• Overview
• Staging information
• Translations
• Sample translations
• Production history

Scene

It is a three-act comedia. It takes place in Gómez’s house in Madrid; in Illescas at the house of the Captain and also at a bullfight; and in the Duke’s garden for the wedding scene.

Staging

The sisters are dressed in mourning clothes at the start of the play. The location shifts to Illescas, where the action takes place in the street, at the house of the Captain, and a fiesta and bullfight are also staged. Marta changes her mode of dressing in the second act to that of a pious girl with a religious calling, throwing off her previously stylish clothes. Pastrana dresses up as Juan Hurtado, a nobleman charged with bringing messages about Felipe’s supposed arrest and execution in Seville. Felipe dresses up as a poor student, in ragged robes. In the third act a wedding scene takes place in the Duke’s garden. Marta wears extravagant clothes to the wedding, impersonating a countess and playing the maid-of-honour for her sister, who is in wedding clothes.

Cast number

Minimum	Maximum
8 males	8 males
3 females	3 females
11 (total)	11 (total)

Cast information

plus additional servants and attendants

Characters

• MARTA, In love with Felipe
• LUCÍA, Marta’s sister, also in love with Felipe
• GÓMEZ, Father of Marta and Lucía
• FELIPE, In love with Marta, killed the brother of Marta and Lucía in a duel
• CAPTAIN URBINA, Old friend of Gómez
• DIEGO, Suitor
• JUAN, Suitor
• INÉS, Cousin of Marta and Lucía
• LOPEZ, Diego’s servant
• PASTRANA, Felipe’s comic servant
• THE ENSIGN, Captain Urbina’s nephew, in love with Lucía

Entry written by Kathleen Jeffs. Last updated on 4 October 2010.

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