C2 · Part Two, Chapter 4
Who stole the donkey? The mistakes in the book
Part One contains a famous blunder: Sancho's donkey disappears, and a few chapters later Sancho is riding it again. Readers noticed, and in Part Two the characters discuss the mistake themselves. This unit is about the vocabulary of error and blame, and about an author who hands his own slip to his characters.
The passage, exactly as Cervantes wrote it
Miguel de Cervantes, Part Two, Chapter 4. Unadapted.
Amaneció —prosiguió Sancho—, y, apenas me hube estremecido, cuando, faltando las estacas, di conmigo en el suelo una gran caída; miré por el jumento, y no le vi; acudiéronme lágrimas a los ojos, y hice una lamentación, que si no la puso el autor de nuestra historia, puede hacer cuenta que no puso cosa buena. Al cabo de no sé cuántos días, viniendo con la señora princesa Micomicona, conocí mi asno, y que venía sobre él en hábito de gitano aquel Ginés de Pasamonte, aquel embustero y grandísimo maleador que quitamos mi señor y yo de la cadena. — No está en eso el yerro —replicó Sansón—, sino en que, antes de haber parecido el jumento, dice el autor que iba a caballo Sancho en el mesmo rucio. — A eso —dijo Sancho—, no sé qué responder, sino que el historiador se engañó, o ya sería descuido del impresor.
Dawn came, Sancho went on, and I had hardly stirred when, with the stakes gone, I fell to the ground with a great fall. I looked for my donkey and could not see him. Tears came to my eyes, and I made such a lament that if the author of our history did not put it in, he may take it that he put in nothing good. At the end of I do not know how many days, coming along with the lady princess Micomicona, I recognised my ass, and riding on him, dressed as a gypsy, was that Ginés de Pasamonte, that liar and great villain whom my master and I took off the chain. That is not where the error lies, replied Sansón, but in the fact that before the donkey had turned up, the author says Sancho was riding that very grey. To that, said Sancho, I do not know what to answer, except that the historian was mistaken, or else it must have been carelessness on the printer's part.
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.
Amaneció, siguió Sancho, y en cuanto me moví, como faltaban las estacas, me di un buen golpe contra el suelo. Busqué al burro y no lo vi. Se me saltaron las lágrimas, e hice un lamento que, si no lo puso el autor de nuestra historia, ya puede dar por hecho que no puso nada bueno. Al cabo de no sé cuántos días, yendo con la señora princesa Micomicona, reconocí a mi asno, y encima venía, vestido de gitano, aquel Ginés de Pasamonte, aquel embustero y gran malhechor que mi señor y yo soltamos de la cadena. No está ahí el error, replicó Sansón, sino en que, antes de que apareciera el burro, dice el autor que Sancho iba montado en el mismo rucio. A eso, dijo Sancho, no sé qué responder, salvo que el historiador se equivocó, o sería un descuido del impresor.
What changed, form by form
| In the text | Today | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| apenas me hube estremecido, cuando | en cuanto me moví | The past anterior, hube plus participle, after apenas. It survives only in careful writing. |
| di conmigo en el suelo | me caí al suelo | Dar consigo en, to land somewhere with a thump. |
| acudiéronme lágrimas a los ojos | se me saltaron las lágrimas | Acudir for tears coming, with the pronoun on the end. |
| puede hacer cuenta que | ya puede dar por hecho que | Hacer cuenta, to reckon, once again. |
| maleador | malhechor | A word for a villain that has not survived. |
| yerro | error | The old word for a mistake, from errar. Still used in formal writing. |
| antes de haber parecido el jumento | antes de que apareciera el burro | An infinitive clause with its own subject after it. And parecer meaning to turn up, as in aparecer. |
| rucio | burro gris | Rucio means grey. It is what everyone calls Sancho's donkey. |
| o ya sería | o sería | The conditional for a guess about the past. Still normal. |
| descuido del impresor | lo mismo hoy | The printer as scapegoat. Authors still blame the press. |
The syntax
Sancho tells his side as a string of preterites, amaneció, di conmigo, miré, acudiéronme, conocí, which is how Spanish narrates a sequence of completed events. Sansón answers with a correction built on no ... sino: the error is not this but that. Sancho's excuse then uses the conditional of conjecture, sería descuido, a form Spanish still uses to guess at the past without committing to it.
What a Spanish reader hears
The error is real. In the first edition of 1605 the donkey vanishes without the theft ever being told, and a few chapters later Sancho is riding it again. The second edition patched the text by adding the theft, and not very well. Readers laughed, and Cervantes answers by putting the critics inside the novel. Sansón points out the slip, Sancho explains what really happened, and then blames the historian or the printer, which is to say Cide Hamete or the man who set the type. The author himself is the one person nobody blames.
Where the course prepares you for this
- Es raro que and the subjunctiveLesson 58The mistakes in the book