El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead: Angela de Azevedo

Hegstrom and Larson have created an annotated new edition and first-ever translation of Angela de Azevedo’s vibrant comedy, El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead, to promote the recuperation of early modern plays authored by women. The book contains a comprehensive introduction that describes Spanish theatre in its Golden Age; what is known of the author’s life and times; contemporary performances of the text; and an extensive analysis of the comedy. The play, originally written in Spanish, is set in Lisbon, although the main plot involves a murder that supposedly took place after a fleet of Portuguese nobles arrived in Nice. The murder mystery affects the rest of the comedy: the male lead is actually only presumed dead, and his return to Lisbon upsets the plans for revenge and the marriages of numerous other couples. Like much early modern theatre, this play contains typical themes of love and betrayal and plot elements such as swordfights and cross-dressing characters, although here, both women and men cross-dress. Azevedo engages with the literary, theatrical, and social conventions that influenced many of the dramatic texts of her time, and she employs witty dialogue to elaborate her self-conscious game-playing with the very nature of the theatre.