Man of La Mancha (Don Quixote) soundtrack – A Glimpse At Quixote's Origins lyrics

Written by Dale Wasserman
In this passage from mid play, an interuption has distracted the prisoners from Cervantes' acting out of Quixote's life. Two of the prisoners (the Duke and the Governor) question Cervantes about the setting of the play they've been participating in -- and about his own character. Cervantes' response provides an intriguing glimpse into his past and the philosophical origins of Don Quixote.
THE DUKE: (with violent contempt) This La Mancha - what is it like?
THE GOVERNOR: An empty place. Great wide plains.
PRISONER: A desert.
THE GOVERNOR: A wasteland.
THE DUKE: Which apparently grows lunatics.
CERVANTES: I would say, rather ... men of illusion.
THE DUKE: Much the same. Why are you poets so fascinated with madmen?
CERVANTES: I suppose ... we have much in common.
THE DUKE: You both turn your backs on life.
CERVANTES: We both select from life what pleases us.
THE DUKE: A man must come to terms with life as it is!
CERVANTES: I have lived nearly fifty years, and I have seen life as it is. Pain, misery, hunger ... cruelty beyond belief. I have heard the singing from taverns and the moans from bundles of filth on the streets. I have been a soldier and seen my comrades fall in battle ... or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I have held them in my arms at the final moment. These were men who saw life as it is, yet they died despairing. No glory, no gallant last words ... only their eyes filled with confusion, whimpering the question: "Why?" I do not think they asked why they were dying, but why they had lived. (He rises, and through the following speech moves into the character of DON QUIXOTE as a musical underscore and change of setting begin) When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams -- this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it
should be.
(The music has stated the "I Am I, Don Quixote" theme thinly during the preceding speech, and the prison and prisoners have disappeared. Cervantes is isolated in limbo; the "horses" have appeared. The lights change)
DON QUIXOTE: (Singing)I am I, Don Quixote ... The Lord of La Mancha ... Destroyer of evil am I ... I will march to the sound of the trumpets of glory ... Forever to conquer or die!