Don Quixote

Quixote appreciates the way the duke and duchess treat him. He takes their polite behavior as an indication he is finally a real knight. Panza is initially happy with the course of events. When a servant at the castle refuses to care for his donkey, however, he becomes annoyed. He shouts at the maidservant, and the two spend some time arguing. At dinner, Quixote is told to sit at the head of the table. Quixote and Panza amuse the duke and duchess with their conversation and their stories. Though Panza’s crude and simple manners embarrass Quixote, the duchess appreciates the squire’s personality.

One of the guests at the dinner is a clergyman who criticizes the chivalry of the knights in Quixote’s beloved books. He declares that the chivalric code is frivolous. When the duke promises to deliver the island Panza was promised, the clergyman storms out of the room. Quixote is the victim of a prank played by the servants. They wash his hair, but halfway through the process they pretend they have run out of water. He is forced to sit at the dinner table with soap in his hair. To maintain the joke, the duke insists the servants do the same to him. The duke and Quixote both sit with a heaped mound of soap suds on their heads. When the duchess asks Quixote about Dulcinea, Quixote struggles to describe the object of his affection. He blames the magicians for his fleeting memory. When the duchess presses him on his relationship to Dulcinea, he insists Dulcinea is the most virtuous woman in the world, and she does not need noble ancestry to be considered so. Panza explores the house but runs back into the dining room when the servants threaten to wash him with the filthy dishwater. He asks the duchess to save him from the prank.

After dinner, Panza is invited to a more private place by the duchess. He accepts her invitation but makes sure they are alone in the room. He does not want anyone to eavesdrop as he tells her the firsthand stories of his adventures with Quixote. As they talk, he admits to her that he knows Quixote has some delusions, but he explains that he wants to remain with his master out of a sense of loyalty. Panza tells the duchess the story about how he convinced Quixote a random peasant woman was actually Dulcinea. The duchess turns the story around, convincing Panza that he was the person who may have been tricked and the girl may really have been Dulcinea. When Panza tells the duchess about his argument with the maidservant about the care of his donkey, the duchess promises him the donkey will be treated well. 

Quixote and Panza accompany the duke and duchess hunting. Panza becomes frightened by a wild boar during the hunt and hides in a tree. The duke assures the squire that hunting is a good way to practice for warfare, which is a skill he will need if he is ever to become the governor of an island. Panza insists he has no taste for such sports. The hunt is interrupted by the sound of drums. Moorish war cries echo through the woods. A herald appears and tells the group he is the devil. He claims to be passing along a message to Quixote from Montesinos, telling him how he can free Dulcinea from the enchantment placed upon her by the magicians. A convoy of carts passes by, draped in black cloth. On the carts are men who claim to be famous knights from the storybooks. Panza becomes even more frightened and rushes to the Duchess.

A giant wagon appears on the road. This wagon is draped in white cloth. Onboard is a beautiful woman in a white veil and a man who claims to be Merlin, who speaks to Quixote in a cryptic verse. Merlin’s speech claims to offer the secret of how to remove the enchantment from Dulcinea: Panza must willingly whip himself across the backside 3,300 times. Panza questions whether Dulcinea even needs her enchantment to be removed. The maiden on the wagon claims that she is, in fact, Dulcinea. She criticizes Panza for his unwillingness to help her. The duke warns Panza that he will lose his potential governorship of the island if he refuses to help. Panza agrees to undergo the punishment, much to the amusement of the duke and the duchess, who arranged the entire spectacle.

Panza shows a letter to the duchess. In the letter, he tells his wife about the duke’s promise to help him become the governor of an island. Later, the duchess shows the duke the letter while they eat lunch. After their meal, the sound of drums returns and a person appears, introducing themselves as Squire Trifaldin of the White Beard and requesting permission to meet the famous Quixote.

Having experienced difficulty with maidservants in the past, Panza worries his future governorship will be undermined by such a woman. He argues again with the maidservant who refused to take care of his donkey. She insults him. The duke ends the argument, insisting that they listen to the newly arrived guest.

Lady Dolorida is also known by the name Countess Trifaldi. She arrives at the castle and explains she once allowed a young princess in her care to be seduced and taken away by a knight. Most of the audience know the story is not true. They quietly congratulate the countess on her convincing performance. She begs Quixote for help dealing with the disreputable knight. He agrees to help.

According to the countess, the princess’s mother was so surprised to hear her daughter was seduced by a knight that she died of shock. The princess’s cousin is a magician named Malambruno, who tried to punish the princess and the knight for their behavior. Malambruno transformed the princess into a small brass monkey, and he transformed the knight into a crocodile made from metal, then placed the items on the grave of the dead queen. At the same time, Malambruno left a signpost at the grave that indicated only Quixote could reverse the transformation by fighting Malambruno. Malambruno also cursed the countess to grow a beard, along with the rest of her servants. These beards cannot be removed.