
From the collection of the George Peabody Library
Collection number: 821 B986 H 1732

There was perhaps at least one exception to the commonly-held view of Don Quixote as pure farce during this
period. Samuel Butler seemed to perceive the novel as a satiric paradigm
as early as 1663 in his poem Hudibras whose title character was
described as "the Don Quixot of this nation." For Butler, Don
Quixote was a wicked madman as well as a hero-satirist whose quest
represented the futility of transforming reality (windmills) into
fiction (giants). On his quest Butler's character Hudibras was not
interested in restoring a glorious past but rather in revealing the base
motivation of Presbyterianism as a true religion. Butler's indebtedess to
Cervantes
may be evident in his portrayal of the two central characters and the
unstructured pattern of their wanderings together.
