[Cardenos, Ramiro, Doña Rufina, Doña Serafina, Doña Syrena, Doña
Fabia, Velasco, Don Ambrosio, Rioubos, Cristobol, Cavaliers, Women,
etc.]
[Ambrosio, Syrena, Serafina, Fabia, are seated in the foreground.
Cristobol and Rioubos are outside.]
DOÑA FABIA. Ah! here is Doña Rufina.
[Doña Rufina enters with Ramiro into the foreground. Salutations.]
RAMIRO. (To Doña Rufina) Then, Señora, you were not at the cathedral?
DOÑA RUFINA. (Seating herself in a chair which Ramiro places at the
left) No!--I have just arrived from Aranjuez, bringing the Queen's
gift to the bride--a very costly girdle-buckle.
CRISTOBOL. It was a beautiful ceremony, Señora.
RIOUBOS. His Eminence Cardinal Ximénès himself pronounced the nuptial
blessing.
DOÑA SYRENA. Naturally! Doña Joana is his god-daughter.
DOÑA RUFINA. The city seems to me very gay.
DOÑA FABIA. Compared with it ordinarily.
RAMIRO. Yes, all day they have had on the Plaza del Zocodover
entertainments by jugglers, buffoons, dancers and monstrous African
monkeys!
DON AMBROSIO. (An old cavalier sitting in an arm-chair) Yes, at this
moment there is singing and dancing in all the public places.
DOÑA SYRENA. Among us, this marriage was a long time postponed.
DOÑA FABIA. Yes--they were betrothed five years.
RAMIRO. Pardon me, Señoras. When Don Enrique's father--the Lord
Palacios--felt that he could not live much longer he decided to
select a wife for his son's future marriage. He and the Governor
made an arrangement whereby Don Enrique and Doña Joana were
affianced. As Doña Joana was then only ten years old, her father made
her go to the convent to grow up!
DOÑA RUFINA. They say she became so devout they believed she would
never come out.
DOÑA SYRENA. She did not have a radiant air in the church--the bride!
RIOUBOS. No more than did Enrique.
CRISTOBOL. There was one radiant person--the Governor!
VELASCO. (Unexpectedly) Undoubtedly because his daughter did not take
the veil!
RAMIRO. (To Velasco) What! are you here, Velasco?--I believed you
were in Alpujarras, chasing the Moors.
VELASCO. (Bowing to the women) I was, in a way; but I have returned
for this fête.
DON AMBROSIO. Have they not yet taught these rebels to be reasonable?
VELASCO. They have retreated into inaccessible places where it is
impossible to follow them.
DON AMBROSIO. They are chasing these pagans too long.
RAMIRO. Not now, Don Ambrosio. His Eminence and the Governor are
after them with the hand of death.
DON AMBROSIO. Then, Ramiro, you will see the advantages of severe
treatment. Within six months thousands of Moors will be converted.
[Murmurs of satisfaction. The music ceases.]
CARDENOS. That is a mere farce, my Lord Ambrosio! (Gravely) These new
Christians are liars--they go to mass, only to laugh when they come
away. They themselves confess of avowing only to silly things. When
their children are baptized, they wash them quickly to cleanse them
of what they call the pollution of the blessed holy oil. (Murmurs of
indignation) Their daughters are married at our altars, dressed as
Christians, but when they reënter their homes they dress themselves
as Moors--and celebrate their nuptials with dances and forbidden
Arabian songs, such as the zambra, to the music of tambourines,
trumpet-shells, cymbals and other instruments also forbidden!
DOÑA RUFINA. For my part, I can overlook the zambra and the
tambourine, but I strongly approve prohibiting Moorish women from
dyeing their eyebrows and eyelashes. They are bold enough looking
without that.
DOÑA SYRENA. Oh, my! I think the most admirable royal edict is the
one which provides the penalty of execution for any intimacy between
a Spaniard and a Mooress--for there are truly beautiful girls in the
homes of these Africans, and you are not too little inclined, my
lords, to perceive them.
RIOUBOS. And for my part, Señora, I strongly approve of the edict
which punishes with solitary confinement in a dungeon any Spanish
woman who loves one of these blacks to whose beauty you are not
always indifferent.
DOÑA SYRENA. (Quickly) Oh! but that is all the more excusable.
[Laughter and exclamations.]
DOÑA RUFINA. (Quickly) Ah, my dear, what did you say then?
DOÑA SYRENA. (A little confused by her blunder) You see!--Yes!--The
circumstances are very different.
[The same sounds of laughter.]
RAMIRO. Ah! see, I beg of you, Señora--see the difference!
DOÑA SYRENA. What!--If the intrigue has results, is it not so?
ALL. Yes!
RAMIRO. A child!
DOÑA SYRENA. In the first case, the mother being Moorish the child is
a little Mussulman--in the second case, where the mother is Spanish,
it is a little Christian!--Dear angel!--And there are never too many
of those!
ALL. (Laughing in approval) Oh! very good! Very ingenious! Charming!
[Three trumpet calls are sounded in the banquet room.]