las
duennas generosas de grant estado e faziendas [.
1) Excluyo a las princesas o reinas, quienes dispusieron siempre de una educacion especifica, aunque por estudiar en el caso altomedieval, que las habria de preparar para el desempeno de su funcion, cuando llegara el caso, como sabemos, por poner sendos ejemplos muy distintos, de la reina merovingia Radegunda, o de las hijas de Fernando I <<a las fijas mando estar en estudios de
duennas et aprender orationes et orar, et aprender buenas costumbres- (segun la Primera Cronica, cap.
Four "fouteurs" ("fuckers"), four cooks, four
duennas and eight victims-to-be of each sex selected from all over the Kingdom of France also compose the party.
The fact that certain venerable
duennas, otherwise not particularly sentimental, are unwilling to quit their squalid and insanitary cottages, is no argument for allowing the public eye and conscience to be offended by the continuance of slums.
But it is also very dangerous in a world where young men think nothing of killing for the sake of family honour; where parents are little better than quarrelling children; where
duennas are good for comic relief and little else; where 'women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall' (I.
Dickens's Mrs General, accompanying the Dorrit girls on their European travels, is rather more worldly than the bluestocking Miss Prism, instructing Cecily in the country, but the essential resemblance between the two prim
duennas is clear.
Despite the death of the "debate" a decade ago, and despite the demise of French feminism in France, feminist French professors in this country--having already sorted out the problems of negotiating between the "French" interest in "feminine writing" and the "Anglo-American" interest in the literary history of female writers--continue inexplicably to pay homage to the
duennas of French feminist theory (as canonized in the United States).
As don Quijotes pinchers are about to identified, the translation says that "since all
duennas are fond of knowing, understanding, and inquiring" (782).
La condesa, para disimular la escasa guarnicion --cuarenta y cinco caballeros--, "mando a sus
duennas que se destocasen et se parasen en cabellos, et que tomasen armas en las manos, et que se parassen en el andamio".
We learn what flatterers are like and shoemakers and puppeteers, swordsmen,
duennas, and many others.