE.
SONNET.
All hail, illustrious man! Fortune, when she Bound thee apprentice to the esquire trade, Her care and tenderness of thee displayed, Shaping thy course from misadventure free. No longer now doth proud knight-errantry Regard with scorn the sickle and the spade; Of towering arrogance less count is made Than of plain esquire-like simplicity. I envy thee thy Dapple, and thy name. And those alforjas thou wast wont to stuff With comforts that thy providence proclaim, Excellent Sancho! hail to thee again! To thee alone the Ovid of our Spain Does homage with the rustic kiss and cuff.
FROM EL DONOSO, THE MOTLEY POET,
ON SANCHO PANZA AND ROCINANTE.
ON SANCHO.
* I am the esquire Sancho Pan—
* Who served Don Quixote of La Man—; ​But from his service I retreat—,
* Resolved to pass my life discreet—;
* For Villadiego, called the Si—,
* Maintained that only in reti—
* Was found the secret of well-be—,
* According to the "Celesti—:"
* A book divine, except for sin—
* By speech too plain in my opin—.
ON ROCINANTE.
I am that Rocinante fa—, Great-grandson of great Babie—, Who, all for being lean and bon—, Had one Don Quixote for an own—; But if I matched him well in weak—, I never took short commons meek—, But kept myself in corn by steal—, A trick I learned from Lazaril—, When with a piece of straw so neat— The blind man of his wine he cheat—.
pains to extract a meaning from these lines. The truth is they have none, and were not meant to have any. If it were not profanity to apply the word to anything coming from Cervantes, they might be called mere pieces of buffoonery, mere idle freaks of the author's pen. The verse in which they are written is worthy of the matter. It is of the sort called in Spanish de piés cortados, its peculiarity being that each line ends with a word the last syllable of which has been lopped off. The invention has been attributed to Cervantes, but the honor is one which no admirer of his will be solicitous to claim for him, and in fact there are half a dozen specimens in the Picara Justina, a book published if anything earlier than Don Quixote. I have here imitated the tour de force as well as I could, an experiment never before attempted and certainly not worth repeating. The "Urganda" verses are written in the same fashion, but I did not feel bound to try the reader's patience—or my own—by a more extended reproduction of the puerility.
ORLANDO FURIOSO
TO DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA.
SONNET.
If thou art not a Peer, peer thou hast none; Among a thousand Peers thou art a peer; Nor is there room for one when thou art near, Unvanquished victor, great unconquered one! Orlando, by Angelica undone, Am I; o'er distant seas condemned to steer. And to Fame's altars as an offering bear Valor respected by oblivion. I can not be thy rival, for thy fame And prowess rise above all rivalry, Albeit both bereft of wits we go. But, though the Scythian or the Moor to tame Was not thy lot, still thou dost rival me: Love binds us in a fellowship of woe.
THE KNIGHT OF PHŒBUS
TO DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA.
* My sword was not to be compared with thine,
* Phoebus of Spain, marvel of courtesy,
* Nor with thy famous arm this hand of mine
* That smote from east to west as lightnings fly, ​I scorned all empire, and that monarchy
* The rosy east held out did I resign
* For one glance of Claridiana's eye,
* The bright Aurora for whose love I pine.
* A miracle of constancy my love;
* And banished by her ruthless cruelty,
* This arm had might the rage of Hell to tame.
* But, Gothic Quixote, happier thou dost prove,
* For thou dost live in Dulcinea's name,
* And famous, honored, wise, she lives in thee.
FROM SOLISDAN
TO DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA.
SONNET.
Your fantasies, Sir Quixote, it is true, That crazy brain of yours have quite upset, But aught of base or mean hath never yet Been charged by any in reproach to you. Your deeds are open proof in all men's view; For you went forth injustice to abate, And for your pains sore drubbings did you get From many a rascally and ruffian crew. If the fair Dulcinea, your heart's queen, Be unrelenting in her cruelty, If still your woe be powerless to move her, In such hard case your comfort let it be That Sancho was a sorry go-between: A booby he, hard-hearted she, and you no lover.
DIALOGUE
BETWEEN BABIECA AND ROCINANTE.
SONNET.
B. "How comes it, Rocinante, you're so lean?" R. "I'm underfed, with overwork I'm worn." B. But what becomes of all the hay and corn?" R. "My master gives me none; he 's much too mean." B. "Come, come, you show ill-breeding, sir, I ween; 'T is like an ass your master thus to scorn." R. "He is an ass, will die an ass, an ass was born; Why, he's in love; what's plainer to be seen?" B. "To be in love is folly?"—R. "No great sense." B. "You're metaphysical."—R. "From want of food." B. "Rail at the squire, then.—R. "Why, what's the good? I might indeed complain of him, I grant ye, But, squire or master, where's the difference? They 're both as sorry hacks as Rocinante."
* ↑ All translators, I think, except Shelton and Mr. Duffield, have entirely omitted these preliminary pieces of verse, which, however, should be preserved—not for their poetical merits, which are of the slenderest sort, but because, being burlesques on the pompous, extravagant, laudatory verses usually prefixed to books in the time of Cervantes, they are in harmony with the aim and purpose of the work, and also a fulfilment of the promise held out in the Preface.
* ↑ Or more strictly "the unrecognized;" a personage in Amadis of Gaul somewhat akin to Morgan la Fay and Vivien in the Arthur legend, though the part she plays is more like that of Merlin. She derived her title from the faculty which, like Merlin, she possessed of changing her form and appearance at will. The verses are assigned to her probably because she was the adviser of Amadis. They form a kind of appendix to the author's Preface.
* ↑ Prov. 15.
* ↑ The Duke of Béjar, to whom the book was dedicated. The Zuñiga family, of which the Duke was the head, claimed descent from the royal line of Navarre.
* ↑ "Le donne, i cavalieri, l'arme, gli amori"—Orlando Furioso, i. 1. This is one of many proofs that the Orlando of Ariosto was one of the sources from which Cervantes borrowed.
* ↑ "Figures," i.e. picture cards. The allusion to vain emblems on the shield is a sly hit at Lope de Vega, whose portrait in the Arcadia, and again in the Rimas (1602), has underneath it a shield bearing nine castles surrounded by an orle with ten more.
* ↑ This refers to the querulous and egotistic tone in which dedications were often written. Álvaro de Luna was the Constable of Castile and favorite of John II., beheaded at Valladolid in 1450. Francis I. of France was kept a prisoner at Madrid by Charles V. for a year after the battle of Pavia. The last four lines of the stanza are almost verbatim from verses by Fray Domingo de Guzman written as a gloss upon some lines carved by the poet Fray Luis de Leon on the wall of his cell in Valladolid, where he was imprisoned by the Inquisition.
* ↑ Juan Latino, a self-educated negro slave in the household of the Duke of Sesa, who gave him his freedom. He was for sixty years Professor of Rhetoric and Latin at Granada, where he died in 1573.
* ↑ In allusion to Don Quixote's penance in the Sierra Morena.
* ↑ F. Note 1, p. 3.
* ↑ Oriana, the heroine of Amadis of Gaul. Her castle Miraflores was within two leagues of London. Shelton in his translation puts it at Greenwich.
* ↑ "Rustic kiss and cuff"—buzcorona—a boorish practical joke the point of which lay in inducing some simpleton to kiss the joker's hand, which as he stoops gives him a cuff on the cheek. The application here is not very obvious, for it is the person who does homage who receives the buzcorona. It is not clear who is meant by the Spanish Ovid; some say Cervantes himself; others, as Hartzenbusch, Lope de Vega.
* ↑ "Motley poet"—Poeta entreverado. Entreverado is properly "mixed fat and lean," as bacon should be. Commentators have been at some pains to extract a meaning from these lines. The truth is they have none, and were not meant to have any. If it were not profanity to apply the word to anything coming from Cervantes, they might be called mere pieces of buffoonery, mere idle freaks of the author's pen. The verse in which they are written is worthy of the matter. It is of the sort called in Spanish de piés cortados, its peculiarity being that each line ends with a word the last syllable of which has been lopped off. The invention has been attributed to Cervantes, but the honor is one which no admirer of his will be solicitous to claim for him, and in fact there are half a dozen specimens in the Picara Justina, a book published if anything earlier than Don Quixote. I have here imitated the tour de force as well as I could, an experiment never before attempted and certainly not worth repeating. The "Urganda" verses are written in the same fashion, but I did not feel bound to try the reader's patience—or my own—by a more extended reproduction of the puerility.
* ↑ Celestina, or Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibæa (1499), the first act of which is generally attributed to Rodrigo Cota, the remaining nineteen being by Fernando Rojas. There is no mention in it of "Villadiego the Silent;" the name only appears in the proverbial saying about "taking the breeches of Villadiego," i.e. beating a hasty retreat.
* ↑ Babieca, the famous charger of the Cid.
* ↑ An allusion to the charming little novel of Lazarillo de Tormes, and the trick by which the hero secured a share of his master's wine.
* ↑ The play upon the word "Peer" is justified by Orlando's rank as one of the Twelve Peers. This sonnet is pronounced "truly unintelligble and bad" by Clemencin, and it is, it must be confessed, very feeble and obscure. I have adopted a suggestion of Hartzenbusch's which makes somewhat better sense of the concluding lines, but no emendation can do much. Nor are the remaining sonnets much better; there is some drollery in the dialogue between Babieca and Rocinante, but the sonnets of the Knight of Phœbus and Solisdan are weak. There was no particular call for Cervantes to be funny, but if he thought otherwise it would have been just as well not to leave the fun out.
* ↑ The Knights of Phœbus, or of the Sun—Caballero del Febo, espejo de Principes y Caballeros—a ponderous romance by Diego Ortuñez de Calaborra and Marcos Martinez, in four parts, the first printed at Saragossa in 1562, the others at Alcalá de Henares in 1580.
* ↑ Solisdan is apparently a name invented by Cervantes, for no such personage figures in any known book of chivalry.