Scene One
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.
Doña Rufina. The banquet is ended. (She rises.)
Doña Syrena. They are going to drink to the healths of the newly married ones!
All rise. Shouts and acclamations in the hall, followed by very sweet music. All the guests come out, those in front turning to look into the banquet hall. Fatoum appears on the pavement, while valets distribute flowers among the assistants.