History Literature / FloranteAtLaura

* ActionGirl: In the few chapters we see her in, Flerida.

* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler: Laura]] gets this. Twice.
* AuthorAvatar: Florante ''is'' Balagtas.

* BadassBookworm: Florante.

* BetaCouple: Aladin and Flerida.
* BigBad: Adolfo.
* BiggerBad: Sultan Ali-Adab of Persia.

* CharacterTitle

* TheCoup: How Adolfo comes to power in Albania.

* DistressedDamsel: [[spoiler:Laura. So much.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GlorySeeker: Hinted to be the reason Adolfo [[spoiler:wore his [[BeneathTheMask mask]]]] back at school.
* TheGoodChancellor: Duke Briseo.
* TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin: Don't say you weren't expecting it.

* HowWeGotHere: How the story is told.

* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Adolfo to Laura. Florante first thinks it's consensual, though.
* InMediasRes: The story starts with our hero, Florante, tied to a tree.

* LoveAtFirstSight: Florante and Laura.

* GenreDeconstruction: Of the then-prevalent, Catholic-Filipino epic genre [[note]]e.g. ''Ibong Adarna'' (the other famous colonial Filipino epic), ''Don Juan Teñoso'', ''Don Juan Tenorio'', etc.[[/note]], classifiable mainly into two forms: the ''awit'' and the ''corrido'', and the related ''moro-moro'' form, all of which featured DivineIntervention and Christian morality triumphing over the foreign—usually Muslim—Other. ''Florante at Laura'' subverts this by having Florante saved by man instead of God, and making its principal villain as much of a Christian as the protagonists, whilst the major supporting cast—notably Aladin and Flerida—are explicitly heroic Muslims, so much so that Balagtas likely only managed to keep them in the poem in the following way, as seen below:
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: During the time, Christianity abhorred Muslims. Aladin is a Muslim prince and one of the good guys. To get this past the censors, Balagtas [[spoiler:took two lines to mention that Aladin and Flerida were baptized as Christians at the end.]]
** He also used tons of metaphors and symbols to issue [[TakeThat Take Thats]] against Spain's rule. For example, Florante being tied to the tree in the beginning is an allegory to Filipinos being captive under Spain.

* HollywoodCostuming: Almost none of the known visual depictions of the epic poem gets the costuming right. For a tale set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, sometime in TheHighMiddleAges, Florante and his Albanian and Athenian buddies wear nothing resembling high medieval southeast-European costume, whether civilian or military: in most comics, film and school-textbook depictions, Florante's wearing some sort pleated and armoured getup resembling a generic Imperial Roman soldier (possibly based on the costumes of Jesus' Roman captors in Lenten passion plays), or else sports pleated puffy sleeves that were last seen on 16th-century Spanish conquistadores (like the ones who colonised the Philippines in the first place). The costume of women like Laura are sometimes even less defined, just being generic full-length ballgowns or gauzy dresses in some renditions. Probably justifiable since the epic prioritised sending an allegorical message over any need to conform to strict historical accuracy, which would've been unnecessary to audiences largely unfamiliar with its actual setting.

* HollywoodCostuming: Almost none of the known visual depictions of the epic poem gets the costuming right. For a tale set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, sometime in TheHighMiddleAges, Florante and his Albanian and Athenian buddies wear nothing resembling high medieval southeast-European costume, whether civilian or military: in most comics, film and school-textbook depictions, Florante's wearing some sort pleated and armoured getup resembling a generic Imperial Roman soldier (possibly based on the costumes of Jesus' Roman captors in Lenten passion plays), or else sports pleated puffy sleeves that were last seen on 16th-century Spanish conquistadores (like the ones who colonised the Philippines in the first place). The costume of women like Laura are sometimes even less defined, just being generic full-length ballgowns or gauzy dresses in some renditions.

Of note is the fact that despite being a Filipino work, other than the language (obviously), and the main characters' religions, ''nothing else'' is Filipino about the poem. It's generally agreed upon that Balagtas wrote about a completely foreign setting and characters as a means to bypass the CensorshipBureau of the colonial regime, which would've likely comprised both government officials and Catholic friars. At the time, The Church (so closely wedded to State in the Spanish Empire) controlled most local media, owning as they did most of the colony's printing presses. The strongest piece of evidence for this, perhaps, is the fact that Balagtas tacked on a couple of lines at the end of the epic suggesting that the Muslims Aladin and Flerida converted to Christianity. He doesn't dwell, though, on whether they ''stayed'' Christian or attempted to spread that gospel upon returning to their native (and obviously majority-Muslim) lands. Then again, writing about completely foreign settings doesn't make Balagtas much different from, say, Creator/WilliamShakespeare, who was famously obsessed with Italy to the point of setting many of his plays there despite having never gone (according to what we know, at least); in fact, Balagtas' decision to "distance" this epic in space and time to disguise any sociopolitical critique of the Spanish-colonial regime, is not all dissimilar to Shakespeare's distancing his own plays from late-Elizabethan England—to safely critique the Crown and English society where needed, but without openly offending either.

Of note is the fact that despite being a Filipino work, other than the language (obviously), and the main characters' religions, ''nothing else'' is Filipino about the poem. It's generally agreed upon that Balagtas wrote about a completely foreign setting and characters as a means to bypass the CensorshipBureau of the colonial regime, which would've likely comprised both government officials and Catholic friars. At the time, The Church (so closely wedded to State in the Spanish Empire) controlled most local media, owning as they did most of the colony's printing presses. The strongest piece of evidence for this, perhaps, is the fact that Balagtas tacked on a couple of lines at the end of the epic suggesting that the Muslims Aladin and Flerida converted to Christianity. He doesn't dwell, though, on whether they ''stayed'' Christian or attempted to spread that gospel upon returning to their native (and obviously majority-Muslim) lands. Then again, writing about completely foreign settings doesn't make Balagtas much different from, say, Creator/WilliamShakespeare, who was famously obsessed with Italy to the point of setting many of his plays there despite having never gone (according to what we know, at least).

* {{Ruritania}}: Some of this is set in medieval, rural southeastern Europe, including the ''Gubat na Mapanglaw'' (Melancholy Forest) where Florante's tied up.

* SchoolPlay: Back in Athens, they performed ''Theatre/OedipusRex''.

Adapted several times for other media, including into a ComicBookAdaptation à la Illustrated Classics (see page image) and a musical, Balinese-style shadow play in the mid-2000s. It is standard reading today in the Philippine equivalent of the Grade 8 curriculum.

* HollywoodCostuming: Almost none of the known visual depictions of the epic poem gets the costuming right. For a tale set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, sometime in TheHighMiddleAges, Florante and his Albanian and Athenian buddies wear nothing resembling high medieval southeast-European costume, whether civilian or military: in most comic, film and school-textbook depictions, Florante's wearing some sort pleated and armoured getup resembling a generic Imperial Roman soldier (possibly based on the costumes of Jesus' Roman captors in Lenten passion plays), or else sports pleated puffy sleeves that were last seen on 16th-century Spanish conquistadores (like the ones who colonised the Philippines in the first place). The costume of women like Laura are sometimes even less defined, just being generic full-length ballgowns or gauzy dresses in some renditions.

* HollywoodCostuming: Almost none of the known visual depictions of the epic poem gets the costuming right. For a tale set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, sometime in TheHighMiddleAges, Florante and his Albanian and Athenian buddies wear nothing resembling high medieval southeast-European costume, whether civilian or military: in most comic, film and school-textbook depictions, Florante's wearing some sort pleated and armoured getup resembling a generic Imperial Roman soldier, or else sports pleated puffy sleeves that were last seen on 16th-century Spanish conquistadores (like the ones who colonised the Philippines in the first place). The costume of women like Laura are sometimes even less defined, just being generic full-length ballgowns or gauzy dresses in some renditions.

''Florante at Laura'' (lit. "Florante and Laura") is a Filipino epic written by Francisco Balagtas, a.k.a. Francisco Baltazar, during his time in prison. Completed in 1838, the work is dedicated to "Selya", his beloved at the time, and is an allegory for the state of the Philippines under Spanish colonialism, as well as the state Balagtas was in while incarcerated. Set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, the work itself is about the life of Florante, duke of the Kingdom of Albania, Aladin, prince of Persia ([[Franchise/PrinceOfPersia no, not that one]]), Adolfo, the evil BigBad greedy for power, and Laura, Florante's beloved.

Of note is the fact that despite being a Filipino work, other than the language (obviously), and the main characters' religions, ''nothing else'' is Filipino about the poem. It's generally agreed upon that Balagtas wrote about a completely foreign setting and characters as a means to bypass the CensorshipBureau of the colonial regime, which would've likely comprised both government officials and Catholic friars. At the time, The Church (so closely wedded to State in the Spanish Empire) controlled most local media, owning as they did most of the colony's printing presses. The strongest piece of evidence for this, perhaps, is the fact that Balagtas tacked on a couple of lines at the end of the epic suggesting that [[spoiler:the Muslims Aladin and Flerida converted to Christianity. He doesn't dwell, though, on whether they ''stayed'' Christian or attempted to spread that gospel upon returning to their native (and obviously majority-Muslim) lands]]. Then again, writing about completely foreign settings doesn't make Balagtas much different from, say, Creator/WilliamShakespeare, who was famously obsessed with Italy to the point of setting many of his plays there despite having never gone (according to what we know, at least).

Adapted several times for other media, including into a ComicBookAdaptation à la Illustrated Classics (see page image) and a musical, Balinese-style shadow play in the mid-2000s.

* HollywoodCostuming: Almost none of the known visual depictions of the epic poem gets the costuming right. For a tale set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, sometime in TheHighMiddleAges, Florante and his Albanian and Athenian buddies wear nothing resembling high medieval southeast-European costume, whether civilian or military: in most comic, film and school-textbook depictions, Florante's wearing some sort pleated and armoured getup resembling a Roman soldier, or else sports pleated puffy sleeves that were last seen on 16th-century Spanish conquistadores (like the ones who colonised the Philippines in the first place). The costume of women like Laura are sometimes even less defined, just being generic full-length ballgowns or gauzy dresses in some renditions.

* HollywoodCostuming: Almost none of the known visual depictions of the epic poem gets the costuming right. For a tale set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, sometime in TheHighMiddleAges, Florante and his Albanian and Athenian buddies wear nothing resembling high medieval southeast-European costume, whether civilian or military: in most comic, film and school-textbook depictions, Florante's wearing some sort pleated and armoured getup resembling a Roman soldier, or else sports pleated puffy sleeves that were last seen on Spanish conquistadores (like the ones who colonised the Philippines in the first place). The costume of women like Laura are sometimes even less defined, just being generic full-length ballgowns or gauzy dresses in some renditions.

* HollywoodCostuming: Almost none of the known visual depictions of the epic poem gets the costuming right. For a tale set during TheCrusades, sometime in TheHighMiddleAges, Florante and his Albanian and Athenian buddies wear nothing resembling high medieval southeast-European costume, whether civilian or military: in most comic, film and school-textbook depictions, Florante's wearing some sort pleated and armoured getup resembling a Roman soldier, or else sports pleated puffy sleeves that were last seen on Spanish conquistadores (like the ones who colonised the Philippines in the first place). The costume of women like Laura are sometimes even less defined, just being generic full-length ballgowns or gauzy dresses in some renditions.

''Florante at Laura'' (lit. "Florante and Laura") is a Filipino epic written by Francisco Balagtas, a.k.a. Francisco Baltazar, during his time in prison. Completed in 1838, the work is dedicated to "Selya", his beloved at the time, and is an allegory to the state of the Philippines under Spanish colonialism, as well as the state Balagtas was in while incarcerated. Set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, the work itself is about the life of Florante, duke of the Kingdom of Albania; Aladin, prince of Persia ([[Franchise/PrinceOfPersia no, not that one]]); Adolfo, the evil BigBad greedy for power; and Laura, Florante's beloved.

Of note is the fact that despite being a Filipino work, other than the language (obviously), and the main characters' religions, ''nothing else'' is Filipino about the poem—it's generally agreed upon that Balagtas wrote about a completely foreign setting and characters as a means to bypass the CensorshipBureau of the colonial regime, which would've likely comprised both government officials and Catholic friars, since the Church (so closely wedded to State in the Spanish Empire) controlled most local media, owning as they did most of the colony's printing presses. The strongest piece of evidence for this is perhaps the fact that Balagtas tacked-on a couple of lines at the end of the epic suggesting that [[spoiler:the Muslims Aladin and Flerida converted to Christianity, but he doesn't even dwell on whether they ''stayed'' Christian, let alone attempted to spread that gospel, upon returning to their native (and obviously majority-Muslim) lands]]. But come to think of it, writing about completely foreign settings doesn't make Balagtas much different from, say, Creator/WilliamShakespeare, who was famously obsessed with Italy to the point of setting perhaps half of his plays there, even if there's no proof he personally went.

''Florante at Laura'' is written in a peculiar literary form known as ''Awit'' (lit. "Song") - each stanza has four lines with 12 syllables each. There are many more guidelines, such as "each line must be/contain a [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible figure of speech]] and a slight pause (known as a ''caesura'') on every 6th syllable".

''Florante at Laura'' (lit. "Florante and Laura") is a Filipino epic written by Francisco Balagtas aka Francisco Baltazar in prison. Completed in 1838, the work is dedicated to "Selya", his beloved at the time, and is an allegory to the state of the Philippines under Spanish colonialism, as well as the state Balagtas was in while incarcerated. Set during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, the work itself is about the life of Florante, duke of the Kingdom of Albania; Aladin, prince of Persia ([[Franchise/PrinceOfPersia no, not that one]]); Adolfo, the evil BigBad greedy for power; and Laura, Florante's beloved.

''Florante at Laura'' (lit. "Florante and Laura") is a Filipino epic written by Francisco Balagtas aka Francisco Baltazar in prison. The work is dedicated to "Selya", his beloved at the time, and is an allegory to the state of the Philippines under Spanish colonialism, as well as the state Balagtas was in while incarcerated. Set during [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades The Crusades]], the work itself is about the life of Florante, duke of the Kingdom of Albania; Aladin, prince of Persia ([[Franchise/PrinceOfPersia no, not that one]]); Adolfo, the evil BigBad greedy for power; and Laura, Florante's beloved.

* [[spoiler:DistressedDamsel: Laura. So much.]]

Of note is the fact that despite being a Filipino work, other than the language (obviously), and the main characters' religions, ''nothing else'' is Filipino about the poem—it's generally agreed upon that Balagtas wrote about a completely foreign setting and characters as a means to bypass the CensorshipBureau of the colonial regime, which would've likely comprised both government officials and Catholic friars, since the Church (so closely wedded to State in the Spanish Empire) controlled most local media, owning as they did most of the colony's printing presses. The strongest piece of evidence for this is perhaps the fact that Balagtas tacked-on a couple of lines at the end of the epic suggesting that the Muslims Aladin and Flerida converted to Christianity, but he doesn't even dwell on whether they ''stayed'' Christian, let alone attempted to spread that gospel, upon returning to their native (and obviously majority-Muslim) lands. But come to think of it, writing about completely foreign settings doesn't make Balagtas much different from, say, Creator/WilliamShakespeare, who was famously obsessed with Italy to the point of setting perhaps half of his plays there, even if there's no proof he personally went.

''Florante at Laura'' (lit. "Florante and Laura") is a Filipino epic written by Francisco Balagtas aka Francisco Baltazar in prison. The work is dedicated to "Selya", his beloved at the time, and is an allegory to the state of the Philippines under Spanish colonialism, as well as the state Balagtas was in while incarcerated. Set during [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades The Crusades]], the work itself is about the life of Florante, duke of the Kingdom of Albania; Aladin, prince of Persia ([[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime no, not that one]]); Adolfo, the evil BigBad greedy for power; and Laura, Florante's beloved.