In a certain province whose name I shall not trouble to set down, there dwelt a gentleman of modest fortune, possessed of an old horse, a rusted sword, and a library of romances that had, by slow degrees, entirely undone his reason. He rose before dawn each day, not to till his fields, which lay neglected, but to read of giants and enchanters until his eyes ached and his supper grew cold upon the table.

El Caballero de la Triste Figura

It is related, by those who claim to have known him, that he would speak for hours of tournaments long since forgotten, and of ladies whose beauty, he swore, outshone the sun itself; and though his neighbors laughed behind their hands, he took no notice, so wholly was he given over to the service of his imagined lady, in whose name he vowed to right every wrong the world might offer him, however small, however imagined, however far beyond the reach of an old man on an older horse.

Chapter III. Wherein Our Knight Is Dubbed in a Manner Most Irregular

Rocinante, Fiel Compañero

A Errar Es Humano, A Soñar Es Divino

¡Adelante, Sin Miedo!

Now it happened that our knight, having ridden three days without bread or rest, came upon an inn which he took, in the fever of his fancy, for a castle of surpassing splendor, and the innkeeper for its lord; and so earnestly did he entreat to be knighted there and then that the good man, more from a wish to be rid of him than any ceremony, obliged him before the sun had fully risen.

Historia del Ingenioso Hidalgo, Segunda Parte

And thus armed, thus christened, thus made a knight of no order but his own devising, he set forth once more into the world, meeting on the road a company of merchants whom he took for a train of princes, and challenged, in the loftiest terms he could summon, to confess that his lady surpassed all others in beauty, though not one among them had ever laid eyes upon her, nor, in truth, had he himself seen more of her than a girl he once glimpsed winnowing wheat.

Chapter VII. Of the Adventure of the Thirty Windmills

Sancho, Fiel Escudero

Gigantes de Piedra y Viento

¡Por Mi Fe, Dulcinea!