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Toboʹso

.

Dulcinʹea del Toboso. Don Quixote’s lady. Sancho Panza says she was “a stout-built sturdy wench, who could pitch the bar as well as any young fellow in the parish.” The knight had been in love with her when he was simply a gentleman of the name of Quixʹada. She was then called Aldonza Lorenzo (daughter of Lorenzo Corchuelo and Aldonza Nogales); but when the gentleman became a don, he changed the style of address of the village damsel into one more befitting his new rank. (Cervantes: Don Quixote, bk. i. chap. i.)

“‘Sir,ʹ said Don Quixote, ‘she is not a descendant of the ancient Caii, Curtii, and Scipios of Rome; nor of the modern Colonas and Orsini, nor of the Rebillas and Villanovas of Valencia; neither is she a descendant of the Palafoxes, Newcas, Rocabertis, Corellas, Lunas, Alagones, Ureas, Fozes, and Gurreas of Aragon: neither does the Lady Dulcinea descend from the Cerdas, Manriquez, Mendozas, and Guzmans of Castile: nor from the Alencastros, Pallas, and Menezés of Portugal; but she derives her origin from a family of Toboso, near Manchaʹ” (bk. ii. chap. v.).

⁂ In English the accent of Dulcinea is often on the second syllable, but in Spanish it is on the third.


Ask you for whom my tears do flow so?

Why, for Dulcinea del Toboso.”


 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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To Wit
To (2)
To En (The)
To On (The)
To Pan (The)
Toads
Toad-eater
Toady
Toast
Tobit
Toboso
Tobosian
Toby (the dog)
Toby
Toddy
Toes
Tofana
Tog
Toga
Togad or Togated Nation (The)
Toledo