Unable to recommend his "stepchild" to his readers with laudations or apologies, Cervantes writes that "though I bestowed some time in writing the book, yet it cost me not half so much labor as this very preface." Stalemated at this task of preface-writing, he welcomes the intrusion of a friend and complains to him of his difficulty. The friend laughs at such a simple problem, and Cervantes transcribes the wise counsel he receives. To make the work appear scholarly, his friend advises him to insert random Latin phrases among his sentences in the most appropriate contexts. Cervantes must provide footnotes as well, phrasing these in glib, pseudo-scientific language. Finally, for an impressive bibliography, he should copy the entire alphabetical index of authors out of some book that has such a list and incorporate it as part of his own.
On the other hand, continues the friend, Don Quixote requires slightly different treatment, being a profane history. "Nothing but pure nature is your business, . . . and the closer you can imitate your picture is the better," he counsels. Furthermore, no outside sources have to be cited since the aim of Don Quixote is merely to "destroy the authority and acceptance the books of chivalry have had in the world." Though you wish to "challenge attention from the ignorant and admiration from the judicious," he tells the author, keep your attention riveted to the main purpose of this writing "the fall and destruction of that monstrous heap of ill-contrived romances, which, though abhorred by man, have so strangely infatuated the greater part of mankind." Cervantes reports that his friend's arguments were so convincing that he was moved to write the whole story by way of preface.
