Here lies an evil-errant knight,
Well bruised in many a fray,
Whose courser, Rozinante hight,
Long bore him many a way.
Close by his loving master's side
Lies booby Sancho Panza,
A trusty squire of courage tried,
And true as ever man saw.
_Tiquitoc, Academician of Argamasilla, on the sepulture of Dulcinea
del Toboso._
Dulcinea, fat and fleshy, lies
Beneath this frozen stone;
But, since to frightful death a prize,
Reduced to skin and bone.
Of goodly parentage she came,
And had the lady in her;
She was the great Don Quixote's flame,
But only death could win her.
These were all the verses that could be read: the rest, the characters
being worm-eaten, were consigned to one of the Academicians, to find out
their meaning by conjectures. We are informed he has done it, after many
lucubrations and much pains, and that he designs to publish them, giving
us hopes of Don Quixote's third sally.
"Forsi altro cantara con miglior plectro."
The noble mind may be clouded by adversity, but cannot be
wholly concealed; for true merit shines by a light of its
own, and, glimmering through the rents and crannies of
indigence, is perceived, respected, and honored by the
generous and the great.