The Cryptic Matter of an Aside in Cervantes’ Masterpiece "El retablo de las maravillas"

Abstract

This article outlines an attempt to find the possible reason at the base of the linguistic incoherence of the attribution of an aside in Cervantes’ masterpiece El retablo de las maravillas, a very interesting work which, through a subtle irony, shads a light on the importance of being Christian and legitimate child to be part of a society based on appearances and prejudices. The characters at issue are the governor and Capacho. At first, it seemed like this incoherence was due to a temporal reason. It was reasonable to consider that until a determined period it was assigned to one of them, regardless the language and the author, and from that moment on, to the other one. But that was not the case, indeed. A further and deeper analysis was needed to figure out what might be the reason for such an incoherence, and, apart from that a curious argument is: what character best fits the aside? As it will come out from this article, Nicholas Spadaccini, which is the author of a recent version of the Spanish masterpiece in question, contributed to corroborating my hypothesis, herein argued.