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• The Doctor of his Honour : ACT TWO, lines 1074-1170 , ACT THREE, lines 2566-2633

The Doctor of his Honour, translated by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy)

ACT TWO, lines 1074-1170

Context:

Enrique courted Mencía before she was married, and never knew why she slighted him. Now, Enrique has healed from his fall from his horse, and taking advantage of Mencía’s husband’s absence, he sneaks into her house to see her and get some answers. He finds her sleeping, and when she wakes she is horrified that he has endangered her reputation by coming to her when she is alone and vulnerable.

Sample text

ENRIQUE:

She is alone. I cannot doubt
my good fortune in discovering her here,
and if my luck should desert me
being in the right place at the right time
should reassure me.
Most beautiful Mencía!

MENCÍA:

Oh, God!

She wakes up.

ENRIQUE:

Don’t be frightened.

MENCÍA:

What’s happening?

ENRIQUE:

An act of daring,
by a heart emboldened by years of hoping.

MENCÍA:

But, Sir, you …

ENRIQUE:

Don’t disturb yourself.

MENCÍA:

… in this way …

ENRIQUE:

Don’t get upset.

MENCÍA:

…have entered …

ENRIQUE:

Don’t be angry.

MENCÍA:

… this house without fearing
that you might destroy a woman’s honour,
offending one of the King’s
most loyal and noble subjects?

ENRIQUE:

I was only taking your advice.
You told me to seek out the woman
who had scorned me, and here I am,
ready to hear her reasons
for leaving me aggrieved.

MENCÍA:

It’s true, that’s my fault;
but if I am to explain myself,
your Highness, there can be no doubt
that I act only in accordance with my honour.

ENRIQUE:

You presume I could be
ignorant of the respect
I owe to your rank and your noble ways?
In my hunting party today,
I wish to keep only my own company.
That way I will not frighten my quarry.
For I do not wish it to be disturbed
by my watching it,
but I wish to see it fly towards the horizon,
and if my prey is you, my wide-winged heron,
you touch the blue skies as you glide
from the palace of the sun
to the golden balustrades of heaven.

MENCÍA:

You speak very well, your Highness,
of the heron in its flight from the hunter,
but the instinct of the heron will lead it
to fly up to the heavens,
a bolt of feathered lightning without light,
a bird with fire in its soul,
with instinct only to fly through the clouds,
like a black comet without a fiery tail,
chased by a predatory royal hawk
who would mock it and destroy it.
They say that although herons flee
from all attackers, they can identify
the ones which have true fatal power over them,
and rather than fighting them,
they will stay still, trembling, shuddering,
their feathers will stand on end.
So it is with me, seeing your Highness,
I stood mute, I could not move,
I felt the danger, but I just trembled and did not flee;
I was afraid, and horrified;
all this because I can hear the fear
in the beat of my racing heart,
signalling the threat of death.

ENRIQUE:

I came to speak with you, and I had the chance;
I am not going to lose it now.

MENCÍA:

How can I bear this?
I will call out.

ENRIQUE:

You only endanger
your own reputation.

MENCÍA:

How is it wild beasts
do not charge in and rescue me?

ENRIQUE:

They’re afraid of displeasing me.

GUTIERRE is heard in the next room.

GUTIERRE:

Take off my spurs, Coquín,
and knock on the door.

MENCÍA:

Heavens!
My fears were not in vain;
my life is coming to an end.

It’s Gutierre, oh God!

ENRIQUE:

Oh, unhappily I was born!

MENCÍA:

What will become of me, Sir,
if you are found here with me?

ENRIQUE:

But what can I do?

MENCÍA:

Hide.

ENRIQUE:

You want me to hide?

MENCÍA:

A woman’s honour
should more than oblige you.

You cannot come out (oh, I’m dead!)
to open the door for you.

But do not go out yet.

ENRIQUE:

What can I do in such confusion?

MENCÍA:

Behind the curtain,
hanging in my own room,

go there and hide.

ENRIQUE:

Until now,
I have not known what it is
to feel fear. Oh how brave
a husband must have to be!

He hides.

MENCÍA:

If an innocent woman suffers so,
Oh God, must I act the coward
just to save myself from blame?

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation The Doctor of his Honour by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy) is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ACT THREE, lines 2566-2633

Context:

Although his wife has been faithful to him, Gutierre feels he has collected enough evidence of her guilty association with Prince Enrique that he must take action to rectify his honour. He devises a way to have her killed that will make it look like an accident. He blindfolds a bloodletter and leads the confused man to his house, where Gutierre forces him to kill Mencía by bleeding her and not tying the bandages properly to stop the flow of blood.

Sample text

LUDOVICO:

What confusion is this,
what is going on here?
Oh, my God!

GUTIERRE returns.

GUTIERRE:

It is time
for you to come in; but first,
listen to me: that steel blade
will be going straight through your heart
if you resist what I am
about to command you to do.
Look into the bedroom.
What do you see in there?

LUDOVICO:

A vision
of death, I see a form, under a blanket,
lying there on the bed;
there are two candles, one at each side,
and a crucifix hanging above.
I cannot tell who it is,
for the face is covered
in layers of lace.

GUTIERRE:

It is a living corpse that you see,
and you must finish it off.

LUDOVICO:

What do you want from me?

GUTIERRE:

You must bleed her,
and leave her spent
of all life force from the bleeding;
you must dare to face the horror
of her last moments,
for she must die from those
small wounds you inflict to let her blood.
You cannot protest,
you will not find any mercy in me,
you must obey, if you
want to live.

LUDOVICO:

Sir, what you say
fills me with fear; I cannot
obey you.

GUTIERRE:

My hand is forced;
to kill or be killed.

LUDOVICO:

My life is bought with cruelty.

GUTIERRE:

You do well, because in this world
there are already many who make
their living by killing.
From here I will be watching you,
Ludovico: go in now.

LUDOVICO goes in.

This was the most certain means
by which my affront could be
concealed, it would be easy
for poison to have been discovered,
and other wounds impossible to hide.
And so, once she is dead,
I will be able to say that it was
medically necessary to have her bled,
and no one will be able to contradict that,
for it is possible that a bandage
could have been too loose to stop the flow.
Bringing him here blindfolded
was a good move; for if he had come
with his eyes uncovered and had seen
a woman bled to death by force,
he would have every cause to give us away.
This he would not be able to say,
for when he came here and saw her,
he could not identify her; and for the rest,
when I take him away after it’s done,
I’ll lead him far away from my house,
and I’m thinking I’ll have to kill him there.
I am the surgeon of my honour,
I will give it life with this bloodletting;
everything is cured at the cost of blood.

Exit GUTIERRE.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation The Doctor of his Honour by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy) is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Entry written by Kathleen Jeffs. Last updated on 10 March 2011.

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