Altisidora’s Courtship of Don Quixote and the Bell-and-Cat Prank turns a serenade into a test of Don Quixote’s constancy and then into a painful spectacle engineered by the Duke and Duchess. First the listening knight mistakes a household performance for a familiar romance of secret love; then he treats a shower of bells and cats as supernatural combat. His absolute fidelity to Dulcinea of Toboso survives both the flattering song and the physical punishment, while the prank exposes how the castle’s entertainments make his chivalric convictions their target.

The Serenade and Its Setting

The episode begins with Don Quixote already out of spirits. His stockings have burst at the seams, and he misses Sancho Panza, who has gone to take up his government. Don Quixote comforts himself with a pair of travelling boots Sancho left behind, but the night’s warmth keeps him awake. He rises, opens a grated window overlooking the garden, and hears two women talking below. One is Altisidora; the other, her friend Emerencia, urges her to sing softly to the accompaniment of her harp. Their conversation makes clear that they want Don Quixote to hear them: Emerencia has noticed his window open, and Altisidora worries that a song might disclose her feelings.

The scene deliberately resembles the romances Don Quixote has read: a sleepless knight at a window, a garden below, a confidante, and a maiden preparing a serenade. He interprets these details through that literary pattern, concluding that a lady of the Duchess’s household has fallen in love with him. The recognition is comic because he takes the familiar conventions as evidence of a real romantic summons, even as the episode presents the performance as carefully arranged for his attention.

Altisidora’s ballad praises Don Quixote’s valor and constancy, names her as a damsel of the household, and presents her as a potential beloved. Its compliments also include a self-description: she claims a sweet voice and a figure somewhat below the mean. Don Quixote listens in amazement, then resolves not to yield. The serenade has offered him the role of the beloved knight; he answers by insisting that his love and soul belong only to Dulcinea of Toboso, and that no other woman can alter that allegiance. Rather than speak to the singers, he shuts the window with a bang and goes back to bed, vexed as though misfortune had befallen him.

The Courtship Continues at the Window

The song does not end the performance. Don Quixote lies awake, troubled by Altisidora’s music and by the damage to his stockings. By morning he has dressed carefully to conceal the torn garment: he wears the travelling boots, a chamois suit, a scarlet mantle, a green velvet cap edged with silver, his sword, and the large rosary he habitually carries. He proceeds solemnly toward the Duke and Duchess, who are already dressed and waiting.

In a gallery, Altisidora and Emerencia lie in wait. At the sight of Don Quixote, Altisidora pretends to faint, while her companion catches her and hastily loosens the front of her dress. Don Quixote does not respond to this apparent collapse as a lover would. Instead, he sings of Dulcinea’s image fixed in his heart and of constancy as the quality most esteemed in lovers. His song makes his refusal explicit, and the Duke, Duchess, Altisidora, and much of the household listen. The contrast is central to the scene: the castle turns romantic gestures into a spectacle, while Don Quixote treats fidelity as a serious obligation.

Bells, Cats, and the Fight with the Enchanters

As Don Quixote sings, the Duke and Duchess’s joke erupts above his window. A cord carrying more than a hundred bells is lowered from a gallery, followed by a large sack of cats whose tails have smaller bells tied to them. The noise and yowling startle even the Duke and Duchess, although they devised the prank. Several cats get into Don Quixote’s chamber, extinguish the candles, and dash about as the large bells continue to rise and fall. People elsewhere in the castle, unaware of what is happening, are left astonished.

Don Quixote draws his sword and slashes toward the grating, addressing the disturbance as hostile enchanters. He then turns on the cats, which rush to escape. Most get out through the window, but one, hard pressed by his sword, flies at his face and clings to his nose. When the Duke and Duchess enter with lights, Don Quixote insists on fighting the animal himself, calling it a demon or wizard; the Duke finally pulls it away and throws it out of the window. The supposed combat leaves Don Quixote’s face full of holes and his nose in poor condition. He is also angry that the Duke ended his hand-to-hand battle before he could finish it. His interpretation transforms an inflicted injury into proof of an enchanted trial, preserving the heroic meaning of events even as the prank makes that meaning look absurd.

Wounds, Fidelity, and Aftermath

Altisidora herself applies oil of St John’s wort and bandages Don Quixote’s wounds. As she tends him, she reproaches his insensibility and obstinacy and wishes that Sancho Panza will forget to whip himself, so Dulcinea of Toboso will remain under her enchantment. She links Don Quixote’s refusal to love her with the continued suffering of the woman he loves, turning the enchantment into a pointed part of her appeal. Don Quixote gives no spoken answer, but sighs deeply and lies down. He thanks the Duke and Duchess for coming to his aid, explaining that he recognizes their good intentions in the rescue rather than fearing the supposed enchanters.

The Duke and Duchess withdraw, distressed that their joke has affected Don Quixote so severely and cost him so dear. He remains confined to bed for five days. The narrative then shifts back to Sancho’s government and postpones mention of another, more pleasant adventure during Don Quixote’s illness. The episode thus closes not with romantic reciprocation or a victorious combat, but with a wounded knight still loyal to Dulcinea of Toboso and a household joke whose consequences exceed what its authors expected.