a but also in Don Quixote. Brenan notes Cervantes's "genius" but also concludes that "a certain social climate is required if he is to be given the encouragement to do this. I believe that this climate existed in the peculiar kind of wit or humour for which Seville [where Cervantes lived] . . . is famous, and which is known as gracia. . . . [W]hat to our minds seem far reaching innuendos, full or metaphysical or psychological import, were often in their original intention mere humorous contrasts and whimsicalities."5
If Brenan is right, then the cynical yet lighthearted attitude of subversion of authority in The Cave of Salamanca is explained. Pancracio is perhaps too content in his personal life, by the author's lights, and cannot conceive that anything in his life could be amiss. In this connection, Duran notes the irony implicit in Cervantes choice of Pancracio's name, "which according to its Greek roots may mean 'all powerful' or 'all governing.'"6 Pancracio is of course fooling himself, but as long as everyone in his life plays his or her part
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