num_pages: 320
description: Tirso de Molina enjoys enduring popularity as a writer of  irreverent comedies, though his critical reputation as a major  dramatist rests largely on his more serious works.  Don Gil of the Green Breeches as befits a high farce is much  concerned with disguise, mistaken identity, role-reversal,  ghosts, and trousers! Dona Juana, jilted by her lover Don Martin,  follows him to Madrid, where, under the assumed name of Don Gil,  he is courting the wealthy Dona Ines. Dressed as a man in a  distinctive pair of green breeches, Dona Juana also masquerades  as Don Gil. Don Martin is outwitted by his transvestite rival,  who wrecks his schemes like a maleficent will-'o-the-wisp before  leading him, shell-shocked, to the altar!  In his lively, accurate and fluent line-by-line verse translation  of this play Gordon Minter admirably conveys the unique flavour  of Tirso's sparkling wit. Additionally, in his stimulating  Introduction and Commentary he argues that this effervescent  drama deliberately subverts the Don Juan legend to show that the  Trickster of Seville's female counterpart can be just as  resourceful and predatory when the restoration of her honour is  at stake. The further revelation that Don of the Green Breeches  has unobtrusively and unnoticed contributed an important  strand to subsequent European versions of the Don Juan legend  completes a scholarly reappraisal of the significance of a work  too often regarded as little more than a highly amusing dramatic  confection.1615
language: Spanish; Castilian
title: Don Gil Of The Green Breeches
titlecomplete: Don Gil Of The Green Breeches
genres: Classics, Drama, Theatre, Plays, Spanish Literature, 17th Century, Fiction
ratings_count: 270
publisher: Liverpool University Press