Dimensions
130 x 196 x 14mm
Disgruntled couples seek out a judge and beg him to divorce them; a pimp mourns his dear departed prostitute; a wily student fools a gullible husband with tales of magic; a bored wife cuckolds her jealous spouse right under his nose; and two hoaxers fool a group of villagers with an invisible puppet show. These interludes, designed to be played between the acts of full-length plays, are keyhole glimpses of a world far removed from courtly elegance or military heroism.
Cervantes draws his characters from the underside of seventeenth century Madrid - that Babylon of opportunists and deceivers - or sets them in the narrow, prejudiced life of rural Spain as he knew it. Brilliant vignettes, written with wit and astute perception, they are unmistakably cut from the same cloth as 'Don Quixote'.
This is a unique selection of tests, with introduction, notes, selected criticism and chronology of Cervantes' life and times.
