of the famous poets of Spain, who were, they said, only three and a

half, he would not fail to compose the required verses; though he

saw a great difficulty in the task, as the letters which made up the

name were seventeen; so, if he made four ballad stanzas of four

lines each, there would be a letter over, and if he made them of five,

what they called decimas or redondillas, there were three letters

short; nevertheless he would try to drop a letter as well as he could,

so that the name "Dulcinea del Toboso" might be got into four ballad