It would be no exaggeration to refer to the lyrical output of Vicent Andrés Estellés (Valencia 1923–94) as monumental. The ten volumes of the complete poetry which house a lifetime of lyrical creation, for example, do not include the Mural de País Valencià (1996), a two-thousand-page canto general which the writer dedicates to his community. Given the enormity of the output it is quite remarkable that the Valencian could find any time for reading. Yet the compelling intertextuality of his oeuvre betrays an equally voracious appetite for this activity. His symbiotic interchanges with writers from classical Rome – Catullus, Ovid and Horace – are remarkably innovative; a dialogic initiative which continues through the Renaissance with Ausiàs March and Garcilaso de la Vega, reaching well into the last century with a series of creative responses to counterparts from all over the Peninsula.

As such, it should perhaps be unsurprising to be appraised, in turn, of provocative assimilations of key works from foreign cultures. And a fascinating essay in this respect is the disturbing Testimoni d'Horaci (1981), whose twenty-six sections of Alexandrines (some three hundred lines in total) offer an oblique but compellingly pertinent reflection on Shakespeare's Hamlet (1603). There is, of course, much material for poetic adaptation here as the rottenness of the state of Denmark transfers seamlessly into the corruption of Franco's autocracy. There is also little doubt about the artistic resolve behind the project: Amador Calvo's archival diligence has confirmed the Valencian's continued fascination with this play. So, although the date of original composition is disclosed as 1954, it seems reasonable to concur with the French scholar and conclude that there was some deal of considered revision before the final and comparatively recent date of publication.

From the very start, however, the reader becomes aware of a notable partiality in the reconstruction as the narrative gravitates, not around the prince, but around his close friend and confidant. Traditionally, Horatio's function has been that of a dramatic medium by which the audience learns of the inner thoughts and feelings of the protagonist. In the Valencian version, however, this character (Horaci) becomes the narrator and central figure.