Princess Antonomasia

Princess Antonomasia is the heir to Kandy in Countess Trifaldi’s account of a courtship, a disputed marriage, and an enchantment. Presented as both exceptionally beautiful and intelligent, she becomes the focus of Don Clavijo’s pursuit; their marriage is accepted by a vicar, but provokes her mother’s grief and leads to Malambruno’s curse. Because the tale is part of an adventure staged by The Duke and The Duchess, Antonomasia’s story also exposes how romance conventions can be turned into theatrical machinery for Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

Identity and Place at Court

Antonomasia is the only child of Queen Dona Maguncia and the heir to the kingdom of Kandy. Countess Trifaldi says she was brought up under her care and direction, and describes the princess, at fourteen, as possessing extraordinary beauty and mature intelligence. Her position makes her marriage a matter of succession and rank, not simply a private choice: Don Clavijo is a gentleman at court, but not of royal standing.

Courtship and Marriage

According to Trifaldi, Don Clavijo’s accomplishments included poetry, guitar-playing, dancing, and making birdcages. His pursuit succeeded in part because he first won Trifaldi’s cooperation with gifts and verses. She then helped him enter Antonomasia’s chamber under the status of a lawful husband, insisting in her account that she would not otherwise have permitted him to approach the princess. Trifaldi’s own narration therefore makes her more than a witness: her decision enables the relationship she later presents as a crisis.

When Antonomasia’s pregnancy became difficult to conceal, the household sought to settle the matter through marriage. Don Clavijo asked for her before the vicar, relying on an agreement to marry that Trifaldi had drafted. The vicar heard Antonomasia’s confession and ruled in Don Clavijo’s favour, delivering her to him as his lawful wife. The resolution rests on a formal declaration and the vicar’s judgment, while the disparity between the princess’s royal inheritance and Don Clavijo’s lesser rank remains central to the conflict.

Loss and Enchantment

Queen Dona Maguncia took the marriage so deeply to heart that she died within three days. At her grave, Malambruno appeared on a wooden horse. Trifaldi describes him as the queen’s cousin and an enchanter who acted to avenge her death and punish the lovers. He transformed Antonomasia into a brass ape and Don Clavijo into a crocodile made of an unidentified metal, leaving a metal pillar between them with an inscription explaining the terms of the curse.

The enchantment, as Trifaldi relates it, can be broken only when a valiant Manchegan fights Malambruno in single combat. Antonomasia’s fate thus becomes the occasion for a promised trial of Don Quixote’s chivalric courage. In the evidence of the tale, she remains enchanted; no release is reported.

The Tale as Theatrical Romance

Antonomasia does not narrate her own story. Her identity and actions reach the company through Trifaldi, whose performance is part of an experiment devised by The Duke and The Duchess. The frame makes the princess’s misfortune serve two purposes at once: within the tale it supplies a reason for a knight to confront an enchanter, while in the surrounding scene it provides a carefully staged spectacle for Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

The account also draws comedy from the way its faraway court resembles familiar institutions. Sancho notices the appearance in Kandy of such things as a vicar, court officials, poets, and popular verse, treating them as signs that the world is much the same everywhere. Antonomasia’s royal setting consequently does not keep the episode at a distance from its listeners; it makes the machinery of romance recognizable, even as her transformation raises the stakes of the staged adventure.