and well-born; and the rest of her sex, foul, foolish, fickle, and baseborn. To be hers, and hers alone, nature threw me into the world. Let Altisidora weep or sing; let the lady despair, on whose account I was buffeted in the castle of the enchanted Moor.* Boiled or roasted, Dulcinea's I must be, clean, well-bred, and chaste, in spite of all the necromantic powers on earth.'
This said, he clapped to the casement, and, in despite and sorrow, as if some great misfortune had befallen him, threw himself upon his bed; where, at present, we will leave him, to attend the great Sancho Panza, who is desirous of beginning his famous government.
How the great Sancho Panza took possession of his island, and of the manner of his beginning to govern it.
O THOU perpetual discoverer of the antipodes, torch of the world, eye of heaven, sweet motive of wine-cooling bottles; here Thymbraeus, there Phoebus; here archer, there physician; father of poesy, inventor of music; thou who always risest, and, though thou seemest to do so, never settest! To thee, I speak, O sun, by whose assistance man begets man; thee I invoke to favour and enlighten the obscurity of my genius, that I may be able punctually to describe the government of the great Sancho Panza; for, without thee, I find myself indolent, dispirited, and confused!
I say then, that Sancho, with all his attendants, arrived at a town that contained about a thousand inhabitants, and was one of the best the duke had. They gave him to understand, that it was called the island of Barataria, either because Barataria was really the name of the place, or because he obtained the government of it at so cheap a rate.* At his arrival near the gates of the town, which was walled about, the magistrates, in their formalities, came out to receive him, the bells rung, and the people gave demonstrations of a general joy, and, with a great deal of pomp, conducted him to the great church to give thanks to God. Presently after, with certain ridiculous ceremonies, they presented to him the keys of the town, and admitted him as perpetual governor of the island of Barataria. The garb, the beard, the thickness and shortness of the new governor, held in
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