In Malory’s literature, men were knights, ladies were damsels, and magic was preponderant. By the time that Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, men got real jobs, the innocent damsel had become a myth, and magic was reduced to superstition. These works both examine the chivalric ideal: “physical prowess, courtesy, truth in love and friendship, tenderness, humility, gentleness” (The Legend of Arthur in British & American Literature, p. 65) and remark much on it. While they both find this ideal to be too much for a man to maintain, t ....