Level B1 · Chapter 55
The Cage on the Ox Cart
The priest and the barber put Don Quixote in a wooden cage and carry him home on an ox cart. He decides he is under a spell and travels quite contentedly.
What you will learn
- Report an event by putting what happened first and who did it second.
- Build the passive with ser plus the participle, and make it agree.
- Know when Spanish prefers the se passive instead.
Before you read
Read this text watching for who is doing things, and you will notice something strange: for several sentences in a row, nobody is. He was tied. He was put in a cage. The cage was loaded onto a cart. Everything had been arranged. That is the passive, built with ser plus a participle, and Cervantes uses it here on purpose, because the whole point of the scene is that Don Quixote has stopped being the one who acts.The story in easy Spanish
El cura y el barbero llevaban semanas buscando a don Quijote por Sierra Morena.
The priest and the barber had spent weeks looking for Don Quixote in the Sierra Morena.
Cuando por fin lo encontraron, comprendieron que por las buenas no volvería nunca.
When they finally found him, they understood that he would never come home willingly.
Así que prepararon un plan que nadie en el pueblo habría aprobado.
So they got up a plan that nobody in the village would have approved of.
Una noche, mientras el caballero dormía en la venta, fue atado por unos hombres disfrazados.
One night, while the knight was asleep at the inn, he was tied up by some men in disguise.
Aquellos hombres no dijeron ni una sola palabra en toda la operación.
Those men did not say a single word during the whole operation.
Después fue metido en una jaula de madera, hecha con barrotes gruesos.
Then he was put inside a wooden cage, made with thick bars.
La jaula fue subida a un carro tirado por bueyes muy lentos.
The cage was loaded onto a cart pulled by very slow oxen.
Todo había sido preparado con mucho cuidado y con bastante mala conciencia.
Everything had been arranged very carefully and with a fair amount of bad conscience.
Don Quijote se despertó dentro de la jaula y, cosa rara, no se asustó.
Don Quixote woke up inside the cage and, oddly enough, was not frightened.
«Este encantamiento es obra de algún sabio enemigo», dijo con mucha calma.
"This enchantment is the work of some enemy wizard," he said very calmly.
«Solo así se explica que yo, que nunca he sido vencido, esté aquí encerrado».
"That is the only explanation for why I, who have never been defeated, am shut in here."
Sancho no estaba tan seguro, aunque no se atrevía a discutirlo en voz alta.
Sancho was not so sure, though he did not dare argue about it out loud.
Él pensaba que los encantados no comen ni duermen ni piden ciertas cosas.
He reckoned that enchanted people neither eat nor sleep nor ask for certain things.
Su amo comía, dormía y quería salir del carro por necesidades poco mágicas.
His master ate, slept, and wanted to get out of the cart for very unmagical needs.
El carro avanzaba despacio por un camino desierto, como una barca en tierra seca.
The cart moved slowly along a deserted road, like a boat on dry land.
La gente que pasaba se paraba a mirar y preguntaba qué era aquello.
People passing by stopped to look and asked what the thing was.
Entonces el cura explicaba con voz seria que aquel hombre era un caballero encantado.
Then the priest would explain in a solemn voice that this man was an enchanted knight.
Nadie discutía, porque aquella explicación era mejor que cualquier otra.
Nobody argued, because that explanation was better than any other.
Todos seguían el juego, y don Quijote era mirado con el respeto de un misterio.
Everyone played along, and Don Quixote was looked at with the respect a mystery deserves.
En 2 pueblos hasta le echaron monedas dentro de la jaula.
In two villages they even threw coins into the cage for him.
De ese modo fue devuelto a su aldea un domingo por la tarde.
In that way he was returned to his village on a Sunday afternoon.
Era la hora en que toda la gente estaba en la plaza.
It was the hour when everybody was out in the square.
El carro fue rodeado enseguida por los vecinos, que no entendían nada.
The cart was immediately surrounded by the neighbours, who understood nothing.
El ama y la sobrina lo metieron en la cama sin decir palabra.
The housekeeper and the niece put him to bed without a word.
Y allí acaba la primera parte de su historia, que fue publicada en 1605.
And there the first part of his story ends, which was published in 1605.
Vocabulary
The cage and the cart
- la jaula
- the cage
- el carro
- the cart
- el buey
- the ox
- la madera
- wood
- el barrote
- the bar
- atado
- tied up
- encerrado
- shut in
- tirar de
- to pull
Magic and deception
- el encantamiento
- the enchantment
- encantado
- under a spell
- el sabio
- the wizard
- disfrazado
- in disguise
- el misterio
- the mystery
- vencer
- to defeat
- seguir el juego
- to play along
- la obra
- the work, the doing
Coming back to the village
- la aldea
- the village
- la plaza
- the square
- el vecino
- the neighbour
- la sobrina
- the niece
- el ama
- the housekeeper
- rodear
- to surround
- desierto
- deserted
- publicar
- to publish
The passive with ser and a participle
Fue atado por unos hombres disfrazados.
La jaula fue subida a un carro de bueyes.
Todo había sido preparado con mucho cuidado.
Spanish has a passive that looks exactly like the English one, and a second passive that does not. You need to recognise the first and use the second.
1. The shape
Ser in whatever tense you need, then the participle, then optionally por and the doer.
| active | passive | tense of ser |
|---|---|---|
| Unos hombres lo ataron. | Fue atado por unos hombres. | preterite |
| Todos lo miraban. | Era mirado por todos. | imperfect |
| Lo habían preparado todo. | Todo había sido preparado. | pluperfect |
| Publicarán el libro. | El libro será publicado. | future |
2. The participle agrees, and this is new
Last lesson but one you learned that after haber the participle never changes: había elegido, whoever the subject is. With ser it is the opposite. The participle here is behaving like an adjective, so it agrees with the subject in gender and number.
| subject | passive |
|---|---|
| el carro | fue rodeado |
| la jaula | fue subida |
| los presos | fueron soltados |
| las cartas | fueron leídas |
Hold the two rules side by side, because they are the commonest mix-up at this level: había subido la jaula with no agreement, la jaula fue subida with agreement.
3. When Spanish actually uses it
Here is the part that no English speaker expects. This passive is rare in speech. Spanish uses it in writing, in journalism, in history, in legal texts, and in narration where the writer wants the victim in the subject position. In ordinary conversation, Spanish reaches for the se passive instead.
| with ser | with se | register |
|---|---|---|
| La jaula fue subida al carro. | Se subió la jaula al carro. | the second is the everyday one |
| El libro fue publicado en 1605. | Se publicó el libro en 1605. | both fine, the first more formal |
| Aquí es hablado español. | Aquí se habla español. | the first is simply wrong |
The rule of thumb: if you are naming the doer, ser plus por works well. If you are not naming anybody, use se. That is why fue atado por unos hombres disfrazados is good Spanish and fue atado on its own would sound translated.
4. Ser or estar with a participle
One more distinction, and it is the one this story is built on.
| form | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|
| ser + participle | the action, as it happens | La jaula fue cerrada a medianoche. |
| estar + participle | the state it leaves behind | La jaula estaba cerrada toda la noche. |
Don Quixote says nunca he sido vencido, never have I been defeated, describing an event that has not occurred. If he said nunca estoy vencido it would mean something quite different and rather sadder.
Why he accepts the cage
The obvious question about this episode is why he puts up with it, and the answer is that the cage fits his library. In the romances of chivalry, knights are regularly carried off through the air by enchanters, asleep and helpless, and they wake up somewhere else. Being transported while unable to act is not a humiliation in that world. It is a recognised event with rules, and it happens to the best of them. Offered a choice between two explanations of why he is in a wooden box, that his friends tricked him or that a wizard is at work, he takes the one his books support. Sancho, who has not read the books, points out that enchanted men do not need to relieve themselves, and gets nowhere.
The passive voice in this lesson is not a coincidence of translation. Look at the sequence again: he was tied, he was put in the cage, the cage was loaded, everything had been arranged, he was returned, the cart was surrounded. For the length of this journey Don Quixote is the object of every verb in his own story. He set out in lesson 5 to be the man who acts, and he comes home as the thing that is transported. Cervantes does not comment on this either. He just stops giving him the subject position.
And with the ox cart the first part ends. It was published in Madrid at the beginning of 1605, sold out, was pirated within months, and made its author famous and no richer. Ten years passed before the second part appeared, and a great deal happened in between, including somebody else publishing a fake sequel. That is where lesson 57 begins.
Cervantes in the original
Luego tomaron la jaula en hombros aquellas visiones, y la acomodaron en el carro de los bueyes
Then those apparitions took the cage on their shoulders and settled it on the ox cart.
Two things to watch. First, the word visiones. These are the priest, the barber and a few hired men wearing sheets, and Cervantes calls them apparitions without a flicker, because for the length of this sentence the narration has moved inside Don Quixote’s head and that is what he sees. The novel does this repeatedly and almost never announces it. Second, the word order. Tomaron la jaula en hombros aquellas visiones puts the verb first and the subject at the end, which Spanish allows freely and English does not. That inversion is the halfway house to the passive: it demotes the doer to the least prominent slot in the sentence without removing him. Turn it one degree further and you get la jaula fue tomada en hombros, which is the grammar of this lesson. Cervantes stops one degree short, and the effect is stranger, because the men are still there, still lifting, and they have already stopped being people.