The Spanish Gypsy

Last updated

The Spanish Gypsy is an English Jacobean tragicomedy, dating from around 1623. The play was likely a collaboration between several dramatists, including Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, and John Ford. Like Shakespeare's lost play Cardenio , The Spanish Gypsy is an English reworking of the novellas of Miguel de Cervantes, combining two of Cervantes' Novelas Ejemplares into a single drama.

Contents

Plot summary

Act 1. The noble Roderigo sees a beautiful young girl (Clara) walking one night with her family. Declaring himself bewitched by her beauty, he kidnaps her with the help of his friends, Diego and Lewys, then takes her back to his residence and rapes her. After the fact, Roderigo feels remorse and lets her go. Clara studies the room and manages to steal a crucifix before she is returned to town; these are her only clues as to the identity of her attacker. Later, Lewys realizes with horror that the girl he helped kidnap is the very woman he has been courting. He confronts Roderigo, who lies and tells him that he let the girl go without harming her.

Act 2. There is a group of gypsies in Madrid lodging in the house of Juana Cardochia. One of them is a gypsy girl of unusual beauty and intelligence, named Pretiosa. She is courted by the foolish Sancho (the ward of Don Pedro, Clara's father), as well as by the noble Don John. Despite the difference in their social stations, Don John asks Pretiosa to marry him. Pretiosa agrees only if Don John consents to live as a gypsy for two years. Meanwhile, Clara returns to her mother and father (Maria and don Pedro de Cortes) and relates her misfortune. Her family urges secrecy for the moment. Lewys arrives to court Clara, but she is reluctant. Lewys and Clara's father, don Pedro, discuss how Lewys’ father was killed by a nobleman named Alvarez some years earlier. Alvarez has been living in exile ever since, though no one knows his whereabouts. Don Fernando, the Corregidor (mayor) of Madrid as well as Roderigo's father, wants Lewys to pardon Alvarez and allow him to return to Madrid. Sancho returns home and is scolded by his guardian Don Pedro. Sancho and his servant, Soto, decide to run off and join the troupe of gypsies.

Act 3. Roderigo, now wracked with guilt for his crime, meets Sancho and Soto and decides to turn gypsy as well. The whole troupe goes to perform at the house of Francisco de Carcamo, don John's father. Meanwhile, Clara is injured near Don Fernando's house, and is brought inside his home to be cared for. Clara recognizes the room where she was raped, and asks don Fernando if he has any children. Fernando replies that he has two: his son Roderigo, and a daughter who was lost at sea shortly after her birth. Clara reveals her rape to Fernando, showing him the crucifix as proof. Fernando is horrified, and vows vengeance upon his son.

Act 4. Don John becomes a gypsy and is formally betrothed to Pretiosa; he is renamed Andrew. Andrew refuses the hostess Cardochia's advances, but at last consents to take a jewel she offers him. The gypsy troupe arrives at don Fernando's house and he asks them to act out a play he has written. Fernando pretends not to recognize his son Roderigo, and asks him to play the lead role: that of a son forced to marry an ugly heiress. The play begins, but is interrupted by a fight between Andrew and Diego (who is Cardochia's admirer). Seeking revenge, the spurned Cardochia has accused Andrew of stealing the jewel she gave him. Andrew is arrested and taken away. Don Fernando confronts his son Roderigo and tells him that the play is real: he must marry the ugly heiress. Roderigo refuses and expresses his desire to marry the beautiful woman who had been watching the play that evening. (The woman is Clara, though Roderigo seems not to recognize her from the rape.) Fernando agrees to the marriage.

Act 5. Roderigo has married Clara offstage. But Fernando then stages an elaborate interrogation, first telling his son that he has been punished by marriage to a wanton, then pressing him to confess his crimes. Roderigo eventually breaks down and admits to the rape, adding that he wishes he could have married the woman he wronged. Clara and her family then emerge from hiding and explain everything. Roderigo vows to love Clara and redeem himself. Seeking to bargain for Andrew's freedom, Alvarez reveals himself to Lewys. He laments his part in the death of Lewys’ father, and offers Lewys his life. Lewys finds he cannot kill the older man, and the two are reconciled. Soon afterwards, the gypsy girl Pretiosa arrives to beg Fernando for the release of her betrothed, Andrew. The mother of the gypsy troupe reveals to Fernando that Andrew is really Don John, son of Francisco de Carcamo. Furthermore, she reveals that the exiled Alvarez is the leader of the gypsy troupe, that she herself is Alvarez's wife and Fernando's own missing sister, and that Pretiosa is Fernando's long-lost daughter. Cardochia confesses her plot, and is promised to Diego as penance. Don John and Pretiosa are married.

Performance and Historical Context

The Spanish Gypsy was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 9 July 1623; the text includes two mentions of the camels and elephant that arrived in London for exhibit in that month. The play was performed at Court on 5 November that year; Prince Charles attended.

Sources in Cervantes

The Spanish Gypsy draws two of its main storylines from Cervantes' Novelas Ejemplares . [1] From "La Gitanilla" it borrows the idea of a young gypsy girl who is actually of noble birth, and of the nobleman who falls in love with her and becomes a gypsy himself as a result. From "La fuerza de la sangre" it takes the idea of a nobleman who rapes a well-born girl; the girl eventually discovers the identity of her attacker, and he is made to repent and make amends by marrying her. Many of the characters' names are either kept the same as in Cervantes' novellas or simply anglicized: names such as Preciosa, Carducha, and Andres become Pretiosa, Cardochia, and Andrew, for example.

Problems of Authorship

The London stationer (i.e. bookseller and publisher) Richard Marriot published the play in quarto in 1653 as a collaboration between Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, one of several the two dramatists appear to have shared. A second quarto was issued in 1661. The assignment of authorship was unquestioned till the 20th century. H. Dugdale Sykes was the first modern scholar to dispute the attribution to Middleton and Rowley; he favoured John Ford as the author, judging on a range of stylistic and textual features.

Following up on Sykes' perception, M. Joan Sergeaunt noted the strong resemblances between the gypsy scenes in this play and similar materials in the works of Thomas Dekker. Later scholars, perhaps most prominently David Lake, have refined and confirmed these studies. [2] The similarity of the comic subplot of the play to the work of Rowley has also been noticed. [3] The clown characters Sancho and Soto in The Spanish Gypsy show clear resemblances with Rowleian clowns, like Chough and Trimtram in A Fair Quarrel ; Soto is even called Lollio in IV.iii.80–86, Lollio being the name of Rowley's clown character in The Changeling.The Spanish Gypsy dates from the early 1620s, a time when Dekker, Ford, and Rowley were certainly working together: they wrote The Witch of Edmonton in 1621, and joined with John Webster for Keep the Widow Waking in 1624.

As Gary Taylor has recently argued, however, "If the plot/scenario for the play was written primarily by one author, Middleton is the likeliest candidate." [4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Wilson, 38; Ardila, 5; Fuchs, 70
  2. ↑ Lake, pp. 215–30.
  3. ↑ Brittin, p. 97
  4. ↑ Taylor, 437.

Related Research Articles

<i>Don Quixote</i> Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha or, in Spanish, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha. A founding work of Western literature, it is often labelled as the first modern novel and one of the greatest works ever written. Don Quixote is also one of the most-translated books in the world and the best-selling novel of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel de Cervantes</span> Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright (1547–1616)

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel Don Quixote, a work often cited as both the first modern novel and "the first great novel of world literature". A 2002 poll of around 100 well-known authors voted it the "most meaningful book of all time", from among the "best and most central works in world literature".

<i>Man of La Mancha</i> Musical

Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his 17th-century novel Don Quixote. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes' life or Don Quixote. Wasserman complained repeatedly about people taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote.

The History of Cardenio, often referred to as simply Cardenio, is a lost play, known to have been performed by the King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. The play is attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stationers' Register entry of 1653. The content of the play is not known, but it was likely to have been based on an episode in Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote involving the character Cardenio, a young man who has been driven mad and lives in the Sierra Morena. Thomas Shelton's translation of the First Part of Don Quixote was published in 1612 and would thus have been available to the presumed authors of the play.

William Rowley was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in the graveyard of St James's, Clerkenwell in north London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sancho Panza</span> Character in Don Quixote

Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs, and earthy wit. "Panza" in Spanish means "belly".

<i>Alls Lost by Lust</i>

All's Lost by Lust is a Jacobean tragedy by William Rowley. A "tragedy of remarkable frankness and effectiveness," "crude and fierce," it was written between 1618 and 1620.

<i>Don Quixote</i> (ballet) Ballet

Don Quixote is a ballet in three acts, based on episodes taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and first presented by Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet on 26 December [O.S. 14 December] 1869. Petipa and Minkus revised the ballet into a more elaborate and expansive version in five acts and eleven scenes for the Mariinsky Ballet, first presented on 21 November [O.S. 9 November] 1871 at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of St. Petersburg.

Nosotros somos Dios, literally translated "We Are God", is a play by Mexican playwright Wilberto Cantón (1923–1979). Published in 1962 and written in Spanish, it portrays the troubles of the Alvarez family during the turbulent time of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, after Elizabeth and her husband the Elector Palatine had their brief and disastrous flirtation with the crown of Bohemia.

Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a comedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. First published in the Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647, it is the subject of broad dispute and uncertainty among scholars. In the words of Gerald Eades Bentley, "nearly everything about the play is in a state of confusion...."

Don Quixote (1933) is the English title of a film adaptation of the classic Miguel de Cervantes novel, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, starring the famous operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin. Although the film stars Chaliapin, it is not an opera. However, he does sing four songs in it. It is the first sound film version of the Spanish classic. The supporting cast in the English version includes George Robey, René Donnio, Miles Mander, Lydia Sherwood, Renée Valliers, and Emily Fitzroy. The film was made in three versions—French, English, and German—with Chaliapin starring in all three versions.

<i>Don Quixote</i> (1947 film) 1947 Spanish film by Rafael Gil

Don Quixote or Don Quixote de la Mancha is the first sound film version in Spanish of the great classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It was directed and adapted by Rafael Gil and released in 1947. A huge undertaking for Spanish cinema in its day, it was the longest film version of the novel up to that time, and very likely the most faithful, reverently following the book in its dialogue and order of episodes, unlike G.W. Pabst's 1933 version and the later Russian film version, which scrambled up the order of the adventures as many film versions do. Characters such as Cardenio, Dorotea, and Don Fernando, which are usually omitted because their respective subplots have little to do with the main body of the novel, were kept in this film.

<i>Novelas ejemplares</i>

Novelas ejemplares is a series of twelve novellas that follow the model established in Italy. The series was written by Miguel de Cervantes between 1590 and 1612 and printed in Madrid in 1613 by Juan de la Cuesta. Novelas ejemplares followed the publication of the first part of Don Quixote. The novelas were well received.

Don Quijote cabalga de nuevo is a 1973 Spanish-Mexican comedy film directed by Roberto Gavaldón, loosely based on Miguel de Cervantes's novel Don Quixote and starring Cantinflas as Sancho Panza, Fernando Fernán Gómez as Don Quixote, and María Fernanda D'Ocón as Dulcinea.

The Best Mayor, The King is a play by the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, written between 1620 and 1623 according to the dating proposed by Morley and Bruerton. It was published in 1635 in the twenty-first part of de Vega's comedies.

<i>El ministerio del tiempo</i> Spanish television series

El ministerio del tiempo is a Spanish fantasy television series created by Javier and Pablo Olivares and produced by Onza Partners and Cliffhanger for Televisión Española (TVE). It premiered on 24 February 2015 on TVE's main channel La 1. The series follows the exploits of an investigative team in the fictional Ministry of Time, which deals with incidents caused by time travel that can cause changes to the present day.

<i>Simplemente María</i> (2015 TV series) Mexican TV series or program

Simplemente María is a Mexican telenovela produced by Ignacio Sada for Televisa. Based on an original story by the Argentine writer Celia Alcántara. It is a remake of the Mexican telenovela Simplemente María, produced in 1989. The series originally aired from November 9, 2015, to May 1, 2016.

<i>La gitanilla</i> Short story by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

La gitanilla is the first novella contained in Miguel de Cervantes' collection of short stories, the Novelas ejemplares.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.