The Countess Trifaldi's Tale — Don Quixote

Twelve mourning duennas file into the garden behind Countess Trifaldi, whose three-pointed skirt gives her the name Trifaldi; veiled and hoarse, she refuses courtesy because misery has carried off her wits, then asks whether Don Quixotissimus and Panza are present.

Sancho answers in exaggerated -issimus; Quixote rises and says she need not plead benevolence but tell her woes plainly, for knight-errant aid is ready. The Distressed Duenna kisses his feet, praises him above Amadis, and begs Sancho as intercessor; Sancho says his soul matters more than beards and bids her unpack her woes.

The duke and duchess, authors of the joke, nearly burst with laughter at Trifaldi's acting as she begins Queen Maguncia's kingdom of Kandy, Princess Antonomasia raised under her care, and Don Clavijo, a guitar-playing poet who won the duenna with verses through a grating.

She curses amatory poets Plato would banish, admits imprudence opened Antonomasia's chamber, insists marriage must come first, and tells how a binding agreement before the Vicar led to confession and the princess delivered to an alguacil as Sancho says the world is the same all over and begs her to make haste.