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The variety of critical opinions regarding Sancho is staggering. For some, he is a hero-like companion. R. M. Flores, for instance, sees Sancho as a heroic squire when he compares him to Sam Gangee in The Lord of the Rings (106-112), arguing that "in this manner we can finally and distinctly perceive the true image of Sancho reflected by the magic looking glass ofTolkienian lore [in the figure of Sam]" (112). For others, such as Ciriaco Morón Arroyo, Sancho's character leaves much to be desired: "Sancho es mero sentido sin entendimiento" (338). Morón Arroyo later adds to this negative assessment by arguing that Sancho's merely being a squire "es como un pecado mortal" (344). Some of Sancho's adventures, such as the baciyelmo episode, have been analyzed from various-and often mutually opposing-perspectives.1 Such debates about the nature of the baciyelmo can have a direct impact on our understanding of the squire because he is the character who named the object. As Morón Arroyo rightly notes, "el baciyelmo lo crea Sancho [...] no Cervantes" (340).
My purpose here is not try to take sides on these ongoing debates, but rather to offer a new area of exploration: to look at Sancho from the perspective of his knowledge and emotions in order to clarify a particular area of Cervantes's creative process. In other words, this essay is an attempt to explain Cervantes's talents as an epistemologist, particularly as this relates to Sancho, an area of study that seems not to have received all the attention it deserves.2
There are two additional reasons why such an investigation is useful. First, it answers a perplexing question: Given that the knight is crazy from the start of the novel, why does Sancho believe Don Quixote and thus agree to serve him? Second, such an investigation complements what some critics have said about the foundations of Sancho's character. More specifically, Anthony Close and Eduardo Urbina have shown that Sancho forms part of various literary traditions, the former arguing that he forms part of the traditions of the simpleton and the court-jester, with the latter focusing on the influences of the Arthurian dwarf and the literary squire. However, there must be some aspects of Sancho's character that apply only to him because even...