Level B2 · Chapter 71
Master Pedro’s Puppet Show
A puppeteer arrives at the inn with a fortune-telling ape and a puppet theatre. Nobody recognises the man behind the green patch, although Don Quixote has met him before.
What you will learn
- Report what somebody ordered or asked without repeating their words.
- Turn an imperative into a que clause with a subjunctive.
- Shift the tenses back when the reporting verb is in the past.
Before you read
This text almost never lets a character speak directly. Everything is reported: the innkeeper tells the guests something, Master Pedro begs Don Quixote something, Don Quixote orders the boy something. Watch what happens to an order when it goes through a narrator. It does not stay an imperative, and the verb form it becomes is the one you built two lessons ago.The story in easy Spanish
En una venta del camino entró un hombre vestido de gamuza, con un parche verde que le tapaba medio rostro.
Into a roadside inn came a man dressed in chamois leather, with a green patch covering half his face.
Traía a hombros un retablo de títeres y, de la mano, un mono grande sin cola.
On his shoulders he carried a puppet theatre and, by the hand, a big tailless ape.
El ventero anunció a los huéspedes que había llegado maese Pedro con su función.
The innkeeper announced to his guests that Master Pedro had arrived with his show.
Les dijo que preparasen las monedas, porque aquel hombre no trabajaba de balde.
He told them to get their coins ready, because that man did not work for nothing.
Explicó también que el mono era adivino y respondía a lo pasado y a lo presente.
He also explained that the ape was a fortune-teller and answered about the past and the present.
A lo por venir no respondía, dijo, porque eso solo lo sabe Dios en el cielo.
About what was to come it did not answer, he said, because only God in heaven knows that.
Maese Pedro pedía dos reales por pregunta y a veces cobraba la mitad.
Master Pedro charged two reales a question and sometimes took half.
Cobraba menos o más según la cara que le viera al cliente.
He charged less or more depending on the face he saw on the customer.
Se acercó a don Quijote, se arrodilló y le dijo que abrazaba las piernas del segundo Cid.
He went up to Don Quixote, knelt, and told him he was embracing the legs of the second Cid.
Le rogó que le dijese si el mono podía servirle en algo aquella noche.
He begged him to say whether the ape could be of any use to him that night.
Sancho preguntó qué estaba haciendo en aquel momento su mujer Teresa Panza.
Sancho asked what his wife Teresa Panza was doing at that moment.
El animal saltó al hombro de su amo, le habló al oído y volvió a bajar.
The animal jumped onto its master’s shoulder, whispered in his ear and climbed down again.
Maese Pedro dio entonces la respuesta exacta, que era que Teresa estaba rastrillando lino.
Master Pedro then gave the exact answer, which was that Teresa was combing flax.
Nadie en la venta sabía que debajo del parche estaba Ginés de Pasamonte.
Nobody at the inn knew that under the patch was Ginés de Pasamonte.
Era el preso a quien don Quijote había soltado años atrás en Sierra Morena.
He was the prisoner whom Don Quixote had set free years before in the Sierra Morena.
Era también el ladrón que le había robado el rucio a Sancho una noche.
He was also the thief who had stolen Sancho’s donkey from him one night.
El truco del mono era muy sencillo y no tenía nada de encantamiento.
The ape’s trick was very simple and had nothing enchanted about it.
Ginés se informaba en las ventas antes de llegar y preguntaba quién dormía dentro.
Ginés gathered information at the inns before arriving and asked who was sleeping there.
Después del mono vino el retablo, que era lo que la gente esperaba.
After the ape came the puppet theatre, which was what the crowd had been waiting for.
Un muchacho iba explicando la historia con una varilla desde delante del escenario.
A boy narrated the story with a pointer from in front of the stage.
Maese Pedro movía las figuras por detrás, escondido tras la tela pintada del retablo.
Master Pedro worked the figures from behind, hidden by the painted cloth of the theatre.
El muchacho contaba que don Gaiferos jugaba a las tablas en la corte de París.
The boy told how Sir Gaiferos was playing backgammon at the court in Paris.
Decía que ya no se acordaba de su esposa Melisendra, presa de los moros en Zaragoza.
He said that he no longer remembered his wife Melisendra, held prisoner by the Moors in Saragossa.
Don Quijote interrumpió dos veces desde su banco, sin levantarse todavía del sitio.
Don Quixote interrupted twice from his bench, without yet getting up from his seat.
Dijo al muchacho que no se metiera en rodeos ni en curvas inútiles.
He told the boy not to go off into detours or useless curves.
Le dijo que las historias se cuentan derechas y sin adornos de más.
He told him that stories are told straight and without extra ornament.
Maese Pedro, desde dentro del retablo, le mandó al chico que siguiera adelante.
Master Pedro, from inside the theatre, ordered the boy to carry on.
Le mandó también que no hiciera contrapunto, porque quien canta demasiado se queda sin voz.
He also ordered him not to embroider, since whoever sings too much ends up with no voice.
El muchacho contó entonces que don Gaiferos había llegado por fin a Zaragoza.
The boy then told how Sir Gaiferos had at last reached Saragossa.
Contó que Melisendra se había descolgado por un balcón y se le había enganchado la falda.
He told how Melisendra had let herself down from a balcony and caught her skirt.
Y que los dos huían a caballo hacia Francia por el camino más corto.
And how the two of them were fleeing on horseback towards France by the shortest road.
En ese punto anunció que sonaban las campanas de todas las torres de la ciudad.
At that point he announced that the bells were ringing in every tower of the city.
Dijo que salía tras ellos un ejército de moros a caballo, gritando y con banderas.
He said that an army of Moors on horseback was riding out after them, shouting and carrying flags.
Y que si los alcanzaban, los traerían atados a la cola de sus caballos.
And that if they caught them, they would drag them back tied to their horses’ tails.
Don Quijote se puso en pie muy despacio, sin decir una sola palabra a nadie.
Don Quixote rose to his feet very slowly, without saying a single word to anyone.
Vocabulary
The puppet theatre
- el retablo
- the puppet theatre
- el títere
- the puppet
- la varilla
- the pointer
- la figura
- the figure
- la tela pintada
- the painted cloth
- la función
- the performance
- el contrapunto
- the embellishment
- el rodeo
- the roundabout way
The man with the patch
- la gamuza
- chamois leather
- el parche
- the eye patch
- el mono
- the ape
- el adivino
- the fortune-teller
- la cola
- the tail
- de balde
- free of charge
- cobrar
- to charge
- informarse
- to get information
Melisendra’s escape
- el balcón
- the balcony
- descolgarse
- to let yourself down
- engancharse
- to catch on something
- huir
- to flee
- alcanzar
- to catch up with
- rastrillar
- to comb, to hackle
- el lino
- flax
- preso
- held prisoner
Reporting what somebody ordered
El ventero les dijo que preparasen las monedas.
Le rogó que le dijese si el mono podía servirle.
Le mandó al chico que siguiera y que no hiciera contrapunto.
Spanish reports speech in two different ways depending on what kind of speech it was, and the split is sharp.
1. Information stays in the indicative
El mono es adivino becomes Explicó que el mono era adivino. A statement of fact is still a statement of fact after somebody repeats it, so the mood does not change. Only the tense moves back one step.
2. Orders and requests become the subjunctive
Preparad las monedas becomes Les dijo que preparasen las monedas. There is no such thing as a reported imperative in Spanish. The imperative dissolves and what appears in its place is que plus a subjunctive, chosen to match the tense of the reporting verb.
| direct | reporting verb present | reporting verb past |
|---|---|---|
| Sigue. | Le manda que siga. | Le mandó que siguiera. |
| No hagas eso. | Le pide que no haga eso. | Le pidió que no hiciera eso. |
| Ven a verlo. | Le ruega que venga a verlo. | Le rogó que viniese a verlo. |
3. What moves back when the frame is past
| said | reported after a past verb |
|---|---|
| presente, es | imperfecto, era |
| indefinido, llegó | pluscuamperfecto, había llegado |
| futuro, traerán | condicional, traerían |
| imperativo, sigue | imperfecto de subjuntivo, siguiera |
The story shows all four in a row when the boy narrates: que don Gaiferos había llegado, que sonaban las campanas, que los traerían atados.
4. Verbs that take one road or the other
Decir is the tricky one because it does both. Le dijo que era tarde is information. Le dijo que saliera is an order. Same verb, and the mood is the only thing telling you which. Mandar, pedir, rogar, ordenar and suplicar only ever take the subjunctive. Explicar, contar, anunciar and responder only ever take the indicative.
A thief who comes back eight hundred pages later
In the first part of the novel Don Quixote frees a chain gang of convicts, and the loudest of them is Ginés de Pasamonte, who repays the favour by throwing stones at him and later by stealing Sancho’s donkey. That was around eight hundred pages ago in the reader’s hands and some years ago in the story. Here he walks back in wearing a green patch over half his face, and Cervantes does not identify him until the episode is over. The reader who remembers gets to recognise the thief before Don Quixote does, which is a pleasure the novel has not offered before.
Everything about the disguise is a detail from real life. Travelling puppeteers with a retablo on their backs worked the inns and village squares of Spain, performing exactly this repertoire of Carolingian romances. Trained animals that answered questions were a standard fairground act, and the standard method was the one Cervantes describes: the owner arrives early, listens, and pays somebody to talk.
What the chapter is really about is how a story reaches an audience. The boy narrates, Master Pedro works the figures, Don Quixote corrects the narration on points of style, and behind all of it a criminal is charging two reales to tell people what they already told him. Four layers of fiction in a room at an inn, and Cervantes stacks them carefully, because in the next chapter one of his characters is going to walk straight through them with a sword.
Cervantes in the original
llegó maese Pedro a buscar a don Quijote y decirle que ya estaba en orden el retablo; que su merced viniese a verle, porque lo merecía
Master Pedro came to look for Don Quixote and to tell him that the puppet show was ready, and that his worship should come and see it, because it was worth seeing
From II, 25, and it is the grammar point of this lesson happening in a single sentence of the novel. Master Pedro walks over and says two things. The first, that the show is ready, is information, so it is reported with the indicative: que ya estaba en orden el retablo. The second was an invitation, in effect an imperative, come and see it, and it cannot survive as one, so it arrives as que su merced viniese a verle, with the imperfect subjunctive. Same reporting verb, same sentence, two moods, and the mood is the only thing telling you which part was a statement and which part was a request. Notice too su merced, the polite address of the period that eventually wore down into usted, and the last clause, porque lo merecía, in which the puppeteer recommends his own show. He is, after all, charging for it.