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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1359.htm">http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1359.<font
size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>htm</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>Look there, my friend Sancho Panza,<br>
where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves,<br>
all of whom I mean to <a href="http://www.uh.edu/engines/dorequix.jpg">engage
in battle and slay!</a></span></font></i> (~check out the pic!)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Knighthood and the “twilight” age of chivalry
gave rise to the fictional character Don Quixote. Cervantes character is
much like Chaucer’s knight of, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>The
Knight’s Tale.</span></i> 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:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>"Then is it wisdom, as it seems to me,
<br>
To make a virtue of necessity, <br>
And calmly take what we may not eschew </span></font></b><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>(~middle english, “escape”)<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>, <br>
And specially that which to all is due. <br>
Whoso would balk at aught, he does folly, <br>
And thus rebels against His potency. <br>
And certainly a man has most honour <br>
In dying in his excellence and flower, <br>
When he is certain of his high good name; <br>
For then he gives to friend, and self, no shame.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>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”.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>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…..<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Take a listen,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Regards,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>dsd<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>References: <a
href="http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/knight.htm">http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/knight.htm</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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