Key Features

Different Views of the Text

The website provides five views of the text, which are listed below: four in Spanish and an English translation. All of these are accessed by clicking on the 'Text' button in the navigation bar at the top of the page. Clicking on one of the links in the left hand navigation bar will take you to the title page, while clicking on one of the options next to 'Select View', at the top of the page, takes you to a different view of the same page. Please note that, if you choose to enlarge the text, the way in which the verse and other information is displayed may be affected. The first three views all present modernized versions of the spelling, but differ in the way they are punctuated. For more information about the editorial criteria that govern these views see 'About the Text': Editorial Criteria. The fourth view, that of the 1st edition (facsimile), can be seen by clicking on the folio numbers that appear in the first three views (e.g. '0tp' at the top of the 'Volume Title' page, or '169r' between lines 12 and 13 of Act I Scene 1). Clicking on the speaker name from within any of the first three views of the Spanish will take you to the corresponding speech in the translation. By the same token, clicking on the speaker name in the English translation will take you to the Spanish, in the version in which it was last viewed.

  1. 1st edition. A version that preserves the punctuation of the first edition, but with modernized orthography.
  2. ed. O’Neill. The intention in this version, arrived at by reading the text aloud, has been to punctuate the text rhetorically rather than grammatically.
  3. unpunctuated.
  4. 1st edition (facsimile). Images from nn. 7.3, the example of Ocho comedias y entremeses, nunca representados (Madrid: La viuda de Alonso Martín, 1615) held by The Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford. It is possible to zoom in on these images by clicking on them.
  5. English translation (The Diversion) by John O'Neill. The text is based on the version that was performed in a staged reading at King’s College London on the 4th and 5th May 2007.

Special Menus

  • Performance Information.

    Selecting an item from the this menu will generate lists of those items for the scene in question, in other words who is on stage and the costume items, props and stage furniture specified in Cervantes’s stage directions. Selecting 'All' will reveal a list of all characters and items. By default the menu is set to 'None'.

  • Track Character.

    Selecting a character from this menu will cause that name to be highlighted, both as the speaker and within stage directions.

  • Go to.

    The play was originally divided into jornadas (lit. 'days'), or acts. To assist navigation, and for the convenience of theatre practitioners, who may wish to establish smaller units of action for rehearsal purposes, it has been further divided into scenes, which can be accessed via the 'Go to' menu.

Notes and Bibliographical Information

Hovering over a note number opens that note in a text box. Clicking on a note number takes you to that note within a list of all the notes. Clicking on a short-form bibliographical reference takes you to the complete reference in the bibliography.