THE GREAT GALEOTO
A monologue from the
play by Jose
Echegaray
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Masterpieces of Modern Spanish Drama. Ed. Barrett
H. Clark. New York: Duffield & Co., 1917. |
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PEPITO: Well, here's a mess; and a useless mess, too.
Just the same, no matter what my uncle may say, it was sheer
madness to have a young girl as beautiful as the sun under the
same roof, in almost continual contact with Ernesto, who is a
handsome fellow with a soul all of fire, and a head full of romance.
He swears there is nothing between them but the purest sort of
friendship, that he loves her like a sister, and that my uncle
is a father to him. But I'm pretty sharp, and though I am young,
I know a thing or two about this world, and I don't put much
faith in this brother-and-sister business; particularly where
the brother is so young, and the relationship fictitious. But
suppose this affection is all they say it is, how are other people
to know that? Have they signed any pledge always to think well
of every one? Don't they see them together all the time--in the
theater--in the park? Well, the person who saw them, saw them,
and when he saw them, he told about it. Ernesto swore to me,
"No." They had almost never gone about
in that way. Did he go once? Well, that's enough. If a hundred
people saw them that day, they might as well have appeared in
public not once, but a hundred different times. Are people bound
to examine their witnesses and compare their dates to find out
whether it was many times or only once that they went out together,
she with her innocent sympathy, and he with his brotherly affection?
Such a demand would be altogether ridiculous. They all tell what
they've seen, and they're not lying when they tell it. "I
saw them once. I saw them as well." One and one make two.
There's no way out. "And I saw them, too." There you
have three already. And this man, four; and that one, five. And
so, adding up in all good faith, you go on indefinitely. And
they saw because they looked. In short, because naturally one
uses one's senses and doesn't stop to ask permission. So let
him look after himself and remember that nowadays he who avoids
the appearance of evil, avoids the slander and the danger. And
notice, I am admitting the purity of their affection; and that
is a very important point; for, between ourselves, I must admit
that to be near Teodora and not to love her, one must be as steady
as a rock. He may be a scholar, and a philosopher, and a mathematician,
and a physicist; but he's human, and she's divine!
MORE
MONOLOGUES BY JOSE ECHEGARAY |
