-To which said Sancho, ‘Sir, I am so unlucky that I fear I shall not see the day in which I may see myself in that happy life. Oh, what neat spoons shall I make when I am shepherd! What hodge-potches and cream! what garlands and other pastoral trumperies! that though they get me not a fame of being wise, yet they shall that I am witty. My little daughter Sanchica shall bring our dinner to the flock; but soft, she is handsome, and you have shepherds more knaves than fools, and I would not have her come for wool, and return shorn: and your loose desires are as incident to the fields as to cities, and as well in shepherds’ cottages as princes’ palaces; and the cause being removed, the sin will be saved, and the heart dreams not of what the eye sees not, and better a fair pair of heels than die at the gallows.’
‘No more proverbs, Sancho,’ said Don Quixote, ‘since each of these is enough to make us know thy meaning; and I have often advised thee not to be so prodigal of thy proverbs, but more sparing; but ‘tis in vain to bid thee, for the more thou art bid, the more thou wilt do it.’
‘Methinks, sir,’ said Sancho, ‘you are like what is said that the frying-pan said to the kettle, “Avaunt, black- brows”; you reprehend me for speaking of proverbs, and you thread up yours by two and two.’
‘Look you, Sancho,’ quoth Don Quixote, ‘I use mine to purpose, and when I speak them, they fit as well as a little ring to the finger; but thou bringest in thine so by head and shoulders that thou rather draggest than guidest them; and, if I forget not, I told thee heretofore, that proverbs are brief sentences, drawn from the experience and speculation of our ancient sages, and a proverb ill applied is rather a foppery than a sentence; but leave we this now, and, since night comes on us, let’s retire a little out of the highway, where we will pass this night, and God knows what may befal us to-morrow.’-
Don Quixote
