Juan sin tierra (1848), un drama romántico «shakespeariano» original de José María Díaz

Abstract

In 1848, José María Díaz, an mostly unknown playwright by the history of the Literature and of the Spanish theatre, uses for the first time a piece that can be taken as archetype of the romantic historical drama, among so many others in the same style. Not only the success that he obtained in their premiere, neither the high number of representations that he enjoyed during more than thirty years, but also the many literary and dramatic values that Juan sin Tierra possesses, justify the necessity to recover for the history of the Spanish theatre this strange work. It constitutes also an outstanding example of the confused fringe that, in the theatre of the XIX century, existed between the originality and the plagiarism, hidden frequently under the ambigous and the plagiarism, hidden frequently under the ambigous and polemic term of «adaptation»; in this case, with the added value that the original source that inspires the piece is anything less than William Shakespeare's King Yohn.