[Ravensfort] Windmills

[David Hoffpauir]

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1359.htm
<http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1359.htm> 

 

Look there, my friend Sancho Panza,
where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves,
all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay!
<http://www.uh.edu/engines/dorequix.jpg>   (~check out the pic!)

 

Knighthood and the "twilight" age of chivalry gave rise to the fictional
character Don Quixote.  Cervantes character is much like Chaucer's
knight of, The Knight's Tale.  Both in their own way lament the fading
flower of chivalry; that great ideal which for centuries had given man
rise above beast, given him compassion, a marshal to rampant
lawlessness, a model for human behavior, or at the very least, courtly
behavior, and given society hope amidst the turmoil of the middle ages.
By the time of context, when each knight's story is told, advancements
in technology and political progress had seen to the passing of their
age.  Chaucer's knight laments his own glory:

 

"Then is it wisdom, as it seems to me, 
To make a virtue of necessity, 
And calmly take what we may not eschew (~middle english, "escape"), 
And specially that which to all is due. 
Whoso would balk at aught, he does folly, 
And thus rebels against His potency. 
And certainly a man has most honour 
In dying in his excellence and flower, 
When he is certain of his high good name; 
For then he gives to friend, and self, no shame."

 

Don Quixote, the errant knight, one 'knighted' by an inn-keeper, suffers
more the fate of humiliation for his "ideals" as his story is a poke at
the entire notion of chivalry.  In fact, the adjective "quixotic" means
"foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals".

 

Through Quixote we find metaphor in the windmill and a lesson in belief
to an extreme.  That great beast of technology which far outlived
chivalry was mistaken by Quixote as "oppressive giants sent by evil
enchanters."  His fantasy deludes, or misleads, his reality.  He sees
monsters where there are none, romanticizes all in love, picks fights on
grounds of 'honor', imposes himself on his environment, and, in general,
causes more harm than good despite the noble intention.  On his deathbed
Quixote decides his actions have all been madness.  He dies, utterly
disenchanted, a fool for the life he has lived.  

 

For all his titling, the windmill survived, through the centuries and up
to the current day, a stoic reminder of Quixote's folly, a postscript to
chivalry's golden age, and every bit, still a monster, an oppressive
giant, if you lie beneath one and look up at it just right.....

 

Take a listen,

Regards,

dsd

 

References:  http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/knight.htm

                        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote

 

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