OF
CHIVALRY, WITH OTHER MATTERS WORTHY OF HIS WIT

The curate and the canon had become very much interested in their
subject, and the canon after a while confided to the curate that he
himself had once started to write a book on chivalry, with the
intention of making each incident in it a plausible one. It was his
view that fiction was all the better the more it resembled the truth.
Furthermore, he believed in adhering to good taste and to the rules of
art; these things, it seemed to him, had been ignored in the writing
of these books. From fiction the conversation drifted to playwriting,
and here again the curate and the canon were of the same mind. The
actors of their age chose plays that appealed to people of nonsense
and with bad taste. Instead of trying to improve the national taste,
they produced tawdry plays. The canon cited three excellent plays,
however, that he had seen at Madrid, which had earned great profits
for their producers; this proved to the canon that the great mass of
the public did appreciate a really good play if it was only produced.

While the two clergymen were thus whiling away the time, the barber
approached and told the curate they had reached a place which to him
seemed a good pasture for the oxen. It was now noon, and the canon
decided to join them in their rest. He offered them food out of the
provisions that he had brought along on a pack-mule. The rest of the
canon's mules were sent to an inn, which was seen nearby, to be fed
there.

Seeing his master unguarded, Sancho decided the time had come when he
could speak undisturbedly to him, so he hastened to tell him of the
plot that the curate and the barber had hit upon. He told his master
he was certain it was out of envy and malice, for his having surpassed
them in fame and brave deeds. Don Quixote, however, calmly told his
squire that if he saw two shapes that resembled the barber and the
curate there, they could be nothing but devils having taken on the
appearance of his friends in order to be able to do their black deeds
so much the more safely and cruelly.

CHAPTER XLIX

WHICH TREATS OF HOW OUR KNIGHT IS PERMITTED TO DESCEND FROM
HIS CAGE, AND OF THE CANON'S ATTEMPT TO CONVERT HIM FROM HIS
ILLUSIONS

During his conversation with Sancho, Don Quixote suddenly felt it an
absolute necessity to leave the cage, and to stretch himself in the
open. So Sancho went to the curate to ask his permission, which he
received upon