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Eight Interludes
Best known and loved for DON QUIXOTE, the ground-breaking comic precursor of the modern novel, Cervantes led an extraordinary life every bit as colourful as his works.Born the son of a poor medical practioner, maimed by gunshot as a soldier, held to ransom by Algerian corsairs, and eventually drifting into a literary career, Cervantes could draw upon a range of experience with which to spice up his writings.Written as diversionary pieces to be performed between the main acts of a play, Cervantes's eight interludes included in this anthology are comic gems in their own right.As a genre, 'interludes'were generally disliked by the authorities because of their subversive potential, and those by Cervantes are no exception.Crude, rude robust and anarchically refreshing, EIGHT INTERLUDES reveals that even as a playwright Cervantes was ahead of
178 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 1996
About the author
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
5,472 books3,840 followersMiguel de Cervantes y Cortinas, later Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His novel Don Quixote is often considered his magnum opus, as well as the first modern novel.
It is assumed that Miguel de Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares. His father was Rodrigo de Cervantes, a surgeon of cordoban descent. Little is known of his mother Leonor de Cortinas, except that she was a native of Arganda del Rey.
In 1569, Cervantes moved to Italy, where he served as a valet to Giulio Acquaviva, a wealthy priest who was elevated to cardinal the next year. By then, Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by Algerian corsairs. He was then released on ransom from his captors by his parents and the Trinitarians, a Catholic religious order.
He subsequently returned to his family in Madrid.
In Esquivias (Province of Toledo), on 12 December 1584, he married the much younger Catalina de Salazar y Palacios (Toledo, Esquivias –, 31 October 1626), daughter of Fernando de Salazar y Vozmediano and Catalina de Palacios. Her uncle Alonso de Quesada y Salazar is said to have inspired the character of Don Quixote. During the next 20 years Cervantes led a nomadic existence, working as a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada and as a tax collector. He suffered a bankruptcy and was imprisoned at least twice (1597 and 1602) for irregularities in his accounts. Between 1596 and 1600, he lived primarily in Seville. In 1606, Cervantes settled in Madrid, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616.
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It is assumed that Miguel de Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares. His father was Rodrigo de Cervantes, a surgeon of cordoban descent. Little is known of his mother Leonor de Cortinas, except that she was a native of Arganda del Rey.
In 1569, Cervantes moved to Italy, where he served as a valet to Giulio Acquaviva, a wealthy priest who was elevated to cardinal the next year. By then, Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by Algerian corsairs. He was then released on ransom from his captors by his parents and the Trinitarians, a Catholic religious order.
He subsequently returned to his family in Madrid.
In Esquivias (Province of Toledo), on 12 December 1584, he married the much younger Catalina de Salazar y Palacios (Toledo, Esquivias –, 31 October 1626), daughter of Fernando de Salazar y Vozmediano and Catalina de Palacios. Her uncle Alonso de Quesada y Salazar is said to have inspired the character of Don Quixote. During the next 20 years Cervantes led a nomadic existence, working as a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada and as a tax collector. He suffered a bankruptcy and was imprisoned at least twice (1597 and 1602) for irregularities in his accounts. Between 1596 and 1600, he lived primarily in Seville. In 1606, Cervantes settled in Madrid, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 4, 2018
What a disappointment. These are mostly forgettable one-act comedies about rogues, con artists, jilted lovers, cuckolds, and low women that recycle stock characters and clichéd situations from old tales. Cervantes doesn’t add a fresh perspective to these narratives or offer any insight into everyday life. One or two do provide some pointed social commentary (especially “The Marvelous Puppet Show”), but I’m not sure if that derives from the original source material or Cervantes’ interpretation of it. Most don’t have the same comic timelessness of other works from the era, including other works by Cervantes. “The Picket of Love” (aka “The Vigilant Sentinel”) was the only one that I truly enjoyed, probably because the title character was the classic disillusioned would-be hidalgo that Cervantes portrays so effortlessly. It’s not surprising that he couldn’t get these interludes performed in his lifetime and only barely got them published before his death. If these hadn’t been written by the author of Don Quixote and the Exemplary Novels, then they surely would have been lost to time.
September 23, 2024
I have the vice of being a completist. And as a massive fan of Don Quixote and big fan of Cervantes’s Exemplary Stories, I’ve been intermittently reading Cervantes plays.
I wouldn’t recommend these to anyone but a completist. But they were amusing enough. They are eight short plays that were designed to be shown during intermissions of larger plays. They mostly feature stock characters like prostitutes, pimps, con men, soldiers, priests, and others in relatively stock often farcical situations. Most of them are abruptly and unconvincingly resolved with a deus ex machina or inexplicable change of heart by one character. The most interesting ones were about the theater and the nature of illusion.
Would be fun to see some of them performed. But not many at once (I read about one a day for eight days, which was concentrated enough to be a bit too repetitive).
I wouldn’t recommend these to anyone but a completist. But they were amusing enough. They are eight short plays that were designed to be shown during intermissions of larger plays. They mostly feature stock characters like prostitutes, pimps, con men, soldiers, priests, and others in relatively stock often farcical situations. Most of them are abruptly and unconvincingly resolved with a deus ex machina or inexplicable change of heart by one character. The most interesting ones were about the theater and the nature of illusion.
Would be fun to see some of them performed. But not many at once (I read about one a day for eight days, which was concentrated enough to be a bit too repetitive).
September 20, 2024
odd how cervantes fell backwards into being europe's first great novelist while desperately attempting to distinguish himself in the forms that were actually respected at the time, works which now strike us as dull in the extreme precisely because he was so accommodating to contemporary rules, while the quixote is baggy and contradictory and free
February 16, 2017
Charles Patterson's translations are simple, straightforward, always colloquial though often anachronistic in their frame of reference. The humor comes through. It is abundantly clear that Cervantes has all the fun.
December 13, 2020
A historical curiosity. Not great farces, but short and bawdy. The Stage of Wonders and The Cave of Salamanca were by far the best and probably worth 3 stars. They are typical deception farces. The Stage of Wonders has a particularly novel premise, similar to The Emperor's New Clothes, where only true Christians with all previous generations born in wedlock can see the Stage of Wonders. Inevitablly, everyone pretends they can see it to avoid disgrace. Otherwise, the rest were neither funny nor memorable. I feel like I'm being fairly generous giving a 3 to the collection but I'd rather rate by its best rather than its worst interludes.
If you're wondering about the interchangeable use of interlude and farce in this review, they are slightly separate terms but farce meaning 'to stuff', as it was placed between larger plays, functions the same as a comedic interlude. However, not all of the interludes are necessarily farces, although the better ones do employ farce mechanics such as unlikely coincidences, reversals, absurd disguises and obvious deception, etc.
If you're wondering about the interchangeable use of interlude and farce in this review, they are slightly separate terms but farce meaning 'to stuff', as it was placed between larger plays, functions the same as a comedic interlude. However, not all of the interludes are necessarily farces, although the better ones do employ farce mechanics such as unlikely coincidences, reversals, absurd disguises and obvious deception, etc.
December 16, 2020
I guess I was hoping for something more like Don Quixote. These were interesting little pieces and would be fun to perform, but they were a lot quicker than I was hoping.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews