Out of the Wings

Fuente Ovejuna (1612-1614), Lope de Vega Carpio

Fuente Ovejuna : The end of ACT TWO, Dixon's 'Fuente Ovejuna' , From ACT THREE, Laurencia in Dixon's 'Fuente Ovejuna' , From ACT THREE, Dixon's 'Fuente Ovejuna'
Fuente Ovejuna : ACT THREE Scene One

Fuente Ovejuna (1989), translated by Victor Dixon

The end of ACT TWO, Dixon's 'Fuente Ovejuna'

Edition

Vega, Lope de. 1989. Fuente Ovejuna, ed. and trans. Victor Dixon. Dual-language book in Spanish and English. Warminster, Aris and Phillips

pp. 155, 157, 159, 161

Context:

Previous to this scene, the Commander has attempted to rape Laurencia, who is betrothed to Frondoso. When Frondoso defended her by pulling a crossbow on the Commander, the Commander vowed revenge. In this scene, he interrupts the wedding of Laurencia and Frondoso in order to arrest Frondoso on the grounds of attempted murder. Laurencia’s father, Esteban, pleads on behalf of Frondoso, but the Commander claims the matter is out of his hands, beats Esteban and takes Frondoso away with his hands bound. The Commander also kidnaps Laurencia from the wedding, and the townsfolk decide how to respond to the Commander’s injustice.

Sample text

COMMANDER:: What’s this, a wedding? That’s enough of that.
Stay where you are, and don’t make any trouble.
JUAN:: This is a serious ceremony, sir,
but if you wish we’ll stop. Should we give place?
Why all this show of military might?
Were you victorious? Am I wrong to ask?
FRONDOSO:: Heaven help me now, or I’m as good as dead!
LAURENCIA:: Through here, Frondoso, and you’ll get away!
COMMANDER:: Oh no, he won’t; arrest him, tie him up!
JUAN:: Give yourself up.
FRONDOSO:: You mean, so they can kill me?
JUAN:: Why should they?
COMMANDER:: Why indeed? I’m not the sort
to kill a man unless it’s shown he’s guilty;
for if I were, these men of mine would quickly
have run him through. I’m putting him in jail,
where his own father shall decide his guilt.
PASCUALA:: But sir, he’s getting married.
COMMANDER:: What’s that to me?
Why him? Are there no others in the village?
PASCUALA:: If he’s offended you, forgive him, lord,
and show your noble nature.
COMMANDER:: But Pascuala,
I’m not concerned; this is a crime against
Téllez Girón, the Master (God preserve him);
against the Order as a whole, its honour.
The punishment must serve as an example,
for one day other men may seek to raise
the banner of revolt against its Master,
if vassals these days show such true allegiance
that such a man could dare to lay a crossbow
against the person of its Grand Commander.
ESTEBAN:: Since offering a plea in mitigation
is proper to a father-in-law, my Lord,
it isn’t strange that one who after all
was so in love, in such a situation,
should fail to keep his head; if you, my Lord,
were seeking to deprive him of his wife,
was it surprising he should try to save her?
COMMANDER:: Magistrate, you’re a fool.
ESTEBAN:: But I appeal
to your good nature, sir.
COMMANDER:: I never sought
to take his wife, for she was no such thing.
ESTEBAN:: She was, you did, that’s all there is to say.
But there are Christian Monarchs in Castile
who’ll make new orders and destroy disorders;
and they’ll be ill-advised, when they’ve some respite
from waging war, to allow such men as you
to wield such power in towns and villages,
merely because they wear such mighty crosses.
Only the King should bear one on his breast,
to show that tribute’s due to him alone.
COMMANDER:: You, seize his staff.
ESTEBAN:: You take it, sir, and welcome.
COMMANDER:: Then I shall beat you with it, as I would
a horse that proved too mettlesome.
ESTEBAN:: Beat on,
I bear your blows because you are my lord.
PASCUALA:: You’d beat a man of his age?
LAURENCIA:: If your reason
for beating him is just that he’s my father,
what cause have you to take revenge on me?
COMMANDER:: Take her away, and set ten men to guard her.; He and his men exit.
ESTEBAN:: May Heaven send its justice to destroy him!; He exits.
PASCUALA:: No wedding now; it seems more like a wake.; She exits.
BARRILDO:: Won’t any man speak out?
MENGO:: You others may.
I did, and you should see the weals it earned me;
the sort of wheels that get you nowhere fast.
JUAN:: We must all talk.
MENGO:: We’d better all be silent.
He beat my pair of kettle-drums so hard,
he’s left them both as red as fresh-sliced salmon.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Fuente Ovejuna (1989) by Victor Dixon is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

From ACT THREE, Laurencia in Dixon's 'Fuente Ovejuna'

Edition

Vega, Lope de. 1989. Fuente Ovejuna, ed. and trans. Victor Dixon. Dual-language book in Spanish and English. Warminster, Aris and Phillips

pp. 169, 171

Context:

In this excerpt from one of the most famous scenes of the play, Laurencia returns to Fuente Ovejuna after being kidnapped and cruelly treated by the Comendador and his men. In this scene (translated in ballad-metre) she returns to her father and berates him and the men of the town for not acting to protect her. She takes up arms against the Comendador and his tyranny.

Sample text

LAURENCIA:: Does this my hair not tell the tale?
Can you not see these scars,
these signs of savage blows, this blood?
And are you men of honour?
Are you my father and my kin?
Are you so cold, so cruel
your very souls aren’t torn apart
to see such suffering?
But no, your town is aptly named,
and you’re not men, but sheep!
Let me be armed for battle, then,
if you’re so hard of heart,
such stocks and stones, such tigresses . . .
no, worse than tigresses . . .
for they, when hunters steal their young
ferociously pursue
and slay them, till they reach the sea
and plunge beneath its waves.
Not tigresses, but timid hares,
not Spaniards, but barbarians,
too chicken-hearted to deny
your women to other men!
Why not wear distaffs at your waists?
Why gird on useless swords?
I swear to God we women alone
shall make those tyrants pay
for our indignities, and bill
those traitors for our blood.
And you, you effete effeminates,
I sentence to be stoned
as spinsters, pansies, queens and cowards,
and forced henceforth to wear
our bonnets and our overskirts,
with painted, powdered faces.
Our valorous Commander means
to have Frondoso hanged
—uncharged, untried and uncondemned—
from yonder battlements.
He’ll serve all you unmanly men
the same, and I’ll rejoice;
for when this honourable town
is womanless, that age
shall dawn which once amazed the world,
the age of Amazons.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Fuente Ovejuna (1989) by Victor Dixon is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

From ACT THREE, Dixon's 'Fuente Ovejuna'

Edition

Vega, Lope de. 1989. Fuente Ovejuna, ed. and trans. Victor Dixon. Dual-language book in Spanish and English. Warminster, Aris and Phillips

pp. 175, 177

Context:

After Laurencia returns from her captivity, during which she was cruelly abused by the Commander and his men, she entreats the men of the village of Fuente Ovejuna to take revenge for her dishonour. Frondoso is still being held by the Commander. Acting as one united force, the members of the town storm the Commander’s stronghold, determined to take revenge on him for his cruel treatment of the townsfolk.

Sample text

COMMANDER:: Now that you’ve tied his hands, there’s rope to spare;
hang him by that, and make him suffer more.
FRONDOSO:: What honour, Lord, you do your noble blood!
COMMANDER:: String him up now, from yonder battlements!
The first to hand!
FRONDOSO:: I vow I never meant
to take your life that day.
FLORES:: Wait, what’s that noise?; Noise offstage.
COMMANDER:: A noise, you say?
FLORES:: One loud enough to stay
your justice, sir.
ORTUÑO:: They’re breaking down the gates!; Noise.
COMMANDER:: My gates, you mean? The gates of a Commander
of Calatrava?
FLORES:: All the town has come!
JUAN ROJO: [Off.]: Destroy, demolish, flatten, fire and burn!
ORTUÑO:: When once the people rise against their masters,
it’s hard to hold them back!
COMMANDER:: They’ve risen against me?
FLORES:: Their fury’s gone so far, they’ve stormed the gates
and brought them to the ground!
COMMANDER:: Untie his hands.
Go and appease that peasant magistrate.
FRONDOSO:: I’ll go, my lord. It’s love that’s moved them so.
MENGO: [Off.]: Long live the King and Queen; let tyrants die!
FLORES:: My lord, don’t let them find you here, for God’s sake!
COMMANDER:: If they persist, they’ll find these walls are stout
and well defended; that will turn them back.
FLORES:: But when whole towns, incensed by wrongs, rebel
and set their minds to murder and revenge,
they’re never turned until they’re satisfied.
COMMANDER:: This door’s as strong as any iron portcullis;
let’s arm and make a stand against their fury.
FRONDOSO: [Off.]: Long live Fuente Ovejuna!
COMMANDER:: What a hero!
I’ve half a mind to sally forth and brave
such blustering.
FLORES:: It’s yours I wonder at.
ESTEBAN:: Ah, there they are, the tyrant and his toadies!
Fuente Ovejuna! Let the tyrants die!; All the male peasants enter.
COMMANDER:: Good people, wait!
ALL:: Revenge can never wait.
COMMANDER:: Tell me how I’ve offended; I’ll put right
what wrongs I’ve done, I swear it on my honour.
ALL:: Fuente Ovejuna! Long live Ferdinand,
and let all traitors and false Christians die!
COMMANDER:: Will you not listen? I demand you hear me;
it is your lord who speaks.
ALL:: Our only lords
are Ferdinand and Isabella.
COMMANDER:: Wait!
ALL:: Fuente Ovejuna! Death to Fernán Gómez!

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Fuente Ovejuna (1989) by Victor Dixon is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Fuente Ovejuna (2009), translated by Laurence Boswell

ACT THREE Scene One

Edition

Vega, Lope de. 2009. Fuente Ovejuna, trans. Laurence Boswell. London, Nick Hern

Context:

In one of the most famous scenes of the play, Laurencia returns to Fuente Ovejuna after being kidnapped and cruelly treated by the Comendador and his men. In this scene she returns to her father and berates him and the men of the town for not acting to protect her. She takes up arms against the Comendador and his tyranny.

Sample text

ESTEBAN:: Can we begin?
BARRILDO:: We’re still waiting for some people.
ESTEBAN:: Every minute we lose moves us closer to disaster.
BARRILDO:: Everyone’s been told the last few are on their way.
ESTEBAN:: Frondoso arrested and facing execution,
Laurencia abducted, facing God knows what.
Merciful heaven! You have to find a way to...; Enter JUAN ROJO and a Councillor.
JUAN ROJO:: Esteban. Stop shouting. You can be heard outside.
This meeting must be secret. We all depend on that.
ESTEBAN:: It’s a miracle I don’t shout any louder.; Enter MENGO.
MENGO:: I decided to come, let the meeting begin.
ESTEBAN:: Honourable farmers and friends, I stand before you
An old man whose white beard is wet with tears,
To ask what funeral rites can be spoken
Over the rotting corpse of our once dear town?
Such sacred words demand an honorable voice
And who amongst us can still lay claim to that?
Is there a man in this room whose dignity has
Escaped unscathed? Look around you council members.
There is no one here that man has not disgraced.
We share the same suffering, the same enemy.
We have endured enough: what have we left to fear?
JUAN ROJO:: We have endured the worst crimes imaginable.
However, I’ve received news that Ferdinand and
Isabella, having secured peace in Castile,
Are making their way south: I propose that we send
Two council members to meet them in Cordoba
To fall at their feet and to beg them for justice!
BARRILDO:: But Ferdinand and Isabella are fighting
Many battles on many fronts; they won’t have time
To deal with our troubles. With the greatest respect,
I think we should try to find another solution.
LEONELO:: If anyone would like to hear my opinion
I vote that we evacuate the town. Tonight!
JUAN ROJO:: Not practical! Evacuation would take days!
MENGO:: If the Commander finds out we’re up to something
Like that, he will kill every last man in this room.
ALONSO:: My friends, the mast of our little ship is broken
And we are sailing in a dangerous sea
Beyond thoughts of tolerance, restraint or fear.
With brutal violence he abducted the daughter
Of the good man who governs our community
And across his honest back with no sense of shame
We saw him he break the ancient staff of office!
What slave was ever treated with such vile contempt?
JUAN ROJO:: But what do you advise? What can the people do?
ALONSO:: We lie down and die or kill those who abuse us.
There are so few of them and so many of us.
BARRILDO:: You mean take up arms against our sovereign lord?
ESTEBAN:: In the eyes of God only the King is sovereign.
We owe no loyalty to men who behave like
Wild animals, and if heaven supports our cause
What have we to fear?
MENGO:: Gentlemen, it’s important
We proceed from here with all possible caution.
I represent the peasants, perhaps the poorest
Members of our community, who I fear would
Suffer the most should we follow your proposal.
JUAN ROJO:: What is left to fear? Our lives are being destroyed!
His men are burning down our homes and our vineyards!
He is a tyrant! It is time to take revenge.; Enter LAURENCIA, dishevelled.
LAURENCIA:: Let me in, open the door.
I want to address this meeting
Though I’m not allowed to vote here
I have the right to plead my case.
Do you recognize me?
ESTEBAN:: God, help us!
Is that my daughter?
JUAN ROJO:: There she is.
Laurencia!
LAURENCIA:: Yes, it’s me
In such a state that you don’t know me.
ESTEBAN:: Daughter!
LAURENCIA:: No! Don’t call me that!
Not, 'daughter'.
ESTEBAN:: Why, my precious one?
Why not that?
LAURENCIA:: I have my reasons.
Let’s begin with the obvious.
You stood and watched as I was snatched,
Abducted on my wedding day,
Watched, without lifting a finger
When protecting me was clearly
Your responsibility: your job
To fight for me, you failed: your job
To take revenge, you let me down.
Before the wedding night it’s the
Father, not the husband, who should
Protect the women of his house:
When you buy a diamond ring
You’re not liable for its safety,
Not for you to fight off criminals
Not until it’s safe at home.
You watched his thugs take me and
Drag me to his lair like a
Frightened shepherd watches a wolf
Run off with a lamb in its jaws.
They held their weapons to my throat,
Whispered obscenities in my ears,
Used every kind of cunning trick
To make me yield my body up
To his vile, insatiable, lust!
Does my hair tell you a story?
The scratches on my neck and chest?
The bruises on my thighs? The blood?
And you call yourselves good fathers?
And you call yourselves decent men?
Your hearts should burst wide open
To see one of your own like this!
Fuente Ovejuna! That’s us.
The spring of fresh water for sheep,
And how appropriate the name
When timid lambs live here, not men!
You blocks of stone, cold hearted as
The tigress: no, not the tigress,
For she ferociously chases down
The hunters who steal her children
Killing them without mercy before
Throwing herself into the sea:
So, not tigresses, no, but rabbits!
Hiding in your little holes: you
Roosters strutting on a dung hill
While other men violate your wives.
Why do those swords hang at your sides?
Why don’t I lend you my knitting
Needles to stick into your belts!
Then you can watch us do the job.
Women! We’ll wipe away the stain
Drink the blood of the abusers:
Then we will stone you in the streets,
You cowards! You eunuchs! You traitors!
We’ll parade you about the town
Dressed in our Sunday best, a nice
Head scarf, a smart skirt, a dab of
Perfume and a smudge of rouge, so:
Listen. Up there, the Commander
Is going to hang Frondoso
Without any kind of charge,
Without any kind of trial,
Hang him from a tree in his yard
And then he’ll come here for you,
And I’ll rejoice as he empties the town
Of its weak, impotent, failures,
And we will replace you, a tribe
Of brave Amazonian women
Will restore dignity to this town
And our deeds will stagger the world.
ESTEBAN:: My daughter, I am not sitting here
To be called any more vile names.
It’s time to fight and I’m going,
I’ll go alone if I have to.
No matter what’s decided here.
JUAN ROJO:: I’m with you! It is time to fight,
However strong our enemy.
ALONSO:: We fight as one! We die as one!
BARRILDO:: We march together heads held high.
JUAN ROJO:: In what order shall we march?
MENGO:: We go now and kill him without
Thinking about marching order
We’re united. We’ve one desire:
Yes? To kill those who abuse us!
ESTEBAN:: Arm yourselves with knives and daggers,
Swords and sickles, pikes and hammers!
MENGO:: Long live the King and Queen!
ALL:: Our masters!
MENGO:: And death to those who abuse us!
ALL:: Yes! Those who abuse us must die!; Exit all but LAURENCIA.
LAURENCIA:: Go! Now! Fight! Heaven protect them.
Women of Fuente Ovejuna.
Hear me! Come! Come here! Come now!
Reclaim your dignity. Come! Come!; Enter PASCUALA, JACINTA and other women.
PASCUALA:: Laurencia, what’s going on!
LAURENCIA:: Come, come and see our men running
To destroy Guzman and his thugs!
Look, there, young men, old men and boys.
Running to do what must be done.
Now, let me ask you, is it right
That only our men should enjoy
The glory of this night? The abuse
We’ve endured is no less than theirs.
JACINTA:: What do you suggest we do?
LAURENCIA:: Form ourselves into an army
And do such things that the world
Will never forget our names: Jacinta!
The awful things you’ve suffered
Will be our inspiration.
You lead our brigade of women!
JACINTA:: But they hurt you as much as me.
LAURENCIA:: Pascuala! You be our standard barer!
PASCUALA:: I’ll find a banner and a staff
And carry our colours with pride.
LAURENCIA:: Hoist a head scarf on a broomstick,
No time for digging out banners,
Fortune is smiling on us now,
Let’s grasp the moment while it’s ours!
PASCUALA:: Who’ll be our Cid, our Rodomonte?
LAURENCIA:: No one, when I’m on fire, we need
No hero come from the past
To lead us into battle!; Exit all.

Copyright