How we cite our quotes: (Part.Book.Chapter.Paragraph) We use the P. A. Motteux translation from 1712 for our quotes. Some familiar character names appear differently in this edition (Sancho Panza is Sancho Panca here, Rocinante is Rozinante, and Doña Rodriguez is Donna Rodriguez). We preserve Motteux's spellings in our quotes but use the more familiar versions of these names in our analysis.
Quote #4
"Death, put on some kind disguise,/ And at once my heart surprise;/ For 'tis such a curse to live,/ And so great a bliss to die." (2.1.38.9)
The Countess of Trifaldi tells a heart-wrenching story about a young man using music to convince a young lady to have sex with him. Now, when it comes to pledging your love, there's nothing better than saying you'd rather die than live without someone. In the world of love poetry, death is kind of like a trump card. If you have to live without the person you love, you can just say, "Well, I'd rather die," and poof, you've gone as far as anyone can go. In this novel, we often get these equations: love=life, not love=death.
Quote #5
"[And] fearing more to live than to die, I am resolved almost to starve myself; though to die with hunger be the most cruel of all deaths" (2.1.59.1)
After getting trampled by a bunch of bulls, Don Quixote starts to lose confidence in his abilities as a knight. He decides that the only way to save his honor is to starve himself to death, since killing yourself in the most painful possible way is the only way to make up for doing something shameful with your life… apparently.
Quote #6
"There is only one thing, which somebody once put into my head, that I dislike in sleep; it is, that it resembles death." (2.1.68.2)
Sancho loves to get himself a good night's sleep. Apart from food, in fact, there might not be anything he likes more. The only thing he doesn't really like about it is that being asleep is very similar to being dead. Hmm.