The Two Damsels

This work presents a series of novellas by the renowned Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet Miguel de Cervantes. It features The Lady Cornelia, Rinconete and Cortadillo, The Deceitful Marriage, The Force of Blood, The Little Gypsy Girl and many more.

The son of a deaf surgeon, Miguel de Cervantes was born near Madrid in 1547. He became a soldier in 1570 and was badly wounded in the Battle of Lepanto. Captured by the Turks in 1575, de Cervantes spent five years in prison. He was freed in 1580 and returned home. De Cervantes finally achieved literary success in his later years, publishing the first part of Don Quixote in 1605. He died in 1616.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Twenty-nine collected essays represent a critical history of Shakespeare's play as text and as theater, beginning with Samuel Johnson in 1765, and ending with a review of the Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1991. The criticism centers on three aspects of the play: the love/friendship debate.