Double Falsehood
[2] Theobald's play changes the names of the main characters from the Spanish original: Cervantes' Cardenio becomes Julio, his Lucinda becomes Leonora; Don Fernando is turned into Henriquez, and Dorothea into Violante.
[3][4] Theobald's claim of a Shakespearean foundation for his Double Falshood met with suspicion, and even accusations of forgery, from contemporaries such as Alexander Pope, and from subsequent generations of critics as well.
[8] Arden editor, Brean Hammond, in the introduction, states that recent analysis based on linguistics and style "lends support" to the idea that Shakespeare and Fletcher's hand can be detected in the 18th century edition.
She points out that nowhere does the Arden editor of Double Falsehood make the "grandiose claim" found on advertisements for a production of the play that invite people to come and 'Discover a Lost Shakespeare'.
She points out that if a young person sees a production of Double Falsehood, and is told it is by Shakespeare, they may come away with the "lifelong conviction that 'Shakespeare' is pallid and dull.
Certainly some typical Shakespearean plot elements, such as women disguised as men, a disaffected younger brother and a switch from scenes at court to one in the country are to be found, but the possibility remains that these were included by another as an "homage" to Shakespeare's style, or as a deliberate attempt to deceive.
[18] While the basic script adhered to the same structure of Double Falsehood, director Jon Ciccarelli modified the character names to match up with their Cervantes counterparts along with adding scenic material, music, stage combat choreography and dance to further flesh out the central Cardenio story.
[citation needed] The 1728 edition provided a cast list for the main speaking parts in the original production: The play's minor roles, of servants, messengers, and others, were omitted from the dramatis personae.
The Duke and Roderick decide to use Julio for their own purposes: they will detain him at court "some few days...and assay to mould him / An honest spy" upon Henriquez's "riots".
Afterward, confronting his guilty conscience over his "brutal violence", Henriquez tries to convince himself that his act wasn't a rape, with the feeble rationalization that Violante did not cry out, however much she struggled physically.
Julio and the two young women, each in a distraught state of mind, depart mysteriously; the fathers Camillo and Bernard are left to confront their own distress.
Roderick is also clever enough to piece together the larger situation; he manages to bring Julio, Leonora, Violante, and Henriquez back home altogether.
He engineers a grand confrontation and reconciliation scene at the play's end: Julio and Leonora and happily re-united, and a now-repentant Henriquez wants to marry Violante to make up for his crime.
In the pastoral tradition exploited by the earlier dramatists, the retreat to the primitive world of nature is a return to a rough but morally benign innocence.
Violante is surprised at the Master shepherd's sexual advances: In traditional pastoral, it is more commonly the well-fed denizens of court and city (in contrast to those who live and work in a closer relationship with nature) who are morally corrupt and sensual.
