Secondary 10 – Teachers Learn ETD

Secondary Course 10
Don Quixote

At the end of this web page there is a free downloadable copy of Act 1 of the play. We encourage you to write Act 2

Don Quixote de la Mancha

Description:
It has been called the most popular book in history after the Bible and the first modern novel. Mark Twain was a passionate fan. Flaubert modelled Madame Bovary after it. Dostoyevsky reimagined its protagonist in The Idiot. And Borges looked at it as the gravitational centre of Hispanic civilisation. Milan Kundera said that “Cervantes teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question.”

Many years ago as a director with comedy writer, Alick Rowe, and leading actor, Timothy West, I won the Sony Award for Best Use of Comedy in Radio. At the read through I said to the actors, “I don’t want anybody to laugh. Comedy is a very serious business. You need a stiff upper lip.” Similarly the comic genius of Cervantes, a master of Spanish irony, portrays a ridiculous Don Quixote, who always takes himself seriously.

Unit 1

Richard Hartley’s score to the 2000 film Don Quixote is useful for backgrounds and as bridging between scenes.

This magnificent Turkish production of Ludwig Minkus’ ballet and the Chicago production of Massenet’s opera may also inspire you.

Warm Up Song

The Impossible Dream, scene from Man of La Mancha (1972) with Peter O’Toole as Quixote and Sophia Loren as Dulcinea. Simon Gilbert dubbed Peter O’Toole’s singing voice. Inspire your students to join in singing the song. Also for your production of the play encourage them either to compose and perform their own music; or to find music from Hartley, Minkus or Massenet.

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
And to run where
The brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
And to love, pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march
March into hell
For that heavenly cause
And I know
If I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart
Will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest
And the world will be
Better for this
That one man, scorned
And covered with scars
Still strove with his last
Ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable
The unreachable
The unreachable star
And I’ll always dream
The impossible dream
Yes, and I’ll reach
The unreachable star

Background to Don Quixote

This knowledge should inspire creative ideas for the production of the play and help the actors to ‘inhabit the parts’. Your students could research more into each of these backgrounds.

Miguel de Cervantes

He was born in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, in 1547 probably on the 29th September, the Feast of Saint Michael, the archangel, slayer of dragons. His family were devout Catholics and when they moved to Cordova in Andalusia, Miguel went to an aristocratic, Jesuit school, famous for drama classes.

As a young man he wounded another man in a duel. As the punishment would have been to have had right hand cut off, he fled to Seville and worked for a cardinal before continuing to Rome, where after learning much Italian literature, he enlisted as a soldier.

In 1571 he fought valiantly in the great sea battle of Lepanto where Christians defeated the Moors, and where he was wounded. Sailing back to Spain, he was captured by Barbary pirates and sent five years as prisoner in Algiers, refusing to convert to Islam. Back in Spain he helped to prepare provisions for the Armada, but also got into trouble seizing wheat from landowners and spent spent some time in prison.

He had married Catalina de Salazar y Palacios in 1580 and he died in 1616, the same year as Shakespeare, having requested that ten masses be said for the repose of his soul.

Background to the Play.

Spanish Colonisation and Language.

Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492, although until he died he thought he had discovered part of Asia. In 1494, the governments of Spain and Portugal agreed to the Treaty of Tordesillas, whereby the “New World” of the Americas was divided between the two superpowers. By the time Cervantes was born in 1547 much of North, Central and South America had been colonized by Spain. (Portugal took Brazil, and parts of Africa and Asia). One effect of this has been that Spanish, after Mandarin, is now the most spoken language in the world. In the US the number of Spanish speakers has grown by 233% since 1980, while the Cervantes Institute predicts that the population in officially Spanish-speaking nations should reach 750 million by 2050

The Muslims in Spain.

In the year 711 Muslim Berbers later supported by Arab armies invaded Gibraltar and conquered most of the Visigothic Kingdom of Spain. Thus was established the most westerly branch of the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus. Muslim armies penetrated into France before being defeated by Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. La Reconquista, took over 700 years, starting with first Hispanic victory at Covadonga in the northern mountains of Spain in about 720 and ending by 1492, when the entire peninsula was controlled by Christian rulers. Meanwhile the Islamic Caliphate centred in Cordova in Andalusia has been described as the high point of Islam in the arts and in science, where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived, for the most part, creatively and harmoniously together. Cordova was described by the tenth century German female poet, Hroswitha, as ‘the ornament of the world’. It was an astonishing place, with nine hundred baths and tens of thousands of shops, hundreds or perhaps thousands of mosques, running water from aqueducts, and paved and well-lit streets. It was known for its encouragement of Sufism, Islamic mysticism, and Christians and Jews were free to worship openly. By the way when in scene 8 Don Quixote talks of the ‘evil prophet Mahomet’ the reader should not take this as Cervantes’ opinion. Remember that Cervantes has created a character who is frequently deluded.

Tales of Chivalry

They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventure , often of an heroic knight errant, who goes on a quest. In Don Quixote, Cervantes famously burlesqued them. Courtly love was an important theme in which the knight went on a quest to help and to win the heart of his beloved. Iberian romances of the 14th century praised monogamy and marriage in such tales as Amadis of Gaul or Greece, also known as the Knight of the Burning Sword. The behaviour of Sir Lancelot of the Lake from The Tales of King Arthur also conformed to the courtly love ideal.

Cervantes also draws on Greek mythology, for example with Briareus a monstrous giants with fifty heads and one hundred arms. Other names such as Friston, Alifanfaron, Garamantas, Pentapolin, Laurcalco, Micocolembo, and Brandabarbaran de Boliche, are I think Cervantes’ inventions; but he was immensely well read and it might be interesting to research these.

Three Spanish Saints Who, like Cervantes, Contributed to the Spanish Golden Age of Literature.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491 - 1556)

He was the youngest of 13 children of a noble family. As a young man, like Don Quixote, he was inspired by the ideals of courtly love and knighthood and dreamed of doing great deeds. He joined the army at seventeen, and according to one biographer, he strutted about “with his cape flying open to reveal his tight-fitting hose and boots; a sword and dagger at his waist”. He was seriously injured when a French force stormed the fortress of Pamplona, and a cannonball shattered his right leg. While recuperating, he read the lives of Jesus and the saints and in chivalric manner he lay his sword at the foot of a statue of Our Lady. He then spent several months in meditation in a cave, where he started to compose his famous Spiritual Exercises. Needing an education, he attended Paris University, where he gathered around him fellow students, who wanted to give their lives to something bigger than themselves. With this small group of friends, he founded the Jesuits, approved in 1540 by Pope Paul III. The Jesuits were to become ‘the spearhead’ of the Counter Reformation, and Ignatius was chosen as their first “Father General”. His concentration was on education and the missions and in 1548, the first Jesuit school was opened in Sicily. In 1585 they opened in East Asia a school in Macau that also soon developed into a university; and about the same time they founded in Japan a remarkable art school and workshop, in which local painters were introduced to Western techniques. The Jesuits have taught hundreds of thousands of students, among them Descartes, Moliere, Voltaire, Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes), Bill Clinton, Pope Francis, Alfred Hitchcock and, of course, Cervantes.

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582)

She was a Spanish noblewoman who as a child enjoyed romantic fiction, of the kind which Cervantes later lampooned in Don Quixote, and she seems to have had a brief flirtation with a young man connected with her family. They responded by placing her in a Carmelite nunnery, where—after an early shock at this comparatively spartan life—she came to believe that she had a lifetime’s vocation. Her religious development continued through her 20s and 30s and became progressively more intense; at times, she would enter a trance like state. Particularly embarrassing to her were episodes of involuntary levitation during prayer, which had induced weightlessness, widely reported and seemingly well authenticated at the time. She usedto say, “Please God put me down.”

She earned the rare distinction for a woman of being declared a Doctor of the Church. Her seminal work The Interior Castle, is today an integral part of Spanish Renaissance literature. However a papal legate at the time described her as “restless wanderer, disobedient, and stubborn woman who, under the title of devotion, invented bad doctrines.” Despite recurrent illnesses, Teresa lived into her late 60s, the last year being the most active, as she moved from place to place in Spain establishing new convents of the Discalced Carmelites—a total of 17 in her last 20 years. Inspired by her example, Carmelite friars as well as nuns began to organize reforms, the most distinguished of whom was Friar (ultimately Saint) John of the Cross, who for a time was Teresa’s confessor. He was many years her junior and admired her greatly but could still rebuke her when necessary. “When you make your confession, Mother,” he told her on one occasion, “you have a way of finding the prettiest excuses.”

Saint John of the Cross (1542 – 1591)

He was born of a converso family (descendants of Jewish converts to Catholicism) in Fontiveros, near Avila. He entered a school for poor children, mostly orphans, to receive a basic education, mainly in Christian doctrine. They were given some food, clothing and lodging. Growing up, he worked at a hospital and studied the humanities at a Jesuit school. He was the humblest of men, tiny in body and retiring in disposition, but Saint Teresa saw the greatness of his spirit . She singled him out to do for men what she was doing in the reforming the nuns of the Carmelite order. The work brought him many trials. One December night a group of Carmelites opposed to reform broke into his dwelling in Ávila and took him prisoner to the Carmelite monastery in Toledo, where he was jailed and kept under a brutal regime that included public lashings, and severe isolation in a tiny stifling cell measuring barely 10 feet by 6 feet. Except when rarely permitted an oil lamp, he had to stand on a bench to read by the light through the hole into the adjoining room. He had no change of clothing and a penitential diet of water, bread and scraps of salt fish. During his imprisonment, he composed poetry. The paper was passed to him by the friar who guarded his cell.

He had got into the habit of jotting down maxims to help others, and at their request he wrote a guide for those entering on the mysterious paths of mystical prayer. It seems as if poems just escaped from him; they are stanzas of a spontaneous and semi-ecstatic love song. Many were composed while he was in prison. His Songs of the Soul in Rapture have been beautifully translated by the South African poet Roy Campbell. Here is the first stanza:

En una noche oscura, Con ansias en amores inflamada oh dichosa ventura! Sali sin ser notada, Estando ya mi casa sosegada.	Upon a gloomy night with all my cares to loving ardours flushed, (O venture of delight!) With nobody in sight I went abroad when all my house was hushed.
After eight months imprisonment he managed to squeeze through a small window in a room adjoining his cell. (He had managed to prise open the hinges of the cell door earlier that day.) He let himself down the steep wall using blankets as a rope and escaped.

Stage Play of Don Quixote

Dramatised for stage, opera and ballet over the Centuries

Persons in the Play	Their Role Types
Cervantes.	The author and narrator.
Don Quixote	The Ingenious gentleman of La Mancha
Antonia	Don Quixote’s niece, a woman under twenty.
The Curate	A learned priest, otherwise known as Señor Licentiate Pero Perez.
The Barber	He normally shaves Don Quixote once a week.
Sancho Panza	A peasant who becomes don Quixote’s squire.
Aldonza	A peasant girl, who for for Don Quixotes becomes his Lady Dulcinea.
Innkeeper	Whom Don Quixote takes for the Lord of the Castle.
Ladies	Of ill repute in the Inn. One has a short speech but others can ad lib.
Ruffians	They throw Don Quixote out of the inn.
Monk 1	A Benedictine friar
Monk 2	Another Benedictine friar
Lady Angelica	On her way to Seville to meet her husband.

Act 1. Scene 1

Setting	Don Quixote’s study.
Characters	Cervantes, Don Quixote, Antonia, Curate, Barber.
Furniture and Props	Book shelves, books, sword, rusty sword of armour, a morrion (Spanish style open helmet), a rag and a bottle of vinegar, a cut throat razor.
Sounds and Music	See above for bridging and background music.

The Images below are intended to inspire ideas for characters, costumes, props, settings, etc.

WE ARE IN DON QUIXOTE’S STUDY. HE IS A GAUNT AND GRIZZLED MAN IN HIS FIFTIES, SURROUNDED BY SHELVES OF BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS LYING EVERYWHERE ELSE THAT YOU CAN IMAGINE. THERE IS ALSO A SWORD, A RUSTY SUIT OF ARMOUR, A MORRION (A SPANISH OPEN HELMET), A RAG AND A BOTTLE OF VINEGAR. MANY OF THE BOOKS ARE LYING OPEN WITH LAVISH ILLUSTRATIONS OF KNIGHTS IN SHINING ARMOUR AND DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. DON QUIXOTE IS MUMBLING OVER ONE OF THESE BOOKS. CERVANTES, WHO ACTS AS NARRATOR FROM TIME TO TIME, IS AT THE SIDE OF THE STAGE.
CERVANTES:	Don Quixote read books of chivalry with such ardour that he neglected everything else in life. His fancy grew full of enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, agonies, and all sorts of impossible nonsense. His brains got so dry that he lost his wits.
(HIS NIECE, ANTONIA, ENTERS WITH THE CURATE AND THE BARBER.)
ANTONIA:	Dear uncle you read too much and eat too little.
DON QUIXOTE:	I shall take up the glorious burdens of knighthood. I shall be Don Quixote de la Mancha. I shall be famous like Sir Lancelot of the Lake and the valiant Amadis de Gaul.
CURATE:	Sit down. There’s no need for high words.
BARBER:	I’m sure Don Quixote needs a shave.
DON QUIXOTE:	Words and visions should be high. Highest of all should be the fair lady of a knight’s heart. Let us remember the golden age when knights roamed the world and did good deeds for no reward. I shall emulate the Knight of the Burning Sword who with one back-stroke cut in half two fierce and monstrous giants.
ANTONIA:	Noble uncle why don’t you sit down and let the good barber shave you
CURATE:	Perhaps your days of adventure are over.
(THE BARBER TAKES A CUT THROAT RAZOR READY TO SHAVE DON QUIXOTE.)
DON QUIXOTE:	Over !!?? They haven’t yet begun!
(HE KNOCKS THE RAZOR OUT OF THE BARBER’S HAND AND PICKS UP A RUSTY OLD SWORD THAT HE SLASHES TOWARDS THE OTHERS, DRIVING THEM OUT OF HIS STUDY.)
CURATE:	(BACKING AWAY AND LEAVING) Calm! Calm my son!
BARBER:	(LEAVING) Perhaps another day, Sir.
ANTONIA:	(LEAVING) Be careful uncle, you’ll hurt yourself.
DON QUIXOTE:	Now for a suit of armour worthy of a valiant knight.
(BUT THEN HE IS IMMEDIATELY DISTRACTED. HE PUTS DOWN THE ARMOUR AND CLOTH AND PICKS UP A MORRION.)
DON QUIXOTE:	No closed helmet, nothing but a simple morrion. I will afix some bars to make it a helmet of the most perfect construction, worthy of a knight errant.
(HE STARTS TO SEARCH FOR SOME IRON BARS, SCRATCHING HIS HEAD AS TO HOW HER SHOULD FIX THEM TO THE MORRION. CERVANTES STEPS FORTH.)
CERVANTES:	There we shall leave him for a week preparing his accoutrements, before sallying forth to prepare his noble steed and to appoint a courageous squire.
(THE CURTAIN DESCENDS ON DON QUIXOTE WORKING AWAY.)

Act 1. Scene 2

Setting	At the edge of a village in La Mancha.
Characters	Don Quixote, Sancho Panza
Furniture and Props	Hobby Horse and Donkey Hobby Horse, lance, armour.
Sounds and Music	Whinny of horse

(THE CURTAIN RISES. WE ARE OUTSIDE AT THE EDGE OF THE VILLAGE. DON QUIXOTE ENTERS IN FULL AMOUR, CARRYING A LANCE, WITH A SWORD AT HIS SIDE AND RIDING A HOBBY HORSE. THE HOBBY HORSE CAN BE A BROOM HANDLE WITH A HORSE’S HEAD ATTACHED AT THE TOP AND PERHAPS A WHEEL AFFIXED AT THE BOTTOM.)
CERVANTES:	Don Quixote decided that a horse belonging to a knight so famous, should have a lofty and sonorous name befitting the first and foremost of all the hacks in the world.
(DON QUIXOTE DISMOUNTS (WITH A LITTLE DIFFICULTY AS HE IS HOLDING HIS LANCE), AND TURNS THE HOBBY HORSE TO FACE HIM.)
DON QUIXOTE:	I christen thee Rocinante.
(SOUND EFFECT OF A WHINNYING OF A HORSE.)
DON QUIXOTE	And now every Knight should have shield bearer or as they say a Squire.
(AS IF ON CUE A FAT PEASANT WITH A DONKEY HOBBY HORSE WALKS ON.)
DON QUIXOTE	Ah Sancho Panza, the very man.
SANCHO:	The very man for what?
DON QUIXOTE	You are sent by Providence to be my squire.
SANCHO:	(BEWILDERED) W…. what?
DON QUIXOTE	Sancho, when you were a boy didn’t you dream of adventure? What would you say to a great adventure?
SANCHO:	My wife has told me to collect manure and to hurry up.
DON QUIXOTE	Sancho there is a world beyond La Mancha. There is a great elsewhere. We shall rescue fair maidens and slay wicked giants. It will be a great honour.
SANCHO:	Honour? How much does honour pay by the hour?
DON QUIXOTE	Many a knight in the course of his travels has conquered an island.
SANCHO:	An island? A whole island?
DON QUIXOTE	At any moment an adventure might occur that might win an island in the twinkling of an eye and leave you the governor of it.
SANCHO:	So where is this island?
DON QUIXOTE	At any moment an adventure might occur that might win an island in the twinkling of an eye and leave you the governor of it.
SANCHO:	I’m not much of a walker. Can I bring my donkey?
DON QUIXOTE	I have not heard of a knight whose squire rode a donkey.
SANCHO:	Maybe I’ll be the first.
DON QUIXOTE:	Perhaps there is some virtue in that. I have sold four fields and mortgaged the house. We are provided for the journey; and you are to be favoured with a new shirt.
CERVANTES:	And so on these and like promises the labourer, Sancho Panza, left wife and children, and engaged himself as esquire to his neighbour.

Act 1. Scene 3

Setting	Outside a peasant’s house .
Characters	Don Quixote, Aldonza.
Furniture and Props	A washing line with clothes drying.

CERVANTES:	There was, so the story goes, in a village near his own a very good-looking farm-girl with whom he had been at one time in love. Her name was Aldonza Lorenzo, and upon her he thought fit to confer the title of Lady of his Thoughts.
(OUTSIDE A PEASANT’S HOUSE. ALDONZA IS HANGING OUT WASHING. DON QUIXOTE APPROACHES.)
DON QUIXOTE:	Fair Dulcinea I have chosen you as the lady, on whom I might bestow the empire of my heart.
ALDONZA:	Very kind of you I’m sure, but my name’s Aldonza.
DON QUIXOTE:	No longer. I have decided you are my lady, Dulcinea. A knight errant without a mistress is a vine without grapes, a body without a soul.
ALDONZA:	I’m to be a mistress?
DON QUIXOTE:	For the next four years you shall not see me.
ALDONZA:	What sort of mistress is that?
DON QUIXOTE:	I shall be travelling the world, fighting giants and any who deny that the fairest of the fair is my lady Dulcinea.
ALDONZA:	Fighting? Don’t go to any trouble for me.. Anyway I am moving to Toboso.
DON QUIXOTE:	Dulcinea de Toloso, will you honour me with some token?
ALDONZA:	A token?
DON QUIXOTE:	A token to be reminded of you wherever I roam.
ALDONZA:	Um….
(SHE SEARCHES ABOUT HER PERSON AND DISCOVERS A RAG.)
ALDONZA:	It’s only a wash rag.
DON QUIXOTE:	I’d sooner lose a limb, than be parted from such a precious favour. Farewell Dulcinea deToboso. I ride in your honour for you are truly the mistress of this hapless heart.
(HE RIDES AWAY AND AFTER STARING AFTER HIM, SHE CONTINUES TO HANG UP THE WASHING.)

Act 1. Scene 4

Setting	Inside an Inn.
Characters	Don Quixote, Innkeeper, ladies of ill repute, ruffians.
Furniture and Props	Sword
Sounds and Music	Jeering laughter.

CERVANTES:	His next mission was to be dubbed a knight, for it was plain to him he could not lawfully engage in any adventure without receiving the order of knighthood. And so I have found written in the annals of La Mancha, that he was on the road all day, and towards nightfall his hack and he found themselves dead tired and hungry, when, looking all around to see if he could discover any castle or shepherd’s shanty where he might refresh himself, he perceived not far out of his road an inn, which appeared to him as a castle, with turrets and pinnacles of shining silver. It was as welcome to him as a star guiding him to its portals.
(THE CURTAIN RISES TO REVEAL THE INSIDE A NOISY, DIRTY INN WITH CUSTOMERS AND GIRLS OF LITTLE REPUTATION. CLAD IN FULL ARMOUR DON QUIXOTE ENTERS AND BOWS TO ONE OF THE GIRLS.)
DON QUIXOTE:	My lady.
(SHE IS VERY SURPRISED BUT SHE GIGGLES, AS DO SOME OF THE OTHER GIRLS. HE THEN APPROACHES THE INGRATIATING INNKEEPER.)
DON QUIXOTE :	My lord, I humbly request to rest myself and my horse for the night in this most magnificent of castles.
INNKEEPER:	We will provide food, wine, (INDICATING ONE OF THE GIRLS) perhaps a tight sheathe for your sword. We live only to serve you. What is your pleasure, Senor?
(DON QUIXOTE KNEELS BEFORE HIM.)
DON QUIXOTE:	I shall not rise from this spot until you grant me what I ask.
INNKEEPER:	What is that?
DON QUIXOTE:	My Lord, I beg you to dub me a knight.
(EVERYBODY LAUGHS.)
INNKEEPER:	You want me to dub you.
DON QUIXOTE:	So that I may roam this world, protecting those in need, heeding the trumpet call of chivalry.
INNKEEPER:	This not a jest?
DON QUIXOTE:	You may use my sword.
(THE INNKEEPER TAKES THE SWORD AND TOUCHES IT TO DON QUIXOTE’S SHOULDER.)
DON QUIXOTE:	My Lord, you have made me the happiest of knights. How may I thank you for this honour?
INNKEEPER:	If the happiest of knights could settle his bill that would be thanks enough.
DON QUIXOTE:	Alas I am sorry sir. It is not customary for knights to carry money.
INNKEEPER:	(SHOUTS) What!? Another imposter, another vagabond! Out with him lads./span>
(FOUR BURLY MEN PICK UP DON QUIXOTE. TAKE HIM TO THE DOOR AND THROW HIM OUT. WE HEAR A LOUD CLASH OF ARMOUR, SWORD, ETC, FALLING TO THE GROUND. WE THEN HEAR DON QUIXOTE SHOUT.)
DON QUIXOTE:	Despicable ruffian. May your castle crumble like mouldy cake.

Act 1. Scene 5

Setting	Don Quixote’s study.
Characters	Cervantes, Antonia, Curate.
Furniture and Props	Books.
Sounds and Music	See above for bridging and background music.

The Images are intended to inspire ideas for characters, costumes, props, settings, etc.

(WE ARE IN DON QUIXOTE’S STUDY AS IN SCENE 1. ANTONIA AND THE CURATE ARE THERE SURVEYING THE PILES OF BOOKS.)
CERVANTES:	Don Quixote returned home, battered and bruised and retired to bed.
ANTONIA:	I am so worried about him. What kind of mischief did he get into?
(SHE STARTS PICKING UP BOOKS AND THROWING THEM OFF STAGE.)
THE CURATE:	What are you doing?
ANTONIA	These books are going to be burnt.
THE CURATE:	That’s hardly necessary.
ANTONIA	What if he had been seriously hurt or even killed? I blame you for this.
THE CURATE:	Me? That’s ridiculous.
ANTONIA	Who brought him these books. Who came here night after night to share all these tales of chivalry?
THE CURATE:	These books aren’t the root of his madness.
ANTONIA	These accursed books deserve to be burned like heretics.
THE CURATE:	I will sprinkle them with holy water.
ANTONIA	No time for that. We must burn them before he wakes up.
THE CURATE:	Very well. I agree. May they be condemned to the flames lest they lead those that read to behave as my good friend seems to have behaved.
(HE HELPS TO CARRY OUT PILES OF BOOKS. THEN WE HEAR A WHOOSH OF FLAMES AND THE CRACKLE OF BURNING.)
CERVANTES:	That night they burned to ashes all the books that were in the yard and in the whole house.
(A RED AND YELLOW LIGHT FLICKERS FROM THE SIDE OF THE STAGE FROM WHERE THE BOOKS DISAPPEARED.)
CERVANTES:	Some must have been consumed that deserved preservation in everlasting archives, but their fate and the laziness of the examiners did not permit it, and so in them was verified the proverb that the innocent suffer for the guilty.
(ANTONIA AND THE CURATE BRING IN PLASTER BOARDS AND PLACE THEM IN FRONT OF THE BOOK SHELVES.)
CERVANTES:	Before Don Quixote should rise from his bed the Curate and Antonia decided to wall up and plaster the room where the books had been kept.
(ANTONIA AND THE CURATE LEAVE AND THEN DON QUIXOTE WANDERS IN AND STARTS SEARCHING FOR HIS BOOKS.)
CERVANTES:	Two days later Don Quixote got up, and the first thing he did was to go look for his books.
(ANTONIA AND THE CURATE ENTER AGAIN.)
DON QUIXOTE:	What has happened to my books?
CURATE:	There are no books in the house now. The devil has carried all of them away.
ANTONIA:	It was not the devil, but a magician who came on a cloud one night after the day your worship left this mansion, and dismounting from a serpent that he rode he entered the room, and what he did there I know not, but after a little while he made off, flying through the roof, and left the house full of smoke; and when we went to see what he had done we saw no more books.
DON QUIXOTE:	He must have been Friston, a cunning magician, a great enemy of mine. He has a spite against me because he knows I am to engage in single combat with a knight whom he befriends and that I am to conquer, and he will be unable to prevent it; and for this reason he endeavours to do me all the ill turns that he can. I promise him it will be hard for him to oppose or avoid what is decreed by Heaven.
CERVANTES:	After that Don Quixote stayed quietly at home for fifteen days before setting out for some great adventures.
(THE CURTAIN DESCENDS.)

Act 1. Scene 6

Setting	Countryside with windmills..
Characters	Cervantes, Don Quixote, Sancho Panza.
Furniture and Props	Hobby Horse, Hobby donkey, windmill sail, lance, sword.
Sounds and Music	Wind, creaking of windmill sails, dramatic music.

The Images are intended to inspire ideas for characters, costumes, props, settings, etc.

(DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHO ON THEIR HOBBY HORSE AND HOBBY DONKEY APPROACH A BACKDROP OF MANY WINDMILLS.)
CERVANTES:	At this point they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that there are on that plain.
DON QUIXOTE:	Our adventure starts better than I could have hoped.
SANCHO:	What are you on about?
DON QUIXOTE:	Outrageous giants. Thirty of the brutes at least. I intend to encounter them and to deprive them of life. The destruction of their cursed brood is a task worthy of a knight, and acceptable to heaven. Today we shall win a tremendous victory. Do you agree?
SANCHO:	There’s only one objection I can see.
DON QUIXOTE:	What’s that?
SANCHO:	It’s only a slight objection.
DON QUIXOTE:	Speak up man.
SANCHO:	I can’t see no giants.
DON QUIXOTE:	See their arms waving. Some of that detested race have arms a mile long. But I shall bring them to their knees.
SANCHO:	They’re not arms sir, they’re the sails of windmills, harmless devices, grinding corn, I’ll be bound.
DON QUIXOTE:	(MOCKING) Harmless devices! Get down on your knees and pray, if you have no courage. (SHOUTS) Here me giants, the combat is unequal but I fight for heaven and the lady Dulcinea.
(WE HEAR A THE CREAKING OF WIND SAILS. DRAMATIC MUSIC.)
DON QUIXOTE:	Though ye flourish more arms than the giant Briareus, ye have to reckon with me.
(HE CHARGES ACROSS THE STAGE. A SAIL OF A WINDMILL COMES FROM THE SIDE OF THE STAGE AND SCOOPS DON QUIXOTE AWAY. OFF STAGE WE HEAR HIM CALL “AAAAARGH!”. HE IS THEN THROWN BACK ONTO THE STAGE. SANCHO APPROACHES HIS PROSTRATE FIGURE.)
SANCHO:	It seems the giant won.
DON QUIXOTE:	It was the cursed wizard and necromancer, Friston.
SANCHO:	Who?
DON QUIXOTE:	He turned the giant into a windmill to defeat me.
SANCHO:	It seems that wizard has left you with some fine bruises.
DON QUIXOTE:	The bruises and the medals of honour.
(HE TRIES TO GET UP. HE IS OBVIOUSLY IN PAIN.)
DON QUIXOTE:	Help me to my feet Sancho.
(SANCHO DOES SO. THE CURTAIN CLOSES.)

Act 1. Scene 7

Setting	Countryside.
Characters	Cervantes, Don Quixote, Sancho Panza.’ Monk 1, Monk 2, Lady Angelica.
Furniture and Props	3 Hobby Horses, 1 Hobby donkey, Open coach.2windmill sail, lance, sword.
Sounds and Music	Dramatic music.

The Images are intended to inspire ideas for characters, costumes, props, settings, etc.

(ANOTHER PART OF LA MANCHA COUNTRYSIDE WITHOUT WINDMILLS. DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHO ARE RIDING THEIR STEEDS AGAIN. TWO BENEDICTINE MONKS ENTER THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STAGE. BEHIND THEM ARE TWO RIDERS ON HOBBY HORSES PULLING AN OPEN CARRIAGE WITH THE LADY ANGELICA WITHIN.)
CERVANTES:	Further on our heroes’ journey there appeared on the road two Benedictine monks. Behind them came a coach, in which there was a Biscay lady on her way to Seville, where her husband was about to take passage for the Indies. The friars, though going the same road, were not in her company; but the moment Don Quixote perceived them he said to his squire:
DON QUIXOTE:	Those black bodies are doubtless enchanters who are carrying off some stolen princess in that coach. They are servants of the dark prince, Friston. With all my might I must undo this wrong. Sancho, prepare for adventure.
SANCHO:	Please God, not another one!
DON QUIXOTE:	They have stolen the fair Angelica, more beautiful than all ladies – except for my lady Dulcinea.
SANCHO:	By the way those enchanters do have the look of monks.
DON QUIXOTE:	Silence Sancho, you know nothing about enchanters. Ride Rocinante to the rescue!
(HE CHARGES ACROSS THE STAGE ON HIS HOBBY HORSE, SHOUTING AT THE MONKS.)
DON QUIXOTE:	Devilish and unnatural beings, release instantly the highborn princess, whom you are carrying off by force in this coach, else prepare to meet a speedy death as the just punishment of your evil deeds.
MONK 1:	(ASIDE) What did he call us?
MONK 2:	(ASIDE) Devilish and unnatural beings.
MONK 1:	(CALLING) We are holy monks.
MONK 2:	(CALLING) Devout members of the order of Saint Benedict.
DON QUIXOTE:	No soft words with me, for I know you, lying rabble. Prepare to fight Don Quixote de la Mancha, protector of the innocent!
HE KNOCKS MONK 1 DOWN AND MONK 2 RUNS AWAY. WHILE QUIXOTE APPROACHES THE LADY, SANCHO RUNS TO THE SMITTEN MONK, LYING ON THE GROUND WITH HIS EYES CLOSED.
SANCHO:	(TO HIMSELF) Oh my God, he’s killed a monk.
AS SANCHO BENDS OVER HIM THE MONK OPENS HIS EYES.
MONK 1:	Am I in heaven? Are you an angel?
SANCHO:	Hardly.
MEANWHILE DON QUIXOTE ADDRESSES THE LADY.
DON QUIXOTE:	Princess, you are now freed to take your beautiful self elsewhere.
LADY ANGELICA:	I am a married woman on my way to meet my husband in Seville.
DON QUIXOTE:	Ah traveling incognito, I see. The evil spirits that captured you have been put to flight.
LADY ANGELICA:	Evil spirits? They are two holy men. They heard my confession.
SANCHO:	(ASIDE TO THE AUDIENCE) She needs two confessors?
LADY ANGELICA::	Who are you exactly?
DON QUIXOTE:	Princess, I am your servant. I ask only that you go to the village of El Toboso, and present (INDICATING THE PROSTRATE MONK) that lying wretch before the peerless lady Dulcinea, that she deal with him as shall be most pleasing to her. Otherwise I expect no reward. I wish only to serve you.
LADY ANGELICA:	Sir, I must join my husband. (TO THE DRIVERS) drive on!
(THEY DO LEAVING THE PROSTATE MONK AND THE OTHERS AND THE COACH LEAVES THE STAGE. CURTAIN..)

Act 1. Scene 8

Setting	Countryside.
Characters	Cervantes, Don Quixote, Sancho Panza.
Furniture and Props	1 Hobby Horse, 1 Hobby donkey.
Sounds and Music	Dramatic music, sheep bleating, drum rolls, trumpets, marching feet, jingling of armour.

The Images are intended to inspire ideas for characters, costumes, props, settings, etc.

(LA MANCHA COUNTRYSIDE. DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHO ARE CONTINUING THEIR QUEST ON THEIR HOBBY HORSES.)
SANCHO:	Apart from our knocking down a monk, it seems we have had little suucess so far as knight errants. Also I am wondering when we are going to find my island.
DON QUIXOTE:	Henceforward I hope to have a sword made by such craft that no enchantments can take effect upon him who carries it, and it is even possible that fortune may procure for me that which belonged to Amadis when he was called ‘The Knight of the Burning Sword.’
(WE HEAR THE DISTANT BLEATING OF MANY SHEEP.)
DON QUIXOTE:	You see that cloud of dust which rises yonder? It is churned up by a vast army.
(THE BLEATING OF THE SHEEP MIXES INTO THE ROLLS OF DRUMS, TRUMPETS AND THE MARCHING FEET AND JINGLING ARMOUR OF THOUSANDS OF SOLDIERS. DURING THE FOLLOWING SPEECHES WE SHALL MIX BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE SOUNDS OF THE OPPOSING ARMIES AMD THE BLEATING OF THE SHEEP.)
SANCHO:	What are we to do Senor?
DON QUIXOTE:	Give aid to the weak and those who need it. This army opposite to us is led by the mighty emperor Alifanfaron, lord of the great isle of Trapobana. This other that marches behind me is that of his enemy the king of the Garamantas, Pentapolin of the Bare Arm, for he always goes into battle with his right arm bare.
SANCHO:	Why are these two lords enemies?
DON QUIXOTE:	Alifanfaron is a furious pagan and is in love with the daughter of Pentapolin, who is a very beautiful and a Christian, and her father is unwilling to bestow her upon the pagan king unless he first abandons the religion of his false prophet Mahomet, and adopts his own.
SANCHO:	By my beard Pentapolin does right. I will help him as much as I can.
DON QUIXOTE:	That knight yonder in yellow armour, who bears upon his shield a lion crowned crouching at the feet of a damsel, is the valiant Laurcalco, lord of the Silver Bridge; that one in armour with flowers of gold, who bears on his shield three crowns argent on an azure field, is the dreaded Micocolembo, grand duke of Quirocia; that other of gigantic frame is the ever dauntless Brandabarbaran de Boliche, lord of the three Arabias. He has for shield a gate which, according to tradition, is one of those of the temple that Samson brought to the ground when by his death he revenged himself upon his enemies.
SANCHO:	Señor, devil take it if there’s a sign of any man you talk of, knight or giant, in the whole thing; maybe it’s all enchantment, like the windmills and the devilish and unnatural beings.
DON QUIXOTE:	Don’t you hear the neighing of the steeds, the braying of the trumpets, the roll of the drums?
SANCHO:	I hear nothing but a great bleating of sheep.
DON QUIXOTE:	Fear prevents you from seeing or hearing correctly.
THEN GALLOPPING ROUND AND ROUND THE STAGE HE SHOUTS.
DON QUIXOTE:	Ho, knights, who fight under the banners of the valiant emperor Pentapolin follow me. You shall see how easily I shall give him revenge over his enemy Alifanfaron.
SO SAYING HE DISAPPEARS OFF THE STAGE AND WE HEAR DRAMATIC MUSIC AND A GREAT BAAING OF SHEEP AND SHOUTING OF SHEPHERDS OFF STAGE. SANCHO WAITS WHILE CERVANTES STEPS FORTH AND NARRATES.
CERVANTES:	A shepherd threw a massive stone at him that broke a couple of his ribs; and another threw a stone that knocked out three of his teeth. He collapsed and the shepherds sure that they had killed him; collected their flock together, took up the dead beasts, of which there were more than seven, and made off. Our hero managed to get up and lie over Rocinante who brought him back to Sancho.
CERVANTES STEPS BACK AND DON QUIXOTE WITH HIS HOBBY HORSE STAGGERS ONTO THE STAGE.
SANCHO:	I told you they were not armies but droves of sheep.
DON QUIXOTE:	My malignant enemy, envious of the glory he knew I was to win in this battle, turned the squadrons of the enemy into droves of sheep. Bear in mind, Sancho, that all these tempests that fall upon us are signs that fair weather is coming shortly, and that things will go well with us, for it is impossible for good or evil to last for ever; and hence it follows that the evil having lasted long, the good must be now at hand.
SANCHO:	Your worship would make a better preacher than knight-errant.
DON QUIXOTE:	Sancho, feel with your finger, and find out how many of my teeth are missing from the right side of the upper jaw, for it is there I feel the pain.
SANCHO DOES SO.
SANCHO:	Three I think, my lord.
DON QUIXOTE:	I had rather they despoiled me of an arm, so it were not the sword-arm. A mouth without teeth is like a mill without a millstone, and a tooth is much more to be prized than a diamond; but we who profess the austere order of chivalry are liable to all this. Mount, friend, and lead the way, and I will follow thee at whatever pace thou wilt.
THEY LEAVE THE STAGE. CURTAIN. END OF ACT 1.

I now challenge readers to write eight scenes for Act 2. They can dramatize chapters from the book in English or from the Gutenberg Don Quixote, translated by John Ormsby, which is out of copyright and which you will find online. For a start I suggest looking at:

Volume 1 Chapter 21 where the golden helmet of the noble Saracen Mamrino is stolen by Renaldo the Bald.
Volume 1 Chapter 22 where Don Quixote frees convicts.
Chapter 26, where Don Quixote takes a travelling drama show to be real and intervenes to attack the actors playing Moors.

You have a wealth of material to choose from. You might also choose to write an audio script, in which case you will find useful advice and examples in previous chapters.

Further Activity

The teacher gives the students rewards, perhaps an English through Drama certificate.

For their homework please let them draw any character or action from “Don Quixote” Also write his/her name on the picture.

Or for homework continue with finding the answers to research questions.

Or best of all get the students to complete their own version of the script.

Once they have done this your school or drama club can also produce and perform Act 1 of the stage version of Don Quixote. With your students you can write Act 2.

You can submit your students’ pictures to the English through Drama website. The best pictures will go on the website. If they wish we shall add their name, school and / or country.

We have several pages with advice on how to write, direct and act in an audio play. Have a listen! You might be inspired to create your own audio play!

We have advice on the use of music in plays and particularly the music of the great classical composers and of film music. Have a read and a listen !

Secondary Course 10Don Quixote

At the end of this web page there is a free downloadable copy of Act 1 of the play. We encourage you to write Act 2

Don Quixote de la Mancha

Unit 1

Warm Up Song

Background to Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes

Background to the Play.

Spanish Colonisation and Language.

The Muslims in Spain.

Tales of Chivalry

Three Spanish Saints Who, like Cervantes, Contributed to the Spanish Golden Age of Literature.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491 - 1556)

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582)

Saint John of the Cross (1542 – 1591)

Stage Play of Don Quixote

Dramatised for stage, opera and ballet over the Centuries

Act 1. Scene 1

Act 1. Scene 2

Act 1. Scene 3

Act 1. Scene 4

Act 1. Scene 5

Act 1. Scene 6

Act 1. Scene 7

Act 1. Scene 8

Further Activity

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Secondary Course 10
Don Quixote