Bulletin of the Comediantes

Hypermedia provides a formidable tool for the study of drama: the possibility of merging different media in a single document and of expressing knowledge in a non sequential manner are particularly suited to the research needs of this field. This paper discusses an electronic edition of El burlador de Sevilla, which uses state of the art hypermedia technology to construct a research environment around the play. The unanswered questions and controversies surrounding this comedia—authorship, relationship with Tan largo me lo fiáis—as well as its foundational role in the development of the myth of Don Juan make El burlador an ideal comedia to test the potential of this new technology. The paper describes the building blocks of this hypermedia environment, reports on the design decisions which are driven by the need to meet the requirements of the drama scholar, and discusses the implications and benefits that the use of such a system has for us as scholars.