14 War and Soldiers in

Minni Sawhney University of Delhi There have been interpretations of Don Quixote that have thrown light on the of 1605 with the hero involved in fruitless and bitter quarrels with friars and puppeteers and the country squandering its wealth and military might fighting vainglorious wars. 1 The non confonnist Don Quixote forever shows up the underside of reality but whether he mirrors or refracts the author's views is another questíon. It is difficult to make the case historically that Cervantes was a pacifist, as he was a soldier in the Battle of and in many campaigns like those of La Goleta, Tunís and Navarino against the Turks. He was thus decidedly not a pacifist in the modero connotation of the word as one who is opposed to violence at all times anywhere and for any

1 1 got interested in tbis idea after international events and two papers read by Dana Bultman and Daniel Eisenberg showed the way. Dana Bultman, "De un imperio a otro: El diálogo de la lengua de Juan de Valdés y un concepto de lenguaje para el nuevo milenio". Actas del Congreso El Siglo de Oro en el Nuevo milenio", ed. Carlos Mata Induráin, Pamplona, Spain: GRISO, 2005: 311-321 and Daniel Eisenberg, "Cervantes la guerra de Irak" XIV Coloquio Cervantino Internacional. Don Quijote en el Siglo XXI. Guanajuato en la geografía del Quijote. Guanajuato: Gobierno del Estado de Guanajuato, Museo Iconográfico del Quijote­ Fundación Cervantina de México-Universidad de Guanajuato, 2004. 29-49 Warand reason but 1 would like to suggest here that Cervantes was dissatisfied with the way Phillip 11 was waging wars and making untidy peace and his vindication of the work of the soldier in the Anns and Letters speech as well as his works of drama like El Gallardo español and Los Tratos de Argel is evidence of this.

Cervantes writes the play Los Tratos de Argel which has been taken to be almost a testimonial of the lives of captives in AIgiers in 1580 and completes Don Quixote in 1605. A peace treaty as we know had been signed by King Phillip JI and the Turkísh Sultan in 1580 much to the surprise of the of the other European powers: the Pope and that had been formed to fight against the Turks. On the terms of this treaty the Mediterranean was now considered a frontier between the two empires and the peace was favorable to both sides because it would leave them free to solve more pressing problems: the Protestants in the north for Phillip and the Persian threat for the Sultan. But it left out the fate of those who were already captives in Algiers, about 25,000

Christians many of them soldiers and also travelers or merchants who would contínue to languish in the prisons there. Cervantes would return from Algiers just then but we can surmise that this expediency on the part of Spain, this face saving device is what occasions the soulful entreaties to Phillip 11 to continue the fight to the finish, and not to leave those who were already engaged in it in the lurch? As has described it, in

2 For these and other insights see Enrique Femández. "Los tratos de Argel: Obra testimonial, denuncia política y literatura terapéutica." Cervantes, Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America 20.1 (2000): pp.7-26.

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The Mediterranean in the Age of Phillip II 3, the aIlies feH Spain had betrayed them but questions, had she not also betrayed herself and her history and, of eourse, for Cervantes the forees she had aIready eommitted and were fighting in the outposts, the eaptives who had been taken? Sinee the time of the Catholie Kings and the eonquest of Granada as also the deeision to rid the North Afriean eoasts of pirates who were in league with the Granada insurreetionaries during the Alpujarras wars, there was an attempt to eonvinee Europe that the real danger laid in the Mediterranean and Islam. But sinee the beginning resourees were stretehed and then just as abruptly an untidy self serving peaee was signed. It is in this eontext that I would like to read ideas of war and soldiers in Don Quixote. In the First Part Chapters XXXVII and XXXVIII of Don Quixote, Cervantes puts in the mouth of the Knight, the Diseourse on Arms and Letters a frequent eomparison between the sword and the pen and which ends with a clear vindication of the work of the soldier.

"None in his poverty is as poor as he, for he depends on his miserable pay which comes late or never or on whatever he can steal with rus own hands at great risk to life and conscíence. Sometimes he is so naked that a slashed and tom doublet is both uniform and shirt and in the middle of winter in an empty field the breath from his mouth is his only protection against the inclemencies of heaven, and since that breath comes from an empty place 1 consider it certain that it must

3 Femand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age ol Phillip /l, Vol 11, (1949), London : Fontana, 1975, p. 1165

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come out cold, contradicting the laws of nature.( ... ) Then after this the day and hour arrive when he receives the degree his profession offers: the day of battle, there he will receive rus tasseled academic cap made of bandages to heal a bullet wound, perhaps one that has passed through his temples or wiU leave him with a ruined arm or leg.,,4

There is no immediate context or provocation for Don Quixote to launch bis speech. He is talking during dinner at an inn much to the amazement of those present who marvel at what they consider bis very good sense when he isn't talking about tales of chivalry. The soldier here for Don Quixote is generic but bis suffering is couched in such terms that it would be a failure of imagination on the part of the reader if he didn't empathize with his situation. Of course the representation of a soldier's suffering is not common, it is more usual to read about the depredations of the army on civilians, on women. Besides one generaHy accepts that soldiers will suffer anyway, they are prepared for it.

The picture he provides even if not drumming up support for militarism does not regard war as an anomaly but something inevitable given the times he lived in. But then isn't pacifism or the belief that violence is wrong in aH circumstances quite a minoritarian idea even today. There is general sadness with war here the image he draws up is a constant of all wars but of a context his contemporary readers could imagine: Spain' s African adventures and those she had preferred to forget.

4 , Don Quixote, Trans. Edith Grossman (2003) London: Vintage 2005, p. 331.

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Indeed the soulful entreaties to the king, Phillip n, are most evident in Los Tratos de Argel where the captive Saavedra in the prison of Algiers begs the king to intervene and says that only the latter has the key to the prisons of AIgiers where Christian soldiers languish. Re reminds him that his father Charles the Fifth had valiantly defended and overrun this area a haven for pirates. And exhorts him "Alto señor, cuya potencia ( Arise Sir, you whose power) Sujetas trae las barbaras naciones (Has made barbarian nations subject) Al desabrido yugo de obediencia (To the harsh yoke of obedience) A quien los negros indios en sus dones (To whom black Indians freely ) Reconocen honesto vasallaje (owe honest vassalage) Trayendo el oro aca de sus rincones (And bring gold from all corners) Despierte en tu real pecho coraje (Let this awaken anger in your royal heart) La desverguenza con que una vil oca (At the manner in which a vile weed)

Aspira de continuo a hacerte ultraje .. " 5 (continuously defies you)

Rere far from fostering rnilitancy, the captive's speech beseeches a king to not forget them, that his greatness elsewhere in America is dependant on how he comports himself in a half

5 Miguel de Cervantes, Obras completas, ed. Angel Valbuena Prat, Madrid: Aguilar 1962, p. 117

234 War and Soldiers in Don finished jobo With hindsight the historian Femand Braudel avers that Spain had no sense of Africa. They had shed theÍr blood in vain. The geographical conditions of war there were awesome. The mountains and aridity made it necessary to transport supplies from Spain and fighting here was not akin to that of fighting wars in Europe. To this was compounded the half hearted manner of Spanish conquest since the initial excuse was only to rid the African coasts of pirates and then a few outposts were created where these badly fed and paid and poorly equipped soldiers maintained vigil in the garrisons. They called their presence there "occupation restreinte" a kind of "empire lite" in today's jargon but Braudel described the soldiers as prisoners between the sea and the indigenous peoples who had to fight as much agaiost huoger as against the enemy. 6 lo this scenario Don Quixote's ideas about the soldier ring plausible as also those of Saavedra in Los Tratos.

"Su gente es mucha mas su fuerza es poca (You have force s but little power) Desnuda, mal armada que no tiene (They are naked and badly armed)

En su defensa fuerte muro o roca (And have neither rock nor stone as defense)

Cada uno mira si tu Armada viene (They look to see if your Armada comes)

Para dar a los pies el cargo y cura (That will save them and bring the priest)

6 Fernand Braudel Les écrits de Femand Braudel, Autour de la Médit erranée, Paris: Editions de Fallois 1996, p.56 1 am grateful to Jean Marie Lafont for showing me this work of hitherto unavailable Braudel papers.

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De conervar la vida que sostiene (Who will help them bear their lives)

De la esquiva prisión amarga y dura (In their narrow and bitter prisons)

Adonde mueren quince mil cristianos Tienes la llave de la cerradura.',7 (You have the key to the Iock where fifteen thousand Christians are dying) Without context these lines could be interpreted as justifying a war but this is to dismiss the poli tic s of Spain which now regarded the fight with the Sultan as over, a kind of gentlemen's agreement had been signed between two potentates and the lowly soldier who in all probability would never get his ransom money paid had been sacrificed. Only nobles were ever able to return to Spain and the cause of the captives was espoused only by the Trinitarians.8 To make war and peace at the time of one's choosing is something the strong have the capacity to do. And Cervantes is pleading for the cause of those caught in between. It is not so much a conviction that Cervantes had, that one side was right and for this reason the fighting had to go on, but a lament at polítical cynícism. Nor does he exalt the soldier to a martyr or hero but as a wretched unlucky soul because someone without warning changed their mind. Indeed other drama works like El Gallardo español based exclusively on the life of soldiers in a garrlson, bring into focus the monotony of his life, his yearning for the kind of life other people have. As a high army official says

7 Miguel de Cervantes, op. cit. 8 Enrique Fernández, op. cit

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"Porque no es suyo el soldado que está en encerrado sino de aquel que lo encierra, y no ha de hacer otra guerra sino a la que se ha obligado, en ningun modo sois vuestro sino del rey, y en su nombre sois mio segun lo muestro".9

(The soldier in the prison does not belong to himself but lo him who has imprisoned him and he can wage no war other than the one he is obliged to, you belong not to yourself but to the king and thus you belong to me as 1 will show you) Strange words and certainly weighed heavily against the authorities. They don't conjure up a vision of ennobling sacrifice but drudgery and wretchedness. They are not inspirational but oppressive. Here a ranking soldier, Don Fernando, disobeying strict instructions from his bosses crosses over to the other side temporarily in order to display his military skill lO a Muslim princess and brings out in the open the rifts and discontent amongst the soldiers. The reasonableness of a war in Africa is questioned as also the waning interest Phillip 11 was showing in North Africa and dissatisfaction at the way the war was being runo Probably for his proclivity at revealing the underside of things even while exhibiting his cornmitment to upholding them, Don Fernando can be compared to Don Quixote. Like Don Fernando who returns to fight for Spain after two North African rulers join forces against them, there is never any doubt about Don Quixote's or Cervantes' allegiances. They however very potentIy questíon the ultimate lO authority of those who set up as guardians of their own culture •

9 Miguel de Cervantes, op. cil.p. 187 10 See my "Cervantes' cosmopolítan "El gallardo español" during an earlier Clash of Civilizations", Theatralia 5, (Pontevedra: Mirabel

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His writings are not a call for peace, a cry for revenge nor a bemused awareness; just a reminder not to forget. Besides Cervantes had been one of those whose lot he was describing. The soldiers in the could never win. If they converted to Islam, returning to Spain ever would become fraught with risk with the Inquisition accusing them of having reneged. So benighted was the prospect of the presidios that soldiers were never told before they were embarked where they were headed and once they reached there it was impossible to ever return. Pacifism is too modern a concept and it is unlikely that Cervantes felt that war was wrong. And yet if we look at another passage we can surmise a questioning of reasons for starting a war or continuing to fight one. In the chapter on the Yanguesans in Chapter XXVII of the Second Part, Don Quixote admonishes two warring villages on the futility of their dispute by advising on the few transcendental reasons according to him to wage wars. These two episodes are suggestive as are many in the novel. Most episodes as Anthony Close has maintained have the power of implication. Their significance ís reciprocal. Which throw light on the central perenníal dilernmas posed by Don Quixote's behaviour: heart or head? Arms or letters discretion or valor heroic adventurousness or stay at home conformism". 11

"Valor not founded on tbe base of prudence is recklessness and the deeds of the reckless are attributed more to good fortune than to courage.

Editorial, 2003) pp.167-176 for a brief discussion on life in tbe presidios for soldiers like Don Fernando. 11 Anthony Close, The Romantic Approach to Don Quixote, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978

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Prudent and well ordered nations take Up arms and unsheathe their words and risk their persons lives and fortunes for only four reasons, fírst in defense of the Catholic faith; second in self defense which is a natural and divine law third in defense of their honor their family and fortune fourth to serve their king in a just war and if we wish to add a fifth which can be considered the second it ís in defense of their country. To these five capital causes we can add a few others that are just and reasonable and oblige men to take up arms but anyone who does so ror trifles and matters that are more laughable and amusing than insulting seems to lack all good sen se, moreover taking unjust revenge and no revenge can be just is directly contrary to the holy law we possess which cornmands us to do good to our enemies and lo ve those who hate us"Y Don Quixote's 10ftY words here on a remote hill are incongruous again, but his first readers for whom war was a part of their daily life and always exercised a pressure would have needed to hear them. Even for very ordinary people like Cervantes who went to jail, had trouble finding jobs and were tumed down for bureaucratic posts in America, war and the fate of those who had suffered by it was uppermost on their minds even when they weren't engaged in it. Cervantes' epistle to Phillip U's secretary Mateo Vazquez where he pleads through the only channel available to him - writing that the king reconsiders his plans to desist from AIgiers. This poem which has been lately authenticated by Geoffrey Stagg13 has a few of the same verses that Saavedra repeats in Los Tratos. What could be the purpose and import of this

12 Miguel de Cervantes, Trans. Edith Grossman op. cit. p.640 13 Geoffrey Stagg, "The curious case of the suspect epistle" in Cervantes, Bulletin olthe Cervantes Society 01 America, 23.2.2003 pp. 201-214

239 Minni poem which begins with lofty praise for the secretary but a kind of activism about war and a desperate attempt to get the ear of the king? That Phillip's ceasefire decision was not completely irrevocable and that something could still be retrieved from the North African imbroglio despite the withdrawal might have occurred to concerned minds. For this reason probably Cervantes returns to the North African coast in 1581. As Enrique Fernandez has shown, the play Los Tratos de Argel ís a witness account, but the passages on war in Don Quixote are also part of a context: the Mediterranean, where war had never been the antithesis of civilizatíon but was according to Braudel a pow~rful and persistent undercurrent of human life. A quote of Susan Sontag on wars is so relevant here and in Hne with Don Quixote' s defense of the soldier.

We"-this "we" is everyone who has never experienced anything like what they went through--don't understand. We don't get it. We truly can't imagine what it was like. We can't imagine how dreadful, how terrifying war is-and how normal it becomes. Can't understand, can't imagine. That's what every soldier, and every journalist and aid worker and independent observer who has put in time under fire and had the luck to elude the death that struck down others nearby, stubbornly feels. And they are right.14

14 Susan Sontag "Looking at War, Photography's view of devastation and death" in The New Yorker, September 2002

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