Chimeric Theatre by Leopoldo Lugones: "Two Ilustrious Lunatics" or "The Universal Divergence" (1909)

Abstract

The Argentinian Leopoldo Lugones wrote a short chimerical play entitled Two Illustrious Lunatics or The Universal Divergence –published in the poetry collection Lunario Sentimental (1909)– as a contribution to the knowledge of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and William Shakespeare. In this drama, an imaginary meeting between H (Hamlet) and Q (Alonso Quixano) takes place during a full moon evening, at a railway station at the beginning of the 20th century. We consider that analyzing this play by Lugones is a good way to approach the world view of these two characters, their opposite (but complementary) conceptions on politics and philosophy, their different styles in facing social injustice and their ways of relating to women. To understand Lugones, we will review (in a comparative-contrastive exercise) some fundamental topics such as justice, love, power and violence (among others) which appear in The Tragegy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha and were compiled in the critical essay Hamlet and Don Quixote (1860) by the Russian writer Iván Serguéievich Turguénev.