Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio
The Sheep Well
Fuente Ovejuna
Traducción
de
Fuente Ovejuna
Underhill, John Garrett (tra.). <<Four Plays by Lope de Vega>> . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936.
Joan Oleza Simó
(Investigador principal)
Underhill, John Garrett
(Traductor)
Amelang, David J.
(Editor digital)
English · Verso · 724 versos
https://playcode.fly.dev/plays/EMOTHE0726_TheSheepWell
Note on this digital edition
This publication is part of the research project “Early Modern Spanish and European Theatre: Heritage and Databases”, reference PID2019-104045GB-C54 (acronym EMOTHE), funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.
The scene is laid in Almagro, the village of Fuente Ovejuna, the country round about Ciudad Real, and at the itinerant Royal Court in Castile. Time: 1476
PERSONS
The King, Ferdinand of Aragon
Queen Isabella of Castile
Don Manrique
Master of Santiago
Rodrigo Téllez Girón
Grand Master of Calatrava
The Commander Fernán Gómez de Guzmán
Flores
his retainer
Ortuño
his retainer
Cimbranos
a soldier
A Judge
Two Regidors of Ciudad Real
Esteban
Alcalde of Fuente Ovejuna
Alonso
Alcalde of Fuente Ovejuna
Juan Rojo
Regidor
Cuadrado
Regidor
Another Regidor of Fuente Ovejuna
Frondoso
peasant
Mengo
peasant
Barrildo
peasant
Leonelo
a student
A Farmer
A Soldier
Laurencia
peasant girl
Pascuala
peasant girl
Jacinta
peasant girl
A Boy
Musician, Soldiers, Farmers, Villagers and Attendants.
ACT FIRST
(A street in Almagro.)
(The Commander enters with Flores and Ortuño, servants.)
COMMANDER
Does the Master know I have come to town?
FLORES
He does, sir.
ORTUÑO
The years will bring discretion.
COMMANDER
I am Fernán Gómez de Guzmán.
FLORES
To-day youth may serve as his excuse.
COMMANDER
If he is ignorant of my name, let him respect the dignity of the High Commander.
ORTUÑO
He were ill advised to fail in courtesy.
COMMANDER
Or he will gain little love. Courtesy is the key to favor while discourtesy is stupidity that breeds enmity.
ORTUÑO
Should a rude oaf hear how roundly he was hated, with the whole world at his heels not to bark but to bite, he would die sooner than convict himself a boor.
FLORES
Slight no man. Among equals pride is folly but toward inferiors it becomes oppression. Here neglect is want of care. The boy has not yet learned the price of favor.
COMMANDER
The obligation which he assumed with the sword the day that the cross of Calatrava as fixed upon his breast, bound him to humility and love.
FLORES
He can intend no despite that his quick spirit shall not presently make appear.
ORTUÑO
Return, sir, nor stay upon his pleasure.
COMMANDER
I have come to know this boy.
(Enter the Master of Calatrava and Attendants.)
MASTER
A thousand pardons, Fernán Gómez de Guzmán! I am advised of your arrival in the city.
COMMANDER
I had just complaint of you, for my affection and our birth are holy ties, being as we are the one Master of Calatrava, and the other Commander, who subscribes himself yours wholly.
MASTER
I had no thought of this purposed honor, Fernando, hence a tardy welcome. Let me embrace you once again.
COMMANDER
Vying in honor. I have staked my own on your behalf in countless causes, even answering during your minority before the Pope at Rome.
MASTER
You have indeed. By the holy token that we bear above our hearts, I repay your love, and honor you as I should my father.
COMMANDER
I am well content.
MASTER
What news of the war at the front?
COMMANDER
Attend and learn your obligation.
MASTER
Say I am already in the field.
COMMANDER
Noble Master
1
Don Rodrigo Téllez Girón,
2
To power and rule exalted
3
Through bravery of a mighty sire
4
Who eight years since
5
Renounced the Mastership,
6
Devising it to you,
7
As was confirmed by oaths and surety
8
Of Kings and High Commanders,
9
Even the Sovereign Pontiff,
10
Pius the Second,
11
Concurring by his bull,
12
And later Paul, succeeding him,
13
Decreeing holily
14
That Don Juan Pacheco,
15
Noble Master of Santiago,
16
Should co-adjutor be
17
With you to serve,
18
Till now, his death recorded,
19
All government and rule
20
Descend upon your head,
21
Sole and supreme
22
Despite your untried years.
23
Wherefore take counsel,
24
Harkening to the voice of honor,
25
And follow the commitment
26
Of kin and allies, wisely led.
27
Henry the Fourth is dead.
28
Let all his lieges
29
Bend the knee forthwith
30
To Alonso, King of Portugal,
31
Heir by right in Castile
32
Through his wife
33
In tie of marriage,
34
Though Ferdinand,
35
Lord of Aragon,
36
Like right maintains
37
By title of his wife,
38
Isabella.
39
Yet to our eyes
40
The line of her succession is not clear,
41
Nor can we credit
42
Shadow of deception
43
In the right descent
44
Of Juana, now secure
45
Under the protection of your cousin,
46
Who loves you as a brother.
47
Therefore summon all the Knights
48
Of Calatrava to Almagro,
49
Thence to reduce
50
Ciudad Real,
51
Which guards the pass
52
Dividing Andalusia from Castile,
53
On both
54
Frowning impartially.
55
Few men will gain the day.
56
For want of soldiers
57
The people mount the walls,
58
Aided by errant knights
59
Faithful to Isabella,
60
And so pledged to Ferdinand
61
As King.
62
Strike terror, Rodrigo,
63
To the hearts of those who say
64
That this great cross
65
Rests heavily
66
Upon the sagging bosom of a child.
67
Consider the Counts of Ureña,
68
From whom you spring,
69
Flaunting the laurels of their might
70
Upon the heights of fame,
71
Nor neglect to emulate
72
The Marquises of Villena,
73
With other gallant captains
74
Whose names in manifold
75
Brighten the outstretched wings
76
Of reputation.
77
Unsheathe your virgin sword
78
Till in battle, like the cross,
79
It drip with blood.
80
Of this red cross,
81
Blazoned on the breast,
82
Breathes there no votary
83
Whose drawn sword flashes white.
84
At the breast the one,
85
At the side the other
86
Must glow and flame with red!
87
So crown, valiant Girón,
88
With deeds
89
The immortal temple
90
Reared stone by stone
91
By your great ancestors.
92
MASTER
Fernán Gómez,
93
I shall march with you
94
Because our cause is just,
95
And with my kin bear arms.
96
If I must pass,
97
Then shall I pass at Ciudad Real
98
As a lightning stroke,
99
Cleaving as I pass,
100
While my scant years proclaim
101
To friend and foe alike
102
That when my uncle died
103
Was no mortality of valor.
104
I draw my sword
105
That men may see it shine,
106
Livid with the passion of the cross,
107
Maculately red.
108
Where hold you residence?
109
Send on your vassals
110
To combat in my train.
111
COMMANDER
Few but faithful serve,
112
Who will contend like lions
113
In battle.
114
Fuente Ovejuna is a town
115
Of simple folk,
116
Unskilled in warfare,
117
Rather with plough and spade
118
Tilling the fields.
119
MASTER
Fuente Ovejuna, glebe of peace!
120
COMMANDER
Favored possession
121
In these troubled times,
122
Pastoral, serene!
123
Gather your men;
124
Let none remain unarmed.
125
MASTER
To-day I spur my horse
126
And level my eager lance.
127
(The Square of Fuente Ovejuna.)
(Pascuala and Laurencia enter.)
LAURENCIA
I prayed he would never come back.
PASCUALA
When I brought the word I knew it would grieve you.
LAURENCIA
Would to God he had never seen Fuente Ovejuna!
PASCUALA
Laurencia, many a girl has made a pretense of saying no, yet all the while her heart has been as soft as butter in her.
LAURENCIA
I am a live-oak, gnarled and twisted.
PASCUALA
Yes, but why refuse a drink of water?
LAURENCIA
I do, be the sun never so hot, though you may not believe it. Why love Fernando? He’s no husband.
PASCUALA
No, woman.
LAURENCIA
And amen! Plenty of girls in the village have trusted the Commander to their harm.
PASCUALA
It will be a miracle if you escape.
LAURENCIA
You are blind, because I have avoided him a full month now, Pascuala, and no quarter. Flores, who lays his snares, and that villain Ortuño, offered me a waist, a necklace and a head-dress. They praised Fernando, their master, and pictured him so great that I blushed at his very glory, but for all that they could not move me.
PASCUALA
But where was this?
LAURENCIA
Down by the brook there, a week gone yesterday.
PASCUALA
You’re already lost, Laurencia.
LAURENCIA
No, no, no!
PASCUALA
Maybe the priest might believe your story.
LAURENCIA
I am too innocent for the priest. In His Name, Pascuala, but of a morning rising early I had rather set me a slice of ham on the fire to munch with a crust of bread of my own kneading, filching a glass meanwhile out of the old stopped butt, once mother’s back is turned, to wet my thirst, and then climb up to watch the cow thrash through the cabbages, all foaming at the mouth come noon-day, while I hearten myself with a bit of egg-plant and a strip of bacon after hard walking, and return weary toward supper-time to nibble the raisins, home-grown in our own vineyard, which God fend the hail from, sitting me down with a dish of salad and pepper and olive oil, and so to bed tired at nightfall, in contentment and peace, with a prayer on my lips to be preserved from the men, devils, God knows, every one, than I would deliver myself up to their wiles for all their love and fury. What they want is to undo us, joy in the night and at dawning a maid’s mourning.
PASCUALA
You are right, Laurencia, for a sated lover flies faster than a farm sparrow. In the winter when the fields are bare they sing ‘tweet’ under the eaves till they come by the crumbs from the farmer’s board, but when the fields are green and frost has been forgotten, instead of fluttering down to sing ‘tweet’ they hop up to the roof-tree and cry ‘twit’, and ‘twit’ it is at you standing down below, make the most that you can of their twitting. Men are the same. When they need us we are their very lives, their heart, their soul, their entire being, but their hunger satisfied off they fly and leave us, too, with the echo of their twitting. So I say no man can be trusted.
(Mengo, Barrildo and Frondoso enter.)
FRONDOSO
You defeat yourself, Barrildo.
BARRILDO
Two judges are here who can decide between us.
MENGO
Agree upon the forfeit and then we’ll call in the girls. If they favor me, you hand me both your shirts, with whatever else you have on your backs, in meed of victory.
BARRILDO
Agreed. But what will you give if you lose?
MENGO
My rebeck of old box, which is worth more than a granary, for God knows its like cannot be bought in the village.
BARRILDO
Fairly said and offered.
FRONDOSO
Done! –God save you, ladies.
LAURENCIA
Frondoso calls us ladies.
FRONDOSO
The flattery of the age.
128
The blind we say are one-eyed,
129
The cross-eyed merely squint,
130
Pupils equal masters
131
While cripples barely limp:
132
The spendthrift fools call “open,”
133
The dumb now hold their tongues,
134
Bullies out-vie brave men,
135
Shouters shame the grave men,
136
And as for saving
137
Praise the miser–
138
None so active as the meddler
139
To promote the common good.
140
Gossips will “talk freely,”
141
While concede we must
142
The quarrelsome are just.
143
Boasters display their courage,
144
The shrinking coward “retires,”
145
The impudent grow witty,
146
The taciturn sit pretty,
147
All hail the idiot.
148
Gamblers, pray, “look forward,”
149
The bald deserve respect,
150
Admit the ass is graceful,
151
That large feet proclaim the faithful,
152
While a blotched and pimpled face-full
153
Is a scientific indication
154
Of a sluggish circulation.
155
The lie to-day a truth is,
156
Rudeness clever youth is,
157
And if you have a hump,
158
Why follow your bent
159
All the way over,
160
Without stooping
161
Moreover,
162
And so to conclude
163
I call you ladies,
164
For otherwise there is no telling what names I might call you.
LAURENCIA
In the city praise may be the fashion, Frondoso, but by my faith we have a contrary custom in the country, where words are sharp and barbed, upon tongues that are calloused to use them.
FRONDOSO
Who speaks knows.
LAURENCIA
Turn all in reverse.
165
Know and be a bore,
166
Work and you have luck,
167
The prudent are faint-hearted,
168
The upright reek with muck.
169
Advice to-day spells insult,
170
Charity rank waste,
171
Be fair and painted ugly,
172
Be good, what wretched taste!
173
Truth is made for boobies,
174
No purity wins rubies,
175
While as for giving,
176
‘Tis a veil for sinful living,
177
Fie, fie the hypocrite!
178
Disparage true worth always.
179
Dub simple faith imbecility,
180
Flat cowardice amiability,
181
Nor ever be fearful
182
Against the innocent
183
To speak an ear-full.
184
No woman is honest,
185
No beauty is chaste,
186
And as for virtue
187
There is not enough to hurt you,
188
For in the country
189
A curse
190
Turns merit to reverse.
191
MENGO
Devil of a girl!
BARRILDO
On my soul, she is too quick for us!
MENGO
A pinch of spice plashed into the holy water the day of her christening.
LAURENCIA
Well, well, since you question us, let us have it without delay and judge truly.
FRONDOSO
I’ll set out the argument.
LAURENCIA
Plant in season, then, and begin.
FRONDOSO
Attend, Laurencia.
LAURENCIA
Oh, I’ll have an answer for you some day.
FRONDOSO
Be fair, be just.
LAURENCIA
What is this wager?
FRONDOSO
Barrildo and I oppose Mengo.
LAURENCIA
Mengo is right. So, there!
BARRILDO
A fact is certain and plain which he denies.
MENGO
I deny it because it’s a lie and they wander from the mark.
LAURENCIA
Explain.
BARRILDO
He maintains there is no such things as love.
LAURENCIA
Then it takes hold of one mightily.
BARRILDO
Yes, though it be blind, for without love the world would never go on.
MENGO
I say little, not being able to read, though I could learn, but if the elements make the world and our bodies are made of the elements which war against each other unceasingly, causing anger and discord, then where is love?
BARRILDO
Mengo, the world is love, here and hereafter, not discord. Harmony is love. Love is a reaching out.
MENGO
A pulling in, according to nature, which governs all things through the resemblances that are. Love is a looking to its own, it’s preservation. I raise my hand to my face to prevent the blow, I move my feet to remove me from danger to my body, my eyelids close to shield my sight through the attraction of a mutual love.
PASCUALA
He admits it’s love, so what then? There’s an end.
MENGO
We love ourselves, no one else, that’s flat.
PASCUALA
Mengo, what a lie! And God forgive me. The love a man bears for a woman, or a beast for its mate, is a fierce, consuming passion.
MENGO
Self-love, interest, not pure love. What is love?
LAURENCIA
A running after beauty.
MENGO
But why run after beauty?
LAURENCIA
For the thrill and the pleasure, boy.
MENGO
True. And the pleasure a man seeks for himself.
LAURENCIA
True again.
MENGO
So that self-love seeks its own delight?
LAURENCIA
Granted.
MENGO
Therefore there is no love, only we like what we like, and we intend in all things to get it, to seek delight, our delight.
BARRILDO
One day the priest preached in the village about a man named Plato who had taught men how to love, but what Plato loved, he said, was the soul and the virtue that was hidden in it.
PASCUALA
So the fathers teach the children in ‘cademies and schools.
LAURENCIA
Yes, and don’t you listen to any nonsense, either. Mengo, thank God you never knew the curse of love.
MENGO
Were you ever in love?
LAURENCIA
In love with my honor, always.
FRONDOSO
Come, come, ladies! Decide, decide.
BARRILDO
Who wins?
PASCUALA
Let the priest or the sacristan cook up a reply, for Laurencia loves too much and I not a little, so how can we, siding both ways, decide?
FRONDOSO
They laugh at us.
(Enter Flores.)
FLORES
God guard the fair!
PASCUALA
This man is from the Commander.
LAURENCIA
Why so brash, old goshawk, in the village?
FLORES
You meet me as a soldier.
LAURENCIA
From Don Fernando?
FLORES
The war is done, though it has cost us blood, and armies of our friends.
FRONDOSO
Say what of note our brand achieved.
FLORES
I will, and that better than another, having seen it with my own eyes.
Beleaguering the city
192
Of Ciudad Real,
193
By charter royal,
194
The valiant Master mustered in
195
Two thousand foot,
196
Bravest among his vassals,
197
Beside three hundred horse,
198
Churchmen and laymen,
199
For the crimson cross
200
Summons to its aid
201
Those who profess it on their breasts
202
Though robed and habited for prayer,
203
Crusading oft in holy cause,
204
Ruthless to slay the Moor.
205
Boldly the lad rode forth,
206
His tunic green
207
Embroidered with golden scrolls,
208
While silken cords
209
Caught up his sleeves,
210
Stayed sixfold
211
Above his iron gauntlets.
212
His steed was sturdy stout,
213
A dappled roan
214
Bred beside the Betis,
215
Drinking of the willing stream
216
And pasturing on lush meadows,
217
But now in panoply of white
218
Bedecked, patterns of net
219
Flecking the snowy pools
220
That gemmed his mottled hide
221
From plumed crest
222
Down to the buckskin tail-piece.
223
Ay equal pace
224
The Commander Fernán Gómez
225
Bestrid a piebald charger,
226
Black of mane, the tail coal black,
227
White foaming at the nostril.
228
A Turkish coat of mail he wore,
229
Breastplate and corselet
230
Glowing bright orange,
231
Relieved with pearls and gold.
232
White plumes
233
Topped off his helmet,
234
Pallid plumes wind-blown,
235
Striking dismay,
236
The while his puissant arm
237
Banded now red, now white,
238
Brandished an ash-tree,
239
Famous as his lance
240
Even to Granada.
241
The city flew to arms,
242
Vain boasts of loyalty
243
With greed contending,
244
Some fearful for their homes,
245
Some of their treasure.
246
The Master breached those walls,
247
Flung back those surly churls,
248
And the heads
249
Of the rebel leaders,
250
As of those conspiring there
251
Against his dignity,
252
With a blow
253
Severed from the body.
254
We gagged the common folk,
255
Then beat them openly,
256
So in that town
257
The Master is feared and praised
258
Conjointly.
259
Though few in years,
260
By deeds, by valor and by victory
261
Nature in him has forged
262
A bolt from heaven
263
To rive Africa,
264
Her blue moon senescent
265
To the red cross bowed,
266
Obeisant.
267
Rich the promise
268
Of the rape of this fair city,
269
With apportionment
270
Of present gain
271
To him and the Commander.
272
Now hear the music sound, for zest in victory adds sweetest savor.
(The Commander enters with Ortuño and Musicians, accompanied by Juan Rojo, Regidor, Esteban and Alonso, Alcaldes.)
SONG
Welcome, great Commander,
273
Many times a victor,
274
Men and fields mowed down!
275
Guzmáns, arm, to battle!
276
Girones, strike, to battle!
277
Doves in peace,
278
Mighty in repose.
279
Forward to the conflict,
280
Strong of limb as oak-trees,
281
Drive the Moors before you
282
From Ciudad Real.
283
Flaunt your pennons proudly
284
In Fuente Ovejuna,
285
Valiant Fernán Gómez,
286
Glorious Conqueror!
287
COMMANDER
Acknowledgment and thanks in this our town
288
Receive in token of the love you show.
289
ALONSO
Accept this rustic tribute to renown,
290
Proffered how simply. These poor meadows grow
291
Scant sustenance of woe.
292
ESTEBAN
Welcome accept
To Fuente Ovejuna, whose elders glow
293
With pride, offering homely gifts, yet apt
294
To please, as pod or sprout or root, in carts
295
Heaped high with ruddy fruits, the produce rept
296
From field and orchard, ripening in our hearts,
297
Mellowed in crib and barnyard. First, car one
298
Twin hampers bears of jars, baked for these marts,
299
Whereto are added geese that sleekly run
300
Long necks from tangling nets, and shrilly shrick
301
Cackles of praise, paeans of booty won.
302
Ten salted hogs bid the next wagon creak,
303
Bulging with fatty trimmings and dried meat;
304
The skins like amber shine, side, haunch and breek.
305
A hundred pair of capon follow, treat
306
For the belly, plump hens torn from the cock
307
Through all the eager farms, tender and meet
308
For axing. Arms we lack, nor bring we stock
309
Of blooded steeds, nor harness for the bold,
310
For such in rustic hands were cheat and mock
311
Of love’s pure gold which in our hearts is told.
312
Twelve wine-skins next appear, with beady wine
313
Filled full, in winter enemy of cold
314
And friendly to the soldier, ally in line
315
Of battle, or on defense trusty like steel,
316
Tempering courage, for temper springs of wine.
317
Unnumbered cheeses, last, jounce past awheel,
318
With products of the churn and dairy days,
319
True tokens of the love the people feel
320
Toward you and yours, harvests of heart-felt praise.
321
COMMANDER
Thanks and be gone, Alcaldes of this town. Be gone assured of favor.
ALONSO
Rest, Master, in enjoyment of our love. These cat-tails before the door and this coarse sedge grass should bear pearls to match your deserving, as indeed we pray, and yet fall short of the devotion of the village.
COMMANDER
I accept the gifts right gladly. So get you gone.
ESTEBAN
The singers will repeat the refrain.
SONG
Welcome, great Commander,
322
Many times a victor,
323
Men and fields mowed down!
324
(Exeunt.)
COMMANDER
The girls stay behind.
LAURENCIA
No, Your Excellency.
COMMANDER
By the Lord you do! No airs nor graces! These are soldiers here.
LAURENCIA
Pascuala, he looks your way.
PASCUALA
Do you teach me to be modest?
COMMANDER
I look your way, little chuck with the crook, and tend to this burr of the pasture, till she open to me.
PASCUALA
We grew here, Master.
COMMANDER
Pass into the house where my men will keep you safe.
LAURENCIA
If the Alcaldes go in so will we, because one is my father, but a girl by herself is just a girl and must be careful.
COMMANDER
A word, Flores.
FLORES
Master?
COMMANDER
How? What mean these green-briers?
FLORES
Walk straight in, girls. Come!
LAURENCIA
You let go!
FLORES
Any fool can walk.
PASCUALA
You’ll lock the door if we do go in.
FLORES
Pass and taste the spoils of war. Come!
COMMANDER
Aside to Ortuño Throw the bolt, Ortuño, once they’re inside.
(Exit.)
LAURENCIA
You hurt us, Flores.
ORTUÑO
These cheeses came in no cart.
PASCUALA
No, and we are not for you, either, so get out!
FLORES
What can you do with a girl?
LAURENCIA
Your master has his fill to-day for one stomach.
ORTUÑO
He’s a judge of meat and prefers you, though the carts pass.
LAURENCIA
Then let him burst!
(The girls go out.)
FLORES
What will the Master say with never a sight of a woman for good cheer? They laugh at us.
ORTUÑO
Blows reward service, mostly given for villainy, so there’s no cure. It’s desert.
(A tent prepared for audience.)
(Enter the King Don Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella, accompanied by Don Manrique and Attendants.)
ISABELLA
To prepare is wise. Sire, harry Alonso of Portugal where he has pitched his tents, for a ready offense averts the threatened injury.
THE KING
Navarre and Aragon dispatch swift aid and succor. Under my command the Castilian bands shall be reformed. Success lies in prevention.
ISABELLA
Majesty, prevail by strategy.
DON MANRIQUE
Two Regidors of Ciudad Real crave audience.
THE KING
Admit them to our presence.
(Enter Two Regidors of Ciudad Real.)
FIRST REGIDOR
Great Ferdinand the Catholic our King,
325
Posting from Aragon to high Castile
326
On warlike service and the common weal,
327
Humble petition to thy sword we bring
328
For vengeance, urging here the patent royal
329
Bestowed on Ciudad Real, thy city,
330
Foully wronged. To be thy city was our joy,
331
Thy will our law, proclaimed in kingly charter;
332
But blows of fate laid low our fealty.
333
A froward youth. Rodrigo Téllez Girón,
334
Master of Calatrava, with naked sword
335
Carves out addition to his wide domain,
336
Wasting our homes, our lands and revenues.
337
We met his treacherous assault, and force
338
Opposed to force, by threat and fear undaunted,
339
Till blood in rivers ran adown our streets,
340
Alas but vainly! The day we lost, and he,
341
Pricked on by the Commander Fernán Gómez,
342
Cunning in council, governs the city,
343
While we, enslaved, lament our injuries.
344
THE KING
Where dwells this Fernán Gómez?
FIRST REGIDOR
Sire, Fuente Ovejuna is his seat,
345
Wherein he rules amid his seignories.
346
He governs there does he his will,
347
Raining down blows upon his abject thralls
348
Beyond endurance.
349
THE KING
Name your captain.
SECOND REGIDOR
Sire,
None lives. Not one, alas, of noble blood
350
Survives unwounded, untaken or unslain.
351
ISABELLA
This cause demands an instant remedy.
352
The walls may be surrendered to the foe,
353
Who thus will boldly dominate the pass,
354
Entering Extremadura from the side
355
Of Portugal.
356
THE KING
Set forth at once, Manrique,
And with two chosen companies chastise
357
This arrogance, denying let or stay.
358
The Count of Cabra shall by our command
359
As swiftly follow, bravest of the house
360
Of Córdoba.
361
The front of tyranny must bow
362
And pride lie low
363
In the presence of our majesty.
364
ISABELLA
Depart ambassador of victory.
365
(Exeunt.)
(A river bank near Fuente Ovejuna.)
(Trees and bushes.)
(Laurencia and Frondoso enter.)
LAURENCIA
I had not wrung the sheets, you saucy Frondoso, when you drove me from the river bank with spying. While we gaze the country-side talks and waits on tip-toe. The sturdiest of our ladies, your jacket is the gayest and the costliest, so others note what you do, and not a girl in the village nor herdsman on the hills nor down in the river bottoms but swears we are one and of right ought to be joined, while Juan Chamorro, the sacristan, leaves his piping to publish the banns, for love, they say, goes first to church. Ah, wine burst the vaults in August, and burst every pot with must but I heed them not nor attend to their chatter, though it be time, methinks, and time soon for our own good to put an end to all this idle talk and pother.
FRONDOSO
Laughing Laurencia, I die while you smile. Though I say nothing you will not hear me, till at last I have scarcely strength even to mutter. I would be your husband but you repay with taunts my faith and loyalty.
LAURENCIA
I encourage you all I can.
FRONDOSO
It’s not enough. When I think of you I cannot eat, drink or sleep. I starve yet love an angel. God knows I die.
LAURENCIA
Cross yourself, Frondoso, or else bethink you of some charm.
FRONDOSO
There’s a charm for two doves at the church, love, that makes them one. God set us beak to beak!
LAURENCIA
Speak to your master, Juan Rojo, if you will, and can summon the courage, else I must, since he is my uncle. Pray for the day, and hope.
FRONDOSO
Look! The Commander!
LAURENCIA
Stalking deer. Hide in the bushes.
FRONDOSO
Big bucks are hard to hide.
(The Commander enters.)
COMMANDER
Aha! Following the fawn, I hit upon the doe.
LAURENCIA
I was resting from washing and return to the brookside now, Commander.
COMMANDER
Sweet Laurencia, stay, nor obscure the beauty heaven has granted to my sight. If you have escaped my hand till now, the woods and the fields will befriend us, for they are accomplices of love. Bend your pride and let your cheek flush as it has never done yet in the village. Sebastiana, who was Pedro Redondo’s wife, has been mine, and so has the chit who wedded Martín del Pozo. I came upon her two nights a bride, and she opened to me fondly.
LAURENCIA
My Lord, they had opened to so many that their fondness was no longer in question. Ask the village. God grant you luck with the deer. The cross on your breast proclaims you are no tempter of women.
COMMANDER
You protest too much, lass. I put down my cross-bow. With my hands I will subdue these pretty wiles.
LAURENCIA
No, no! What would you? Let go!
(Frondoso re-enters and seizes the cross-bow.)
COMMANDER
Struggle is useless.
FRONDOSO
I take the bow. Heaven grant I do not shoot.
COMMANDER
Yield! Have done!
LAURENCIA
Heaven help me now!
COMMANDER
We are alone, no one will hear –
FRONDOSO
Noble Commander, loose that girl, or your breast shall be my mark, though the cross shine clear upon it.
COMMANDER
The dog insults me!
FRONDOSO
Here is no dog. Laurencia, flee!
LAURENCIA
Frondoso, you take care.
FRONDOSO
Go!
(Laurencia goes.)
COMMANDER
Only a fool deprives himself of his sword, which I, god or devil, put by, fearing to fright the chase!
FRONDOSO
By God above, Commander, if I loose this string I’ll gyve you like a hawk!
COMMANDER
Betrayed! Traitorous hind, deliver up that cross-bow. Dog, set down!
FRONDOSO
To be shot through? Hardly. Love is a warrior that yields his throne to none.
COMMANDER
Shall a knight valiant in battle be foiled by a dumb peasant? Stay, wretch! On guard! –for I forget my rank and station.
FRONDOSO
I do not. I am a swain, but since I will to live, I take the cross-bow with me.
COMMANDER
Ignominy, shame! I will have vengeance to the hilt. Quickly I vanish.
ACT SECOND
(Square in Fuente Ovejuna.)
(Esteban enters with a Regidor.)
ESTEBAN
Better touch the reserve no further. The year bodes ill with threat of foul weather, so let the grain be impounded though there be mutiny among the people.
REGIDOR
I am of your mind if the village may be governed in peace.
ESTEBAN
Then speak to Fernán Gómez. These astrologers with their harangues pretend they know secrets God only knows. Not a scrap can they read of the future, unholy fabricators of what was and what shall be, when to their eyes even the present is blank – for their ignorance is rank. Can they bring the clouds indoors and lay the stars upon the table? How do they peer into heaven and yet come down with such dire disasters? These fellows tell us how and when to sow, here with the grain, there with the barley and the vegetables, the squash, mustard, and cucumber – as squashes add them to the number. Next they predict a man will die and one does in Transylvania, or the vineyards shall suffer drought, or people take to beer in far-off Germany; also cherries will freeze and impoverish the neighbors in Gascony, while there will be a plague of tigers in Hyrcania. So or not so, pray remember – the year ends with December.
(Leonelo, a student, enters with Barrildo.)
LEONELO
I grant this town nothing, upon a re-view, but as the plain seat of stupidity.
BARRILDO
How did you fare in Salamanca?
LEONELO
That is no simple story.
BARRILDO
By this you must be a complete Bártulo.
LEONELO
Not even a barber by this. In our faculty few trim knowledge from the course.
BARRILDO
You return to us a scholar.
LEONELO
No, but I have learned what it is wise to know.
BARRILDO
With all the printing of books nowadays a man might pick up a few and be wise.
LEONELO
We know less than we did when there was less knowledge, for the bulk of learning is so great no man can compass it. Confusion results from excess, all the stir goes to froth, while those who read befuddle their heads with endless pages and become literal slaves. The art of printing has raised up a thousand geniuses over night. To be secure it spreads and conserves the Holy Scriptures, that they may be known of all and endure, but this invention of Guttenberg, that famous German of Mayence, has in fact devitalized glory. Many a man of repute has proved a very fool when his books have been printed, or else suffered the mortification of having simpletons issue theirs in his name. Others have set down arrant nonsense and credited it to their enemies out of spite, to whose undoing it circulates and appalls the world.
BARRILDO
I can find no words to argue with you.
LEONELO
The ignorant have the learned at their mercy.
BARRILDO
Leonelo, on every account printing is a mighty invention.
LEONELO
For centuries the world did very well without it, and to this hour it has not produced one Jerome nor a second Augustine. The men were saints.
BARRILDO
Sit down and rest, for my head is dizzy opposing you.
(Juan Rojo and a Farmer enter.)
JUAN ROJO
There is not a dower on four of these farms if the fields continue as they are, and this may be seen on all sides, far and near, for all is one.
FARMER
What word of the Commander?
JUAN ROJO
Would Laurencia had never set foot by the river!
FARMER
I could dangle him gladly from that olive-tree, savage, unbridled and lewd!
(The Commander enters with Ortuño and Flores.)
COMMANDER
Heaven for the just!
REGIDOR
Commander!
COMMANDER
God’s body, why do you stand?
ESTEBAN
Señor, where the custom is to sit, we stand.
COMMANDER
I tell you to sit down.
ESTEBAN
As honorable men we cannot do you honor, having none.
COMMANDER
Sit down while I talk with you!
ESTEBAN
Shall we discuss my hound, sir?
COMMANDER
Alcalde, these true men of mine praise the rare virtue of the animal.
ESTEBAN
The beast is swift. In God’s name but he can overtake a thief or harry a coward right cruelly.
COMMANDER
I would set him on a graceful hare that these days lopes before me.
ESTEBAN
Done, if you will lead us to the hare.
COMMANDER
Oh, speaking of your daughter –
ESTEBAN
My daughter?
COMMANDER
Yes, why not? The hare.
ESTEBAN
My daughter is not your quarry.
COMMANDER
Alcalde, pray you prevail upon her.
ESTEBAN
How?
COMMANDER
She plumes herself before me. A wife, and a proud one, of a councilor who attends before me now, and listens, at my every look darts kindling glances.
ESTEBAN
She does ill. You, Señor, do ill also, speaking thus freely.
COMMANDER
Oh, what rustic virtue! Here, Flores, get him the book of Politics , and let him perfect himself in Aristotle.
ESTEBAN
Señor, the town would live in the reflection of your honor. There be men in Fuente Ovejuna.
LEONELO
I never read of such a tyrant.
COMMANDER
What have I said, in faith, to which you take exception, Regidor?
JUAN ROJO
You have spoken ill. Speak well, for it is not meet you level at our honor.
COMMANDER
Your honor? Good! Are we importing friars to Calatrava?
REGIDOR
There be those that be content to wear the cross, though the heart be not too pure.
COMMANDER
I do not injure you, mingling my blood with yours.
JUAN ROJO
A smirch is no hidden stain.
COMMANDER
In doing my will I accord your wives honor.
ESTEBAN
The very words spell dishonor, while your deeds pass all remedy.
COMMANDER
Obstinate dolt! Ah, better the cities where men of parts and renown wreak their will and their pleasure! There husbands give thanks when their wives sacrifice upon the altar.
ESTEBAN
They do no such service, if with this you would move us. God rules, too, in the cities, and justice is swift.
COMMANDER
Get up and get out.
ESTEBAN
We have said what you have heard.
COMMANDER
Out of the square straight! Let not one remain behind!
ESTEBAN
We firmly take our leave.
COMMANDER
What? In company?
FLORES
By the rood, hold your hand!
COMMANDER
These hinds would slander me, defiling the square with lies, departing together.
ORTUÑO
Pray be patient.
COMMANDER
I marvel that I am so calm! Walk each one by himself, apart. Let no man speak till his door has shut behind him!
LEONELO
Great God, can they stomach this?
ESTEBAN
My path lies this way.
(Esteban, Juan Rojo, Regidor, Leonelo and the Peasants go out, leaving the Commander, Flores and Ortuño.)
COMMANDER
What shall we do with these knaves?
ORTUÑO
Their speech offends you and you by no means hide your unwillingness to hear it.
COMMANDER
Do they compare themselves with me?
FLORES
Perversity of man.
COMMANDER
Shall that peasant retain my cross-bow and not be punished while I live?
FLORES
Last night we took him, as we thought, at Laurencia’s door, and I gave an oaf who was his double a slash that married his two ears.
COMMANDER
Can you find no trace of that Frondoso?
FLORES
They say he remains in these parts still.
COMMANDER
And dares remain, who has attempted my life?
FLORES
Like a silly bird or a fish, a decoy will tempt him and he will fall into the lure.
COMMANDER
That a laborer, a stripling of the soil should aim a cross-bow at a captain before whose sword Córdoba and Granada tremble! Flores, the end of the world has come!
FLORES
Blame love, for it knows no monopoly of daring.
ORTUÑO
Seeing he lived, I took it as a token of your kindly disposition.
COMMANDER
Ortuño, the smile is false. Dirk in hand, within these two hours would I ransack the place, but vengeance yields the rein to reason until the hour shall come. Which of you had a smile of Pascuala?
FLORES
She says she intends to marry.
COMMANDER
How far is she prepared to go?
FLORES
She will advise you anon when she can accept a favor.
COMMANDER
How of Olalla?
ORTUÑO
Fair words.
COMMANDER
Buxom and spirited! How far?
ORTUÑO
She says her husband has been uneasy these past days, suspicious of my messages, and of your hovering about, attended. As soon as his fears are allayed, you shall have a sign.
COMMANDER
On the honor of a knight ‘tis well! These rustics have sharp eyes and commonly are evil-minded.
ORTUÑO
Evil-minded, ill-spoken and ill-favored.
COMMANDER
Say not so of Inés.
FLORES
Which one?
COMMANDER
Antón’s wife. Aha!
FLORES
Yes, she will oblige any day. I saw her in the corral, which you can enter secretly.
COMMANDER
These easy girls we requite but poorly. Flores, may women never learn the worth of the wares they sell!
FLORES
No pain wipes out the sweetness wholly. To prevail quickly, cheats the expectation, but, as philosophers agree, women desire the men as they are desired, nor can form be without substance, at which we should not complain, nor wonder.
COMMANDER
A man who is fiercely swept by love finds solace in a speedy yielding to desire, but afterward despises the object, for the road to forgetfulness even under the star of honor, is to hold oneself cheap before love’s importuning.
(Cimbranos, a Soldier, enters, armed.)
CIMBRANOS
Where is the Commander?
ORTUÑO
Behold him, if you have the faculty of sight.
CIMBRANOS
Oh, gallant Fernán Gómez,
366
Put off the rustic cap
367
For the morion of steel
368
And change the cloak
369
For armor!
370
The Master of Santiago
371
And the Count of Cabra,
372
By title of the Castilian Queen,
373
Lay siege to Don Rodrigo Girón
374
In Ciudad Real,
375
And short his shrift unaided
376
Before their approaching powers,
377
Forfeiting the spoils so dearly won
378
At cost of blood of Calatrava.
379
Already from the battlements
380
Our sentinels descry
381
Pennons and banners,
382
The castles and the lions,
383
Quartered with the bars of Aragon.
384
What though the King of Portugal
385
Heap on Girón vain honors?
386
Vanquished, the Master must creep home
387
To Almagro, wounded,
388
Abandoning the city.
389
To horse, to horse, Señor!
390
At sight of you
391
The enemy will fly
392
Headlong into Castile,
393
Nor pause this side surrender.
394
COMMANDER
Hold and speak no more!
395
Stay for me.
396
Ortuño, sound the trumpet
397
Here in the square.
398
What soldiers
399
Are billeted with me?
400
ORTUÑO
A troop of fifty men.
401
COMMANDER
To horse every one!
402
CIMBRANOS
Spur apace or Ciudad Real
403
Falls to the King.
404
COMMANDER
That shall never be.
(Exeunt.)
(Open country, fields or meadow.)
(Mengo enters with Laurencia and Pascuala, running.)
PASCUALA
Don’t leave us.
MENGO
What’s the matter?
LAURENCIA
Mengo, we seek the village in groups, when there’s no man to go with us, for fear of the Commander.
MENGO
How can the ugly devil torment so many?
LAURENCIA
He is upon us night and day.
MENGO
Oh, would heaven send a bolt to strike him where he stands!
LAURENCIA
He’s an unchained beast, poison, arsenic and pestilence throughout the land.
MENGO
Laurencia, they say Frondoso pointed an arrow at his breast for your sake, here in this very meadow.
LAURENCIA
Mengo, I hated all men till then, but since that day I relent. Frondoso had courage; it will cost him his life.
MENGO
He must fly these fields, that’s sure.
LAURENCIA
I love him enough to advise it, but he’ll have no counsel of me, storming and raging and turning away. The Commander swears he will hang him feet upward.
PASCUALA
I say hang the Commander.
MENGO
Stone him I say. God knows but I will up and at him with a rock I saved at the sheep-fold that will land him a crack that will crush his skull in! He’s wickeder than Gabalus that old Roman.
LAURENCIA
The one that was so wicked was Heliogabalus. He was a man.
MENGO
Whoever he was, call him Gab or Gal, his scurvy memory yields to this. You know history. Was there ever a man like Fernán Gómez?
PASCUALA
No, he’s no man. There must be tigers in him.
(Jacinta enters.)
JACINTA
Help in God’s name, if you are women!
LAURENCIA
Why, what’s this, Jacinta?
PASCUALA
We are all your friends.
JACINTA
The Commander’s men, on their way to Ciudad Real, armed with villainy when it should be steel, would seize me and take me to him.
LAURENCIA
God help you, Jacinta! With you, pray he be merciful, but I choose rather to die than be taken!
(Exit.)
PASCUALA
Jacinta, being no man I cannot save you.
(Exit.)
MENGO
I can because I am a man in strength and in name. Jacinta, stand beside me.
JACINTA
Are you armed?
MENGO
Twice, I have two arms.
JACINTA
You will need more.
MENGO
Jacinta, the ground bears stones.
(Flores and Ortuño enter.)
FLORES
Did you think you could run away from us?
JACINTA
Mengo, I am dead with fear!
MENGO
Friends, these are poor peasant girls.
ORTUÑO
Do you assume to defend her?
MENGO
I do, so please you, since I am her relative and must protect her, if that may be.
FLORES
Kill him straightway!
MENGO
Strike me heaven, but I am in a rage! You can put a cord around my neck but, by God, I’ll sell my life dear!
(The Commander and Cimbranos enter.)
COMMANDER
Who calls? What says this turd?
FLORES
The people of this town, which we should raze for there is no health in it, insult our arms.
MENGO
Señor, if pity can prevail in the face of injustice, reprove these soldiers who would force this peasant girl in your name, though spouse and parents be bred to honor, and grant me license straight to lead her home unharmed.
COMMANDER
I will grant them license straight to harm you for your impudence. Let go that sling.
MENGO
Señor –
COMMANDER
Flores, Ortuño and Cimbranos, it will serve to tie his hands.
MENGO
Is this the voice of honor?
COMMANDER
What do these sheep of Fuente Ovejuna think of me?
MENGO
Señor, have I offended you, or mayhap the village, in anything?
FLORES
Shall we kill him?
COMMANDER
It would soil your arms which we shall stain with redder blood.
ORTUÑO
We wait your orders, sir.
COMMANDER
Flog him without mercy. Tie him to that oak-tree, baring his back, and with the reins –
MENGO
No, no, for you are noble!
COMMANDER
Flog him till the rivets start from the straps!
MENGO
My God, can such things be?
(They lead him off.)
COMMANDER
Pretty peasant, draw near daintily. Who would prefer a farmer to a valiant nobleman?
JACINTA
But will you heal my honor, taking me for yourself?
COMMANDER
Truly I do take you.
JACINTA
No, I have an honorable father, sir, who may not equal you in birth, but in virtue he is the first.
COMMANDER
These are troubled days nor will this rude peasantry salve my outraged spirit. Pass with me under the trees.
JACINTA
I?
COMMANDER
This way.
JACINTA
Look what you do!
COMMANDER
Refuse and I spurn you. You shall be the slut of the army.
JACINTA
No power of lust can overcome me.
COMMANDER
Silence and go before.
JACINTA
Pity, Señor!
COMMANDER
Pity have I none.
JACINTA
I appeal from your wickedness to God!
(Exit the Commander, haling her out.)
(Room in Juan Rojo’s house.)
(Laurencia and Frondoso enter.)
LAURENCIA
Through fields of danger
405
My love comes to me.
406
FRONDOSO
The hazard bear witness
407
To the love that I bear.
408
The Commander has vanished
409
O’er the brow of the hill
410
And I, the slave of beauty,
411
Lose all sense of fear,
412
Seeing him disappear.
413
LAURENCIA
Speak ill of no man.
414
To pray for his end
415
Postpones it, my friend.
416
FRONDOSO
Eternally.
417
And may he live a thousand years,
418
And every one bear joy!
419
I’ll pray for his soul also
420
And may the pious litany
421
Bite, sear and destroy!
422
Laurencia, if my love
423
Live in your heart,
424
Let me enter there, love,
425
To dwell loyally.
426
The town counts us one,
427
Yet by the book we are twain.
428
Will you, I wonder,
429
Say yes,
430
Compulsion under?
431
LAURENCIA
Say for me to the town
432
Oh yes, yes and yes
433
Again and again!
434
FRONDOSO
I kiss your feet
435
For this new miracle of mercy.
436
Beauty grants me joy
437
In words grace conjures.
438
LAURENCIA
Flatter me no more,
439
But speak to my father
440
And win my uncle’s praise.
441
Oh, speak,
442
Frondoso,
443
Oh may we marry, oh Frondoso,
444
It will be heaven
445
To be your wife!
446
FRONDOSO
In God we trust.
447
(Hides himself.)
(Enter Esteban and Juan Rojo, Regidor.)
ESTEBAN
His departure outraged the square, and indeed it was most unseemly behavior. Such tyranny stuns as a blow; even poor Jacinta must pay the price of his madness.
JUAN ROJO
Spain turns already to the Catholic Kings, a name by which our rulers have come to be known, and the nation renders obedience to their laws. They have appointed the Master of Santiago Captain General of Ciudad Real, dispatching him forthwith against Girón’s oppression of the town. But my heart aches for Jacinta, being as she is an honest girl.
ESTEBAN
They beat Mengo soundly.
JUAN ROJO
I never saw dye, black or red, to rival his flesh.
ESTEBAN
Peace and no more, for my blood boils, or else congeals at his name. Have I authority or a staff of office?
JUAN ROJO
The man cannot control his servants.
ESTEBAN
On top of all this they chanced on Pedro Redondo’s wife one day in the very bottom of the valley, and after he insulted her she was turned over to the men.
JUAN ROJO
Who is listening concealed?
FRONDOSO
I, a petitioner.
JUAN ROJO
Granted, Frondoso. Your father brought you to be, but I have brought you to be what you are, a prop and support, who is my very son in the house.
FRONDOSO
Assured, Alcalde, of permission, I speak as one by birth honorable, and not obscure.
ESTEBAN
You have suffered wrong at the hand of Fernán Gómez?
FRONDOSO
More than a little.
ESTEBAN
My heart records it. The man is surely mad.
FRONDOSO
Señor, appealing to a father,
448
Serving a daughter,
449
I beg her hand
450
Not all a stranger.
451
Pardon presumption though it be extreme;
452
Boldly I speak for men shall count me bold.
453
ESTEBAN
By that word, Frondoso,
454
You renew my life,
455
Brushing aside
456
The apprehension of the years.
457
Now heaven be praised, my son,
458
For your proposal seals our honor,
459
Which may love guard jealously.
460
Apprise your father straight
461
Of this new promised joy,
462
For my consent stays
463
But his approbation,
464
In whose fair prospect
465
Beams my happiness.
466
JUAN ROJO
The maid must consent also.
467
ESTEBAN
Her consent should precede
468
And has preceded indeed,
469
Because a faithful lover
470
Is prophet and recorder.
471
I have taken an oath to bestow some right good maravedis upon a good young man.
FRONDOSO
I seek no dower. Gold, they say, makes the day dull.
JUAN ROJO
So long as he does not court the wine-skins, you may dower him without stint or mercy.
ESTEBAN
I will speak to my daughter that assurance may be doubly sure.
FRONDOSO
Do, pray, for violence has no part in love.
ESTEBAN
Dearest daughter Laurencia!
LAURENCIA
Oh, father?
ESTEBAN
She approves for she answers before I speak! –Dearest daughter Laurencia, step apart a moment. Frondoso, who is an honest lad, if one there be in Fuente Ovejuna, inquires of me as to your friend Gila, whom he would honor as a wife.
LAURENCIA
Gila a wife?
ESTEBAN
Is she a fitting mate, a proper wife?
LAURENCIA
Yes, father, oh she is! Of course!
ESTEBAN
Of course she is ugly, as ugly as they come, which led me to suggest, Laurencia, that Frondoso look at you.
LAURENCIA
Father, be serious as becomes your office.
ESTEBAN
Do you love him?
LAURENCIA
I have favored him and am myself favored. But you knew!
ESTEBAN
Shall I say yes?
LAURENCIA
Yes, father, for me.
ESTEBAN
The yes will do for us both. Come, we will seek his father.
JUAN ROJO
Instantly.
ESTEBAN
My boy, to return to the dower. I can afford, yes, and I pledge, four thousand maravedis.
FRONDOSO
Señor, I am your son now and you offend me.
ESTEBAN
A day and pride abates, lad, but if you marry without a dower, by my faith, many a day will succeed and the abatement not be mended.
(Exeunt Esteban and Juan Rojo.)
LAURENCIA
Frondoso, bliss!
472
FRONDOSO
Yes, triply.
473
In a single moment
474
I feel so happy
475
I could die with pleasure!
476
Bliss it must be
477
Shared among three.
478
I look at you and laugh,
479
Laugh my heart out.
480
Oh, what treasure
481
I drink in at a glance
482
Now love comes to me,
483
Laurencia!
484
(Exeunt.)
(Ciudad Real. The walls.)
(The Master, the Commander, Flores and Ortuño enter.)
COMMANDER
Fly, sir! There is no remedy.
MASTER
The wall giving way, the weight of the enemy undoes us.
COMMANDER
We have bled them and cost them many lives.
MASTER
The banner of Calatrava shall not trail among their spoils, though it were recompense turning all to glory.
COMMANDER
Our league, Girón, crumbles and lies lifeless.
MASTER
Can we outstrip fortune, though she be blind, favoring us to-day, to-day to leave us?
VOICES
Within Hail, Victory! Hail, the Crown of Castile!
MASTER
The pennons show upon the battlements while all the windows of the towers thrust banners forth, proclaiming the victory.
COMMANDER
Much joy may they have of the day! By my soul, a day of slaughter!
MASTER
Fernán Gómez, I’ll to Calatrava.
COMMANDER
And I to Fuente Ovejuna. Stay upon your cousin of Portugal, or, weighing adversity, yield allegiance to the Catholic King.
MASTER
I shall apprise you with despatch.
COMMANDER
Time is a hard general.
MASTER
God grant me few years like this, fertile in undeception.
(Exeunt.)
(Esteban’s house in Fuente Ovejuna.)
(Enter the wedding-train, Musicians, Mengo, Frondoso, Laurencia, Pascuala, Barrildo, Esteban and Juan Rojo.)
MUSICIANS
Joy to the bride
485
And long life beside!
486
Long life!
487
MENGO
A clever boy thought that up! Oh, that boy is clever!
BARRILDO
He could troll it out at any wedding.
FRONDOSO
Mengo sings only to the lash because he says it has more tang to it.
MENGO
Yes, and I know a young chap in the valley, not meaning you of course, who would make a nice dish for the Commander.
BARRILDO
Enough of gloom and amen, seeing that a ferocious barbarian offers at our honor.
MENGO
I believe a hundred soldiers whipped me that day, and all I had was a sling that I gave up to protect me. However, I know a man, not mentioning names, who was full of honor and pursued with a syringe loaded with dye and some herbs that caused him great pain, and oh my, the pain that they caused him! How that man did suffer!
BARRILDO
By way of jest. It was done as a laughing matter.
MENGO
As it came out afterwards. At the time he never laughed nor even suspected, but felt much better without the dye, though while it was in, death was preferable.
FRONDOSO
A song would be preferable, or anything. Come, let it be a good one, Mengo.
MENGO
Good! Do you invite me?
488
Bride and groom
489
Must dwell together.
490
Pray God neither one of them
491
Dare fight or row it.
492
Let both die
493
Just too tired out to live,
494
A long time after
495
They have forgotten all about it –
496
I mean the wedding.
497
FRONDOSO
God help the poet who made that up!
BARRILDO
He needs more help.
MENGO
Oh, that reminds me! Did you ever see a baker baking buns? He dips the dough into the oil until the pot is full, and then some swell up, some come out askew and twisted, leaning to the right, tumbling to the left, some scorched, some burned, some uneatable. Well, a poet’s subject is his dough, he plops a verse onto the paper hoping it will turn out sweet, and his friends all tell him so, but when he tries to sell it he has to eat himself, for the world is too wise to buy or else hasn’t the money.
BARRILDO
You came to the wedding so as not to give the bride and groom a chance to talk.
LAURENCIA
Uncle, you must be kissed. And you, too, Father –
JUAN ROJO
Not on the hand. May your father’s hand be your protection, and Frondoso’s also, in the hour of need.
ESTEBAN
Rojo, heaven protect her and her husband on whom I invoke an everlasting benison.
FRONDOSO
Ever to share with you.
JUAN ROJO
Come all now, play and sing, for they are as good as one.
MUSICIANS
O maiden fair
498
With the flowing hair,
499
Shun Fuente Ovejuna!
500
A warrior knight.
501
Awaits thee there,
502
Waits the maid with the flowing hair
503
With the Cross of Calatrava.
504
Oh, hide in the shade
505
By the branches made!
506
Why, lovely maiden,
507
Why afraid?
508
Against desire
509
No wall may aid
510
’Gainst the Knight of Calatrava.
511
Thou grim knight spare
512
Frail beauty there
513
By Fuente Ovejuna!
514
No screen can hide,
515
No mountain bare,
516
No ocean bar love anywhere
517
’Gainst the Knight of Calatrava.
518
Here in the shade,
519
Shall love’s debt be paid.
520
O peerless maiden,
521
Why afraid?
522
Against desire
523
No wall may aid
524
’Gainst the Knight of Calatrava.
525
(The Commander, Flores, Ortuño and Cimbranos enter.)
COMMANDER
Let all in the house stand still on pain of death.
JUAN ROJO
Señor, though this be no play, your command shall be obeyed. Will you sit down? Why all these arms and weapons? We question not, for you bring home victory.
FRONDOSO
I am dead unless heaven helps me.
LAURENCIA
Stand behind me, Frondoso.
COMMANDER
No, seize and bind him.
JUAN ROJO
Surrender, boy, ‘tis best.
FRONDOSO
Do you want them to kill me?
JUAN ROJO
Why, pray?
COMMANDER
I am no man to take life unjustly, for, if I were, my soldiers would have run him through ere this, forwards or rearwards. Throw him into prison where his own father shall pronounce sentence upon him, chained in his dank cell.
PASCUALA
This is a wedding, Señor.
COMMANDER
What care I for weddings? Is this your occupation in the village?
PASCUALA
Pardon him, Señor, if he has done wrong, being who you are.
COMMANDER
Pascuala, he has done no wrong to me, but offense to the Master, Téllez Girón, whom God preserve. He has mocked his law, scoffed at his rule, and punishment must be imposed as a most dire example, or there will be those to rise against the Master, seeing that one afternoon, but shortly gone, flower of these loyal and faithful vassals, he dared take aim, pointing the cross-bow at the bosom of the High Commander.
ESTEBAN
If a father-in-law may offer a word of excuse, his dudgeon was not strange but manly, taking umbrage as a lover. You would deprive him of his wife. Small wonder the man should defend her!
COMMANDER
Alcalde, the truth is not in you.
ESTEBAN
Be just, Señor.
COMMANDER
I had no thought to deprive him of his wife, nor could so have done, he having none.
ESTEBAN
But you had the thought, which shall suffice. Henceforth enough! A King and Queen rule now in Castile whose firm decrees shall bring this rioting to cease, nor will they stay their hands, these wars once ended, nor suffer arrogance to overpower their towns and villages, crucifying the people cruelly. Upon his breast the King will place a cross, and on that royal breast it shall be the symbol, too, of honor!
COMMANDER
Death to presumption! Wrest the staff from him.
ESTEBAN
Señor, I yield it up, commanded.
COMMANDER
Beat him with it while he capers about this stable. Have at him smartly!
ESTEBAN
Still we suffer your authority. I am ready. Begin!
PASCUALA
They beat an old man?
LAURENCIA
Yes, because he is my father. Beat him, avenging yourself on me!
COMMANDER
Arrest her, and let ten soldiers guard this sinful maid!
(Exeunt Commander and Train.)
ESTEBAN
Justice, descend this day from Heaven!
(Exit.)
PASCUALA
No wedding but a shambles.
(Exit.)
BARRILDO
And not a man of us said a word!
MENGO
I have had my beating already and you can still see purple enough on me to outfit a Cardinal, without the trouble of sending to Rome. Try, if you don’t believe it, what a thorough job they can do.
JUAN ROJO
We must all take counsel.
MENGO
My counsel, friends, is to take nothing but forget it. I know which side I am on, though I don’t say, for it’s scaled like a salmon. Never again will any man get me to take it! Nor woman either.
ACT THIRD
(A room in the Town Hall at Fuente Ovejuna.)
(Esteban, Alonso and Barrildo enter.)
ESTEBAN
Is the Town Board assembled?
BARRILDO
Not a person can be seen.
ESTEBAN
Bravely we face danger!
BARRILDO
All the farms had warning.
ESTEBAN
Frondoso is a prisoner in the tower and my daughter Laurencia in such plight that she is lost save for the direct interposition of heaven.
(Juan Rojo enters with the Second Regidor.)
JUAN ROJO
Who complains aloud when silence is salvation? Peace, in God’s name, peace!
ESTEBAN
I will shout to the clouds till they re-echo my complaints while men marvel at my silence.
(Enter Mengo and Peasants.)
MENGO
We came to attend the meeting.
ESTEBAN
Farmers of this village, an old man whose grey beard is bathed in tears, inquires what rites, what obsequies we poor peasants, assembled here, shall prepare for our ravished homes, bereft of honor? And if life be honor, how shall we fare since there breathes not one among us whom this savage has not offended? Speak! Who but has been wounded deeply, poisoned in respect? Lament now, yes, cry out! Well? If all be ill, how then say well? Well, there is work for men to do.
JUAN ROJO
The direst that can be. Since by report it is published that Castile is subject now to a King, who shall presently make his entrance into Córdoba, let us dispatch two Regidors to that city to cast themselves at his feet and demand remedy.
BARRILDO
King Ferdinand is occupied with the overthrow of his enemies, who are not few, so that his commitments are warlike entirely. It were best to seek other succor.
REGIDOR
If my voice have any weight, I declare the independence of the village.
JUAN ROJO
How can that be?
MENGO
On my soul, my back tells me the Town Board will be informed as to that directly.
REGIDOR
The tree of our patience has been cut down, the ship of our joy rides storm-tossed, emptied of its treasure. They have rapt the daughter from one who is Alcalde of this town in which we dwell, breaking his staff over his aged head. Could a slave be scorned more basely?
JUAN ROJO
What would you have the people do?
REGIDOR
Die or rain death on tyrants! We are many while they are few.
BARRILDO
Lift our hands against our Lord and Master?
ESTEBAN
Only the King is our master, save for God, never these devouring beasts. If God be with us, what have we to fear?
MENGO
Gentlemen, I advise caution in the beginning and ever after. Although I represent only the very simplest laborers, who bear the most, believe me we find the bearing most unpleasant.
JUAN ROJO
If our wrongs are so great, we lose nothing with our lives. An end, then! Our homes and vineyards burn. Vengeance on the tyrants!
(Enter Laurencia, her hair disheveled.)
LAURENCIA
Open, for I have need of the support of men! Deeds, or I cry out to heaven! Do you know me?
ESTEBAN
Martyr of God, my daughter?
JUAN ROJO
This is Laurencia.
LAURENCIA
Yes, and so changed that, gazing, you doubt still!
ESTEBAN
My daughter!
LAURENCIA
No, no more! Not yours.
ESTEBAN
Why, light of my eyes, why, pride of the valley?
LAURENCIA
Ask not, reckon not,
526
Here be it known
527
Tyrants reign o’er us,
528
We are ruled by traitors,
529
Justice is there none.
530
I was not Frondoso’s,
531
Yours to avenge me,
532
Father, till the night
533
I was yours
534
Though he was my husband,
535
You the defender
536
Guarding the bride.
537
As well might the noble pay for the jewel lost in the merchant’s hand!
I was lost to Fernán Gómez,
538
Haled to his keep,
539
Abandoned to wolves.
540
A dagger at my breast
541
Pointed his threats,
542
His flatteries, insults, lies,
543
To overcome my chastity
544
Before his fierce desires.
545
My face is bruised and bloody in this court of honest men. Some of you are fathers, some have daughters. Do your hearts sink within you, supine and cowardly crew? You are sheep, sheep! Oh, well-named, Village of Fuente Ovejuna, the Sheep Well! Sheep, sheep, sheep! Give me iron, for senseless stones can wield none, nor images, nor pillars –jasper though they be –nor dumb living things that lack the tiger’s heart that follows him who steals its young, rending the hunter limb from limb upon the very margin of the raging sea, seeking the pity of the angry waves.
But you are rabbits, farmers,
546
Infidels in Spain,
547
Your wives strut before you
548
With the cock upon their train!
549
Tuck your knitting in you belts,
550
Strip off your manly swords,
551
For, God living, I swear
552
That your women dare
553
Pluck these fearsome despots,
554
Beard the traitors there!
555
No spinning for our girls;
556
Heave stones and do not blench.
557
Can you smile, men?
558
Will you fight?
559
Caps we’ll set upon you,
560
The shelter of a skirt,
561
Be heirs, boys, to our ribbons,
562
The gift of the maidenry,
563
For now the Commander will hang Frondoso from a merlon of the tower, without let or trial, as presently he will string you all, you race of half-men, for the women will leave this village, nor one remain behind! To-day the age of amazons returns, we lift our arms and strike against this villainy, and the crash of our blows shall amaze the world!
ESTEBAN
Daughter, I am no man to bear names calmly, opprobrious and vile. I will go and beard this despot, though the united spheres resolve against me.
JUAN ROJO
So will I, for all his pride and knavery.
REGIDOR
Let him be surrounded and cut off.
BARRILDO
Hang a cloth from a pike as our banner and cry “Death to Monsters!”
JUAN ROJO
What course shall we choose?
MENGO
To be at them, of course. Raise an uproar and with it the village, for every man will take an oath and be with you that to the last traitor the oppressors shall die.
ESTEBAN
Seize swords and spears, cross-bows, pikes and clubs.
MENGO
Long live the King and Queen!
ALL
Live our lords and masters!
MENGO
Death to cruel tyrants!
ALL
To cruel tyrants, death!
(Exeunt all but Laurencia.)
LAURENCIA
March on, and heaven march before you! At the door. Hello! Ho, women of this town! Draw near! Draw near for the salvation of your honor!
(Pascuala, Jacinta and various Women enter.)
PASCUALA
Who calls us? Where are the men to-day?
LAURENCIA
Behold them down that street, marching to murder Fernán Gómez. Yes, old men, young men, and troops of eager boys, like furies run to meet him! Shall they share all the glory of this mighty day, when we women can boast wrongs that match and outstrip theirs?
JACINTA
What can we do?
LAURENCIA
Fall in behind me and we will do a deed that shall re-echo round the sphere! Jacinta, you have been most deeply wronged; lead forth a squadron of our girls.
JACINTA
You have borne no less.
LAURENCIA
Oh, Pascuala, for a flag!
PASCUALA
Tie a cloth upon this lance to flourish. We shall have our banner.
LAURENCIA
Stay not even for that, for now it comes to me: –Every woman her headdress! Wave, banners, wave!
PASCUALA
Name a captain and march!
LAURENCIA
We need no captain.
PASCUALA
No? Wave, banners!
LAURENCIA
When my courage is up I laugh at the Cid and pale Rodomonte!
(Exeunt.)
(Hall in the Castle of the Commander.)
(Flores, Ortuño, Cimbranos and the Commander enter. Also Frondoso, his hands bound.)
COMMANDER
And by the cord that dangles from his hands
564
Let him be hung until cut down by death.
565
FRONDOSO
My Lord, you shame your worth.
COMMANDER
String him up on the battlements without further word.
FRONDOSO
I had no thought, my Lord, against your life.
FLORES
What is this noise outside?
(Noise and uproar.)
COMMANDER
I hear voices.
FLORES
Do they threaten your justice, sire?
ORTUÑO
They are breaking down the gates.
(Knocking and blows.)
COMMANDER
The gate of my castle, the seat of the Commandery?
FLORES
The people fill the court.
JUAN ROJO
Within Push, smash, pull down, burn, destroy!
ORTUÑO
I like not their numbers.
COMMANDER
Shall these hinds come against me?
FLORES
Such passing fury sweeps them that all the outer doors are already beaten in!
COMMANDER
Undo this bumpkin. Frondoso, speak to this Alcalde. Warn him of his peril.
FRONDOSO
Sire, what they do, remember is done in love.
(Exit.)
MENGO
Within Hail, Ferdinand and Isabella, and let the last traitor die!
FLORES
Señor, in God’s name you had best conceal your person.
COMMANDER
If they persevere we can hold this room, for the doors are strong. They will turn back as quickly as they came.
FLORES
When the people rise and screw their courage to the point, they never stop short of rapine and blood.
COMMANDER
Behind this grating as a barricade we can defend ourselves right stoutly.
FRONDOSO
Within Free Fuente Ovejuna!
COMMANDER
What a leader for these swine! I will out and fall upon them.
FLORES
I marvel at your courage.
ESTEBAN
Entering Now we meet the tyrant and his minions face to face! Death to the traitor! All for Fuente Ovejuna!
(Enter the Peasants.)
COMMANDER
Hold, my people! Stay!
ALL
Wrongs hold not. Vengeance knows no stay!
COMMANDER
Tell your wrongs, and on the honor of a knight I’ll requite them, every one.
ALL
Fuente Ovejuna! Long live Ferdinand, our King! Death to traitors and unbelievers!
COMMANDER
Will you not hear me? I lift my voice. I am your lord and master.
ALL
No, our lords and masters are the Catholic Kings!
COMMANDER
Stay a little.
ALL
All for Fuente Ovejuna! Die, Fernán Gómez!
(Exeunt after breaking through the bars.)
(The Women enter, armed.)
LAURENCIA
Stop here and challenge fortune, no women but an army.
PASCUALA
Any that shows herself a woman by mercy, shall swallow the enemy’s blood!
JACINTA
We shall spit his body on our pikes.
PASCUALA
As one we stand behind you.
ESTEBAN
Within Die, traitor though Commander!
COMMANDER
I die! O God, have pity in Thy clemency!
BARRILDO
Within Flores next!
MENGO
Have at him, for he landed on me with a thousand whacks.
FRONDOSO
I’ll draw his soul out like a tooth!
LAURENCIA
They need us there!
PASCUALA
Let them go on! We guard the door.
BARRILDO
Within No prayers, no mercy, vermin!
LAURENCIA
Pascuala, I go with my sword drawn, not sheathed!
(Exit.)
BARRILDO
Within Down with Ortuño!
FRONDOSO
Slash him across the cheek.
(Flores enters, fleeing, pursued by Mengo.)
FLORES
Pity, Mengo! I was not to blame.
MENGO
To be a pimp was bad enough, but why the devil lay on me?
PASCUALA
Mengo, give this man to the women. Stay! Stay!
MENGO
‘Fore God I will! And no punishment could be worse.
PASCUALA
Be well avenged!
MENGO
Believe me!
JACINTA
Run him through!
FLORES
What? Pity, women!
JACINTA
His courage well becomes him.
PASCUALA
So he has tears?
JACINTA
Kill him, viper of the vile!
PASCUALA
Down, wretch, and die!
FLORES
Pity, women, pity!
(Ortuño enters, pursued by Laurencia.)
ORTUÑO
I am not the man, I was not guilty!
LAURENCIA
In, women, and dye your conquering swords in traitor’s blood. Prove all your courage!
PASCUALA
Die dealing death!
ALL
All for Fuente Ovejuna! Hail, King Ferdinand!
(Exeunt.)
(Near Ciudad Real.)
(Enter the King Don Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, accompanied by Don Manrique, Master of Santiago.)
DON MANRIQUE
Convenient haste hard following on command,
566
The victory was gained at little cost,
567
With slow of slight resistance. Eagerly
568
We crave a fresh assault to try our prowess.
569
The Count of Cabra consolidates the front
570
And fends a counter-stroke, keeping the field.
571
THE KING
The troops are well disposed. By our decree
572
He shall continue in his tents, the line
573
Reforming, holding the pass. An evil wind
574
Sweeps up from Portugal, where armed Alfonso
575
Levies further powers. Cabra shall remain
576
The head and forefront of our valor here,
577
Watchful as diligent, that men may see
578
The danger fly before the sentinel
579
And peace return with plenty to the land.
580
(Enter Flores, wounded.)
FLORES
King Ferdinand the Catholic,
581
By right acclaim in Castile crowned,
582
In token of thy majesty
583
Oh hear the foulest treachery
584
Done yet by man from where the sun
585
Springs in the wakening east
586
To the lands of westering night!
587
THE KING
If there be warrant, speak.
588
FLORES
O thou great King, my wounds speak,
589
Admitting no delay
590
To close my story
591
With my life.
592
I come from Fuente Ovejuna,
593
Where the wretched hinds of the village
594
Have basely murdered their liege lord
595
In one general mutiny.
596
Perfidious folk,
597
They slew Fernán Gómez
598
As vassals moving upon slight cause,
599
Fixing upon him
600
The name of Tyrant,
601
Thenceforward their excuse.
602
They broke down his doors,
603
Closing their ears
604
To his free knightly pledge
605
To do each and all
606
Full justice,
607
Steeling their hearts against him,
608
And with unseemly rage
609
Tearing the cross from his breast,
610
Inflicting cruel wounds.
611
After which they cast him from a high window to the ground where he was caught on pikes and sword-points by the women. They bore him in dead and the most revengeful pulled at his beard and hair, defacing every feature, for their fury waxed to such extremity that they sliced off his ears neatly. They beat down his scutcheon with staves and boast outright that they will set the royal arms above the portal where their lord’s should be, full in the square of the village. They sacked the keep as a fallen foe’s, and, exulting, raped his goods and properties. These things I saw, hidden –unhappy was my lot! – and so remained till nightfall, escaping to lay my prayer before you. Justice, Sire, that swift penalty may fall upon these offending churls! Bloodshed this day cries out to God and challenges your rigor!
THE KING
No violence, no cruelty so dire
612
Escapes the inquest of our royal eye.
613
I marvel greatly at this villainy,
614
Wherefore to-day a judge shall be dispatched
615
To verify the tale, and punishment
616
Mete out unto the guilty as example.
617
A captain, too, shall march in his escort
618
Securing the sentence, for mutiny
619
The bolder grown, bolder the chastisement.
620
Look to his wounds.
621
(Exeunt.)
(The Square in Fuente Ovejuna.)
(The Peasants enter, men and women, bearing the head of Fernán Gómez on a pike.)
MUSICIANS
Hail, Ferdinand!
622
Isabella, hail!
623
Death, tyrant band!
624
BARRILDO
Let’s hear from Frondoso.
625
FRONDOSO
I’ve made a song and, if it’s wrong,
626
You correct it as it goes along.
627
Hail, Isabella!
628
’Tis plain to be seen
629
Two can make one,
630
A King and a Queen.
631
When they die –
632
This to you, Saint Michael –
633
Just lift them both up to the sky.
634
Sweep the land clean,
635
O King and Queen!
636
LAURENCIA
See what you can do, Barrildo.
BARRILDO
Silence, then, while I get a rhyme in my head.
PASCUALA
If you keep your head it will be twice as good.
BARRILDO
Hail to the King and Queen,
637
For they are very famous!
638
They have won
639
And so they will not blame us.
640
May they always win,
641
Conquer giants
642
And a dwarf or two.
643
Down with tyrants!
644
And now I’m through.
645
MUSICIANS
Hail, Ferdinand!
646
Isabella, hail!
647
Death, tyrant band!
648
LAURENCIA
Mengo next!
649
FRONDOSO
Now Mengo!
650
MENGO
I’m a poet that is one.
651
PASCUALA
You’re the back of the belly.
652
MENGO
Oh, one Sunday morning
653
The rascal beat me
654
From behind!
655
’Twas no way to treat me,
656
Most unkind.
657
How it hurt to seat me!
658
Glory to the Christian Kings! –
659
The wife must mind.
660
MUSICIANS
Hail, Ferdinand!
661
Isabella, hail!
662
Death, tyrant band!
663
ESTEBAN
You can take the head off the spear now.
MENGO
He might have been hung for his looks. Phew!
(Juan Rojo enters with a shield bearing the royal arms.)
REGIDOR
Here come the arms!
ESTEBAN
Let all the people see.
JUAN ROJO
Where shall the arms be set?
REGIDOR
Before the town-hall, here, above the door.
ESTEBAN
Noble escutcheon, hail!
BARRILDO
That is a coat of arms!
FRONDOSO
I see the light to-day, for the sun begins to shine.
ESTEBAN
Hail Castile and hail León!
664
Hail the bars of Aragon!
665
May tyrants die!
666
Hear, Fuente Ovejuna,
667
Follow counsel of the wise,
668
Nor hurt shall lie;
669
King and Queen must needs inquire
670
Right and wrong as they transpire,
671
Passing near-by.
672
Loyalty our hearts inspire.
673
FRONDOSO
That’s a problem too. What shall our story be?
ESTEBAN
Let us all agree to die, if it must be, crying Fuente Ovejuna , and may no word of this affair pass beyond that ever.
FRONDOSO
Besides it is the truth, for what was done, Fuente Ovejuna did it, every man and woman.
ESTEBAN
Then that shall be our answer?
ALL
Yes!
ESTEBAN
Now I shall be the Judge and rehearse us all in what we best had do. Mengo, put you to the torture first.
MENGO
Am I the only candidate?
ESTEBAN
This is but talk, lad.
MENGO
All the same let’s get through with it, and quickly.
ESTEBAN
Who killed the Commander?
MENGO
Fuente Ovejuna killed him.
ESTEBAN
I’ll put you to the torture.
MENGO
You will on your life, sir.
ESTEBAN
Confess, conscienceless hind!
MENGO
I do. What of it?
ESTEBAN
Who killed the Commander?
MENGO
Fuente Ovejuna.
ESTEBAN
Rack him again! Turn the wheel once more.
MENGO
You oblige me.
ESTEBAN
Reduce him to carrion and let him go.
(Enter Cuadrado, Regidor.)
CUADRADO
What is this meeting?
FRONDOSO
Why so grave, Cuadrado?
CUADRADO
The King’s Judge is here.
ESTEBAN
All to your homes, and quickly!
CUADRADO
A Captain comes with him also.
ESTEBAN
Let the devil appear! You know what you are to say?
CUADRADO
They are going through the village prepared to take a deposition of every soul.
ESTEBAN
Have no fear.–Mengo, who killed the Commander?
MENGO
Fuente Ovejuna. Ask me who!
(Exeunt.)
(Almagro. A room in the Castle.)
(The Master enters with a Soldier.)
MASTER
Such news cannot be! To end like this? I have a mind to run you through for your insolence.
SOLDIER
I was sent, Master, without malice.
MASTER
Can a mad handful of louts be moved to such fury? I will take five hundred men forthwith and burn the village, leaving no memory of those paths that were so basely trod.
SOLDIER
Master, be not so moved, for they have committed themselves to the King, whose power is not to be gainsaid lightly.
MASTER
How can they commit themselves to the King when they are vassals of Calatrava?
SOLDIER
That, Master, you will discuss with the King.
MASTER
No, for the land is his and all that it contains. I do obeisance to the Crown, and if they have submitted to the King I will subdue my rage and betake me to his presence as to a father’s. My fault is grievous, in whose palliation I plead my untried years. I hang my head at this mischance of honor, but again to stumble were clear dishonor, yes, and certain death.
(Exeunt.)
(The Square of Fuente Ovejuna. Before the Town Hall.)
(Enter Laurencia.)
LAURENCIA
Loving, that the beloved should suffer pain
674
A grinding sorrow fastens on the heart,
675
Fearing the loved must bear alone the smart
676
Care weighs the spirit down and hope lies slain.
677
The firm assurance, watchful to attain,
678
Doubting falters, and hastens to depart,
679
Nor is it folly in the brave to start
680
And tremble, promised boon transformed to bane.
681
I love my husband dearly. Now I see
682
Harpies of Vengeance rise before my sight
683
Unshapely, and my hope breathes a faint breath.
684
Only his good I seek. Oh, set him free
685
Ever with me to tremble in the night,
686
Or take him from me, so you take me, death!
687
(Enter Frondoso.)
FRONDOSO
Linger not, Laurencia.
LAURENCIA
My dear husband, fly danger, for I am its very heart.
FRONDOSO
Are you one to reject the homage of a lover?
LAURENCIA
My love, I fear for you, and you are my constant care.
FRONDOSO
Laurencia, I am so happy that surely this moment heaven smiles upon us both.
LAURENCIA
You see what has happened to the others, and how this judge proceeds firmly, with all severity? Save yourself before it is too late. Fly and avoid the danger!
FRONDOSO
What do you expect in such an hour? Shall I disappear and leave the peril to others, besides absenting myself from your sight? No, counsel me courage, for in danger a man betrays his blood, which is as it should be, come what may. Cries within. I hear cries. They have put a man to the torture unless my ears deceive me. Listen and be still!
(The Judge speaks within and Voices are heard in response.)
JUDGE
Old man, I seek only the truth. Speak!
FRONDOSO
An old man tortured?
LAURENCIA
What barbarity!
ESTEBAN
Ease me a little.
JUDGE
Ease him. Who killed Fernando?
ESTEBAN
Fuente Ovejuna.
LAURENCIA
Good, father! Glory and praise!
FRONDOSO
Praise God he had the strength!
JUDGE
Take that boy there. Speak, you pup, for you know! Who was it? He says nothing. Put on the pressure there.
BOY
Judge, Fuente Ovejuna.
JUDGE
Now by the King, earls, I’ll hang you to the last man! Who killed the Commander?
FRONDOSO
They torture the child and he replies like this?
LAURENCIA
There is courage in the village.
FRONDOSO
Courage and heart.
JUDGE
Put that woman in the chair. Give her a turn for her good.
LAURENCIA
I can’t endure it.
JUDGE
Peasants, be obstinate and this instrument brings death. So prepare! Who killed the Commander?
PASCUALA
Judge, Fuente Ovejuna.
JUDGE
Have no mercy.
FRONDOSO
I cannot think, my mind is blank!
LAURENCIA
Frondoso, Pascuala will not tell them.
FRONDOSO
The very children hold their peace!
JUDGE
They thrive upon it. –More! More!
PASCUALA
Oh, God in heaven!
JUDGE
Again, and answer me! Is she deaf?
PASCUALA
I say Fuente Ovejuna.
JUDGE
Seize that plump lad, half undressed already.
LAURENCIA
It must be Mengo! Poor Mengo!
FRONDOSO
He can never hold out.
MENGO
Oh, oh, oh!
JUDGE
Let him have it.
MENGO
Oh!
JUDGE
Prod his memory.
MENGO
Oh, oh!
JUDGE
Who slew the Commander, slave?
MENGO
Oh, oh! I can’t get it out! I’ll tell you –
JUDGE
Loosen that hand.
FRONDOSO
We are lost!
JUDGE
Let him have it on the back!
MENGO
No, for I’ll give up everything!
JUDGE
Who killed him?
MENGO
Judge, Fuente Ovejuna.
JUDGE
Have these rogues no nerves that they can laugh at pain? The most likely, too, lie by instinct. I will no more to-day. To the street!
FRONDOSO
Now God bless Mengo! I was afraid, transfixed, but that lad is a cure for fear.
(Barrildo and the Regidor enter with Mengo.)
BARRILDO
Good, Mengo, good!
REGIDOR
You have delivered us.
BARRILDO
Mengo, bravo!
FRONDOSO
We cheer you.
MENGO
Oh, oh! Not much.
BARRILDO
Drink, my friend, and eat. Come, come!
MENGO
Oh, oh! What have you got?
BARRILDO
Sweet lemon peel.
MENGO
Oh, oh!
FRONDOSO
Drink, drink. Take this.
BARRILDO
He does, too.
FRONDOSO
He takes it well. Down it goes.
LAURENCIA
Give him another bite.
MENGO
Oh, oh!
BARRILDO
Drink this for me.
LAURENCIA
Swallowed without a smile.
FRONDOSO
A sound answer deserves a round drink.
REGIDOR
Another, son?
MENGO
Oh, oh! Yes, yes!
FRONDOSO
Drink, for you deserve it.
LAURENCIA
He collects for every pang.
FRONDOSO
Throw a coat around him or he will freeze.
BARRILDO
Have you had enough?
MENGO
No, three more. Oh, oh!
FRONDOSO
He is asking for the wine.
BARRILDO
Yes, let him drink as much as he likes for one good turn begets another. What’s the matter now?
MENGO
It leaves a taste in my mouth. Oh, I’m catching cold!
FRONDOSO
Another drink will help. Who killed the Commander?
MENGO
Fuente Ovejuna.
(Exeunt the Regidor, Mengo and Barrildo.)
FRONDOSO
He has earned more than they give him. Ah, love, as you are mine confess to me. Who killed the Commander?
LAURENCIA
Love, Fuente Ovejuna.
FRONDOSO
Who?
LAURENCIA
Don’t you think you can torture me. Fuente Ovejuna.
FRONDOSO
It did? How did I get you, then?
LAURENCIA
Love, I got you.
(Exeunt.)
(The open country.)
(Enter the King and Queen, meeting.)
ISABELLA
Meeting, Sire, we crown our fortunes gladly.
THE KING
In union lies a more enduring glory.
688
Passing to Portugal the direct path
689
Leads me to you.
690
ISABELLA
To my heart, Majesty,
Turning away from conquest gratefully.
691
THE KING
What news of the war in Castile?
ISABELLA
Peace succeeds and the land lies ready, expecting the plough.
THE KING
Now my eyes light upon a living miracle, the consummation of a queenly peace.
(Enter Don Manrique.)
DON MANRIQUE
The Master of Calatrava begs audience, having journeyed to your presence from his seat.
ISABELLA
I have a mind to greet this gentleman.
DON MANRIQUE
Majesty, his years are few, yet they have proved his valor great.
(Exit.)
(Enter the Master.)
MASTER
Rodrigo Téllez Girón,
692
Master of Calatrava,
693
Humbly kneels repentant
694
And pardon begs, foredone.
695
False counsels proffered one
696
By one seduced my heart
697
To deeds disloyal and rash;
698
Now end all as begun
699
When a too ready ear
700
In Fernando placed its trust,
701
That false and unjust knight.
702
Pardon, Sire, past fear!
703
In mercy hold me dear,
704
Oh grant me royal favor,
705
To pay in loyalty
706
Forever rendered here!
707
Upon Granada’s plain
708
When sounds the wild alarm
709
My valor shall wreak harm,
710
My sword-strokes fall amain
711
And through that fell champaign
712
Dart wounds to the enemy
713
Till the cross of victory
714
Red o’er the merlons reign.
715
Five hundred men in steel
716
I shall lead to smite your foes
717
Upon my life and oath, or close
718
My eyes in death! Here I kneel,
719
Never to displease you more.
720
THE KING
Rise, Master. Having tendered your allegiance you shall be received royally.
MASTER
Every word is balm.
ISABELLA
Few speak as bravely as they fight.
MASTER
Esther has returned to earth to wed a Christian Xerxes.
(Don Manrique enters.)
DON MANRIQUE
Sire, the Judge that was dispatched to Fuente Ovejuna has arrived with the process to report to Your Majesty.
THE KING
To the Master These aggressors, being of the Commandery, fall within your province.
MASTER
Sire, I yield to you, else were bloody vengeance taken for the death of the Commander.
THE KING
To the Queen Then the decision rests with me?
ISABELLA
I grant it willingly though the right were mine of God.
(Enter Judge.)
JUDGE
I journeyed to Fuente Ovejuna in prosecution of your command probing all with due diligence and care. Having verified the crime, no writ or indictment has issued, inasmuch as with one accord and most singular fortitude, to all my questions as to the murderer the answer was always Fuente Ovejuna. Three hundred were put to torture, to the degree that forced them each to speak, without profit, Sire, of one word other than I have told you. Boys of ten were delivered to the rack, without yielding so much as a whisper, nor could they be moved by flattery or gold. Wherefore, this is my report, the evidence having failed: either you must pardon the village or wipe it out to the last man. They have followed me to your feet that in your own person you may pronounce judgment.
THE KING
If they seek our presence, let them appear before us, every one.
(Enter Esteban and Alonso, Alcaldes, Juan Rojo and Cuadrado, Regidors, Laurencia, Frondoso, Mengo and Peasants, both men and women.)
LAURENCIA
Are those the King and Queen?
FRONDOSO
The power and majesty of Castile!
LAURENCIA
How beautiful, how wonderful! Saint Antonio, bless them both!
ISABELLA
Are these the people of the village?
ESTEBAN
Majesty, Fuente Ovejuna humbly kneels at your feet in allegiance. The mad tyranny and fierce cruelty of the dead Commander, raining insults through the farms, themselves provoked his death. He ravished our homes, forced our daughters, and knew no heart nor mercy.
FRONDOSO
This simple girl, O Queen, who is mine by rite of heaven, and has brought me all happiness, which surely must be matchless, on my wedding-night, as if it had been his very own, he bore off to his keep, and but that she is secure in honor, basely that night he had deflowered her.
MENGO
I know something as to that, with your permission, Queen, because you must be anxious to hear from me, seeing the bloody tanning that I got. I stood up for a girl in the village when the Commander went along the way to her undoing, the scurvy Nero, and then he took it out on me, and there never was a more thorough job at bottom. Three men paid it their attention, good pay all three, since when, if you ask the explanation, I paid more for balm and ointment, with the powder and the myrtle I applied, than I could sell my sheep-cot for.
ESTEBAN
Sire, we yield ourselves to you. You are our King, and in witness of submission we have placed your arms above our doors. Have mercy, Sire, for our excuse is our extremity, which deserves your clemency.
THE KING
As no indictment is set down, although the fault be grave, it shall be pardoned. Since you yield yourselves to me, I further take the town under my protection, for in the Crown henceforth its charter shall abide, until such time as God in His mercy shall vouchsafe you a new Commander.
FRONDOSO
When His Majesty speaks
721
His voice we obey.
722
“Fuente Ovejuna” ends.
723
Friends, approve the play.
724