FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   364   365   366   367   368   369   370   371   372   373   374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385   386   387   388  
389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   >>   >|  
ed in my mind embarrassment rather than commiseration." "Notable cruelty!" exclaimed Sancho; "unheard-of ingratitude! I can only say for myself that the very smallest loving word of hers would have subdued me and made a slave of me. The devil! What a heart of marble, what bowels of brass, what a soul of mortar! But I can't imagine what it is that this damsel saw in your worship that could have conquered and captivated her so. What gallant figure was it, what bold bearing, what sprightly grace, what comeliness of feature, which of these things by itself, or what all together, could have made her fall in love with you? For indeed and in truth many a time I stop to look at your worship from the sole of your foot to the topmost hair of your head, and I see more to frighten one than to make one fall in love; moreover I have heard say that beauty is the first and main thing that excites love, and as your worship has none at all, I don't know what the poor creature fell in love with." "Recollect, Sancho," replied Don Quixote, "there are two sorts of beauty, one of the mind, the other of the body; that of the mind displays and exhibits itself in intelligence, in modesty, in honourable conduct, in generosity, in good breeding; and all these qualities are possible and may exist in an ugly man; and when it is this sort of beauty and not that of the body that is the attraction, love is apt to spring up suddenly and violently. I, Sancho, perceive clearly enough that I am not beautiful, but at the same time I know I am not hideous; and it is enough for an honest man not to be a monster to be an object of love, if only he possesses the endowments of mind I have mentioned." While engaged in this discourse they were making their way through a wood that lay beyond the road, when suddenly, without expecting anything of the kind, Don Quixote found himself caught in some nets of green cord stretched from one tree to another; and unable to conceive what it could be, he said to Sancho, "Sancho, it strikes me this affair of these nets will prove one of the strangest adventures imaginable. May I die if the enchanters that persecute me are not trying to entangle me in them and delay my journey, by way of revenge for my obduracy towards Altisidora. Well then let me tell them that if these nets, instead of being green cord, were made of the hardest diamonds, or stronger than that wherewith the jealous god of blacksmiths enmeshed Venus and Mar
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   364   365   366   367   368   369   370   371   372   373   374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385   386   387   388  
389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Sancho

 

worship

 
beauty
 

Quixote

 

suddenly

 

honest

 
perceive
 
beautiful
 

violently

 

attraction


spring
 
hideous
 
engaged
 

discourse

 

mentioned

 

endowments

 
monster
 

object

 

possesses

 

making


stretched

 

Altisidora

 

obduracy

 

entangle

 

journey

 

revenge

 

blacksmiths

 

enmeshed

 

jealous

 

hardest


diamonds

 

stronger

 

wherewith

 

persecute

 

unable

 
caught
 
conceive
 

imaginable

 

enchanters

 

adventures


strangest
 
strikes
 

affair

 

expecting

 

conquered

 

captivated

 
damsel
 

imagine

 
mortar
 

gallant