TRANSLATION OF ‘FUENTE

OVEJUNA’ Senior Project

Lola Davis Lola813marie@gmail.com

Abstract A new translation of selections from Lope de Vega’s play ‘Fuente Ovejuna’ into modern English

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Table of Contents

2 Purpose Statement 4 Translator’s Statement 5 Translation

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Purpose Statement

Fuente Ovejuna is an early seventeenth-century play written by Lope de Vega,

one of the prominent playwrights of the Spanish Siglo del Oro (Golden Age). This play

features a small town in Spain ruled by a man known as the Commander and the

effects of his abuses upon the townspeople. The plot deals with honor, justice, abuse

of power, and community bonding through difficult situations, all of which were

relevant themes in Lope de Vega’s time. I want to make this script, and by association

these themes, available to audiences today so that they can have a look into what life

might have been like in the time of the play and see the similarities and differences to

their own lives today.

My goal is to translate select scenes from Fuente Ovejuna into modern

American English. My selected scenes are Act 1, Scene 4, Act 2, Scenes 1 and 3, and

Act 3, Scenes 1 and 2. These follow the course of the story from the inciting incident

through to one part of the dramatic conclusion. Act 1, Scene 4 begins with the

attempted rape of Laurencia, the mayor’s daughter, by the Commander, though he is

run off by Frondoso, Laurencia’s lover. The scenes continue through Laurencia and

Frondoso’s wedding and end with the townspeople’s justice against the Commander.

The untranslated scenes in-between my chosen texts focus on the sub-plots in the

script, and while they are important to the overall story, I prefer to follow Laurencia’s

journey through this section of the script. The challenges she faces tie directly into

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some of the main themes of the script: honor, the abuse of power, community bonds,

and, ultimately, justice.

Though Fuente Ovejuna has been translated before, out of the two versions I

have read, neither balances loyalty in translation, modern readability, and the

theatrical elements of the play. One version, translated by Jill Booty, tries to remain

loyal to the original, but it is an older translation and feels awkward to read. The

second, translated by Gwenda Pandolfi and adapted by Adrian Mitchell, is a much more

theatrical version, emphasizing rhyming patterns and musical moments, but at times it

seems to drift away from a faithful translation of the original script. I hope to find a

middle ground of sorts between these two translations, remaining faithful to the text

while also creating a usable modern English script.

In all of this, I do not intend to degrade the work of previous translators, for

each new translation is an addition or a commentary on the previous versions. I simply

wish to provide new insight to this script and a deeper analysis into what has been

worked on many times before. Translation is a difficult process at any time, but this

situation is doubly difficult because of the text in question. Fuente Ovejuna is over four

hundred years old and, as such, the language of the script is distant from modern

Castilian in the same way that Shakespeare’s English is distant from our modern

dialect. However, just as Shakespeare’s plays still provide insight to human nature and

can be adapted and enjoyed by modern audiences, I believe that de Vega’s scripts also

provide a look into honor and the nature of community that is relevant to theatre

audiences today.

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Translator’s Note:

This is not a complete translation of Fuente Ovejuna. This work is a collection of

scenes translated to facilitate the understanding of some of the integral themes of the

play.

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Fuente Ovejuna

Written by Lope de Vega

Translated by Lola Davis

Characters:

Fernán Gómez (Knight Commander)

Ortuño

Flores

Pascuala

Laurencia

Mengo

Barrildo

Frondoso

Juan Rojo

Leonelo (a student)

Esteban, Alonso (mayors)

a Councilor

Cimbranos (soldier)

Jacinta (farmer)

some Farmers (male and female)

some Musicians

Act 1, Scene 4

ENTER Laurencia and Frondoso

Laurencia: I wanted to twist the cloth in the middle, daring Frondoso, to not care what

is said, to divert me from the stream, to say to your excess what all the town

murmurs, that you watch me and I watch you, and everyone has their eyes on

us. And as you are a shepherd of those that tread, lively and surpassing the

others, cloaked in bravery and difficulties, in this whole place there is no woman

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or man in the meadow of grove that would not claim to say that we are already

together; and everyone is waiting for the day that the sexton Juan Chamorros

to cast us from the platform, leaving to the sounds of piporros. And their best

barns will see the blonde wheat in August packed and full to the brim, and their

jars of wine, such that an imagination has brought me to anger it is not

revealed to me, nor distressing to me, nor in it do I place my caution.

Frondoso: Such as I have your dozens, beautiful Laurencia, what I take, in danger of

seeing you, life, when I hear you. If you know that it is my intention and desire

to be your husband, this is a bad prize for my faith.

Laurencia: It is that I don’t know to give another.

Frondoso: Is it possible that you do not hurt yourself of looking at me so cautiously,

and that imagining in you, without drinking, sleeping or eating? Is it possible

that there is so much harshness in that angelic face? The heavens must be

mad!

Laurencia: Well they said hello to you, Frondoso.

Frondoso: Now I ask you for a greeting, and that together, we could be like doves, our

beaks touching, with cooing sounds after we give the church…

Laurencia: Say it to my uncle Juan Rojo, that though I do not want you strongly, now I

have a few hints.

Frondoso: Oh no, the lord is to the east.

Laurencia: As he approaches, I’ll hide away like a deer. Hide yourself in those

branches.

Frondoso: And with jealousy I’ll hide!

ENTER the Commander

Commander: It is not a bad to arrive following a frightened faun and run into such

beautiful game.

Laurencia: I was resting here for a moment from washing some towels, and like this,

I’ll take myself back to the stream, if your Honor will send me.

Commander: Coarse aquatic dozens that offend, beautiful Laurencia, the thanks of the

powerful heavens gave you, of suck luck, that you approach to be a monster.

But if other times you had been able to avoid my loving plea, now you do not

want the country, secret friend and alone; that alone you do not have to be so

prideful, that your countenance flees to your man, coming to me so little. Didn’t

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Sebastiana yield, wife of Pedro Redondo, though they are married, and the wife

of Martín del Pozo, having barely passed two day from their betrothal?

Laurencia: Those, sir, had already been with others on the path of pleasure, because

also many men deserved your favors. With God, after your deer; that to not see

you with the cross, you were taken by demon, so well you pursue me.

Commander: What an annoying style! I’ll but my crossbow on the ground and my

hands will practice reducing this foolishness.

Laurencia: What! This is what you’ll do? Are you in you?

ENTER Frondoso, taking the crossbow

Commander: Don’t defend yourself

Frondoso (aside): If I take the crossbow, life in that sky that which I can’t put in the

shoulder.

Commander: Stop this, give up.

Laurencia: Heavens help me now!

Commander: We are alone, don’t be afraid.

Frondoso: Generous Commander, leave the lady, of believe that from my offense and

anger I will be white as your chest, though the cross will give me a shadow.

Commander: Dog, villain!...

Frondoso: There is no dog. Run, Laurencia.

Laurencia: Frondoso, watch what you do.

Frondoso: Get out of here.

She EXITS

Commander: Oh, how awful to have a crazy man, that lowers himself to the sword!

That, from not fearfully driving away the hunt, took it from me.

Frondoso: Well, good heavens, sir, if I pull the trigger, I will have to pile you up.

Commander: Now he departs. Treacherous villain release the crossbow, then. Shoot it,

peasant.

Frondoso: What? You will kill me. And I warn you that love is deaf, and that it doesn’t

hear words the day that it is on its throne.

Commander: Well, is the sword going to turn such a brave man to a villain? Fire,

scoundrel, fire, and take care; for I will break the laws of knighthood.

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Frondoso: Not this. I’m satisfied with my status, and I’ll do what I need to guard my

life. I’m leaving with the crossbow.

Commander: New and unknown danger! I will take vengeance for the insult and the

nuisance. That will not end with him! By the heavens I will go!

Act 2, Scene 1

ENTER Esteban and 1st Councilor

Esteban: This way I am healthy, it seems, that I cannot take from them more

predictions about the granary. The year aims badly, and time increases, and it is

better that the harvest is deposited, though they contradict it more than three

times.

1ST Councilor: I always have been, to the end, of that opinion, to govern that republic

in peace.

Esteban: We do that which Fernán Gómez requests of us. He cannot suffer those

astrologers, in their ignorant futures, who want to convince us with long

prologues about God’s important secrets that only they know. It is good that

through understanding of the holy books, they know of what will come and

what already was! And asking for the present is important, but that is where

most wise men will look most ignorant. Do they have the clouds in their house

and the procession of the stars? For when they see it pass in the sky so that we

give with their grief? They in the field plant seeds for us: giving the wheat,

barley and the legumes, pumpkins, cucumbers and mustard… they are to the

faith, the squash. Later they count that a head died, and after, it came to be in

Transylvania; that there will be little wine, and there will be too much beer from

Germany, that the cherries will freeze in France and there will be many tigers in

the East. And to the end, to the end, whether it is planted or not planted, the

year will end by December.

ENTER Leonelo (a student) and Barrildo

Leonelo: To faith that you all didn’t will the paddle because the café was already full.

Barrildo: How did Salamanca treat you?

Leonelo: It’s a long story.

Barrildo: You will be staff.

Leonelo: Not until a barber. It is, like I say, and obvious thing that I refer you to this

college.

Barrildo: Without a doubt that you’ll be a good student.

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Leonelo: To know that I have procured it is important.

Barrildo: After we saw such an impressive book, there is nothing from the wise men

that you wouldn’t know.

Leonelo: Before they ignored more, I feel by this, to not reduce them to a brief

summary, because confusion, with the excess, their intents resolve in vain faith;

to one who can read it has more use, the one who can only see the letters is

confused. I don’t deny that to print the art of a thousand ingenuities took out

from between the jargon, and to seem that in holy part their works are guarded

and against the housed time; East they are distributed and delivered. They owe

this invention to Gutenberg, a famous Teuton of Mainz, renowned for his

courage. More than a lot of that opinion were grave, to print their works they

had forgotten, after this, with the name of what they knew, many of their

ignorance was printed. Others, with the lowest envy, their crazy mistakes were

written, and with the name of whoever that abhor, sent out to the world what

was written.

Barrildo: I am not of this opinion.

Leonelo: The ignorant is right to take revenge of the lettered.

Barrildo: Leonelo, printing is important.

Leonelo: Without it, many centuries have passed, and we do not see that in it was

raised a Saint Jerome, an Augustine…

Barrildo: Leave it and settle yourself, you’re sulking.

ENTER Juan Rojo and another farmer

Juan Rojo: In four estates there isn’t enough for a dowry, if everything you see was to

be used; that the man who is curious is good to note that in that the

neighborhood and the common people walk confused.

Farmer: What is there of the Commander? He isn’t riling you up.

Juan Rojo: He put Laurencia in this country!

Farmer: Who was he so cruel and lecherous? You’ll see him hanging from some olive

tree.

ENTER Commander, Ortuño, and Flores

Commander: May God guard the good people

Councilor: Oh, Lord!

Commander: By my life, so you should be

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Esteban: Your Honor, to where you are used to feeling, that valid we are very well

Commander: I said what they have to feel about me

Esteban: Of the virtues is honor, that it is not possible to give honor to those that do

not have it.

Commander: Sit down. We will talk

Esteban: Did your honor see the greyhound?

Commander: Mayor, those servants will be scared to see such an outstanding agility

Esteban: It is an extreme piece. Pardon that they can run to the side of a delinquent or

coward in question.

Commander: I would like on this occasion for them to reunite a hare that by its feet I

lost for a few moments

Esteban: By Gods will I’ll do it. Where is it?

Commander: Where your daughter is

Esteban: My daughter!

Commander: Yes

Esteban: Well, is it good to be short of you?

Commander: He is close mayor, by god

Esteban: What?

Commander: He has given me shame. There is a woman, and main, of whatever that

is in the plaza that is said to the first appearance appears for me to see

Esteban: That is wrong, and you sir, you are not good in talking so freely

Commander: Oh what an eloquent villager. Ah Flores, make it so he is given Politics,

so that he can read of Aristotle

Esteban: Sir, to live under your honor is all that the desires. Look in Fuente Ovejuna

there are people of good character

Leonelo: Did they see such equal shamelessness?

Commander: Well, did I do something that weighed on you Councilor?

Councilor: That which all you had said is unjust, not saying it, but it is not right that

you have taken honor from us

Commander: You have honor? What Calatravan priests!

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Councilor: Some perhaps praise themselves of the cross they put on, though the blood

is not so clean

Commander: And is it dirtied by joining mine to yours?

Councilor: When the bad is dyeing more that cleaning

Commander: Of whatever luck that there is, may your woman honor is

Esteban: Those words dishonor, there is no one that thinks them

Commander: What a tired villain! Ah! The cities are much better. No one interferes

with the wants of a man of quality, there they appreciate men that visit their

wives.

Esteban: They will not; With that you want we are living carelessly. In the cites there is

god and more ready to punish them

Commander: Get out of here

Esteban: What did he say the you all hear from the two

Commander: Leave the plaza, then. No one remains here.

Esteban: We’re already going.

Commander: Well not like this

Flores: What are my orders?

Commander: They will want to form a small group of villains is my absence

Ortuño: Have some patience

Commander: of so much I amaze myself. Each one because of yes you will go through

their houses

Leonelo: Heavens! Is that why you pass?

Esteban: I already on my way from here

He EXITS

Commander: What do you think of those people?

Ortuño: You do not know how to hide that you do not want to listen to the dislike that

they feel

Commander: They equal themselves with me

Flores: It is not that they are equating themselves

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Commander: And the villain, has he stayed himself with the crossbow without

punishment?

Flores: Last night I thought he was at Laurencia’s door, and to the other that your

presence and your chapel imitated from ear to ear tell him a famous benefit

Commander: Where will this Frondoso be?

Flores: They say that he walks through there.

Commander: Through there the man that wanted to kill be dares to walk

Flores: Like the bird without warning or the fish coming to give to the lure or the hook

Commander: What is that to a captain, whose sword shakes Cordoba and Granada, a

farmer, a boy puts a crossbow to my chest. The world runs out for him, Flores

Flores: Like this they will be able to love you

Ortuño: And well that he lives. I suspect that great friendship you owe him.

Commander: I have concealed Ortuño that if not, from tip to grip, before from two

brief hours past the hold place, that until the occasion arrives to break from

reason, I will make the vengeance exist. What is there of Pascuala?

Flores: She responds that she now walks towards marriage

Commander: Until there she wants to confide in…?

Flores: In the end, she refers you where they will pay you of reckoning

Commander: What is there of Olalla?

Ortuño: A funny response

Commander: She’s a spirited girl, what is it?

Ortuño: That her fiancé came after her those jealous days of my messages and that

with your servants to you, went to visit there. But that if it doesn’t bother you,

you’ll go like before

Commander: Good, to the faith of a knight. But the villager watches out…

Ortuño: Watches, and walks for the winds

Commander: What of Inés?

Flores: Which?

Commander: Antón’s wife.

Flores: For whatever occasion she has already offered her graces. Talk with her by the

corral, that where you have to enter if you wish

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Commander: To the easy I want a lot and pay a little. If these they knew- oh Flores! to

have self-respect of what they are worth…

Flores: There are no dislikes that are worth contrasting your favors. To give up quickly

is unworthy of the hope of the good but they are women also. Because the

philosophy says that they want to feel like to the men as a figure desires the

material. And that this is like that, it is not that which surprised you

Commander: A man of crazy loves enjoys himself that after his accident gives it up

easily but after he has them little and the =path of forgetting to the man more

obligated is to have little side of what he can desire

ENTER Cimbranos, a soldier

Cimbranos: Is the commander here?

Ortuño: Don’t you see him in your presence?

Cimbranos: Oh gallant Fernán Gómez! You exchange the green bullfighters hat and the

white muzzle and the overcoat in new arms, that the master of Santiago and

the Count of Cabra surround don Rodrigo Girón for the Spanish queen in Ciudad

Real of luck what is not much that got lost, it that in Calatrava you know that

such blood is found hard already they spot with the lights from the tall

battlements the castles and Lions and Aragon bars and though the king of

Portugal honors what Girón would like, he doesn’t make little of what the

masters at Almagro with life returns. Retrieve you horse, sir, that alone as long

as they seem they will come back to Spain.

Commander: Don’t go on, hold yourself, wait. Go, Ortuño, then take a trumpet to the

plaza. What soldiers do I have here?

Ortuño: I think that you have fifty.

Commander: Tell them all to mount their horses

Cimbranos: If you do not go quickly, Ciudad Real is the king’s

Commander: Don’t be afraid that it will be

They EXIT

ACT 2, SCENE 3

MUSICIANS: May the couple live for many years! Many years!

MENGO: To faith, that the song hasn’t cost us much work

BARRILDO: You knew it, you write songs better than he is writing

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FRONDOSO: You know more of lashes now than of verses

MENGO: Someone is in the valley so that you aren’t disturbed by commander

BARRILDO: Don’t say it, by your life, that homicidal brute to everyone lost his honor

MENGO: That they whipped me to my hundred soldiers that day… I only had one sling;

but they have them thrown an enema to a man that though I will not say his name, all

know that he is honorable, full of ink and porcelain, how can he suffer?

BARRILDO: You would make him laugh

MENGO: There is no laughter with enemas, that though it is a healthy thing… I want to

die then.

FRONDOSO: Well, the song, I beg of you, if it is a reasonable song.

MENGO: May the couple live many years together, I ask the heavens, with no envy nor

jealousy, not scolding nor counting of points. May they die together, of pure married

life. May they live many years!

FRONDOSO: I swear the sky the poet that what lines you threw out

BARRILDO: It was very quick…

MENGO: I’m thinking of something from that sect. Haven’t you seen a baker in the

boiling oil pieces of dough are put until they fill the pot? What ones leave puffed,

others half seen and badly made, already left and already right, already fried and

already burnt? Well like that I imagine a poet composes, the subject preventing that is

who the dough gives them. It goes quickly throwing verse into the pot of paper,

confident that the honey will cover the taunt and laughter. But putting it in the chest

there is hardly anyone who took them, so much that the only one to eat them is the

same that made them

BARRILDO: He drops you already from madness; leave the lovers to talk

LAURENCIA: Give us your hands to kiss

JUAN [ROJO]: Daughter, you give my hand? Give it to your father then for you and for

Frondoso

ESTEBAN: Rojo, to her and her spouse that give them the heaven’s prayer with its long

blessing

FRONDOSO: The two to the two and cast them

JUAN [ROJO]: Each play and sing, but that they can be one

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MUSICIANS: To the dance of Fuente Ovejuna the girl in short hair, the gentleman of

the Cross of Calatrava follows her. Between the branches she hides, from shyness and

alarm, pretending that he has not seen her, put in front of the branches. “Why do you

hide, dashing young maid?” “That my sharp walled desires will pass.” The knight

moved closed, and she, confused and wary, wanted to make trellises of the intricate

branches; but as one has love the mountains and the seas are crossed easily, she said

felling words; “Why do you hide, dashing young maid? That my sharp walled desires

will pass.”

ENTER the Commander, Flores, Ortuño and Cimbranos

COMMANDER: Make sure that the wedding remains and that no one is worked up

JUAN [ROJO]: This isn’t a game to put to bed, sir, and enough that you order it.

(Insolent tone) You want the place? How do you come with your belligerent display?

To conquer yourself? But who asked me?

FRONDOSO: I am dead! Heavens free me!

LAURENCIA: Run from here, Frondoso.

COMMANDER: Not that, catch him, seize him

JUAN [ROJO]: He’ll take you, boy, to prison

FRONDOSO: Well, you want them to kill me?

JUAN [ROJO]: Why?

COMMANDER: I am not a man that kills without blame to anyone; that if I was, I

would have passed from part to part those soldiers that are brought. I demand he be

taken to the prison, where the fault that had me sentence his own father

PASCUALA: Sir, see that he is married.

COMMANDER: That obligates me to whom he married? Are there no other people in

the town?

PASCUALA: If he offended you, pardon him, so that you can be who you are

COMMANDER: It is not a thing, Pascuala, in that I am a part. It is this against the

master, Téllez Girón that God guards; it is against his whole order, his honor, and it is

important for the example, the punishment; that what will be another day who treats

of raised banner against him, well now you know that a late to the major commander

(of such loyal vassals!) put a crossbow to my chest

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ESTEBAN: I suppose that the forgiving now can take a father-in-law, there is not much

that in cut down causes he breaks down with you a man, indeed, loving, because if

you pretend your own woman left you, what more is there to defend her?

COMMANDER: You are stupid, mayor.

ESTEBAN: By your virtue, sir.

COMMANDER: I never wanted to have your woman, so I won’t

ESTEBAN: If you wanted…- and that saddlecloth; that there are royals in Spain that

have new orders that with disorder leaves. And it will be bad when they rest from the

wars, in to suffer in their villages and places to men so powerful from carrying crosses

so large; the king puts it on his chest, for this insignia is for real chests and no more.

COMMANDER: Hello! The staff is leaving you

ESTEBAN: Take it, sir, congratulations.

COMMANDER: Well with her I want to give it, like to a spirited horse

ESTEBAN: By God, I beg you. Give her to me

PASCUALA: Give her to an elder of staffs!

LAURENCIA: If you give me to him because he is my father, what comes of the man

who is mine?

COMMANDER: Take him and ensure to guard him with ten soldiers.

He and his EXIT

ESTEBAN: Justice of heaven come down

EXITS

PASCUALA: The wedding has turned to mourning

EXITS

BARRILDO: Is there not a man here that would speak?

MENGO: I already have my lashes, that even the cardinals see without a man going to

Rome. Others can try to anger him

JUAN [ROJO]: We all need to talk

MENGO: Sirs, here all the world walks. Like circles of salmon he put the ties to me

ACT 3, SCENE 1

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ENTER Esteban, Alonso and Barrildo

ESTEBAN: They haven’t come to the council?

BARRILDO: No they haven’t

ESTEBAN: But more quickly our damage runs

BARRILDO: Now it is more of the town prepared

ESTEBAN: Frondoso with shackles in the tower and my daughter Laurencia in such a

predicament, if the mercy of God doesn’t help them…

ENTER Juan Rojo and the Councilor

JUAN: Of what are you giving voice, Esteban, when the secret is so important to our

well-being?

ESTEBAN: That I give so little is the greater fight

ENTER Mengo

MENGO: I also came to be part of the council

ESTEBAN: A man whose grey hairs cover the weeping, honorable farmers, asks us

what funerals should be made total those people to their homeland without honor,

now forgotten. And if they call them honored justly, how will they make of us if there

is nothing between us men to whom that brute doesn’t affront? Answer me: Is there

any one of you that is not hurting in honor and life? Do you not lament from one to the

other? Well, if not you have forgotten it all, what are you waiting for? What misfortune

is that?

JUAN: The oldest in the world was suffering. But since now it is published and declared

that in peace have the royals to Castilla, and their arrival to Córdoba prepared them,

the two councilors got to the town and throwing themselves at their feet asking for a

solution

BARRILDO: While Fernando, he who humiliated some enemies, another method would

be better, but he will not be able to, busy, we do well, with some war in the middle

COUNCILOR: If my vote of voice listening outside, to abandon the town is where I

stand.

JUAN: How is it possible in limited time?

MENGO: To faith, that if I understand the racket, that has to cost the council some life

COUNCILOR: Now, all the tree of patience broken, the ship runs from forgotten fear.

They took your daughter such great ferocity to an honorable man, of whom is

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governing the county in which you live, and in the head the sod they break so unjustly.

What slave did he treat with more vileness?

JUAN: What is it you want the town to try?

COUNCILOR: To die, or to give death to the tyrants, because we are many and they

are few

BARRILDO: Raise arms against the lord!

ESTEBAN: The King alone is our lord after the heavens, and not cruel, inhuman men.

If God helps out just zeal, what would it have to cost?

MENGO: Watch, sirs, that you go in these things with suspicion. Though for the simple

farmers I am here, that more ravages pass, I present more sensible your fears

JUAN: If our misfortunes measure us, to lose our lives, what we wait for, the horses

and vineyards we burn: they are tyrants, to vengeance we go

ENTER Laurencia, disheveled

LAURENCIA: Let me enter, how well I can in council of the men; as well as a woman

can, if she does not give her vote to give voices. Do you know me?

ESTEBAN: Saints in heaven! Isn’t it my daughter?

JUAN: Don’t you know Laurencia?

LAURENCIA: I come as such, that my difference puts you in the possibility of who I

am.

ESTEBAN: My daughter!

LAURENCIA: Don’t name me your daughter

ESTEBAN: Why, my eyes, why?

LAURENCIA: For many reasons, and these are the main, because you left me to be

stolen by tyrants without avenging me, traitors without retrieving me. Even if I was not

Frondoso’s, so that you say he could take, as my husband, vengeance; that through

here your bill runs; that while the wedding’s night had not arrived, of the father, and

not of the husband, the obligation is assumed, that while they had not delivered me as

a jewel, though they bought it, he didn’t have to run for my bill, the guards nor the

thieves. He took me from your eyes to the house of Fernán Gómez; the sheep to the

wolf you left like cowardly shepherds. Can’t you see the daggers in my chest? What

huge mistakes that words, that threats, and that atrocious crimes, to pay my

innocence to their clumsy desires! My knights, didn’t they say it? Don’t they see here

the blows, of the blood and the signs? You are honorable men? You are fathers and

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relatives? You, that don’t know that they break you to the heart of pain, to see me in

such pain? You are sheep, and they are right that Fuente Ovejuna is our name, for this

town is overflowing with sheep.

Give your weapons to me, for you are rocks, you are brass, you are jasper, you are tigers…

No, not tigers, because they will viciously follow those who steal their young, killing the

hunters before they cross through the sea and to the waves they are thrown. Cowardly

hare you were born; you are barbarians, not Spaniards. Chickens, your women suffer

while other men enjoy themselves! He puts us spinners on the belt. For what are you

surrounding us with swords? By God, that I have to plot that women alone collect the

honor of those tyrants, the blood of these traitors and that they make us throw rocks,

spinners, outcasts, cowards, and that tomorrow they adorn us and our headdresses

and skirts, solomans and colors!

He wants Frondoso now, without a sentence, without proclamation, to hang the commander

from the battlement of a tower; from all who will do the same; and I will enjoy myself,

middle men, for it will leave that honorable village without women, and it will return to

that age of Amazons, eternal terror from the globe.

ESTEBAN: I, daughter, am not of those that allowed that the names with these vile

titles. I will be alone, if you put all the world against me.

JUAN: And I, for more than the nobility of the opposite astounds me.

COUNCILOR: We die together

BARRILDO: Spread out a linen to the wind on a post and kill those giants

JUAN: What order do you think we have?

MENGO: We’re going to kill him without and order. Join the town to one voice; so that

all will agree that the tyrants died

ESTEBAN: Take swords, lances, crossbows, spiked sticks and rods.

MENGO: Long live our royals!

TODOS: May they live many years!

MENGO: Death to tyrant traitors!

TODOS: Death to tyrant traitors!

They EXIT

LAURENCIA: Go, so the heavens hear you. —Ah the women of the town! Come here,

so that you can collect your honor, come here everyone!

ENTER Pascuala, Jacinta, and the other women

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PASCUALA: What is this? Why are you shouting?

LAURENCIA: You didn’t see how everyone is going to kill Fernán Gómez, and men,

boys and servants, furious, are running to join? Will it be good that only they of this

feat enjoy the honor, but are not of the women their offenses lesser?

JACINTA: Well, say it, what are you intending to do?

LAURENCIA: That settling everyone in order, we overcome to a deed that frightens all

the world. Jacinta, your great grievance, that was the lord; what do you think of a

squad of women?

JACINTA: They are not your lessers

LAURENCIA: Pascuala, you will be my flag bearer

PASCUALA: Well tell me what to hoist up the pole for a flag, you’ll see if I deserve my

name

LAURENCIA: There isn’t space for that, but good luck will help us; we are good enough

that we can take our headdresses for pendants

PASCUALA: We should name a captain

LAURENCIA: Not that

PASCUALA: Why?

LAURENCIA: That to where attends my great bravery, there is no Cides Or

Rodamontes

They EXIT

ENTER Frondoso, hands bound, Flores, Ortuño, Cimbranos, and the Commander

COMMANDER: Of this cord that the hands is left over I want you to hang him, for

larger suffering

FRONDOSO: What name, great sir, your blood collects!

COMMANDER: Hang him up then in the first battlement

FRONDOSO: It was never my intention to put by work your death then

FLORES: There’s a loud noise

Loud noise.

COMMANDER: Noise?

FLORES: And in a way that interrupts your justice, sir.

ORTUÑO: The doors are breaking.

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Noise.

COMMANDER: The door to my house, the house I was appointed!

FLORES: The town is coming together.

JUAN (Outside.): Break, collapse, destroy, burn, scorch.

ORTUÑO: A popular rebellion is bad if they stop you.

COMMANDER: The town is against me!

FLORES: The fury will pass forward son, when the doors have been tossed to the

ground.

COMMANDER: Break them down. Restrain, Frondoso, this peasant mayor.

FRONDOSO: I’ll go sir; that love has motivated them0.

He EXITS

MENGO (Outside.): Long live Fernando and Isabel, kill the traitors!

FLORES: Sir, by God I ask you that they don’t find you here.

COMMANDER: If they press on, this chamber is strong and defensible. They will turn

back.

FLORES: When the offended towns get shaken up, and resolve themselves, nothing

except blood or vengeance will turn them back.

COMMANDER: In this door, this way like a portcullis, their frenzy with the weapons will

defend us.

FRONDOSO (Outside.): Long live Fuente Ovejuna!

COMMANDER: What a leader! I am why their fury attacks us.

FLORES: Of your fury, sir, I am amazed.

ESTEBAN: Now we can see the tyrant and his accomplices. Fuente Ovejuna, and kill

the tyrants!

ENTER All

COMMANDER: Town, wait.

TODOS: Our grievances never wait.

COMMANDER: You speak to me of these, that I will pay to the faith of a knight these

errors.

TODOS: Fuente Ovejuna! Long live King Fernando! Kill the bad Christians and traitors!

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COMMANDER: You don’t want to listen to me? I am speaking, I am your lord.

TODOS: Our lords are the Catholic Royals.

COMMANDER: Wait.

TODOS: Fuente Ovejuna, and kill Fernán Gómez!

They EXIT and the armed women ENTER

LAURENCIA: Stop in this position of daring, hopeful soldiers, not women.

PASCUALA: Those that women are in their vengeance, to he they’ll drink his blood is

good for you to wait?

JACINTA: His body we gather in the lances.

PASCUALA: All are of those same appearances.

ESTEBAN (Outside.): Die, traitorous commander!

COMMANDER: I am already dead. Mercy sir, I am begging for your mercy!

BARRILDO (Outside.): Here’s Flores.

MENGO: Goa head with that scoundrel; that was he that gave me two thousand

lashes.

FRONDOSO (Outside.): I won’t come if I can’t take out his heart.

LAURENCIA: We won’t apologize for entering.

PASCUALA: Don’t agitate yourself. It is okay to guard the door.

BARRILDO (Outside.): I am not appeased. Now with tears, my lords!

LAURENCIA: Pascuala, I will go inside, so my sword will not have to be restrained or

sheathed.

She EXITS

BARRILDO (Outside.): He is Ortuño.

FRONDOSO (Outside.): Cut his face.

ENTER Flores, disheveled, and Mengo after him.)

FLORES: Mengo, mercy! I wasn’t the culprit.

MENGO: When you are the go between it’s not enough, you were enough to make me

the beaten scoundrel.

PASCUALA: Give him to us women, Mengo, to... end his life.

MENGO: I’ll give him now; I don’t want him for my greatest punishment.

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PASCUALA: I will avenge your lashes.

MENGO: I said that.

JACINTA: Go, kill the traitor!

FLORES: Among women!

JACINTA: You aren’t getting comfortable?

PASCUALA: Is that crying?

JACINTA: Kill him, however pleases you.

PASCUALA: Yes, kill the traitor!

FLORES: Mercy, ladies!

ENTER Ortuño, fleeing from Laurencia.)

ORTUÑO: Look, I am not...

LAURENCIA: I already know who you are. –Go in, dye the winning weapons in these

viles.

PASCUALA: I will die killing you.

TODAS: ¡Fuente Ovejuna, and long live King Fernando!

They EXIT