Ginés de Pasamonte

Also known as: Don Ginesillo de Parapilla / Don Ginesillo de Paropillo / Gines de Pasamonte / Ginesillo / Ginesillo de Paropillo / Master Pedro · Role: galley slave · First appears: Part 1, Ch. 22.3

In Part 1, Ch. 22, Ginés de Pasamonte is sentenced to ten years in the galleys, “which is the same thing as civil death,” and declares that his life and crimes are written by his own fingers. When Don Quixote intervenes against the commissary, Ginés is among the galley slaves freed with help from Sancho Panza; he seizes the commissary’s weapons, drives off the guards, and refuses Don Quixote’s order to carry the chain to Dulcinea del Toboso. Instead, he and the other freed men stone Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, strip them of clothing and belongings, and scatter.

Before daybreak at Sierra Morena, Ginés steals Dapple from the sleeping Sancho Panza. When Sancho Panza recognizes him in Part 1, Ch. 30, Ginés abandons the ass and flees; a later account again says that he stole Dapple while Sancho Panza slept, and that Sancho Panza eventually recovered him. Seeking to escape justice for his many offences, Ginés moves to Aragon, disguises himself, buys and trains an ape, and becomes the puppet-showman Master Pedro.

At the inn in Part 2, Ch. 25, Master Pedro praises Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and offers a free show: “And now, because I have promised it, and to afford him pleasure, I will set up my show and offer entertainment to all who are in the inn, without any charge whatever.” His ape gives an account of Don Quixote’s experiences in the cave of Montesinos, and Master Pedro stops ringing the bells when Don Quixote objects. Don Quixote then destroys the puppet show, while Sancho Panza pays the assessed forty reals and three-quarters, plus two reals for the ape; Master Pedro gathers the wreckage, catches the ape, and leaves before sunrise. The following chapter reveals that Master Pedro is Ginés de Pasamonte, also called Don Ginesillo de Parapilla.