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The Captive's Tale
The Captive's Tale, here presented with Spanish text and facing English translation, is the story of Captain Rui Perez de Biedma who is captured at the battle of Lepanto, taken to Constantinople, serves as a galley slave and later is brought to Algiers. His story is set against the background of Imperial Spain when Europe was on the move', and much of the tale centres on the intercession of a beautiful Moorish maiden, Zoraida, who helps him escape. For those unfamiliar with Cervantes, it offers a useful introduction to the life, times and work of an astonishing individual - the creator of the modern novel in Europe.
175 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1605
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 10, 2025
The Great Sultana is a fun play. It's rather straightforward, with barely the whiff of a B-plot, but the A-plot contains an intriguing view of sexual morality for the period, and the B-plot contains several sequences of male-to-female cross-dressing (a decidedly uncommon occurrence in the comedia nueva; the only other one of which I know is in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's Los Empeños de una Casa). The Bagnios of Algiers definitely has more swashbuckling adventure, but I found this play very difficult to follow and just overall quite messy, with clunky transitions and a divided focus. Both plays actually feel like they'd be better as novels, which feels like a rather obvious thing to say about two plays by Miguel de Cervantes, but I still think it's true.
The introductory material here is excellent, though, with a lot of great information about Spanish ideas about Ottoman sexual deviance, renegados, kidnappings, apostates, and differences between Moors and Turks.
The introductory material here is excellent, though, with a lot of great information about Spanish ideas about Ottoman sexual deviance, renegados, kidnappings, apostates, and differences between Moors and Turks.
October 22, 2017
Cervantes didn’t find fame as a writer until he published Don Quixote at the age of 58. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t write. Prior to Don Quixote, he suffered years of rejection as a playwright. His patriotic tragedy, Numantia, was a relative success, but he struggled to have his other plays purchased and performed. Cervantes, though, appeared proud of his plays and published 16 of his dramatic works at the end of his life. (Oddly this book has never been translated into English. Come on, Spanish translators!)
This book features translations of two works Cervantes wrote related to his captivity in Algiers. Cervantes was captured by pirates when he traveled from Naples to Barcelona. He spent five years in captivity in the Islamic city of Algiers awaiting payment of his ransom. Overall, the plays revolve around the love stories of Spaniards captured or kidnapped during pirate raids and held in Algiers as slaves until they were ransomed.
The plays are interesting for the interplay of Christian, Muslim and Jewish characters/worlds. The Algerians are rather tolerant people, allowing the captives to practice their religion. But there is an economic reason for this: They made money off of ransoms for these prisoners. And no one wanted to pay for uncle Alfredo’s return if he converted to Islam.
Cervantes presents the Moorish characters (and religion) mostly sympathetically, but there is, unfortunately, a good bit of anti-Semitism in the plays. (The Moors are presented much better in the later plays than his earlier Commerce at Algiers.) Foremost, though, he was a Spanish patriot. Though not as excessively nationalistic as Numantia, Cervantes uses every opportunity to praise the Spanish spirit in these plays.
In general, Cervantes’ plays are okay. Some, like Numantia, are rather stiff and preachy. These later plays, however, are rather spirited works crammed with subplots. The prose translations (Cervantes play are written in verse) are rather stiff, but appear to be true to language of Cervantes – sacrificing art for accuracy.
These are not a must-read, but if you enjoy Cervantes, Spanish Golden Age theatre, or the interplay of religions in the 16th century Mediterranean, they are a good read.
The Bagnois of Algiers *** – The Bagnois (or prison) of Algiers is for Cervantes a rather lively play weaving at least four different plots together. The two main plots are about lovers – a Moorish princess (?) raised by a Christian slave falls in love with a captive and escapes with him to become a true Christian; and a man’s future wife is kidnapped in a raid and he follows her to Algiers to rescue her. It is standard melodramatic fare.
Cervantes patriotism – and his tendency for maudlin stories – is exemplified in the tear-jerker subplot about a brave Spanish boy who refuses to convert to Islam and is tortured to death (with many comparisons to Christ’s death). Even Cervantes says this should be presented in a fashion “most conducive to pity.”
The Great Sultana *** – This is another melodrama. The main story is about a Turk leader (the Sultan?) smitten by the beauty of a Christian Spaniard captive. He wants to marry her, but she holds out because she wants to maintain her faith. And there is a small story about a guy whose girlfriend is captured by the Moors and made a part of the Turk’s seraglio. So he dresses like a woman and becomes part of the harem. (Yes, no one can tell.)
What’s interesting to me is that there is some real comedy in this. Madrigal convinces a Moor he can talk to birds and is humorously called the elephant trainer. The guy who is dresses like a girl is picked by the Turk to have sex. It’s too bad Cervantes didn’t dig deeper into his humorous side with his plays.
This book features translations of two works Cervantes wrote related to his captivity in Algiers. Cervantes was captured by pirates when he traveled from Naples to Barcelona. He spent five years in captivity in the Islamic city of Algiers awaiting payment of his ransom. Overall, the plays revolve around the love stories of Spaniards captured or kidnapped during pirate raids and held in Algiers as slaves until they were ransomed.
The plays are interesting for the interplay of Christian, Muslim and Jewish characters/worlds. The Algerians are rather tolerant people, allowing the captives to practice their religion. But there is an economic reason for this: They made money off of ransoms for these prisoners. And no one wanted to pay for uncle Alfredo’s return if he converted to Islam.
Cervantes presents the Moorish characters (and religion) mostly sympathetically, but there is, unfortunately, a good bit of anti-Semitism in the plays. (The Moors are presented much better in the later plays than his earlier Commerce at Algiers.) Foremost, though, he was a Spanish patriot. Though not as excessively nationalistic as Numantia, Cervantes uses every opportunity to praise the Spanish spirit in these plays.
In general, Cervantes’ plays are okay. Some, like Numantia, are rather stiff and preachy. These later plays, however, are rather spirited works crammed with subplots. The prose translations (Cervantes play are written in verse) are rather stiff, but appear to be true to language of Cervantes – sacrificing art for accuracy.
These are not a must-read, but if you enjoy Cervantes, Spanish Golden Age theatre, or the interplay of religions in the 16th century Mediterranean, they are a good read.
The Bagnois of Algiers *** – The Bagnois (or prison) of Algiers is for Cervantes a rather lively play weaving at least four different plots together. The two main plots are about lovers – a Moorish princess (?) raised by a Christian slave falls in love with a captive and escapes with him to become a true Christian; and a man’s future wife is kidnapped in a raid and he follows her to Algiers to rescue her. It is standard melodramatic fare.
Cervantes patriotism – and his tendency for maudlin stories – is exemplified in the tear-jerker subplot about a brave Spanish boy who refuses to convert to Islam and is tortured to death (with many comparisons to Christ’s death). Even Cervantes says this should be presented in a fashion “most conducive to pity.”
The Great Sultana *** – This is another melodrama. The main story is about a Turk leader (the Sultan?) smitten by the beauty of a Christian Spaniard captive. He wants to marry her, but she holds out because she wants to maintain her faith. And there is a small story about a guy whose girlfriend is captured by the Moors and made a part of the Turk’s seraglio. So he dresses like a woman and becomes part of the harem. (Yes, no one can tell.)
What’s interesting to me is that there is some real comedy in this. Madrigal convinces a Moor he can talk to birds and is humorously called the elephant trainer. The guy who is dresses like a girl is picked by the Turk to have sex. It’s too bad Cervantes didn’t dig deeper into his humorous side with his plays.
December 26, 2023
"The Great Sultana," the second of the two Cervantes plays in this volume, was really enjoyable and interesting. "The Bagnios of Algiers" was fine but mostly of historical/contextual interest rather than something that stands on its own. Both were better than the only other Cervantes play I've read, The Gallant Spaniard.
"The Bagnios of Algiers" takes place among captives in Algiers, partly based on Cervantes' five years in captivity there. The best parts of it are recycled into (or taken from?) "The Captive's Tale" in Don Quixote, most notable the noble Moorish woman Zara/Zoraida who discovers her own path to Christianity and falls in love with a captain. The play has a lot of action and might even make a good movie, from Corsair raids on the Spanish coast to acquire captives and slaves to escapes from Algiers to betrayals, conversions, impalings, and more. It depicts Algiers as a mix of different types--Muslims, Christians, Jews, renegades, etc., but mostly disliking and demeaning each other (well, the Jews are just disliked and demeaned by the others without passing it on). But overall it has too many characters and incidents to form a fully coherent dramatic whole.
"The Great Sultana" is filled with disguises. Christians disguised as muslims. Men disguised as women. People disguised as people from other country's. All in the service of a story that takes place in Constantinople, again amongst captives. But "The Great Sultana" has more humor (including some silly humor, like a man who gets his freedom by promising to spend the next ten years teaching an elephant to speak, and who shows up periodically to report on his progress). Fewer characters and incidents and battles (unlike both Bagnios and the Gallant Spaniard), and thus what feels like more dramatic unity. It still does not have any characters who live and breathe in the way that characters in Don Quixote or Shakespeare do. So again is still a bit of a historical curiosity. But an enjoyable one.
"The Bagnios of Algiers" takes place among captives in Algiers, partly based on Cervantes' five years in captivity there. The best parts of it are recycled into (or taken from?) "The Captive's Tale" in Don Quixote, most notable the noble Moorish woman Zara/Zoraida who discovers her own path to Christianity and falls in love with a captain. The play has a lot of action and might even make a good movie, from Corsair raids on the Spanish coast to acquire captives and slaves to escapes from Algiers to betrayals, conversions, impalings, and more. It depicts Algiers as a mix of different types--Muslims, Christians, Jews, renegades, etc., but mostly disliking and demeaning each other (well, the Jews are just disliked and demeaned by the others without passing it on). But overall it has too many characters and incidents to form a fully coherent dramatic whole.
"The Great Sultana" is filled with disguises. Christians disguised as muslims. Men disguised as women. People disguised as people from other country's. All in the service of a story that takes place in Constantinople, again amongst captives. But "The Great Sultana" has more humor (including some silly humor, like a man who gets his freedom by promising to spend the next ten years teaching an elephant to speak, and who shows up periodically to report on his progress). Fewer characters and incidents and battles (unlike both Bagnios and the Gallant Spaniard), and thus what feels like more dramatic unity. It still does not have any characters who live and breathe in the way that characters in Don Quixote or Shakespeare do. So again is still a bit of a historical curiosity. But an enjoyable one.
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April 15, 20221615
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews