I rode straightway to the house of one of my friends, where I for a time took up my abode. Turning over in my mind what had occurred, I resolved to write this my adventure, hoping thereby to undeceive the many persons who fancy they see in the ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote, that which the ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote is not. Therefore I give to this little book[65] the name of Buscapié, hoping that they who seek to discover the foot with which the Knight of La Mancha limps, may find (God be praised) that he is not lame with either; but that he stands stoutly and firmly on both, and ready to enter into single combat with the stupid and grumbling critics, who, like wasps, buzz about to the injury of society.
And now, Friend Reader, if I have given you some entertainment, or if any of the observations I have made be worthy your remembrance, I shall be much gratified, and may God have you in his holy keeping.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] Babieca was the name of the Cid’s favourite horse.
[49] The old Spanish poets occasionally lengthened their sonnets by affixing to them a few additional lines. The lines so added were called the estrambote.
[50] In the time of Cervantes the Spanish doctors used always to ride on mules when they went to visit their patients.
[51] The delusion of the student, in respect to the merits of his horse, would seem intended to have some reference to the hallucinations and mistakes of the Knight of La Mancha. It may be mentioned, that minute descriptions of animals, such as that here given above, are of frequent occurrence in the works of Spanish writers, especially the poets. Lope de Vega, in one of his comedies, describes in detail a fish caught in the net of a fisherman on the bank of the Guadalquivir. Another beautiful specimen of this kind of animal painting is given by Antonio Mira Amescua, in his Acteon i Diana: the subject is a pack of hounds, weary with the chase. Villaviciosa, in his Mosquea, pourtrays with eloquent poetic colouring the death of a fly; and there is a celebrated description of a horse by Pablo de Céspedes.
[52] Cervantes here alludes to a little work entitled:—Conserva Espiritual, by Joaquín Romero de Cepeda.
[53] Spiritual verses for the conversion of the Sinner, and for shewing the worthlessness of the world.
[54] “Praised be God.”