Level C1 · Part Two, Chapter 74
The will of Alonso Quijano: legal Spanish and the plain style
The last chapter is written in the language of a notary. Every clause opens with Ítem, the syntax loses its footing exactly as dictated speech does, and inside that machinery Cervantes puts the most affectionate thing in the book. This is register doing the work that emotion usually does.
The passage, exactly as Cervantes wrote it
Miguel de Cervantes, Part Two, Chapter 74. Public domain, and not adapted, shortened or modernised in any way.
es mi voluntad que de ciertos dineros que Sancho Panza, a quien en mi locura hice mi escudero, tiene, que, porque ha habido entre él y mí ciertas cuentas, y dares y tomares, quiero que no se le haga cargo dellos, ni se le pida cuenta alguna, sino que si sobrare alguno, después de haberse pagado de lo que le debo, el restante sea suyo, que será bien poco, y buen provecho le haga
it is my will that of certain monies which Sancho Panza, whom in my madness I made my squire, is holding, and since there have been between him and me certain accounts and givings and takings, no charge be made against him for them and no reckoning asked of him, but that if any is left over after he has paid himself what I owe him, the remainder be his, which will be very little, and much good may it do him
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.
es mi voluntad que, del dinero que tiene Sancho Panza, a quien en mi locura hice mi escudero, y como ha habido entre él y yo ciertas cuentas y algún dar y tomar, no se le reclame nada ni se le pida ninguna cuenta, sino que, si sobra algo después de haberse cobrado lo que le debo, el resto sea suyo, que será bien poco, y que le aproveche
What changed, form by form
| In the text | Today | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Ítem | asimismo | The Latin word that opens each separate clause of a will. |
| entre él y mí | entre él y yo | Mí after a preposition. Some speakers still say it and it is not standard. |
| dares y tomares | algún dar y tomar | Two infinitives turned into plural nouns. |
| dellos | de ellos | De plus ellos run together. Everywhere in the book. |
| si sobrare | si sobra | Future subjunctive. Today it survives only in contracts and statutes. |
| buen provecho le haga | que le aproveche | Still said at table, and here said about money. |
The syntax
Read the first clause aloud and it does not close. It opens with que de ciertos dineros, breaks off to identify Sancho, breaks off again for the accounts, and then restarts with quiero que. That is not Cervantes losing control. It is what dictation sounds like, and a notary's clerk writing down a dying man would produce exactly this.
What a Spanish reader hears
A will is the coldest document a language has, and this one is being used to say sorry. He calls his own knighthood a madness, in a legal instrument, in front of witnesses, and then makes sure the man who followed him keeps the money. The tenderness is entirely in the choice of register, and there is not one affectionate word in it.
Where the course prepares you for this
- Que plus subjunctive, with nothing in frontLesson 89The Will of Alonso Quijano