# Wherein are related a thousand trifling matters, as trivial as they are necessary to the right understanding of this great history explained — Don Quixote

> Chapter companion for Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

## What happens

The translator notes Cide Hamete Benengeli's own doubts about the veracity of Don Quixote's adventure in the Cave of Montesinos, leaving the reader to decide its truth. Don Quixote, Sancho, and the cousin continue their journey, encountering a hermitage and a young page traveling to enlist in the wars. Don Quixote offers advice on the honor of arms versus letters, and they decide to lodge at an inn where a man carrying arms promises to tell curious tales.

## Themes in this chapter

### Reality vs. Illusion

Cide Hamete's explicit doubt about the Cave of Montesinos adventure highlights the blurred line between truth and fiction, a central concern of the novel.

### Literature and Metafiction

The translator's commentary on the manuscript and the cousin's scholarly projects (Spanish Ovid, Supplement to Polydore Virgil) foreground the act of writing and interpreting texts.

### Chivalry and Idealism

Don Quixote's praise of arms over letters and his advice to the young page reflect his enduring chivalric idealism, even as he faces skepticism.

## Character check-ins

### Don Quixote

Defends the truth of his cave adventure despite the narrator's doubts; advises a young page on the nobility of military service.

### Sancho Panza

Shows boldness in speaking to his master; longs for the plentiful hospitality of Camacho's wedding and Don Diego's house.

### Cide Hamete Benengeli

Expresses skepticism about the Cave of Montesinos adventure, calling it apocryphal and beyond reasonable bounds.

### The Cousin

Amazed at Sancho's boldness and Don Quixote's patience; lists four things he learned from the journey, including the origin of cards and the Guadiana river.

## Key lines

> I cannot convince or persuade myself that everything that is written in the preceding chapter could have precisely happened to the valiant Don Quixote; and for this reason, that all the adventures that have occurred up to the present have been possible and probable; but as for this one of the cave, I see no way of accepting it as true, as it passes all reasonable bounds.

Cide Hamete doubts the Cave of Montesinos adventure because it seems too fantastical compared to earlier plausible events.

_The narrator directly questions the veracity of the story, inviting the reader to judge._

> I’m off to the wars / For the want of pence, / Oh, had I but money / I’d show more sense.

The young page sings that he is going to war because he is poor, implying that wealth would make him choose differently.

_The seguidilla reflects the page's economic motivation for enlisting._

> for there is nothing on earth more honourable or profitable than serving, first of all God, and then one’s king and natural lord, particularly in the profession of arms, by which, if not more wealth, at least more honour is to be won than by letters

Don Quixote tells the page that military service brings greater honor than scholarly pursuits.

_Don Quixote reiterates his preference for arms over letters, a key theme in his worldview._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-xxiv
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/don_quixote_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters