Persian. White. Fluffy. Adorable. The creme de la creme of Paris catdom. These words all describe Duchess, one of the stars of Disney's Aristocats. She has this.. well.. effect, on tomcats. Especially Thomas O'Malley. And I can see why, too. Nice tail.

Duchess is voiced by Eva Gabor, who also did the voice of Bianca in The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under. She fits the part quite well.

The Duchess is also a character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She is an ugly, sharp-chinned woman of fickle temperment, who enjoys making up morals to go with random situations. She is the supposed owner of the Cheshire Cat.

Alice first encounters the Duchess in Chapter 6. The Duchess is a bit ill-tempered (apparently because the cook used too much pepper in the soup), and after singing a rather nasty song to her baby boy, gives it to Alice. Shortly thereafter, the baby turns into a pig and Alice lets it run free.

The Duchess had a bit of a row with the Queen of Hearts once, after she accidentally boxed the queen's ears during a croquet game. The Queen had the Duchess imprisoned, and after her release threatened to cut her head off if she didn't leave "in less than no time".

Quote: (directed to Alice in Chapter 9)"You're thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can't tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit."

In American McGee's Alice, the Duchess is one of the boss characters. The Duchess is holding the Mock Turtle's shell captive, and Alice must retrieve the shell before the Turtle will help her find the White Rabbit. The Duchess's fighting style involves teleporting around the arena throwing clouds of pepper and dead baby pigs at you. I recommend using the exploding jack-in-the-boxes to beat her.

Duch"ess (?), n. [F. duchesse, fr. duc duke.]

The wife or widow of a duke; also, a lady who has the sovereignty of a duchy in her own right.

 

© Webster 1913.

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