THREE JUDGMENTS AT A BLOW
A monologue from the
play by Pedro
Calderón de la Barca
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Eight Dramas of Calderon. Trans. Edward Fitzgerald.
London: Macmillan & Co., 1906. |
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- DONNA BLANCA: Oh, my liege,
- Not in one breath
- Turn royal mercy into needless threat;
- Though it be true my bosom has so long
- This secret kept close prisoner, and hop'd
- To have it buried with me in my grave,
- Yet if I peril my own name and theirs
- By such a silence, I'll not leave to rumour
- Another hour's suspicion; but reveal
- To you, my liege, yea, and to heaven and earth,
- My most disastrous story.
- My father, though of lineage high and clear
- As the sun's self, was poor; and knowing well
- How in this world honour fares ill alone,
- Betroth'd the beauty of my earliest years
- (The only dowry that I brought with me)
- To Lope de Urrea, whose estate
- Was to supply the much he miss'd of youth.
- We married--like December wed to May,
- Or flower of earliest summer set in snow;
- Yet heaven witness that I honour'd, ay,
- And loved him; though with little cause of love,
- And ever cold returns; but I went on
- Doing my duty toward him, hoping still
- To have a son to fill the gaping void
- That lay between us--yea, I pray'd for one
- So earnestly, that God, who has ordain'd
- That we should ask at once for all and nothing
- Of him who best knows what is best for us,
- Denied me what I wrongly coveted.
- Well, let me turn the leaf on which are written
- The troubles of those ill-assorted years,
- And to my tale. I had a younger sister,
- Whom to console me in my wretched home,
- I took to live with me--of whose fair youth
- A gentleman enamour'd--Oh, my liege,
- Ask not his name--yet why should I conceal it,
- Whose honour may not leave a single chink
- For doubt to nestle in?--Sir, 'twas Don Mendo,
- Your minister; who, when his idel suit
- Prosper'd not in my sister's ear, found means,
- Feeing one of the household to his purpose,
- To get admittance to her room by night;
- Where, swearing marriage soon should sanction love,
- He went away the victor of an honour
- That like a villain he had come to steal;
- Then, but a few weeks after, (so men quit
- All obligation save of their desire,)
- Married another, and growing great at court,
- Went on your father's bidding into France
- Ambassador, and from that hour to this
- Knows not the tragic issue of his crime.
- I, who perceived my sister's altered looks,
- And how in mind and body she fared ill,
- With menace and persuasion wrung from her
- The secret I have told you, and of which
- She bore within her bosom such a witness
- As double prey'd upon her life. Enough;
- She was my sister, why reproach her then,
- And to no purpose now the deed was done?
- Only I wonder'd at mysterious Heaven,
- Which her misfortune made to double mine,
- Who had been pining for the very boon
- That was her shame and sorrow; till at last,
- Out of the tangle of this double grief
- I drew a thread to extricate us both,
- By giving forth myself about to bear
- The child whose birth my sister should conceal.
- 'Twas done--the day came on--I feign'd the pain
- She felt, and on my bosom as my own
- Cherish'd the crying infant she had borne,
- And died in bearing--for even so it was;
- I and another matron (who alone
- Was partner in the plot)
- Assigning other illness for her death.
- This is my story, sir--this is the crime,
- Of which the guilt being wholly mine, be mine
- The punishment; I pleading on my knees
- My love both to my husband and my sister
- As some excuse. Pedro of Arragon,
- Whom people call the Just, be just to me:
- I do not ask for mercy, but for justice,
- And that, whatever be my punishment,
- It may be told of me, and put on record,
- That, howsoever and with what design
- I might deceive my husband and the world,
- At least I have not shamed my birth and honour.
MORE MONOLOGUES BY CALDERÓN |
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