Shayne’s Reviews > Don Quixote > Status Update

The duo make it back to the village and reunite with their families.

On the way back to their village, the duo encounters the company of Don Álvaro, a major player in the forged second volume of Don Quixote’s history. They compel him to swear legally that they are the real Quixote and Panza, and that the men he travelled with were imposters. Sancho also “fulfills” his penance, and Quixote looks to every girl they pass in hopes of encountering Dulcinea.

The duo make their way back to their village. Along the way, Quixote offers Sancho money in exchange for his whipping himself to disenchant Dulcinea. Sancho gets underway but comes up with the scheme of whipping the trees in the Don’s hearing to save himself some pain.

The events involving Sansón Carrasco scheming with the Duke and Duchess to put Don Quixote out are revealed. Altisidora weaves a tale of her seeing devils playing ball with the forged second volume of Don Quixote’s tale at the gates of hell. Don Quixote rejects her advances and almost immediately quits the Duke and Duchess’s castle.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are party to an elaborate ritual where Altisidora appears to be dead, and a host of duennas abuse Sancho in various ways before the Duke and Duchess and two apparent kings.

Don and Sancho try to lie down for a rest but are interrupted by a stampede of swine. After this, the duo is apparently kidnapped and arrives at the Duke’s castle.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza resolve to become shepherds and dream about their peaceful lives as such.

Along the road, the two squires encounter a crowd of people at an inn trying to determine how to even the odds between two men of drastically different weights who have challenged each other to a race, and also Tosilos, delivering a message for the Duke.

The Knight of the White Moon is revealed to be Sansón Carrasco, still striving to make Don Quixote return home. Later, he and Sancho do begin the journey home as the group disbands.

Don Antonio shows Don Quixote shows him his talking bust in a scene that plays out much like the divining ape from much earlier. A day or two later, Quixote walks the town and stumbles into a printing house, where books are printed for money not fame, in a scene that feels somewhat autobiographical for Cervantes.