Don Quixote, Part II, by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra, translated by Edith Grossman, introduced by Harold Bloom.#

The story of the Knight continued in the second part of this history.#

Something I enjoyed very much about this story is how the people in the world whom Don Quixote meets know who he is and have read the first book. I thought it was very clever and a great device to create adventure.#

During the first few episodes, the Don and Sancho have a conversation where Sancho says this, note the editor's remark:#

Señor, sorrows were made not for animals but for men; but if men feel them too much, they turn into animals; your grace should restrain yourself, and come back to yourself, and pick up Rocinante's reins, and liven up and rouse yourself, and show the bravery that knights errant ought to haave. What the devil is this? What kind of mood is this? Are we here or in France? [ed--This is a way to say, "Let's behave sensibly and realistically."] Let Satan carry off all the Dulcineas in the world, for the well-being of a single knight errant is worth more than all the enchantments and transformations on earth." [p. 521]

Later on, Don Quixote meets a young poet and gives him the following advice:#

"[...] I shall be content with merely advising your grace that, being a poet, you can achieve fame if you are guided more by other people's opinions than by your own, for no father or mother thinks their children are ugly, and for those born of the understanding, such deception is an even greater danger." [p. 575]

At one point, the following line from the Aeneid comes up and I found it had much flow, as the rapper in me would say:#

Quis talia fando temperet a lacrymis?

A line from Virgil's Aeneid (II, 6 and 8): "Who, hearing this, can hold back his tears?" [p. 711]

Deeper in the story, Don Quixote meets Princess Antonomasia.#

A topic of conversation among the computer inclined is how to name their computer systems. I have found a great naming scheme: Famous knight's horses:#

"His name," responded the Dolorous One, "is not that of Bellerophon's horse, named Pegasus, or that of Alexander the great, called Bucephalus, or that of the furious Orlando, dubbed Brillador, much less Bayarte, who belonged to Reinaldos de Montalbán, or Frontino, who was Ruggiero's steed, or Bootes or Pirithous, which, they say, were the names of the horses of the Sun, and his name is not Orelia, like the horse on which the unfortunate Rodrigo, last king of the Visigoths, entered the battle in which he lost his life and his kingdom." [p. 715]

Rocinante must be added to the list, of course.

In the second set of advice that Sancho receives before starting as a governor, the Kinght of the Lions says,#

"[...] Be temperate in your drinking, remebering that too much wine cannot keep either a secret or a promise." [p. 733]