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.
