Cervantes' Don Quijote As Legal Commentary‪.‬

THE SCENE IN DON Quijote I, 3, in which Cervantes' protagonist is knighted by the ventero, has been commented on by a number of scholars. Opinions range from it being "historically and legally precise," (1) to it being one of Cervantes' most audacious gibes, (2) of a farce in grotesque imitation of the sacred ceremony," (3) to a defense of its fictionality and right to be bound only by literary, as opposed to positive, law, (4) to Redondo's 1991 article recognizing the scene as an incisive parody not only of the libros de caballerias but also of very specific details of the proscriptions in law and in contemporary "how-to" manuals for such knightings. (5) Although conceding to don Quijotes plea that "manana en aquel dia me habeis de armar caballero" (1, 3; 40) (6) because he needs something to laugh about that night, the ventero demurs when confronted with the plan that esta noche en la capilla deste vuestro castillo velare las armas" (1, 3: 40). Substitution of a patio for the capilla is necessary, he tells don Quijote, because the capilla "estaba derribada para hacerla de nuevo" (1, 3: 41). With his exact words, he threads the thinnest of lexical lines between the law's proscriptions on the unmaking, remaking, and making anew of churches and capillas. In focusing on the detail of the capilla derribada, I've come to believe that there's another level of specific parodic commentary running through the text, in the form of an ironic gloss on certain legal compendia and statutes. (7)