Doña Clara de Viedma

Also known as: Clara / Doña Clara / the Judge's daughter / the Judge’s daughter / the young girl · Family: the Judge's household · Role: the Judge's daughter · First appears: Part 1, Ch. 42.1

Doña Clara de Viedma is Juan Perez de Viedma’s daughter; her mother died giving birth to her, and she inherited a substantial dowry. In Part 1, Ch. 42, after the captive and Juan Perez de Viedma recognise one another as brothers, Clara embraces Zoraida, welcoming her into the family.

At Madrid, Clara falls in love with a gentleman who signals his wish to marry her from the house opposite, including by linking his hands together. When he follows her disguised as a muleteer, she recognises him at an inn after two days on the road, though she fears Juan Perez de Viedma discovering their secret: “I have never spoken a word to him in my life; and for all that I love him so that I could not live without him.” Dorothea wakes her so she can hear a singer, then kisses and comforts her, promising to help bring the affair to a happy ending; Clara refuses to marry without Juan Perez de Viedma’s knowledge and wishes the youth to leave.

At the inn, Clara is nearly overcome when she learns that Don Luis’s father’s servants have found him, and Dorothea supports her. Don Luis then reveals that he left home and adopted his disguise to follow her, asks Juan Perez de Viedma to accept him as a son, and proposes marriage. When Don Fernando directs that only one servant remain with Don Luis, the others agreeing to return, Clara’s happiness becomes evident.