One which, it seems to me, cannot be too rigidly followed in translating "Don Quixote," is to avoid everything that savours of affectation.

The book itself is, indeed, in one sense a protest against it, and no man abhorred it more than Cervantes.

For this reason, I think, any temptation to use antiquated or obsolete language should be resisted.

It is after all an affectation, and one for which there is no warrant or excuse.

Spanish has probably undergone less change since the seventeenth century than any language in Europe, and by far the greater and certainly the best part of "Don Quixote" differs but little in language from the colloquial Spanish of the present day.