“It must be, by some means or other,”
said Don Quixote, “for unless the name stands
there plain and manifest, no woman would believe the
verses were made for her.”
They agreed upon this, and that the departure should
take place in three days from that time. Don
Quixote charged the bachelor to keep it a secret,
especially from the curate and Master Nicholas, and
from his niece and the housekeeper, lest they should
prevent the execution of his praiseworthy and valiant
purpose. Carrasco promised all, and then took
his leave, charging Don Quixote to inform him of his
good or evil fortunes whenever he had an opportunity;
and thus they bade each other farewell, and Sancho
went away to make the necessary preparations for their
expedition.
Of the shrewd and droll conversation
that passed between Sancho Panza
and his wife Teresa Panza,
and other matters worthy of
being duly recorded
The translator of this history, when he comes to write
this fifth chapter, says that he considers it apocryphal,
because in it Sancho Panza speaks in a style unlike
that which might have been expected from his limited
intelligence, and says things so subtle that he does
not think it possible he could have conceived them;
however, desirous of doing what his task imposed upon
him, he was unwilling to leave it untranslated, and
therefore he went on to say:
Sancho came home in such glee and spirits that his
wife noticed his happiness a bowshot off, so much
so that it made her ask him, “What have you
got, Sancho friend, that you are so glad?”
To which he replied, “Wife, if it were God’s
will, I should be very glad not to be so well pleased
as I show myself.”
“I don’t understand you, husband,”
said she, “and I don’t know what you mean
by saying you would be glad, if it were God’s
will, not to be well pleased; for, fool as I am, I
don’t know how one can find pleasure in not
having it.”
“Hark ye, Teresa,” replied Sancho, “I
am glad because I have made up my mind to go back
to the service of my master Don Quixote, who means
to go out a third time to seek for adventures; and
I am going with him again, for my necessities will
have it so, and also the hope that cheers me with
the thought that I may find another hundred crowns
like those we have spent; though it makes me sad to
have to leave thee and the children; and if God would
be pleased to let me have my daily bread, dry-shod
and at home, without taking me out into the byways
and cross-roads—and he could do it at small
cost by merely willing it—it is clear my
happiness would be more solid and lasting, for the
happiness I have is mingled with sorrow at leaving
thee; so that I was right in saying I would be glad,
if it were God’s will, not to be well pleased.”
