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• Procne and Philomena : ACT TWO Scene Two , ACT TWO Scene Four

Procne and Philomena, translated by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy)

ACT TWO Scene Two

Edition

Castro, Guillén de. 1925. Progne y Filomena. In Obras de Gullén de Castro y Bellvís, ed. Eduardo Juliá Martínez, vol. 1, pp. 121-64. Madrid, Real Academia Española, Imprenta de la Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos (in Spanish)

pp. 141-2

Context:

Tereo has just confessed to Filomena that he has been in love with her ever since he saw her portrait many years ago. Despite his marriage to her sister, Progne, and despite their young children, he has remained in love with Filomena all this time, suffering, and his desire for her has become unbearable. He can no longer contain his ardour and he has followed her to a place in the forest where she meant to meet her secret husband, Tereo’s brother, Teosindo. Tereo has intercepted her and is determined to satisfy his lust.

Sample text

FILOMENA:

You are determined to betray
me in this way? It’s pathetic,
are you insane?

TEREO:

When have you ever seen
a sane lover and a treacherous King?

I can wait no longer.

FILOMENA:

What are you doing?
Look to the heavens, the birds, beasts and plants,
see that you are shocking the earth
and offending Heaven.

What punishment do you not deserve
for the evil you are intending?

TEREO:

You inflame my love
with your impassioned defence.

FILOMENA:

You put me in an impossible
situation; know that I am …
you see, I am your sister twice over.

TEREO:

And you have killed me two thousand times.

FILOMENA:

Your brother …

TEREO:

Love will destroy him.

FILOMENA:

… is my husband, and I plead to you
that I am carrying within me
blood that you also share.

TEREO:

You’re pregnant? Can this be?

FILOMENA:

Yes, my lord.

TEREO:

How has this happened?
Oh, the traitor! He has enjoyed you?
Oh, how could you take her from me?

FILOMENA:

In your palace …

TEREO:

Yes, say it.

FILOMENA:

… there was an opportunity,
your deception in separating us did not work,
nothing could not keep us apart.

Not prisons, or exiles,
or a thousand obstacles
could keep two hearts …

TEREO:

Adding errors to errors.

Shut up, vile woman.

FILOMENA:

Let go of my arms;
restrain yourself, for if no one appears to be watching,
there may be an angel about to be born; wait.

TEREO:

I will destroy it

if your will does not consent to mine,
for I am now a slave to my passions.

FILOMENA:

I belong eternally to Teosindo.

TEREO:

Shut up.

FILOMENA:

Teosindo will
be mine for all of eternity.

TEREO:

The tongue is an evil instrument,
especially the tongue of a woman!

False, cheap, indiscreet
in your own affairs and in others’,
it cuts more sharply and with more poison
than lance, sword and arrow.

She has killed me. Do you not see
my rage? I am dying of jealousy:

He takes his dagger from his belt.

I will cut your tongue
and have you afterward.

You will not impede my pleasure
nor tell after of your offence.

FILOMENA:

Oh, Teosindo!

TEREO:

Shut your mouth,
don’t make a sound.

FILOMENA:

Oh God!

As he forces her offstage, items of their clothing fall to the ground: a veil, a handkerchief, gloves, a hat, as well as hair that is torn from her head, a dagger, and blood drips to the ground.

FILOMENA:

Teosindo!

They exit, and TEOSINDO enters.

TEOSINDO:

Oh God!
My misfortune is terrible,
as my hands and feet drive me
from one impossible situation to another,

the forest echoes with
half-formed calls of my name.
Which way? Unhappy man!
Where am I going? What am I stumbling over?

He trips over one of the items that Filomena let fall, then picks them up one by one.

This veil is a woman’s;
the veil is, Oh, that of my own life,
it belongs to my beloved;
this is her glove, this her handkerchief.

He who throws clothing into the sea
is experiencing a terrible storm;
the water must have been an inferno.
And what’s this hat? How strange!

It belongs to the King! Now that is too much.
But I must show it respect,
for the King’s hat is a crown,
and I kiss it.

But to find it here, isn’t that a sign
of a malicious tyrant?
How can justice be found here
when his crown lies on the ground!

It is said even louder by this hair,
yanked out from the root,
but now I feel even the thinnest strand
forming a noose around my neck.

Oh, unhappy suspicions!
What am I afraid of? What gives me these signs?
He who pulls out the roots
must want to fell the whole tree.

Here’s a dagger, covered in blood …
And it’s the King’s! Tyrant lover!
What’s this? And further on
there are some telltale drops of blood.

What if they’re from my wife?
If he has been rough with her,
could he threaten my second self,
the little lad dead before he is born?

Oh, my God! There is not
even a drop of blood left in my veins;
my blood is disturbed,
this blood on the ground must be mine.

I am dead, to blood and fire
I will consign my body and make war,
as this steel and this earth
bear her blood. Oh, blind love!

There is no passion that will stop me,
I’ll follow her and find my fate.

Enter FILOMENA with her veils and dress in disarray and with blood about her mouth and face.

But what image of my death
do I see here in what used to be my life?

Filomena, who has injured you?
She does not respond, nor will she touch me.
Blood pours from your mouth,
my love, but not words?

You will not speak? A perturbed silence!
What is it? Horrible silence!
Who has cut your tongue
and cut all hope from my soul?

FILOMENA takes the dagger that TEOSINDO has in his hand, and signals with it that the KING has cut her tongue.

What’s that? The King has done this?
But I fear a greater damage has been done,
Filomena: Has he possessed you,
this traitor who has assaulted you?

Exit FILOMENA with her hand over her face.

You cover your face and leave me?
That evil is certain then; now, traitor,
there is no life for my honour
nor heaven to hear my cries.

I am Mongibello, the snow-capped volcano,
I burn even as I freeze.
Should I follow her …? I’m honourable.
Should I leave her …? I’m cruel.

But what fault is it of hers
if the King has forced her?
Yet the rigour of the law
says my honour has been affronted.

Should I leave her? Impossible.
Should I want her to kill herself?
Where there is no blame,
does there have to be offence? Terrible law!

But there remains a stain upon her,
through misfortune or through deceit,
and it is not the cloth’s fault
when the dress does not fit.

But what am I to do? I would kill myself,
but it is not wise for me to end my life
before the offence against
me is avenged.

But, no; I must first know for certain
if the damage has been as great as I fear;
perhaps my imagination has deceived me
by running away with my greatest fear. Oh, my love!

It will not be a new thing
to defeat me, love had already killed me;
I am not going of my own accord,
but love sweeps me forward.

Enter the King’s MANSERVANT and three or four others with him, who attack TEOSINDO with swords.

MANSERVANT:

Here, here he has fallen
straight into our hands.

TEOSINDO:

Terrible fortune!
Death could not have come for me
at a better time; Oh, you brutes …

They exit, fighting.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Procne and Philomena by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy) is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ACT TWO Scene Four

Edition

Castro, Guillén de. 1925. Progne y Filomena. In Obras de Gullén de Castro y Bellvís, ed. Eduardo Juliá Martínez, vol. 1, pp. 121-64. Madrid, Real Academia Española, Imprenta de la Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos (in Spanish)

p. 148

Context:

Progne has just learned that her husband has raped her sister, Filomena. She calls her young son, Itis, to her.

Sample text

Enter ITIS, a young boy, and his TUTOR with a baby girl in his arms.

TUTOR:

My lady!

PROGNE:

Leave me, all of you.

ITIS:

What is it, mother? Why are you shouting?

PROGNE:

Come here, son of a traitor
of the most evil and infamous sort,
your innocence will pay the price
for these malicious crimes;
I will kill you, even though you are mine,
for I am appalled that they may say
that you belong to such a father
and that I may share anything with him.
I do not want such an evil seed
to grow up in the world,
and that you will pass on
my shame to other women through your bloodline.
Because you are the very image
of he who incites me to vengeance,
to torment his soul
I will have to take your life.
You will be the heart
that I saw him rip out of me,
cut into pieces and eat savagely in my dream;
he will eat his own flesh,
he will drink his own blood,
he will be ripped apart by the pain,
his death will be monstrous,
and no woman will ever have rubbed
such poison into a wound,
such vengeance to such a crime,
nor shown such powerful envy.

ITIS:

What my father has done,
what fault of it is mine, mother?

PROGNE:

Even if I had no other cause,
because you are male
I would take your life repeatedly,
for I am a woman and in my heart
my rage sharpens to a fine point.
Give me that sword.

SERVANT:

My lady…

PROGNE:

Anyone who follows me will die.

Exit PROGNE and ITIS.

ITIS:

My mother!

SERVANT:

Have you seen such cruelty?
She has wounded him twice,
and there, she’s cut off his head.

TUTOR:

She’ll do the same to this little girl;
you, take her away to the mountains.

PEASANT:

In Ethiopia or in Citia,
whether I freeze or I burn,
I will keep her hidden;
even if the caves and mines of the
Thracian mountains cannot hide me,
I will go where my star leads me.

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation Procne and Philomena by Kathleen Jeffs (née Mountjoy) is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Entry written by Kathleen Jeffs. Last updated on 4 October 2010.

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