PEL Audioplayers: “Life Is a Dream” by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

0:00 Mark: The Partially Examined Life relies on your support to find out how to help in ways that are cheap or even free for you. Check out partiallyexaminedlife.com support. Hey, you're listening to the Partially Examined Life. We're going to do a performance of La Vida es Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca from 1636. My name is Mark Linsenmayer. I will be playing the role of Clarine.

0:28 Bill: I'm Bill Youmans. I'll be playing Clotaldo.

0:31 Talene: Chris Martin Basilio I'm Talene Monahan.

0:34 Unknown speaker: I'm playing Rosaura.

0:35 David: I'm David Epstein. I'm playing Sigismundo.

0:37 Erica: I'm Erica Spires.

0:38 Unknown speaker: I'll be reading Estrella Seth Paskin astolfo

Dylan Casey Servant 1, Soldier 1 Wes

Alwan Servant 2 and Soldier 2 just

0:47 Mark: a few quick words before we start. This was recorded live with us sitting all together in a rehearsal space in New York City on April 7, the morning after our Partially Examined Life live. It is unrehearsed. A lot of the people here have never met each other before. I did do editing to allow people to screw up lines and redo them, but it very much captures what was actually going on in the room, including giggling, which is encouraged. This is a comedy. It's in three acts. It's around 30 years post Shakespeare, so similar theatrical conventions.

Although there were women performing it at the time, and it's translated from Spanish. I chose the Stanley Appelbaum translation as a modern sounding one, so hopefully you can all follow what's going on. Some of the speeches are very long. Often if there's some word or passage you're not understanding, it's because a little mythological reference thrown in, like Phaeton with a ph is used right in the first speech to refer to a sun God. There are also some puns that only make sense in Spanish, so if you really care about all the details, you should get a paper copy.

It's the Dover Thrift edition and you can read all the footnotes you like. Act one we start on a high mountain. Rosaura enters, dressed like a male wayfarer, and she descends as she speaks her first lines.

2:11 Unknown speaker: Impetuous hippogriff that match the wind and speed, flash without flame, bird without bright plumage, fish without scales, and beast without natural instincts. Where in this confused labyrinth of these bare rocks are you bolting, hugging the ground and hurtling down, remain on this mountain so that the beasts can have their phaeton here For I, with no more distinct path than the one which the laws of destiny afford me, a woman blinded by despair, shall descend the tangled head of this lofty mountain, which furrows its brow in a scowl at the sun. Poland, you give an ill welcome to a foreigner, since you mark his entrance on your sands with blood, and hardly has he come when he comes into hardship. My fate states this. But where has an unhappy person ever found mercy?

3:03 Mark: Enter Clarine the Comic. I'll say two unhappy people. And don't leave me back at the inn when you complain. Because if there were two of us who left our homeland in search of adventures, two of us who arrived here amid misfortunes and madness, and two of us who rolled down the mountain, isn't it right for me to resent being added to the anguish and not to the account?

3:19 Unknown speaker: I refrained from giving you a share in my laments, Clarine, so as not to deprive you by bemoaning your troubles of your own right to consolation. Because a philosopher once said that there was such pleasure in lamenting that in exchange for a good cry, people should actually seek misfortunes.

3:35 Mark: Ah, well, that philosopher was a drunken old goat, and I would like to give him more than a thousand slaps in the face. Then he could complain about my accurate aim. But, my lady, what will we do on foot, alone, lost at this time of day on a deserted mountain, when the sun is leaving for another horizon?

3:49 Unknown speaker: Who has ever seen such strange events? But if my eyes aren't suffering delusions created by my imagination in the timorous light that the day still holds, I seem to see a build it.

4:01 Mark: Hmm. Either my wishes are telling me lies, or I can make up the trace of it too.

4:05 Unknown speaker: Amid the bare rocks there rises a rustic palace so small that it scarcely dares to behold the sun. Of such coarse workmanship is the architecture of its structure, that at the foot of so many crags and rocks that reach up into the bright sun, it resembles a boulder that has rolled down from the summit.

4:23 Mark: Let's go closer to it, my lady. We've been just looking at it too long, when it would be better if the people who live in it were to let us in hospitably.

4:30 Unknown speaker: The door, or should I say the grim maw, is open, and from its interior emerges the night which is engendered within it.

4:39 Mark: What's that I hear? Heavens.

4:41 Unknown speaker: I've turned into a motionless figure of fire and ice.

4:44 Mark: There's a chain rattling. May I be killed. If it isn't a galley slave's spirit in torment. My fear clearly tells me so.

4:50 David: Ah, woe is me. Ah, how wretched I am.

4:54 Unknown speaker: What a sad cry I hear. I struggle with new pains and torments.

4:59 Mark: And I, with new fears.

5:00 Unknown speaker: Clarine. My lady, let us flee the harshness of this enchanted tower.

5:04 Mark: I don't yet have enough courage to run away when I try to.

5:07 Unknown speaker: Isn't it a small lamp, that feeble glare, that pallid star, which in fitful swoons, pulsating beams and throbbing flashes, makes the gloomy dwelling darker yet with its dubious light? Yes, because by its reflections I can discern, although from afar a dark dungeon which is the tomb of a living corpse. And to add to my awe, dressed like a wild beast, there lies a man loaded with shackles and with only the lamp for company. Since we cannot flee, let's listen to his misfortune from where we stand, let's learn what he says.

5:38 David: Ah, woe is me. Ah, how wretched I am. Heavens, I seek to inquire, since you treat me this way, what crime I committed against you when I was born. Though, seeing that I was born, I already realized what crime I have committed, There was sufficient reason for your justice and severity, since the greatest crime of man is being born, I would merely like to know, in order to determine the cause of my woes, Setting apart, O heavens, the crime of being born, in what other way I could have offended you to deserve additional punishment? Wasn't everyone else born too?

Well then, if everyone else was born, what special favors were they granted, which I have never enjoyed? The bird is born, and in the finery that gives it supreme beauty, no sooner does it become a feathered flower or a winged posy, than it swiftly cuts its way through the halls of the sky, abandoning the family relations of its nest, which it leaves in repose. And I, who have more soul, have less liberty. The beast is born, and with its coat patterned with beautiful spots, no sooner is it starred like a constellation, thanks to nature's skilled brush, than the bold and cruel needs of mankind teach it to become cruel in turn, a monster in its own labyrinth.

And I, with finer instincts, have less liberty. The fish is born who doesn't breathe an abortion of algae and slime, and no sooner does it find itself on the waves like a boat of scales, than it turns in every direction, measuring the immensity of all the space that its cold element gives it. And I, with more free will, have less liberty. The stream is born, a snake winding amid flowers, and like a silver serpent, no sooner does it twist through the flowers than it musically acclaims the kindness of the flowers lend it the majesty of the open field as it flees past.

And I, who have more life, have less liberty. When I reach this pitch of emotion, I become a volcano, an etna, and I'd like to pull pieces of my heart out of my breast. What law, justice, or philosophy is able to deny men so sweet a privilege, so fundamental an exemption which God has granted to a limpid stream, to a fish, a boat and a bird?

7:56 Unknown speaker: His words have aroused fear and pity

7:58 David: in me, who has been listening to my cries. Is it Clotaldo say that it is?

8:03 Unknown speaker: No, it's a sad man. Woe is me who in these chilly vaults has overheard your melancholy.

8:09 David: In that case, I shall put you to death to prevent your knowing that. I know that you know my weakness. Merely because you overheard me with my brawny arms, I must tear you to shreds.

8:22 Mark: As for me, I'm deaf. I wasn't able to listen to you

8:26 Unknown speaker: if you were born human. My prostrating myself at your feet should be enough for you to set me free.

8:33 David: Your voice has had the power to soften me, your presence to interrupt me and respect for you to confuse me. Who are you? Because even though I know so little of the world here, since for me this tower has been my cradle and my grave, and even though ever since my birth, if you can call it birth, the only thing I have beheld is this rustic wilderness in which I have lived wretchedly, like a living skeleton, like an animated corpse, and even though I have never seen nor spoken to any man but one who listens to my misfortunes here, and from whom I have gathered all my knowledge about heaven and earth, and even though here, and this will surprise you more and make you call me a human monster, amid my fears and wild imaginings, I am a man among beasts and a beast among men, and even though in such weighty misfortunes I have studied political science, instructed by the beasts, informed by the birds, and have measured the orbits of the gentle heavenly bodies, you alone have interrupted my emotional response to my troubles, amazing my eyes and thrilling my ears.

Each time I look at you, you fill me with new wonderment, and the more I gaze on you, the more I long to do so, I think my eyes must be morbidly thirsty, because when drinking is death, they drink all the more. And to this effect, seeing that seeing gives me death, I am dying to see. But let me see you and die, because by now, overcome, I don't know, since seeing you gives me death, what not Seeing you would give me it would be something fiercer than death. Anger, frenzy and sharp pain. It would be death, for I have calculated in severity in this way.

Because giving life to an unfortunate man is like giving death to a fortunate one.

10:16 Unknown speaker: Awestruck at seeing you, astonished at hearing you. I don't know what I can say to you, or what I can ask you. I'll only say that Heaven has guided me here today to give me consolation. If it can be consolation to an unfortunate man to see another more unfortunate. The tale is told of a wise man who once was so poor and indigent that his sole nourishment was a few herbs that he picked. Can there be another man, he said to himself, poorer and sadder than I? And when he turned his face, he found the answer, beholding another wise man who was gathering the leaves that he had discarded.

I was living in this world, lamenting my fortune. And when I asked myself whether there was anyone else with a more troublous fate, you kindly gave me the answer. Because, on due consideration, I find that you would have gathered my sorrows to turn them into happiness for yourself. And if by chance my sorrows can soothe you to some extent, listen to them closely and take any of them that are too many for me. I am this way.

11:19 Bill: You tower guards, who either from drowsiness or cowardice, have let two people get by and enter the secret prison.

11:29 Unknown speaker: I'm upset all over again.

11:30 David: That's Clotaldo, my jailer. My misfortune not yet an end.

11:34 Bill: Running and with vigilance, not allowing them to defend themselves. Either seize them or kill them.

11:41 Unknown speaker: Treason.

11:43 Mark: Guards of this tower, who allowed us to enter here? Since you give us our choice, seizing us is easier.

11:48 Bill: All of you, cover your faces. It's an important precaution. As long as we're in here, so no one can recognize us.

11:56 Mark: Are they masqueraders?

11:58 Bill: You, who in your ignorance, have passed the bounds and limits of this forbidden place, in violation of the royal decree which orders that no one venture to examine the marvel that dwells within these boulders. Surrender your weapons and lives, or this pistol, a metal viper, will spit the penetrating venom of two bullets whose fire will cause an uproar in the air.

12:26 David: Tyrannical master, before you insult and injure them, my life will be the spoil of these unhappy bonds, because, as God lives in them, I shall tear myself apart with my hands, with my teeth, amid these rocks, before I consent to their misfortune and bewail outrages committed against them.

12:42 Bill: Sigismundo, if you Know that your misfortunes are so great that you died before you were born because of a heavenly law. If you know that these shackles are a bridle to your arrogant fury to keep it in check, and reins to call it to a halt. Why do you brag? Gods, lock the door to this cramped prison. Hide him within it.

13:09 David: Oh Heaven, how right you are to deprive me of freedom. Because I would be a titan attacking you, and in order to smash those crystals and glasses of the sun, I would pile up mountains of Jasper atop foundations of stone.

13:25 Bill: Perhaps it is to prevent you from piling them up that you undergo so

13:29 Unknown speaker: many troubles today, now that I've seen that my pride offended you so, I'd be a fool not to ask you humbly for my life, which lies at your feet. Let pity for me move you, for it would be exceptional severity if neither pride nor humility found favor with you,

13:49 Mark: and if you aren't under obligation to humility and pride, characters who have time and again been the motive force in a thousand morality plays, then I, neither humble nor proud, but a mix of the two, ask you to aid and protect us.

14:00 Bill: You there, my lord, take away the weapons from both of them and bind their eyes so they can't see what way or from where they leave.

14:10 Unknown speaker: This is my sword, which to you alone can be handed over, because, after all, among all, here you are the leader, and it is unable to submit to one of less merit.

14:21 Mark: Mine is such that it can be given to the lowest man of all. You soldiers take it.

14:25 Unknown speaker: And if I am to die, I wish to leave with you to attest to your compassion, an object which deserves esteem for the owner who once girded it on. I enjoin you to keep it safely, because even though I don't know what secret it involves, I know that this gilded sword encloses great mysteries. Since relying on it alone, I have come to Poland to avenge myself for an affront.

14:50 Bill: Holy God, what's this? Now I feel an even greater trouble and confusion, anxiety and worry. Who gave it to you?

15:03 Unknown speaker: A woman.

15:04 Bill: What is her name?

15:05 Unknown speaker: I am compelled to conceal her name.

15:08 Bill: What makes you now infer or know that there's a secret in this sword?

15:14 Unknown speaker: She who gave it to me said, leave for Poland, and make it your business, through planning, diligence or craft, that you are seen with this sword by the nobility and eminent men. Because I know that one of them will become your patron and protector. In case he was dead, she refused to name him at the time.

15:32 Bill: Heaven help me. What's this I hear? I still can't decide whether what's happening is an illusion or reality. This sword is the one that I left with the beautiful Violante as a token that the man who bore it girded to his waist would find me, as a loving son finds an affectionate father. So what am I to do? Woe is me in a dilemma like this, if the man who wears it for his benefit is actually wearing it for his death, seeing that he has surrendered to me under the sentence of death. What a singular dilemma. What a sad fate. What a changeable fortune.

This man is my son, and his appearance corresponds with the signals of my heart, which cries out in my breast to see him and flutters its wings there, and, unable to break the padlocks, behaves like a man who's locked in and hearing an uproar in the street, looks out the window. And thus my heart, not knowing what's happening but hearing the uproar, goes to look out of my eyes, which are the windows of the breast through which it emerges in tears. What am I to do? Heaven help me, what am I to do? Because to take him to the King is to take him.

Woe is me to his death. But I can't hide him from the King, since I must obey the laws of fealty. Self love on the one side and loyalty on the other overwhelm me. But why do I hesitate? Doesn't loyalty to the King come before life and honour? Then let loyalty live and honour fail. Besides that, if I now pay heed to the fact that he said he had come to take revenge for an affront, a man who's been affronted is base. He isn't my son, he isn't my son and he doesn't bear my noble blood. But if it was some critical situation of the sort that no one can avoid, because honour is of such brittle stuff that it's broken with a gesture or besmirched with a puff of air, what more can he do?

What more on his part as a nobleman than to come in quest of his honour at the cost of so many risks? He is my son, he bears my blood, since he possesses such great merit. And so, between one hesitation and another, the most imperative course is to go to the King and tell him that the man is my son and that he should kill him. Perhaps the very pity the King feels for my honour will place him under an obligation. And if my merits save this man's life, I'll help him take revenge for his affront but if the King, unbending in his severity, puts him to death, he will die without knowing I'm his father.

Come with me, strangers. Have no fear, none that you will lack for company in your misfortunes. For in such uncertainty over living and dying, I don't know whose misfortunes are greater.

19:09 Mark: All exit. Astolfo enters from one side, accompanied by soldiers, and Estrella from the other, with ladies in waiting.

19:17 Unknown speaker: Oh, it is fitting at the sight of your outstanding beams of light, which once were comets, that various salvos are intermingled by the drums and trumpets and by the birds and fountains, since with equal music and supreme wondrousness, upon viewing your heavenly presence, the birds are feathered clarions and the trumpets are metallic birds. And thus, my lady, you are saluted by the bullets as their queen, by the birds as their dawn, by the trumpets as Pallas Athena, and by the flowers as Flora, because, mocking the day which night is now banishing, you are dawn in gladness, Flora in peace, Pallas in war, and queen in my soul.

19:57 Erica: If words must be pitted against men's deeds, you have done wrong to utter such courtly compliments when you can be given the lie by all this martial pomp against which I now boldly struggle. Because, as I believe the flattery I hear from you doesn't suit the grimness that I see. And take note that it's a base deed, one worthy of a wild animal, mother of deceit and treachery, to throw bouquets to a woman with your lips and to kill her in your sleep. Secret thoughts.

20:25 Unknown speaker: You are very badly informed, Estrella, if you doubt the sincerity of my compliments, and I beseech you to hear my explanation of the reason, to see if I know it. Eustorgio iii, King of Poland, died, leaving Basilio as heir, as well as two daughters, one your mother and one mine. I don't wish to tire you with the details that are irrelevant here. Clorilene, your mother and my lady aunt, who now in a better realm enjoys a canopy of stars, was the eldest daughter, and you are hers, Eustorgio's younger daughter, my mother. And your aunt is the elegant Recisunda.

May God keep her for a thousand years. She wed in Muscovy and gave birth to me, and it is now fitting to return to the beginning again. Basilio, who by now my lady is yielding to universal mockery of time and is more inclined to study than interested in woman, was left a widower without children, and you and I are claimants for this country. You state in your behalf, that you are the daughter of his elder sister. I claim that I am a male child, and thus, even though born to the younger sister, I ought to be preferred over you. We reported to our uncle your pretensions and mine.

He replied that he wished to settle our dispute, and we agreed upon this place and day for it. With this in mind, I set out from Muscovy and its lands. With this in mind, I arrived here, instead of declaring war on you, so that you could declare it on me. Oh, may love that wise God grant the common people such accurate astrologers may be so today in regard to us both, and that this concord may result in your becoming the queen. But the queen of my free choice, with our uncle giving you his crown for greater honor. Your merit giving you its triumphs, and my love giving you its dominion.

22:09 Erica: In the face of such courtly generosity, my heart displays an equal one, since I'd be glad if the sovereign monarchy were mine merely in order to pass it to you. And yet my love is poorly gratified by your infidelity, when I suspect, despite all you say, that your words are belied by that portrait hanging on your breast.

22:29 Unknown speaker: I intend to placate your misgivings in that regard. But the occasion is cut short by all those ringing trumpets which announce that the king and his council are now entering.

22:40 Mark: Basilio enters with a retinue.

22:43 Erica: Wise Thales, learned Euclid, you, who amid

22:46 Unknown speaker: the zodiac, you who amid stars are ruler today, reside. You, who describe you, who assess and

22:54 Erica: measure the paths of their stars, their

22:56 Unknown speaker: traces in the sky, permit me in humble windings, permit me in tender embraces

23:01 Erica: to be the ivy clinging to you,

23:03 Unknown speaker: the tree, to see myself stretched at your feet.

23:07 Talene: Niece and nephew, embrace me and be assured, since, faithful to my loving command, you have come here so affectionately that I shall leave neither of you lamenting, and that you will be treated with equity. And so, while I make a confession succumbing to an excessive burden, I merely ask you on this occasion for silence, because astonishment will ensue from the very events you already know. Pay close heed to me, you, my beloved niece and nephew, you, the illustrious court of Poland, vassals, kinsmen and friends, you already know that throughout the world my scientific pursuits have won me the appellation learned.

For in despite of time and oblivion, the brushes of Timanthes and the marbles of Lysippus in the whole circle of the globe acclaim me as the great Basilio. You already know that the science I chiefly study and esteem, and is Subtle mathematics by which I steal from time and ravish from fame, their jurisdiction and their function of teaching men more every day. Because when I see present in my charts the future events of ages to come, I win from time men's gratitude for recounting what I have said. Those rings of snow, those canopies of glass which the sun illuminates with its beams, which the moon separates with its revolutions, those globes of diamond, those spheres of crystal which the stars adorn and the constellations occupy, are the principal study of my years.

They are the books in which, on diamond paper, on sapphire signatures, heaven writes in golden lines and distinct characters the events of our lives, sometimes adverse, sometimes beneficent. I read those books so swiftly that with my spirit I follow their rapid movements along their courses and their paths. Would that it had pleased heaven before my intelligence ever became the marginal commentary to those books and the index to their pages, to make my life the first victim of its wrath and to let that wrath constitute my sole tragedy. Because for unlucky people even their merit is a sharp knife.

Since a man harmed by his own knowledge is a self murderer. Let me say this, even though the events of my life will state it more plainly, so that you may marvel at them once again, I ask you to be silent. By Clorilene, my wife, I had an unlucky son during whose gestation the heavens exhausted their miracles even before he emerged into the lovely light from the living grave of the womb, because birth and death are similar infinite times. His mother, amid the visions and delirium of dreams, saw her entrails being burst by a bold monster in human shape, died in her blood.

He was killing her, born to be the human viper of the age. The day of her delivery arrived, and the forecast coming true, because evil forecasts never lie, or if so, only belatedly. He was born at such an astrological conjunction that the sun, tinged with its blood, was fiercely entering into a joust with the moon and with the earth for their barrier. The two celestial lamps were struggling light to light, since one cannot say hand to hand, the greatest, most terrifying eclipse ever suffered by the sun from the time when it bloodily bewailed the death of Christ.

And this one, because the globe, drowned in living flame, seemed to be suffering its final paroxysm. The sky was darkened, buildings shook, the clouds rained stones, the rivers ran blood. Under this unhappy, under this fatal planet or sign, Sigismundo was born, giving an indication of his nature, because he killed his mother by this cruelty. He was saying, I am a man Since I am already beginning to repay kindness with evil, I, referring to my books found in them and in all things, that Sigismundo would be the most insolent man, the most cruel prince, and the most impious monarch through whom his kingdom would come to be fragmented and divided, a school for treason, an academy for vice, and that he, carried away by his fury amid fearful crimes, would one day set his foot on me, and that I, surrendering, would find myself grovelling before him.

With what anguish I say this, the gray hairs of my head serving as a carpet to his feet, who doesn't believe in coming harm, especially in harm that has been revealed to him by his own studies, in which case self love plays an additional part. Well, I, lending credence to soothsaying fate, which forecast harm to me in dire predictions, decided to lock up the wild beast that had been born, to see whether a wise man can prevail over the stars. It was announced that the prince was stillborn. And as a precaution I had a tower erected amid the rocks and crags of those mountains where light has scarcely found a way in, because their rugged obelisks bar its entry.

The severe penalties of the law, which in public edicts ordered that no one should enter a forbidden place in the mountains, were occasioned by the reasons I have stated. There Sigismundo lives, wretched, poor, a captive, where only Clotaldo has spoken to him, kept him company and seen him. Clotaldo has taught him sciences, and he has instructed him in the Catholic religion, being the only witness to his misery. Now, in all this there are three factors at play. One, people of Poland, is that I love you so much that I wish to free you from oppressive service to a tyrannical king, because one who would place his homeland and his realm in such peril wouldn't be a kindly king.

The second factor is the reflection that my depriving my own flesh and blood of the rights he was given by both human and divine law is not Christian charity, because no law ever stated that to prevent another man from being tyrannical and insolent, I should act that way myself, since even if my son is a potential tyrant, to stop him from committing crimes, I myself come to commit them. The third and final factor is the realization that it was a tremendous mistake to lend an easy credence to the prediction of events, because even if his nature is inclined toward outrages, perhaps it won't overcome him, since even the most dire fate, the most violent inclination, the most evil planet, merely dispose our free will in a certain direction, but never compel it in that direction.

And so, what with one reason and another, in my vacillating meditations, I hit upon a solution of such a kind that it will numb your senses to morrow. Without his knowing that he is my son and your king, I shall place Sigismundo, for that is his name, on my throne, beneath my canopy, in short, in my place, where he will govern and rule you, and where all of you submissively will swear obedience to him. Because by doing this I achieve three things with which I respond to the three other factors that I mentioned. First, if he is prudent, sane and beneficent, and completely gives the lie to the prophecy that said all those things about him, you will enjoy the presence of your natural prince, who has been the courtier of mountains and neighbor to their wild animals.

Second, if he haughtily, boldly, insolently and cruelly gives free rein to his vices and they run away with him, in that case I shall have mercifully complied with my obligations, and by dispossessing him at that time I shall be acting like an unconquered king, since returning him to his prison will not be cruelty, but a punishment. Third, if the prince is really, as I have just stated, out of my love for you, my vassals, I shall give you monarchs more worthy of the crown and sceptre. They will be my niece and nephew, as I join together their separate claims, and brought into agreement by this sacrament of marriage, they will both have what they have deserved.

This I command you as king, this I ask of you as a father, this I request of you as a philosopher, this I state to you as an elderly man. And if Seneca of Spain once said that a king is a humble slave of his commonwealth, this I beseech of you as a slave.

34:03 Unknown speaker: If it is my due to reply, since I have indeed been the man with most at stake here. Let Segismundo appear, because it is enough that he is your son.

34:15 Erica: Give us our prince.

34:17 Bill: He already requests our king.

34:21 Talene: Vassals, for these kind words I thank and esteem him. Escort to their rooms these two props of my old age, for tomorrow you shall see him.

34:36 Mark: All exit before Basilio completes his exit. Clotaldo Rosaura and Clarien entered, and Clotaldo detains Basilio.

34:45 Bill: Ah, may I speak with you? A hearty welcome to you, even though my arrival in your presence necessarily implies that I have come well this time, sire, a sad and malignant fate violates the privilege of the law and the good manners of Custom?

35:09 Talene: What's wrong with you?

35:11 Bill: Sire, it's a misfortune that has befallen me, just when I had the right to consider the event as the greatest cause for rejoicing.

35:22 Talene: Go on.

35:23 Bill: This handsome youth, whether through boldness or carelessness, entered the tower, Sire, where he caught sight of the prince. And he is on that fret, but doubt it.

35:38 Talene: If it had occurred on any other day, I confess that I would have been sorry for it. But now I have divulged the secret, and it doesn't matter that he knows it, seeing that I have told it. See me later, because I have many things to inform you about, and many for you to do for me. Because let me tell you, you are to be the agent of the greatest event in the history of the world. As for these captives, in order that you don't end up imagining that I am punishing them for your carelessness, I pardon them.

36:17 Bill: Ah, great lord, may you live a thousand centuries. Heaven has improved my lot. Now I won't report that he's my son, seeing that I can exonerate him. Wandering strangers, you are at liberty.

36:35 Unknown speaker: I venerate your feet with a thousand

36:38 Mark: kisses, and I validate them because between friends, a few letters and a word make no difference.

36:43 Unknown speaker: My lord, you have given me my life, and since I am alive on your account, I shall eternally be your slaves.

36:50 Bill: It wasn't life that I gave you, because when a man of good birth has been affronted, he's not alive. And since you have come to take revenge for an affront, as you yourself have told me, I haven't given you life because you didn't come here with it, for a vile life is no life at all. With these words I'll stir him to action.

37:15 Unknown speaker: I confess that I don't have life, even though I receive it from you. But with my revenge I shall leave my honor so clean that afterwards my life, trampling all dangers, will seem to be a gift from you.

37:28 Bill: Take back this burnished steel that you are wearing, or I know it is sufficient who died in the blood of your enemy, to avenge you. Because steel that once was mine, I mean just this moment, this while, that I've had it in my keeping, will be able to avenge you.

37:51 Unknown speaker: In your name I girded on for the second time, and on it I swear my revenge, no matter how powerful my enemy may be.

38:00 Bill: Is he Very much so.

38:03 Unknown speaker: So much so that I won't tell you his name. Not because I wouldn't trust your prudence with even greater things, but in order that your partiality toward me, which I wonder at, in seeing your kindness, won't turn against me.

38:17 Bill: On the contrary, you'd be winning me over by telling me, because it would mean preventing me from aiding your enemy. Oh, if only I knew who he was.

38:26 Unknown speaker: So that you won't think I hold your confidence so cheaply, let me tell you that my opponent is none other than Astolfo, Duke of Muscovy.

38:35 Bill: I can't abide this grief, because none it is greater than when I just imagined it. Let us look into the matter further. If you are a Muscovite born, the man who is your natural lord can't really have affronted you. So return to your homeland and abandon this ardent desire which will destroy you.

38:59 Unknown speaker: I know that even though he was my prince, he did actually affront me.

39:03 Bill: He couldn't have, even if he insolently slapped your face. Oh, heavens.

39:10 Unknown speaker: The affront to me was greater yet.

39:12 Bill: Then tell me what it was, because you can't say any more than I

39:15 Unknown speaker: imagine I would tell you. But I don't know. What respect for you as I behold you, what affection for you as I venerate you, what esteem for you as I attend you, makes me lack the courage to tell you that these external trappings of mine are a riddle, because the one they clothe isn't what he seems. With this hint, judge, if I'm not what I seem, and if Astolfo has come here to marry Estrella, whether he is capable of affronting me. I've told you enough.

39:46 Bill: Listen.

39:47 Unknown speaker: Wait.

39:48 Bill: Stop. What a muddled labyrinth is this, in which reason cannot find the guiding thread. It is my own honor that has been affronted. The enemy is powerful. I'm a vassal, she is a woman. Let Heaven discover the right path. Though I don't know if that's possible, when in such a confusing abyss, all of Heaven is one great omen and the whole world one great marvel.

40:26 Mark: End of Act One Woo hoo. We now begin Act 2 Enter Basilio and Clotaldo.

40:52 Bill: Everything you ordered has been carried out.

40:56 Talene: Tell me how things went, Clotaldo.

40:59 Bill: It was this way, sire. With the soporific potion filled with various compounds that you ordered to be brewed. Mingling into it the power of certain herbs whose tyrannical force and secret strength deprives, robs and dispossesses a man of his reasoning powers so drastically that he remains a living corpse, and whose violence puts him to sleep and takes away his senses and abilities. There's no need for us to debate whether such things are possible, because explos experience, sire, has informed us of it so often. And it's been verified that the medical art is full of natural mysteries, and that there's no animal, plant, or stone that doesn't possess given powers.

And if our human cunning is able to concoct a thousand poisons capable of killing, what wonder is it if once their violence is mitigated, since there are poisons that can kill, there should be poisons that could put a man to sleep. Setting aside such doubts as to the possibility of such an occurrence, since it's already been proved by reasoning and evidence, to return to the case before us, with the potion compounded of opium poppy and henbane, I descended to Sigismundo's cramped dungeon. I spoke with him for a while about the humanities in which he's been instructed by the wordless nature of mountains and skies, in whose divine school he has learned the rhetoric of birds and beasts, in order to raise his spirit higher with a view to the undertaking you have in mind for him.

I took as my subject the swiftness of a mighty eagle, which, scorning the sphere of the wind, was ascending in order to become in the supreme regions of fire, a feathered thunderbolt or comet detached from its orbit. I praised its bold flight, saying, in short, you are the queen of the birds, and so it's only right for you to lord it over them all. He needed no further prompting, because upon this topic of kingship he discourses with ambition and pride, since in reality his blood prompts him, stirs him, incites him to lofty actions, and he said so.

Then, even in the restless commonwealth of the birds, there are some who swear obedience to others. When I arrive at this reasoning, my misfortunes console me, since at least, if I'm a subject, I'm one under compulsion, because I wouldn't submit to another man of my own free will. Seeing him now roused to fury by this which has been the subject of his sorrow, I offered him the beverage, and no sooner did the liquid pass from the tumbler to his bosom, than he yielded up his strength to slumber, a cold sweat running through his limbs and veins. So that, had I not known it was merely a semblance of death, I would have feared for his life.

At that moment there arrived the people to whom you are entrusting the value of this experiment. And placing him in a carriage, they bore him to your apartment, where there stood in readiness the royal grandeur worthy of his person. There they put him in your bed, where whenever the lethargy has lost its strength, they will serve him, sire, as they would you, for such are your orders. And if my obedience to you obliges you to consider me deserving of a reward, I merely ask you pardon my indiscretion, to tell me what you have in mind by bringing Sigismundo to the palace.

This way.

45:04 Talene: Clotaldo, this uncertainty of yours is quite justified, and I wish to resolve it for you alone. Sigismundo, my son, as you well know, is threatened by the influence of his natal planet with a thousand misfortunes and tragedies. I wish to determine whether heaven, which cannot lie, especially after giving us such great displays of its severity with regard to his cruel nature, can be assuaged, or at least mollified, and whether, overcome by merit and wisdom, it can go back on its word, because man has dominion over the stars. This I wish to determine by bringing him to a place where he will learn that he is my son and where I can put his character to the test.

If by his high mindedness he conquers his nature, he shall reign. But if he displays a cruel and tyrannical nature, I shall send him back to his chains. Now you will ask why, for this experiment it was necessary to bring him here asleep like this. And I wish to content you by giving you a full answer. If he learn today that he is my son and found himself to morrow once again confined in his wretched prison, his character ensures us that he would be in despair there. Because if he knew who he is, what consolation could he possibly have? And so I wanted to leave a way out of that damaging situation to say that all he saw was in a dream.

This way two things can be tested. First of all, his character, because when awake he will behave in accordance with his imaginings and thoughts. Secondly, the matter of his consolation. Since even though he now finds himself obeyed and later will return to captivity, he will be able to surmise that it was a dream. And it will be a good thing for him to realize. Because in this world, Clotaldo, everyone who lives is a dreamer.

47:36 Bill: I have no lack of arguments to prove that your ideas are wrong. But by now it can't be helped. And to judge, by all indications, it seems that he has awakened and is heading our way.

47:51 Talene: I wish to withdraw you as his tutor. Go to him and by telling the truth release him from all the confusion that will besiege his judgment.

48:03 Bill: In short, you give me permission to tell him yes.

48:09 Talene: Because maybe when he knows the truth, he'll recognize the danger he's in and will conquer himself more readily.

48:18 Mark: Exit, Basilio. Enter, Clarine. At the cost of a few blows that my coming here cost me, dealt by an auburn haired halberdier whose beard sprouted out of his livery matching in color, I shall observe all that goes on, because there's no window view of a street celebration that you cannot be so sure of finding as the one that without asking a ticket dispenser for it, a man carries along with himself. Because at every festival, even if penniless and wiped out, his own nerviness provides him with the place at the window.

48:48 Bill: This is Clarine, the servant of that woman. Oh, heavens. Of the woman who, dealing in bad luck, has imported an affront against me into Poland. Clarine, what's new?

49:04 Mark: The news is, my lord, that your great clemency, prepared to avenge Rosaura's affronts, had advised her to wear appropriate clothing,

49:11 Bill: and rightly so, to avoid any appearance of wantonness.

49:16 Mark: The news is also that changing her name and shrewdly calling herself your niece, she has had so much honor heaped upon her today that she is now residing in the palace as a lady in waiting to the illustrious Estrella.

49:28 Bill: It's only right that once and for all she should receive honor on my account.

49:34 Mark: Further news. She's waiting for the proper time and opportunity to come when you'll take action in behalf of her honor.

49:40 Bill: I call that a reliable expectation, because eventually time itself will take those measures.

49:47 Mark: More news. She's being entertained and served like a queen on the strength of being your niece. And furthermore, though I arrived along with her, I'm starving to death and no one is paying any attention to me, despite the fact that my name Clarine means clarion, and that if such a clarion blows, it might tell all that's going on to the King Astolfo Estrella. Because a clarion and a servant are two things that are extremely mismatched with secrecy. And perhaps, if silence let me slip out of its grasp, the following song may be sung with me in mind. A dawn chattering Clarion isn't as loud as that.

50:23 Bill: Ah, that old chestnut. Your complaint is well founded. I'll placate your complaint, and in the meantime be my servant.

50:35 Mark: Ah, but here comes Sigismundo.

50:37 David: Heaven help me. What's this I see? Heaven help me. What do I behold? I marvel at it with little fear, but I believe it only with great doubt. I, in a luxurious palace I amid fabrics and brocade, I, surrounded by such well dressed Energetic servants. I, awakening from sleep in such an excellent bed. I, in the midst of so many people helping me to dress. To say I'm dreaming is mistaken. I know very well I'm awake, am I not? Sigismundo. Heavens clarify my confusion. Tell me, what can have happened to my mind while I was asleep that makes me find myself here? But whatever it may be, who's forcing me to ponder it? I want to let myself be served, come what may.

51:21 Unknown speaker: How melancholy he is.

Well, who wouldn't be if this happened to him.

51:26 Mark: Uh, me?

51:27 Unknown speaker: Go over and talk to him now.

Should they sing another song?

51:31 David: No, I don't want them to sing anymore.

51:34 Unknown speaker: Since you're so distraught, I wanted to entertain you.

51:36 David: I don't need to divert my sorrows with their voices. Martial music is the only kind I've enjoyed hearing.

51:44 Bill: Your highness. Great lord, give me your hand to kiss, because my humble self must be the first to exhibit that obedience.

51:54 David: You are Clotaldo. Then how is it that the man who mistreats me in prison treats me with such respect? What's going on here with me?

52:02 Bill: In the great confusion that your new condition causes you, your mind and reason will suffer a thousand doubts. But I now wish to rid you of all of them, if possible. Because, sire, you ought to know that you are the crown prince of Poland. If you have lived in hiding and retirement, it was in obedience to the severity of fate which promises a thousand disasters to this realm at such a time as the laurel of sovereignty wreathes of your noble brow here, but in the firm belief that your good sense will make you cancel the planet's decree, because a high minded man can resist them. You have been brought to the palace from the tower in which you were dwelling while your spirits were overcome by sleep. Your father, my lord, the king, will come to see you, and from him you will learn the rest. Sigismundo.

53:03 David: So, you base, vile traitor. What more do I need to learn after learning who I am in order to demonstrate my pride and power from now on? How could you commit such treason against your country as to hide me away, since against all reason and justice you were robbing me of this rank in life?

53:24 Bill: O woe is me.

53:26 David: You were a traitor to the law, a flatterer to the king, and cruel to me. And so the king, the law, and I, amid such grievous misfortunes, condemn you to death at my hands. Sire, let no one prevent me, for it would be wasted effort. And as God lives, if you interpose, I'll throw you out the window. Escape, Clotaldo.

53:49 Bill: Alas for you. What pride you're displaying, unaware that you're only dreaming.

53:57 Unknown speaker: Please observe.

53:58 David: Get out of here.

53:59 Unknown speaker: That he was merely obeying his king.

54:01 David: It is matters that violate the law. The king doesn't have to be obeyed. And after all, I was his prince.

54:07 Unknown speaker: It wasn't for him to inquire whether the actions were proper or not.

54:10 David: I suspect that you're your own worst enemy for forcing me to talk back to you.

54:15 Mark: The prince is perfectly right. And you behave very badly.

54:18 Unknown speaker: Who gave you permission to speak?

54:19 Mark: I took it upon myself.

54:21 David: Tell me, who are you?

54:24 Mark: A busybody and a master at my trade. Because I'm the nosiest person ever known

54:28 David: of all these people new to me. You alone have pleased me, Sire.

54:33 Mark: I am a great pleaser of all Segismundos. Enter Astolfo.

54:39 Unknown speaker: A thousand times happy the day, O Prince, when you show yourself as the sun of Poland, filling with splendor and joy all these horizons with such divine red glow. Since you emerge like the sun from below the mountains emerge then. And even though your brow is wreathed so belatedly with the glorious laurel, may it be equally slow to die.

55:02 David: God keep you.

55:04 Unknown speaker: Your failure to recognize me is the only excuse I make for you for not showing me greater respect. For I am Astolfo and I was born Duke of Muscovy and your cousin. Let us stand on equal terms.

55:17 David: If I say God keep you, am I not satisfying you? But now that boasting about who you are, you complain about it. The next time you see me, I'll ask God not to keep you.

55:28 Unknown speaker: Your Highness should take into account that since he was born in the hills he has behaved that way with everyone. My lord Astolfo prefers.

55:35 David: He peeved me the way he happened to speak to me so stuffily. And the first thing he did was to put on his hat in front of me. He's a grandee, I am grander.

55:45 Unknown speaker: Yet however that may be, it's only proper that there should be greater respect between you two than between anyone else.

55:52 David: And who asked you to meddle in my business?

55:55 Mark: Enter Estrella.

55:57 Erica: Sire, may your highness be welcomed many times to the throne that gratefully receives and desires you, and where, in spite of deceit, may you live, revered and imminent, your life being reckoned in centuries, not years.

56:11 David: Tell me now, who is this peerless beauty? Who is this human goddess at whose divine feet Heaven prostrates its glow? Who is this beautiful woman?

56:24 Mark: Sire, it's your cousin, Estrella. I mean, star.

56:27 David: You should have said the sun. Though it's fitting to congratulate me on the good fortune I have obtained, it's only because I have seen you today that I accept your congratulations. And so, because I find myself in possession of good fortune that I don't deserve, I thank you for the congratulations. Estrella, you star that are able to appear at dawn and bring joy to the brightest heavenly lamp, what work do you leave for the sun to do? If you rise with the day, allow me to kiss your hand. From whose snowy goblet the air drinks whiteness.

57:00 Erica: Be a more refined courtier.

57:03 Unknown speaker: If he takes her hand, I am ruined.

I know how aggrieved Astolfo feels, and I'll prevent this. Sire, take note that it isn't right to be so forward, especially when Astolfo is.

57:13 David: Didn't I tell you not to meddle in my business?

57:16 Unknown speaker: I'm only saying what's right.

57:18 David: As for me, all of this is making me angry. Nothing seems right to me if it goes against my grain.

57:23 Unknown speaker: But I, Sire, have heard you say that it's proper to follow righteousness when obeying and serving.

57:28 David: You've also heard me say that I'm capable of hurling from a balcony anyone who nags at me.

57:33 Unknown speaker: That can't be done to men of my station.

57:35 David: Oh no, By God. I've got to try it out.

57:41 Mark: He's picking him up. He's going out.

57:43 David: He's. Oh, my Lord.

57:48 Unknown speaker: What did I just see?

Everyone, come help.

57:50 David: He fell from the balcony into the sea. As God lives, it was possible.

57:55 Unknown speaker: Please reflect more calmly on your drastic actions, because just as great a gulf between man and beast is the gulf between mountain and palace.

58:05 David: Well, if you persist so drastically in speaking from your heart, maybe you won't find a head to perch that hat of yours on.

58:14 Mark: Exit Astolfo. Enter. King Basilio.

58:17 Talene: What's been going on here?

58:19 David: Nothing. A fellow annoyed me and I threw him from the balcony.

58:23 Mark: Be warned, it's the king.

58:25 Talene: On the very first day. Your coming cost a life. So soon?

58:30 David: He told me it couldn't be done. I won the bet.

58:34 Talene: I'm very sorry, Prince, that on my coming to see you, thinking I'd find you forewarned and triumphing over your fate and planets. I should see you behaving so violently, and that the first deed you have done on this occasion should be a dire murder. How can I now go to you lovingly and offer you my arms, when I know that your prideful embrace has learned how to kill? Who has ever seen unsheathed the dagger that dealt a mortal blow and not been afraid. Who has seen the blood stained place where one man has killed another and not felt grief? For even the strongest man yields to his human nature. And so, seeing that your arms were the instrument of his death, and gazing on the blood stained place, I withdraw from your arms. And even though I intend to to circle your neck in loving embrace, I shall go away without it, because I fear your arms I can get along

59:48 David: without it, just as I've done up till now. Because when a father is capable of showing such severity to me that he thrusts me from his side into an unpleasant way of life, raising me like a wild animal, treating me like a monster and seeking my death, it hardly matters at all that he refuses to embrace me after he has deprived me of humans status.

1:00:12 Talene: I wish it had pleased God in heaven that I had never given you life at all. Then I wouldn't have heard your voice or seen your rashness.

1:00:24 David: If you had never given it to me at all, I'd have no complaint against you. But since you did, I do for having deprived me of it. Because whereas giving is the noblest, most outstanding thing a man can do, it's all the more distinct, despicable, to give and then take back that gift.

1:00:43 Talene: It's a fine way you have of thanking me for finding yourself changed from a humble poor prisoner into a prince.

1:00:52 David: Well, for all that, why should I thank you, you tyrant over my free will. If you're old and feeble, what will you give me when you die? Will you give me any more than what's coming to me? You're my father and my king, so that all this grandeur is given to me by nature in accordance with her laws. Thus, even if I now have this rank, I'm not obliged to you for it. And I can ask you for a reckoning of the time during which you deprive me of freedom, life and honor. So you should thank me for not trying to collect from you, since you are in my debt.

1:01:27 Talene: You're an insolent barbarian. Heaven has kept its word. And so it is to heaven that I appeal, you prideful, conceited man. And even though you now know who you are, and the delusion has been lifted from you, and you find yourself in a place where you take precedence over all others, pay close heed to my admonition to be humble and tractable, because you may just be dreaming, even though you think that you're awake.

1:02:09 Mark: Basilio exits.

1:02:11 David: I may just be dreaming, even though I think I'm awake. I'm not dreaming. Because I feel and believe that which I was and that which I am. And even though you regret it now, there's not much you can do about it. I know who I am. And even if you still sigh and grieve, you won't be able to undo the fact that I was born heir to this crown. And if you saw me formerly a prisoner of my shackles, it was because I didn't know who I was. But now I have been informed as to who I am, and I know that I'm a hybrid of man and beast.

1:02:46 Mark: Enter Rosaura, attired as a lading in waiting.

1:02:49 Unknown speaker: I come here in Astraea's train, and I mightily fear meeting Astolfo, because it is Clotaldo's wish that he not know who I am and not see me, because he says it's essential to my honor. And I'm trusting Clotaldo with the results, since I thankfully owe to him the protection of my honor and life here.

1:03:07 Mark: What has given you the most pleasure of everything you've seen and wondered at today?

1:03:10 David: Nothing dumbfounded me, because I have foreseen it all. But if I were to wonder at anything in the world, it would be the beauty of woman. I read once in the books that I had that the creation that cost God the greatest effort was man, because he is a world in miniature. But now I suspect that it was a woman, since she has become a heaven in miniature and contains as much more beauty than man as the difference between heaven and earth, and even more if she's the one I now espy.

1:03:41 Unknown speaker: The prince is here. I shall withdraw.

1:03:43 David: Listen, woman. Stop where you are. Don't let sunset follow immediately upon sunrise by escaping after your first step. Because when sunrise and sunset are joined, the light with the cold darkness, you will no doubt cause the day to be telescoped. But what's this I see?

1:04:00 Unknown speaker: I both doubt and believe what I'm seeing.

1:04:03 David: I have seen this beauty before.

1:04:05 Unknown speaker: I have seen this pomp, this grandeur locked up in a cramped prison.

1:04:09 David: Now I have found my life. Woman, for that name is the greatest compliment a man can pay. Who are you? Because though I haven't seen you, you owe me thanks for worshipping you. And I recognize you by some strong convictions, so that I'm sure I've seen you before. Who are you, beautiful woman?

1:04:28 Erica: I must dissemble.

1:04:29 Unknown speaker: I am an unhappy lady in waiting of Astraea.

1:04:33 David: Don't say that, Say the sun, from whose flame that Astraea star lives, since she receives splendour from your beams. In the realm of fragrances, I have seen the divine rose presiding over the common flowers as their empress because of her greater beau beauty among precious stones, I have seen the learned academy of their minds preferred the diamond, named their emperor because of its greater brilliance. In that beautiful parliament of the inconstant commonwealth of the stars, I saw in first place, as king of the stars, the evening star. When, amid the sublime orbits, the sun summoned the planets to a parliament, I saw him take precedence, since he was the chief oracle of the day.

Then, seeing that among the stars, stones, planets and flowers the most beautiful are preferred, how is it that you have come to serve a woman of lesser beauty, while you, as the more beautiful and lovely one, are the sun, evening star, diamond, star and rose?

1:05:36 Mark: Enter Clotaldo.

1:05:37 Bill: I wish to pacify Sigismundo, because, after all, I raised him. But what's this I see?

1:05:45 Unknown speaker: I venerate your kindness. Let my silence be an eloquent reply when reason is so sluggish, sire, the best speaker is the one who is most silent.

1:05:56 David: You may not withdraw.

1:05:57 Bill: Wait.

1:05:58 David: How can you wish to leave my mind in the dark this way?

1:06:02 Unknown speaker: I request of your highness permission to go.

1:06:04 David: To leave so impetuously is not asking for permission, but seizing it.

1:06:07 Unknown speaker: Well, if you won't grant it, I hope to seize it.

1:06:09 David: You'll make me change from courteous to coarse, because resistance is a better poison to my patience.

1:06:14 Unknown speaker: Well, even if that poison, filled with fury, harshness and rage, should overcome your patience, it wouldn't dare. It couldn't overcome your respect for me,

1:06:25 David: merely to see whether I can do it, you'll make me lose my fear for your beauty, because I'm greatly inclined to perform the impossible. Today I threw from that balcony a man who said it couldn't be done, and so, to see whether I can, it's a simple thing for me to throw your honor out the window.

1:06:42 Bill: He's pressing her very hard. Heavens, what am I to do when I see a mad desire setting my honor at risk once again?

1:06:51 Unknown speaker: It wasn't for nothing that it was predicted your tyranny would bring this unhappy kingdom such heavy shocks of crime, deception, wrath and death. But what can a man be expected to do who has nothing human about him except the name, who is insolent, inhuman, cruel, prideful, barbarous and tyrannical born among wild beasts?

1:07:10 David: It was so to prevent you from insulting me like this that I showed so much courtesy, thinking I would find favor with you that way. But even after speaking politely, I Am still such a monster. As God lives, I'll make you say it for every reason.

1:07:24 Bill: You there.

1:07:25 David: Leave us alone. And let that door be locked. And let no one come in.

1:07:28 Unknown speaker: I'm as good as dead. Please observe.

1:07:30 David: I'm a tyrant, and by now it's no use trying to pacify me.

1:07:34 Bill: Terrible moment. I'll go out and prevent him even if he killed me. Sire, wait. Think of what you're doing.

1:07:42 David: Once again you have aroused my wrath. Feeble, crazy old man. Have you so little regard for my vexation and my severity? How is it that you got all the way here?

1:07:51 Bill: I was summoned by the sound of your voice to tell you to be more even tempered if you wish to be king and not to be cruel just because you now find yourself master of us all. Because it may be a dream.

1:08:08 David: You drive me to frenzy when you mention the light of disillusionment. By killing you, I'll see whether it's a dream or reality.

1:08:19 Bill: In this fashion I hope to save my life.

1:08:21 David: Take your rash hand off my steel.

1:08:23 Bill: Until people come to restrain your harsh anger, I won't let go of you.

1:08:27 Unknown speaker: Oh heaven.

1:08:28 David: Let go, I say. Feeble madman. Barbarous enemy. Or this will be the way. I will now kill you with my embrace.

1:08:34 Unknown speaker: Everyone come running quickly. Clotaldo's being killed.

1:08:37 Mark: Astolfo enters.

1:08:39 Unknown speaker: Why, what's this, noble prince? Is this how such a vigorous blade is stained with the chilled blood of an old man? Return your gleaming sword to its sheath.

1:08:49 David: Not till I see it dyed in his base blood.

1:08:52 Unknown speaker: His life has already claimed sanctuary at my feet, and my arrival must have some effect.

1:08:58 David: Let it have the effect of your death. Because that way I'll also be able to take revenge by killing. Killing you. For that earlier vexation.

1:09:05 Unknown speaker: I am fighting in self defense and thus not affronting the royal person.

1:09:10 Mark: They draw their swords. But enter King Basilio and Estrella.

1:09:14 Bill: Don't harm him, my lord.

1:09:16 Talene: What? Drawn sword's here.

1:09:19 Unknown speaker: It's Astolfo.

1:09:20 Erica: Woe is me.

1:09:21 Unknown speaker: What awful grief.

1:09:23 Talene: What has happened?

1:09:25 Unknown speaker: Nothing, sire. Now that you have come.

1:09:27 David: A great deal, sire. Even if you have come, I tried to kill this old man.

1:09:31 Talene: You have come. No respect for his gray hair, sire.

1:09:36 Bill: Consider that the hair is only mine, and you'll see it's of no importance.

1:09:42 David: A vain effort to want me to respect your gray hair for even yours. Perhaps I may see at my feet someday, because I still haven't taken revenge for the unfair way in which you raised me.

1:09:53 Talene: Well, before you see such A sight. You'll go back to sleep and you'll believe that everything that has happened to you since it entailed worldly goods was just a dream.

1:10:07 Mark: Exit King Basilio and Clotaldo.

1:10:12 Unknown speaker: How seldom a destiny that predicts misfortune lies. Because it's just as accurate with regard to bad things as it is uncertain with regard to the good. What a wonderful astrologer I would be if I always foretold dire events, because there's no doubt they would always come to pass. This conclusion can be demonstrated in the case of Sigismundo and me, Estrella, since in the two of us it showed different aspects. To him were foretold harshness, pridefulness, misfortunes and murders. And it was all true, because it's finally happening. But in my case, my lady, I, who saw your bright beams, to which the sun was a mere shadow and heaven an inadequate hint, when fate promised me good fortune triumphs and acclaim in good things, it was both wrong and right, because it can only be correct when it hints at benefits and delivers disdain.

1:11:08 Erica: I have no doubt that those compliments are shining truths. But they must be meant for another lady whose pendant portrait you wore on your neck when you came to see me, Astolfo. And that being the case, she alone deserves your verbal bouquets. See to it that she repays you for them. Because in love's tribunal, the compliments and vows made in the service of other ladies and other rulers aren't valid documents.

1:11:33 Mark: Rosaura enters unnoticed.

1:11:36 Unknown speaker: Thank God that my cruel misfortunes have now reached their limit. Because whoever has seen this has nothing to fear.

I will see to it that the portrait leaves my breast so that the image of your beauty can enter into it. Wherever Estrella enters, there is no place for shadow, just as no star remains after sunrise. I'm going to fetch it. Forgive me, lovely Rosaura, for this affront, because when they are apart, men and women are no more faithful than this.

1:12:02 Mark: He exits.

1:12:03 Unknown speaker: I wasn't able to hear anything. I was so afraid of his seeing me.

1:12:07 Erica: Oh, Astrea, it's you. My lady, I'm very pleased that it was you who followed me all the way here. Because to you alone I'd entrust a secret.

1:12:15 Unknown speaker: My lady, you, honor the one who obeys you.

1:12:18 Erica: Astrea, in the short while that I've known you, you've won the keys to my private thoughts. For that reason, and because of the kind of person you are, I venture to admit to you something that I've concealed even from myself many a Time.

1:12:32 Unknown speaker: I am your slave.

1:12:35 Erica: Well then, to tell it briefly, my cousin Astolfo. Let it suffice for me to call him my cousin, because there are some things that can be said only in thoughts, is to marry me, if my fortune consents, to counterbalance so much bad luck with one piece of good luck. I was grieved that on the day we met he was wearing around his neck the portrait of a lady. I have spoken to him about it politely. He's a gallant gentleman and truly in love. He's gone to fetch it, and he's supposed to bring it here. I'm deeply embarrassed by his coming to give it to me personally. Remain here, and when he comes, tell him to consign it to you. I say no more. You're clever and pretty, and you must know what love is.

1:13:19 Mark: She exits.

1:13:20 Unknown speaker: How I wish I didn't know. Heaven help me. Who could be mindful enough and wise enough to give herself good advice in

1:13:27 Erica: such a serious situation as this?

1:13:29 Unknown speaker: Can there be anyone in the world whom unkind heaven combats with more misfortunes and besieges with more sorrows? What should I do in such a dilemma in which it seems impossible for me to find an idea to relieve me or relief to console me? Ever since that first misfortune there hasn't been an event or an incident that wasn't some new misfortune, for they succeed one another as if each were the heir to the one before. In emulation of the phoenix each one is born out of the preceding one, living on its predecessor's death, and the ashes of their grave are always hot.

A philosopher once said that misfortunes were cowards because it seemed to him that they never came singly. But I say that they're brave because they keep advancing and never turn their backs. Whoever has them for company can undertake anything, because there's no occasion on which he can fear that they'll abandon him. I'll vouch for it, since on all the occasions occurring in my life I've never found myself without them, nor have they grown weary until seeing me wounded by fortune in the arms of death. Woe is me. What am I to do in the present situation if I reveal my identity?

Clotaldo, to whom my life owes this protection and honor, may be vexed with me, since he has instructed me to be silent while awaiting honor and redress if I don't reveal my identity to Astolfo but he gets to see me. How, oh, can I dissemble? Because even if an attempt at pretense is made by my voice, tongue and eyes. My. My soul will tell them that they're lying. What shall I do? But why do I ponder on what to do, if it's evident that no matter how I plan, ponder and plot, when the moment comes, I will have to act under the dictates of my sorrow, because no one has power over his own grief.

And since my soul isn't bold enough to decide what I should do, let my sorrow reach its limit today. Let my pain reach its extreme point. And let me emerge from my doubts and imaginings once and for all. But until that moment. Help me, heaven, help me.

1:15:42 Mark: Enter Astolfo with the portrait.

1:15:44 Unknown speaker: My lady, here is the portrait.

My God, why is your Highness so dumbfounded? What surprises you?

Hearing you, Rosaura, and seeing you, I.

Rosaura, your Highness is deceived. Do you take me for some other lady? But I am Astrea, and my humble self doesn't deserve such great good fortune as to cause you such great confusion.

Enough deception, Rosaura. Because the soul never lies. And though mine sees you as Astrea, it loves you as Rosaura.

I don't understand, your Highness. And so I don't know how to reply. The only thing I'll say is that Estrella, who is lovely enough to be the planet Venus, ordered me to wait for you here and to tell you on her part to hand over that portrait to me, as is quite reasonable, so I myself can take it to her. That's what Astraea wants. And even the slightest things, though they may be to my detriment, must be done when it's Astraea who wants them.

No matter what an effort you make, Rosaura. Oh, how badly you know how to dissemble. Tell your eyes to harmonize their music with your voice. Because of necessity, such an untuned instrument will sound false and dissonant when trying to adapt and regulate the lies of the lips that speak to the truth of the heart that feels.

I tell you, I'm merely awaiting the portrait.

Since you wish to carry the deception through to the end, I shall answer you in the same terms. Astraea. Tell the Princess that I so esteem her that when she asked me for the portrait, it seemed to be lacking in politeness merely to send it to her. And so, because I esteem and value her, I'm sending her the original. And if you are able to bring it to her, because you already have it with you, if you merely bring

yourself, when a man is determined daringly, proudly and bravely to Accomplish an enterprise. Even if he is given in exchange something worth more without what he came for, he comes back home feeling foolish and awkward. I have come for a portrait. And even if I bring an original that's worth more, I'll go back feeling awkward. And so. Give me that portrait, your Highness, because I'm not going back without it.

And if I don't give it to you, how will you manage to bring it this way?

Let go of it, faithless man.

1:18:22 David: It's useless.

1:18:24 Unknown speaker: As God lives, it will never be seen in another woman's hand.

Oh, you're a terror.

And you're a deceiver.

Enough now, Rosaura. Dear.

Dear to you, lowlife. You're lying.

Enter.

1:18:34 Mark: Astraea.

1:18:35 Unknown speaker: Astrea. Astolfo.

1:18:37 Erica: What's going on?

1:18:38 Unknown speaker: Astraea is here.

May love provide me with a ruse to recover my portrait, my lady, if you wish to know what's happening, I will tell you.

What do you have in mind?

You ordered me to wait for Astolfo here and ask him for a portrait that you wanted. I remained alone, and since thoughts move easily from one topic to another. When I heard you speak of portraits, that mention made me recall that I had one of myself in my sleeve. I took a notion to look at it because a person left all alone, amuses himself with silly things. It fell out of my hand onto the floor. Astolfo, who was coming to hand over to you that of another lady, picked it up and was so reluctant to give the one you asked him for, that instead of giving one, he wanted to take two. Since it still hasn't been possible to get my own back through entreaty or persuasion, I became angry and impatient and tried to take it away from him. The one he is holding in his hand is mine. You'll be convinced of that if you look and see the resemblance to me.

1:19:43 Erica: Astolfo.

1:19:43 Unknown speaker: Let go of the portrait, my lady.

1:19:46 Erica: Indeed, the painted likeness isn't unfaithful to life.

1:19:49 Unknown speaker: Isn't it a picture of me? How can anyone doubt it? Tell him to hand the other one over to you. Now take your own portrait and go. I've recovered my portrait. Now, come what may, Rosar exits.

1:20:01 Erica: Now give me the portrait I asked you for. Because even though I don't intend ever

1:20:05 Unknown speaker: to see you or speak to you

1:20:07 Erica: again, I don't want it to remain in your possession, if only because I so foolishly asked you for it.

1:20:12 Unknown speaker: How can I get out of such an awful situation? Beautiful Estrella. Even though I wish to serve you and obey you I can't give you the portrait you asked for because you're

1:20:26 Erica: a low course suitor. I don't want you to hand it over to me, because I don't want you to remind me, if I take it, that I asked you for it.

1:20:34 Unknown speaker: Hear me? Listen.

1:20:35 Bill: Look.

1:20:36 Unknown speaker: Let me explain.

1:20:37 Mark: She exits.

1:20:39 Unknown speaker: Damn you, Rosaura. From where, how and in what way did you come to Poland today? To ruin me and ruin yourself.

1:20:46 Mark: The scene changes. Segismundo is discovered as at the beginning of the play, dressed in skins and chained asleep on the ground. Enter Clotaldo, Clarine and two servants.

1:20:58 Bill: You are to leave him here, since today his pridefulness ends where it began.

1:21:05 Unknown speaker: I am reattaching the chain the way it was.

1:21:08 Mark: Don't wake up, Sigismundo to see your downfall, your change of fate, because your glory was a pretense, a shadow of life and a will o' the wisp.

1:21:16 Bill: A man wise enough to utter such a discourse ought to be provided with a lodging where he'll have plenty of time to philosophize. Seize this man and lock him in that room.

1:21:28 Mark: God, why are you doing this to me?

1:21:31 Bill: Because one must guard in a prison as secure as this, a clarion who knows secrets, so he won't blare and blurt them out.

1:21:42 Mark: Is it I by chance, who am

1:21:44 David: trying to kill my father?

1:21:46 Unknown speaker: No.

1:21:47 Mark: Did I throw from the balcony that low scale Icarus? Do I die and come back to life? Do I dream or sleep? To what purpose am I being locked up?

1:21:57 Bill: You're a clarion.

1:21:59 Mark: In that case I promise to be a bugle and to keep quiet. Cause that's a vulgar instrument. They take him out. Enter King Basilio, muffled in his cloak.

1:22:09 Bill: Sire, is this the way for your

1:22:11 Talene: majesty to appear, my foolish curiosity, to see what's happening here? To Sigismundo. Woe is me. Brings me here in this fashion.

1:22:24 Bill: Behold him there, brought back down to

1:22:28 Talene: his lonely, alas, unfortunate prince, born in an unhappy hour. Go over and awaken him now, because that narcotic he drank has lost his strength and power.

1:22:44 Bill: He's restless, sire, and he's saying something.

1:22:48 Talene: What can he be dreaming of now? Let's listen.

1:22:53 David: A prince is only being merciful when he punishes tyrants. Let Clotaldo die at my hands. Let my father kiss my feet.

1:23:01 Bill: He threatens me with death and me with severity, and insult plans to take my life.

1:23:07 Talene: He intends to make me fall at his feet.

1:23:10 David: Let my matchless worth sally forth onto this spacious grounds of the great theatre of the world, so that my revenge May be adequate. Let everyone see Prince Sigismundo triumph over his father. But woe is me. Oh, where am I?

1:23:25 Talene: He mustn't see me. You know what you must do. I'm going over there where I can listen to you.

1:23:33 David: Is this perchance me? Am I the one a captive in irons, finding myself in this condition? Aren't you my tomb tower? Yes, God help me. All the things I dreamt.

1:23:49 Bill: It's my duty to go and disillusion him now. Is it already time to get up?

1:23:56 David: Yes, it's already time to get up.

1:23:58 Bill: Must you spend the whole day sleeping? From the time when I followed that flying eagle with my laggard sight. And you remained here, you've never awakened.

1:24:10 David: No. Nor have I awakened even now, Clotaldo. Because as far as I can tell, I'm still asleep. And I'm not far wrong. Because if what I saw palpably and surely was just a dream, what I see now is probably doubtful. And it wouldn't be a surprise that if I see clearly while asleep, I should dream while awake.

1:24:28 Bill: Tell me what you dreamt.

1:24:30 David: Since it was a dream, I won't say what I dreamt, Clotaldo. But what I saw. I awoke and found myself. What flattering cruelty. In a bed that with its tints and colors might have been the flowery cot woven by the springtime. There a thousand noblemen, submissive to me, called me their prince and offered me finery, jewels and clothes. You yourself changed the numbness of my senses into joy when you told me of my good fortune. Because even though I am here like this, I was the prince of Poland.

1:25:06 Bill: You must have given me a good reward for the news.

1:25:10 David: Uh? Not very good. Calling you a traitor with a rash, strong heart. I tried twice to kill you so hard. With me I was lord over all, and I was taking revenge on all I loved. One woman alone. I believe that that really happened, because everything else has vanished. But that love alone stays with me.

1:25:31 Mark: Exit King Basilio.

1:25:34 Bill: The king has departed, touched by what he heard him say. Since we'd been speaking about that eagle. When you slept, you dreamt of empire. But even in dreams it would have been proper at that time to honor the man who raised you with such great pains, Sigismundo. Because even in dreams, good deeds are never wasted.

1:25:58 Mark: He exits. It's true.

1:26:01 David: Then let me restrain my fierce nature, my fury, my ambition, in case I ever dream again. I will, since we exist in such a peculiar world that living is merely dreaming. And the experience teaches me that the man who lives Dreams his reality until he awakes. The king dreams that he's king and lives in that deception, giving orders, making decisions and ruling. And that acclaim which he receives as a loan is written on the wind and changes into ashes by death. A great misfortune. To think that there are people who try to reign knowing that they must awaken in the sleep of death.

The rich man dreams about his riches, which causes him greater worries. The poor man dreams that he's suffering his misery and poverty. The man beginning to thrive is just dreaming. The man who toils and strives is just dreaming. The man who affronts and injures is just dreaming. And to some in this world, all men merely dream what they are, though no one realizes it. I'm dreaming that I'm here, laden with these shackles. And I dreamt that I found myself in another, more flattering condition. What is life? A frenzy. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a fiction.

And our greatest good is but small. For all of life is a dream. And even dreams are dreams.

1:27:32 Mark: End of Act 2. Act 3 Enter Clarine. In an enchanted tower I live a captive because of what I know. What will they do to me? For what I don't know if they've killed me. For what I do know. To think that a man with a hunger like mine should have such a living death. I feel sorry for myself. Everybody will say I readily believe it. And it can be readily believed because to me this silence doesn't suit the name Clarion. I am unable to remain silent. The only ones keeping me company here, if I'm correct in saying it, are spiders and mice. Let's see what sweet voiced goldfinches after my dreams from last night.

I have my sad head filled with a thousand shawms, trumpets and delusions, processions, crosses and flagellants. And some of them march upward and others march downward. Some of them faint away when they see the blood streaming from others. But I, to tell the truth, I'm fainting away from not eating. Because I find myself in a prison in which every day I read the philosopher Nicomedes like no come, like no eat. And every night I read about the Nicene Council, like Nii Sina Nicene these are I amuse myself. If they call being silent saintly, as if in a new religious calendar, then my patron saint is Saint secret, since I fast in his honor but don't have a banquet.

And yet the punishment I'm suffering is well deserved. Because, servant that I am, I kept quiet. And that's the greatest sacrilege Soldiers coming.

1:29:28 Unknown speaker: This is the tower in which he's kept. Knock the door down to the ground. Everyone enter.

1:29:34 Mark: God lives. They're looking for me. It must be because they're saying I'm kept here. What can they want of me?

1:29:39 Bill: Come in here.

1:29:40 Unknown speaker: Here he is.

1:29:42 Mark: No, he's not, sir. Can they be drunk?

1:29:46 Unknown speaker: You are our prince. We don't accept or want anyone but our natural lord. And not a foreign prince. Give all of us your feet to kiss.

1:29:58 Mark: Were you dead anyway, as God lives. They're serious. Is it a custom in this kingdom to arrest someone every day and make him prince and then send him back to the tower? Yes, because I see it happening daily. I've got to play my part.

1:30:11 David: Give us your souls.

1:30:14 Mark: I can't, because I need them for myself. It would be a defect to be a soulless prince.

1:30:19 Unknown speaker: We've all told your father himself that we recognize you alone as prince, not the man from Muscovy.

1:30:25 Mark: You've lost your respect for my father. You're a bunch of no goods.

1:30:29 Unknown speaker: It was the loyalty of our hearts.

1:30:32 Mark: Well, if it was loyalty, I forgive you.

1:30:35 Unknown speaker: Come out and recover your sovereignty. Long live Sigismundo.

1:30:39 Bill: Long may he live.

1:30:41 Mark: They're saying Sigismundo. Alright. They must give the name Segismundo to every fake prince.

1:30:46 David: Who is mentioning Segismundo's name here?

1:30:50 Mark: Does this mean I'm a rotten egg of a prince?

1:30:52 Unknown speaker: Which one is Segismundo?

1:30:53 David: I am.

1:30:54 Unknown speaker: Then why, you insolent fool. Were you pretending to be Segismundo?

1:30:58 Mark: I Sigismundo. I deny it. It was you who Segismundized me. And so you were the only ones who were foolish and insolent.

1:31:05 Unknown speaker: Great prince Sigismundo, for the descriptions we have matches you. Although we acclaim you as our lord on faith. Your father, great king Basilio, fearing that heaven would fulfill a prophecy that said he would find himself stretched at your feet, conquered by you, is planning to deprive you of your freedom of action and your rights to give them to Astolfo, Duke of Muscovy. For that purpose he assembled his court. But the commoners now, hearing and knowing that you have a natural successor, refuse to let a foreigner come and command them. And so nobly scorning the harshness of the prophecy, they have searched you out where you dwell as a prisoner, in order that, assisted by their weapons, you may leave this tower and recover your imperial crown and scepter.

Taking them away from a tyrant. Then do come out. For in this wilderness a numerous army of outlaws and plebeians acclaims you liberty a way to listen to its voice.

1:32:04 David: Once again. What can this be? Heavens. You want me to dream of grandeur which time must undo? Once again you want me to see, amid shadows and sketchy forms, majesty and pomp dispersed by the wind. Once again you want me to experience disillusionment, or the risk into which human power is humbly born and of which it is constantly made aware. Well, it won't happen. It won't happen. Behold me once again, subject to my fortune. And since I know that all of this life is a dream. Away with you, you shadows that today pretend to be my numbed senses, that you have a body and a voice, though the truth is you have neither voice nor body.

1:32:46 Bill: Lorc.

1:32:46 David: I don't want majesty that is feigned. I don't want pomp that is imaginary illusions that at the slightest puff of the breeze will dispense, disintegrate. Exactly like a blossoming almond tree which, because its blooms appeared too early, unadvisedly and imprudently finds them extinguished by the first gust, withering and losing the beauty, light and adornment of their pink buds. I know you by now. I know you by now. And I know that you do the same thing to everyone who falls asleep. For me there is no more pretense, because now, undeceived, I know perfectly well that life is a dream.

1:33:24 Unknown speaker: If you think we're fooling you, turn your eyes to those arrogant mountains so you can see the soldiers waiting there to obey your orders.

1:33:31 David: Once before in the past, I saw the very same thing, just as clearly and distinctly as I see it now. And it was a dream.

1:33:37 Unknown speaker: Great Lord, great events have always induced presentiments, and that must now be the case. If you dreamed it earlier, you're right,

1:33:45 David: it was a presentiment. And in case it was accurate, seeing that life is so short, let us dream, my soul, let us dream once again. But now it must be with the awareness and knowledge that we must awaken from this pleasurable dream, just when we're happiest. For keeping that in mind, our disappointment won't be so great, because to take counsel against harm in advance is to laugh at it. And with this foreknowledge that even in the presentiment should be true, all my power is merely borrowed and must return to its owner. Let us adventure everything Vassals.

I thank you for your loyalty. In me you have a man who will boldly and skillfully free you from foreign servitude. Sound the alarm, for swiftly you shall see my boundless valor I intend to take arms against my father and make heaven's prediction come true. I shall soon see him at my feet. But if I awaken before that, won't it be better not to mention it, because I won't actually do it.

1:34:50 Mark: Enter. Clotaldo.

1:34:52 Bill: Heavens, what is this hubbub? Clotaldo, Sire, he wants to try out his cruelty on me.

1:35:00 Mark: I better throw him off a mountain.

1:35:02 Bill: I fall at your royal feet, though I know it means my death.

1:35:08 David: Rise, rise farther from the ground, for you must be the North Star and guide to whom I entrust my success. For I now know that I owe my upbringing to your great loyalty. Come and embrace me.

1:35:26 Bill: What are you saying?

1:35:28 David: That I am dreaming and that I wish to do good, because good deeds aren't wasted even in dreams.

1:35:35 Bill: Well, sire, if doing good is now your motto, I'm sure you won't be offended if I have the same goal today. Should you make war on your father, I cannot be your counselor or help you against my king, I am prostrate at your feet.

1:35:54 David: Kill me, base, disloyal traitor. But heavens, it behooves me to calm down, because I don't know yet whether I'm awake or Clotaldo. I envy you. I thank you for your great worth. Go and serve the king, for we shall meet on the field of battle. You there, sound the alarm.

1:36:17 Bill: I kiss your feet a thousand times.

1:36:19 David: Fortune. Let me go and reign. Don't awaken me if I sleep, and if this is reality, don't put me to sleep. But whether it's reality or a dream, to do good is what matters. If it should be reality just because it is good, if not for the sake of winning friends, for the time when we awaken, they exit.

1:36:41 Mark: Enter King Basilio and Astolfo, who Astolfo

1:36:45 Talene: can prudently check the fury of a runaway horse, who can hold back the current of a river that flows toward the sea proudly and precipitously, who can bravely halt the course of a boulder detached from the summit of the a mountain. For all of these are easy to stop, but not an entire nation in its pridefulness and daring. Shouts of the divided factions will vouch for that, since one hears resounding in the depths of the mountains, their repeated echo, Some crying Astolfo and others Sigismundo. The throne of law perverted into something it was never meant meant to be, into a scene of horror. It is grisly theater where wanton fortune stages tragedies.

1:37:34 Unknown speaker: Sire, call a halt to the wedding merriment and put an end to the acclaim and flattering pleasures which your felicitous hand promised me. For if Poland, which I hope to rule, is resisting against allegiance to me today, it is because I must first earn it.

1:37:49 Bill: Give me a horse.

1:37:50 Unknown speaker: And filled with bold Let the man who is boasting like thunder descend like lightning he exits.

1:37:57 Talene: What is infallible can't very well be averted, and there is great risk in what is foreknown. If it must come about, defense is impossible, because the man who tries hardest to avoid it prepares it more readily. Harsh law, cruel event, terrible horror. The man who thinks he's fleeing danger runs into it. By keeping things hidden, I ruined myself. I. I myself have destroyed my country.

1:38:39 Mark: Enter Astraea.

1:38:41 Erica: Great lord, unless your majesty tries to check the tumult that has risen and is spreading from one faction to another, Divid groups in the streets and squares, you will see your kingdom afloat on scarlet waves, dyed with the purple of its blood. For already, in sad fashion, all is misfortune and all is tragedy. So dire is the ruin of your realm, so great the strength of severe and bloody harshness, that it astonishes the viewer and terrifies the listener. The sun is perturbed and the wind is confused. Every stone erects a funerary pyramid, and every flower builds mausoleum. Every building is a haughty tomb, and every soldier a living skeleton.

1:39:23 Mark: Enter Clotaldo.

1:39:24 Bill: Oh, thank God, I've come to your feet alive.

1:39:29 Talene: What's the news of Sigismundo?

1:39:31 Bill: That the commoners, like a blind monster rushing headlong, have broken into the tower and from its deeps have released their prince, who, the moment he found himself prospering a second time, displayed his valour fiercely, stating that he aims to make heaven's prediction come true.

1:39:52 Talene: Give me a horse, as I in person wish to overcome bravely a disloyal son. And now that I am defending my crown, let my steel conquer where my astrology erred, he exits.

1:40:10 Erica: Then, at the side of the sun I shall be Bellona. I hope to set my name beside his, for I shall fly on outstretched wings to vie with the goddess Pallas.

1:40:20 Mark: She exits into Rosaura, who detains Clotaldo.

1:40:24 Unknown speaker: Although the valor enclosed in your breast cries out from there, listen to me, because I know that all is war. You already know that I arrived poor, humble and unfortunate in Poland, where, protected by your merit, I found compassion in you. You ordered me, ah, heavens, to live under a false name in the palace and to try concealing my jealousy. To avoid meeting Astolfo. Finally he saw me, and he tramples my honor to such an extent that after seeing me, he still converses with Estrella in a garden at night. I have taken the key to it, and I can give you the opportunity to enter it and put an end to my trouble. In that way, proudly, boldly and strongly, you will be able to redress the affront to my honor, since you are already resolved to avenge me by his death.

1:41:15 Bill: It's true that I was inclined, from the moment I met you, Rosaura, to do for you. Your tears were witness to it. All that lay in my power. First thing I tried was to make you take off those men's garments so that Astolfo did see you. You he'd see you in your own clothing and wouldn't consider as wantonness the mad rashness that outrages honour. At that time I was planning how I could restore your lost honour, even though it meant your honour was of such concern to me. Killing Astolfo. See what a transitory folly that was. Although he wasn't my king, I wasn't awestruck or amazed.

I thought about causing his death when Sigismundo attempted to cause mine. And he arrived, disregarding his own peril, to display in my defence his good will, exhibiting a boldness that went beyond mere bravery. So give me heed. How can I now, with my grateful soul, cause the dead death of the man who gave me life? And so, with my affection and concern divided between the two of you, since I've given life to you and received it from him, I don't know which side to support, I don't know which side to assist, since I'm under obligation to you for giving you life and to him for receiving it.

And so, in the present emergency, nothing can satisfy my love, because I'm both the active party and the passive party.

1:42:58 Unknown speaker: I don't need to be the first to tell you that for an eminent man, if giving is a noble action, receiving is base to the same extent. And that principle having been established, you have no cause to be grateful to him, because if it was he who gave life to you and you to me, it's perfectly clear that he compelled your noble nature to perform a good, base act, whereas I led you to a magnanimous one. Thus you have been offended by him. Thus you're obliged to me, because you gave me what you received from him. And so you ought to come to the aid of my honor in such a perilous situation, since I excel him as much as giving excels receiving.

1:43:42 Bill: Even though nobility dwells on the side of the giver, gratitude for it belongs on the side of the receiver. And since I've known how to give, and I already possess honorably the title of a magnanimous man, let me retain that of a grateful man, since I'm able to attain it, being as grateful as I am generous. Because a man is honored by receiving just as much as by giving.

1:44:11 Unknown speaker: I received life from you. And you yourself told me, when you gave me my life, that life, lived under the shadow of an affront, wasn't really life. Therefore I received nothing from you, since the life that your hand gave me wasn't life. And if you ought to be generous sooner than grateful, as I heard you yourself say, I hope that you will give me life, for you haven't done so yet. And since giving is more ennobling, be generous first, and you can be grateful afterward,

1:44:47 Bill: convinced by your reasoning. I shall be generous first, Rosaura. I shall give you my property. Take it and live in a convent. The plan I have in mind is well thought out, because you will be fleeing from a crime and taking refuge in a sanctuary. For when the kingdom, so divided is suffering misfortunes, I must not be the one to increase them, being of noble birth, with the recourse I've chosen, I'm loyal to the kingdom, I'm generous to you, and grateful to Astolfo. So choose the plan that suits you, which will remain a secret, just between the two of us. Because as God lives, I couldn't do more if I were your father.

1:45:39 Unknown speaker: If you were my father, I'd put up with this insult. But since you're not, I won't.

1:45:46 Bill: What do you expect to do?

1:45:48 Unknown speaker: To kill the Duke?

1:45:49 Bill: It's a woman who doesn't know who her father was. So valorous.

1:45:52 Unknown speaker: Yes.

1:45:53 Bill: What spurs you on?

1:45:55 Unknown speaker: My reputation.

1:45:56 Bill: Remember that you will see a starved world.

1:45:58 Unknown speaker: He tramples on all my eyes.

1:46:00 Bill: As your king and husband of Estrella.

1:46:02 Unknown speaker: As God lives, it will never happen. This is.

1:46:04 Bill: This is madness.

1:46:05 Unknown speaker: I can see that.

1:46:06 Bill: Then overcome it.

1:46:07 Unknown speaker: I can't.

1:46:08 Bill: But then you'll lose. I know both life and honor.

1:46:12 Unknown speaker: I believe so.

1:46:13 Bill: What are you aiming at?

1:46:14 Unknown speaker: My death.

1:46:15 Bill: Observe the disrespitefulness.

1:46:17 Unknown speaker: It's a sense of honor.

1:46:19 Bill: It's folly.

1:46:19 Unknown speaker: It's sense of worth. It's frenzy, it's rage, it's anger.

1:46:24 Bill: So, finally there's no refraining your blind emotion. No. Who can help you?

1:46:31 Unknown speaker: Myself.

1:46:32 Bill: Is there no recourse?

1:46:33 Unknown speaker: There's no recourse.

1:46:34 Bill: Think hard and see if there are

1:46:36 Unknown speaker: other ways to ruin myself in another fashion.

1:46:40 Bill: Well, if you must ruin yourself, wait, my girl, and let's all ruin ourselves.

1:46:46 Mark: THE EXIT Soldiers march in with Clarine and Sigismundo, dressed in animal skins.

1:46:53 David: If Rome, in the triumphs of its golden age, could see me today, oh, how happy it would be to gain such a rare opportunity to have a wild animal leading its mighty armies, for whose proud zeal the firmament would be a petty conquest. But let us fly at a lower height, my spirit, lest we thus dispel this dubious acclamation. In case I am to be grieved once I'm awake at having attained it, only to lose it again, since the slighter it is, the less I'll regret it if I lose it.

1:47:27 Mark: On a swift steed. Forgive me if I I must depict it when I find it opportune, on which a careful map is drawn. Because its body is the earth, the soul contained in its breast is fire, its froth is the sea, its breath is air, in the mingling of all which I marvel at seeing chaos, since in its soul, foam, body and breath is a hybrid of fire, earth, sea and wind, A horse of patchy color, gray and broken in to suit the purposes of the one who spurs it on, so that it flies rather than runs. There arrives in your presence, an elegant woman.

1:47:58 David: Her light blinds me.

1:48:01 Mark: God lives. It's Rosaura.

1:48:03 David: Heaven brings her back into my presence.

1:48:06 Mark: Rosaura enters in a long, loose tunic, with sword and dagger.

1:48:10 Unknown speaker: Noble Sigismundo, whose heroic majesty emerges into the day of his deeds out of the night of his darkness, and like the chief planet which in the arms of dawn restores itself gleamingly to the flower and roses, and when it appears with its crown above seas and mountains, sheds light, darts, beams, bathes, peaks, embroiders, foaming waves. So may you dawn upon the world, gleaming sun of Poland, and may you protect an unhappy woman who throws herself at your feet today because she is a woman and unfortunate. Two things, either of which is sufficient, either of which is more than sufficient to place under an obligation a man who boasts of being brave.

Three times now you have gazed on me with wonder, each time not knowing who I am, since each of the three times you saw me in different attire and guise. The first time you thought I was a man in your harsh prison, where your mode of life was a solace to my own misfortunes. The second time you beheld me as a woman, when the pomp of your majesty was A dream, a ghost, a shade. Now is the third time when I am a hybrid of the two sexes, since alongside women's finery, masculine weapons adorn me. And so that moved to pity. You may better prepare to protect me.

It is fitting for you to hear the tragic fortune of my history. I was born of a noble mother at the court of Muscovy, who, to correspond to her misfortune, must have been very beautiful. On her a deceiver set eyes. My voice doesn't name him, because I don't know who it was, but I am assured of his merit by my own, because, being the result of which he was the active cause, I now regret that I wasn't born a pagan, so that I could persuade myself foolishly that my father was one of those gods who, transformed into other shapes, are bewailed as a rain of gold, a swan or a bull by Danae, Leda and Europa.

When I thought I was protracting my speech by mentioning stories of treachery, I find that in it I have informed you in very few words that my mother, seduced by amorous compliments, was beautiful like no other woman, and unhappy as all women. That foolish pretext, giving his promise and word to marry her, won her over so completely that even today she considers herself proud. Properly wed, though he was a tyrant, so much like Trojan Aeneas that he even left her his sword. Let its blade be sheathed here, for I shall bear it before my story is finished.

Well then, from that poorly tied knot which neither binds nor imprisons, a marriage or a crime, it's all the same thing. I was born so resembling her that I was a portrait, a copy of her, not, not in beauty, but in luck and deeds. And so I won't need to say that an unfortunate heiress to her lot I had the same as hers. The most I can tell you about myself is that the lord and master who has stolen the trophies of my honor, the remains of my good name, Astolfo. Woe is me. When I name him, my heart grows angry and irritated, the characteristic result of naming one's enemy Astolfo was that faithless master who, forgetting our glories, for when a love affair is over, even the memory of it is lost.

Came to Poland, summoned by a notable conquest, to marry Estrella, who was his guiding light while my sun was setting. Who could believe that after a star brought us two lovers together, it would be the star Estrella who now separates them? I, offended and scorned, became sad, became crazed, became a dead woman. Became what I am, that is all the confusion of hell became, summed up in my own Babel. And declaring myself wordlessly, because there are distresses and sorrows much better expressed by the feelings than by the lips, I told of my distresses in silence.

Until one time, when we were alone, my mother, Violante, ah, heavens, Broke through my prison wall, and in a throng they all emerged from my bosom together, one stumbling over the other. I wasn't embarrassed to recount them, because when a person knows that the one to whom he is confessing his weaknesses has been involved in similar ones himself, it seems as if that encourages him to speak and relieves him, because at times a bad example is good for something. In short, she compassionately heard my laments and tried to console me with her own how readily a judge pardons when he himself has been a criminal.

And taking a lesson from her own experience, and unsatisfied with having left it to idle freedom and easygoing time to bring redress to her loss of good name, she wanted me to act differently in my misfortunes. She thought it was a better idea for me to follow him and make him acknowledge his debt to my honor with miraculous displays of affection. And so that it might be less difficult, my fortune decreed that I should dress in men's clothing. She took from the wall an old sword, the one I'm now wearing. This is the time for me to unsheathe its blade as I promised, because, confident it would be recognized, she said to me, leave for Poland and try to have the greatest nobleman catch sight of the steel that adorns you, because perhaps in one of your fortunes may find a compassionate welcome and your sorrow's consolation.

I did arrive in Poland. Let us admit the fact, since it's not important to relate it, and it's already known that the bolting of my horse brought me to your cave, where you were amazed to see me. Let us admit the fact that there Clotaldo took my part warmly, that he asked the king to spare my life, that the king granted him my life, that when Clotaldo learned who I was, he persuaded me to put on my own normal clothing and become a servant to Estrella. Doing so, I cleverly broke up Astolfo's romance in his marriage choice. Let us omit the fact that here you saw me once again in your confusion and at that time, when I was wearing women's clothes, you mixed up my two appearances in your mind.

And let us proceed to the moment when Clotaldo, convinced that it was essential to him to Astolfo and beautiful Estrella to wed and reign, advised me, to the detriment of my honor, to relinquish my claim when I saw that you, brave Segismundo, whose turn it is for revenge today, since heaven wishes you to break out of the confinement of this mean prison where you you have been a wild animal to your feelings and a rock to your suffering, we're taking arms against your country and your father. I came to aid you, adding to the expensive finery of Diana the armor of Pallas, and now wearing both fine fabrics and steel which adorn me together.

Onward then, brave chieftain. It behooves the two of us together to prevent and dissolve this wedding that has been planned. It behooves me so that the man I call my husband doesn't wed. And you, so that when your two dominions are joined, they will not make our victory doubtful with their greater power and strength. As a woman, I have come to urge you to restore my good name. As a man, I have come to spur you on, to recover your crown. As a woman, I have come to soften your heart by throwing myself at your feet. As a man, I have come to serve you by aiding your army.

As a woman, I have come for you to help me in my affront and sorrow. As a man, I have come to stand by you with my steel and my body. And so, believe me, if today you make love to me as a woman, as a man, I shall kill you in dignified defense of my honor. Because in this love war I shall be a woman to lament to you and a man to win a reputation.

1:56:06 David: Heavens, If I'm really dreaming, let my mind cease working now. Because it's impossible for so many things to be contained in one dream. God help me if I could only escape them all, or not think of any of them who ever beheld such painful uncertainty? If I only dreamed that grandeur in which I found myself, how then, now, can this woman mention such accurate details? Then it was reality, not a dream. And if it was reality, which only adds to the confusion and doesn't lessen it, how can I call it a dream? Are glories, then, so similar to dreams that real ones are considered fictitious and feigned ones true?

Is there so little difference between them that it's questionable knowledge whether what one sees and enjoys is a lie or the truth? Is the copy so similar to the original that doubt arises as to which is which? Then if that's the case, and we are fated to see grandeur and power, majesty and pomp, dispersed in the darkness. Let us learn how to make good use of this brief time allotted to us, because all we enjoy in real life is what we enjoy in dreams. Rosaura is in my power. My soul worships her beauty. So let us enjoy the opportunity. Let love violate the laws of that merit and trust which caused her to prostrate herself at my feet.

This is a dream. And since it is, let us now dream of happiness that will be sorrow later on. But I convinced myself of the opposite with my own reasoning. If it's a dream, if it's vainglory, who, in exchange for human vainglory, would lose a divine glory? What bygone happiness isn't a dream? Who that has ever had heroic good fortune hasn't said to himself when his memory reverted to his it? Without a doubt, everything I saw was a dream. Well, if this is the case for my becoming disillusioned, if I know that pleasure is a lovely flame that is turned to ashes by any wind that blows, let us look to eternity, which is everlasting fame, where good fortune does not sleep and grandeur does not take repose.

Rosaura has lost her honor. It is more befitting a prince to give honor than to take it away. As God lives, I shall be the restorer of her good name before I recover my own crown. Let us flee this opportunity which is so tempting. Sound the alarm, for I mean to give battle today, before the black shadows bury the sun's golden beams in the dark green waters.

1:58:39 Unknown speaker: Sire, don't tell me you're going away like this. Doesn't my anguish require. Doesn't my sorrow deserve at least one word from you? How is it possible, Sire, that you neither look at me nor listen to me? You still won't turn your face to me?

1:58:55 David: Rosaura, it is essential to honor. If I am too compassionate with you to be cruel to you now my voice doesn't answer you, so that my honor can. I don't speak to you because I want my actions to speak to you. For me. I don't look at you because of necessity, in such severe distress. The man who must look to your honor mustn't look at your beauty.

1:59:18 Unknown speaker: Heaven, what is this riddle? After so much suffering, I am still left in doubt by ambiguous replies.

1:59:24 Mark: Enter. Clarine. My lady, is this a good time

1:59:27 Bill: to talk to you?

1:59:28 Unknown speaker: Alas, Clarine, where have you been?

1:59:30 Mark: Locked in a tower, examining my hands and cards to see whether or not they spelt death. If I were Dealt a court card, a perfect flush would have saved my life. And I was all ready to explode.

1:59:41 Unknown speaker: Why?

1:59:43 Mark: As I know the truth about you and in fact, Clotaldo. What's that sound?

1:59:49 Unknown speaker: What can it be?

1:59:50 Mark: It means that from the besieged palace an armed squadron is making a sortie to resist and overcome fierce Segismundo squadron.

1:59:58 Unknown speaker: Then why am I standing here like a coward and not at his side, like a shock to the world, now that so much cruelty is closing in without order or system.

2:00:06 Bill: Long live our hundred kings.

2:00:12 Mark: Along live liberty and the king. May they live very happily, because I don't care at all, as long as I'm taken good care of. Or I shall step off to the side on this day of such great confusion, to play the role of Nero, who wasn't concerned about anything. There's one thing I want to be concerned about. It's myself in hiding. From this vantage point I'll be able to see the whole show. The spot is concealed and protected between those rocks. And now, since death won't find me, two figs for death he hides. Enter King Basilio, Sotaldo and Astolfo in retreat from the battle.

2:00:45 Talene: Is there an unluckier king? Is there a more persecuted father?

2:00:50 Bill: Your beaten army is now descending without order or common sense.

2:00:55 Talene: The traitors are the victors in such battles. The winners are the loyal ones, the losers are the traitors. Let us flee, Clotaldo, from the cruel, inhuman harshness of a tyrannical son.

2:01:17 Bill: Come on, help me.

2:01:19 Unknown speaker: Who is this unlucky soldier who has fallen at our feet all dyed in blood?

Ugh.

2:01:24 Mark: That would be me. I'm an unfortunate man who, in trying to guard myself from death, sought it out fleeing from it. I ran into it because there's no place where you can hide from death. The obvious conclusion from this is that the man who tries hardest to escape its workings is the one who makes them come back about. Therefore, go back, go back at once to the bloody conflict, because amid the weapons and fire there's greater safety than on the most protected mountain, since there's no path safe against the force of destiny and the inclemency of fate. And so, even if you try to escape death by running away, you can be sure that you will die. If it's God's will that you'll die,

2:02:06 Talene: you can be sure that you will die. If it's God's will that you die. Heavens, how eloquently our folly, our ignorance, are taught sure knowledge by this corpse that speaks through the lips of a wound, the fluid that he emits being a tongue of blood, to teach us that every effort man makes against a greater force and cause is in vain. I, to free my country from murders and uprisings, have finally handed it over to the very things from which I tried to free it.

2:02:50 Bill: Sire, Even though fate knows every pathway and finds the man it seeks amid the thickness of rocks, it isn't a Christian belief to say that there's no protection against its fury. There is, for the man with foresight can gain victory over fate. And if you are not yet secure against distress and misfortune, create that security for yourself.

2:03:18 Unknown speaker: Sire. Clotaldo speaks to you like a wise man who has reached maturity. I, like a brave youngster. Amid the dense branches of this mountain there is a horse, a swift hybrid offspring of the wind. Escape on it, while in the meantime I guard your rear.

2:03:36 Talene: If it's God's will that I die, or if death lurks for me here, I wish to seek it today, awaiting it face to face.

2:03:47 Mark: Sigismundo enters with all the other characters who are still alive, which is not including me.

2:03:52 Unknown speaker: In the tangle of the mountain, amid its dense branches, the King is hiding.

2:03:57 Bill: Follow him.

2:03:57 David: Let no tree remain on its height that is not carefully searched, trunk by trunk, bow by bow.

2:04:03 Bill: Flee, Sire.

2:04:04 Talene: To what end?

2:04:06 Unknown speaker: What do you have in mind?

2:04:08 Talene: A soulful. Step aside.

2:04:10 Bill: What do you want to do, Clotaldo?

2:04:12 Talene: To try a recourse that I haven't attempted yet. If you're looking for me, Prince, I am now at your feet. Let this snow of my hair be a white carpet for them. Tread on my neck and step on my crown, topple and drag my dignity and the respect due me. Take revenge on my honor, treat me as your captive, and after all those preventive measures, let fate receive its homage. Let heaven keep its word.

2:04:53 David: Illustrious court of Poland, you who are witness to such great marvels, be attentive, for it's your Prince addressing you. That which is decided on in heaven, and which on its blue chart God has written with his finger, of which all those blue sheets adorned with gold letters are the emblem and signs never deceives, never lies. Because the one who lies and deceives is the man who understands and interprets them to make bad use of them. My father, here present, to exempt himself from the rabid fury of my nature, made me an animal, a human beast, so that whereas through my gallant nobility of birth, through my high minded heredity, through my generous nature, I might have been born more tractable and humble, all that was needed Was that way of life, that sort of upbringing to make my manners fierce with a fine way to counteract them?

If any man were told some inhuman beast will kill you, would he be choosing the proper protection by awakening them when they were sleeping? If he were told that sword you're wearing will be the one that kills you, it would then be an incorrect countermeasure to unsheathe it and point it at his breast. If he were told, gulfs of water will be your grave, with the waves as silver tinted gravestones, he would do wrong to set out to sea when it haughtily raises curling mountains of snowy foam, rippling hills of crystal. The same thing has happened to him as to the man who awakened a wild animal because it threatened him.

The man who feared a sword unsheathed it, and the man who stirred up a storm on the ocean. And hear me out. Even if my rage had been a sleeping beast, my fury a temperate sort, and my harshness a tranquil calm at sea. Fortune is not overcome by injustice and revenge, which, on the contrary, only egg it on all the more. And so the man who expects to overcome his fortune must do so with prudence and temperateness. It isn't before the harm arrives that the man who foresees it protects himself and guards against it, because even though he can, by humble resignation, it's evident, protects himself from it.

This can happen only after he finds himself in the actual situation, because there's no way of preventing it from arriving. Let this unusual spectacle be an example, this odd wonder, this awful situation, this miracle, because there can't be a better example than to finally see, despite all those different precautions, a father submissive at my feet and a monarch trampled upon. It was the verdict of heaven. No matter how he tried to prevent it, he couldn't. And will I, younger in years, and inferior in merit and learning, be able to overcome it?

Rise, sire. Give me your hand, for now that heaven undeceives you, showing you that you're erred in your method of overcoming it, my neck humbly awaits your hand.

2:07:55 Unknown speaker: Revenge.

2:07:56 David: I fall in submission at your feet,

2:08:00 Talene: my son, for such a noble action engenders you once again in my loins. You are prince. To you the laurel and the palm are due. You have conquered. May your exploits crown you.

2:08:19 Bill: Long live Sigismundo. Only lives.

2:08:23 David: Since my valor now expects to win great victories today the loftiest of all shall be a victory over myself. Let Astolfo give his hand at once to Rosaura, because he knows it is a debt of honor and I shall collect it.

2:08:37 Unknown speaker: Though it's true that I have obligations towards her, please note that she doesn't know who her father was, and it's vileness and infamy for me to marry a woman.

2:08:48 Bill: Don't go on. Stop. Wait. Because Rosaura is as noble as you, Astolfo, and my sword will champion her in the field, for she is my daughter and that's sufficient.

2:09:04 Unknown speaker: What's that you say?

2:09:06 Bill: That before seeing her married, noble and respected, I didn't want to reveal her identity. The story behind it is a very long one, but in a word, she's my daughter.

2:09:19 Unknown speaker: Ah well, that being the case, I'll

2:09:20 David: keep my word then, so that Astraea won't remain disconsolate seeing herself losing a prince of such great merit and fame. With my own hand I shall wed her to a husband who in worth and fortune, though he doesn't outdo him, is at least his equal. Give me your hand.

2:09:37 Erica: I gain by deserving such great happiness.

2:09:41 David: My embrace awaits Clotaldo, who served my father loyally and so do any favors he asks me to do for him.

2:09:48 Unknown speaker: Him?

If that's the way you honor a man who wasn't on your side, what will you give me? Since I instigated the uprising in the kingdom and released you from the tower from which you languished.

2:09:58 David: The tower? And so that you never leave it until you die, you shall be kept under guard there, because a traitor is no longer needed once the treason is over.

2:10:08 Talene: We are all amazed at your intelligence.

2:10:12 Unknown speaker: What a change in his nature.

How clever and wise he is.

2:10:18 David: Why are you surprised? Why are you astonished? When my teacher was a dream, and in my anxiety I'm afraid I may wake up again and find myself once more locked in my cell. And even if that doesn't happen, merely dreaming it might is enough. For in that way I came to know that all of human happiness passes by in the end, like a dream. And I wish today to enjoy mine for as long as it lasts, asking pardon for our faults, since it so befits noble hearts to pardon.

2:10:54 Mark: Alright, everybody, just get up to the mics. Let's just. I just want to hear what you thought of this. What we make of this insane. Rosa, do you want to start, Talene?

2:11:03 Unknown speaker: Do I want to start? I don't know. It's weird, man. I don't think it's a very happy ending for Rosaura.

Not enough for Soldier one either.

Yeah, sure. I mean, there's just nothing to indicate that this is what she wants. She's so explicit from moment one about being like, he should die. That's what I want. And when they're seen together, it's not like she's like, oh, and I have feelings for him. It's like, no. How can I kill him? Okay, will you kill him or will you kill him? And then it seems like Sigismundo's gonna kill him. And then he's like, no, you're gonna get married. You're gonna spend the rest of your life together. And she's spent this whole play just trying to kill him. So I've seen. Yeah. Pretty tragic.

2:11:40 Mark: Chris, what do you think?

2:11:41 Talene: That's the way they write these plays. And the Catholic Church. Very strong. So it's a morality play. It's what the people watching, listening would expect. It's an illustration of what they might have read in their Catholic doctrine, in their philosophical doctrine, if they were educated. And it's a reaffirmation of what they already know.

2:12:05 Mark: David, you want to say a couple words before you dart out are Segismundo.

2:12:08 David: I was very confused by that. All you guys were talking about, all these scenarios I didn't even realize were in there. So I was totally focused on Segismundo. And what's weirder is I brought the play to you, and I still have no idea what it's about, but it confused me.

2:12:21 Talene: Life is a dream. In fact, you said it yourself in

2:12:25 David: that long speech too many times.

2:12:26 Talene: In capital letters.

2:12:27 David: It's true. Once in capital letters.

2:12:30 Mark: But we'll be posting. The four of us will have a discussion of the philosophical themes in the play, and we'll read a couple articles about it, about Plato's cave and other stuff like that. There's definite juice here. I'm not clear what it is myself either, completely yet, other than, you know. Is this really supposed to make us doubt that life is real? You know, this seems like a very peculiar situation that maybe.

2:12:50 Talene: Well, it was considered a very profound play.

2:12:52 Mark: Yes.

2:12:52 Talene: In its day.

2:12:53 David: I think it's more of a question of just power. More than it's about the dream. It's about the power people have over others. You know, you tell somebody they're gonna be rich tomorrow, they'll take it.

2:13:02 Unknown speaker: The dream part feels. Maybe it's just because of it being the 21st century. It feels like a bad undergraduate discussion over beers.

2:13:13 Erica: It's kind of true.

2:13:14 Mark: Erica, what'd you think?

2:13:15 Unknown speaker: For me, I actually.

2:13:16 Erica: I was expecting to understand more about the dream versus reality. But what I got most out of it, and it, like, Made me perk up was in one of your last speeches. The man who expects to overcome his fortune must do so with prudence and temperateness. It isn't before the harm arrives that the man who foresees it protects himself and guards against it. So all these ideas of. We've talked through the whole, I think several different characters said something about you can't guard against something, you know. And we were talking about predestination and versus free will. You know, this can happen only after he finds himself in the actual situation because there's no way of preventing it from arriving. So it's like, well, it's gonna happen anyway. So it's better for you to just know and you know, to be calm.

2:13:57 Unknown speaker: To be calm and like, maybe you

2:13:59 Erica: can do something about it then. But you can't avoid it. It's gonna come no matter what. And I guess that's kind of life anyway, right? We just.

2:14:07 Unknown speaker: We know it's gonna happen and we just have to deal with it the

2:14:09 Erica: best we can when it happens.

2:14:10 Bill: I could piggyback on that. It says at some point in the play, the very attempt to ward off fate is what brings it on. All the more so. You could almost say that the king made Sigismundo, as awful as he is by locking him in a tower. And it's about prophecy fulfilled, self fulfilling prophecy, self fulfilling prophecy. And it's given a sort of miniature encapsulation of that. When Clarine at the very end tries to avoid being killed. And trying to avoid being killed, he was killed, right? If he hadn't hidden in the tree, the bullet probably would have missed him and so he might have been alive. So the whole thing is about self fulfilling prophecy and trying to avoid faith brings it on with more certainty.

2:14:57 Talene: Well, in that case you still have the problem that this is a severely Catholic country. And if the Catholic doctrine ruled everything, even thinking process, remember the Inquisition is about this time you're not to have free thoughts. You're not to go back and deal with fate. It's always God's will. So this would be the answer then to why it is set in Poland, not in Spain. So it removes it one step away from the reality. All the names except for Segismundo are Spanish.

2:15:31 Mark: It's supposed to be. Segismund is like the Polish version of it. I think there are Polish analogues of all of the rest of them.

2:15:38 Talene: Yeah, but the rest of the names are not translations. Use them and the average public wouldn't know about anything that happened in Poland anyway. Do you know what's happening in Poland today? No,

2:15:51 Unknown speaker: but would they have been aware of the Oedipus myth? Because this is, in a certain sense, it's kind of a sophisticated take on the Oedipus myth.

2:15:59 Talene: The public, no.

2:16:00 Unknown speaker: Yeah, I'm sure. The educated Spaniards. The courtly Spaniards.

2:16:03 Talene: Yeah.

2:16:03 Mark: Who this is aimed at, right.

2:16:04 Unknown speaker: Which is. Who this is aimed at is that, you know, in the Oedipus story, right, the king has the same thing. He's foretold that his son will come and kill him. And that's exactly what happened. But he never has the opportunity to know that it's his son. He doesn't do the imprisonment, Right. It's a complete mystery to him. And in this case, the two protagonists, the one who's trying to prevent the fate and the one whose job it is to fulfill it, actually have the opportunity to come together and try to grapple with that fate. The king is making an effort.

He's giving Sigismundo the opportunity to overcome his fate, which is not an opportunity that Oedipus ever gets. And then, of course, Segiz Mundo. And then he comes to his own sense of realization about his own fate and his role in. In that what you said, that you're self fulfilling the prophecy, which in fact doesn't happen. So they managed to break the cycle.

2:16:51 David: All right, thanks, everybody.

2:16:52 Unknown speaker: Thank you.

2:16:54 Bill: Thanks.

2:16:54 Unknown speaker: Bye.

2:16:55 Mark: Bye.