Vida do grande Dom Quixote e do gordo Sancho Pança, de Antonio José da Silva e Don Quixote de La Mancha, de Miguel de Cervantes: aspectos comparativos

Lúcia Helena Costigan

doi:10.5216/sig.v21i1.8618

Abstract

This article focuses on Vida do Grande Dom Quixote e do Gordo Sancho Pança,a play based on the second part of Cervantes’s Don Quixote, which was writtenand performed in Lisbon by the Brazilian born New Christian Antonio José daSilva in 1733. Because the work of the Brazilian New Christian was modeledon Cervantes’s masterpiece, the analysis departs from a comparative approachthat takes into consideration aspects of the socio-cultural context of Spainduring the late sixteenth and early seventeenth, and that of Portugal during thefirst half of the eighteenth century, as well as literary characteristics of bothtexts. Since the Luso-Brazilian writer who admired Cervantes is still unknownto many within and outside the Portuguese-speaking world, before delving intothe comparisons of their literary works and the societies that engendered theirtexts, the study will also focus on biographical aspects of Antonio José daSilva, and on the impact of his work on the literary canon.

Highlights

In a recent article entitled “Escritura cervantina e mito quixotesco no romance brasileiro” Maria Augusta da Costa Vieira observes that, the Quixote is known throughout the world, not many people really read this masterpiece by Cervantes
In a way that resembles that of Cervantes, Antonio José da Silva is known by many people in Brazil and Portugal, but his literary work is seldom read
In an entry found on page 180 of the first volume of the dictionary, the bibliophile alluded to the fact that historiographers, such as Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen (1816-1878), who had previously published about Antonio José da Silva, had failed to identify the New Christian from Brazil as the author of the plays performed in Lisbon between 1733 and 1738, and included in Theatro cómico português edited by Ameno

Summary

Introduction

In a recent article entitled “Escritura cervantina e mito quixotesco no romance brasileiro” Maria Augusta da Costa Vieira observes that, the Quixote is known throughout the world, not many people really read this masterpiece by Cervantes. Another indication of Antonio José da Silva’s success as a playwright comes from an explanation made by Francisco Luiz Ameno, another reputable Portuguese editor who, in 1744, published the first volume of a collection of plays entitled Theatro cómico português, which included eight comic operas attributed to the Brazilian New Christian Ameno included in his collection the three plays previously published by Isidoro da Fonseca, and five additional ones that had been performed at the theater of Bairro Alto during the time that Antonio José da Silva worked there. In an entry found on page 180 of the first volume of the dictionary, the bibliophile alluded to the fact that historiographers, such as Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen (1816-1878), who had previously published about Antonio José da Silva, had failed to identify the New Christian from Brazil as the author of the plays performed in Lisbon between 1733 and 1738, and included in Theatro cómico português edited by Ameno. Prudente, Affable, prudent reader, Não crítico rigoroso, Not a demanding critic, Te desejo, mais piedoso

Sovereignly grant me

Concluding remarks