ABSTRACT
This chapter claims that Rabelais's and Cervantes's parody of translation can be seen as another response to the problem that translation's multiplicity posed for Renaissance thought. It also claims that the use earlier fictional narratives make of translation strategies is part of this response as well. Going back to the non-laudable alternative renderings for abadejo in different 'languages' the author shows that they are central to comic play with linguistic, social, and regional identities. The author uses Miguel de Cervantes's parody as an entry into more general exploration: a study of the ways in which some early modern fictional works invoke the practice of collaborative translation and the texts of multilingual translations as models for interpretive strategies. In the context of his discussion of the relations between translation and early modern fiction, Giles's hint offers a unique entry where his fictional translation and More's translation games can be associated with humor; this humor seems to be of a productive type.
