The Cain of Catalonia

El Caín de Cataluña, by Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla, stages the theme of competition and jealousy between brothers. It recounts the events that provoked the fraticide of Ramón Berenguer, son of the Count of Barcelona. Although one of the reasons for jealousy is that of the birthright, Berenguer, the second son of the Count, does not envy the privileged position of his brother Ramón but the affection he receives. This situation, and the follies with which he expresses his uneasiness at the beginning of the play are reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Hamlet .

Day one

(Camacho and Cardona leave.)

Camacho: Dishonor good, bergante,
Do you know what it’s like to be a buffoon?
An ancient possession
so honest and important,
spoils this day.

Cardona: Man, do you want to leave me?
Tell me what?

Camacho: In letting you throw out
cold water melecins
for thirty.

Cardona: I do well,
I laugh at their ignorance;
If you weren’t so cold
they will throw them out too.

Camacho: Let a melecina try,
of the obligatory interest,
from cold water to an honest man!

Cardona: What does it matter if it was snow?
In command a lord,
that you receive without fear
such a help!

Cardona: Worst
They are the ones that the dotor commands.

Camacho: But what will be left next?

Cardona: Fresh.

Camacho: And the syringe, say,
is too small?

Cardona: Of course,
of these to kill the fire.

Camacho: To my trade this baldón?
I have to kill him with whipping.

Cardona: Yes, you have to cry,
How does he want to be a buffoon?

Camacho: Well, it’s not me in Barcelona…

Cardona: What is it?

Camacho: From the most beloved son
del Conde, the entertaining
about yourself?
With what courtly style
Bufo with this and that!

Fragment of the work