Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio
The King, The Greatest Alcalde
El mejor alcalde, el rey
Traducción
de
El mejor alcalde, el rey
Underhill, John Garrett (tra.). “ The King, the Greatest Alcalde : A Drama in Three Acts by Lope Felix De Vega Carpio”. Poet Lore , Fall 1918, vol. 29, p. 379-446.
Joan Oleza Simó
(Investigador principal)
Underhill, John Garrett
(Traductor)
Amelang, David J.
(Editor digital)
English · Verso · 1356 versos
https://playcode.fly.dev/plays/EMOTHE0727_TheKingTheGreatestAlcalde
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. This digital edition is an adaptation of the The King, The Greatest Alcalde , John Garrett Underhill's translation of Lope de Vega’s El mejor alcalde, el rey . Underhill’s translations was first published in 1936 as part of his collection Four Plays by Lope de Vega . All spelling and punctuation has been modernized using U.S. English spelling conventions.
The scene is laid at León and in a Galician town and its neighborhood
PERSONS
SANCHO
DON TELLO
CELIO
JULIO
NUÑO
ELVIRA
FELICIANA
JUANA
LEONOR
DON ALFONSO VII
of León and Castile
THE COUNT DON PEDRO
DON ENRIQUE
BRITO
PELAYO
FILENO
PEASANTS, SERVANTS, AND ATTENDANTS
ACT ONE
(A field on the banks of the Sil)
SANCHO
You noble pastures of Galicia,
1
Under the shadow of these mountain sides,
2
Whose skirts the Sil amid his rushes green
3
Would kiss, sustenance to the marshalled host
4
Of flowers, varied in a thousand hues, you give.
5
You birds that sing of love, you beasts that roam
6
Untrammeled of restraint, where have you seen
7
More tender love in birds or beasts or flowers?
8
But since it is impossible to see
9
Aught else of all the sun looks down upon
10
More beautiful than my Elvira is,
11
Nor aught else may be born –so, being born,
12
Of her great beauty by necessity
13
My love is sprung, which from her favor draws
14
Its brightest glory; no greater beauty is,
15
No greater beauty and no greater love.
16
Alas, sweet lady, may your beauty grow
17
That so in me may grow the love I bear!
18
But ah! Most beautiful of them that toil,
19
Since beauty cannot find in thee increase.
20
Nor loving in my heart betimes, then know
21
I love you for the beauty that you show,
22
There is naught else to such endearment binds.
23
The pallid sands of this swift rivulet
24
You turned but yesterday to gleaming pearls,
25
Setting your feet therein, lilies of snow;
26
While I cried out, because I scarce could see,
27
Unto the sun, your face, wherewith you shed
28
Such radiance of light –who would not stay–
29
That he should look upon the water there,
30
So all your beauty might be visible,
31
Linen, Elvira, you were washing linen,
32
Which all your labor never could make white
33
For magic of the hands you laid thereon.
34
And I, behind these chestnuts, gazed on you
35
With trembling, till suddenly I saw that love
36
Had handed you the bandage from his eyes,
37
In his rich favor given you to lave.
38
But heaven forbids that love should go unblinded
39
I’ the world! ... Oh God! But when shall come that day
40
(On which I too must die), when at the last
41
I say to her: “Elvira, you are mine!”
42
What gifts and presents I shall shower on you!
43
I am no fool not to esteem your worth,
44
Each year more priceless dear in my affection.
45
Know in the realms of my heart’s rich possession,
46
There are no provinces of mean disdain.
47
((Enter Elvira))
ELVIRA
Either Sancho came down this way, or else my hopes deceive me. In faith, there he is now! … I knew my heart would find him out. He was looking in the brook where he surprised me yesterday. Does he think, I wonder, my shadow stays behind? Ah! But I was angry when I saw him looking at me in the water!
SANCHO
I was looking for myself –I lost myself here yesterday; but now I begin to find myself again, because I find myself with you.
ELVIRA
I know you have come to help me find them.
SANCHO
A pretty thing to do –to look for what you are bringing with you in your cheeks. I wonder is it modesty or disdain? But I have found the jewels.
ELVIRA
Where?
SANCHO
There on your lips– and look out! (Kisses her) All bordered about with silver!
ELVIRA
Let me go!
SANCHO
Always ungrateful for my faith and loyalty!
ELVIRA
Sancho, you are too bold. What more would you do, tell me that, if by any chance it were the eve of your wedding day?
SANCHO
But whose fault was it?
ELVIRA
Yours, by my faith!
SANCHO
Mine? No, because I warned you; my heart spoke but you said nothing.
ELVIRA
What better answer could you want than to have me say nothing?
SANCHO
We are both to blame.
ELVIRA
Since you are so cautious, Sancho, let me tell you that we women say most when we are silent. We give when we deny. Judge by this and by what you see and never believe us, whether we are cruel or kind. For everything we do is to be taken by opposites.
SANCHO
Then if that is so, you give me permission to ask Nuño to let us marry. You say nothing? You say yes then. Good! I have mastered the science.
ELVIRA
You have; but you must never tell him that I love you.
SANCHO
Here he comes.
ELVIRA
I will hide behind this elm and wait his answer,
SANCHO
Oh God! If it might be that we should marry! If not, I die.
((Elvira conceals herself))
((Enter Nuño and Pelayo))
NUÑO
(To Pelayo) You serve me in such sort, Pelayo, it would be better for me to find some one who would keep a sharper watch over my flocks along the river bank. Are you discontented in my house?
PELAYO
God knows I am.
NUÑO
Then your employment ends today; service is not marriage.
PELAYO
It ought to come before it.
NUÑO
You have lost my hogs.
PELAYO
But with my mind where it was, what else was I to do? Listen: I want to become one of the family.
NUÑO
Why not? By all means do. But never blame then your hoggishness on me …
PELAYO
Wait; it’s not easy to explain …
NUÑO
Wait, and it will be harder to do.
PELAYO
As she was coming out of the house yesterday, Elvira called to me: “Hello, Pelayo! Your pigs are fat.”
NUÑO
Well, what did you answer?
PELAYO
Amen, like the sacristan.
NUÑO
You did? But what do you make of this?
PELAYO
Don’t you see?
NUÑO
How should I?
PELAYO
She has lost all sense of shame.
SANCHO
Will the blockhead never go?
PELAYO
Don’t you see she loves me, and this is the way she takes to let me know that she wants to marry?
NUÑO
God bless us!
PELAYO
I didn’t tell you though so as to make you angry at our happiness.
NUÑO
Sancho! You here? …
SANCHO
Waiting to speak with you.
NUÑO
At once. (Leaving Pelayo) Pelayo, a moment … wait.
SANCHO
Nuño, my fathers ever as you know
48
Were humble laborers, who bore no stain;
49
Honest in station, in custom grave and slow.
50
PELAYO
Sancho, you know what tricks these lovers feign.
51
To have a rich and pretty woman say
52
To a poor fellow fresh as flowers of Spain,
53
“Your pigs are fat” –would she not mean, I pray,
54
She’d like to marry somehow with that man?
55
SANCHO
Her thoughts indeed might tend the marriage way!
56
NUÑO
Out, rascal, out! Begone!
57
SANCHO
You know how ran
Their fame and their integrity. My love
58
Will not offend your honor –no true love can.
59
I burn for my Elvira, consumed above,
60
Below.
61
PELAYO
A friend of mine he had a herd
62
So thin –jerked beef hung up above the stove!
63
When I take my pigs out you’d cry absurd …
64
NUÑO
You here yet, booby? Now by all the blue! …
65
PELAYO
Shall we talk of Elvira or swop word, about the pigs?
66
SANCHO
Sir, since you know how true my love …
67
PELAYO
Sir, since know how far she’d go …
68
NUÑO
What ruder savage ever Indies grow?
69
SANCHO
Approve our marriage with due rites and show
70
PELAYO
I led a hog along the bank here past her …
71
NUÑO
The wretched fool will split my head I know.
72
PELAYO
Who would have made a perfect chapel master,
73
The voice he had it was so harsh and rude.
74
While going in and out the grunts came faster …
75
NUÑO
What does Elvira say?
76
SANCHO
She has been wooed
And won, and gives consent I ask her hand.
77
NUÑO
Happy her fortune with such love endued!
78
Sancho, she knows what simple virtues stand
79
Within your heart, well meriting in meed
80
The noblest lady that e’er graced the land.
81
PELAYO
With four or five hogs such as now I feed –
82
Which would beget yet others in six years–
83
I’d soon be having horses from the breed.
84
NUÑO
You serve Don Tello in his flocks, who rears
85
His power over these lands, and is supreme
86
Through all Galicia, nor aught he fears
87
In foreign realms. His servant, Sancho, I deem
88
It fit you lay perforce your full intent
89
Before him. Rich and bounteous in extreme.
90
He might bestow a portion of his rent
91
On you, of these the flocks you tend. So poor
92
Elvira’s dowry is, that her consent
93
Is all its sum. See this rude house, whose door
94
Is set amid these pastures; its rafters bare
95
The thick smoke blackens, finding no vent. Four
96
Far distant fields I have, waiting the share
97
Ten or a dozen chestnuts. All is naught,
98
Unless the master of these lands should add
99
Some gift with clothing or employment fraught.
100
SANCHO
To put my love in doubt makes my heart sad!
101
PELAYO
Sunshine and heaven! He marry Elvira?
102
… Tiring!
103
Well, I abandon her; my love turns bad.
104
SANCHO
What more could any lover ask, expiring
105
For her great beauty than her beauty’s store?
106
Celestial wonder with the world admiring!
107
My mind is not so low, so crabbed, sore
108
But her great virtue moves me more than dower.
109
NUÑO
It is no shame to speak with your señor,
110
Nor need you fear to supplicate his power.
111
He and his sister else might easily
112
Withdraw their favor, Sancho, in ill hour.
113
SANCHO
I go against my judgment; finally
114
I go since you command it.
115
NUÑO
May God bless,
Sancho, both you and your posterity.–
116
Pelayo, come with me.
117
PELAYO
What foolishness
To give him to Elvira and not me!
118
NUÑO
Sancho is young and honest; noble no less.
119
PELAYO
And for a countryman you shall not see
120
His equal. That’s the truth, to put it mild.
121
But in the house far better let me be,
122
And every month count on a fresh grandchild.
123
((Exeunt Nuño and Pelayo))
SANCHO
Come forth, Elvira of my eyes! Oh come
124
My priceless, beauteous treasure!
125
((Elvira advances))
ELVIRA
Oh God! What doubts
Love harbors hiding, and trembles in distrust
126
My anxious hopes hang only by a hair.
127
SANCHO
Your father says that he has pledged your hand
128
To a youth in service of Don Tello here.
129
Alas! What strange extremity of fate!
130
ELVIRA
Then not in vain did love hang all my hopes
131
Upon a hair. You say my father, Sancho,
132
Would give me to a squire in service? Then
133
To-day I end my life; I die to-day.
134
Ah live, sweet sorrow, live! I take my life.
135
SANCHO
An end, Elvira; this is jesting only.
136
See how my soul leaps up into my eyes
137
And yield you to their plain sincerity.
138
Because he answered yes a thousand times
139
Without delay.
140
ELVIRA
I do not weep for you.
No, Sancho, it is going to the Palace.
141
My bringing-up upon this humble farm
142
Will be a source of shame continually.
143
You know it is the truth.
144
SANCHO
Foolish love deceived me!
Ah live, my foolish care! I end my life.
145
All was deception of Elvira only,
146
In whose pure snows I burn!
147
ELVIRA
An end then, Sancho, this is jesting only;
148
See how my soul leaps up into my eyes,
149
For love and a too anxious expectation
150
Have taught this lesson by quick definition: –
151
True love is but reprisal and disdain.
152
SANCHO
But then I am your husband?
153
ELVIRA
Did you not say
It was arranged?
154
SANCHO
Elvira, without my asking
Your father yet has proffered his advice.
155
It is his wish I go and seek consent
156
Of Lord Don Tello, since he is my master
157
As of these lands, in peace and war supreme.
158
Although, Elvira, I have gained in you
159
The summed and sovereign treasure of the world
160
(The sun beholds in you both Indian realms
161
Mirrored in beauty), yet Nuño wills it so,
162
Because he is my master. He, in sooth,
163
Is old in the world, experienced and wise;
164
So his opinion must command respect.
165
Besides he is your father. Light of my eyes,
166
I go to speak with him!
167
ELVIRA
I wait you here.
SANCHO
May heaven grant a thousand happy gifts
168
From him and from his sister!
169
ELVIRA
It is enough
That he should know.
170
SANCHO
I leave my life and soul
Within these tender hands. But grant me one!
171
ELVIRA
They both are yours. Take and look on it there.
172
SANCHO
With this in mine, what can fate do against me?
173
Now you shall know the steadfast heart I bear
174
After such priceless favor. I learn of love
175
To see, to value and to understand!
176
((Exeunt))
((A Court or Enclosure before the House of Don Tello in Galicia))
((Enter Don Tello, Celio and Julio from the chase))
DON TELLO
Take in the spear.
177
JULIO
It was a famous chase.
CELIO
What sport we had to-day!
178
DON TELLO
Every field
Lies brilliant in the sun, so beautiful
179
To sense their hues is like a holiday.
180
CELIO
How softly winding the rivulets creep up
181
To kiss the blossom’s feet!
182
DON TELLO
Go feed the dogs,
Celio, as you love God.
183
CELIO
How well they rose
Over the crests and ridges of the mountains!
184
JULIO
Two famous dogs.
CELIO
And Florisel’s the flower
Of all the country.
185
DON TELLO
Galaor does well.
JULIO
He is a famous hound.
186
CELIO
My lady, sir–
Your sister hears you come.
187
((Enter Feliciana))
DON TELLO
What loving care!
And how repaid by me, Feliciana!
188
This watchfulness in you!
189
FELICIANA
When you are gone,
I am in such disquiet for you, my lord,
190
As God knows. Nothing but vexes me;
191
I cannot sleep; I am deprived of rest,
192
Nor hare nor rabbit, puny howso’er,
193
But is as fearsome to me as wild beast.
194
DON TELLO
Among the mountains of Galicia
195
There are no wild beasts, sister; though blood of youth
196
Is avid of the wild. Sometimes, mayhap
197
A boar runs out from the thick mountain cover,
198
Whose marvelous exploits time and again
199
Myself have seen performed. They are wild beasts
200
That with the tusk, e’en at the horse’s croup,
201
Will rive the armored collar from the hound;
202
And yet therewith so ill appease their rage,
203
To sum destruction at its savage full,
204
They barter their hot and fiercely foaming breath
205
For the gushing blood which from his flank is drawn.
206
There is beside, the roving bear, which falls
207
Upon the huntsman as he roams along.
208
With such resistless, ungovernable rage
209
As ofttimes bears him lifeless to the ground.
210
But day by day the ordinary chase
211
Is humble though various, not to tempt heaven.
212
It is right worthy of the gentleman,
213
Of princes even, for in it are taught
214
The precepts of high war; it whets the steel
215
And skills the body in the use of arms.
216
FELICIANA
I should not give myself this anxious care
217
Were you but married, losing all my sleep.
218
DON TELLO
I know no equal, being so powerful here.
219
FELICIANA
The daughter of some prosperous gentleman
220
Living nearby, would suit you well enough.
221
DON TELLO
I believe you chide me for my want of thought
222
About your marriage –a care that’s ever born
223
With women.
224
FELICIANA
On your life you are deceived!
I only seek your good.
225
((Enter Sancho and Pelayo, behind the bars of the enclosure))
PELAYO
Soft! Come in. They are alone. No one is here who will prevent you.
SANCHO
You are right, for those who are with them are all of the house.
PELAYO
Now you will see what they give you.
SANCHO
I but comply with the demands of duty.
((They pass the bars))
Most noble and illustrious Don Tello,
226
And you, O beautiful Feliciana,
227
Who are the lords and masters of these lands
228
Whom I have oft-repeated cause to love,
229
Grant Sancho your most generous feet to kiss–
230
Sancho who herds your flocks and tends your pasture.
231
An office humble in so high a house.
232
But in Galicia, great lords and masters,
233
Each man is so high born, only in this
234
That he is in the service of the rich,
235
The poor man yields to him. Know I am poor,
236
And in the simple office of my speech,
237
Most plain you should not note me; for your train
238
Passes a hundred thirty persons serving,
239
Who eat your food and wait upon your bounty.
240
Yet sometimes in the chase I make so bold
241
To think you must have seen me.
242
DON TELLO
I have indeed,
And with your bearing I have been well pleased
243
And I esteem you well.
244
SANCHO
A thousand times
I kiss your feet in payment of such favor.
245
DON TELLO
What would you?
SANCHO
Great my Lord, the years pass by
With such relentless pace, it seems post haste
246
They rush with letters to the realms of death,
247
While life holds but brief lodging through the night,
248
Death coming in the morning. My days are lonely;
249
My father was a man of worth, who died
250
Ere he knew service. The line of our poor house
251
In me is ended. So I fain would wed
252
An honorable maid, who is the child
253
Of Nuño of Aibar, who tills your fields
254
But yet can point to the emblazoned shields
255
Upon the time-scarred scutcheon of his door,
256
And still retains with them from that proud day
257
Some lances. These –and the virtues of Elvira–
258
For so the bride is called –have won my heart.
259
She loves me and her father gives consent,
260
Though not without your license. Only to-day
261
He bade me learn it was the lord’s to know
262
All that is done or happens in his house,
263
From deed of humblest vassal to his most proud
264
That fattens on his revenues; and kings
265
Are much at fault if they attend not this,
266
Which seldom they attend. I took his counsel
267
And here am come, my lord, as he commands
268
To tell you of my marriage.
269
DON TELLO
Nuño is wise,
Nor may such excellent advice be paid
270
In moderation .–Celio!
271
CELIO
Señor!
DON TELLO
Give Sancho twenty cows; a hundred sheep
272
Add you thereto. I and my sister both
273
Honor this wedding.
274
SANCHO
Such favor!
275
PELAYO
Favor such!
276
SANCHO
Such great bounty!
277
PELAYO
Such bounty? Great!
278
SANCHO
Oh rare virtue!
279
PELAYO
Virtue –Oh rare!
280
SANCHO
Lordly mien!
281
PELAYO
Mien? Lordly?
282
SANCHO
And pity, saintly lady!
283
PELAYO
Saintly lady? Pity!
284
DON TELLO
Who is this boor who mimics what you speak
285
And keeps you company?
286
PELAYO
I am the one
Who puts hind end first whatever he can say.
287
SANCHO
He is, my lord, in Nuño’s service.
288
PELAYO
My Lord,
I am indeed a prodigy of Nuño’s!
289
DON TELLO
What?
PELAYO
Why, the man who tends his pigs, of course!
I come to ask a favor of you too.
290
DON TELLO
Whom would you marry?
291
PELAYO
Señor, no one just now;
But lest the devil get the best of me,
292
I’d like to ask you for a calf or two.
293
In case I need it. In Masalanca once
294
An old astrologer he told me this:
295
“Beware of bulls. There’s always trouble with them.”
296
He predicted water too was dangerous;
297
Since when I’ve never had the least desire
298
Either to marry or take a drink of water,
299
So as to avoid all trouble.
300
FELICIANA
Simple fellow!
DON TELLO
No niggard of his wit.
301
FELICIANA
Sancho, begone
In happy hour. –And you look to it well
302
The cows and sheep be taken to his cot.
303
SANCHO
My poor rude tongue can never celebrate
304
Your towering glory.
305
DON TELLO
When do you marry?
SANCHO
This very night, for so my love commands.
306
DON TELLO
See where the sun shuts off his faltering light!
307
Amid his clouds of gold he sudden sinks
308
Into the West. Go then, prepare the feast;
309
I and my sister grace it with our presence.
310
Ho there! Make ready the coach!
311
SANCHO
My heart and tongue
Are bound, great Lord, in your eternal praise.
312
((Exit))
FELICIANA
But are you sure you will not marry too?
313
PELAYO
I was to marry, lady, too, the bride
314
Of this same fellow, who’s a shapely lass
315
If ever one was in Galicia.
316
She knew though, I kept pigs, and so she up
317
And turned me down for one.
318
FELICIANA
God keep you, friend,
For she was not deceived.
319
PELAYO
No more she was;
All of us are, Señora, what …
320
FELICIANA
Well, what?
PELAYO
Well, what our parents passed along.
321
((Exit))
FELICIANA
The fellow pleases me.
CELIO
(To Don Tello) Now by my troth
322
The rustic is no fool in what he speaks;
323
Thereon Your Lordship may indeed rely,
324
The girl is first in all Galicia
325
In beauty –one who both by form and feature,
326
By rare discretion and by honesty,
327
With added virtues thereto infinite,
328
Might well shed luster on the noblest scion
329
Of all the land of Spain.
330
FELICIANA
Is she so fair?
CELIO
She is an angel.
DON TELLO
How easy ‘tis to see
You speak, Celio, from the heart!
331
CELIO
I do.
I had some feeling once, and on my life
332
I could not be deceived.
333
DON TELLO
Some country girls there are, devoid paint
334
Or ornament, who draw all eyes to them,
335
And with the eyes the soul; but they are coy
336
And so uncommon disdainful of their favors.
337
The pretense wearies me.
338
FELICIANA
Rather meseems
Those who defend themselves are more esteemed.
339
((Exeunt))
((A room in Nuño’s house))
NUÑO
Did Don Tello say that?
SANCHO
He did, sir.
NUÑO
Surely he answers in a manner befitting his great worth.
SANCHO
He commanded them to give me the flock as I have told you.
NUÑO
May he live a thousand years!
SANCHO
And although it is too great a gift, I value the honor he does me by coming to be my sponsor more.
NUÑO
But is his sister to be with him too?
SANCHO
She is.
NUÑO
Such a generous disposition is the direct gift of heaven.
SANCHO
They are liberal masters.
NUÑO
Oh that this house might be a splendid palace, since it is to entertain the richest and the most powerful guests in all the kingdom!
SANCHO
Make no trouble about that. It will be the same in their eyes as if it covered infinite space. In short, they will presently be here.
NUÑO
What good advice I gave you!
SANCHO
I have certainly found in Don Tello a complete and perfect master. Take generosity away from the master, in which he is most like to God, and he is no more a master; but that he is one is seen both in his giving and his bestowing honor. Since it is God’s will to make his sovereign virtue known by giving, without giving and without bestowing honor, no master can be master.
NUÑO
A hundred sheep! Twenty cows! It will be a goodly fortune as you lead them out along the pastures of the Sil in the springtime. May God reward Don Tello for so rich a gift and such priceless favor!
SANCHO
Where is Elvira, sir?
NUÑO
Busy with her hair or some frippery of her wedding dress.
SANCHO
As long as she retains her smile, she can dispense with curls and ornaments; for it is all sunshine.
NUÑO
You are no rustic lover.
SANCHO
I shall bring to her, sir, the steadfastness of the laborer and the devotion of the courtier.
NUÑO
No man can love worthily who is deficient in understanding; for the very essence of love is this –that we feel what we feel. I rejoice that it is so with you. Call in the men! I will have this gentleman to know I too am someone here –I am or I have been.
SANCHO
I think I hear my masters draw near; and they will follow them. Tell Elvira to leave her hair and make ready to receive their blessing.
((Enter Don Tello and Attendants; also Pelayo, Juana, Leonor and other peasants))
DON TELLO
Where is my sister?
JUANA
She has gone in to the bride.
SANCHO
Señor…
DON TELLO
Sancho!
SANCHO
It would be madness, with my rude wit, to attempt to return thanks for this great honor.
DON TELLO
Where is the father of the bride?
NUÑO
Where his years have already been enriched by your unbounded favor!
DON TELLO
Come to my arms!
NUÑO
Would that my house were a world, and you lord of that world!
DON TELLO
(To Juana) What is your name, little one?
PELAYO
Pelayo, sir.
DON TELLO
I did not speak to you.
PELAYO
You did not speak to me?
JUANA
Juana, at your service.
DON TELLO
Well said!
PELAYO
Even if he doesn’t know it. But if a man gets after her in the kitchen, I tell you see hits him a blow with the ladle that’s enough to curdle his wits. Once when I got as far as the olla , there was nothing left of me for two whole months together.
DON TELLO
(To Leonor) And what is your name?
PELAYO
Pelayo, sir.
DON TELLO
I did not speak to you.
PELAYO
I thought you did speak to me.
DON TELLO
What is your name?
LEONOR
Mine? Leonor.
PELAYO
Why is he questioning the girls all the time, and never a word to us young fellows?
DON TELLO
Well? What have you to do with them?
PELAYO
I am the swineherd; yes sir.
DON TELLO
I mean are you a husband, a brother?
NUÑO
What a blockhead you are!
SANCHO
What an ignorant clown!
PELAYO
As my mother made me.
SANCHO
Here comes your sister and the bride.
((Enter Feliciana and Elvira))
FELICIANA
Brother, show them favor. Happy the masters who can count such vassals!
DON TELLO
You are right, in God’s name! A beautiful girl!
FELICIANA
And spirited as well.
ELVIRA
Modesty overcomes me –it is the first time– I never looked upon your Lordship before.
NUÑO
My Lords, sit down; these chairs are all I have.
DON TELLO
I never saw such loveliness. What heavenly perfection! Their praise has been too small. Happy the hope that waits on such possession!
PELAYO
Give Sancho permission to sit down.
DON TELLO
Sit down.
SANCHO
No, my Lord.
DON TELLO
Sit down!
SANCHO
Such an honor to me in the presence of my Lady?
FELICIANA
Sit down by the bride; there is no one now to dispute the place with you.
DON TELLO
In all my life I never thought to see such strange, surpassing beauty.
PELAYO
And I – where shall I sit?
SANCHO
Out there in the stable; there you can solemnize the feast.
DON TELLO
In God’s name, I am on fire!
PELAYO
Pelayo, sir.
NUÑO
Will you be silent? He was talking to the women; and you were counting yourself in with the girls. Elvira is her name, my Lord.
DON TELLO
By God then, but Elvira is beautiful and worthy, however great a miracle it seem, of a husband nobly born!
NUÑO
Girls, let the wedding be merry.
DON TELLO
What rare beauty!
NUÑO
Dance until the priest comes, as you are wont to do.
JUANA
The priest is already here.
DON TELLO
Such heavenly beauty steals my heart away!
SANCHO
But why, Señor?
340
DON TELLO
Because it is my will,
Knowing you further, to honor you the more.
341
SANCHO
I wish no other honor than to win Elvira, and I expect none other.
342
DON TELLO
To-morrow will do better.
343
SANCHO
Do not delay, my Lord, such priceless blessing;
344
But see my eager pain! An accident,
345
A trifle even betwixt this hour and morning
346
May snatch from me the good which now I hold,
347
Wherewith the present richly overflows.
348
For if philosophers speak any truth
349
Well spoke the sage who said it was the sun
350
Which brought all change and passing to the world.
351
How then can I tell,
352
Subject to his spell,
353
What new thing
354
He will bring
355
From other worlds to-morrow?
356
DON TELLO
Low in mind
357
And in condition low!
358
((Apart to Feliciana))
I would do him honor
359
And make a holiday; but he, poor fool,
360
Before your face persists, dear sister mine,
361
In his dishonest purpose.–Nuño, I say!
362
Take her away! Rest all in peace to-night!
363
NUÑO
I do your bidding.
364
((Exeunt Don Tello, Feliciana and Attendants))
NUÑO
This is unjust, meseems.
365
What is’t should cause Don Tello such offense?
366
ELVIRA
I dare not answer, not to brand my thoughts as evil.
367
NUÑO
(To them both) I do not understand his purpose.
368
Nor what he fain would do. – He is my master. –
369
But in my heart it irks me that he came.
370
((Exit))
SANCHO
How much the more it must irk me,
371
Though I conceal my mind!
372
PELAYO
No wedding to-night?
373
JUANA
No.
374
PELAYO
Why not?
375
JUANA
Don Tello does not wish it.
376
PELAYO
Don Tello? What has he to do with it?
377
JUANA
He must have something; it was his command.
378
PELAYO
Upon my word, before the priest comes in
379
We shall be leaping over these obstructions!
380
((Exit, followed by the other Peasants))
SANCHO
A word, Elvira.
ELVIRA
Sancho, woe is me!
Alas, but I am little fortunate!
381
SANCHO
What would the master that he puts us off
382
Until to-morrow?
383
ELVIRA
I know not what he would.
But ah, it must be love!
384
SANCHO
Is it in reason that he bars from me,
385
O beautiful my eyes, this very night
386
The peace and solace which my burning heart
387
Has craved so long?
388
ELVIRA
You are my husband;
Sancho, come to my door to-night.
389
SANCHO
My all! …
Will it stand open?
390
ELVIRA
Will it not?
SANCHO
Be thou
My remedy and cure! Hadst thou said no,
391
Then I had slain myself.
392
ELVIRA
I too had slain myself.
393
SANCHO
The priest arrived but he could not come in.
394
ELVIRA
He would not have the priest come in.
395
SANCHO
Relent
And open –our hearts a better way shall prove;
396
No clumsy priest to heal desire is love!
397
((Exeunt))
((A Street before Nuño’s House))
((Enter Don Tello, Celio and Attendants))
DON TELLO
You understand me well enough.
CELIO
I hardly think a very subtle understanding is required to understand you, great my Lord.
DON TELLO
Go in then; Elvira and the old man are alone.
CELIO
The people went to their homes in notable displeasure to see the wedding so delayed.
DON TELLO
I acted, Celio, upon the first counsel which love gave to me. It would have been infamous in my passion to have suffered a peasant to possess the beauty which I crave. After I am tired of her, this country fool can marry her, and I will grant him a flock and a grange, with money enough for him to live. It is a compensation which comes to many, as we have both of us seen in the world. Finally, I have the power, and I will avail me of it while I may, since the fellow is not married. –Put on your masks.
CELIO
Shall we knock?
DON TELLO
Do.
((They knock))
ATTENDANT
They open now.
((Elvira appears at the door))
ELVIRA
Enter, Sancho, my soul!
CELIO
Elvira?
ELVIRA
Yes.
ATTENDANT
Fortunate encounter!
((They overpower Elvira))
ELVIRA
It is not you, Sancho?–Woe is me! Father! Señor! Nuño! Help me, heaven! They seize me! They carry me away!
DON TELLO
Away now!
((They carry her off))
NUÑO
(Within the house) What is this?
ELVIRA
(In the distance) Father!
DON TELLO
(Without) Cover her mouth.
((Enter Nuño))
NUÑO
Daughter! Now I hear and see you! But my feeble age and tottering strength – what can they do against the might of a young and powerful man? I know now who it is.
((Exit following the ravishers))
((Enter Sancho and Pelayo, muffled))
SANCHO
I thought I heard cries in the valley in the direction of the Master’s house.
PELAYO
Speak low; don’t let the servants hear.
SANCHO
While I am inside, remember – you must not fall asleep.
PELAYO
I shall not; I understand. I have had my opportunity already.
SANCHO
When the morning star rises to beg alms of the dawn, I shall come out; but the dawn need expect none from me, for it will be driving me out of paradise.
PELAYO
While you are inside, do you know what I shall be like?
Like a doctor’s ass, chewing on his bit by the door
398
SANCHO
Knock.
PELAYO
I’ll lay you that Elvira is peeping through the keyhole.
SANCHO
Here I stand, and knock.
((Re-enter Nuño))
NUÑO
I shall lose my reason.
SANCHO
Who goes there?
NUÑO
A man!
SANCHO
Nuño?
NUÑO
Sancho?
SANCHO
But you in the street? What is this?
NUÑO
What is this, you say?
SANCHO
Yes, but what is the matter? I fear some harm.
NUÑO
The greatest that can befall; some would be too little.
SANCHO
How?
NUÑO
A body of armed men broke down these doors and bore her off.
SANCHO
No more! My hope is ended!
NUÑO
I sought to track them by the pale and fitful moon;
399
They would not stay nor have their faces seen,
400
Covering their features sudden up with masks,
401
Wherefore I could not know them.
402
SANCHO
To what end, Nuño?
How should it profit us? What good were served?
403
All, all are servants in Don Tello’s train
404
To whom you bade me speak.
405
And evil counsel and I say amen!
406
There are ten houses standing in this vale –
407
All ten of simple folk, who gather here
408
About this chapel. It could be none of them.
409
It is the Master rather bore her off,
410
To his own town and close, whereof the sign
411
Most sure and certain this: –he has refused
412
To let us marry. What justice shall I find
413
This side of heaven, he being a powerful man
414
And richest in the kingdom? God knows I …
415
I die! … It cannot be another thought
416
Lurks in his head –
417
NUÑO
Hold Sancho!
PELAYO
By the river bank
If I can catch his pigs out on the meadow–
418
Yes, though they have a guard along –I’ll stone them!
419
NUÑO
Now is the time to profit by your wisdom,
420
My son …
421
SANCHO
How can I, father and señor?
You advised the hurt; advise the remedy.
422
NUÑO
To-morrow we shall speak with the Señor;
423
For well I know, since what was done was done
424
In heat of youth, repentance will have come
425
With morning. I trust Elvira, Sancho;
426
Nor force nor prayers can overcome her.
427
SANCHO
I know and do believe it.
428
Alack! I die of love!
429
Ah me! I burn with jealousy!
430
On what unhappy human head till now
431
Has fallen ever such hideous mischance?
432
But how? To lead and welcome to my house
433
The fierce and sanguinary lion, to seize
434
My white, my tender lamb? Say was I blind?
435
Yes, yes, I was! Let never high-born knight
436
Enter the humble dwellings of the poor
437
Wherein rich treasures lie!
438
I seem to see her face streaming with tears,
439
Coursing like pearls adown her scarlet cheeks,
440
While she defends her honor. I seems to hear,–
441
Unhappy thought! –her sad, protesting moans,
442
While the cruel tyrant whispers in her ear
443
Outrageous profanation. I see her locks
444
Make of themselves close, friendly lattices,
445
Disheveled falling from her pallid brow,
446
To screen her from his hot and fierce desires.
447
Unhand me, Nuño! I will take my life!
448
I lose the very sense and touch of reason!
449
Alack! I die of love!
450
Ah me! I burn with jealousy!
451
NUÑO
Sancho, you are well born.
452
Where is your courage now?
453
SANCHO
I fear such things
As once imagined, madden the very soul;
454
Yet have no hope nor power of remedy.
455
Show me Elvira’s room.
456
PELAYO
Show me the kitchen;
Or hunger, sir, will be the death of me;
457
You know I had no supper. All of us
458
Were horribly put out.
459
NUÑO
Enter and rest;
So may we all take comfort till the morning.
460
Don Tello is no wild man.
461
SANCHO
Alack! I die of love!
462
Ah me! I am consumed with jealousy!
463
((Exeunt))
ACT TWO
((A room in the Country Seat of Don Tello))
((Don Tello and Elvira))
ELVIRA
To what end, Tello, would you torture me
464
With such dire cruelty? Do you not know
465
I prize my honor? Further to persist
466
But wearies you and wearies me.
467
DON TELLO
Enough
Or you will slay me, being so rough and hard.
468
ELVIRA
Return me to my husband, Tello.
469
DON TELLO
No.
For he is not your husband; nor may a clown
470
Though fortunate, deserve such passing worth,
471
But were I Sancho, and he in turn were I,
472
How then, Elvira, could your cruel rage
473
Treat me thus foully? Cannot your rigor see
474
That this is love?
475
ELVIRA
Never, my Lord; for love
That is deficient in a true respect
476
For honor, is but vile desire, not love;
477
And being evil, love never can be called.
478
For love is born of loving what one loves
479
In mad desire;
480
And love that is not chaste
481
By no name of love is graced
482
Nor ever can to love’s estate aspire.
483
DON TELLO
How so?
ELVIRA
But would you have me make it plain?
Last night you saw me, Tello, for the first;
484
Why, then, your love was such a sudden thing
485
That you had scarce a moment to consider
486
What that thing was which you so much desired;
487
Yet in that knowledge all true love resides.
488
For love is born of a great-grown desire,
489
And love goes mounting then then steps of favor
490
Even to its own end and exercise.
491
So this you feel was never love we see
492
In simple truth –mad lust and longing rather
493
To snatch from me my whole, my heart of life
494
By heaven confided to me in pure honor;
495
But you would seek to load me with dishonor
496
And I defend my life.
497
DON TELLO
But my excuse
Is your intelligence, as in your arms.
498
Listen to reason.
499
ELVIRA
There is no argument
Can vanquish my assured intent.
500
DON TELLO
But how?
Do you maintain it is impossible
501
To see, desire and love, all at first sight?
502
ELVIRA
True.
DON TELLO
Then answer:
503
How can the basilisk, ungrateful girl,
504
Contrive to kill, and only with a glance?
505
ELVIRA
It is an animal.
DON TELLO
And so your beauty;
It is the basilisk.
506
ELVIRA
You argue falsely
As prompted by your wit.
507
DON TELLO
I argue falsely?
ELVIRA
The mortal basilisk kills with a look,
508
Because his mind is wholly set to kill.
509
Which reason is so evident and plain
510
We could not say that he had power to kill
511
Did he but look upon us with affection.
512
Let us have no more arguments, my lord;
513
I am a woman and I am in love,
514
Nor have you ought to hope from me.
515
DON TELLO
How is it possible a country wench
516
Should answer in this wise? Confess to me
517
You are a fool, proving yourself discreet;
518
Because, when I behold your full perfection,
519
The more its sum, so much the more my love.
520
Oh would to God you were my equal now!
521
But you know well the baseness of your state
522
Affronts my noble blood. I’ll were it done
523
To join the brocade with the coarse homespun!
524
God knows what might of love now drives me on,
525
And turns to evil all my good intent!
526
The world made these vile laws in ages gone,
527
And I must yield to them, obedient.
528
((Enter Feliciana))
FELICIANA
Forgive me, brother, that my heart relents
529
And is more quick to pity than your wish. –
530
But hold! What angers you?
531
DON TELLO
You are a fool!
FELICIANA
I am a fool, but yet a woman, Tello,
532
Amazed before this terrible desire.
533
Let some days pass. It was not said of love
534
“I came, I saw, I conquered” –Caesar of love
535
Above a subject world although you be.
536
DON TELLO
Can it be possible you are my sister?
537
FELICIANA
What? To use force against a poor peasant girl?
538
((Knocking within))
ELVIRA
Have pity, Lady.
FELICIANA
Withholding “yes” to-day,
She may perhaps reserve it for the morrow.
539
Be patient, Tello; it is unnatural
540
That neither should have rest. Rest and return
541
Refreshed to the encounter.
542
DON TELLO
Is this your pity,
Depriving me of life?
543
((Knocking))
FELICIANA
Be still, I say;
You are beside yourself. Did she tempt you?
544
Elvira has done naught. Blush and for shame!
545
Detain her here some days in company
546
With you and me; better we talk the while.
547
ELVIRA
Would that my tears might move you, noble lady,
548
To intercede in pity for my honor!
549
((Knocking))
FELICIANA
Take note beside, my Lord, and hour has passed
550
Since her old father and the groom have stood
551
Knocking upon the gate. It is but meet
552
They find it open –whereto you are enforced,
553
Else they will say, entrance being denied,
554
You hold Elvira.
555
DON TELLO
All things augment my rage.
In, in. Elvira, and conceal yourself –
556
Admit these hinds.
557
ELVIRA
Thank God you let me rest!
558
DON TELLO
Of what would you complain? You tie my hands.
559
((Exit Elvira))
FELICIANA
Hello without!
560
CELIO
(Within) Señora! …
561
FELICIANA
Summon these hinds. –
And look you treat them well, nor dare forget
562
The obligation of your quality.
563
((To Don Tello))
((Enter Nuño and Sancho))
NUÑO
Kissing the pavement of your noble house
564
(All too unworthy we to kiss your feet),
565
Fain would we tell you what the time allows
566
Of ill-conditioned violence in your seat.
567
Sancho, Señor, Elvira’s promised spouse,
568
To whom you both stand sponsors as is meet,
569
Comes to beg justice for the greatest wrong
570
That mortal tongue can speak through ages long.
571
SANCHO
Magnanimous Señor, whose brow o’ertops
572
The summits of these mountains capped with snow,
573
Which thence descending in clear fountains drops
574
To kiss your feet amid green plains below,
575
Advised by Nuño and his friends, who stops
576
Never to doubt the virtue that you show,
577
I sought your favor, begged your free consent;
578
And with your presence you honored my content.
579
Once having entered our poor house, alas,
580
To vengeance are you bound by dignity,
581
To right a wrong so bold, atrocious, crass,
582
As fools your name and your nobility.
583
If ever love in you came to such pass
584
As paid in act desire’s expectancy,
585
One moment had, that moment swept away –
586
Think on the heart how sore the burden lay!
587
I, a poor laborer within these fields.
588
But in the passion of the heart a lord. –
589
One not so dulled to mountain use, but wields
590
On fit occasion the bright shining sword, –
591
Hearing foul rumor, no addled clown that yields
592
Was I, nor might be –spineless, dull, untoward,
593
My honor trampled; by law she was not mine,
594
But yes once said, that union is divine.
595
I rushed forth to the fields, and to the light
596
Which dims the stars, I raised my eyes in vain –
597
The swiftly gliding moon, drawn by whose might
598
The tides recede and rise upon the main:
599
“Ah happy thou!” I cried, “that night by night
600
No human hand can bar the sun, thy wain,
601
Soft rising to thy throne within the sky
602
Though clouds may come like masks and veil the eye!”
603
And then I turned me to the lonely earth,
604
Seeing Alcides’ poplars lulled to sleep
605
With ivy twined, whose slim embracing girth
606
Knotted them round, while close the tendrils creep.
607
“Alas!” I cried, “What? Thrive you in my dearth
608
Of joy, you vines? Nay, fool, will you not sweep,
609
You base-born rustic, these rooted loves asunder,
610
Slashing down boughs and trampling blossoms under?”
611
All slept secure. But then I knew at last
612
They rapt, my Lord, my precious bride away;
613
It sudden seemed the streamlets as they passed
614
Wept too and murmured a more troubled lay.
615
Within my hand I bore (how long outcast
616
From battle!) a sword in sheath of elder day;
617
I flung me on the tallest tree –amain
618
With stroke and blow I levelled it like grain,
619
Elvira had not suffered by the tree;
620
Ah no! The tree was arrogant and proud,
621
And looked upon the others pityingly;
622
With greatness such as this are giants endowed.
623
But in the town they say, –and lie to me,
624
Since you are what you are, –that you avowed
625
And open lover were of this my wife
626
And held her here –you author of this strife.
627
“Base churls!” I cried, “What? Have you not respect?
628
Don Tello is my lord, glory and honor
629
Of all the house of Neira. Stay! Reflect
630
He is my sponsor, and would my wedding honor!”
631
Pity this truth, my lord, nor dare reject
632
My just complaint, to your and my dishonor.
633
Rather return with flashing eye and brand
634
Sancho his wife, Nuño his daughter’s hand.
635
DON TELLO
It grieves me sore, friend Sancho, to the heart,
636
To learn of such bold knavery, nor here
637
Shall any rustic dwell and scape the smart
638
Of vengeance, who takes or holds her, far or near.
639
Best you inquire and find what mad upstart,
640
Blinded with passion, by covert force, by fear,
641
Affronts us both with like contemptuous outrage.
642
Once he is known, I … I will assuage
643
Your hurt, and these base churls who flaunt my name
644
I will have whipped for their effrontery.
645
And go with God!
646
SANCHO
(To Nuño, aside) My jealousy turns flame!
647
NUÑO
Sancho, hold, in God’s name!
648
SANCHO
Death, come set me free!
649
DON TELLO
Find out these knaves who boldly smirch my fame
650
With black dishonor.
651
SANCHO
But can such things be?
652
DON TELLO
I know not where she lies. Show me your wife
653
And she is yours, upon Don Tello’s life.
654
((Re-enter Elvira))
ELVIRA
He knows, my husband: Tello keep me here
655
Hidden.
656
SANCHO
My wife, my life, my good, my all!
657
DON TELLO
So this is what you would contrive against me?
658
SANCHO
Alas! In what sad state I pined for you!
659
NUÑO
Alas, my daughter! How you made me tremble!
660
My reason was clean gone!
661
DON TELLO
Hold rustics! Back!
662
SANCHO
Let me but touch her hands; I am her husband.
663
DON TELLO
Celio! Julio! What ho, my men!
664
Death to these peasants!
665
FELICIANA
Brother, have pity: be less rough and hard.
666
Remember too that they are not to blame.
667
DON TELLO
Had they been married, the impertinence were great.
668
((Enter Celio, Julio and Attendants))
Kill them!
669
SANCHO
Yes, rather let me die than live,
However cruel death be!
670
ELVIRA
I lose the sense
Of life or death.
671
SANCHO
Elvira and my all,
But listen; better I let myself be slain.
672
ELVIRA
I too shall know how still to guard my honor,
673
Although they strike me with a thousand deaths.
674
DON TELLO
But is it possible they flaunt their loves
675
Before my face? Can such hot passion be?
676
Celio! Julio! What ho!
677
JULIO
My Lord …
DON TELLO
Death! Beat them with clubs!
678
CELIO
Death! Death! They die!
((The Servants fall upon Nuño and Sancho and cudgel them from the room))
DON TELLO
(To Elvira) In vain your feeble plaints seek remedy
679
Against my rage. I had it well in mind
680
To send you back released, but such my fury
681
To see your brazen, base solicitations
682
All shameless shown, perforce you must be mine,
683
Or I not be the man I was in fine!
684
FELICIANA
No, brother! I am here!
685
DON TELLO
I’ll force or kill her!
FELICIANA
How is it possible to set her free
686
From one who was outrun self-mastery?
687
((Exeunt))
((Before the House of Don Tello))
JULIO
(Without) This is the way rascals pay for effrontery.
CELIO
(Without) Out of the palace!
SERVANTS
(Without) Out!
((Enter Sancho and Nuño, fleeing))
SANCHO
Yes, kill me, you squires! I have no sword myself.
NUÑO
My son, my fear is great lest this man will have your life, he is so turbulent and bold.
SANCHO
What is left for me in life?
NUÑO
Fortune perchance may relent; she is quick to change so long as life itself endures.
SANCHO
In God’s name they shall not drive me from this threshold where I stand, although they strike me dead! Without Elvira I do not wish to live.
NUÑO
Live ad you may yet find justice. These kingdoms have a king, and there is still a higher court of appeal, for you may petition heaven.
((Enter Pelayo))
PELAYO
Oh there you are!
SANCHO
Who is here?
PELAYO
Pelayo, and stuffed full with satisfaction. I come for a reward.
SANCHO
Reward? How? At a time like this?
PELAYO
I said a reward.
SANCHO
For what, Pelayo, when I am dead already and Nuño is at the last gasp?
PELAYO
I want a reward!
NUÑO
You know what this fool is.
PELAYO
Well, I have found Elvira out …
SANCHO
Ah, father! Then they have sent her back? Speak, my Pelayo! What is it you say?
PELAYO
The whole village is on tip-toe and everybody tells me that Don Tello has had her with him in his house since twelve o’clock last night.
SANCHO
Curses on you and amen!
PELAYO
They all think now that he will never want to give her up.
NUÑO
My son, we must find some remedy. Alfonso, King of Castile, by right and virtue of his mighty deeds, now holds his court at León. He is a just and an upright judge; wherefore go seek him out and lay your wrongs before him, for I verily believe that he will do us justice.
SANCHO
Alas! I very well know, Nuño, that Alfonso, King of Castile, is a complete and perfect prince, but how think you shall it be that a rude peasant like myself may enter his presence? What gallery of the palace shall I dare desecrate with my presumption? What turnkey will be found who will suffer my presence, Nuño? The doors are flung wide open there to brocades and rich trappings, to grave and stately retinues; and this is as it should be, as we ourselves must confess. But the doorkeepers, Nuño, permit the poor people only to gaze from without upon the gates and the caparisons and the arms, and even this must be from far off. I will go to León and I will make my way into the palace, and then you will see what marks they will imprint with the flat sides of their swords upon my shoulders. What? Present myself with petitions before the King? I tell you they will drop from his hand into oblivion. I shall come back having had sight of the ladies and of the noble gentlemen, of the church, the palace, the park, the stately buildings; and I fear I shall bring back with me besides a distaste for this dwelling among yew trees and among oak trees and live oaks, where the birds sing and we hear the dogs bark. No, Nuño, you do not advise me well.
NUÑO
I know truly, Sancho, that I do advise you well. Go then and speak with King Alfonso, for if you remain here, I am certain that they will take your life.
SANCHO
I desire naught else, Nuño.
NUÑO
I have a chestnut horse which is so swift that he will wager his mane against the wings of the wind and lay his hoofs against the bridle. Take him and be gone, and let Pelayo take the little mottled horse which daily goes out with him into the fields.
SANCHO
To please you I obey.–Pelayo, will you come with me to court?
PELAYO
And be so glad of the opportunity to see what I have never seen before, that I would stoop to kiss your feet, Sancho. They tell me that at court all the streets are laid with eggs and paved with rashers of bacon, and they greet strangers with a bounty so hearty that for all the world it is the same as if they had come out of Flanders or Italy or else Morocco. They say the court is one great bag wherein a man may draw naught but prizes and all the counters unite to spell fortune, whether they be black or white. For God’s sake then let us go to court!
SANCHO
Father, farewell! I go. And give me your blessing.
NUÑO
You have wisdom and discretion, son; that we know. Speak out boldly to the King.
SANCHO
You will learn presently how bold I am.–Come.
NUÑO
Good-bye, Sancho.
SANCHO
Good-bye, Elvira!
PELAYO
And good-bye, pigs.
((Exeunt))
((A Room in the House of Don Tello))
((Don Tello and Feliciana))
DON TELLO
What? I shall not possess this woman’s beauty?
688
FELICIANA
Tello, in vain this passion to persist;
689
For such her grief, she weeps continually.
690
While you confine her to this lonely tower
691
How is it possible you should not see
692
The part of greater wisdom? Though her love
693
Were all for you your lot were yet disdain.
694
If you will treat her with cold cruelty,
695
How shall she love you well? Pray be advised:
696
‘Tis simple folly to be harsh with those
697
To whom we turn for pity at the close.
698
DON TELLO
Am I to suffer this most dire affront,
699
Seeing myself despised, when I am he
700
Who is most powerful in all the land,
701
Richest in goods and most magnificent?
702
FELICIANA
Give it less thought, nor be so much cast down
703
For a poor peasant.
704
DON TELLO
Ah Feliciana!
You do not know what love is, nor have felt
705
Its rigor.
706
FELICIANA
Patience, I say, until to-morrow;
And I will speak to her, and as I may
707
Soften this woman.
708
DON TELLO
No, she is no woman;
A wild beast rather since she gives such pain.
709
Promise her silver, gold, and priceless gems,
710
Or what you will; tell her that I will give
711
A world of treasure. In presence of rich gifts
712
Women observe especial courtesy.
713
Say I will shower her with thank-offerings,
714
And say I will bestow on her a gown
715
That shall drain dry the gold from Milan town,
716
From her proud hair soft falling to her feet.
717
Tell her if she will remedy my pain
718
I will endow her with a farm and flocks,
719
For were she but my equal –
720
FELICIANA
Is’t possible
You talk like this?
721
DON TELLO
Yes, sister, yes! My state,
My fortune ebbs; for either I must die
722
Or else enjoy her, once therewith for all
723
Ending my pain so grievous and so long.
724
FELICIANA
I go to plead with her, though it be vain.
725
DON TELLO
How so?
726
FELICIANA
Because at least this much is plain –
727
There is no interest beneath the sun
728
By which an honest woman may be won.
729
DON TELLO
Go then and quickly bring my hope relief;
730
For if my steadfast faith shall not achieve
731
The goal desired, the love and troth I bear
732
Shall be transformed to vengeance by despair!
733
((Exeunt))
((A Hall in the Palace of the King in León))
((The King Don Alfonso VII, the Count Don Pedro, Don Enrique and Attendants))
KING
While our decree is published and proclaimed
734
Unto Toledo, and due response returned
735
By our just judge and lord of Aragon
736
In Zaragoza resident, say, O Count,
737
Whether the soldiers and the suppliants
738
Be all dispatched and learn if any stays
739
Who yet would speak with me?
740
COUNT
None, Sire, remains
To wait your pleasure.
741
DON ENRIQUE
Propped up against the gate
I saw but now a poor Gallegan peasant,
742
And passing sad he seemed.
743
KING
Now by my hand
Who would resist the poor? Enrique of Lara,
744
In your own person go bring him to our presence.
745
((Exit Don Enrique))
COUNT
O virtue most heroical and rare!
746
Compassive pity and high clemency!
747
God-given model to the kings of air,
748
His law observing by thy Majesty!
749
((Re-enter Don Enrique with Sancho and Pelayo))
DON ENRIQUE
Put down your spears.
750
SANCHO
Pelayo, place them here
Against the wall.
751
PELAYO
You put your best foot first.
SANCHO
Which is the King, Señor?
752
DON ENRIQUE
He lifts his hand
To his breast there.
753
SANCHO
Right well indeed he may,
Content with all his works. –Fear not, Pelayo.
754
PELAYO
These kings have in them a full strain of winter;
755
They make men shiver too all over.
756
SANCHO
Señor …
KING
Speak, and be calm.
SANCHO
Who holds within his grasp
The government of Spain …
757
KING
Tell me your name
And whence you come.
758
SANCHO
Grant me your hand to kiss.
For I would fain exalt this humble mouth,
759
O Prince and Sovereign! Once let my lips,
760
Unworthy howsoe’er, approach that hand,
761
And I am eloquent.
762
KING
You bathe it in your tears!
But for what cause?
763
SANCHO
My eyes did wrong to weep;
Yet since my lips give voice to their complaint
764
They would enforce it with a weight of woe
765
That should ensure, your hand set to the task,
766
The meting out of righteous chastisement
767
On one both mighty and my enemy.
768
KING
Take courage, pray, and do not shed these tears;
769
Though holy pity most becomes my state
770
Yet you must know ‘tis likewise mine to give
771
Its attribute to justice. Who does you wrong?
772
For he who wrongs the poor is never wise.
773
SANCHO
Wrongs are like children; kings are fathers, Sire;
774
Then marvel not they pucker up their lips
775
In foolish grimaces, coming before them.
776
KING
The man meseems is wise; before he speaks
777
He wins my sympathy.
778
SANCHO
Sire and Señor,
I am hidalgo born, though humbly poor,
779
Such is the mutability of fate,
780
Whose fickle changes sallied hand in hand
781
Forth with me from the warmth of my first cradle.
782
The which remembered, I sought an equal mate
783
In holy wedlock; but since that man errs
784
Who is forgetful of just obligation,
785
And ever errs, I made my purpose known
786
Unto the lord of all that country round,
787
By name and right Don Tello of Neira,
788
Less moved by art than frankness in the act,
789
Seeking his license. Freely he gave it me
790
And as my sponsor stands before the altar.
791
But love, which drives the wisest men to folly,
792
Blinded his sight and fired his heart to lust
793
Of my beloved peasant girl, Señor.
794
He would not have us wed, and that same night
795
With armed force he ravished her away,
796
Nor left thereafter life to me to live
797
Nor shadow of protection to invoke
798
This side of you and heaven, to whose bench
799
And sacred throne of justice I appeal;
800
For having begged her back with tears, Señor,
801
Her father and I, so fierce was his response
802
That to our breasts they bared their naked swords
803
And though hidalgos and high born, foul blows
804
With staves of oak they rained upon our shoulders.
805
KING
Count –
COUNT
Señor –
KING
Bring pen and paper on the moment.
A chair here where I stand.
806
((The King sits and writes))
COUNT
All is prepared
SANCHO
His matchless worth amazes and strikes dumb.
807
((Apart to him))
I spoke to the King, Pelayo.
808
PELAYO
By my jacket,
A good man!
809
SANCHO
Who would be so hard of heart
As to refuse the poor?
810
PELAYO
The Kings of Spain
Must all be angels.
811
SANCHO
Do you not see them dressed
Like ordinary men?
812
PELAYO
Another sort
Was one that Tello had in tapestry,
813
With blotchy face and hair all fallen down
814
About his knees; a staff he held in hand
815
And had a helmet like a lantern on
816
Atop there with his crown, which was all gold,
817
With a band around his chin like Turk or Moor.
818
I asked a page to tell me who he was –
819
He seemed to be a celebrated man –
820
Because I took a fancy to his clothes,
821
And he replied that he was called King Ball.
822
SANCHO
You fool! What he said was King Saul.
823
PELAYO
No, Ball
Ball, trying to get rid of Badill.
824
SANCHO
Nonsense!
Badill was David, fool, his son-in-law.
825
PELAYO
In know all that. The priest was preaching once
826
Down in the church, how had hit him one
827
Flat on the crown, with one of Moses’ tears,
828
Which was a hard stone, and killed the giant, the liar.
829
SANCHO
Goliath! You are a fool.
830
PELAYO
The priest said so.
KING
Count, seal this letter. –What is your name, good man?
831
SANCHO
My name is Sancho, Sire, who at your feet
832
Begs justice of your holy clemency
833
On one, vaunting in power, grown insolent,
834
Who rapt from me my true and lawful wife,
835
And would therewith deprive me of my life,
836
Did I not flee.
837
KING
Can such a tyrant breathe
In all Galicia!
838
SANCHO
So famed is he
That from the margin of those river glades
839
Unto the Roman Tower of Hercules,
840
He is obeyed. Once let his ire be roused
841
Against a man, then heaven succor him.
842
He makes and cancels laws; for such the state
843
Of haughty noblemen, who dwell in pride
844
And far removed from Kings.
845
COUNT
The letter’s sealed.
KING
Which superscribe to Tello of Neira.
846
SANCHO
O Sire, you have cut down the sword which hung
847
Even above my neck!
848
KING
Give him this letter;
He will return to you forthwith your wife.
849
SANCHO
Can greater favor be, even at your hand?
850
KING
You come afoot?
851
SANCHO
No, Sire, upon two horses.
Pelayo and myself.
852
PELAYO
We galloped like wind
O even faster. The fact is, though, that mine
853
Has some abominable, beastly tricks;
854
You scarcely mount him but he down and rolls
855
Either in sand or else straight in the river,
856
And runs besides like all profanity
857
And eats like a student. When he sees an inn
858
He either goes in or stops still instanter.
859
KING
You are a likely knave.
860
PELAYO
I am one, Sire,
Who left his native land for sight of you.
861
KING
And what is your complaint?
862
PELAYO
Sire, of that horse.
KING
Have you, I say, a present cause of trouble?
863
PELAYO
Yes, hunger; if the kitchen’s hereabouts …
864
KING
But is there nothing of the garniture
865
Upon these walls, to which you would incline,
866
Bearing it home?
867
PELAYO
I have no place to put it;
Better send it to Don Tello. He, belike,
868
Has three or four of the same kind already.
869
KING
A most amusing knave!–What may you be
870
In your own country when you are at home?
871
PELAYO
I drive, Señor, all over the mountain side:
872
I am my master’s coachman.
873
KING
Are there coaches?
What? In that land?
874
PELAYO
Indeed not! So I drive
His pigs.
875
KING
How curious a pair that land has joined,
876
One being so wise –the other such a fool!
877
((Aloud))
Accept this gift.
878
PELAYO
O it is nothing, Sire!
KING
No take them; they are doubloons.
879
((Then to Sancho))
You take the letter.
880
And go in happy hour.
881
SANCHO
May heaven guard you.
((Exeunt the King, the Count, Don Enrique and Attendants))
PELAYO
Hello! I took them.
882
SANCHO
Money?
PELAYO
Plenty of it, too.
883
SANCHO
Ah, my Elvira! Fortune here is writ
884
Upon these papers. In my hand I bear,
885
Prompted by hope, deliverance of thy beauty!
886
((Exeunt))
((A room in the Country Seat of Don Tello))
((Don Tello and Celio))
CELIO
In accordance with your commands I have inquired about the churl, and I had this information under threats, although Nuño himself refused to answer. He is not in the valley; he has been absent some days.
DON TELLO
Most strange behavior!
CELIO
They tell me that he has gone to León.
DON TELLO
To León?
Celio And Pelayo keeps him company.
887
DON TELLO
To what end?
CELIO
To speak with the King.
DON TELLO
But for what purpose? He is not Elvira’s husband; and therefore I have not done him wrong. Had Nuño made the complaint he might well have been excused. But Sancho! …
CELIO
I had it from the shepherds who tend your flocks. As the lad has wit in his head, my Lord, and as he is in love, in truth this daring does not surprise me.
DON TELLO
Is it no more than daring for him to present himself to speak with the King of Castile?
CELIO
Alfonso was reared in Galicia at the hands of Count Don Pedro de Andrada, and for that reason they say he will never close his door to any Gallegan, though never so humble his birth.
((Knocking within))
DON TELLO
See who knocks, Celio. What? Are there no pages in my hall?
CELIO
So help me God, my Lord, but it is Sancho, the very churl of whom we spoke but now!
DON TELLO
Can greater presumption be?
CELIO
May you live many years to learn how much I love you!
DON TELLO
Bid him come in; I will receive him here.
((Enter Sancho and Pelayo))
SANCHO
Great my Lord, I cast myself before your feet.
DON TELLO
Where have you been, Sancho? Some days have passed since last you came into my presence.
SANCHO
Rather they seemed years to me. My Lord, when I found how you persisted in the passion wherewith you were consumed –or call it love for my Elvira– I betook me to appeal to the King of Castile, who is the supreme and highest judge and who has the power to right all wrongs.
DON TELLO
So? And what, pray, did you tell him of me?
SANCHO
I told him that at the moment of my marriage you stole my wife away.
DON TELLO
Your wife? You lie, base knave! How? Did the priest come in, who was there that night?
SANCHO
No, my Lord; but he was advised that we both had given consent.
DON TELLO
If he never joined your hands, how then can it be marriage?
SANCHO
I have not come to discuss whether or not it be marriage. The King has granted me this letter which is writ in his own hand.
DON TELLO
I shake with rage. (Reads) “Upon receipt of this you will deliver up to this poor peasant the woman whom you have taken from him, without word of reply; remember that the loyal vassal may be known, however distant he may be from his King, and that Kings are never distant when it is their duty to punish evil. THE KING”. Man! What is this that you have done?
SANCHO
Señor, I bring this letter, given me by the King.
DON TELLO
By God, I am astonished at my own forbearance! Do you think, you hind, that by this insolence you shall teach me fear in my own despite? Do you know who I am?
SANCHO
I do, my Lord; and because I am assured of your nobility. I have brought this letter, not as you suppose to do you displeasure, but as a right friendly missive from my Lord of Castile, who is our King, that you may restore to me my wife.
DON TELLO
Then out of respect to this same letter, know that you and this miserable clown who comes with you …
PELAYO
Saint Blas! Saint Paul!
DON TELLO
I do not string you up here to the merlons of the battlements.
PELAYO
This not being my saint’s day, by all the saints though altogether it has a devilish bad look for saints!
DON TELLO
Out of my palace on the instant, and look you linger not within my lands, or I will have you done to death with clubs! You knaves, you hinds, you low, earthly rascals of the clay! … What? To come to me! …
PELAYO
He is right too; and we were great fools to put him to this displeasure.
DON TELLO
If I have taken your wife, you knave, know I am who I am, and I reign here and here I do my will as the King does his in his Castile. My forebears never owed this land to him –they won it from the Moors.
PELAYO
Yes, they won it from the Moors and from the Christians too, and you don’t owe a thing to the King.
DON TELLO
I am who I am …
PELAYO
Saint Macarius!
DON TELLO
That is the reason I do not take vengeance on you by my own hand. What? Give up Elvira! What is he to Elvira? Kill them, I say! But no –let them go! It is an unworthy thing in an hidalgo to stain his sword with peasants’ blood!
PELAYO
No, don’t you do it, on your life!
((Exeunt Don Tello and Celio))
SANCHO
Now what do you say?
PELAYO
I say out of Galicia.
SANCHO
My brain whirls round when I consider that this fellow refuses to obey his King because he has three or four henchmen gathered here about me. For so help me God …
PELAYO
No, contain yourself, Sancho. It is good advice –and always was– never permit yourself a quarrel with a strong man and make no friendships among servants.
SANCHO
Let us return to León.
PELAYO
Well, I have the doubloons yet which the King gave me. So come on then.
SANCHO
I shall report to him what has happened. Ah, Elvira! Who now remains to bring you succor. Fly, fly to her, my sighs, and until I come again, tell her I die of love!
PELAYO
Better hurry, Sancho; for this fellow has not yet possessed Elvira.
SANCHO
How do you know, Pelayo?
PELAYO
Because he would have given her back once he had done his will.
((Exeunt))
ACT THREE
((A Hall in the Palace of the King))
((The King, the Count and Don Enrique))
KING
Heaven be witness, Count, I hold supreme
888
The wishes of my mother.
889
COUNT
And supreme
The duty that you show, great Lord and Sire,
890
Whose sovereign god-like thoughts in all transpire.
891
KING
My mother gives me cause of great offense;
892
She is my mother –that my recompense.
893
((Enter Sancho and Pelayo))
PELAYO
(Apart to Sancho) I say you can come in.
894
SANCHO
I see him now
On whom, Pelayo, I would dower my soul,
895
The all of life I have to give. Oh sun
896
Of wide Castile, Trajan compassionate,
897
Thou true Alcides of our Christian faith
898
And Caesar of all Spain!
899
PELAYO
Give me no kiddies
For pigs are what I chiefly understand.
900
Within his hands I read more victories
901
Than lines are graved therein. Draw near and bow.
902
Humbly abase yourself before his feet
903
And kiss that mighty hand.
904
SANCHO
Most glorious Emperor and Sovereign,
905
O thou unconquered Sun and King of Spain,
906
Grant me the soles of these thy feet to kiss,
907
Which for their pillow Granada hold in fee,
908
Vouchsafed by Heaven in earnest of high favor,
909
And for their carpet Seville, rich in dyes
910
Of ships and myriad flowers, which deck the banks
911
Of its eternal river, mirrored in beauty!
912
Knowest thou me?
913
KING
Some farmer of Galicia
Meseems you are, who here besought my favor.
914
SANCHO
I am, Señor.
915
KING
But do not be afraid.
SANCHO
Señor, deeply it grieves me to return,
916
Making so bold to heap may cares upon you.
917
No other course was possible to me.
918
If in persistence I am peasant, Sire,
919
Then you are Emperor, a Roman Caesar
920
Quick to pardon him who humbly seeks
921
For justice of your royal clemency!
922
KING
Say first what wrong you suffer. Be advised
923
I bear you well. Ever with me the poor
924
Hold letters of high favor.
925
SANCHO
Unconquered Sire,
Then those you gave, Don Tello had and read,
926
By me delivered in Galicia,
927
Unto the end that he return forthwith
928
As meet and just, my bride so dearly loved.
929
But read and not respected, mortal rage
930
They stirred in him; he would not give me back
931
The prize I so had loved –not only this,
932
But a new chastisement bestowed on me
933
Because I bore them, and in such treacherous sort
934
They used us both, this countryman and I,
935
That right good fortune and a miracle
936
Was it to escape this side of death, Señor.
937
I took what steps I might to right the wrong,
938
Not to return with fresh importuning.
939
But naught availed to move his stubborn pride.
940
The priest then spoke for me, who in that land
941
Wields high authority, and to him spoke
942
A saint and holy abbot of our faith
943
In St. Pelayo of Samos resident,
944
Whose heart was stirred to pity. All was vain;
945
For none might move him, nor all together joined.
946
He would not let me see her –this had been salve
947
And brief assuagement to my burning pain.
948
Acting on this, again I sought your face,
949
Image of God, which shines therein resplendent,
950
That justice might be done to me this day,
951
Since you reflect his glory!
952
KING
In my own hand
Written and signed? He dared tear up that letter?
953
SANCHO
God would not have my grief insult with falsehood,
954
Although a crafty tongue had answered yes,
955
To feed your ire. He read but did not tear it;
956
Yet now I lie, to read and not comply
957
With what his King commanded –this was to tear it!
958
Upon two tables God set down his law.
959
Does he not break those tables who doth fail
960
To keep that law? Such is the law of Kings:
961
That faithlessness be clearly seen and known
962
Suffice it that respect be torn alone!
963
KING
Can it be possible that noble blood
964
Runs not within these veins, though daily toil
965
Oppresses and bears down? From noble lineage
966
Methinks you spring, as doth in truth appear
967
From your fair speech and mode of right procedure.
968
Enough! So shall I with a single stroke
969
Impose my remedy. –Count …
970
COUNT
Sire and Señor!
KING
Enrique!
971
DON ENRIQUE
Sire!
KING
We shall in person to Galicia,
972
For it behooves us justice should be done. –
973
And let no word of this be known.
974
COUNT
Señor …
KING
Who speaks? How now? Who dares reply to me?
975
Station our sentries at the Palace gates;
976
Command they close the Park.
977
COUNT
Open they stand
To all the people.
978
KING
But how shall aught be known
When those of our own bedchamber do proclaim
979
That we are ill?
980
DON ENRIQUE
I am of other mind.
KING
It is my purpose. And make no further answer!
981
COUNT
Be gone two days and all Castile shall see
982
What cure you make of your infirmity.
983
KING
Good swains –
984
SANCHO
Great Lord and Sire –
KING
Offended sore
At the cruelty, mad violence and rage
985
Of Tello, here we take upon ourselves
986
In our own person to do chastisement.
987
SANCHO
You, Sire? It will o’er much demean your crown,
988
Humbling it to the dust.
989
KING
(To Sancho) Go on before
And look you the bride’s father be prepared,
990
Holding his house against our coming. Breathe
991
No word of what impends to mortal living.
992
I charge you this on forfeit of your lives.
993
SANCHO
Who should breathe word, Señor?
994
KING
(To Pelayo) Hark you, peasant;
Though all the world should question who I am,
995
You are to say a noble of Castile,
996
And lay your hand upon your mouth like this –
997
Take heed and mark me well –and never be
998
Without these first two fingers on your lips.
999
PELAYO
Sire, I shall hold them there so firm and tight
1000
That you shall never see me gape again;
1001
But yet Your Majesty must pity me
1002
While you admire the feat, and grant me leave
1003
To eat from time to time.
1004
KING
I do not mean
To have you putting always hand to mouth.
1005
SANCHO
Consider, Sire, a peasant’s humble honor
1006
Touches you not so near. Despatch some judge,
1007
Some just Alcalde to Galicia
1008
To do your will.
1009
KING
The King the Greatest Alcalde!
((Exeunt))
((Before the House of Don Tello))
((Nuño and Celio))
NUÑO
You say that I may see her?
1010
CELIO
To which intent
My master lord Don Tello gives consent.
1011
NUÑO
What boots it now since the disgrace is mine?
1012
CELIO
There is no cause for fear; in her combine
1013
Stout heart and courage of resistance, such
1014
As are born to woman, who suffering much
1015
Is much the greater grown.
1016
NUÑO
Shall I opine
That a fair woman may retain her honor
1017
And man have power to wreak his will upon her.
1018
CELIO
So certain am I, should Elvira choose
1019
Celio for her spouse, none should accuse
1020
Him of suspicion; I would wed her sure
1021
As had she in your house remained secure.
1022
NUÑO
Where do you say the grating is?
1023
CELIO
Here toward
The tower on this side a window will afford
1024
Full view, whereat she takes her stand, as said.
1025
NUÑO
Methinks I see a form enveloped
1026
In white, which for my years I scarce descry.
1027
CELIO
Approach, I go … Should you be seen, why I
1028
Must not be found. Know I have done this thing
1029
Upon your steadfast love’s importuning.
1030
((Exit))
((Elvira appears at a grating in the Tower))
NUÑO
Is it you, unhappy child?
1031
ELVIRA
Who should it be but I?
1032
NUÑO
I never thought to see your face again,
1033
Not that these bars confined you prisoner
1034
In cruel duress, but rather in my sight
1035
I held you for dishonored. So foul a thing
1036
Dishonor is in honorable minds,
1037
So vile, so loathsome ugly, even to me
1038
Who brought you to the world, even to me
1039
It must forbid that I should see you more.
1040
Well you preserve your honor, that rich dower
1041
Down handed from your sires, when you have struck
1042
To instant pieces that crystal of great price!
1043
Let her who renders count of her soul’s treasure
1044
In faithless wise, call me no more father.
1045
Because a daughter of like infamy –
1046
And all too weak are these the words I speak –
1047
Upon a father has one single claim,
1048
That he shall shed her blood!
1049
ELVIRA
My own dear father,
When those whose loving office is to salve
1050
The dire misfortunes which close hedge me round,
1051
This weary, wasteful siege of watchfulness,
1052
Do but augment my sufferings the more,
1053
Then mine for the first time will mount in sum
1054
To the heavy burden of my outward state;
1055
For, sir, I am your daughter. If the life
1056
Which stirs in me is wholly from you sprung,
1057
From you perforce springs that nobility
1058
Which proudly I repay. This is the truth: –
1059
The tyrant had it in his mind to force me,
1060
But I have known the practice of defense
1061
With courage more than human. Hold up your head
1062
In pride, for rather would I lose my life
1063
Than that this murderer, this homicide
1064
Should triumph o’er my honor, though with force
1065
And cruel hand he holds me here concealed.
1066
NUÑO
Already, daughter, I have freed my heart
1067
From the extreme of jealousy.
1068
ELVIRA
Poor Sancho,
How fares he now, who was to be my spouse?
1069
NUÑO
Perforce he seeks again that famous king,
1070
Alfonso of Castile.
1071
ELVIRA
He is not in the village then?
1072
NUÑO
I look for his return to-day.
1073
ELVIRA
And I
To see him slain!
1074
NUÑO
Such cruelty passes belief.
1075
ELVIRA
He swears by heaven to rend him limb from limb.
1076
NUÑO
Sancho is wise and will protect himself.
1077
ELVIRA
Oh that I had it in my power to leap
1078
Headlong from this high tower into your arms!
1079
NUÑO
Here waiting with a thousand fold embrace!
1080
ELVIRA
Father I go; ‘tis best. They seek for me,
1081
Farewell, father!
1082
NUÑO
Never to meet again!
I die! …
1083
((Elvira disappears))
((Enter Don Tello))
DON TELLO
How now? With whom, churl, do you speak?
1084
NUÑO
I speak my grief unto these stones, Señor
1085
Which mourn with me the usage I receive;
1086
For thought you imitate the hardened stone
1087
My anxious fears fly ever from relief
1088
Hard following after on the trail of pain
1089
How vainly! For though the stone be hardened stone
1090
Yet heaven has lent it pity.
1091
DON TELLO
You peasant slaves,
Though you should voice laments and rain down tears
1092
And heap thereon vast store of base invention,
1093
The object of my passion shall not ‘scape
1094
From out my hands. You are the tyrants, churls
1095
Who will not whisper in her ear to yield
1096
And lend occasion to my fixed intent;
1097
For I adore and love her. How can it be,
1098
Dying for her, Elvira dies by me?
1099
What lady, think you, this Elvira is?
1100
Or is she more than a poor farmer’s daughter?
1101
You all live by the fields; yet well you say,
1102
Seeing the base subjection of the heart,
1103
There is no lordship like frail beauty’s sway
1104
With youth and spirit blended and wise art.
1105
NUÑO
You speak the truth, Señor, so help you God!
1106
DON TELLO
If she will do her part, I shall in turn
1107
Requite your just deserts.
1108
NUÑO
To hands like these
Must the long-suffering world confide its laws?
1109
The poor shall yield his honor to the rich
1110
And then acclaim him just! Only his will
1111
He holds for law, and he has power to kill!
1112
((Exit))
DON TELLO
Ho! Celio!
1113
((Enter Celio))
CELIO
Señor …
DON TELLO
Lead out Elvira
To the place I have commanded.
1114
CELIO
Consider, my lord;
Look what you do …
1115
DON TELLO
He cannot see who’s blind.
1116
CELIO
I pray you be advised; to force her, sir,
1117
Were cruelty.
1118
DON TELLO
Well, had she pitied me
I had not forced her, Celio.
1119
CELIO
Señor,
Such courage and such chastity are rare
1120
And greatly to be prized.
1121
DON TELLO
Argue no more
Against my will! An end to misery!
1122
How base in me to suffer such disdain!
1123
Did Tarquin stay to sate his royal lust?
1124
No not an hour; and when the morning came
1125
His torment was assuaged. And shall I wait
1126
Whole days upon a peasant?
1127
CELIO
Will you haste
And like him suffer equal punishment?
1128
It is not well to ape the evil deed.
1129
Only the good.
1130
DON TELLO
Or good or ill, today
She yields submission of her proud disdain;
1131
Obsession now, love once it may have been.
1132
Elvira is not Tamar; she shall rue it
1133
And I average me on her contumely!
1134
((Exeunt))
((A Room in Nuño’s House))
((Enter Sancho, Pelayo and Juana))
JUANA
You are both welcome home.
SANCHO
I cannot say how well we are come, although some good may well come out of it, Juana, so it be the will of heaven.
PELAYO
So it be the will of heaven, Juana, at least it will come out … well, that we have come. Because a horse is obliged to keep his thoughts to himself is no reason, I say, why a man should envy a horse.
JUANA
Do you think they will murder us all?
SANCHO
Where is the master?
JUANA
Gone, I think, to speak with Elvira.
SANCHO
What? Will Don Tello permit her to talk with him?
JUANA
Through a window in a tower, as Celio said.
SANCHO
Does she still remain in the tower?
PELAYO
It makes no matter anyway, because somebody is coming who will soon make him …
SANCHO
Take care, Pelayo …
PELAYO
I forgot both fingers.
JUANA
Here comes Nuño.
((Enter Nuño))
SANCHO
Señor!
NUÑO
My son, what news?
SANCHO
I return with a lighter heart to your service.
NUÑO
You return with a lighter heart? In what way?
SANCHO
I bring a just judge with me.
PELAYO
We are bringing a judge with us who will …
SANCHO
Take care, Pelayo …
PELAYO
I forgot both fingers.
NUÑO
But has he a large force with him?
SANCHO
Two men.
NUÑO
Then I must entreat you to attempt nothing further, my son. The effort will be useless, because a mighty nobleman upon his own estates, where he is provided with arms and vassals and with money, will either twist justice to his liking, or else some night when we are all asleep he will have us murdered in our beds.
PELAYO
Murdered? Aha! But I like that! Didn’t you ever play a trump, man? Why, I tell you Don Tello has led a two spot and –well we hold the ace of spades.
SANCHO
Pelayo, have you any sense?
PELAYO
I forgot both fingers.
SANCHO
You must have lodgings made ready for him, master, because he is a right worthy and an honorable man.
PELAYO
He is so honorable that I might almost say …
SANCHO
God help you, fool! …
PELAYO
I forgot both fingers …
NUÑO
Rest yourself, my son. Before we are done, I fear this infatuation will have cost the forfeit of your life.
SANCHO
But first I must see the tower where my Elvira is confined. As surely as the sun casts a shadow some trace of her presence must be left behind her at the bars; but if the sun has set and there is none, then I know that my imagination will be able to conjure up an image of its own.
((Exit))
NUÑO
What rare devotion!
JUANA
I verily believe there was never anything like it in the world.
NUÑO
Come here, Pelayo.
PELAYO
I have to tell the cook something.
NUÑO
Come here, I say.
PELAYO
I’ll be back in a moment.
NUÑO
Come here.
PELAYO
What do you want?
NUÑO
Who is this Sir Judge, this magistrate that Sancho brings home with him?
PELAYO
God help me with a good one!
NUÑO
Juana, was there ever such a stupid beast?
((Enter Brito))
BRITO
Hurry, Señor Nuño, three gentlemen are dismounting at the door of the house from three fine horses, all with new clothes on, and boots and spurs and plumes waving all over.
NUÑO
So help me God but they are here! What? A judge who wears plumes?
PELAYO
Oh, there be such, sir, as do plume themselves, though frivolous mayhap, because a sober judge unless he is detained by some important bribery, goes back as impartial to the court again as he came out of it in the first place, which was a matter of course, and then he tells you what he makes out of it.
NUÑO
Who taught this animal this arrant nonsense?
PELAYO
Have I not just come from court? What is the matter with you?
((Enter the King, the Count and Don Enrique in traveling dress. With them Sancho))
SANCHO
I knew you as soon as I saw you a great way off.
KING
(Apart to Sancho) Remember, Sancho; no word that I am here.
NUÑO
You are welcome, sir.
KING
Who are you?
SANCHO
This is Nuño, my father-in-law.
KING
Well met, Nuño.
NUÑO
I kiss your feet a thousand times.
KING
Let all the laborers be warned, lest Don Tello be advised a judge has come.
NUÑO
Then it will be better, in my opinion, if we have them all locked up, so that none may wander from the house. (Sancho speaks to Brito and Juana who go out) Sir, my mind misgives me of this business. You have only brought two men. There is not a more powerful lord in all the kingdom, nor none richer nor more headstrong.
KING
Nuño, the King’s staff is like the thunder –it gives warning where the lightning is about to strike. As you see, I came along to dispense justice for the King.
NUÑO
I behold such god-like worth in your presence as makes me tremble, although I am the wronged.
KING
I will take the depositions.
NUÑO
Rest yourself, first, sir; for you have more than time.
KING
I have never more than time. Did you arrive home well, Pelayo?
PELAYO
Yes, my Lord, I arrived home very well. Your Highness remembers …
KING
What I told you?
PELAYO
Yes, to put on the bridle. Your Grace had a pleasant journey?
KING
Thanks be to God, a very pleasant journey.
PELAYO
By my faith, if we ever get through with this business, I have made up my mind to present you with a pig as big as yourself.
SANCHO
Silence, you fool!
PELAYO
A little one then, like I am.
KING
Summon your people without further delay.
((Pelayo goes to the door and calls))
((Enter Brito, Fileno, Juana and Leonor))
BRITO
What is your wish, master?
NUÑO
It will be necessary for you to wait a long while till the shepherds have come in from the valleys and the ridges.
KING
Those who are here will suffice. –Tell me, who are you?
BRITO
I am Brito, kind sir –a shepherd upon these pastures.
PELAYO
He is the son of some goat herds attached to the place hereabouts and something near a goat himself by the same token.
KING
What know you of Don Tello and this matter of Elvira?
BRITO
Some men carried her off on the night of her wedding day; and they broke down these gates.
KING
And you? … Who are you?
JUANA
Juana, sir, your servant who waits on Elvira; but now alas! I know she has lost her honor and her life!
KING
And who is this good man?
PELAYO
My lord, this is Fileno the piper. At night he does nothing but pipe up and down after the witches, all over these ploughed fields; so one night they out and dragged him along behind after them, since when, like a salmon, he has had scales on the bottom.
KING
Declare what you know of this.
FILENO
I was coming in to pipe, sir, and I saw Don Tello give orders not to let the priest come in, And when the wedding was broken off he carried Elvira away with him to his house and her father and her kin have been there since to see her.
KING
Who is this country wench?
PELAYO
She is Leonora of Cueto, daughter of Pedro Miguel of Cueto, whose grandfather was Nuño of Cueto, while at the same time he had for uncle Martin Cueto, who was olive presser for the entire neighborhood –all of them very noble people. He had two aunts, though, who were witches, but that was a long time ago, and he had a nephew who was squint-eyed, and he was the first man who planted turnips in Galicia.
KING
That will do for the present. –Gentlemen, to rest. We shall pay a visit to Don Tello –yes, this afternoon.
COUNT
Upon less testimony than this you might well be assured that Sancho has not deceived you. The guilelessness of these folk is the most convincing proof.
KING
(Apart to Nuño) Let a priest be sent for secretly, and a headsman.
((Exeunt the King, the Count and Don Enrique))
NUÑO
(To Sancho, apart) Sancho –
SANCHO
Master –
NUÑO
I cannot understand what sort of a judge this man is. Without entering a process, he sends for a priest and an executioner.
SANCHO
Nuño, I do not understand what he would do.
NUÑO
Even with an armed battalion he could not take him. How much less then with two men!
SANCHO
We had better make sure though that he has first food enough to eat. Afterwards we shall discover whether or not he is able to go through with the business.
NUÑO
Will they all eat at the same time?
SANCHO
I think that the judge will eat by himself and the others will eat afterwards together.
NUÑO
Belike his scribe and constable.
SANCHO
I think so too.
((Exit))
NUÑO
Juana!
JUANA
Sir?
NUÑO
Spread a clean cloth and look you that four hens be killed without delay, and roast a good fat side of pork. And while it is being flayed put that young, tender turkey on; let it be roasted too, while Fileno goes down into the vault for wine.
PELAYO
Sunshine and heaven, Nuño, but I must break bread with that judge today!
NUÑO
You are the kind who never will learn judgement.
((Exit))
PELAYO
It is a terrible thing that Kings must always eat alone. That is the reason, I suppose, they are willing to have dogs and fools around.
((Exeunt))
((Courtyard before the Country Seat of Don Tello. A wall or barred grating at the rear))
((Elvira fleeing from Don Tello, and Feliciana holding him back))
ELVIRA
Help, help, O heaven! I have no hope on earth
Nor succor …
1135
((Exit))
DON TELLO
I will kill her!
1136
FELICIANA
Hold your hand!
DON TELLO
Have care! I shall forget that nice respect
1137
I owe to you, Feliciana.
1138
FELICIANA
Yes!
Because I am your sister you accord
1139
What you deny to woman.
1140
DON TELLO
Pest on the peasant!
She is mad. What? For a base, clownish love
1141
Shall she be wanting in a due respect
1142
Unto her master, out of vanity
1143
And empty pride? She holds a steadfast belief
1144
In her armor of resistance. I come to kill –
1145
Either I slay her or bend her to my will!
1146
((Exit))
((Enter Celio))
CELIO
I know not whether these be idle fears
1147
Which vex me, lady. Nuño I saw but now
1148
In entertainment of some guests of worth.
1149
The shepherd Sancho has returned to town,
1150
While all observe rare caution. With some complaint
1151
Feigned cunningly, no doubt he was despatched
1152
Into Castile. I never saw them act
1153
With equal secrecy.
1154
FELICIANA
You have not chosen wisely, Celio,
1155
To rest in such suspicion. Ample occasion
1156
To enter boldly and discern the truth
1157
Were sure not wanting.
1158
CELIO
When he saw me enter
I feared lest Nuño might take quick offense,
1159
For all there bear us ill.
1160
FELICIANA
Better at once
To warn my brother. The temper of this peasant
1161
Is bold by nature, as being with him born.
1162
You, Celio, remain and guard the gate
1163
And watch if any come.
1164
((Exit))
CELIO
A haunting dread
Pursues our conscience ever to its harm;
1165
When cruelty exults beyond all bounds
1166
It cries aloud to heaven for revenge.
1167
((Enter the King, the Count, Don Enrique, and Sancho, behind the grating))
KING
Enter and do as I command.
1168
CELIO
Who are these people?
1169
KING
Knock.
((They knock. An Attendant opens the gate and the King, the Count, Don Enrique and Sancho enter the courtyard))
SANCHO
This fellow, sir, is a servant of Don Tello’s.
1170
KING
A word, hidalgo!
1171
CELIO
Well, what do you want?
KING
Go and advise Don Tello I am here,
1172
Making my journey from Castile post haste
1173
To speak with him.
1174
CELIO
Whom shall I say?
KING
Say I.
CELIO
Have you no other name than I?
1175
KING
Say no.
CELIO
No more than I, and yet of a good presence?
1176
In faith you have me in a quandary;
1177
I go to tell him I am at the gate.
1178
((Exit))
DON ENRIQUE
He has gone in.
1179
COUNT
I fear some hot reply;
‘Twere better roundly to declare yourself.
1180
KING
Indeed it were not, for his guilty fears
1181
Will whisper quickly only I am I,
1182
And only I say I with like import
1183
In all these realms.
1184
((Re-enter Celio))
CELIO
I told Don Tello how you were called I,
1185
He being my lord and master. He replies
1186
In that case better turn you back again;
1187
For only he is I by right of rule
1188
And by just law of heaven as of earth
1189
Where he is, and he alone, save him
1190
Who is high God in heaven, and on earth
1191
The King.
1192
KING
Say then an Alcalde of his court
And of his house.
1193
CELIO
(Disturbed) I go to bear this name.
1194
KING
Mark well what I have said.
1195
((Exit Celio))
COUNT
The Squire’s perturbed.
DON ENRIQUE
And the name the reason.
1196
SANCHO
Nuño is here. Grant license, Sire. I pray,
1197
That he may enter, if so it be your will.
1198
KING
Bid him come in, for he shall have a part
1199
In all that passes as he may desire,
1200
In the righting even as the bearing of the wrong.
1201
((Enter Nuño, Pelayo, Juana and Peasants, behind the grating))
SANCHO
Come, Nuño, approach; you may observe what passes from without.
1202
NUÑO
The mere sight of this villain’s house fills me with rage. –Be silent all!
1203
JUANA
You talk, Pelayo, and keep our courage up; he is beside himself.
1204
PELAYO
I’ll show you now how little difference there is between me and a stone.
1205
NUÑO
To come with only two men! Marvelous hardihood!
1206
((Enter Don Tello, Feliciana and Attendants))
FELICIANA
I pray you, sir, consider what you do …
1207
Hold, brother! Whither would you go?
1208
DON TELLO
Hidalgo,
Are you, perchance, that Alcalde of Castile
1209
Who fain would speak with me?
1210
KING
Do you wonder?
DON TELLO
And not a little, yea, I swear to God.
1211
So you know who I am.
1212
KING
In the King’s name
How does he differ from our lord the King
1213
Who comes for him?
1214
DON TELLO
Wide worlds to me. But you –
Where is your wand of justice?
1215
KING
In its sheathe,
From which it presently shall issue forth
1216
And what will come will come.
1217
DON TELLO
Only a wand in your sheathe? I like that well,
1218
Indeed you do not know me! Unless the King
1219
Against me comes with iron bond and band,
1220
No power throughout the world shall stay my hand!
1221
KING
I am the King, thou slave!
1222
PELAYO
Saint Dominic of Silos!
DON TELLO
What, Sire? … What? Can it be such state as this
1223
Is the caparison of Spanish might?
1224
You here yourself! In your own person, you?
1225
I humbly ask your pardon.
1226
KING
Strip off his arms! –
((Don Tello is disarmed; Nuño and the peasants come forward through the gate))
Now by my crown, thou slave, thou shalt respect
1227
The letters of the King.
1228
FELICIANA
Abate your rigor
I humbly pray, Señor!
1229
KING
All prayer is vain.
Bring in the wife of this poor countryman.
1230
((Exit an Attendant))
DON TELLO
I pray you, Sire, but she was not his wife.
1231
KING
Enough for me that such was her intent.
1232
Is not her father here, who in our presence
1233
Has uttered his complaint?
1234
DON TELLO
My just death is near;
1235
I have offended God –God and the King!
1236
((Enter Elvira, her hair disheveled))
ELVIRA
The moment my sorrows
1237
To thee might complain,
1238
Castilian Alfonso
1239
Who governs all Spain,
1240
I broke from my prison,
1241
The cell which confined,
1242
To petition thy justice,
1243
Royal mercy to find.
1244
Daughter to Nuño
1245
Of Aibar am I,
1246
In honor and station
1247
Well-known and high
1248
Through all these lands.
1249
Sancho of Roelas
1250
Sought me in love;
1251
My father consenting
1252
His suit did approve.
1253
Don Tello of Neira
1254
By Sancho was served;
1255
Who begged his lord’s license
1256
Ere the rite be observed.
1257
He came with his sister,
1258
Our sponsors they stood.
1259
He saw me, he craved me
1260
And foul plot he brewed.
1261
He put off the wedding,
1262
He came to my door
1263
With men bearing weapons
1264
And black masks before.
1265
I was borne to his dwelling,
1266
With treacherous art
1267
He sought to destroy me,
1268
My chaste firmness of heart.
1269
And then from that dwelling
1270
I was haled to a wood,
1271
A farm house adjacent,
1272
A fourth league removed.
1273
There, where only
1274
Was tangle of trees.
1275
Which the sun could not peep through
1276
To be witness with these –
1277
The trees heard my mourning,
1278
My sad, long lament.
1279
My locks tell the story –
1280
What struggles I bent
1281
Against his offending,
1282
And all the flowers know
1283
How I felt on their blooming
1284
Fond tresses of woe;
1285
My eyes tell the story –
1286
What tears there I shed
1287
That the hard rock might soften
1288
Like down to the head.
1289
I shall live now in weeping;
1290
How shall she retain
1291
Contentment or pleasure
1292
Whose honor lies slain?
1293
Yet in this I am happy –
1294
That here I complain
1295
To the Greatest Alcalde
1296
That governs in Spain.
1297
I plead for his justice,
1298
I beg of his rule
1299
Pity for wronging
1300
So false and so cruel.
1301
This be my petition,
1302
Alfonso, whose feet
1303
My poor lips with kisses,
1304
Humbly entreat.
1305
And so may thy offspring
1306
Rule conquered and free
1307
The parts of thy kingdom
1308
The Moor holds in fee,
1309
Through happy war. Poor
1310
My tongue in praise;
1311
But endless song and story
1312
Shall prolong thy days!
1313
KING
It grieves my heart to have arrived too late;
1314
I would have come in time to salve these wounds
1315
And right the wrongs of Sancho and of Nuño.
1316
But yet I may do justice, and strike off
1317
The head from Tello. –Send for the headsman!
1318
FELICIANA
Have pity, Sire, in royal clemency
1319
Upon my brother.
1320
KING
Even without this cause,
Defiance and contempt of our own hand,
1321
Our letter and our proper signature –
1322
These had been crimes enough. Humbled today
1323
Your pride lies, Tello, shattered at my feet.
1324
DON TELLO
Although there were a direr penalty,
1325
Unconquered Sire, than the death I now await,
1326
I do confess of right it should be mine.
1327
DON ENRIQUE
If humbly in your presence …
1328
COUNT
Mercy, Sire;
Be moved, for you were nurtured in this land.
1329
FELICIANA
The Count Don Pedro, Sire, merits the life
1330
Of Tello –a boon in payment of his service.
1331
KING
The Count deserves of me a holy love
1332
Such as one bears a father; but it is just
1333
In equal wise the Count should know
1334
What the allegiance he doth owe
1335
Unto my justice, which admits no answer.
1336
COUNT
Is mercy weakness, Sire?
1337
KING
When justice fails and wanders from the mark
1338
No mercy ever sets it right again.
1339
In this divine and human writ agree
1340
With copious example: –traitor that man
1341
Who to his King is niggard of respect
1342
Or absent speaks against his dignity –
1343
Give, Tello, Elvira now that humbled hand,
1344
So shall you expiate your full offense,
1345
Becoming her husband; when they strike off your head
1346
Then she shall marry Sancho, with a dower
1347
Of half your lands and hoarded revenues, –
1348
And you, Feliciana, shall be dame
1349
Of this our Court and Queen, until such time
1350
As we shall find by grace a worthy spouse,
1351
To match your noble blood.
1352
NUÑO
I tremble …
1353
PELAYO
Good … King! …
SANCHO
Here ends the comedy ‘The Greatest Alcalde,’
1354
A history the Chronicles of Spain
1355
Records as true, the Fourth Part of the tale.
1356