Don Quixote - Part I - Page 392/400

Leandra withdrawn from sight, Anselmo's eyes grew blind, or at any rate

found nothing to look at that gave them any pleasure, and mine were in

darkness without a ray of light to direct them to anything enjoyable

while Leandra was away. Our melancholy grew greater, our patience grew

less; we cursed the soldier's finery and railed at the carelessness of

Leandra's father. At last Anselmo and I agreed to leave the village and

come to this valley; and, he feeding a great flock of sheep of his own,

and I a large herd of goats of mine, we pass our life among the trees,

giving vent to our sorrows, together singing the fair Leandra's praises,

or upbraiding her, or else sighing alone, and to heaven pouring forth our

complaints in solitude. Following our example, many more of Leandra's

lovers have come to these rude mountains and adopted our mode of life,

and they are so numerous that one would fancy the place had been turned

into the pastoral Arcadia, so full is it of shepherds and sheep-folds;

nor is there a spot in it where the name of the fair Leandra is not

heard. Here one curses her and calls her capricious, fickle, and

immodest, there another condemns her as frail and frivolous; this pardons

and absolves her, that spurns and reviles her; one extols her beauty,

another assails her character, and in short all abuse her, and all adore

her, and to such a pitch has this general infatuation gone that there are

some who complain of her scorn without ever having exchanged a word with

her, and even some that bewail and mourn the raging fever of jealousy,

for which she never gave anyone cause, for, as I have already said, her

misconduct was known before her passion. There is no nook among the

rocks, no brookside, no shade beneath the trees that is not haunted by

some shepherd telling his woes to the breezes; wherever there is an echo

it repeats the name of Leandra; the mountains ring with "Leandra,"

"Leandra" murmur the brooks, and Leandra keeps us all bewildered and

bewitched, hoping without hope and fearing without knowing what we fear.

Of all this silly set the one that shows the least and also the most

sense is my rival Anselmo, for having so many other things to complain

of, he only complains of separation, and to the accompaniment of a

rebeck, which he plays admirably, he sings his complaints in verses that

show his ingenuity. I follow another, easier, and to my mind wiser

course, and that is to rail at the frivolity of women, at their

inconstancy, their double dealing, their broken promises, their unkept

pledges, and in short the want of reflection they show in fixing their

affections and inclinations. This, sirs, was the reason of words and

expressions I made use of to this goat when I came up just now; for as

she is a female I have a contempt for her, though she is the best in all

my fold. This is the story I promised to tell you, and if I have been

tedious in telling it, I will not be slow to serve you; my hut is close

by, and I have fresh milk and dainty cheese there, as well as a variety

of toothsome fruit, no less pleasing to the eye than to the palate.