The Will of Alonso Quijano

What you will learn

• Give an order, a wish or a provision with que plus subjunctive, with no main verb in front.
• Recognise the fixed formulas of a will and of a farewell.
• Understand a solemn text without letting the solemnity hide the sense.

Before you read

The story in easy Spanish

Don Quijote llegó a su pueblo un domingo por la mañana y entró por la plaza.

Don Quixote reached his village one Sunday morning and came in through the square.

Se fue derecho a su casa, donde lo recibieron el ama y la sobrina.

He went straight home, where the housekeeper and his niece received him.

Pocos días después se le vino encima una calentura que lo tuvo seis días en la cama.

A few days later a fever came down on him that kept him six days in bed.

Sus amigos el cura, el barbero y el bachiller lo visitaban todas las tardes.

His friends the priest, the barber and the graduate visited him every afternoon.

Sancho no se apartaba de la cabecera de la cama ni para comer ni para dormir.

Sancho did not leave the head of the bed either to eat or to sleep.

Todos creían que la tristeza de verse vencido era lo que lo tenía de aquella manera.

They all believed it was the sadness of seeing himself beaten that had brought him to this.

El bachiller le decía que se levantara, que ya tenía compuesta una égloga para los dos.

The graduate told him to get up, that he already had an eclogue written for the two of them.

Nada de aquello le quitaba la tristeza, y sus amigos llamaron por fin al médico.

None of it lifted his sadness, and his friends at last called the doctor.

El médico le tomó el pulso, no quedó nada contento y habló aparte con los demás.

The doctor took his pulse, was not at all satisfied, and spoke to the others apart.

Dijo que atendiera a la salud del alma, porque la del cuerpo corría peligro.

He said he should attend to the health of his soul, because his body was in danger.

Don Quijote lo oyó con el ánimo sosegado, pero las mujeres se echaron a llorar.

Don Quixote heard it calmly, but the women burst into tears.

Pidió entonces que lo dejaran solo en el cuarto, porque quería dormir un poco.

He then asked to be left alone in the room, because he wanted to sleep a little.

Durmió de un tirón más de seis horas, y pensaron que se quedaba en el sueño.

He slept straight through for more than six hours, and they thought he would not wake.

Despertó dando una gran voz y bendiciendo a Dios por la merced recibida.

He woke giving a great shout and blessing God for the mercy shown him.

La sobrina le preguntó qué decía, porque hablaba más concertado que otros días.

His niece asked what he was saying, because he was talking more sensibly than on other days.

Contestó que ya tenía el juicio libre y claro, sin las sombras de antes.

He answered that his judgement was now free and clear, without the shadows of before.

Aquellas sombras se las habían puesto encima sus lecturas continuas de caballerías.

Those shadows had been laid on it by his constant reading of books of chivalry.

Ya conocía sus disparates, y solo le pesaba que el desengaño llegara tan tarde.

He now recognised his own absurdities, and only regretted that the truth had come so late.

Llamó a sus amigos y les pidió que le dieran la enhorabuena por una cosa.

He called his friends and asked them to congratulate him on one thing.

Ya no era don Quijote de la Mancha, sino Alonso Quijano, llamado el Bueno.

He was no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but Alonso Quijano, called the Good.

Aquel renombre se lo habían dado sus costumbres, y no se lo había dado ningún libro.

That name had been given him by the way he lived, and no book had given it to him.

Sansón le dijo que ahora que iban a ser pastores no se hiciera ermitaño.

Sansón told him that now they were about to be shepherds he should not turn hermit.

Él respondió que se sentía morir aprisa y que dejasen las burlas aparte.

He replied that he felt himself dying fast and that they should leave jokes aside.

Pidió un confesor que lo confesara y un escribano que hiciese su testamento.

He asked for a confessor to confess him and a notary to draw up his will.

El cura salió después de confesarlo y dijo que verdaderamente estaba cuerdo.

The priest came out after confessing him and said that he was truly sane.

Entró el escribano, y lo primero fue el alma y luego vinieron las mandas.

The notary came in, and the soul came first and the bequests afterwards.

Mandó que no se le pidiera cuenta ninguna del dinero que llevaba Sancho.

He ordered that Sancho be asked for no account of the money he was holding.

Que se quedara con todo lo que sobrase, dijo, y que le hiciera buen provecho.

Let him keep everything left over, he said, and much good may it do him.

Si loco le había dado una ínsula, cuerdo le habría dado un reino entero si pudiera.

If as a madman he had given him an island, as a sane man he would have given him a kingdom.

Le pidió además perdón por haberle hecho parecer delante de todos tan loco como él.

He also asked his pardon for having made him seem, in front of everyone, as mad as himself.

Sancho, llorando, le dijo que no se muriera y que tomara su consejo.

Sancho, weeping, told him not to die and to take his advice.

La mayor locura que puede hacer un hombre es dejarse morir sin que nadie lo mate.

The greatest madness a man can commit is letting himself die with nobody killing him.

Que se levantara, que salieran al campo vestidos de pastores como tenían hablado.

Let him get up, let them go out to the fields dressed as shepherds as they had agreed.

Quizá encontraran a Dulcinea desencantada detrás de alguna mata del camino.

Perhaps they would find Dulcinea disenchanted behind some bush along the road.

Don Quijote contestó que en los nidos de antaño no hay pájaros hogaño.

Don Quixote answered that in last year’s nests there are no birds this year.

Mandó luego toda su hacienda a Antonia Quijana, su sobrina, que estaba presente.

He then left his whole estate to Antonia Quijana, his niece, who was present.

Que se pagara primero al ama su salario y veinte ducados más para un vestido.

Let the housekeeper first be paid her wages and twenty ducats more for a dress.

Dejó por albaceas al cura y al bachiller Sansón Carrasco, que estaban los dos presentes.

He named as executors the priest and Sansón Carrasco, both of whom were present.

Puso además una cláusula sobre la sobrina, y fue la más dura del testamento.

He added a clause about his niece, and it was the hardest one in the will.

Si se casaba, que fuera con hombre que no supiera qué son libros de caballerías.

If she married, let it be to a man who did not know what books of chivalry were.

Y si se casaba con uno que lo supiera, que perdiera cuanto él le dejaba.

And if she married one who did know, let her forfeit everything he was leaving her.

Los albaceas repartirían entonces toda la herencia en obras pías, a su voluntad.

The executors would then spend the whole inheritance on charitable works, as they saw fit.

Cerró con esto el testamento, le tomó un desmayo y se tendió en la cama.

With that he closed the will, a faintness took him and he stretched out on the bed.

Vivió tres días más, desmayándose muy a menudo y con la casa entera alborotada.

He lived three days more, fainting very often, with the whole house in an uproar.

Murió después de recibir los sacramentos y de abominar otra vez de aquellos libros.

He died after receiving the sacraments and renouncing those books once again.

Lloraron todos los que estaban allí presentes, y Sancho más que ninguno de ellos.

All those present wept, and Sancho more than any of them.

El escribano dijo que en ningún libro de caballerías había leído una cosa semejante.

The notary said he had never read anything like it in any book of chivalry.

Ningún caballero andante había muerto nunca en su propia cama tan sosegadamente.

No knight errant had ever died in his own bed so peacefully.

Vocabulary

The illness

la calentura

the fever

tomar el pulso

to take a pulse

el desmayo

the fainting fit

sosegado

calm

el juicio

the reason

cuerdo

sane

el disparate

the nonsense

el desengaño

seeing clearly at last

The will

el escribano

the notary

la manda

the bequest

el albacea

the executor

la hacienda

the estate

la herencia

the inheritance

la cláusula

the clause

el salario

the wages

las obras pías

charitable works

Solemn formulas

es mi voluntad que

it is my will that

mando que

I order that

disponer que

to lay down that

suplicar

to entreat

dejar por albacea

to name as executor

abominar de

to renounce, to abhor

dar la enhorabuena

to congratulate

hacer buen provecho

may it do you good

Que plus subjunctive, with nothing in front

Que se le dé a Sancho lo que tiene en su poder.

Que se levante y salgamos al campo.

Que en paz descanse.

You already know the subjunctive after a main verb: quiero que vengas, mandó que se pagara. This lesson is what happens when the main verb disappears and the sentence starts on que. The mood stays behind as the only trace of it, and the result is one of the most characteristic sounds in Spanish.

1. The pattern

These are not fossils. This is how you tell somebody at the door to come in, how you wish a stranger a good weekend and how you pass on an order without taking responsibility for it. Learn to produce them and a large part of everyday Spanish opens up.

2. Goodbyes are all built this way

Notice that every one of them is second person singular subjunctive. If you say goodbye to somebody you address as usted, they all shift: que le vaya bien, que tenga buen viaje, que descanse.

3. The written formulas of a will

All of them take the subjunctive, without exception, because all of them are acts of will rather than statements of fact. This is the clearest place in the language to see why the mood exists.

4. One trap worth marking

Que plus subjunctive is not the same as ojalá plus subjunctive, though they overlap. Ojalá venga is a hope with no addressee, closer to if only. Que venga, said in a room, is an instruction: let him come in. The difference is whether somebody is being told to make it happen.

How a door is closed

The ending has been argued about for four hundred years, and the argument is always the same. He recovers his reason, calls his whole life a string of absurdities, renounces the books, dictates a will and dies. Readers who love the character feel robbed. Some critics have insisted that the recantation is forced, that Cervantes was covering himself with the Inquisition. That reading is hard to sustain, because of who is put in the room to object.

The objection is Sancho’s, and it is the strongest thing in the chapter. He has spent the whole book being the reality principle, telling his master that the giants are windmills and the helmet is a basin. Now, at the bed, he changes sides. He begs him to get up, to come out to the fields as shepherds, to believe that Dulcinea may be waiting disenchanted behind a bush. The man who never believed any of it is the last one holding on. He is answered with a proverb, which is Sancho’s own weapon turned round: in last year’s nests there are no birds this year.

Then comes the practical reason for killing him, and it is written into the last page of the novel almost as an instruction. Avellaneda had already stolen the character once. A dead Alonso Quijano, with a notarised certificate of death demanded by the priest so that nobody could resurrect him, is a locked door. Cervantes buries his own creation to keep it. He died himself six months after the book was published.

Cervantes in the original

yo fui loco, y ya soy cuerdo: fui don Quijote de la Mancha, y soy agora, como he dicho, Alonso Quijano el Bueno

I was mad, and now I am sane: I was Don Quixote of La Mancha, and I am now, as I have said, Alonso Quijano the Good

From II, 74, and it is the sentence in which a character kills himself off. Look at how it is built, because the shape is doing the work. Four clauses, in two pairs, and each pair sets a past against a present: fui loco against soy cuerdo, fui don Quijote against soy Alonso Quijano. The Spanish preterite is exactly right for both of the past ones, because it closes the box. Not era loco, which would leave the madness lying around as a background condition, but fui, which says it is finished and dated. Agora is the old spelling of ahora. The word that matters most is the last one, Bueno, which he explains a few lines earlier is a name his neighbours gave him for how he behaved, not one he took out of a book. Everything he invented for himself is being handed back. What remains is a name somebody else gave him for free, and it turns out to be the only one that was ever his.