“There never was on earth a knight so waited on by ladies fair As once was he, Don Quixote hight, When first he left his village dear: Damsels to serve him ran with speed And princesses to dress his steed” (Cervantes Saavedra 11).
The choice of the words in this passage may be explained by the desire to show how lovely the place for Don Quixote was and how he worried about leaving it. The village is explained as the dear. The hight may be considered as the word which is considered with the height. The meaning of the height is “adj. archaic poet., or joc. called; named” (Oxford English Dictionary n.p.) while height is “the measurement from base to top or (of a standing person) from head to foot” (Oxford English Dictionary n.p.).
Thus, it becomes obvious that all the women are in love with Don Quixote because of his position. It is hard to imagine another knight who is treated the same way. The reasons for such treating are the position and the appreciation of the people from the village where Don Quixote lived. Reading this passage, it is impossible to avoid noticing the alliteration here. The sound [s] is heard. It is possible to predict a lot of reasons for this sound, like the whistle, which may be heard because of the high speed showing that Don Quixote is leaving.
Moreover, the Don Quixote of the ladies who want to help and constantly go to and fro. The contradicting meanings of the words “never” and “once” may be considered as the desire of the author to show that the situation may occur, but it is imagined and should not be confused with reality.
Works Cited
Cervantes Saavedra, de Miguel. Don Quixote. Trans. Walter Starkie. Abridged ed. New York: Signet Classics, 2003. Print.
Oxford English Dictionary, 2011. Web.