Pablo de Segovia, the Spanish Sharper · Chapter
Chapter IV explained
Pablo and Don Diego stop at an inn on the way to Alcalá, where they are tricked by a group of sharpers, including two scholars and a curate, who pretend to be Don Diego's relatives and friends.
What happens
Pablo and Don Diego stop at an inn on the way to Alcalá, where they are tricked by a group of sharpers, including two scholars and a curate, who pretend to be Don Diego's relatives and friends. The tricksters manipulate Don Diego into treating them to supper, then play a prank on a sleeping shopkeeper by replacing his lozenges with stones and ruining his wine. The next morning, the old man discovers the prank, and the company laughs at him. Pablo and Don Diego arrive in Alcalá, humiliated by the deception.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Trickery
The scholars and bullies use deception to get a free meal and entertain themselves at the expense of Don Diego and the old shopkeeper.
Satire of Hypocrisy
The sharpers pretend to be Don Diego's relatives and friends, while the curate and scholars engage in gluttony and deceit, mocking religious and social pretensions.
Appearance vs. Reality
The false recognition and flattery hide the true intentions of the tricksters, and the old shopkeeper's wallet appears to contain valuables but is filled with rubbish.
Characters to notice
- Pablo de Segovia
Narrates the events at the inn, feeling puffed up with vanity when mistaken for a gentleman's servant, and later curses the tricksters.
- Don Diego Coronel
The young master who is tricked into treating the sharpers to supper, and is amazed by the false recognition.
- Toribio Rodriguez Vallejo
One of the scholars who pretends to be Don Diego's cousin and orchestrates the prank on the old shopkeeper.
- Master Cabra
Not directly present, but the scholar references Don Diego's grandfather who swooned at a lettuce, a possible allusion to Cabra's miserly ways.
Key passages
“My master, as being the last comer and but a boy, said, 'Landlord, get what you have in the house for me and two servants.' 'We are all your servants, sir,' said the sharpers, 'and will wait on you. Here, landlord, take notice; this gentleman will stand treat; fetch out all you have in the larder.'”
Don Diego, being young and the last to arrive, orders food for himself and his servants, but the tricksters immediately claim to be his servants and encourage the innkeeper to bring out all the food, implying Don Diego will pay.
The sharpers quickly take advantage of Don Diego's naivety by pretending to serve him while actually planning to eat at his expense.
“One of the scholars went up to him, with tears in his eyes, and embracing him, as if he had been his brother, said, 'O my dear Don Diego! who would have thought, ten years ago, to have seen you thus. Unhappy man, I am in such a condition that you will not know me.'”
A scholar pretends to recognize Don Diego as an old friend or relative, crying and embracing him, claiming he is in such a sorry state that Don Diego wouldn't recognize him.
This false recognition is a classic trick to gain sympathy and free hospitality.
“The scholar put all again into the wallet, and a great stone into the hood of his travelling coat, and then he and all the rest went to bed, to sleep about an hour or little more.”
After replacing the shopkeeper's lozenges with stones and ruining his wine, the scholar also puts a heavy stone into the hood of the old man's coat before they all go to bed.
The prank is carefully planned to cause confusion and embarrassment for the old man the next morning.