The traveller laughed heartily at this account of such an extraordinary trial, saying, that notwithstanding what he had advanced to the disadvantage of such books, there was one thing in them which he could not but approve; namely, the subject they presented for a good genius to display itself, opening a large and ample field in which the pen might, at leisure, expatiate, in the description of shipwrecks, tempests, battles and encounters; painting a valiant general with all his necessary accomplishments, sage and penetrating into the enemy's designs; eloquent and effectual, either in persuading or dissuading his sholdiers, ripe in council, prompt in execution, and equally brave in standing or in giving an assault. One while, recounting a piteous, tragical story; at another time, describing a joyful and unexpected event; here, a most beautiful lady endowed with virtue, discretion and reserve; there, a Christian knight possessed of courtesy and valour; in a third place, an outrageous boasting barbarian; and in a fourht, a polite considerate gallant prince; not forgetting to describe the faith and loyalty of vassals, together with the grandeur and generosity of great men. The author may also reveal himself to be an astrologer, geographer, musician, and well skilled in state-affairs; nay, if he be so minded, he will sometimes have an opportunity of manifesting his skill in magic...and finally, all those qualifications which constitute the perfection of an illustrious hero; sometimes, uniting them in one, sometimes dividing them into several characters; and the whole being expressed in an agreeable style and ingenious invention, that borders as near as possible, upon the truth, will, doubtless, produce a web of such various and beautiful texture, as when finished, to display that perfection which will attain the chief end and scope of such writings, which, as I have already observed, is to convey instruction mingled with delight. Besides, the unlimited composition of such books gives the author opportunities of exhibiting his talents in epic, lyric, tragedy and comedy, and all the different branches of the delicious and agreeable arts of poetry and rhetoric: for, epics may be written in prose as well as verse.
from Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter XLVII, final paragraph, page 403.
Cervantes loves announcing his work's fictionality. Why? When Bunyan does this sort of thing, at the beginning of Pilgrim's Progress, it feels like he wants to acknowledge that he might be doing something naughty in telling a story that isn't factual, and that he should apologize for this. Like Bunyan, Cervantes is quick to stress that, although his story never really happened, it still "borders as near as possible, upon the truth." And Shakespeare is also obsessed with the same issue, constantly emphasizing the theatricality of his theatrical fictions (think of Lear, complaining that life is a "broad stage of fools"). I suspect that, for this part of the seventeenth century (and I'm counting Bunyan, too, as early seventeenth-century, although his novel is published closer to 1700), announcing fiction as fictional is part of what makes it true. But I'm not sure why it needs to do this.
