"I have before now told thee many times, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "that

thou art a mighty great chatterer, and that with a blunt wit thou art

always striving at sharpness; but to show thee what a fool thou art and

how rational I am, I would have thee listen to a short story. Thou must

know that a certain widow, fair, young, independent, and rich, and above

all free and easy, fell in love with a sturdy strapping young

lay-brother; his superior came to know of it, and one day said to the

worthy widow by way of brotherly remonstrance, 'I am surprised, senora,

and not without good reason, that a woman of such high standing, so fair,

and so rich as you are, should have fallen in love with such a mean, low,

stupid fellow as So-and-so, when in this house there are so many masters,

graduates, and divinity students from among whom you might choose as if

they were a lot of pears, saying this one I'll take, that I won't take;'

but she replied to him with great sprightliness and candour, 'My dear

sir, you are very much mistaken, and your ideas are very old-fashioned,

if you think that I have made a bad choice in So-and-so, fool as he

seems; because for all I want with him he knows as much and more

philosophy than Aristotle.' In the same way, Sancho, for all I want with

Dulcinea del Toboso she is just as good as the most exalted princess on

earth. It is not to be supposed that all those poets who sang the praises

of ladies under the fancy names they give them, had any such mistresses.

Thinkest thou that the Amarillises, the Phillises, the Sylvias, the

Dianas, the Galateas, the Filidas, and all the rest of them, that the

books, the ballads, the barber's shops, the theatres are full of, were

really and truly ladies of flesh and blood, and mistresses of those that

glorify and have glorified them? Nothing of the kind; they only invent

them for the most part to furnish a subject for their verses, and that

they may pass for lovers, or for men valiant enough to be so; and so it

suffices me to think and believe that the good Aldonza Lorenzo is fair

and virtuous; and as to her pedigree it is very little matter, for no one

will examine into it for the purpose of conferring any order upon her,

and I, for my part, reckon her the most exalted princess in the world.

For thou shouldst know, Sancho, if thou dost not know, that two things

alone beyond all others are incentives to love, and these are great

beauty and a good name, and these two things are to be found in Dulcinea

in the highest degree, for in beauty no one equals her and in good name

few approach her; and to put the whole thing in a nutshell, I persuade

myself that all I say is as I say, neither more nor less, and I picture

her in my imagination as I would have her to be, as well in beauty as in

condition; Helen approaches her not nor does Lucretia come up to her, nor

any other of the famous women of times past, Greek, Barbarian, or Latin;

and let each say what he will, for if in this I am taken to task by the

ignorant, I shall not be censured by the critical."




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