José Ramón Fernández de Cano y Martín
Critics of Cervantes' work have been unanimous in poing out the rather shocking eroticism of El viejo celoso. Nevertheless, though much has been written about Cervantes' uninhibited portrayal of highly obscene material in this work, scholars have not yet analyzed his masterful use of a colloquial vocabulary rich in double meanings. I shall demonstrate that for the seventeenth century audience, the play's language was at least as scandalous as the behavior presented on stage.