Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 114, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1915 — The Stories of Famous Novels By Albert Paysor Terhune [ARTICLE]

The Stories of Famous Novels By Albert Paysor Terhune

By Cervantes

In the Spanish village of La Mancha dwelt a kindly, eccentric old fellow, Don Quixote, who read so'many books of ancient chivalry that he became a little crazy on the subject.

He resolved at last to go forth Into the world as a knight errant, avenging wrongs, slaying monsters, overcoming evildoers and rescuing beauty in distress. So he had a salt of armor made over for him: chose as his “Queen of Love and Beauty” a plump village girl whom he renamed “Dulcinea,” mounted his aged crowbalt horse Rozinante, and, lance In rest, set forth on his career.

A joking Innkeeper created Don Quixote a knight, with a ridiculous aocolade. A party of travelers against whom he sought to hold a highroad (after the fashion of chivalry’s days) beat him almost to a pulp with his own lance. And mafty another ludicrous misadventure befell him. But nothing shook his faith in his own mission. One day, chancing to see a line of windmills, Don Qulxoite shouted gleefully to his squire: “There are thirty formidable giants I mean to attack. We will kill them and enrich ourselves with their plunder.”

Deaf to Sancho’s pleas, the knight charged the nearest windmill. His lance caught In one of the swinging arms of the mill and he and his horse were hurled to earth, breathless an<! half dazed. Don Quixote could not be persuaded he had made a mistake, but declared a magician had foiled him by changing the giants Into windmills. Battles, beatings, insane escapades that ended disastrously followed each other In fast succession. Once the knight and Sancho came upon a traveling circus. In a cage was a huge lion. Here was a chance to duplicate the story of St. George and the Dragon. Don Quixote ordered the cage door opened, vowing he would slay the monster.

The terrified keeper obeyed the fierce command. The cage door was swung open. And Don Quixote braced himself to meet the charge. But the lion merely yawned fend turned its back on the hero, disdainfully refusing to come out and kill him. A duke through whose domains the knight and squire rode decided to have a little fun at their expense. Don Quixote was entertained at the duke’s castle with all the quaint formality of olden days. Ignorant of the fact that he was the butt of the whole joke he hourly threw the court Into paroxysms of mirth.

The duke pretended to make Sancho Panza a governor of the mythical island of Barataria. The squire’s acts of shrewd common-sense during his brief “governorship” amazed everybody. But, tiring of the cares of state, Sancho at last ran away from his job as gov* eraor. And he and Don Quixote re* sumed their road adventures. The climax came when the knight beheld a vast army of demons marching against them. In vain did Sancho explain that the army consisted of a flock of sheep, attended by several shepherds. Don Quixote charged the “demons," smiting right and left with his great sword. When several of the sheep had been killed in this way the shepherds took a hand in the game. They gave the knight a thrashing. Soon after this Sancho managed to induce his master to return home. Don Quixote died shortly after he reached his own home, his brain clearing just before his death. And the whole district mourned him —none other " so keeply as did his faithful squire, Sancho Panza.

(Cervantes, in writing Don Quixote, was charged with “laughing away the chivalry of Spain.” When the book was published, in 1605, it sent the whole reading world into roars of mirth. It was an age when the misfortunes and delusions of an insane old man were regarded as excellent material for laughter, and in which the pathos of the poor knight’s illtreatment seems to have appealed to no one, not even to Cervantes.)

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES-SAA-VEDRA, the most Illustrious of Spanish writers, came of an ancient but very poor family. His taste for literaltore seems to have been developed very early, and to have been chiefly directed towards poetry. In his 22nd year he quitted Spain for Italy, where he volunteered in the Papal Army and fought against the Turks in the battle of Lepanto, 1671. He continued serving under several leaders till, in 1575, while sailing for the low countries, he was taken prisoner by an Algerian corsair. His sufferings and adventures during his three years of slavery in Algeria are said to be described in his novel THE CAPTIVE, Inserted as an episode in DON QUIXOTE. In 1605 he published the first part of DON QUIXOTE. The appearance of this work of genius speedily made him famous, without, however, rescuing him from poverty. In 1613 he published the EX BMPt.abt NOVELS, a collection of twelve novels unworthy of the author es DON QUIXOTE, and in 1615 the second part of DON QUIXOTE was completed. The editions that have been published of this immortal book aw innumerable.