DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHA PANZA RIDE INTO LEGEND

The end of the age of chivalry was punctuated in 1605 with the publication of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. The hero of this classic novel, Don Quixote of La Mancha, rode a broken down hack named Rozinante which he thought was superior to Alexander’s Bucephalus Although Quixote’s horse was a nag, his armor was rusty, and he wore a barber’s basin for a helmet, he became a poignant symbol of the lost world of chivalry. Then as now, Don Quixote represents a stirring image of man’s idealism in a beautiful world gone sour.