El sí de las niñas

by Leandro Fernández de Moratín

"El sí de las niñas" by Leandro Fernández de Moratín is a prose comedy first performed in 1806. Sixteen-year-old Doña Francisca faces an arranged marriage to fifty-nine-year-old Don Diego, orchestrated by her mother. But the young woman's heart belongs to a soldier named Don Carlos. With her maid's help, the lovers struggle against parental authority and social convention. This Enlightenment-era masterpiece sparked unprecedented success and fierce controversy, drawing massive crowds before the Spanish Inquisition banned it for nearly twenty years.