Tosilos

Also known as: lacquey Tosilos / the lacquey Tosilos · Family: ducal household · Role: Gascon lacquey · First appears: Part 2, Ch. 54.1

Tosilos is a Gascon lacquey in the ducal household. In Part 2, Ch. 54, the duke and the duchess substitute him for their absent vassal in the challenge against Don Quixote, carefully instructing him in his part. When the battle arrives in Ch. 56, the duke orders him to defeat Don Quixote without killing or wounding him, but Tosilos yields and declares, “I am willing to marry the lady at once.”

His helmet is removed, revealing him as the duke’s lacquey, and the duke postpones the marriage and has him confined while the supposed transformation is investigated. Doña Rodriguez’s daughter accepts him, saying, “I had rather be the lawful wife of a lacquey than the cheated mistress of a gentleman,” but the marriage does not take place; by Ch. 66, she has become a nun. After Tosilos disobeys orders in the combat, the duke has him beaten with a hundred strokes, and he later travels in friendship with Sancho Panza, sharing his food and drink in peace and good fellowship.