261 292
261
auricula
traversal was secured by
small, specially designed
horse-drawn carts, offered
abode to quite a few emigrant
ears, as well as the two large,
radically structured groups
that constituted
Don Quixote
Part I
andCalderón’s tragedies.
For security’s sake, the groups
were combined so that a first
glance could not unravel
whichwas thework of interest.
This organizational principle
was so structured that, when
it reached its climax, any
random,superficialagreement
between the two giants’
works was exploited by the
groupings, so that entirely
new, or i g ina l s tor i es
materialized for the illiterate
hastily making his way through
the tunnel. Enterprising British
editors in the port city
exploited this idea, with the
result that the ignorant
fishermen’s accounts of that
long, teeming ceiling formed
the basis for quite a few
broadcasts of serial English
trash. The
Forsyte Saga
, for
example, can thank that
resounding ceiling for its final
three convul s i ve and
melodramatic volumes. In
1975 General Franco’s death
paved the way for these
diminutive treasures to return
to more national vaults. The
return, however, was an
incarnat ion of subt le
difficulties. Fatally, there was
no reliable ship route between
Gibraltar and the Spanish
mainland, it was only by way
of ferry to Tangier and a
second stop along the Spanish
coast at Algeciras that the
enterprise was possible.
Af ter severa l ni ght s ’
deliberation and periodic
copulation, the two groups
decided among themselves
that each should attempt to
shift back to their original