with his crook and sheepskin, having put off the long gown he wore as a scholar; and at the same time his great friend, Ambrosio by name, who had been his companion in his studies, took to the shepherd's dress with him. I forgot to say that Chrysostom who is dead was a great man for writing verses, so much so that he made carols for Christmas Eve, and plays [1] for Corpus Christi which the young men of our village acted, and all said they were excellent. When the villagers saw the two scholars so unexpectedly appearing in shepherd's dress they were lost in wonder, and could not guess what had led them to make so extraordinary a change. About this time the father of our Chrysostom died, and he was left heir to a large amount of property in chattels as well as in land, no small number of cattle and sheep, and a large sum of money, of all of which the young man was left dissolute owner, and indeed he was deserving of it all, for he was a very good comrade, and kind-hearted, and a friend of worthy folk, and had a countenance like a benediction. Presently it came to be known that he had changed his dress with no other object than to wander about these wastes after that shepherdess Marcela our lad mentioned a while ago, with whom the deceased Chrysostom had fallen in love. And I must tell you now, for it is well you should know it, who this girl is; perhaps, and even without any perhaps, you will not have heard anything like it all the days of your life, though you should live more years than sarna." [2]
"Say Sara," said Don Quixote, unable to endure the goat-herd's confusion of words.
"The sarna lives long enough," answered Pedro; "and if, señor, you must go finding fault with words at every step, we shall not make an end of it this twelvemonth."
"Pardon me, friend," said Don Quixote; "but, as there is such a difference between sarna and Sara, I told you of it; however, you have answered very rightly, for sarna lives longer than Sara: so continue your story, and I will not object any more to anything."
- ↑ "Plays"—autos, religious allegorical dramas.
- ↑ Mas viejo que sarna—(Prov. 250) "older than itch"—is a very old popular phrase. Don Quixote, either not knowing it or else not recognizing it in the form in which Pedro puts it, supposes him to mean Sarah the wife of Abraham. Though Cervantes tries to observe dramatic propriety by making Pedro blunder, in the end he puts into his mouth language as fine and words as long as Don Quixote's.
