The Bastard Don John of Shakespeare's Much Ado, UCB 1996: Andres Davidovits.

In Much Ado Don John is correctly placed by Shakespeare in Messina, after a major battle (at Lepanto, 1571). Here Don John appears like his statue in the previous image, in the U.C.B. Shakespeare Program production of 1996. In the play he has the same resentful, neurotic temperament as the original historical figure, who planned an Armada to invade England, depose Elizabeth, and marry Mary Queen of Scots by force. He also fought the English in the Low Countries, so he was universally hated by them. Curiously enough, the great Spanish painter Diego Velàzquez painted a picture of Don John, as he was recreated after his death as a role enacted by a clown at the royal court, which treated him as contemptuously as did Shakespeare (see "Hugh M. Richmond, "Shakespeare & Velázquez" in "Shakespeare Without Boundaries" ed. Christa Jansohn, U. Delaware, 2010). Image: UCB Shakespeare Program Collection, photographer Velma Bourgeois Richmond.