Or anyone more villainous than the
odious Widow Repose -- a figure stamped indelibly on our minds,
wearing her ridiculous red stockings and hat in the bath.
As Cervantes says: "In (Tirant lo Blanc) knights eat and drink,
sleep and die in their own beds, and make their wills before they
die..." And his praise for Tirant is also borne out by the
characters in the Quixote. For in many of that book's most
memorable episodes, they too eat and drink (and regurgitate),
they sleep (when someone or something does not awaken them to a
new adventure), Don Quixote makes out his will (to the
contentment of some of the beneficiaries), and finally he dies in
his bed (and Cervantes warns us that no one should try to revive
him: "For me alone Don Quixote was born, and I for him... We two
alone are as one." This identification of the author with his
work was felt no less keenly by Martorell. As he says in his
dedication: "And so that no one else may be blamed if errors are
found in this work, I, Johanot Martorell, knight, alone wish to
bear the responsibility, and no one else with me, for this work
has been set down by myself alone.
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