PLAY: Don Carlos

AuthorMessage
miau
King For A Couple Of Days
miau
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 4469
March 18th, 2008 at 11:18am
I became fascinated by the play when we played it with the drama club of our school.
Don Carlos is a classic drama telling the story of Don Carlos, the Spanish infante, his friend, the marquis of Posa and his unfulfilled love for the Spanish queen. It's a also a story of friendship and intrigues, might, policy and religion; of noble ideals, humanity and freedom...

First off, some general information
Original title: Don Karlos - Infant von Spanien
Original language: German
Autor: Friedrich Schiller
Genre: Historical tragedy
Year of publication: 1787

Characters.
Philip II
King of Spain
Elisabeth of Valois
His wife
Don Carlos
The crown prince
The infanta of Spain
The daughter of Philip and Elisabeth
Duchess of Olivarez
Chief court tutoress
Marquess of Mondekar, Princess of Eboli
Court ladies of the queen
Marquis of Posa
A Maltese knight
Duke of Alba
Earl of Lerma

Commander of the bodyguards
Duke of Feria
A knight
Don Raymond of Taxis
Post inspector
Domingo
Confessor of the king
An inquisitor of the kingdom
A donzel of the queen
Prior of the Carthusian cloister
Don Merkado

Medical attendant of the queen
Three monks
Cortege of the inquisitor

Story line.
In the summer residence Aranjuez Don Carlos and his school day friend Marquis of Posa meet each other again after a long time. Posa has just come back from Brussels. By now he has become delegate of the Durch provinces and wants to convince Carlos to have his father send him to the troubled province as a governor. But the prince desperatedly tell him he is still in love with his former fiancée Elisabeth, who is now the wife of his father, Philip. Hereupon Posa arranges a personal meeting between Carlos and the queen, in which Carlos confesses his love to his new stepmother.

Back in Madrid Carlos asks his father for the governorship but Philip doesn't trust him enough and prefers the duke of Alba for this job.
Later Carlos gets a love letter he thinks is from Elisabeth. He follows its invitation to go to a far-off part of the castle, but instead of the queen he finds the princess of Eboli who confesses her love for him. In a letter Carlos reads that Eboli is the desire of Philip II; he confesses his love for Elisabeth to the princess and with that offends her deeply. The duke of Alba and Domingo gang up on Carlos and convince Eboli to tell his father about his love for Elisabeth by stealing incriminating letters from the queen. Carlos secretly tells Posa everything that happened. Posa keeps his friend from showing the letter Philip sent to Eboli to the queen and reminds him of his aims.

By now the king feels betrayed by his wife. Alba tells him about the meeting between his wife and the prince and Domingo talks about rumours going around in the populance; rumours that the infanta isn't even Philip's real child. He tells him about a confession of princess Eboli as wel, so Philip decides to have his wife and son killed. He feels forlorn and decides to make Posa his counsellor. Posa at first rejects the demand; he's a fighter for freedom, isn't he? Impressed by this attitude, the king makes him a minister and tells him to check the relationship between Carlos and Elisabeth.

Posa then calls on Elisabeth and arranges with her that Carlos has to rebel agaisnt his father and go to Brussels secretly. He then brings Carlos a letter from the queen and asks him for his other letters. Meanwhile, the queen has discovered that letters were stolen from her and accuses Philip. There's a heavy argument between Philip and Elisabeth. Posa brings Carlos' letters to the king. Philip reads the letter from Eboli to the infante and orders that Carlos has to be put under detention. He allows Posa absolute power of attorney. The Earl of Lerma tells Carlos about this incident, who immediately calls on the Princess of Eboli, his seemingly only confidante. That's where Posa puts him under detention. Now Eboli confesses to the queen that she has stolen the letters. Posa tells Elisabeth about a plan and asks her to remind Carlos of his old oath to create a new, free state.

Posa visits Carlos in prison and informs him that he delivered fake letters to Philip, which incriminate himself rather than Carlos. The duke of Alba arrives and tells Carlos he's no longer under detention, but the prince sends him away fow he wants to hear it from the king himself. After Alba left, Posa talks about the betrayal of Eboli and his whole plan: sacrifying himself for his friend, the prince. Suddenly there's a shot and Posa sinks to the floor, dying. The king arrives to tell Carlos he's free. But the prince accuses him of murder. He talks about how noble his friend was, talks about his plan and that he died for him. An officer informs the king about a revolt in town. The kings collapses and is brought to bed. Lerma convinces the prince to flee to Brussels.

The king cannot believe that Posa has died for his friend. The inquisitor maked him notice all his mistakes and requires Carlos as a sacrifice. Meanwhile the prince went to the queen's chamber, dressed as the ghost of his grandfather. There the king hands him out to the inquisitor. The inquisitor and his cortege surround the infante. Darkness. A caw can be heard.

English translation of the play.

Now please don't ignore this, it took me three hours. Con
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