Court theatre and social climbing: The " dramatist's dream " of the II Marquis of Castellnovo

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the career as a courtier writer of Don Antonio de Cardona, 2nd Marquis of Castellnovo. A character who, belonging to a lineage in full social ascent, knew how to combine his political activity in the Hispanic Court with the vocation for the literary world that he had developed since he was a child. A case study that shows us to what extent writing, theatrical performance in the palace and the publication of dramatic works was another of the strategies to be followed in the noble ascension process, this being a scenario from which to deploy the service and proximity to the Crown and, therefore, to the distributive justice exercised by the king. It was a favourable place to sustain the social positions acquired, maintaining the prestige inherited and contributing to increase it with the very activity that the subject was able to carry out, precisely because he had a privileged position in the Court of Charles II as one of his stewards and counselors.