Talk:Sancho Panza

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We know that the English word "quixotic" means romantic and impractical, and that there is an equivalent Spanish word "quijotesco". There seems to be a related Spanish word "sanchismo", for which there's no English equivalent. What's the exact definition of "sanchismo"?

In the text of Don Quixote I'm reading Sancho Panza is spelled Sancho Pança. Which is the spelling Cervantes used?

Sancho Pança. The Panza spelling was used after Cervantes had died. I think his daughter and other translators used Panza instead of Pança. Sandy June 21:36, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Sanchismos, Pança

Sancho is the not-so-dumb if realist peasant; his practical wisdom, in the form of clever and bitterly ironic refranes, are sanchismos. A refrán is loosely what a proverb is in English. Examples on the Spanish proverbs wikiquote page. The çedilla in Pança is archaic/pre-reform spelling; it is what Cervantes used. It's sound is a soft "th", like in 'the' or 'that'. The 'z' is a hard 'th', like "thud".

Insofar as sanchismos and quijotexco/quijotismos, you need to take into account that Cervantes wrote during the beginnings of the Enlightenment, when the main direction politics and science were taking was under Calvinism and Protestant Europe. He was well aware of the fact that all that became "science" came out of medieval Spain (Universidad de Salamanca, Toledo, Valencia) from the scholars left over from the Moorish occupation. ( He, and Goya later on, were extremely sarcastic about the Enlightenment 'fad' that swept Europe, and enraged by the political shifts going on in France and Germany, primarily due to the accession of the house of Hapsburg.) Cervantes was ridiculing the French romances as vulgar and weak (at the time), not the Spanish ones. The romance actually began in the court of Aragón, then spread into France and Germany via Naples and the French absorption of Gascony, which was Aquitaine and the upper extent of the Basque kingdoms (Navarra) until the 11th century.

Cervantes was, in my opinion, really commenting through the voice of Sancho, not Quixote.

~~Plasticdoor

"Don Quixote pokes gentle fun at the great Spanish hero El Cid, a protagonist in Le chançon de Roland"

Le Chason de Roland, 'The Song of Roland,' has nothing to do with El Cid; to the best of my knowledge, he is never mentioned. It would be an amazing feat, as it was sung well before its officially dated composition in 1080, and was about the historically murky battle of Roncevaux Pass (it is not known who attacked Charlemagne's vangaurd, either the traditional enemy Saracens or Basque peoples) around 780; El Cid died in 1100, and the peak of his fame was around 1090. So, as to Sancho Panza being a caraciture based on El Cid's characterization in the Song of Roland, I am highly suspect.

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Quixote is allegory above all else. That a man of letters such as Cervantes would not be drawing allusion to Roland is equally as suspect, if not absurd. That Roland is not in El Mío Cid is a bit of a digression; that it cannot be proven is equally irrelevant to the purposes of interpreting Çanxo Pança. These oral traditions mutated and transformed; legend is highly mutable, and incorporated to literature in rather arcane ways. El Mío Cid is a tradition that spoke directly to the Spanish heart, and by extension, the French (southern French; very different than the northern).

Irony, especially biting irony, is entirely relevant to Cervantes. To ironize El Cid is not beyond the pale. It is irrelevant whether or not El Cid and Roland are at all related intellectually. The Chançon de Roland is, as you say, about the Roncevaux Pass, which cannot under any rational surmisal be expunged from a Spanish, much less Catalán or Aragonés, oral tradition.

Allegory is allegory, end of story. The Chançon de Roland originates in the Languedoc, which was culturally and linguistically much akin (and then some) to central and especially eastern Spain. Insight (as in native upbringing) into the peculiarities of the Spanish treatment of language is necessary in order to parse Quixote.PlasticDoor (talk) 19:14, 13 August 2010 (UTC)Plasticdoor

Quixote/Quijote

Don't really care, myself, which spelling is used, but I think whichever is chosen ought to be used consistently within the article, which currently switches between the two without any apparent reason for doing so. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.14.47.207 (talk) 15:31, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

In an encyclopedia, any added, additional, exculpatory, or enlightening information about spellings and so forth are an improvement to understanding. An encyclopedia cannot be constrained, or should not be constrained, by frivolous standardizations for the sake of a unitary style in any given article. So long as the variant spelling is backed up with sufficient factual background, spelling variation is stylistically irrelevant and informationally very relevant. Consistency for its own sake is not helpful in these situations. PlasticDoor (talk) 19:27, 13 August 2010 (UTC)Plasticdoor

see Cockaigne

Perhaps its me but the reference to see Cockaigne has nothing to do with Barataria or does it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.64.242.186 (talk) 13:39, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Name of Sancho Panza's Donkey

A number of places on the Internet, and possibly books also, say that the name of Sancho Panza’s donkey is “Dapple.” However, in Don Quixote, Sancho Panza’s donkey is not given a name either in Spanish editions or in Edith Grossman’s English translation. Rather, Sancho refers to his donkey as “el rucio” (“the gray,” i.e., not as a proper noun, in Edith Grossman’s English translation). Note that “el rucio” is not used as a proper noun. Typical expressions, as can be confirmed using Internet searches in Spanish, are “el rucio” and “Rocinante y el rucio” but not “El Rucio” or “Rucio” as if “El Rucio” or “Rucio” were the name of Sancho’s donkey. Moreover, “rucio” does not mean “dapple” or “dappled.” Maybe “Dapple” appears in some loose English translation, but its use should be considered incorrect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JacquotFresne (talk • contribs) 19:34, 16 November 2016 (UTC)