Os mortos vivos, de Luis Quiñones de Benavente

Abstract

Spanish Golden Age literature has a theater of exceptional quality. Regarding this aspect, we find that, in Brazil, there is still little discussion about interlude, a theatrical modality that is characterized by brevity, which is based on humor and aims to provoke laughter in its viewers. Even anthologies of theatrical texts for Brazilian students end up focusing on plays by great playwrights such as Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645), Lope de Veja (1562-1635) and Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681), leaving aside the interludes, or, at best, exemplify this genre with El retablo de las maravillas, by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). Taking into account the above, we present our translation into Portuguese of the interlude Los muertos vivos, by Luiz Quiñones de Benavente (1581-1651), a Spanish writer belonging to the Baroque period. This narrative modality is characterized by being a short play, presented before a comedy and Benavente is one of its great representatives. This theatrical form allows an examination of the forces that polarize the eternal clash between nobles and commoners, unveiling the ills and idiosyncrasies that characterize these two social strata.