he master changed his state, the horse
should likewise change his name and assume one pompous and
high-sounding, as became the new order he now professed. So, after
having devised, altered, lengthened, curtailed, rejected, and again
framed in his imagination a variety of names, he finally determined upon
Rozinante, a name in his opinion lofty, sonorous, and full of meaning;
importing that he had only been a rozin--a drudge horse--before his
present condition, and that now he was before all the rozins in the
world.

Having given his horse a name so much to his satisfaction, he resolved
to fix upon one for himself. This consideration employed him eight more
days, when at length he determined to call himself Don Quixote; whence
some of the historians of this most true history have concluded that his
name was certainly Quixada, and not Quesada, as others would have it.
Then recollecting that the valorous Amadis, not content with the simple
appellation of Amadis, added thereto the name of his kingdom and native
country, in order to render it famous, styling himself Amadis de Gaul;
so he, like a good knight, also added the name of his province, and
called himself Don Quixote de la Mancha; whereby, in his opinion, he
fully proclaimed his lineage and country, which, at the same time, he
honored by taking its name.

His armor being now furbished, his helmet made perfect, his horse and
himself provided with names, he found nothing wanting but a lady to be
in love with, as he said,--

"A knight-errant without a mistress was a tree without either fruit or
leaves, and a body without a soul!"

One morning before day, being one of the most sultry in the month of
July, he armed himself cap-a-pie, mounted Rozinante, placed the helmet
on his head, braced on his target, took his lance, and, through the
private gate of his back yard, issued forth into the open plain, in a
transport of joy to think he had met with no obstacles to the
commencement of his honorable enterprise. But scarce had he found
himself on the plain when he was assailed by a recollection so terrible
as almost to make him abandon the undertaking; for it just then occurred
to him that he was not yet dubbed a knight; therefore, in conformity to
the laws of chivalry, he neither could nor ought to enter the lists
against any of that order; and, if he had been actually dubbed he
should, as a new knight, have worn white armor, without any device on
his shield, until he had