THE EVIL DOERS OF GOOD
A monologue from the
play by Jacinto Benavente
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Plays by Jacinto Benavente. Trans. John Garrett Underhill.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921. |
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DON HELIODORO: Yes, thank God! You could never get
here without his special interposition. I never saw such a wretched
road. What diligences, what service! Then, when you get here,
how pleasant they do make it! If there is anything out of the
ordinary in your appearance, the children run shouting after
you down the street; the grown people stare as if you were some
strange species of vermin. Everybody who is anybody rolls himself
up in a ball like a hedgehog, so as to prevent contamination
by strangers. Then there is so much to do here. No, no theatre;
of course not! If a company of strolling players dares to lift
its head, the priests preach against it from the pulpits, Doña
Esperanza takes up the crusade in her tertulia, and the
first thing you know the plays all turn out to be sinful, the
leading lady isn't married to the man you thought was her husband,
the soubrette's skirts are too short--and God help the poor actors!
We had music for a while on Sundays in the glorieta, but
never again! The boys held the girls too close when they danced.
So now the girls have a club of their own under the supervision
of the ladies, and the men have another which has been organized
by the gentlemen. They have a chorus and sing; it seems to be
moral and uplifting. The only café closes at eleven. There
is nowhere to go except our house--how exciting! And on Saturdays
you can look in on Doña Esperanza. I call her the She-Bishop;
she has an eye out for everything. She criticizes, she lays down
the law, she can tell you the proper cut for your bathing suit,
and when you ought to take a bath--yes, and when it is time for
you to go to bed, and with whom.
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MONOLOGUES BY JACINTO BENAVENTE |
