Tilting at Windmills
Don Quixote seizes his chance to capture a giant for his lady-love, Dulcinea.
Published 1605
King James I 1603-1625
Don Quixote seizes his chance to capture a giant for his lady-love, Dulcinea.
Published 1605
King James I 1603-1625
Quexana is a woolly-headed, Spanish country gentleman, bordering fifty, from La Mancha, southeast of Madrid. Bewitched by tales of romance, he has dubbed himself Don Quixote, Knight, and set out in search of ‘adventures’ with his companion Sancho Panza. His quest is to capture a giant as a love-offering to his lady Dulcinea (a pleasing fantasy inspired by an old flame) and he has just been promising Sancho his own realm too.
Translated and abridged by Herbert Lord Havell (1863-1913).
CHATTING thus they reached the top of a rising ground, and saw before them thirty or forty windmills in the plain below; and as soon as Don Quixote set eyes on them he said to his squire:
“Friend Sancho, we are in luck to-day! See, there stands a troop of monstrous giants, thirty or more, and with them I will forthwith do battle, and slay them every one. With their spoils we will lay the foundation of our fortune, as is the victor’s right; moreover, it is doing heaven good service to sweep this generation of vipers from off the face of the earth.”
“What giants do you mean?” asked Sancho Panza.
“Those whom thou seest yonder,” answered his master, “with the long arms, which in such creatures are sometimes two leagues in length.”*
“What is your honour thinking of?” cried Sancho. “These are not giants, but windmills, and their arms, as you call them, are the sails, which, being driven by the wind, set the millstones going.”
* In English, this name may be pronounced kwik-sut or kwix-oat (like boat), though people who want to make it sound closer to the Spanish pronounce it key-ho-tay. The adjective ‘quixotic’ is pronounced kwik-sot-ik. According to Brewer’s dictionary, “a quixotic man is a dreamy, unpractical, but essentially good, man — one with a ‘bee in his bonnet’.”
* A league is three miles, obviously an absurd measure.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
How did Don Quixote justify his attack on the windmills?
He said the windmills were dangerous giants.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Don Quixote saw dozens of windmills. He said they were giants. Sancho said they were windmills.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IMistake. IIReally. IIITell.