Page 27 (1/2)

In the Second Part, Cervantes repeatedly reminds the reader, as if it was

a point upon which he was anxious there should be no mistake, that his

hero's madness is strictly confined to delusions on the subject of

chivalry, and that on every other subject he is discreto, one, in fact,

whose faculty of discerne of this

is that he is enabled to make use of Don Quixote as ato digress, allow hiression when he requires it, as freely as in a commonplace

book

It is true the amount of individuality bestowed upon Don Quixote is not

very great There are some natural touches of character about him, such

as his mixture of irascibility and placability, and his curious affection

for Sancho together with his impatience of the squire's loquacity and

impertinence; but in the htful, cultured gentlereat deal of shrewdness and originality ofwords of the preface to

the First Part, that he was a favourite with his creator even before he

had been taken into favour by the public An inferior genius, taking him

in hand a second ti him more comical, clever, amiable, or virtuous But Cervantes was