This paper studies how the chivalric poetic reference permeates in the 1615 Don Quixote. I begin highlighting the presence of theater in the Second part of Cervantes’ novel, in order to study how, precisely, in this level of fiction within fiction (theater inside a novel), the chivalric reference is decontextualized and re-signified. I conclude proving how the chivalric reference is constantly transiting between ontological planes, and accommodates itself to the realities of Cervantes’ characters, actualizing itself and changing its meaning continuously.