Mileno, Mireno: Creation and Character in El vergonzoso en palacio

In Antonio de Guevara's «El villano del Danubio», Tirso found not a model but rather a point of departure for the creation of character and structure of El vergonzoso en palacio. While Guevara's peasant is officially ennobled and elevated to the status of Roman patrician, Tirso's vergonzoso is an im-peasanted noble who ultimately regains his birthright. We watch him do so only after penetrating the multiple levels of narration that are required by the intercalation of one narrative into another. Like Guevara, Tirso assumes the role of the omniscient narrator who frames his work in telescoping levels of time and of audience. Because of the differing temporal dimensions of novel and drama, Tirso must create a subtle and complex elaboration on the frame device in order to convey the illusion of the multiple levels of ambiguity and reality that comprise El vergonzoso en palacio.