Lion

The Lion appears as the central animal in an encounter that Don Quixote tries to turn into a heroic combat. A caged male being transported with a female from Oran to the Spanish court, he is released only after the knight demands a challenge; instead of attacking, he looks out, turns away, and settles back into his cage. That refusal makes the episode’s decisive reversal: the Lion’s unhurried behavior defeats the expected spectacle, while Don Quixote and the people around him compete to explain what it means.

Identity and Circumstances

The Lion is one of two wild lions carried in a flagged cart. The carter explains that the governor of Oran is sending them to court as a present to the King, and that the flags mark the animals as royal property. The keeper identifies them as a male and a female, housed in separate cages, and says they have not eaten that day. He also describes them as exceptionally large, claiming that none as large—or larger—has crossed from Africa to Spain.

The Lion’s entrance into the story is therefore governed by transport and custody: he is cargo, visibly caged and claimed on behalf of the Crown. The keeper’s warning that the animals are hungry and should be taken promptly to a feeding place gives the scene a practical urgency. Don Quixote, however, recasts that ordinary journey as a challenge aimed at himself, imagining that the people who sent the animals have arranged an ordeal for a knight.

Release and Encounter

After the cart arrives, Don Quixote plants himself in its path and asks what it carries. On learning that the cages hold lions, he orders the keeper to get down, open them, and let the animals out into the plain. The keeper is reluctant, but Don Quixote insists that the Lion must be faced. Sancho Panza arrives and pleads for his master to be stopped, fearing that an attack will get them all torn to pieces.

The keeper opens the male Lion’s cage. The narration first emphasizes his size and fearsome appearance, then follows a sequence of ordinary, unhurried movements: he turns around, extends his claws, stretches, opens his mouth in a long yawn, and uses a tongue described as nearly two palms long to clear dust from his eyes and wash his face. He puts his head outside the cage and surveys his surroundings. Don Quixote watches steadily, waiting for him to leap down so that he can fight him.

The Lion does not leap. After looking around, he turns his hindquarters toward Don Quixote and lies down again, coolly and quietly. When the knight orders the keeper to prod him with a stick, the keeper refuses, explaining that provoking the animal would put him in danger. The cage door remains open, but the Lion does not leave it. The female, who remains in the second cage, is not released in the episode.

The Meaning of Refusal

The Lion’s nonresponse exposes the gap between the combat Don Quixote imagines and the conduct of the animal before him. The knight interprets the encounter as a trial of courage against an enemy sent by enchanters; the keeper sees no reason to endanger himself by forcing a hungry, powerful animal to fight. The Lion’s turn away does not confirm Don Quixote’s account of supernatural interference. It simply leaves the anticipated combat unrealized.

The narrator briefly interrupts the action with extravagant praise of Don Quixote, comparing the knight to a model for the world’s heroes and describing him as standing alone before two of Africa’s fiercest lions. The story then resumes with the male Lion’s actual behavior: he does not charge, but returns to rest. That contrast makes the mock-heroic praise part of the episode’s comedy. The animal’s physical presence is formidable, but his choice not to engage undercuts the battle that Don Quixote hopes to claim.

Aftermath and Narrative Role

Don Quixote tells the keeper to close the cage and asks him to provide a certificate recording that the door was opened, that the knight waited, and that the Lion did not come out. He accepts the refusal as sufficient proof of victory, declaring that he was not obliged to do more. The keeper, meanwhile, explains the encounter to the returning party in terms favorable to Don Quixote, saying that the Lion quailed and dared not leave the cage. Don Quixote uses this account to argue that enchanters may deprive him of good fortune but cannot take away his courage.

Sancho Panza pays the carter and keeper two gold crowns to compensate them for the delay. The keeper accepts the payment and promises to tell the King about the exploit. Thus the Lion’s retreat becomes a story that can travel beyond the plain: its meaning is recast first as the knight’s victory and then as a report intended for court. The animal is not shown attacking anyone or being killed; the encounter ends with the cage closed and the cart continuing its journey. His decisive narrative function lies in that quiet outcome: by declining the role Don Quixote assigns him, the Lion becomes the occasion for the knight’s claim to courage and for the story’s comic contrast between imagined combat and observed behavior.