V
This is no calumny. If you want the proofs, all you have to do is to reread the book with an unprejudiced spirit.
There is in the Don Quixote a central point the importance of which has not been recognized by the commentators. This central point, which supplies the key to the whole book, is the deliberate madness assumed in the Sierra Morena.[1] All readers will recall the scene. When they have reached the barren mount of desolation, Don Quixote announces to Sancho that he intends to play the madman to the honor and glory of Dulcinea until Sancho returns. The deceiver reveals himself to the simple spectator. He inserts a confessed madness in the midst of his general pretended madness.
He begins by announcing that he will follow the method of imitation, but that his imitation will be restrained—not too exhausting nor too perilous:
I intend to imitate Amadis, playing here the desperate, raving, and furious lover, so that I may imitate at the same time the valiant Don Roland.
But he will imitate judiciously. Roland’s madness went too far:
