Note 551 — Chapter XVII
Reading edition
Sorti del llit, E mig guarit, Yo men partì, A peu anì Seguint fortuna. En Catalunya, Un Cavaller, Gran vandoler, Dantitch llinatge, Me près per patge. Ab ell vixquì, Fins quem ixquì, Ja home fet. Ab lhom discret Temps no hi perdì, Dell aprenguì, De ben servir, Armes seguir, Fuy caçador, Cavalcador, De Cetrerìa, Menescalia, Sonar, ballar, Fins à tallar Ell men mostrà.
Libre de les Dones, Primera Part del Primer Libre, ed. 1561, 4to, f. xv. b.
The “Cavaller, gran vandoler, dantitch llinatge,” whom I have called, in the translation, “a highway knight, of ancient right,” was one of the successors of the marauding knights of the Middle Ages, who were not always without generosity or a sense of justice, and whose character is well set forth in the accounts of Roque Guinart or Rocha Guinarda, the personage referred to in the text, and found in the Second Part of Don Quixote (Capp. 60 and 61). He and his followers are all called by Cervantes Bandoleros, and are the “banished men” of “Robin Hood” and “The Nut-Brown Maid.” They took their name of Bandoleros from the shoulder-belts they wore. Calderon’s “Luis Perez, el Gallego” is founded on the history of a Bandolero supposed to have lived in the time of the Armada, 1588.