work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
6459,"",Reading,2008-09-11 00:00:00 UTC,"[...] From these legends he formed his whole plan of conduct; and tho' nothing can be more ridiculous than the terms upon which he is described to have commenced knight-errant, at a time when the regulations of society had rendered the profession unnecessary, and indeed illegal; the criterion of his frenzy consists in that strange faculty of mistaking and confounding the most familiar objects with the fantastical illusions which those romances had engendered in his fancy. So that our author did not enter the lists against the memory of the real substantial chivalry, which he [end page 18] held in veneration; but, with design to expel an hideous phantome that possessed the brains of the people, waging perpetual war with true genius and invention.
(18-9)",2008-09-12,17171,Literal or figurative? Phantoms are not necessarily metaphorical.,"""So that our author did not enter the lists against the memory of the real substantial chivalry, which he held in veneration; but, with design to expel an hideous phantome that possessed the brains of the people, waging perpetual war with true genius and invention.""","",2009-09-14 19:49:17 UTC,The Life of Cervantes
6459,"",Reading,2008-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"[...] I confess, I was not a little chagrined at hearing this declaration; and said to myself, Either I am quite altered or the times are greatly improved, contrary to common observation, by which the past is always preferred to the present. I revised my comedies, together with some interludes which had lain some time in a corner, and I did not think them so wretched, but that they might appeal from the muddy brain of this player, to the clearer perception of other actors less scrupulous and more judicious.--Being quite out of humour, I parted with a copy to a bookseller, who offered me a tolerable price: I took his money, without giving myself any further trouble about the actors, and he printed them as you see. I could wish they were the best in the world, or, at least, possessed of some merit. Gentle reader, thou wilt soon see how they are, and if thou canst find any thing to thy liking, and afterwards shouldst happen to meet with my back-biting actor, desire him, from me, to take care and mend himself; for, I offend no man: as for the plays, thou mayest tell him, they contain no glaring nonsense, no palpable absurdities.
(25)",,17172,"","""I revised my comedies, together with some interludes which had lain some time in a corner, and I did not think them so wretched, but that they might appeal from the muddy brain of this player, to the clearer perception of other actors less scrupulous and more judicious.""","",2009-09-14 19:49:17 UTC,The Life of Cervantes
6459,"",Reading,2008-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"So eager and intangled was our Hidalgo in this kind of history, that he would often read from morning to night, and from night to morning again, without interruption; till at last, the moisture of his brain being quite exhausted with indefatigable watching and study, he fairly lost his wits: all that he had read of quarrels, enchantments, battles, challenges, wounds, tortures, amorous complaints, and other improbable conceits, took full possession of his fancy; and he believed all those romantic exploits so implicitly, that in his opinion, the holy scripture was not more true. He observed that Cid Ruydias was an excellent knight; but not equal to the Lord of the Flaming-sword, who with one back stroke had cut two fierce and monstrous giants through the middle. He had still a better opinion of Bernardo del Carpio, who, at the battle of Roncevalles, put the inchanter Orlando to death, by the same means that Hercules used, when he strangled earth-born Anteon [...]
(I.i.1, p. 46)",,17174,Or literal. Does the brain dry out literally? INTEREST Literal/figurative problem.,"""So eager and intangled was our Hidalgo in this kind of history, that he would often read from morning to night, and from night to morning again, without interruption; till at last, the moisture of his brain being quite exhausted with indefatigable watching and study, he fairly lost his wits.""","",2009-09-14 19:49:18 UTC,"Vol. I, Book I, Chapt. 1"
6459,"",Reading,2008-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"Sancho Panza rode as fast as the ass could carry him to his assistance, and when he came up, found him unable to stir, by reason of the bruises which he and Rozinante had received. ""Lord have mercy upon us! said the squire, did not I tell your worship to consider well what you were about? did not I assure you, they were no other than wind-mills? indeed no body could mistake them for any thing else, but one who has wind-mills in his own head!"" ""Prithee, hold thy peace, friend Sancho, replied Don Quixote; the affairs of war, are more than any thing, subject to change. How much more so, as I believe, nay am certain, that the sage Freston, who stole my closet and books, has converted giants into mills, in order to rob me of the honour of their overthrow; such is the enmity he bears me; but, in the end, all his treacherous arts will but little avail against the vigour of my sword."" ""God's will be done!"" replied Sancho Panza, who helped him rise, and mount Rozinante that was almost disjointed.
(I.i.8, p. 89)",,17176,"","""Lord have mercy upon us! said the squire, did not I tell your worship to consider well what you were about? did not I assure you, they were no other than wind-mills? indeed no body could mistake them for any thing else, but one who has wind-mills in his own head!""","",2009-09-14 19:49:18 UTC,"Vol. I, Bk. i, Chapter 8"
6459,"",Reading,2008-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"Sometimes, indeed, and 'tis amazing,
Though prov'd by evidence of twenty,
You've plainly shewn your soul was brazen,
And eke your snowy bosom flinty.
(I.i.3, p. 113)",2008-09-12,17177,I've included twice: Brass and Flint,"""You've plainly shewn your soul was brazen, / And eke your snowy bosom flinty.""",Metal,2009-09-14 19:49:17 UTC,"Vol. I, Bk. i, Chapt. 3"
6459,"",Reading,2008-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"""Yet, notwithstanding, said the traveller, I have read that Don Galaor, brother of the valiant Amadis de Gaul, never had any known mistress to whom he could recommend himself: and he was not disregarded, but looked upon as a very valiant and famous knight."" ""Signor, answered our hero Don Quixote, one swallow makes not a spring: besides, to my certain knowledge, that knight was privately very much in love; indeed, he made love to every handsome woman who came in his way; for, that was his natural disposition, which he by no means could resist: in short, it is very well attested, that he had one mistress, whom he inthroned, as sovereign of his heart, and to whom he recommended himself with great caution and privacy, because he piqued himself upon being a secret knight.""
(I.ii.5, p. 127)",,17179,"","""[I]n short, it is very well attested, that he had one mistress, whom he inthroned, as sovereign of his heart, and to whom he recommended himself with great caution and privacy, because he piqued himself upon being a secret knight.""","",2009-09-14 19:49:18 UTC,"Vol. I, Bk. ii, Chapt. 5"
6459,"",Reading,2008-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"The knight, having listened attentively to this whole conversation, sat up in his bed as well as he could, and taking his landlady by the hand, ""Believe me, beautiful lady, said he, you may account yourself extremely happy, in having within your castle my person, as your guest, such a guest, that if I praise him not, it is on account of the common saying, that Self-Commendation is in effect self-dispraise. My squire, however, will intimate who I am; while I content myself with assuring you, that I will, to all eternity, preserve engraven upon the tablets of my memory, the benevolence you this day vouchsafed unto me, that I may be grateful for the favour, as long as life shall remain. And, oh! that it pleased yon Heaven supreme, that love had not so vanquished and enslaved my heart, to the triumphant eyes of that beautiful ingrate, whom I now mention between my teeth, but that the charms of this amiable young lady, could be the authors of my freedom.""
(I.iii.2, p. 151)",2008-09-12,17180,"","""My squire, however, will intimate how I am; while I content myself with assuring you, that I will, to all eternity, preserve engraven upon the tablets of my memory, the benevolence you this day vouchsafed unto me, that I may be grateful for the favour, as long as life shall remain.""",Writing,2009-09-14 19:49:18 UTC,"Vol. I, Bk. ii, Chapt. 2"
6459,"",Reading,2008-09-12 00:00:00 UTC,"In this manner did he invent names for a great many knights in either army, to all of whom also he gave arms, colours, mottos and devices, without the least hesitation, being incredibly inspired by the fumes of a distempered fancy; nay, he proceeded without any pause, saying, ""That squadron forming in our front, is composed of [end page 169] people of diverse nations: there be those who drink the delicious waters of the celebrated Xanthus, with the mountaineers who tread the Masilican plains; and those who sift the purest golden ore of Arabia felix: there also, may be seen the people who sport upon the cool and famous banks of the translucent Thermodonte; and those who conduct the yellow Pactolus in many a winding stream; the promise-breaking Numidians; the Persians for their archery renowned; the Parthians and the Medes who combat as they fly; the Arabians famed for shifting habitations; the Scythians cruel as they are fair; the thick-lipp'd race of AEthiopia, and an infinite variety of other nations, whose looks I know and can discern, tho' I cannot recollect their names. [...]
(I.iii.4, p. 169-70)",,17181,"Or is it literal? INTEREST. ""Fumes of fancy"" makes trouble for a literal-figurative distinction.","""In this manner did he invent names for a great many knights in either army, to all of whom also he gave arms, colours, mottos and devices, without the least hesitation, being incredibly inspired by the fumes of a distempered fancy""","",2009-09-14 19:49:19 UTC,"Vol. I, Bk. ii, Chapt. 4"