Ministry of Higher Education

and Scientific Research

University of Bagdad
Collage of Al mammon
Department of English
Second stage
Play

The History of Cardenio

By William Shakespeare

made by

‫احمد عارف دمحم عساف‬

2020 A.D 1441 A.H

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The History of Cardenio, often referred to as merely
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.

Two existing plays have been put forward as being related

to the lost play. A song, "Woods, Rocks and Mountains",
set to music by Robert Johnson, has also been linked to it

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Attribution

Although there are records of the play having been

performed, there is no information about its authorship
earlier than a 1653 entry in the Stationers' Register. The
entry was made by Humphrey Moseley, a bookseller and
publisher, who was thereby asserting his right to publish
the work. Moseley is not necessarily to be trusted on the
question of authorship, as he is known to have falsely
used Shakespeare's name in other such entries.[4] It may
be that he was using Shakespeare's name to increase
interest in the play.[5] However, some modern scholarship
accepts Moseley's attribution, placing the lost work in the
same category of collaboration between Fletcher and
Shakespeare as The Two Noble Kinsmen. Fletcher based
several of his later plays on works by Cervantes, so his
involvement is plausible.

Synopsis of "Cardenio", the episode in the novel Don

Quixote

After a few adventures together, Don Quixote and Sancho

discover a bag full of gold coins along with some papers,
which include a sonnet describing the poet's romantic
troubles. Don Quixote and Sancho search for the person
to whom the gold and the papers belong. They find him; it

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is Cardenio, a strange bare-footed character who leaps
about from rock to rock like a mountain goat and whose
clothes are in shreds. Cardenio, who lives in the hollow
formed in a cork tree, rants and rages in anger regarding
one Don Fernando.

Cardenio then relates to Don Quixote and Sancho the

miserable story of his love for the wealthy and beautiful
Luscinda: after Cardenio had received a letter from
Luscinda suggesting that she might accept his proposal of
marriage, he asks his wealthy and noble friend Don
Fernando to arrange the wedding. Don Fernando has
recently seduced and agreed to marry a young woman
named Dorotea, but when he meets Luscinda he decides
to steal her from Cardenio. To do this, he sends Cardenio
away on an errand. Luscinda then writes a letter to
Cardenio to alert him to the fact that he is being double-
crossed, and that her father has agreed to have her marry
the wealthy Don Fernando. She tells Cardenio that she is
in her wedding gown, and that "the traitor Don Fernando",
along with her father and witnesses, are all assembled for
the wedding. She secretly has a knife hidden in the folds
of her dress, and she intends to commit suicide. Cardenio
arrives and hides behind a tapestry to watch the nuptials.

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When it comes time to exchange the vows, Luscinda
pauses, and then in a dismayed voice says "I will". The
bridegroom goes to kiss his bride, but she swoons.
Cardenio, upset, hops on his donkey, leaves town, and
becomes an angry man living in the mountains.

The Second Maiden’s Tragedy, a synopsis

The main plot of The Second Maiden’s Tragedy borrows

from Cervantes's novel the events leading up to the
wedding ceremony of Luscinda and Don Fernando. The
authors of the play create a series of dramatic encounters
between (to use the names in the novel) Luscinda and her
father, and Luscinda and Don Fernando, Cardenio and
Luscinda's father and Cardenio and Don Fernando. The
wedding does not occur; instead, there is a dramatic
scene in which the lusting Don Fernando (The Tyrant)
sends his soldiers to grab Luscinda (The Lady). When The
Lady finds out that soldiers will soon arrive and drag her
off to Don Fernando's bed, she asks Cardenio to slay her
with his sword. Cardenio draws his sword, aims it at the
breast of the woman he loves, runs at her – and this time
it is Cardenio who swoons. Luscinda picks up the sword
and commits suicide.

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References

1-Chambers, E. K. The Elizabethan Stage. 4

Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923. Vol 2, p. 1

2- Richard Wilson, Secret Shakespeare: studies in ^

theatre, religion and resistance, Manchester
University Press 2004 (p. 233 on Google books).
This source refers to Michael Wood's claims
regarding Shakespeare's authorship of "Woods,
."rocks, and mountains

3- Woods Rocks and Mountains" performed on " ^

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