• Overview
• Staging information
• Translations
• Sample translations
• Production history

• Constant Love : ACT THREE Scene Four Constant Love

Constant Love, translated by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy)

ACT THREE Scene Four Constant Love

Edition

Castro, Guillén de. 1925. El amor constante. In Obras de Gullén de Castro y Bellvís, ed. Eduardo Juliá Martínez, vol. 1, pp. 1-46. Madrid, Real Academia Española, Imprenta de la Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos (in Spanish)

Context:

The King refuses to relinquish his threats against Nisida and her father, and in his blind lust for her he imprisons them both. In the dungeon, the King presents the Duke and Nisida with a choice: either Nisida gives in to the King’s desire, or they both will die. The Duke and Nisida are resolved; they would rather die than lose their family honour to the King in this way. The King encourages Nisida to think through her decision, and, thinking of Celauro, she hesitates. Her father encourages her to drink the poison and be a martyr for purity, but the King silences him by gagging and blindfolding him. She drinks the poison. Unusually for a comedia father, the Duke cries and laments her impending death rather than glorifying her devotion to honour, as he says, ‘I am not made of stone’.

Sample text

Enter the KING, with the DUKE handcuffed and in chains, and NISIDA and three SERVANTS, with two pedestals, on one a dagger and on the other a vial of poison.

DUKE:

Have respect and think again,
you will see this cannot work.
It’s impossible to take away Heaven’s justice
the way you take away my hands.

Are you a Christian? Are you even a man?
Haven’t I been loyal to you?

NISIDA:

He is a tyrant. And cruel.
Why do you want to hear him spell it out?

DUKE:

Were you raised by barbarians?
What are you doing?

KING:

Silence your treason,
you should fear my cruelty,
since you do not value my favour.

DUKE:

But do you fear the justice of Heaven?

KING:

To hurt you even more,
you will have to beg Heaven to offend you
and give me pleasure,

or this dagger will slice
through your whimpering heart.

DUKE:

I will never beg, not if I had a thousand hearts,
and a hundred thousand swords in each one.

KING:

If she will not
submit to my desires happily,
she will pay for glaring at me
with poison in her eyes;

there is real poison in this vial,
and it will not go down easy.

NISIDA:

If listening to this has not killed me,
how could that? Your threats

will never break down my resolve.

DUKE:

Surely the fact she shares my nobility
is reason enough for you to stop.

KING:

To hell with your reasons;
your lips should move only to please me.

DUKE:

My lips will only move to
speak the truth,
to tell of your injustice.

Let the dagger end my life;
the mouth of the wound
will speak of the crimes against me.

When your crimes are discovered,
each drop of my honoured blood
will be a tongue shouting out
how low you have sunk.

Perhaps a drop of this blood
might touch upon you,
imparting to you some nobler thoughts.

Your ancestors have passed
enough noble blood down to you
for you to act honourably,

but inside this homicidal tyrant,
some evil is triumphing
over the nobility in your blood.

Avenge yourself on these insults.
What are you waiting for?
Kill me, or my tongue will speak against you
for as long as it can.

KING:

Kill him.

DUKE:

Kill me, do not delay any longer.

KING:

No, leave him be;
as he denies me my pleasure
he must die sharing my sorrow.

And you, unfeeling wretch, I’ve had enough.

DUKE:

Now my soul is in sorrow.

KING:

Drink, or consent to my desire.

Here is the choice you must make:
see which you prefer,
the ardour of this poison
or the breath from this mouth,

which can make you a queen
as you richly deserve.

DUKE:

Daughter, can’t you see that
what he offers is impossible,

for the law you hold in your heart,
the law of Christ, forbids it.

KING:

Look. You can save
two lives with only one ‘yes’.

DUKE:

The price is your soul, not just your life.

KING:

Why not save both?

NISIDA:

If I fight for one,
the other defeats me.

Leave me, my father and my lord,
for against his efforts
I must rally my thoughts,
which are the children of my honour.

And you, hellish demon,
whose words fall on deaf ears,
if you know me so well,
why do you treat me so badly?

Am I supposed to delight in the breath
which claimed it would raise me up as a queen,
only by casting me down to Hell?

As for what you offer me,
why did you ask me to choose?
What poison could have been
more fatal to me than you?

Give me what is in that vial,
because it will restore my health,
it will be the medicine that will cure
the misfortune you have laid on my head.

But as you well know, enemy,
with it, you give me a purging remedy
that will ensure my everlasting life.

DUKE:

Oh, daughter, more than blesséd,
die, and my death is all the greater.

KING:

You are as intolerably ungrateful
as maddeningly beautiful.

If you dare to treat me so meanly
even in the depths of my misery,
I abhor your disdain
even as I adore your beauty.

So it seems you have chosen,
drink the poison.

NISIDA:

This is what has become of me.

KING:

Take the poison on my breath,
so it will kill you more quickly.

He gives her the poison, blowing its vapours into her face.

NISIDA:

Even to the last, you are cruel.
I fear the way this poison comes to me
more than the death held within it.

But now, Oh!,
this wretched business
brings sorrow because of you, Celauro,
because at its end I lose you.

I remember that I am yours,
and I know my death will destroy you,
but my honour is also yours,
and I offend your honour if I lose mine.

She wavers.

DUKE:

Heavens, give us justice.

KING:

Heavens, be merciful.

NISIDA:

I value my life only for you.

KING:

Her hesitation gives me hope.

DUKE:

I fear she may waver in her faith.

NISIDA:

I must die; it will be best
if I face my fate bravely.

KING:

Instead of death, take my kingdom,
take my crown,
for only you deserve it.

DUKE:

Do not falter now,
another crown awaits you;
you are offered a chance at martyrdom.

KING:

Your nonsense inflames my rage.

DUKE:

My precious daughter,
be honourable, you are mine.

Why are you doubting?
Where is your courage?
What holds you back,
what weakens your resolve?
If there is any doubt
as to the strength of your honour,
you lose your honour altogether.

KING:

Shut up!

NISIDA:

Father, wait;

for now…

DUKE:

I trust in your strength.

NISIDA:

Oh Celauro, I die for you,
though to me you are life itself.

DUKE:

Do you still have doubts?
Remember, my darling, your soul is your life …

NISIDA:

Father, goodbye; Celauro, goodbye.

DUKE:

As you die for him, you go to him;

do, daughter, what you must do.

NISIDA:

Oh, Celauro!

KING:

What are you doing?
Wait a moment!

DUKE:

Do not wait.

KING:

Gag him, he’s dragging this out
and encouraging her dithering.

DUKE:

Even if you cover my mouth,
I can speak with my eyes
and she will understand me.

KING:

Treason. I’ll rip them out.

DUKE:

My wounds will speak for me,
they are the tongues of my honour.

The KING gags and blindfolds the DUKE.

NISIDA:

Oh, King! Is it not enough
to be cruel to me,
must you also torture my father?

KING:

For your sake I will
show him a little respect.

NISIDA:

And you, trust in my loyal heart,
my father and my lord,
for you offend my character
when you show so little faith in it.

Now you will see what I am worth.

She goes to drink the poison, and the KING stops her.

KING:

Stop, I can’t bear it.
Are my arms really worse
than the fierce embrace of death?

Have I really come to be so evil?
But, how can this be?
There must be some good left in me,
if I am able to desire you, as you are perfect.

Why will you give yourself to death
and not to my constant love?

NISIDA:

I choose the lesser evil.
I find you so abhorrent
that death is my only choice.
There must be something rotten in me
if I seem to be perfect to you.

KING:

Have you come to hate me so much?

NISIDA:

So much, that each time I look at you,
I die a thousand times every
moment you keep me from my death.

KING:

I have run out of patience.
Drink the poison, for your treason.

NISIDA:

Jesus!

KING:

My lady,

wait, don’t drink it.

What am I saying? Why not?
Would I have spared your life,
only for my brother to enjoy you?
Am I never to have you?

Jealousy has destroyed me,
and my enemy must die,
for when a jealous man is hated
he is capable of the greatest revenge.

Now, for your ingratitude,
your death is certain;
drink the poison.

NISIDA:

Yes, I will.

KING:

Even if the sorrow of killing you
will kill me.

NISIDA:

Father, goodbye.

DUKE:

Daughter, you will be …

She drinks the poison.

… pure honour, a clear mirror.

NISIDA:

Now, Celauro, I must leave you.

KING:

Wait, do not drink it all,
leave the other half
for me to kill myself.

NISIDA:

Because it would seem like
I did you a favour,
I did not want to leave a drop for you.

KING:

Not even if the favour was death?
She will not even share death with me.

DUKE:

Daughter, I, who urged you to do this,
will follow you where you are going,
for those who praise martyrs
are most afraid to be one.

NISIDA:

You cry, my dear father,
when your honour is now assured?

DUKE:

I am not made of stone,
though I may have seemed it to you.

KING:

My rage is building up inside me
and I no longer know myself.
I have put an end to this
and now I will end it all.

I will kill my brother
as he killed my hope.
My revenge will be slow,
for my fortune died all too quickly.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Constant Love by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy) is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Entry written by Kathleen Jeffs. Last updated on 25 February 2011.

Post a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment. Please log in or sign up for a free account.