Cardenio between Cervantes and Shakespeare (PDF)

How should we read a text that does not exist, or present a play
the manuscript of which is lost and the identity of whose author
cannot be established for certain?

Such is the enigma posed by Cardenio - a play
performed in England for the first time in 1612 or 1613 and
attributed forty years later to Shakespeare (and Fletcher). Its
plot is that of a 'novella' inserted into Don Quixote,
a work that circulated throughout the major countries of Europe,
where it was translated and adapted for the theatre. In England,
Cervantes' novel was known and cited even before it was
translated in 1612 and had inspired Cardenio.

But there is more at stake in this enigma. This was a time when,
thanks mainly to the invention of the printing press, there was a
proliferation of discourses. There was often a reaction when it was
feared that this proliferation would become excessive, and many
writings were weeded out. Not all were destined to survive, in
particular plays for the theatre, which, in many cases, were never
published. This genre, situated at the bottom of the literary
hierarchy, was well suited to the existence of ephemeral works.
However, if an author became famous, the desire for an archive of
his works prompted the invention of textual relics, the restoration
of remainders ruined by the passing of time or, in order to fill in
the gaps, in some cases, even the fabrication of forgeries. Such
was the fate of Cardenio in the eighteenth century.

Retracing the history of this play therefore leads one to wonder
about the status, in the past, of works today judged to be
canonical. In this book the reader will rediscover the malleability
of texts, transformed as they were by translations and adaptations,
their migrations from one genre to another, and their changing
meanings constructed by their various publics. Thanks to Roger
Chartier's forensic skills, fresh light is cast upon the
mystery of a play lacking a text but not an author.