This article deals with the interpolated story El curioso impertinente (The Tale of the Ill-Advised Curiosity), which was published in 1605 as a part of Cervantes Don Quixote. The story has formed the basis for numerous plays, ballets and even opera libretti in Italy, France and Germany. The paper examines one of these plays, Tragoedi vnzeitiger vorwitz, which appeared in print for the first time in 1630. It argues that this German drama was derived not directly from the Spanish original narrative but has been filtered through a French and German translation. The following questions are discussed: Did the genre change - from novel/narrative in the Spanish original to prose/theatre in the German adaptation - also create a change in the Mediterranean ambiance giving the work a discernible Germanic flavour? Has the rewiriting for the stage produced a literary transposition rahter than just another translation?