Virgin Spain : $b Scenes from the spiritual drama of a great peopleFrank, Waldo David
History
Virgin Spain : $b Scenes from the spiritual drama of a great people
Frank, Waldo David
Spain
Don Quixote looks upon himself as the instrument of Justice. He is the
embodied and moving will of Justice. The neo-platonic Christian lived
justly, that he might pierce better the Phenomenal Lie and win
salvation. The Arab warrior spread justice with his sword because the
Prophet was just, and he must serve the Prophet to be saved. The knight
of the Round Table of King Arthur performed deeds of justice--rescuing
the virgin, slaying the bad giant--because it was good sport and because
it was a way to his salvation. But Don Quixote wills Justice upon earth,
because he hungers after Justice, because there is naught else true save
Justice. If, by the sheer testimony of his words and deeds, we analyze
this passion of Don Quixote, we learn that for him instinctively Justice
meant Unity. The world must become One: and the means thereto is
Justice.
The symbols with which he works are medieval Christian; his mental
mechanism is neo-platonic: his knightly attitude is more Moorish than
Teutonic (as contrasted with the Germanic tenor of the freebooting Cid).
But this heart of his will is Hebrew. The parabolic line of its
enactment in his life links Don Quixote with the Prophets.
The words God and Christ are surprisingly seldom on the old knight’s
lips. He cites Roland and Amadis more often than the Saints. They,
indeed, are his saints. But his God is Justice. And so impersonal, so
monotheistic is He, that He wants more than a body; almost He lacks a
name. Or rather His body is the world: His name is Justice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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