Level C2 · Part Two, prologue and Chapter 74
The fake Part Two, and the last page of the book
In 1614 somebody published a counterfeit second part under the name Avellaneda. Cervantes answers twice: in the prologue by refusing to answer, and on the very last page by making sure his knight can never be used again. And the last page is not spoken by Cervantes, which is the detail that changes how the sentence reads.
The passage, exactly as Cervantes wrote it
Miguel de Cervantes, Part Two, prologue and Chapter 74. Public domain, and not adapted, shortened or modernised in any way.
Para mí sola nació don Quijote, y yo para él; él supo obrar y yo escribir; solos los dos somos para en uno, a despecho y pesar del escritor fingido y tordesillesco que se atrevió, o se ha de atrever, a escribir con pluma de avestruz grosera y mal deliñada las hazañas de mi valeroso caballero, porque no es carga de sus hombros ni asunto de su resfriado ingenio
For me alone was don Quixote born, and I for him. He knew how to act and I to write. We two alone are made for one another, in spite of that counterfeit writer from Tordesillas who dared, or will dare, to write the deeds of my valiant knight with a coarse and badly trimmed ostrich quill, because they are no load for his shoulders and no matter for his chilly wit
The same thing in Spanish as it is written today
Read the two side by side. What has changed between them is the syllabus of this level.
Para mí sola nació don Quijote y yo para él; él supo actuar y yo escribir; los dos solos estamos hechos el uno para el otro, a pesar del escritor falso y tordesillesco que se atrevió, o se atreverá, a escribir con una pluma de avestruz grosera y mal cortada las hazañas de mi valiente caballero, porque no es carga para sus hombros ni asunto para su ingenio resfriado
What changed, form by form
| In the text | Today | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| para en uno | hechos el uno para el otro | A set phrase from the marriage service. |
| a despecho y pesar de | a pesar de | A doubled formula for emphasis, and only the second half survives. |
| tordesillesco | de Tordesillas | An adjective invented on the spot as an insult. |
| mal deliñada | mal cortada | Badly trimmed, of a quill. The word is gone. |
| resfriado ingenio | ingenio frío | A wit with a cold. Cervantes made this up too. |
| se ha de atrever | se atreverá | Haber de for the future, one last time. |
The syntax
Three clauses in parallel with no conjunction between them, then a long relative that carries the whole insult, and it never comes back to the main line. The sentence ends inside the subordinate clause, which is how a voice trails off rather than how a period closes.
What a Spanish reader hears
Sola is feminine, and the trap is there for anyone reading quickly. It is not Cervantes speaking: it is the pen of Cide Hamete, la pluma, which he has just hung on a rack and told to stay there. So the fictional Moorish historian gets the last word of the book, and the real author who was genuinely robbed in 1614 says nothing in his own name at all. Read sola as an error and you lose the whole ending.
Where the course prepares you for this
- The whole of B2, and the whole course behind itLesson 90The End of the Story