ABSTRACT
The author of Don Quixote spent five years as a captive in Algiers, from 1575 to 1580; his courage was legendary among his fellow captives. One of the first works he wrote after his rescue was the play El trato (or Los tratos) de Argel (Life in Algiers), which gave Spanish audiences a shocking view of captivity in an environment that Cervantes called “Purgatorio en la vida/ Infierno puesto en el mundo” (Trato I. 5-6) (Living purgatory; hell on earth). Miguel shared the first two years of captivity with his brother Rodrigo, and when sufficient funds were raised by their mother to ransom one of them, Miguel insisted that his brother be liberated first (Garcés 45). Cervantes was finally rescued by a Trinitarian monk, Fray Juan Gil, whom he honored in El trato de Argel by bestowing his name on the bearer of the fictional captives’ ransom. In El trato de Argel, a young child, Francisco, exemplifies steadfast faith, while his brother Juan cannot resist the temptations of nourishing food and a comfortable life. Juan takes his master’s name and adopts luxurious Muslim dress, outward signs of his rejection of Christianity, including his Christian family.
