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.
