Federico García
Lorca
The House of Bernarda Alba
(La
casa de Bernarda Alba)
1936
A
drama of women in the villages of
A. S. Kline © 2007 All Rights Reserved
This work may be freely reproduced, stored, and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Permission to perform this version of the play, on stage or film, by amateur or professional companies, and for commercial purposes, should be requested from the translator,
Contents
Bernarda, aged sixty
María Josefa,
(Bernarda’s mother), aged eighty
Angustias,
(Bernarda’s daughter), aged thirty-nine
Amelia,
(Bernarda’s daughter), aged twenty-seven
Martirio,
(Bernarda’s daughter), aged twenty-four
Adela, (Bernarda’s daughter), aged
twenty
Servant, aged fifty
La Poncia (a servant), aged sixty
Prudencia, aged fifty
Beggar
woman with little girl
Women
mourners
Woman
1
Woman
2
Woman
3
Woman
4
Young
girl
The
poet declares that these three acts are intended to serve as a photographic record.
(The bright white interior of
Bernarda’s house. Thick walls. Arched doorways with
canvas curtains edged with tassels and ruffles. Rush chairs. Paintings
of non-realistic landscapes with nymphs and legendary kings. It is
summer. A vast shadowy silence fills the scene. When the curtain rises the
stage is empty. The tolling of bells is heard. The Servant enters.)
SERVANT: I can feel the tolling of those bells right
between my temples.
LA PONCIA: (She
enters eating bread and sausage) They’ve been
making that row for more than two hours now. There are priests here from all
the villages. The church looks lovely. During the first response
SERVANT: She’s the one who’ll be most bereft.
LA PONCIA: She was the only one who loved her father.
Ay! Thank God we’re alone for a while! I was hungry.
SERVANT: If Bernarda could see you…!
LA PONCIA: Now she’s not eating, she wants us all to die
of hunger! So strict! So domineering! But hard luck! I’ve opened the sausage
jar.
SERVANT: (Sadly,
with longing) Poncia, won’t you give me some for
my little girl?
LA PONCIA: Go on, and take a handful of chick-peas too. She
won’t notice it, today!
VOICE: (From
within) Bernarda!
LA PONCIA: The old woman. Is she locked in?
SERVANT: Two turns of the key.
LA PONCIA: You should use the bolt too. She’s got
fingers like picklocks.
VOICE: Bernarda!
LA PONCIA: (Shouting)
She’s coming! (To
the Servant) Make sure the whole place is clean. If Bernarda doesn’t find
everything gleaming she’ll pull out the little hair I have left.
SERVANT: What a woman!
LA PONCIA: Tyrant of all she surveys. She could squat on
your chest for a year and watch you die slowly without wiping that cold smile
from her cursed face! Clean those pots:
go on!
SERVANT: My hands are red raw from endless cleaning.
LA PONCIA: She’s the cleanest; she’s the most decent;
she’s the loftiest of beings. Her poor husband deserves a good rest.
(The bells cease ringing.)
SERVANT: Are all the relatives here?
LA PONCIA: On her side. His family detests her. They
came to make sure he was dead, and make the sign of the cross.
SERVANT: Are there enough chairs?
LA PONCIA: Plenty. Let them sit on the floor. Since
Bernarda’s father died no one has set foot inside these walls. She doesn’t want
them to see her in her stronghold! Curse her!
SERVANT: She’s always been good to you.
LA PONCIA: For thirty years I’ve laundered her sheets;
for thirty years I’ve eaten her leftovers; spent nights awake when she had a
cough; whole days peering through the cracks to spy on the neighbours and bring
her the news; there are no secrets between us, and yet I curse her! May needles
prick out her eyes!
SERVANT: Woman!
LA PONCIA: But I’m a good bitch and bark when I’m told,
and bite the heels of the beggars when she whips me on; my sons work her fields
and they’re both married too, but one day I’ll have had enough.
SERVANT: And then…
LA PONCIA: Then I’ll lock myself in a room with her, and
spit on for her a year. ‘Bernarda, here’s for this, and that, and the other,’
until she looks like a lizard the children squashed, because that’s what she
is, and all her family. But I don’t envy her life, that’s for sure. She’s five
women on her hands, five ugly daughters. Except for Angustias, the eldest,
who’s the first husband’s daughter and has some money, the rest of them have
lots of fine lace, and linen camisoles, but their only inheritance is bread and
water.
SERVANT: I wouldn’t mind having what they have!
LA PONCIA: We have our hands, and we’ll have a hole in
God’s earth.
SERVANT: That’s the only earth they’ll give us, who
have nothing.
LA PONCIA: (By the
cupboard) This glass has marks on it.
SERVANT: They won’t come off even with soap and water.
(The bells sound.)
LA PONCIA: The final prayers. I’m off to hear them. I
love the priest’s singing. In the paternoster his voice rose up, and up, and up
like a pitcher slowly filling with water. Of course at the end he gave a
screech, but it was a glory to hear him! There’s no one these days to match the
old sexton, Tronchapinos. He sang at the Mass for my
mother, who is in glory. The walls would shake, and when he said Amen it was if
a wolf was in church. (Imitating him)
Ameeeen! (She
begins coughing)
SERVANT: You’ll strain your windpipe.
LA PONCIA: I may have strained something else! (She goes out laughing)
(The servant goes on cleaning. The
bells ring)
SERVANT: (Picking
up the sound) Ding, ding, dong. Ding, ding, dong.
May God grant him forgiveness!
BEGGARWOMAN: (With
her little girl) Praise be to God!
SERVANT: Ding, ding. dong.
May he wait long years for us. Ding, ding, dong.
BEGGARWOMAN: (Loudly
with annoyance) Praise be to God!
SERVANT: (Annoyed)
Forever!
BEGGARWOMAN: I’ve come for the leavings.
(The bells cease ringing.)
SERVANT: The street’s that way.
Today’s leavings are for me.
BEGGARWOMAN: You’ve someone to feed you, woman. My child
and I are on our own!
SERVANT: The dogs are on their own
too, but they survive.
BEGGARWOMAN: They always give me the scraps.
SERVANT: Get out of here. Who said you could enter?
You’ve left dirty footmarks already. (The
woman leaves. The Servant goes on cleaning.) Polished floors, cupboards,
pedestals, iron bed-frames, while those of us who live in a mud hut with only a
plate and a spoon have a bitter pill to swallow. I pray for the day when
there’s none of us left to tell the tale! (The
bells ring out again) Yes, yes, go on ringing! Bring on the box with its
gold trimmings and the silk straps to lift it by! We’ll both end up the same! Rot
then, Antonio María Benavides, stiff in your wool
suit and your tall boots. Rot! You’ll not be lifting my skirts again behind the
stable door!
(At the back of the stage the
Women Mourners enter in pairs. They wear voluminous black skirts and shawls and
carry black fans. They enter slowly until they have filled the stage.)
SERVANT: (Beginning
to wail) Ay, Antonio María Benavides, never will
you see these walls again or eat bread in this house! I was the one of all your
servants who loved you most. (Pulling at
her hair) Must I live on when you are gone? Must I live on?
(The crowd of women have now
entered, and Bernarda appears with her five daughters.)
BERNARDA: (To the
Servant) Be silent!
SERVANT: (Weeping)
Bernarda!
BERNARDA: Less wailing and more work. You should have
made sure this house was clean for the mourners. Go. This isn’t your place. (The Servant exits sobbing.)
The poor are like animals. It’s as if they’re made of some other substance.
FIRST WOMAN: The poor have their sorrows too.
BERNARDA: But they forget them faced with a plate of
chickpeas.
YOUNG GIRL: (Timidly)
You have to eat to live.
BERNARDA: At your age you shouldn’t speak in front of
your elders.
FIRST WOMAN: Hush, child.
BERNARDA: I never let anyone lecture me. Be seated. (They sit. Pause.) (Firmly)
SECOND WOMAN: (To
Bernarda) Have you started harvesting?
BERNARDA: Yesterday.
THIRD WOMAN: The sun feels as heavy as lead.
FIRST WOMAN: I’ve not known heat like this for years!
(Pause. They
fan themselves.)
BERNARDA: Is the lemonade ready?
LA PONCIA: (Entering
with a large tray, full of small white jars which she hands around.) Yes, Bernarda.
BERNARDA: Give some to the men.
LA PONCIA: They’ve already have theirs in the yard.
BERNARDA: Let them leave the way they entered. I don’t
want them coming through here.
YOUNG GIRL: (To
Angustias) Pepe el Romano was with the mourners.
ANGUSTIAS: He was there.
BERNARDA: It was his mother. She saw his mother. No one
saw Pepe, neither she nor I.
YOUNG GIRL: I thought…
BERNARDA: The widower from Darajali
was there. By your aunt. We all saw him.
SECOND WOMAN: (Aside,
in a low voice) Evil, worse than evil!
THIRD WOMAN: (To the
Servant) A tongue like a knife!
BERNARDA: Women shouldn’t look at any man in church
except the priest, and only because he wears a skirt. Gazing
around is for those seeking the warmth of a pair of trousers.
FIRST WOMAN: (In a
low voice) Dried up old lizard!
LA PONCIA: (Muttering)
A crooked vine to be looking for a man’s heat!
BERNARDA: (Striking
the floor with her stick) Praise be to God!
ALL: (Crossing
themselves) May He be blessed and praised forever!
BERNARDA: Rest
in peace, with the host
of saints above your head!
ALL: Rest
in peace!
BERNARDA: With
St Michael the
armed with his sword of justice.
ALL: Rest
in peace!
BERNARDA: With
the key that opens all gates
and the hand that closes them.
ALL: Rest
in peace!
BERNARDA: With all
those who are blessed
and the little lights of the field.
ALL: Rest
in peace!
BERNARDA: With
holy charity
and the souls of earth and sea.
ALL: Rest
in peace!
BERNARDA: Grant rest to your servant Antonio María Benavides, and the crown of your sacred glory.
ALL: Amen.
BERNARDA: (Rises
and chants) ‘Requiem aeternam dona
eis, Domine’.
ALL: (Rising
and chanting in Gregorian mode) ‘Et lux perpetua luceat eis’. (They cross
themselves.)
FIRST WOMAN: May you have health to pray for his soul.
(They begin to file out.)
THIRD WOMAN: You shall never want for a loaf of warm
bread.
SECOND WOMAN: Nor a roof over your daughters’ heads.
(They file out past Bernarda.
Angustias exits through the door leading to the courtyard.)
FOURTH WOMAN: May you enjoy the true harvest of your
marriage.
LA PONCIA: (Entering
with a bag) This money is from the men, for
prayers.
YOUNG GIRL: (To
BERNARDA: (To
LA PONCIA: You’ve no room for complaint. The whole
village was there.
BERNARDA: Yes, to fill my house with the sweat from
their clothing and the venom of their tongues.
AMELIA: Mother, don’t speak like that!
BERNARDA: It’s the only way to speak when you live in a
cursed village without a river, without wells, where one drinks the water
fearing always that it’s poisoned.
LA PONCIA: Look what they’ve done to the floor!
BERNARDA: As if a flock of goats had trampled over
it. (La
Poncia scrubs at the floor.) Child, pass me a
fan.
AAMELIA: Take this one. (She hands her a circular fan decorated with flowers in red and green.)
BERNARDA: (Throwing
the fan on the ground) Is this the fan to hand to
a widow? Give me a black one, and learn to respect your father’s memory.
MARTIRIO: Take mine.
BERNARDA: And you?
MARTIRIO: I don’t feel hot.
BERNARDA: Find another one, you’ll need it. Through the
eight years of mourning not a breeze shall enter this house. Consider the doors
and windows as sealed with bricks. That’s how it was in my father’s house and
my grandfather’s. Meanwhile, you can embroider your trousseaux. In the chest
I’ve twenty pieces of cloth from which you can cut sheets and covers.
ADELA: (Sourly)
If you don’t want to embroider them, leave them plain.
Yours will look better that way.
BERNARDA: That’s what it is to be a woman.
BERNARDA: Here, you do what I say. You can’t go telling
tales to your father. A needle and thread for women. A whip
and a mule for men. That’s how it is for people born without wealth.
(Adela exits)
A VOICE: Bernarda! Let me out!
BERNARDA: (In a
loud voice.) Let her out, now!
(The servant enters.)
SERVANT: It was an effort to hold her down. She may be
eighty years old but your mother is tough as an oak tree.
BERNARDA: It runs in the family. My grandmother was the
same.
SERVANT: While the mourners were here I had to gag her
several times with an empty sack because she wanted to shout for you to bring
her a drink of dishwater, and the dog meat she says you give her.
MARTIRIO: She’s a troublemaker!
BERNARDA: (To the
Servant) She can let off steam in the yard.
SERVANT: She’s taken the rings and amethyst earrings
from her box, and put them on, and she tells me she wants to get married.
(The daughters laugh.)
BERNARDA: Go with her and take care she doesn’t go near
the well.
SERVANT: I doubt she’ll throw herself in.
BERNARDA: No, not that…but if she’s there the
neighbours can see her from their windows.
(The
Servant exits)
MARTIRIO: We’ll go and change our clothes.
BERNARDA: Very well, but keep your headscarves on. (Adela enters.) And where’s Angustias?
ADELA: (Pointedly)
I saw her peeping through a crack in the gate. The men have just left.
BERNARDA: And why were you at the gate, yourself?
ADELA: I went to see if the hens had laid.
BERNARDA: But the male mourners should already have
left!
ADELA: (Deliberately)
There was a group of them still standing outside.
BERNARDA: (Angrily)
Angustias! Angustias!
ANGUSTIAS: (Entering)
What is it?
BERNARDA: What were you gazing at, and whom?
ANGUSTIAS: No one.
BERNARDA: Is it proper for a woman of your class to be
trying to attract a man on the day of your father’s funeral? Answer me! Who
were you gazing at?
(Pause)
ANGUSTIAS: I…
BERNARDA: You!
ANGUSTIAS: No one!
BERNARDA: (Advancing
with her stick) Spineless, sickly creature! (She hits her.)
LA PONCIA: (Rushing
over) Bernarda, be calm! (She holds
her: Angustia weeps.)
BERNARDA: All of you, leave! (They exit)
LA PONCIA: She did it without thinking what she was
doing, and that is was wrong of course. I was shocked to see her sneaking
towards the courtyard! Then she stood by the window listening to the men’s
conversation, which as always was not fit to hear.
BERNARDA: That’s what they come to funerals for! (With curiosity) What were they saying?
SERVANT: They were talking about Paca
la Roseta. Last night they tied her husband to the
manger, and carried her off on horseback to the heights of the olive grove.
BERNARDA: And she…?
LA PONCIA: She was willing enough. They said she went
with her breasts exposed and Maximiliano held her
tight as if he were gripping a guitar. Disgraceful!
BERNARDA: And what happened?
LA PONCIA: What was bound to happen.
They came back at daybreak. Paca la Roseta had her hair down, and a
garland of flowers on her head.
BERNARDA: She’s the only loose woman in the village.
LA PONCIA: Because she’s not from here. She’s from far
off. And those who went with her are sons of foreigners too. Men from here
aren’t up to such things.
BERNARDA: No, but they like to look on, and gossip, and
smack their lips over what occurred.
LA PONCIA: They said other things too.
BERNARDA: (Looking
round with some apprehension.) What sort of things?
LA PONCIA: I’m ashamed to mention them.
BERNARDA: And my daughter heard them.
LA PONCIA: She must have done?
BERNARDA: She takes after her aunts; white and sickly
and making sheep’s eyes at any old flatterer’s compliments. How we have to
suffer and struggle to make sure people act decently and don’t slide downhill!
LA PONCIA: Your daughters are of an age to receive
compliments! They scarcely oppose you. Angustias must be over thirty by now.
BERNARDA: Thirty nine to be exact.
LA PONCIA: Imagine. And she’s never had a suitor…
BERNARDA: (Angrily)
No, none of them has, and they don’t need them! They’re fine as they are.
LA PONCIA: I didn’t mean to offend you.
BERNARDA: There’s no one who can compare to them for
miles around. The men here are not of their class. Would you have me give them up
to any beggar who asks?
LA PONCIA: You should have moved
to some other village.
BERNARDA: Indeed, to sell them off!
LA PONCIA: No, Bernarda, for a change…Of course anywhere
else they’d be poor!
BERNARDA: Hold your spiteful tongue!
LA PONCIA: There’s no talking to you. Are we not
friends?
BERNARDA: No, we’re not. You serve me, and I pay you.
Nothing more!
SERVANT: (Entering)
Don Arturo is here, he’s come to discuss the will.
BERNARDA: I’m coming. (To the Servant) Start whitewashing the courtyard. (To Poncia) And
you: go and put all the dead one’s clothes in the big chest.
LA PONCIA: We could give some of the things….
BERNARDA: Nothing. Not a button! Not even the
handkerchief we covered his face with! (She
goes out slowly, leaning on her stick and looks back at her servants as she
goes. The servants leave. Amelia and Martirio enter.)
AMELIA: Have you taken your medicine?
MARTIRIO: For all the good it will do!
AMELIA: But you’ve taken it.
MARTIRIO: I do things without any faith in them, like a
piece of clockwork.
AMELIA: You seem better since the new doctor arrived.
MARTIRIO: I feel the same.
AMELIA: Did you notice? Adelaida
wasn’t there at the funeral.
MARTIRIO: I knew she wouldn’t be. Her fiancé won’t let
her walk in the streets. She used to be happy: now she doesn’t even powder her
face.
AMELIA: I no longer know if it’s better to have a
fiancé or not.
MARTIRIO: It makes no difference.
AMELIA: It’s all the gossip that’s to blame, they
won’t let you live. Adelaida must have had a bad time
of it.
MARTIRIO: They’re afraid of mother. She’s the only one
who knows the truth about Adelaida’s father and how
he got his land. Whenever she comes here, mother sticks the knife in. Her
father killed his first wife’s husband, in
AMELIA: And why is the wretch not in jail?
MARTIRIO: Because men cover up things of that nature
among themselves, and no one’s willing to speak out.
AMELIA: But Adelaida’s not
to blame for all that.
MARTIRIO: No, but tales are repeated. And to me it all
seems one dreadful repetition. Her fate is the same as her mother’s and her
grandmother’s, both wives of the man who engendered her.
AMELIA: What a terrible thing!
MARTIRIO: It’s preferable never to see a man. Since
childhood they make me afraid. I’d see them in the yard yoking the oxen and lifting
the sacks of wheat, shouting and stamping, and I was always afraid of growing
older and suddenly finding myself in their arms. God has made me feeble and
ugly and has always kept them away from me.
AMELIA: Don’t say such things! Enrique Humanes was after you and he liked you.
MARTIRIO: People invent things! Once I stood by the
window in my nightgown till dawn, because his farmhand’s daughter told me he
was going to stop by, but he never came. It was all talk. Then he married
another girl with more money than I.
AMELIA: And she, as ugly as the devil!
MARTIRIO: What does beauty mater to them? What matters are
land, oxen, and a submissive bitch to fetch them their food.
AMELIA: Ay!
(
MARTIRIO: Standing here.
AMELIA: And you?
MARTIRIO: God only knows what used to go on!
AMELIA: (To
AMELIA: You’ll step on it and fall!
MARTIRIO: Where’s Adela?
AMELIA: If mother had seen her!
(Pause.
Angustias crosses the stage with some towels in her hands.)
ANGUSTIAS: What time is it?
ANGUSTIAS: That late?
AMELIA: It’s about to strike!
(Angustias exits)
AMELIA: No.
MARTIRIO: I don’t know what you’re referring to!
MARTIRIO: Oh that!
MARTIRIO: I’m pleased! He’s a good man.
AMELIA: And I. Angustias has fine qualities.
MARTIRIO:
MARTIRIO: Don’t talk like that. Good fortune comes to
those who least expect it.
AMELIA: She speaks the truth though! Angustias has
her father’s money, she’s the only wealthy one in this house and now that our
father is dead and they’re sharing out his estate, they’re after her!
MARTIRIO: Perhaps he likes her!
MARTIRIO: Heaven preserve us!
(Adela enters)
ADELA: And what would you have me do with it?
AMELIA: If mother sees you she’ll drag you about by
the hair!
ADELA: I’m so pleased with this dress. I thought I’d
wear it if we were to go and eat melons by the mill. There’d be nothing to equal
it.
MARTIRIO: It’s a lovely dress!
ADELA: And it suits me. It’s the best
ADELA: They passed on some of their fleas, and my
legs got bitten. (They laugh.)
MARTIRIO: You could dye it black.
ADELA: (With
suppressed emotion) Pepe el Romano!
AMELIA: Haven’t you heard the talk?
ADELA: No.
ADELA: But it’s not possible!
ADELA: Is that why she followed the mourners and
looked through the door. (Pause) And
that man is capable of…
(Pause)
MARTIRIO: What are you thinking of, Adela?
ADELA: I’m thinking that this mourning period has
come at the worst possible time in my life.
ADELA: (Bursting
into angry tears) No, no I won’t get used to it! I don’t want to be shut
in. I don’t want my skin to become like yours. I don’t want to lose my bloom in
these rooms! Tomorrow I’ll put on my green dress and I’ll go for a walk in the
street! I want to go out!
(The Servant enters.)
SERVANT: Poor child! She misses her father so! (She exits.)
MARTIRIO: Hush!
AMELIA: It will be the same for all of us.
(Adela calms down.)
SERVANT: (Appearing)
Pepe el Romano’s at the top of the street.
(They exit swiftly)
SERVANT: (To Adela) Aren’t you going with them?
ADELA: No, I’m not interested.
SERVANT: When he turns the corner you can see him best,
from the window in your room. (She exits.)
(Adela remains there, in two minds. After a moment
she too rushes out, to her room. Bernarda and La Poncia
enter.)
BERNARDA: Cursed will!
LA PONCIA: What a lot of money for Angustias!
BERNARDA: Yes.
LA PONCIA: And for the others, quite a lot less.
BERNARDA:
You’ve said it three
times already and I chose not to answer. Quite a lot less: much less. Don’t
remind me again.
(Angustias
enters, her face made up.)
BERNARDA: Angustias!
ANGUSTIAS: Mother.
BERNARDA: How dare you powder your face? How dare you
even wash it, on the day of your father’s funeral?
ANGUSTIAS: He wasn’t my father. Mine died years ago.
Have you forgotten about him?
BERNARDA: You owe more to this man, your sisters’
father, than your own! Thanks to this one you’ve inherited a fortune.
ANGUSTIAS: That remains to be seen!
BERNARDA: If only out of decency! Out of respect!
ANGUSTIAS: Mother, let me go out.
BERNARDA: Out! After you’ve cleaned that powder from
your face! Cunning little hypocrite! Just like your aunts! (She rubs the powder off vigorously with her
handkerchief.) Now, go out!
LA PONCIA: Bernarda, don’t meddle so much!
BERNARDA: Even if my mother’s crazy I have my five
senses intact, and I know exactly what I’m doing.
(The other daughters enter.)
BERNARDA: Nothing’s going on.
ANGUSTIAS: Watch your foul tongue!
BERNARDA: (Banging
on the floor with her stick) Don’t think it will give
you any power over me! Till I leave this house, feet first, I’ll manage your
business and mine!
(Voices are heard and María Josefa, Bernarda’s mother,
appears, very old and with hair and breast decked with flowers.)
MARÍA JOSEFA: Bernarda, where’s my shawl? You don’t need
anything of mine, not my rings, and not my black moiré dress, because none of
you will ever be married. Not one! Bernarda, give me my pearl necklace!
BERNARDA: (To the
Servant) Why did you let her in here?
SERVANT: (Trembling)
She escaped me!
MARÍA JOSEFA: I escaped her because I want to get married, because
I wish to marry a handsome young man from the seashore: here the men run away
from women.
BERNARDA: Be quiet, mother!
MARÍA JOSEFA: No, I won’t be quiet. I don’t want to see
these single women, foaming at the mouth for marriage, their hearts turning to
dust, and I want to go back to my village. Bernarda, I want a man to marry and
be happy with!
BERNARDA: Lock her up!
MARÍA JOSEFA: Let me go out, Bernarda!
(The Servant takes hold of María Josefa.)
BERNARDA: Help, all of you!
(They all help to drag the old
woman away.)
MARÍA JOSEFA: I want to go! Bernarda! I want to be married
by the seashore, by the seashore!
Swift Curtain
(The
bright white interior of Bernarda’s house. The doors on the left lead to the bedrooms. Bernarda’s daughters are seated on low chairs, sewing.
ANGUSTIAS: I’ve finished cutting the third sheet.
MARTIRIO: It’s for Amelia.
ANGUSTIAS: (Drily) No.
AMELIA: She’s lying down.
LA PONCIA: She’s got something. She’s restless,
quivering, frightened, as if she had a lizard between her breasts.
MARTIRIO: She’s got nothing more than what we all have.
ANGUSTIAS: I’m fine, and anyone who doesn’t like it can
go to the devil.
ANGUSTIAS: Fortunately, I’ll soon be free of this hell.
MARTIRIO: Let’s change the subject!
ANGUSTIAS: And, besides, better an ounce of gold in
one’s coffer than a pair of dark eyes in one’s head!
AMELIA: (To La Poncia) Open the door to the courtyard, and see if we
can have a little fresh air in here.
(La Poncia
does so.)
MARTIRIO: All last night I couldn’t sleep with the
heat.
AMELIA: Nor I!
MARTIRIO: I got out of bed to cool myself. There was a
black storm cloud and even a few drops of rain.
LA PONCIA: It was one in the morning, and the earth was
still fiery. I got out of bed too. Angustias was at
the window with Pepe.
ANGUSTIAS:
AMELIA: He left at about half past one.
ANGUSTIAS: Yes. How do you know that?
AMELIA: I heard his cough, and the hooves of his
mare.
LA PONCIA: But I heard him leaving at four!
ANGUSTIAS: Then it wasn’t him!
LA PONCIA: I’m sure it was!
AMELIA: It seemed to me too…
(Pause.)
LA PONCIA: Listen, Angustias,
what did he say to you the first time he came to your window?
ANGUSTIAS: Nothing. What would he say?
Trivial things.
MARTIRIO: What’s truly odd is that two people who don’t
know each other should suddenly meet at an open window and become engaged.
ANGUSTIAS: I don’t find it astonishing.
AMELIA: It would make me feel strange.
ANGUSTIAS: No it wouldn’t, because when a man comes to
your window he already knows from the coming and going, from the give and take,
that the answer can only be yes.
MARTIRIO: Fine, but he still has to ask.
ANGUSTIAS: Of course!
AMELIA: (Curious)
So, what did he say?
ANGUSTIAS: Well, nothing much. ‘You know I’m after you,
that I need a good woman, a modest one, and that it’s you if you’ll agree.’
AMELIA: Things like that embarrass me!
ANGUSTIAS: Me too, but you have to suffer them!
LA PONCIA: And did he say anything else?
ANGUSTIAS: Yes, he never stopped talking.
MARTIRIO: And you?
ANGUSTIAS: I couldn’t speak. My heart almost leapt out
of my mouth. It was the first time I’d been alone at night with a man.
ANGUSTIAS: His figure’s not bad.
LA PONCIA: That’s how it is between people who have a
little experience, who know how to speak and wave their hands about…The first
time my husband Evaristo el Colorín
came to my window…ha, ha, ha!
AMELIA: What happened?
LA PONCIA: It was quite dark. I saw him there and as he
approached he said: ‘Good evening.’ ‘Good evening,’ I said in reply, and then
we were silent for half an hour or more. Sweat bathed my whole body. Then Evaristo came closer, closer, as if he wanted to squeeze
through the bars, and said in a whisper, ‘Come here, let me feel you!’
(They all laugh. Amelia rises,
runs to the door, and peers out.)
AMELIA: Ay! I thought mother was coming.
AMELIA: Shush…she’ll hear us!
LA PONCIA: Afterwards he behaved very well. Instead of
chasing after other things he bred linnets till the day of his death. It’s good
for you single women to know that a fortnight after the wedding a man forgoes
bed for the table, and later on the table for the tavern. And the woman who
can’t accept it will waste away, crying in a corner.
AMELIA: You accepted it.
LA PONCIA: I could handle him!
MARTIRIO: Is it true you struck him on occasions?
LA PONCIA: Yes, and nearly blinded him.
LA PONCIA: I’m of your mother’s school. One day he said
something to me, who knows what, and I slaughtered all his linnets with the
rolling pin. (They laugh.)
AMELIA: Adela. (Pause.)
LA PONCIA: The child is ill!
MARTIRIO: Of course, she barely sleeps!
LA PONCIA: What does she do instead?
MARTIRIO: How do I know what she does!
LA PONCIA: You know better than I, you only have a wall
between you.
ANGUSTIAS: Envy is eating her.
AMELIA: Don’t exaggerate things.
ANGUSTIAS: I can see it in her eyes. She’s beginning to
look like a madwoman.
MARTIRIO: Don’t talk about madness. This is the one
place where such words should not be spoken.
(
ADELA: I felt unwell.
MARTIRIO: (Pointedly)
Didn’t you sleep well last night?
ADELA: Yes.
MARTIRIO: Then?
ADELA: (Angrily)
Leave me alone! Sleeping or waking, it’s nobody’s
affair but mine! I’ll do as I want with my own body!
MARTIRIO: I’m merely concerned for you!
ADELA: Concerned, or inquisitive. Weren’t you sewing
just now? Well carry on. I wish I were invisible, so as to walk through these
rooms without you forever asking where I’m going!
SERVANT: (Entering)
Bernarda is asking for you. The man with the lace is
here.
(They exit, and as they do so Martirio looks fixedly at Adela.)
ADELA: Stop staring at me! If you want you can have
my eyes, that are hardly used, and my shoulders to bear that hump you carry,
but turn your head away when I pass.
(Martirio exits.)
LA PONCIA: Adela, she’s your
sister, and the one that loves you most!
ADELA: She follows me everywhere. She even looks
into my room to see if I’m asleep. She doesn’t let me breathe. And always it’s:
‘What a shame about that pretty face! What a shame about that body, that no one
will ever see!’ It’s not so! My body will be for whomever I want!
LA PONCIA: (Pointedly
in a low voice) For Pepe el Romano, is that it?
ADELA: (Startled)
What do you mean?
LA PONCIA: What I say, Adela!
ADELA: Be silent!
LA PONCIA: (Loudly)
Did you think I hadn’t noticed?
ADELA: Lower your voice!
LA PONCIA: Suppress such thoughts!
ADELA: What do you know about it?
LA PONCIA: Old women can see through walls. Where do you
go at night when you get up?
ADELA: You should have your eyes put out!
LA PONCIA: My hands are as full of eyes as my head when
it comes to this business. For all my thinking about it I don’t known what
you’re up to. Why else were you standing there half-naked at the window with
the light on when Pepe was here the second time he
came to talk with your sister?
ADELA: That’s not true!
LA PONCIA: Don’t be such a child! Let your sister be,
and if it’s Pepe el Romano you want, reconcile
yourself. (Adela weeps.) Besides, who says you can’t
marry him? Your sister Angustias is not well. She
won’t survive her first child. She’s narrow-waisted
and old, and from my experience I’d say she’ll die. Then Pepe
will do what all the widowers here do: he’ll marry the youngest and prettiest,
and that’s you. Cling to that hope and forget him for now. Do what you like,
but don’t act against the law of God.
ADELA: Be silent!
LA PONCIA: I won’t be silent!
ADELA: Mind your own business, you nosy traitor!
LA PONCIA: I shall be your shadow!
ADELA: Instead of cleaning the house and praying for
the dead when you go to bed, you go around like an old sow poking around in men
and women’s business, so you can slobber over it.
LA PONCIA: I keep watch, so that people won’t spit when
they pass this door!
ADELA: What vast affection you suddenly feel for my
sister!
LA PONCIA: I’ve no loyalty to any of you, but I want to
live in a decent house. I don’t want my old age to be tarnished.
ADELA: Your advice is useless. It’s too late. I’d
not just ignore you, but also my mother, in order to quench this fire that
licks me from head to foot. What can you say of me? That I lock myself in my
room and won’t open the door? That I don’t sleep? I’m cleverer than you. See if
you can catch this hare in your hands.
LA PONCIA: Don’t defy me, Adela,
don’t defy me! Because I can shout out loud, light all the lamps, and set the
bells ringing.
ADELA: Bring four thousand yellow flares, and set
them up on the walls of the stable-yard. No one can escape the fact that what
is to happen will happen.
LA PONCIA: You want the man as much as that!
ADELA: Yes, as much as that! Gazing into his eyes I
feel as if I’m slowly drinking his blood.
LA PONCIA: I won’t listen to you.
ADELA: You’ll listen! I was afraid of you. But now
I’m stronger than you!
(Angustias enters.)
ANGUSTIAS: Forever arguing!
LA PONCIA: Of course. In all this heat she insists I go
and fetch her something from the store.
ANGUSTIAS: Did you buy that bottle of scent for me?
LA PONCIA: The dearest one: and the powder. I’ve put
them on the table in your room.
(Angustias exits.)
ADELA: Not a word!
LA PONCIA: We’ll see about that!
(Martirio, Amelia and
AMELIA: The lace for Angustias’
wedding sheets is beautiful.
ADELA: (To Martirio, who is holding some lace) And
that?
MARTIRIO: It’s for me. For a
petticoat.
ADELA: (Sarcastically)
One has to have a sense of humour!
MARTIRIO: (Pointedly)
For my own eyes. I don’t need to show off to anyone.
LA PONCIA: No one sees you in your petticoat.
MARTIRIO: (Pointedly
looking at Adela) Sometimes they do! But I adore
underwear. If I were rich I’d have it of finest linen. It’s one of the few
pleasures left to me.
LA PONCIA: This lace is fine for a baby’s bonnet or for
a christening gown. I could never dress mine in it. Let’s see if Angustias can hers. If she starts having children you’ll be
sewing day and night.
AMELIA: Much less look after someone else’s children.
Look at the neighbours down the street, martyrs to four little idiots.
LA PONCIA: They’re better off than you are. At least
they have a laugh and you can hear them fighting!
MARTIRIO: Then go and serve them.
LA PONCIA: No. I’ve been sent to serve in this convent!
(Distant bells are heard, as if
through several walls.)
LA PONCIA: It struck three a moment ago.
MARTIRIO: In this heat!
ADELA: (Sitting
down) Oh, if I could only be out in the fields too!
MARTIRIO: (Sitting
down) That’s so!
AMELIA: (Sitting
down) Ay!
LA PONCIA: There’s nothing like being in the fields at
this time of year. Yesterday morning the harvesters arrived.
Forty
or fifty strapping men.
LA PONCIA: From a long way off. They’re from the
mountains. A happy crowd! Like sun-scorched trees! Shouting and throwing
stones! Last night a woman with a sequined dress arrived in the village and
danced to an accordion, and fifteen of the men hired her and took her off to
the olive grove. I watched them from a distance. The one who organised the
hiring was a young man with green eyes, lean as a sheaf of wheat.
AMELIA: Is that a fact?
ADELA: Well, it’s possible!
LA PONCIA: Years ago one of these women came here and I
gave her money myself so my eldest could go with her. Men must do these things!
ADELA: Everything is forgiven them.
AMELIA: To be born a woman is the great crime.
(The sound of singing is heard in
the distance. It draws nearer.)
LA PONCIA: That’s them. They have some fine songs.
AMELIA: They’re off to the reaping, now.
CHORUS: The
reapers are leaving,
they’re off to the reaping,
and with them the hearts
of all the girls
watching.
(Tambourines, and carrañacas
– traditional instruments, small wooden
or metal plates scraped with sticks – are
heard. Pause. All the women listen, in a silence pierced by sunlight.)
AMELIA: The heat doesn’t bother them.
MARTIRIO: They reap amidst the fiery rays.
ADELA: I’d like to be a reaper so I could come and
go at will. Then I’d be able to forget what’s gnawing at us.
MARTIRIA: What is it you need to forget?
ADELA: Each of us has something.
MARTIRIO: (With
feeling) Each of us!
LA PONCIA: Hush! Hush!
CHORUS: (Far
off)
You
girls there from the village
open your doors and windows;
the reaper wants your roses
to brighten his sombrero.
LA PONCIA: What a song!
MARTIRIO: (Nostalgically)
You
girls there from the village
open your doors and windows…
ADELA: (Passionately)
…the
reaper wants your roses
to brighten his sombrero.
(The sound of the singing grows
fainter.)
LA PONCIA: They’re turning the corner now.
ADELA: Let’s go and watch them from the window of my
room.
LA PONCIA: Take care not to open it too wide, because
they’re up to shoving at it to see who’s looking at them.
(The three of them leave. Martirio remains seated on the low chair with her head in
her hands.)
AMELIA: (Approaching)
What is it?
MARTIRIO: The heat is making me ill.
AMELIA: No more than that?
MARTIRIO: I wish it was November, with days of rain and
frost; anything but this interminable summer.
AMELIA: It will pass and return again.
MARTIRIO: Of course! (Pause) What time did you go to sleep last night?
AMELIA: I don’t know. I sleep like a log. Why?
MARTIRIO: Nothing, only I thought I heard someone in
the stable yard.
AMELIA: You did?
MARTIRIO: Very late.
AMELIA: And you weren’t scared?
MARTIRIO: No. I’ve heard it on other nights.
AMELIA: We should be on guard. Might it have been the
farmhands?
MARTIRIO: The farmhands aren’t here till six.
AMELIA: Perhaps a young mule that needs breaking in.
MARTIRIO: (In a
low voice, full of hidden meaning) Ah, yes! A young mule,
one that needs breaking in.
AMELIA: We should warn the others.
MARTIRIO: No! No, say nothing. It’s probably my
imagination.
AMELIA: Perhaps.
(Pause.
Amelia starts to leave.)
MARTIRIO: Amelia.
AMELIA: (In the
doorway) What is it?
(Pause)
MARTIRIO: Nothing.
(Pause)
AMELIA: Why did you call to me?
(Pause)
MARTIRIO: It slipped out. It was unintentional.
(Pause)
AMELIA: Go and lie down for a while.
ANGUSTIAS: (Entering
angrily in a way which creates a sharp contrast with the previous pauses.)
Where is the photograph of Pepe that was under my
pillow? Which of you has it?
MARTIRIO: Neither of us.
AMELIA: It’s not as if Pepe
was a silver Saint Bartholomew.
(La Poncia,
ANGUSTIAS: Where is the photo?
ADELA: What photo?
ANGUSTIAS: One of you has hidden it.
ANGUSTIAS: It was in my room and now it’s not.
MARTIRIO: Maybe it slipped out to the stable yard in
the night? Pepe likes to stroll in the moonlight.
ANGUSTIAS: Don’t waste your wit on me! When he comes
I’ll tell him.
LA PONCIA: No, don’t do that! It will turn up! (Looking at Adela)
ANGUSTIAS: I want to know which one of you has it!
ADELA: (Looking
at Martirio) Someone
does! But not me!
MARTIRIO: (Pointedly)
Naturally!
BERNARDA: (Entering
leaning on her stick) What’s this noise in my
house amidst all this stifling silence? The neighbours must have their ears
glued to the walls.
ANGUSTIAS: They’ve stolen my fiancé’s photograph.
BERNARDA: (Fiercely)
Who has? Who?
ANGUSTIAS: They have!
BERNARDA: Which of you was it? (Silence) Answer me. (Silence. To La Poncia) Search their rooms, and their beds. This is
what comes of not keeping you all on a tighter leash. But I’ll haunt your
dreams! (To Angustias.) Are you sure?
ANGUSTIAS: Yes.
BERNARDA: You’ve searched for it properly?
ANGUSTIAS: Yes, Mother.
(They are all standing. An awkward
silence ensues.)
BERNARDA: At my time of life, you’d make me drink the
bitterest venom a mother has to swallow. (To
La Poncia, entering) You found it?
LA PONCIA: Here it is.
BERNARDA: Where did you find it?
LA PONCIA: It was…
BERNARDA: Don’t be afraid to say.
LA PONCIA: (Surprised)
Between the sheets of Martirio’s
bed.
BERNARDA: (To Martirio) Is that true?
MARTIRIO: It’s true.
BERNARDA: (Advancing
and striking her with her stick) May you be cut to pieces, you
good-for-nothing! You sower of discord!
MARTIRIO: (Angrily)
Don’t you hit me, Mother!
BERNARDA: As much as I want!
MARTIRIO: If I let you! Do you hear? Get away from me!
LA PONCIA: Show your mother some respect.
ANGUSTIAS: (Restraining
Bernarda) Leave her alone. Please!
BERNARDA: Not a tear in her eyes.
MARTIRIO: I’ll not cry just to please you.
BERNARDA: Why did you take the photo?
MARTIRIO: Can’t I even play a joke on my sister? Why
else would I want it?
ADELA: (Jealously)
This was no joke: you’ve never liked jokes. It was
something else in you seeking expression.
Out with it now.
MARTIRIO: Be quiet, and don’t make me talk, because if
I do the walls will close in from shame!
ADELA: An evil tongue never stops inventing things!
BERNARDA: Adela!
AMELIA: And thinking evil thoughts about us.
MARTIRIO: Others do worse things than that.
ADELA: Until they strip them naked and throw them in
the river.
BERNARDA: Wicked girl!
ANGUSTIAS: It’s not my fault that Pepe
el Romana fell for me.
ADELA: For your money!
ANGUSTIAS: Mother!
BERNARDA: Silence!
MARTIRIO: For your fields, and your orchards.
BERNARDA: Silence, I said! I knew the storm was coming,
but I didn’t expect it so soon. Ay! What a shower of stones rains down on my
heart! But I’m not an old woman yet and I’ve halters for all five of you and
this house that my father built so that not even the weeds will know my
desolation. Get out of here! (They leave.
Bernarda sits desolate. La Poncia
stands near the wall. Bernarda composes herself, bangs her stick down and speaks) I shall have
to take a firm grip! Remember, Bernarda, it’s your
duty!
LA PONCIA: Can I say something?
BERNARDA: Speak. I’m sorry you had to hear that. It’s
not good to have an outsider mixed up in family matters.
LA PONCIA: What I’ve seen, I’ve seen.
BERNARDA: Angustias must get
married at once.
LA PONCIA: You must get her away from here.
BERNARDA: Not her. Him!
LA PONCIA: Yes, you must get him away from here! A good
thought.
BERNARDA: I don’t think. There are things you can’t and
shouldn’t think about. I command.
LA PONCIA: And you think he’ll be prepared to go?
BERNARDA: (Rising)
What’s going on in that head of yours?
LA PONCIA: Of course he’ll marry Angustias!
BERNARDA: Say it. I know you well enough to spot when
you’re ready to stab with your knife.
LA PONCIA: I’ve never considered a warning to be murder.
BERNARDA: You’re going to warn me of something?
LA PONCIA: I’m not accusing you of anything, Bernarda. I’m merely saying: open your eyes and see.
BERNARDA: And what is there to see?
LA PONCIA: You’ve always been sharp. You can see the
evil in people a hundred miles off. I’ve often thought you can read others’
minds. But it’s different with your daughters. Now you’re blind.
BERNARDA: You mean Martirio?
LA PONCIA: Indeed, Martirio… (Expressing curiosity) Why did she hide
the photo?
BERNARDA: (Protective
of her daughter) After all she says it was just a joke. What else could it
be?
LA PONCIA: (Sarcastically)
You believe that?
BERNARDA: (Energetically)
No I don’t. You’re right!
LA PONCIA: Fair enough, it’s your family. But if it was
the neighbour across the street, what then?
BERNARDA: Now you’re beginning to twist the knife.
LA PONCIA: (With
sustained cruelty) No Bernarda; something serious
is in the wind here. I don’t wish to blame you, but you’ve not allowed your
daughters their freedom. Martirio is made to fall in
love readily, whatever you may say. Why didn’t you let her marry Enrique Humanes? Why on the very day he was going to come to her
window did you send him a message not to come?
BERNARDA: (Forcefully)
I’d do it a thousand times over! My blood will not mix with that of the Humanes family as long as I live! His father was a
farmhand.
LA PONCIA: And this is what your pride has brought you
to!
BERNARDA: I’m proud because I’ve a right to be. And you
haven’t, since you know very well what you come from.
LA PONCIA: (With
hatred) Don’t remind me! I’m old now, and I’ve
always been grateful for your protection.
BERNARDA: (Imperiously)
It doesn’t seem like it!
LA PONCIA: (Her
hatred smoothly concealed) Martirio will forget
about him.
BERNARDA: And if she doesn’t the worse for her. I don’t
think there is ‘something serious’ going on here. Nothing’s going on here. It’s
only what you’d like to be happening! And if anything does be sure it won’t
escape these walls.
LA PONCIA: I don’t know about that! There are those in
the village who can also read hidden thoughts from afar.
BERNARDA: How you’d love to see me and my daughters on
the road to the nearest brothel!
LA PONCIA: No one knows where anyone will end up.
BERNARDA: I know what my end will be! I and my
daughters! The brothel was fitting for a certain dead woman…
LA PONCIA: (Fiercely)
Bernarda! Respect my mother’s memory!
BERNARDA: Then don’t persecute me with your evil
thoughts!
(Pause)
LA PONCIA: It’s better if I have nothing to do with it.
BERNARDA: That’s what you should do. Work and keep
silent about things. That’s the duty of anyone who’s paid to work.
LA PONCIA: But I can’t. Do you think Martirio
is better suited to marry Pepe than…say Adela?
BERNARDA: I don’t see why.
LA PONCIA: (Pointedly)
Adela. She was made to be a Romano’s fiancé!
BERNARDA: Things are never as we’d wish them.
LA PONCIA: But it’s hard to go against one’s true
inclinations. It seems wrong to me that Pepe is with Angustias, and it seems wrong to others too, and even to
Nature herself. Who knows whether they’ll pay for it somehow!
BERNARDA: Here we go again…You slip things in to give
me bad dreams. And I don’t want to listen to you, because if I did understand
all you were saying I’d be tempted to scratch your eyes out.
LA PONCIA: It won’t come to it!
BERNARDA: Fortunately my daughters respect me, and have
never gone against my wishes!
LA PONCIA: That’s so! But as soon as you let them free
they’ll be climbing the roof.
BERNARDA: I’ll hurl stones to bring them down again!
LA PONCIA: You’ve always been the pluckiest!
BERNARDA: I was always a fiery one!
LA PONCIA: But it’s strange how things turn out! At her
age: you should see Angustias’ enthusiasm for this
fiancé of hers! And he seems taken with
her too! My son told me that yesterday when he went past with the oxen at
BERNARDA: At
ANGUSTIAS: (Entering)
That’s a lie!
LA PONCIA: That’s what they told me.
BERNARDA: (To Angustias) Well?
ANGUSTIAS: Pepe has been
leaving at one, for more than a week. God strike me dead if I’m lying.
MARTIRIO: (Entering)
I heard him leaving at four as well.
BERNARDA: But did you see him with your own eyes?
MARTIRIO: I didn’t want to look out. Don’t you talk to
him from the window in the alleyway?
ANGUSTIAS: No, I talk to him from my bedroom window.
(Adela appears in the doorway)
MARTIRIO: Then…
BERNARDA: What has been going on here?
LA PONCIA: Beware what you might find! Anyway, it’s
clear that Pepe was at one of the windows at four in
the morning.
BERNARDA: You know that for certain?
LA PONCIA: Nothing’s certain in this life.
ADELA: Mother, don’t listen to her: she wants to
destroy us all.
BERNARDA: I’ll find out for myself! If the people in
this village want to make false accusations they’ll find me hard as rock. We’ll
not speak of this any more. Sometimes people will throw mud at others to
destroy them.
MARTIRIO: I’ve no wish to tell lies.
LA PONCIA: There must be something in it.
BERNARDA: There’s nothing in it. I was born with my
eyes open. And they’ll stay open till the day I die.
ANGUSTIAS: I have a right to know what’s going on.
BERNARDA: Your only right is that of obedience. Nobody
tells me what to do. (To La Poncia) And you: keep to your own affairs. No one will
take a step here without my knowing!
SERVANT: (Entering)
There’s a big crowd at the top of the street and all
the neighbours are at their doors!
BERNARDA: (To La Poncia) Run, and see what’s happening! (The women start to run off) Where are
you going? I always knew you were the sort of women who can’t wait to display
themselves at windows, and break your mourning vow. All of you, to the
courtyard!
(They leave as does Bernarda. Distant murmurs are heard. Martirio
and Adela enter and stand listening, not daring to
take another step towards the exit.)
MARTIRIO: Be grateful I kept my tongue in check.
ADELA: I could have spoken too.
MARTIRIO: And what would you have said? To wish is not
to do!
ADELA: The one who does is the one who can, and who
gets there first. You wished but you couldn’t have him.
MARTIRIO: You won’t have him much longer.
ADELA: I’ll have him all to myself!
MARTIRIO: I’ll snatch him from your arms!
ADELA: (Pleading)
Martirio,
let us alone!
MARTIRIO: Never!
ADELA: He wants me to live with him!
MARTIRIO: I saw him embrace you!
ADELA: I didn’t want him to. It’s as if I was
dragged along by a rope.
MARTIRIO: I’ll see you dead first!
(
LA PONCIA: (Entering
with Bernarda) Bernarda!
BERNARDA: What’s going on?
LA PONCIA: Librada’s daughter,
the unmarried one, has had a daughter and no one knows who the father is.
ADELA: A child?
LA PONCIA: And to hide her shame she killed it, and
buried it under some rocks; but the dogs, with more heart than many a human
creature, dug it up and, as if guided by God’s hand, left it on her doorstep.
Now people want to kill her. They’re dragging her down the street, and there
are men running along the paths, and out of the olive-groves, shouting loud
enough to make the earth tremble.
BERNARDA: That’s right, let them bring olive branches
and pick-handles, and let them kill her.
ADELA: No, no, not kill her!
MARTIRIO: Yes, and let us go see.
BERNARDA: And may she who tramples on her honour pay
the price.
(A woman’s cry and a great uproar are
heard outside.)
ADELA: Let them only release her! Don’t go outside!
MARTIRIO: (Gazing
at Adela) May she pay what she owes!
BERNARDA: (In the
archway) Finish her off before the police come! A
burning coal in the place of her sin!
ADELA: (Clutching
her belly) No! No!
BERNARDA: Kill her! Kill her!
Curtain
(Four white walls, bathed in pale
blue light, in the internal courtyard of Bernarda’s
house. It is night. The setting should be utterly simple. The doorways,
illuminated by interior lighting, cast a bright glow on the stage. In the centre a table with an oil lamp, at which Bernarda and her daughters are eating. La Poncia is serving them. Prudencia
is seated apart. As the curtain rises there is a complete silence, broken only
by the sound of plates and cutlery. )
PRUDENCIA: I should go. It’s been a long visit. (She rises.)
BERNARDA: Stay. We never see each other.
PRUDENCIA: Has the last bell for the rosary sounded?
LA PONCIA: Not yet.
(Prudencia sits down.)
BERNARDA: And how is your husband?
PRUDENCIA: The same.
BERNARDA: We never see him either.
PRUDENCIA: You know what he’s like. Since he quarrelled
with his brothers over the inheritance he never goes out the front door, he
uses a ladder and climbs over the wall by the stable-yard.
BERNARDA: So like a man. And your daughter…?
PRUDENCIA: He hasn’t forgiven her.
BERNARDA: He’s right.
PRUDENCIA: I don’t know what to say. It makes me suffer.
BERNARDA: A disobedient daughter ceases to be your
daughter and instead becomes your enemy.
PRUDENCIA: I let it flow over me. The only comfort I
have is to take refuge in the church, but now I’m losing my sight I’ll have to
stop going so the children won’t mock at me. (A heavy blow against the wall is heard.) What was that?
BERNARDA: The stallion, he’s shut in, and kicks at the
wall. (Calling out) Hobble him, and
let him out in the yard! (In a lower voice)
He must be hot.
PRUDENCIA: Are you going to let him loose on the new
mares?
BERNARDA: At dawn.
PRUDENCIA: You’ve done well to increase your stable.
BERNARDA: By dint of pain and money.
LA PONCIA: (Interrupting)
And now she’s got the best stable in the region! It’s
a shame prices are so low.
BERNARDA: Would you like some honey and cheese?
PRUDENCIA: I don’t feel like eating.
(Another blow is heard.)
LA PONCIA: Dear God!
PRUDENCIA: That went straight to my heart!
BERNARDA: (Rising
angrily) Do I have to say everything twice? Let
him out to roll in the straw! (She
pauses, and as if speaking to the stable lads) Shut the mares in the
stable, but let him out, before he brings the wall down. (She goes back to the table and sits down) Ay, what a life!
PRUDENCIA: You have to do a man’s work.
BERNARDA: That’s right. (Adela gets up from the table) Where are you going?
ADELA: For a drink of water.
BERNARDA: (Calling)
Bring a jug of fresh water. (To Adela) You can sit down. (Adela sits)
PRUDENCIA: And Angustias, when
does she get married?
BERNARDA: They’ll ask for her hand in three days time.
PRUDENCIA: You must be very happy!
ANGUSTIAS: Of course!
AMELIA: (To
PRUDENCIA: It always brings bad luck.
BERNARDA: Enough of that!
PRUDENCIA: (To Angustias) Has he given you
the ring yet?
ANGUSTIAS: (Displaying
it) See for yourself.
PRUDENCIA: It’s beautiful. Three pearls. In my day
pearls signified tears.
ANGUSTIAS: Well times have changed.
ADELA: I don’t think so. Such things mean the same.
An engagement ring should be set with diamonds.
PRUDENCIA: That’s more appropriate.
BERNARDA: With pearls or without them, it’s what you
make of things.
MARTIRIO: Or what God makes of them.
PRUDENCIA: They tell me your furniture is fine too.
BERNARDA: It’s cost me a small fortune.
LA PONCIA: (Intervening)
The best piece is the wardrobe, with a mirror.
PRUDENCIA: I’ve never seen a wardrobe with a mirror.
BERNARDA: All we had was a chest.
PRUDENCIA: What’s important is that everything works out
for the best.
ADELA: One can never tell.
BERNARDA: There’s no reason why it shouldn’t.
(The distant sound of bells is
heard.)
PRUDENCIA: The last call. (To Angustias) I’ll visit again so you can
show me your trousseau.
ANGUSTIAS: Whenever you wish.
PRUDENCIA: God give us goodnight.
BERNARDA: Goodbye, Prudencia.
THE FIVE
DAUGHTERS:
God go with you.
(Pause. Prudencia exits.)
BERNARDA: We’ve finished. (They rise.)
ADELA: I’m going to the main door to stretch my legs
and get some air.
(
AMELIA: I’ll go with you.
MARTIRIO: And I.
ADELA: (With
suppressed hatred) I won’t get lost.
AMELIA: Darkness begs company.
(They leave. Bernarda
sits. Angustias is clearing the table.)
BERNARDA: I’ve told you, I want you to talk to your
sister Martirio. What happened with the photograph
was a joke and should be forgotten.
ANGUSTIAS: You know she doesn’t like me.
BERNARDA: Each sees into their own heart. I never pry
into hearts, but I desire a united front and family harmony. Do you understand?
ANGUSTIAS: Yes.
BERNARDA: Then that’s fine.
ANGUSTIAS: Not soon enough.
BERNARDA: What time did you finish talking last night?
ANGUSTIAS: Twelve-thirty.
BERNARDA: What does Pepe have
to say?
ANGUSTIAS: He seems distracted. He talks to me as if
he’s thinking of something else. If I ask him what’s on his mind, he just says:
‘We men have our own worries.’
BERNARDA: You shouldn’t ask him; that’s even more true when you’re married. Speak if he speaks, and look
at him when he looks at you. You’ll be better off that way.
ANGUSTIAS: Mother, I think he hides a great deal from
me.
BERNARDA: Don’t try and find out what it is, don’t
question him, and, above all, don’t let him ever see you cry.
ANGUSTIAS: I should be happy and I’m not.
BERNARDA: It’s no matter.
ANGUSTIAS: I often gaze at Pepe
through the bars of the window, and his image is blurred, as if he were cloaked
in a shroud of dust thrown up by his sheep.
BERNARDA: You’re not well, that’s all.
ANGUSTIAS: I hope it’s that!
BERNARDA: Is he here tonight?
ANGUSTIAS: No. He’s gone to the city with his mother.
BERNARDA: Then we’ll retire early.
ANGUSTIAS: She’s asleep.
(Adela, Martirio and
Amelia enter.)
AMELIA: What a dark night!
ADELA: You can’t see two feet in front of you.
MARTIRIO: A fine night for thieves, or for someone who
needs to hide.
ADELA: The stallion was in the centre of the yard.
So white! Twice as big, and filling the darkness.
AMELIA: That’s right. He was frightening. Like a
phantom!
ADELA: The sky is filled with fistfuls of stars.
MARTIRIO: She stared at them so hard she almost
strained her neck.
ADELA: Don’t you love them too?
MARTIRIO: What happens above the rooftops means nothing
to me. What goes on inside these four walls is enough for me.
ADELA: That’s typical.
BERNARDA: She has her ways as you have yours.
ANGUSTIAS: Good night.
ADELA: You’re off to bed already?
ANGUSTIAS: Yes, Pepe’s not
here tonight. (She exits.)
ADELA: Mother, when a meteor passes, or there’s a
flash of lightning, why do people say:
Blessed
in the sky with paper
you’re writ, and holy water?
BERNARDA: In past days they knew many things that we’ve
forgotten.
AMELIA: I shut my eyes so as not to see them.
ADELA: I don’t. I like to see things flash out fire
that have been dormant for years and years.
MARTIRIO: Those things have nothing to do with us.
BERNARDA: And it’s best not to think of them.
ADELA: What a beautiful night! I’d like to stay up
late to catch the breeze from the fields.
BERNARDA: But it’s time for bed.
AMELIA: She’s fast asleep.
BERNARDA:
BERNARDA: It’s time for bed!
AMELIA: Good night. (She exits.)
BERNARDA: You two, go on now.
MARTIRIO: Why isn’t Angustias’
fiancé coming by tonight?
BERNARDA: He’s away.
MARTIRIO: (Looking
at Adela) Ah!
ADELA: Till the morning. (She exits)
(Martirio has a drink of water and exits slowly looking
towards the door of the stable-yard. La Poncia enters.)
LA PONCIA: You’re still here?
BERNARDA: Enjoying the silence and unable to understand
what this ‘serious thing’ is that’s supposed to be going on here.
LA PONCIA: Bernarda, forget
about it.
BERNARDA: Everything is as it should be in this house.
My vigilance guards against all.
LA PONCIA: Nothing you can see, that’s true. You
daughters live as though they were shut in a cupboard. But neither you nor
anyone else can see inside someone’s heart.
BERNARDA: My daughters can breathe tranquility.
LA PONCIA: That matters to you because you’re their
mother. I’ve enough to do looking after this house.
BERNARDA: So you’re saying nothing.
LA PONCIA: I keep to my place, in peace.
BERNARDA: The fact is there’s nothing to say. If there
was grass here you’d be the first to let the neighbours’ sheep in to graze.
LA PONCIA: I conceal more than you think.
BERNARDA: Has your son seen Pepe
here again at four in the morning? Are people still repeating a litany of lies
against this house?
LA PONCIA: No one says a thing.
BERNARDA: Because they can’t, because there’s nothing
for them to sink their teeth into. My vigilance has seen to that!
LA PONCIA: I don’t want to say anything, Bernarda, because I don’t know what you’re after. But don’t
be so certain.
BERNARDA: I’m utterly certain!
LA PONCIA: Perhaps a lightning bolt will suddenly strike
you! Perhaps a blood clot will suddenly block your heart!
BERNARDA: Nothing will happen. I’m alert to all your suspicions.
LA PONCIA: All the better for
you then.
BERNARDA: Certainly!
SERVANT: (Entering)
I’ve finished washing the dishes. Do you need anything else, Bernarda?
BERNARDA: (Rising)
Nothing. I’m going to bed.
LA PONCIA: What time do you want me to call you?
BERNARDA: Don’t bother. I’ll sleep well tonight. (She exits.)
LA PONCIA: When you can’t fight the tide, the easiest
thing is to turn your back on it.
SERVANT: She’s so full of pride she has a mote in her
eye.
LA PONCIA: I can’t do anything about it. I want to stop
things before they go any further, but they frighten me too much. You hear this
silence? Yet there are storms brewing in each of these rooms. The day they
break out they’ll sweep us all away. I’ve had my say.
SERVANT: Bernarda thinks no
one can match her, but she doesn’t know the effect a man can have on a house
full of single women.
LA PONCIA: It’s not all Pepe
el Romano’s fault. It’s true that last year he was after Adela,
and she was mad about him, but she should have kept to herself and not incited
him. A man is a man,
SERVANT: Some say he’s been talking with Adela too often at night.
LA PONCIA: They’re right. (Whispering) And there have been other things.
SERVANT: I don’t know what will happen here.
LA PONCIA: I’d like to cross the water and leave this
warring house.
SERVANT: Bernarda is
hastening the wedding on, and maybe nothing will happen.
LA PONCIA: Things have already gone too far. Adela is determined, while the others keep watch on her all
the time.
SERVANT: Martirio too?
LA PONCIA: She’s the worst. She’s a poisonous well. She
knows Pepe is not for her and she’d drown the world
if she could so no one else should have him.
SERVANT: They’re wicked girls!
LA PONCIA: They’re women without a man that’s all. In
such cases even blood ties are forgotten. Shhh! (She listens)
SERVANT: What is it?
LA PONCIA: (Rising)
The dogs are barking.
SERVANT: Someone must have passed the door.
(Adela enters in white bodice and petticoat.)
LA PONCIA: Haven’t you been to bed?
ADELA: I wanted a drink of water. (She drinks from a glass on the table.)
LA PONCIA: I thought you were asleep.
ADELA: I was thirsty. And you two: aren’t you going
to bed?
SERVANT: Shortly.
(Adela leaves.)
LA PONCIA: Let’s be gone.
SERVANT: We’ve earned our sleep. All day, Bernarda never lets me rest.
LA PONCIA: Bring the lamp.
SERVANT: The dogs are barking like mad things.
LA PONCIA: They’ll stop us sleeping.
(They leave. The stage is almost
dark. María Josefa enters
carrying a lamb in her arms.)
MARÍA JOSEFA: Little
lamb, my little one,
we’ll go, down to the sea.
The
little ant shall open his door,
I
shall give you milk and more.
Bernarda,
leopard-face.
she-hyena.
Little
lamb!
Baa,
baa.
Flowers there’ll be at Bethlehem Gate.
(She laughs.)
You
and I don’t want to sleep.
By
itself the door will open
we’ll hide along the shore
deep inside a reef of coral.
Bernarda,
Leopard-face.
she-hyena.
Baa,
baa.
Flowers
there’ll be at Bethlehem Gate.
(She goes out singing. Adela enters. She looks around her carefully, and vanishes
through the door to the stable-yard. Martirio enters
through another door and stands centre-stage in a state of agonised alertness.
She is also in her petticoat. She has covered herself with a waist-length black
shawl. María Josefa enters.)
MARTIRIO: Grandmother, where do you think you’re going?
MARÍA JOSEFA: Are you going to open the door for me? Who
are you?
MARTIRIO: What are you doing here?
MARÍA JOSEFA: I escaped. Who are you?
MARTIRIO: Go to bed.
MARÍA JOSEFA: You’re Martirio, I
see that now. Martirio: with the face of a martyr.
When are you going to have a child? This is mine.
MARTIRIO: Where did you find the lamb?
MARÍA JOSEFA: I know it’s a lamb, but why shouldn’t a lamb
be a child? It’s better to have a lamb than nothing at all. Bernarda
with a leopard’s face:
MARTIRIO: Don’t raise your voice.
MARÍA JOSEFA: True. It’s all quite dark. Because I’ve white
hair you think I can’t have a child, but I can: children, children, and more
children. This child will be clothed in white, and there’ll be another child
and another and they’ll all be snow-white, and we’ll be like the waves, every
one of us. Then we’ll know everything, and our heads will be white, and we’ll
be sea-foam. Why is there no sea-foam here? Here there are only mourning
shawls.
MARTIRIO: Hush, hush.
MARÍA JOSEFA: When my neighbour had a child, I would take
it chocolate and afterwards she would bring me some, and so it was, always,
always, always. You’ll have white hair, but the neighbours won’t visit you. I
want to take a walk but I’m afraid the dogs will bite me. Will you go with me
till we’re past the fields? I don’t like fields. I like houses, but houses that
are wide open, and the women, our neighbours, sleeping in their beds with their
little children, and their men outside sitting on chairs. Pepe
el Romano is an ogre. All of you want him. But he’ll devour you. Because you’re grains of wheat. No, not grains of wheat.
Tongue-less frogs!
MARTIRIO: (Energetically)
Come, you must go to bed. (She pushes at
her.)
MARÍA JOSEFA: Yes, but you’ll let me out later, won’t you?
MARTIRIO: Of course I will.
MARÍA JOSEFA: (Weeping)
Little lamb, my
little one,
we’ll go, down to the sea.
The
little ant shall open his door,
I
shall give you milk and more.
(She exits. Martirio
shuts the door through which she has gone, and moves towards the door to the stable
yard. She hesitates then advances a few more steps.)
MARTIRIO: (Whispering)
Adela. (Pause. She continues
to the door. Loudly) Adela!
(Adela appears. Her hair is tousled.)
ADELA: Why are you calling me?
MARTIRIO: Leave that man alone!
ADELA: Who are you to speak to me like that?
MARTIRIO: It’s not the role of an honest woman.
ADELA: Wouldn’t you love to be there yourself!
MARTIRIO: (Loudly)
It’s time for me to speak out. This can’t go on.
ADELA: It’s only just beginning. I’ve had the courage
to take what I want. The spirit and power you lack. I’ve felt death beneath
this roof and I’m off to seek what is mine, what belongs to me.
MARTIRIO: That man without a soul came here for another
woman. You intercepted him.
ADELA: He came for the money, but his eyes were on
me all the time.
MARTIRIO: I won’t allow you to take him. He’s to marry Angustias.
ADELA: You know as well as I he doesn’t love her.
MARTIRIO: I know.
ADELA: You know, because you’ve seen: he loves
me.
MARTIRIO: (Desperately)
Yes.
ADELA: (Coming
closer) He loves me, he loves me.
MARTIRIO: Stick a knife in me, if that’s what you wish,
but don’t speak those words again.
ADELA: That’s why you don’t want me to see him. You
don’t care if he embraces someone he doesn’t love. Nor do I.
He can live with Angustias for a hundred years. But
it’s him embracing me that’s so terrible for you,
because you love him, you love him too!
MARTIRIO: (Dramatically)
Yes! I can say it without shame. Yes! Let my bitter heart split open like a pomegranate.
I love him!
ADELA: (Impulsively,
moving to embrace her) Martirio, Martirio, it’s not my fault.
MARTIRIO: Don’t touch me! Don’t try to soften my heart.
My blood is no longer like yours, and even if I wish to see you as a sister now
I only see you as the other woman. (She
pushes her away)
ADELA: There’s no remedy here. Whoever must drown
will drown. Pepe el Romano is mine. He will take me
to the rushes by the shore.
MARTIRIO: He will not!
ADELA: I can’t stand the horror of living under this
roof having tasted the sweetness of his mouth. I’ll be whatever he wants me to
be. With the whole village against me; scorched by their tongues of fire,
hounded by those who call themselves decent people, I’ll stand before them all
with a crown of thorns on my brow, the one that a woman loved by a married man
wears.
MARTIRIO: Be silent!
ADELA: Yes, yes. (Quietly) Let’s go to sleep, let him marry Angustias.
I don’t care. I’ll go and live in a little house all by myself, where he can
see me whenever he wants, when need overcomes him.
MARTIRIO: That won’t happen as long as I’ve a drop of
blood in my veins.
ADELA: Not to you, who are weak: but I can bring a
wild stallion to its knees by lifting my little finger.
MARTIRIO: Don’t raise your voice, it disturbs me. My
heart is gripped by so evil a force that, regardless of my wishes, it’s
smothering me.
ADELA: They tell us to love our sisters. God must
have abandoned me, in the midst of darkness, because I see you more clearly
than ever before.
(The sound of someone whistling is
heard and Adela runs to the door, but Martirio blocks her passage.)
MARTIRIO: Where are you off to?
ADELA: Get away from the door!
MARTIRIO: Push past me if you can!
ADELA: Away!
(They struggle.)
MARTIRIO: (Shouting)
Mother! Mother!
ADELA: Let me go!
(Bernarda appears. She is wearing petticoats and a
black shawl.)
BERNARDA: Quiet. Quiet. A pity I haven’t a lightning
bolt in my hand!
MARTIRIO: (Pointing
at Adela) She was with
him! Look at her petticoat covered with straw!
BERNARDA: A bed of straw is the bed of a whore! (She approaches Adela
angrily.)
ADELA: (Confronting
her) That’s enough of your gaoler’s voice! (She takes hold of her mother’s walking stick
and breaks it in half.) That’s how I treat the tyrant’s rod. Don’t take
another step. No one but Pepe can command me!
(
(La Poncia
and Angustias enter.)
ADELA: I’m his woman. (To Angustias) Listen, go into the yard
and tell him so. He’ll rule this whole household. He’s there now, breathing
like a lion.
ANGUSTIAS: Dear God!
BERNARDA: The shotgun! Where’s the shotgun? (She exits in haste)
(Amelia enters upstage, looking on
in terror, her head against the wall. Martirio exits.)
ADELA: No one can stop me! (She starts to exit.)
ANGUSTIAS: (Restraining
her) You’ll not leave here in triumph, you thief,
to dishonour our house!
(A gunshot is heard.)
BERNARDA: (Entering)
Go on, look for him now if you dare!
MARTIRIO: (Entering)
That’s the last of Pepe el
Romano.
ADELA: Pepe! My God! Pepe! (She rushes
out.)
LA PONCIA: Did you finish him off?
MARTIRIO: No! He galloped off on his horse!
BERNARDA: It wasn’t for want of trying. But we women
are poor shots.
MARTIRIO: For her benefit! I’d like to pour a whole
river of blood over her head.
LA PONCIA: You witch.
BERNARDA: It’s better this way. (A thud is heard.) Adela! Adela!
LA PONCIA: (At the
door.) Open up!
BERNARDA: Open up now. Don’t think this house can hide
your shame.
SERVANT: (Entering)
You’ve woken the neighbours.
BERNARDA: (In a
low harsh voice) Open the door, before I break it
down! (Pause. Total silence.)
Adela! (She
moves away from the door.) Bring an axe! (La Poncia pushes open the door and goes
inside. She utters a scream and reappears.) What is it?
LA PONCIA: (Clasping
her hands to her throat) Pray God none of us may end like that!
(The sisters shrink back. The
servant crosses herself. Bernarda gives a cry and
steps forward.)
LA PONCIA: Don’t go in!
BERNARDA: No. No, I shall not! Pepe:
you may have fled for your life now through the dark branches, but one day
you’ll be brought low. Cut her down! My daughter died a virgin! Carry her to
her room and dress her as a maiden. No one will dare say a word! She died a
virgin! Tell them to ring the bells twice at dawn.
MARTIRIO: She was a thousand times fortunate: to have
had him.
BERNARDA: And no tears. Death must be stared straight
in the face. Silence! (To another
daughter) Silence, I say! (To another)
You can shed tears when you’re alone. We’ll drown ourselves in a sea of
mourning! She, the youngest of Bernarda Alba’s
daughters died a virgin. Do you hear? Silence, Silence I say! Silence!
Curtain