dead. He hopes to learn from the revived corpse secrets concerning the town’s fate that the deceased might have learned during his stay in the underworld. Even though the resulting news is tragic, the scene of the resurrection called forth theatrical magic from Cervantes that he too seldom displayed elsewhere. Made powerful and vivid with magic, ritual, incantations, fireworks, and thunder, the moment resonates with Cervantes’ optimistic spirit.

Trampagos the Pimp Who Lost His Moll

In an unusual manner, the same idea appears again in one of the strangest of the interludes, Trampagos the Pimp Who Lost His Moll, as Trampagos is mourning the death of his prostitute-companion. In a bizarre public display, he proclaims his life to be over. When other prostitutes accost him, he chooses a new favorite from among them. In a secondary movement in the same interlude, a famous criminal of the period, Escarramán, appears to bemoan his unhappy existence while exiled from Spain. To his delight, he learns that while exiled he has become a popular hero, a legend among young boys, a familiar figure onstage and in song; he has even had a dance named for him. His spirits revive and he is cheered as he dances at the pimp’s “wedding.” The play is filled with Cervantes’ sense of rejuvenation and renewal, an optimism that is irrepressible and inspiring, even as he presents it in characters of dubious moral standing. There is also in the interlude a sense of the strange twists of fame and fortune, with a modest nod at his own failure ever quite to achieve the large recognition his genius deserved. The energy and life that inform this interlude combine with Cervantes’ love of the Spanish people to produce an invigorating comic vignette out of the most unlikely of subjects.

The Jealous Old Husband

Finally, many of the interludes turn on the nature of reality and illusion, the way in which people create their own worlds by the visions they choose to see. The idea is explored at magnificently humorous and marvelously moving lengths in the great novel. In the interludes, small dashes of illusion produce delightful comic twists. In The Jealous Old Husband, the title character guards his young wife to the point of suffocation because of his extreme jealousy, a passion so severe he even drives tomcats and dogs from his door because they are males. A neighbor woman takes pity on the young wife and devises a plan to fool the old man. She brings into the house a tapestry that presents a series of great heroes. One of the heroes is a living figure, a handsome young man who has been smuggled into the house for the young wife’s amusement. The old man’s worst fears are realized in this way. His own eyes are incapable of discerning the real figure from the painted heroes.

The Cave of Salamanca

In The Cave of Salamanca, a husband who has just embarked on a journey returns unexpectedly because of a broken carriage wheel and interrupts a night of festivity planned by his wife and her maid with a sacristan and a barber. A student whom the wife has agreed to shelter for the night announces that he has learned magical arts in the mysterious “cave of Salamanca.” To prove his skill, he “raises” two “devils”—the sacristan and the barber, who have been hiding. These “devils” proceed to party with the wife and maid while the credulous husband watches in amazement and requests to be taught these magical arts. As is the case so often in Don Quixote de la Mancha, magic exists here only in the eye of the beholder.

The Wonder Show

The greatest of the interludes and perhaps Cervantes’ single finest achievement in the drama also turns on this theme. The Wonder Show offers a variation on the delightful episode of Master Peter’s puppet show in Don Quixote de la Mancha, with a touch of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” added. A con man named Chanfalla arrives in a small town with his accomplices. Claiming to be renowned showmen, they announce that they will stage a marvelous pageant of glorious surprises for the mayor and townspeople. Because the pageant has been created by a magician, however, using magical incantations and mysterious devices, no one who is illegitimate or has a trace of Jewish blood can see the entertainment. The curtain goes up on a bare stage, and as Chanfalla and his men describe the stupendous stage visions, everyone in the audience pretends to see them. Samson appears in the temple, bulls and bears run through, some mice descended from those on Noah’s ark frighten the ladies, and magical water from the river Jordan falls from the sky. The audience members begin creating their own visions of larks and dragons, lions and nightingales, and a young man of the town even dances with Herodias. When a real quartermaster arrives on the scene to announce that the town must prepare to billet approaching soldiers, the townspeople assume that he is a part of the pageant, an illusion like all the others. As the quartermaster in rage draws his sword and attacks the crowd, they turn on one another. Chaos ensues; Chanfalla and company bring down the curtain and leave the town.

The interlude is a magical piece of theater that examines reality and illusion, the nature of theater and theatrical illusion, and the trust that is necessary between artist and audience. In regard to the last idea, the interlude is similar to the hilarious moment in chapter 20 of the first part of Don Quixote de la Mancha when Sancho attempts to tell the knight the story of the goats. The interlude proves that Cervantes, while never realizing his own ambitions as a playwright, certainly understood the illusory nature of theatrical art and could explore his ideas through theatrical forms. If he never achieved mastery of the full-length and popular plays of his day, he left the world a number of small gems, bright, perfectly cut, and glistening with glimmers of the light that shines more brilliantly in Don Quixote de la Mancha.