Theatre
The Truth Can't Be Trusted
La verdad sospechosa
Juan Ruiz de Alarcón · 1634
Opening lines
Beltrán
Con bien vengas, hijo mío.
Welcome, my son.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Don García arrives in Madrid from Salamanca, where his father, don Beltrán, wants to settle him since the death of his elder brother. The young man lies at every turn: before two young women he meets in the street, Jacinta and Lucrecia, he passes himself off as a rich Indiano, then claims credit for a sumptuous party held on the river. When his father tells him he wants to marry him to Jacinta, he defends himself with a fresh lie and claims to have secretly married a young woman from Salamanca, despite the warnings of his servant Tristán.
Context
The play was written around 1618-1621, during the lifetime of Philip III, and performed in 1624. It first appeared in 1630 in Saragossa, wrongly attributed to Lope de Vega, in a volume of comedies published under his name, before the author included it in the second part of his comedies, in 1634. It is from this play that Corneille drew Le Menteur, published in 1644. Modern editors follow the 1634 text, and there are at least two French translations under the title La Vérité suspecte, those of Louis Dubois and Étienne Vauthier.
Who it is for
A comedy in verse and three acts, built around a character, the liar, rather than around a plot.
Prizes and reception
The Real Academia Española published it in 2019 in its Biblioteca clásica, edited by José Montero Reguera.