As tres Cidras do Amor, ou O Cavalleiro Andante (1793)

Abstract

Even though the Portuguese version of Don Quijote de la Mancha was published as late as 1794, there is evidence that attests to the knowledge of the novel in Portugal during the entire eighteenth century, especially in the theatrical domain. An example is the anonymous «piquena pessa» entitled As tres Cidras do Amor, ou O Cavalleiro Andante (Lisbon, Off. de Francisco Borges de Sousa, 1793), which stages a singular recreation of the Spanish hidalgo and the hallucinatory effects of the reading of books of chivalry. I undertake a descriptive analysis of the farce As tres Cidras do Amor, focusing on its parody of the fictional universe of knight-errants.