The Spanish Gypsy

The Spanish Gypsy is an English Jacobean tragicomedy, dating from 1621-22. The play was likely a collaboration between several dramatists, including Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, and John Ford. Like Shakespeare's lost play Cardenio, The Spanish Gypsy is an English reworking of the novellas of Miguel de Cervantes, combining two of Cervantes' Novelas Ejemplares into a single drama.

Act 1. The noble Roderigo sees a beautiful young girl (Clara) walking one night with her family. Declaring himself bewitched by her beauty, he kidnaps her with the help of his friends, Diego and Lewys, then takes her back to his residence and rapes her. After the fact, Roderigo feels remorse and lets her go. Clara studies the room and manages to steal a crucifix before she is returned to town; these are her only clues as to the identity of her attacker. Later, Lewys realizes with horror that the girl he helped kidnap is the very woman he has been courting. He confronts Roderigo, who lies and tells him that he let the girl go without harming her.

Act 2. There is a group of gypsies in Madrid lodging in the house of Juana Cardochia. One of them is a gypsy girl of unusual beauty and intelligence, named Pretiosa. She is courted by the foolish Sancho (the ward of Don Pedro, Clara’s father), as well as by the noble Don John. Despite the difference in their social stations, Don John asks Pretiosa to marry him. Pretiosa agrees only if Don John consents to live as a gypsy for two years. Meanwhile, Clara returns to her mother and father (Maria and don Pedro de Cortes) and relates her misfortune. Her family urges secrecy for the moment. Lewys arrives to court Clara, but she is reluctant. Lewys and Clara’s father, don Pedro, discuss how Lewys’ father was killed by a nobleman named Alvarez some years earlier. Alvarez has been living in exile ever since, though no one knows his whereabouts. Don Fernando, the Corregidor (mayor) of Madrid as well as Roderigo’s father, wants Lewys to pardon Alvarez and allow him to return to Madrid. Sancho returns home and is scolded by his guardian Don Pedro. Sancho and his servant, Soto, decide to run off and join the troupe of gypsies.

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