Excerpt from That Imaginative Gentleman Don Quijote De La Mancha
In the prologue Cervantes speaks of this hook as 'the tale of a poor, shrivelled, whimsical son, teeming with all manner of thoughts never entertained by another, even as one engendered in a prison, where every discomfort has its seat and every mournful sound its habitation.' Hence sprang and flourished a tradition that the book Don Quijote was at least begun, if not largely written, in confinement. And it is possible that portions of the first part were composed in the Seville jail, where trustworthy, though none too definite, evidence places Cervantes for a portion of the year 1602. But it is not at all likely that the opening chapters were so written, since a small library must have been at hand for their composition.
The first book to come down from the shelf was a treatise by Antonio de Guevara, entitled Contempt of Court and Praise of Country Life, where in the seventh chapter Cervantes found written: 'O happy he that dwelleth in the country! since for him suffice a lance behind the door, a horse in the stable, a shield in the hall.' This sentence forms part of the opening of Don Quijote; also from this treatise were derived suggestions as to the knight's diet and dress, the matter of the pruning-hook, together with his fondness for the chase and for debating with the village-priest. The fairly unusual word Quijote (our cuish, or thigh-piece) was probably suggested by its presence (in an emphatic position) in a passage (which for another reason we are sure Cervantes read) dealing with this same Guevara, where the hope is expressed that thigh-pieces (quijotes) may again come into use.
Now that he has described the diet and dress, the house and habits of his hero, our author comes to the central idea of his story: such a country-gentleman becoming obsessed with reading books of chivalry and determining himself to become a knight-errant for the amelioration of the world.
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