Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Alonso Quixano, a less-than-affluent man of fifty, "lean bodied" and "thin faced, lives modestly in the Spanish
country village of La Mancha with his niece, Antonia, and a cranky housemaid. Practical in most things,
compassionate to his social peers, the local clergy, and the servant classes, Quixano is respectful toward the
ruling classes, whom he unquestioningly accepts as his superiors. He is driven neither by ambition for wealth
and position nor bitterness at his genteel poverty.
Well read and thoughtful, Quixano's most prized possessions are his books. From his readings and studies, he
becomes by degrees interested, then obsessed, with the codes, deeds, and tales of chivalry of knights errant
on some courtly and idealized mission. As his appetite for the lore of chivalry increases, Quixano begins selling
off acres of his farmlands, using the funds to buy more books, and increasingly throwing himself into his
studies. "From little sleep and too much reading his brain dried up and he lost his wits. He had a fancy . . . to
turn his passion knight errant and travel through the world with horse and armor in search of adventures" with
the purpose of "redressing all manner of wrongs."
At length, he is galvanized into action by his passion for the chivalric code. Outfitting himself with some old
rusty armor, Quixano enlists his spavined hack horse to go forth in search of knightly adventures. Hopeful of
finding a proper noble to dub him, Quixano finally is licensed in his venture by an innkeeper who believes him
to be a lord of a manor. Now Quixano is "Don Quixote de La Mancha"; the tired hack and dray horse becomes
elevated to "Rosinante."
All the new knight needs now in order to venture forth is a lady to whose service he is sworn and a servant or
page. For the former, he chooses Dulcinea del Tobosa, named after Aldonza Lorenzo, a farm girl whom he had
been taken with at one time.
After three days on the road, Quixote encounters a group of traveling salesmen whom he attacks after they
refuse to acknowledge Dulcinea's great beauty. He is badly beaten by the servant of the salesman and forced to
accept the help of a neighbor, who brings him home on the back of a donkey.
While he is recovering, Quixote is forced to watch as his housekeeper, a barber, and a priest burn all his books
on chivalry in an attempt to persuade him to give up his improbable quest. But this only fuels Quixote's
determination. He persuades Sancho Panza, a plump, simple-minded-but-opportunistic laborer, to serve as his
page, by playing on his ambitions. Don Quixote promises Sancho his own island to govern, for surely such a
splendid knight as he is sure to become will soon take many spoils.
And so this pair set forth, Quixote on his spavined old horse, Panza mounted on Dapple, his mule. Their second
adventure lasts for three weeks and is comprised of a series of events that comprise the balance of Book One.
Among other things, Quixote battles windmills, thinking them to be giants. At an inn, which he mistakes for a
castle, Quixote is visited in bed by a maid, who causes a great uproar when she discovers she has come to the
wrong room. Refusing to pay the bill and accusing the innkeeper of being inhospitable, Quixote is rousted, only
to fall promptly into another misadventure with a religious procession, and yet other ironic and error-prone
encounters with locals.
Interspersed among these adventures are a series of stories and moral tales, illustrating the pastoral storytelling
tradition in Spain. As well, there are two long, learned disquisitions, delivered by Quixote. The first is a
description of the Golden Age of mythology, told during a supper shared with some unlettered goatherds who
don't understand a word he says. Later on, Quixote addresses a company during dinner at an inn in a debate
about whether the career of arms is superior to that of letters, or vice versa.
Throughout the adventures it becomes clear that Quixote, for all his seeming madness, is a mild-mannered,
empathetic man, genuine in his concern for chivalric ideals. Although he has agendas of his own, Sancho Panza
has come to believe in and show loyalty to his new master. But in spite of all his good intentions, Quixote's
quest leads him to be returned home, imprisoned in a cage on an ox-cart by his village priest and barber for Don
Quixote's own good.
Published in a separate volume, Book Two of Don Quixote's adventures contains a unique feature. Shortly after
Book One was published and Cervantes was at work on Book Two, he got word of the appearance of a pirated

Book Two in which the author, a writer named Avellaneda, presumed to write further adventures of the knight,
going so far as to renounce his service to Dulcinea. Cervantes was at Chapter 59 in Book Two, having Quixote
and Panza headed to a jousting tournament in Saragossa. Now, angered by the pirated version, Cervantes sets
forth in revenge by having Quixote and Panza eating dinner at an inn and "overhearing" talk of the Avellaneda
version. The knight and squire promptly set forth to Barcelona, home of Don Alvaro Tarfe, a character from the
Avellaneda book. When they arrive in Barcelona, they kidnap the Avellaneda character.
Book Two also introduces the character of Samson Carrasco, a young man from Don Quixote's village. A recent
graduate of Salamanca University, Carrasco takes on the earlier roles of the priest and the barber in attempting
to rescue and keep Don Quixote away from danger, but Don Quixote is not interested in being "rescued." He is
determined to go to Tobosa to pay his respects to Dulcinea. They encounter three peasant girls and by some
deception, Sancho hopes that his master will accept one of these as being Dulcinea. When events or appearances
run counter to his expectations, Don Quixote tends to believe that enchanters have worked their mischief. In this
instance, he believes enchanters have made Dulcinea look like an ugly peasant girl.
Don Quixote unexpectedly wins a battle with a knight (The Knight of the Mirrors), who turns out to be none
other than Samson Carrasco in disguise. Samson had hoped to get the Don back home to safety by disguising
himself as a rival knight. The plan backfires. Shortly afterwards, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza meet the
"Knight in the Green Topcoat," which includes the episode of the lion with whom the Don wants to do battle.
The major portion of this section is devoted to an unnamed duke and duchess who, with their retainers, play a
series of pranks in the form of burlesque pageants on Quixote. They also cause injury to both the knight
and his squire. Another vital element is the appointment of Sancho Panza as governor of an island another
elaborate prank that ends with Panza renouncing the life of a feudal governor and showing a deep layer of
loyalty to Quixote.
Once again Samson Carranzo appears, this time at the beach in Barcelona where, in the guise of The Knight of
the White Moon, he challenges Don Quixote to battle. Of course, Quixote accepts the challenge and, in the
presence of the viceroy and a distinguished company, is roundly defeated. A condition of Quixote's defeat is that
he abandon knight errantry for the rest of his life.
In the remaining chapters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza return to La Mancha, but not before they experience
an additional stay with the Duke and Duchess and sundry other humiliating experiences suffered by the exknight.
When they arrive home, Don Quixote, apparently broken in spirit, is put to bed. After a long sleep, he declares
his name to be Alonso Quixano once more and appears to have regained his reason. Shortly after he denounces
chivalry and knighthood, he dies among the lamentation of friends.

Macbeth by William Shakespear

The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches and then moves to a military camp, where the
Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated two separate
invading armiesone from Ireland, led by the rebel Macdonwald, and one from Norway. Following their
pitched battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches as they cross a moor. The
witches prophesy that Macbeth will be made thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King
of Scotland. They also prophesy that Macbeths companion, Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish kings,
although Banquo will never be king himself. The witches vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo treat their
prophecies skeptically until some of King Duncans men come to thank the two generals for their victories in
battle and to tell Macbeth that he has indeed been named thane of Cawdor. The previous thane betrayed
Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians and Duncan has condemned him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by the
possibility that the remainder of the witches prophecythat he will be crowned kingmight be true, but he is
uncertain what to expect. He visits with King Duncan, and they plan to dine together at Inverness, Macbeths
castle, that night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has happened.

Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husbands uncertainty. She desires the kingship for him and wants him to
murder Duncan in order to obtain it. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husbands
objections and persuades him to kill the king that very night. He and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncans two
chamberlains drunk so they will black out; the next morning they will blame the murder on the chamberlains,
who will be defenseless, as they will remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his
doubts and a number of supernatural portents, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncans death is
discovered the next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlainsostensibly out of rage at their crimeand easily
assumes the kingship. Duncans sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland, respectively, fearing
that whoever killed Duncan desires their demise as well.
Fearful of the witches prophecy that Banquos heirs will seize the throne, Macbeth hires a group of murderers
to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambush Banquo on his way to a royal feast, but they fail to kill
Fleance, who escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious: as long as Fleance is alive, he fears that his
power remains insecure. At the feast that night, Banquos ghost visits Macbeth. When he sees the ghost,
Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests, who include most of the great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tries
to neutralize the damage, but Macbeths kingship incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects.
Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they show him a sequence of demons and
spirits who present him with further prophecies: he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed
Macbeths accession to the throne; he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman; and he will be
safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth is relieved and feels secure, because he knows
that all men are born of women and that forests cannot move. When he learns that Macduff has fled to England
to join Malcolm, Macbeth orders that Macduffs castle be seized and, most cruelly, that Lady Macduff and her
children be murdered.
When news of his familys execution reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken with grief and vows revenge.
Prince Malcolm, Duncans son, has succeeded in raising an army in England, and Macduff joins him as he rides
to Scotland to challenge Macbeths forces. The invasion has the support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled
and frightened by Macbeths tyrannical and murderous behavior. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued
with fits of sleepwalking in which she bemoans what she believes to be bloodstains on her hands. Before
Macbeths opponents arrive, Macbeth receives news that she has killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep
and pessimistic despair. Nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies Dunsinane, to which he seems to have
withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the witches prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He is
struck numb with fear, however, when he learns that the English army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with
boughs cut from Birnam Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches
prophecy.
In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English forces gradually overwhelm his army and castle. On the
battlefield, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff, who declares that he was not of woman born but was
instead untimely ripped from his mothers womb (what we now call birth by cesarean section). Though he
realizes that he is doomed, Macbeth continues to fight until Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the
King of Scotland, declares his benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone.