Level B2 · Chapter 75
The Duchess and Sancho
Two different kinds of Spanish are spoken at dinner in the castle. The duke and duchess say false things in perfect words, and Sancho says true things badly.
What you will learn
- Hear two different registers inside one conversation.
- Say the same thing formally and plainly, and know when each is called for.
- Understand a proverb without translating it word by word.
Before you read
Read this once for the story and then read it again marking who says what. There are two kinds of Spanish at this table. One is long, abstract and built out of conditionals and subjunctives. The other is short, concrete and made of proverbs. Nothing in the chapter tells you which one to trust, and that is the point.The story in easy Spanish
Aquella noche se sirvió la cena en una sala grande, con cuatro doncellas en pie.
That evening dinner was served in a great hall, with four maidservants standing by.
El duque se sentó a un extremo de la mesa larga y la duquesa al otro.
The duke sat at one end of the long table and the duchess at the other.
Sancho, que era escudero y no invitado, se quedó de pie al lado de la puerta.
Sancho, being a squire and not a guest, stayed standing by the door.
Allí se quedó hasta que la duquesa mandó que se sentara con ellos a la mesa.
There he stayed until the duchess ordered him to sit down at the table with them.
El duque dijo que agradecería mucho que don Quijote se sirviera ocupar la cabecera.
The duke said he would be most grateful if Don Quixote would be so good as to take the head of the table.
Explicó que en aquella casa la caballería andante precede al título y a la sangre.
He explained that in that house knight-errantry takes precedence over rank and birth.
Don Quijote respondió que él no merecía tanto ni de lejos.
Don Quixote replied that he deserved nothing of the sort, not by a long way.
Estuvieron un buen rato cediéndose el sitio con muchas reverencias y muchas palabras.
For a good while the two of them went on offering each other the seat with many bows and many words.
Sancho, entretanto, contó a los presentes una historia de su pueblo.
Sancho, meanwhile, told the company a story from his village.
Dijo que un hidalgo de allí convidó una vez a comer a un labrador.
He said that a gentleman from there once invited a farmhand to dinner.
Los dos se pelearon un rato largo por quién se sentaba primero a la mesa.
The two of them argued for a long while over who should sit down first.
Al final el labrador se sentó y dijo que ya podían empezar a comer.
In the end the farmhand sat down and said they could start eating now.
Nadie en la sala supo si aquello era un cuento o un consejo.
Nobody in the hall could tell whether that was a tale or a piece of advice.
La duquesa le preguntó entonces, con mucha dulzura, por una cosa del libro.
The duchess then asked him, very sweetly, about something in the book.
Quiso saber si era verdad que él había visto a Dulcinea convertida en aldeana.
She wanted to know whether it was true that he had seen Dulcinea turned into a village girl.
Sancho dijo que sí, que la había visto de lejos, saltando por el campo.
Sancho said yes, that he had seen her from a distance, skipping across the field.
Añadió, sin que nadie se lo preguntara, que olía un poco a ajos crudos.
He added, without anyone asking him, that she smelled slightly of raw garlic.
Don Quijote se puso muy serio y le pidió que midiera sus palabras.
Don Quixote turned very grave and asked him to weigh his words.
Le recordó que estaba delante de señoras muy altas y en una casa que no era la suya.
He reminded him that he was in front of very noble ladies and in a house that was not his.
El duque contestó que no, que hablase el escudero como Dios le diera a entender.
The duke replied no, let the squire speak as God gave him to understand.
Dijo que en aquella mesa se estimaba más la llaneza que el artificio.
He said that at that table plainness was valued more than artifice.
Lo dijo con una cortesía perfecta, y era exactamente lo contrario de lo que pensaba.
He said it with perfect courtesy, and it was exactly the opposite of what he thought.
Sancho tomó carrerilla en cuanto oyó que podía hablar a su gusto.
Sancho got up steam the moment he heard he could talk as he pleased.
Dijo que él era hombre de bien aunque comiese mucho y bebiese algo.
He said he was an honest man even if he did eat a lot and drink a little.
Dijo que quien bien te quiere te hará llorar, y que a buen entendedor pocas palabras.
He said that whoever loves you well will make you weep, and that a word to the wise is enough.
Encadenó cinco refranes seguidos sin que nadie pudiera meter baza en la conversación.
He strung five proverbs together in a row without anyone being able to get a word in.
La duquesa reía con la boca pequeña y aseguraba que aquello valía un tesoro.
The duchess laughed with a small mouth and declared that this was worth a treasure.
Dijo que su gracia y sus sentencias valían más que muchos discursos de letrados.
She said his wit and his sayings were worth more than many a learned man’s speech.
Lo decía en el mismo tono cortés con que se habla de un cuadro raro.
She said it in the same courteous tone one uses about an unusual painting.
O de un perro pequeño que hace algo que los perros no suelen hacer.
Or about a small dog that does something dogs do not usually do.
Sancho, encantado, prometió contarle al día siguiente muchísimas más cosas de su pueblo.
Sancho, delighted, promised to tell her a great many more things about his village the next day.
Cuando acabó la cena, los duques se retiraron a hablar de lo que habían oído.
When dinner was over, the duke and duchess withdrew to talk about what they had heard.
Los criados recogieron la mesa sin hacer ruido y apagaron la mitad de las velas.
The servants cleared the table without a sound and put out half the candles.
Sancho, ya solo, le dijo al mayordomo que aquella era la mejor casa donde había servido.
Sancho, alone now, told the steward that this was the best house he had ever served in.
Añadió que ojalá durase la broma un año entero, o dos si podía ser.
He added that he hoped the joke would last a whole year, or two if it could.
La broma iba a durar bastante más de lo que él pensaba aquella noche.
The joke was going to last a good deal longer than he imagined that night.
Vocabulary
The castle table
- la cabecera
- the head of the table
- ceder
- to yield, to give way
- convidar
- to invite to a meal
- el mayordomo
- the steward
- recoger la mesa
- to clear the table
- la vela
- the candle
- retirarse
- to withdraw
- estimar
- to value
Two ways of speaking
- la llaneza
- plainness of speech
- el artificio
- artifice
- la dulzura
- sweetness
- medir las palabras
- to weigh your words
- la sentencia
- the pithy saying
- el letrado
- the learned man
- la gracia
- the wit
- el tono
- the tone
Sancho let loose
- tomar carrerilla
- to get up steam
- meter baza
- to get a word in
- encadenar
- to string together
- hombre de bien
- an honest man
- a mi gusto
- as I please
- el ajo
- garlic
- crudo
- raw
- la broma
- the joke
Two registers at one table
Agradecería que se sirviera ocupar la cabecera.
Hable el escudero como Dios le diera a entender.
Quien bien te quiere te hará llorar.
Register is not a scale from wrong to right. It is a choice of tools, and using the wrong set is the mistake, in either direction. This dinner puts the two extremes of Spanish side by side, and the differences are countable.
| feature | the duke and duchess | Sancho |
|---|---|---|
| sentence length | long, one clause inside another | short, added one after another |
| mood | conditional and subjunctive everywhere | indicative, plus set phrases |
| vocabulary | abstract: merced, honra, llaneza, artificio | concrete: ajos, perro, olla, pan |
| how a point is made | with reasons | with proverbs |
| address | vuestra merced, third person | tú, and whatever comes out |
Saying the same thing twice
| formal | plain |
|---|---|
| ¿Sería tan amable de sentarse? | Siéntate. |
| Le agradecería que midiera sus palabras. | A ver qué dices. |
| No me parece del todo conveniente. | Eso no me gusta nada. |
| Sería para mí una gran honra. | Me haría mucha ilusión. |
Proverbs as arguments
Sancho does not reason, he quotes. Spanish has thousands of refranes and they are still in daily use, far more than English proverbs are. Four from this chapter and its neighbours, worth knowing whole: Quien bien te quiere te hará llorar. A buen entendedor, pocas palabras. Quien quiere lo ajeno se queda sin lo propio. Dos linajes hay en el mundo, el tener y el no tener. Do not translate them and do not modify them. They are quoted exactly or not at all, and half of one is enough, since everybody knows the ending.
What you should actually use
Neither extreme. Modern spoken Spanish sits in the middle and moves a step towards the formal end with strangers, in writing and at work: usted, the conditional for requests, and no proverbs unless you are sure of them. Cervantes wrote the two ends because the gap between them is the joke, not because either is a model.
The dinner joke cuts both ways
This scene is where the second part of the novel changes its target. Until now the comedy has come from Don Quixote misreading the world. Here the world is misreading him on purpose, and the reader is put in an uncomfortable position: the people with the good manners are the ones behaving badly, and the man who says his lady smelled of raw garlic is the only person at the table telling the truth.
The duke’s line about plainness being worth more than artifice is the sharpest thing in the chapter, because it is spoken as artifice. He wants Sancho to keep talking precisely because Sancho is funny, and the compliment is the bait. The duchess praising his gracia and his sentencias is doing what people do with a performing animal, and Cervantes marks it with one image, the tone in which one discusses an unusual dog, and then says nothing further.
It is worth knowing where this goes. Sancho hopes the joke will last a year. It lasts many chapters, and inside it he is given an island to govern, which the household intends as the biggest joke of all. He governs it well. That reversal is set up here, at this dinner, by a squire who cannot get a sentence out without a proverb in it and who is, so far, right about everything.
Cervantes in the original
Por quien Dios es, Sancho, que te reportes, y que no descubras la hilaza de manera que caigan en la cuenta de que eres de villana y grosera tela tejido
For God’s sake, Sancho, restrain yourself, and do not show the thread, so that they realise what coarse peasant cloth you are woven from
Don Quixote says this to Sancho at the table in II, 31, and it is the lesson in one sentence because it uses both registers at once to talk about registers. It opens with a solemn oath formula, por quien Dios es, and a verb of self-control, reportarse, which is the vocabulary of a man trying to sound like a gentleman. Then it reaches for a weaver’s image to make its point. Descubrir la hilaza means to let the thread show, that is, to give away the poor material something is really made of, and it survives in Spanish today meaning to show your true colours. The metaphor is finished by de villana y grosera tela tejido, woven from coarse peasant cloth. What makes the line uncomfortable, and it is meant to be uncomfortable, is that Don Quixote is a poor country gentleman with a rusty sword lecturing his friend about class in front of two aristocrats who are laughing at both of them. He is ashamed of Sancho in the one room where Sancho is the only person telling the truth.