From the collection of the John Work Garrett Library
Collection number: PO 3317 A6 1671
Interest in England in Don Quixote in
the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries was not limited to the art of translation. As early as 1611,
Philip Massinger's play, The Second Maiden's Tragedy (or
Voyage) used one of the
interpolated stories in Part I of the novel as the basis of its plot. And
around 1620, John Fletcher and Massinger modeled The Double Marriage
on the
episode of Sancho's governorsip in Part II of the novel. Throughout the
century, interest in Don Quixote
primarily concentrated on its use as a
source for theatrical plots . The "Curioso impertinente" tale in
Part I
was the principal source for Aphra Behn's The Amourous Prince (also
called
The Curious Husband) of 1671, for Sotherne's The
Disappointment (1684),
and John Crown's The Married Beau; Or, The Curious Husband
(1694). Cervantes'
Exemplary Tales also became a popular source for authors from
1640, the date of Mabbe's translation of six of the twelve stories.
