PASTORAL TRAGICOMEDY OF THE SERRA DA ESTRELLA
A monologue from the play by Gil Vicente
| NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Four Plays of Gil Vicente. Trans. Aubrey F.G. Bell. Cambridge: University Press, 1920. |
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- HERMIT: Now I have a mind to say
- What I came to look for here.
- For my wish it is to stay
- In a hermitage that may
- Yield me plenty of good cheer.
- Ready-made would I find it: ill
- Could I all these joys fulfil
- Worn out by toil and labour fell.
- Wide not narrow be my cell
- That I may dance therein at will;
- Be it in a desert land
- Yielding wine and wheat alway,
- With a fountain near at hand
- And contemplation far away.
- Much fish and game in brake and pool
- Must I have for my own preserve
- And as for my house it must never swerve
- From an even temperature, cool
- In summer and in winter warm.
- Yes, and a comfortable bed
- Would not do me any harm,
- All of it cedar-wood,
- A harpsichord hung at its head:
- So do I find a monk's life good.
- I would lie and take my rest
- And sleep on far into the day
- So that I could not my matins say
- For noise of the whistling and the singing
- Of shepherdesses' songs clear ringing.
- On partridge would I sup and dine,
- Of stockfish should my luncheon be
- And of wine the very best.
- And the Judge's daughter should make for me
- The bed on which I would recline.
- And even as my beads I tell
- She should forget her flock of sheep
- And embrace me in my cell
- And bite my ears and make me weep:
- Yes, even thus it would be well.
- My brothers, since you know, I trow
- The recesses of each vale and hill
- Be good enough to tell me now
- Where best I may so have my will
- And this holy life fulfil.
MORE MONOLOGUES BY GIL VICENTE
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