Bulletin of the Comediantes

In May, 1425, Niccolò III d’Este, Marquis of Ferrara, discovered that his wife, Parisina, and his bastard son, Ugo, were carrying on an incestuous affair. Concerned for his own reputation and that of the land over which he ruled, Niccolò enacted swift retribution: he ordered the young lovers to be arrested and then had them publicly beheaded. In the years following, news of what had transpired in Ferrara spread throughout Italy, and eventually reached other European countries as well, inspiring over time a number of fictitious re-creations of the shocking events. One of these is Lope de Vega’s El castigo sin venganza; other appropriations of the historical record include a short story by Matteo Bandello, a narrative poem by Lord Byron, and an opera by Gaetano Donizetti. The basic contours of the story in each of these retellings are roughly similar, but there are significant differences among them in how the principal characters in the four works are portrayed, in how the action is developed, and in the thematic concerns that the works display. Some of these differences reflect the generic competences of each of the texts; others have to do with the interests and values of their creators and of their audiences. In the present study, I examine some of the most important variations that may be noted among the four adaptations of Ferrarese history, placing each insofar as possible in its own context of time and place.