THE DUCHESS OF SAN QUENTIN
A monologue from the
play by Benito Perez-Galdos
|
NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Masterpieces of Modern Spanish Drama. Ed. Barrett
H. Clark. New York: Duffield & Co., 1917. |
|
|
ROSARIO: I thought I saw him in the crowd. I would
have sworn it was he. I ran after that face that appeared for
a moment in the shifting mob. It was not he. With a sudden impulse,
I began to run through the whole fair, with the idea, the presentiment,
that I should find him. In that turbulent throng, through the
excited hubbub, I made my way rapidly--people coming and going,
dancing here, eating there. All, old and young, men and women,
were full of the joy of living, that simple gaiety which is unknown
to us who have been born and have lived in a world of artificiality,
of dry and empty formalities, like puppets hung on wires. And
I was seeking, seeking, seeking, with anxious eyes, searching
the sea of faces, that mass of humanity abounding in joy and
flesh and blood and life. I saw weather-beaten sailors, with
the look of the sea in their eyes; workmen's faces, marked with
the dust of the mines; I saw farmers, teamsters, all kinds of
people, but among all those faces I did not find the one I sought.
And I was so blindly confident that the Virgin would grant me
what I asked! You see, it was such a little thing I wanted. I
have been very unhappy. I have lived in the desert of fashionable
life; I prayed that she should let me see again the only man
who ever reached my heart--and stayed there.
MORE MONOLOGUES BY BENITO PEREZ-GALDOS |
