Out of the Wings

Comedia Himenea (1516), Bartolomé de Torres Naharro

Comedia Himenea : From ACT FIVE

Comedia Himenea, translated by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy)

From ACT FIVE

Edition

Torres Naharro, Bartolomé de. 1971. Comedia Ymena. In El teatro anterior a Lope de Vega, eds. Everett W. Hesse and Juan O. Valencia, pp. 208-65. Madrid, Alcalá (in Spanish)

Sample text

MARQUIS:: Woman, you have betrayed us.
Where are you going?
TURPEDIO:: Calm yourself, sir.
PHEBEA:: I am lost!
MARQUIS:: What do you have to say, my lady?
Have I kept you so well-protected
only for you to commit such a great dishonour?
Admit before this servant
that you should die
for you have contaminated
our ancient line with your foul life.
The only way to save your life
is with your death.
PHEBEA :: You are my lord and brother.
I curse my wretched fortune
and the day that I was born.
I place myself in your hands,
and I ask for death,
not for my life to be restored.
I want to die, for I see
that I was born so unfortunate.
The grave will enjoy
what Himeneo could not.
MARQUIS:: Was he wounded?
TURPEDIO:: No, he got away.
PHEBEA:: My lord, I beg of you that in killing me
you do not show yourself to be cruel—
for I would also ask that
since you are going to kill me,
you let him live.
For, I favoured him so much,
if I were to know that
he is going to die in this way,
I would not weep for my own suffering,
the better to lament his.
MARQUIS:: It is time for you
to give your soul to God.
PHEBEA:: If you do not want to add further pain
to my final words,
let me weep, sir,
for the heart finds rest
when its suffering can flow out in tears.
MARQUIS:: Tell me how this wretched affair
has come about.
PHEBEA:: I will tell my story, because if I do not,
they will not know I died for a love
worth giving my life for.
Doresta!
DORESTA:: I’m coming, my lady.
PHEBEA:: Come here, you will act as witness
to my good deeds and my sins.
TURPEDIO:: My lord, this one’s not to be trusted.
DORESTA:: A fine friend you are!
MARQUIS:: Silence—let us speak.
PHEBEA :: I shall tell how my misfortune
has brought me to this point—
where my love and I together
will die one death.
But first
I must relate in what state I am to die.
I die for my beloved, noble, gentle lord;
dying for his sake is a worthy end.
The only regret that remains
in this sad life of mine
is that although he could have had his desire,
I never sought to enjoy him,
nor did I possess him,
he who was the object of all my desires.
I am to die with that desire
still burning in my heart,
but if I had believed the promises
Himeneo made to me,
I would not now be dying unhappily,
nor would I be leaving him unfulfilled.
He who speaks ill of me does well;
for that pleasure which he asked of me
I desired of him still more.
I do not know now why I did not relent,
for I die today as if I had done so.
MARQUIS:: At the height of my anger
you want to make me believe
that you have never done such a deed?
Yet I have seen with my own eyes
what I never expected to see
from someone of your reputation and upbringing.
PHEBEA:: You must act, my brother, with God;
for I do not wish to surpass my place
as my father, God rest his soul,
has left me subject to you,
and you can do what you want with me.
But, as it happens that I am utterly at your mercy
and you are ready to kill me so dispassionately,
nonetheless, for the love of God,
spare me one moment of life
before you take it all from me.
And do not fail to listen to me
and do not kill me without hearing me out
for I would still not want to live
even if you did not want to kill me;
for it is madness
to wish to live with no chance for happiness.
I do not protest that I must die—
for I am mortal,
but I do protest dying as a traitor
for if it had happened
that I had known Himeneo first,
it would be right for death to come to me.
But as death is coming in this way,
so out of season, as I see it,
there will not be a man or a woman
who will not mourn my death,
wondering why and where, how and when?
I never betrayed anyone.
If I killed, I do not know whom.
If I stole, I have not known it.
My love was proper
and if I loved, I did well
to love my true husband.
How many young women
who if they have the opportunity
will fall into sin if they do not die
with those who die for love of them,
for in dying
they will leave their reputations alive.
So, Death, come when you will,
for I will greet you
with a happy and joyful face;
for to die in this way
would please me,
though it weighs heavily on everyone else.
All people may lament my undoing
as the greatest evil ever done,
and all the animals
today will howl
and the birds
will forget their sweet songs.
The earth may shake
the seas may run wild,
the sky may lose its brightness,
the sun may not shine,
the moon may turn black,
the stars may not appear,
the stones may cover themselves in mourning,
the rivers may cease to flow,
the springs may all dry up,
trees may not bear fruit,
in this way
everything may mourn my death.

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