The Politics of Renouncing Zaragoza in Don Quijote 2.59: Cervantine Irony Framed by Plato, Aristotle, Pedro Simo´n Abril, and Juan de Mariana eric c. graf universidad francisco marroqu´ın Pregunta´ronle que ado´nde llevaba determinado su viaje. Respondio´ que a Zaragoza, a hallarse en las justas del arne´s, que en aquella ciudad suelen hacerse todos los an˜os. Dı´jole don Juan que aquella nueva historia contaba como don Quijote, sea quien se quisiere, se habı´a hallado en ella en una sortija falta de invencio´n, pobre de letras, pobrı´sima de libreas, aunque rica de simplicidades. —Por el mismo caso—respondio´ don Quijote—no pondre´ los pies en Zaragoza y ası´ sacare´ a la plaza del mundo la mentira dese historiador moderno, y echara´n de ver las gentes como yo no soy el don Quijote que e´l dice. —Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote n chapter 59 of Miguel de Cervantes’s 1615 continuation of Don Quijote, the Iknight-errant reiterates his intention to travel to Zaragoza in order to partici- pate in the city’s annual jousting tournament. When confronted with the disori- enting news that Alonso Ferna´ndez de Avellaneda’s 1614 sequel has already related such an adventure, don Quijote renounces his plan, formulating his refusal to submit to the other narrative as a matter of personal autonomy: ‘‘ası´ sacare´ a la plaza del mundo la mentira dese historiador moderno, y echara´nde ver las gentes como yo no soy el don Quijote que e´l dice’’ (2.59.1115). Throughout part 2 of Don Quijote, the knight meets a number of characters who, having read the 1605 text, are already familiar with his exploits; but this is the first moment when both author and protagonist confront Avellaneda’s sequel. Here, then, is the hyper-self-aware don Quijote who three centuries later would inspire so much modernist literature—ironical reflexive digressions like Benito Pe´rez Galdo´s’s El amigo Manso (1882), Miguel de Unamuno’s Niebla (1914), and Luigi Pirandello’s Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore (1921). There is another, more historical facet to the irony of don Quijote’s refusal to attend the chivalric games at Zaragoza. I argue that Cervantes envisioned the jousts as a means of alluding to the political unrest in Aragon that had plagued Philip II’s reign during the last two decades of the sixteenth century. Perhaps ................. 18473$ $CH2 10-23-13 14:45:20 PS PAGE 121 122 Revista Hispa´nica Moderna 66.2 (2013) the most intriguing evidence that the troubles in Aragon influenced late- Renaissance Spanish thought in very subtle ways is found in the respective trans- lations by Pedro Simo´n Abril (1540–91) and Juan de Mariana (1536–1624) of a key passage in Aristotle’s Politics. The Aragonese inflections that Abril and Ma- riana give to Aristotle’s reference to the first tyrannical maneuver by Dionysius I of Syracuse add significant context to the meaning of Zaragoza in Cervantes’s program for DQ 2. Politics and Caves in DQ 2 DQ 2 is a more overtly political work than part 1. This is true from the outset, when we find the priest and the barber locked in a discussion with the knight about how to solve the social, economic, and military problems besetting Spain. All three play the part of the tedious arbitristas, the era’s political commentators whose crackpot, utopian advice was the object of a great deal of satire around the turn of the century. Cervantes even deploys the term ‘‘reason of state,’’ which permeated the period’s debate over Machiavelli’s blunt vision of statecraft as an amoral enterprise (cf. Botero): Y en el discurso de su pla´tica vinieron a tratar en esto que llaman ‘‘razo´n de estado’’ y modos de gobierno, enmendando este abuso y condenando aquel, reformando una costumbre y desterrando otra, hacie´ndose cada uno de los tres un nuevo legislador, un Licurgo moderno o un Solo´n flamante, y de tal manera renovaron la repu´- blica, que no parecio´ sino que la habı´an puesto en una fragua y sacado otra de la que pusieron. (DQ 2.1.626) This fantasizing by ordinary citizens about reforming the political state as if they were classical legislators is reiterated in more modern terms a few chapters later when don Quijote explains to Sancho the powerful equalizing metaphor of the ‘‘gran teatro del mundo’’: ¿[N]o has visto tu´ representar alguna comedia adonde se introducen reyes, emperadores y pontı´fices, caballeros, damas y otros diversos personajes? . y acabada la comedia y desnuda´ndose de los vestidos della, quedan todos los recitantes iguales. Pues lo mesmo . acontece en la comedia y trato deste mundo, donde unos hacen los emperadores, otros los pontı´fices, y finalmente todas cuantas figuras se pueden introducir en una comedia; pero en llegando al fin, que es cuando se acaba la vida, a todos les quita la muerte las ropas que los diferenciaban, y quedan iguales en la sepultura. (2.12.719) The political theme reaches its climax toward the end of DQ 2 with Cervantes’s persistent allusions to the era’s princely advice manuals, that is, to the so-called ‘‘regimiento de prı´ncipes’’ genre. After don Quijote offers detailed advice to Sancho on how to govern, the squire then rules, with mixed results, the island ................. 18473$ $CH2 10-23-13 14:45:21 PS PAGE 122 graf, The Politics of Renouncing Zaragoza in Don Quijote 2.59 123 nation of Barataria (2.42–43.969–76, 2.49–53.1023–67). In an inversion of the way that the opening round table of arbitristas focuses on the external conflict between Spain and the Ottoman Empire, the ‘‘regimiento de prı´ncipes’’ theme relates to the internal dilemmas of what to do about the Moriscos of Andalusia, on the one hand, and the ‘‘bandolerismo’’ endemic to Catalonia, on the other. Hence, upon abdicating his governorship of Barataria, Sancho encounters his Morisco friend Ricote returned from exile. Soon thereafter, knight and squire encounter the brutally honorable bandit Roque Guinart outside of Barcelona (2.54.1068–76, 2.60–61.1118–30).1 But I think we can go even further regarding the political status of DQ 2. In my view there is good evidence for the overarching impact on DQ 2 of Plato’s Republic, the prototype of Western political philosophy.2 The novel already discloses numerous references to political theory and utopian experiments in the art of governing, including a direct citation of Plato’s Republic by the Con- desa Trifaldi: ‘‘he considerado que de las buenas y concertadas repu´blicas se habı´an de desterrar los poetas, como aconsejaba Plato´n, a lo menos los las- civos’’ (2.38.943). In concert, I would argue that Cervantes’s frequent deploy- ment of caves in DQ 2 functions as a systematic insinuation of Plato’s famous subterranean allegory (cf. The Republic, book 7). The ‘‘sima de Cabras,’’ the ‘‘cueva de Montesinos,’’ and the ‘‘gruta de Sancho’’ (2.14.735, 2.22–24.814–30, 2.55.1076–82) make Plato’s cave into a kind of refrain. Similarly, Cervantes’s recourse to illusions and plays on perspective in passages such as Maese Pedro’s puppet show and the Clavilen˜o episode (2.25–27.839–57, 2.41.956–66) allude to Plato’s metaphorical definition of political philosophy as the art of convincing a sovereign to turn around and see reality for what it is—i.e., making him act according to the cosmic light of truth and knowledge emanating from above and beyond the cave’s entrance instead of according to the shadows and false images that are projected against its back wall like ‘‘puppets’’ (Plato 7.193 [514b]).3 Keeping in mind the elevated political tone of DQ 2, I think we should also consider Aristotle, Plato’s most famous student, an indirect factor in Cervantes’s program. This requires understanding the major political significance that Zara- goza—the ephemeral endpoint of don Quijote’s third and final adventure in DQ 2—held for the political theorists of late sixteenth-century Spain. The trick is to 1 As Anthony Cascardi affirms in his recent study of political discourse and Don Quijote, ‘‘as we move from Part I to Part II the matter of politics is brought into the foreground in increasingly explicit ways’’ (100). For DQ 2 as ‘‘la hispana razo´n de estado’’ centered on the Morisco question, see Ma´rquez Villanueva (229–35). For an overview of some of Cervantes’s more explicit allusions to Renaissance political theory throughout Don Quijote, see Di Salvo. 2 According to Beardsley, there are no Spanish editions of Plato’s political philosophy in the sixteenth century. But manuscript translations are not out of the question, and Cervantes could have also had access to Plato indirectly, during his time in Rome or Naples prior to the Battle of Lepanto, by way of Marsilio Ficino’s widely available Latin translation or more directly via the Italian translation published at Venice in 1554. In any case, I agree with Cascardi that Cervantes is firmly engaged in a dialogue with Plato throughout Don Quijote, making the early modern novel into a kind of ‘‘fluid literary-political practice’’ (260). 3 For Cervantes’s interest in caves as nostalgia for Italy and for the classical world in general, all related to the rediscovery during the renaissance of surreal statues in grottos such as Nero’s Golden Dome, see de Armas.