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Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  9442 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1547-1616 John Bartlett

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

9442 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1547-1616 John Bartlett

 
NUMBER:9442
AUTHOR:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616)
QUOTATION:He has done like Orbaneja, the painter of Ubeda, who, being asked what he painted, answered, “As it may hit;” and when he had scrawled out a misshapen cock, was forced to write underneath, in Gothic letters, “This is a cock.” 1
ATTRIBUTION:Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. iii.
 
Note 1.
The painter Orbaneja of Ubeda, if he chanced to draw a cock, he wrote under it, “This is a cock,” lest the people should take it for a fox.—Jarvis’s translation. [back]