Spaniards in Denmark Prologue
Spaniards in Denmark
Prologue
Translated by Fini Løkke
The box of Clara Gazul
A grande, a captain, a poet, Clara
THE GRANDE
Ah, you are finally dressed!
THE POET
And always like an angel.
THE CAPTAIN
And what do I see, without basquina and without mantilla?
CLARA
It’s because I am not playing a Spanish role.
THE CAPTAIN
So much the worse!
THE GRANDE
Who is the author?
CLARA
I don’t know.
THE POET
Always discreet! Ah, we certainly have our obligations, we other poor authors!
Now, that’s fine, gentlemen! You just sit down here, as you wish to spend the night in this box. – Excellentisseme seigneur, if you would take an armchair, you would fall asleep and miss the comedy.
THE GRANDE
You know quite well that I never arrive until the second round.
THE POET
Oh! I really hope the new play is divided into acts.
CLARA
That’s where you are wrong. But would the comedy suffer because of that?
THE POET
Well! It will not be better. At first, the title does not make sense because, as far as I know, Spaniards have never been to Denmark. Isn’t that so, Excellency?
THE GRANDE
Is it from the time of the Pavia Wars?….Under the great Marquis de Courdoue….Perhaps they are told to travel….It seems to me they have quite a distance to travel…to go to Denmark….What about that, seigneur licentiate?
THE POET
(bows)
Without doubt….But the most direct route.
THE CAPTAIN
By that you say, seigneur licentiate, that the Spaniards never have gone to Denmark. Why, haven’t I gone there, with the great Marquis de La Romana; and did I not almost lose my nose there, by God? It froze so much, you bet, that you might have thought it was a piece of ice.
CLARA
Bravo, Captain! You have guessed the subject of the comedy.
ALL
What, the Marquis de La Romana!
CLARA
Precisely.
THE CAPTAIN
Why! The comedy must be excellent; I tell you, the Marquis was a great man. – He has organized for us the Quadrilles War which chased the French from our ancient Spain.
THE GRANDE
You call La Romana a great man? He was unjust!….He has not been willing to give me a regiment to command…me!
THE POET
But it’s impossible to make a comedy on people who have barely died.
CLARA
What are you saying? Barely died? It would cry to Heaven if the poor marquis were not completely dead!
THE CAPTAIN
My God! I just remember the day we met in Galicia with our old allies of Poland…we were as thunderstruck….Unfortunately La Romana was not with us…and
THE GRANDE
Now tell us, Clara, what is sung in this comedy?
CLARA
Patience, you will see.
THE POET
In this play, the comedy begins in Denmark and ends at Espinosa in Galicia. – The distance is short….But, gentlemen, the romantics have such agreeable carriages!
CLARA
You don’t know what you are saying. The entire play takes place in the island of Funen.
THE CAPTAIN
Yes, exactly, the island of Funen; that’s where I almost had to leave my nose.
THE POET
And…the united forces?
CLARA
Well, I don’t know what happens to them. I don’t want to know in order to judge about a play, if the events take place within twenty-four hours, and if the characters all of them come to the same place; some of them to plot their conspiracies, others to let themselves be murdered, others to let themselves be stabbed on the dead body as the custom is on the other side of the Pyrenees.
THE GRANDE
(who still has not heard the end of the phrase)
Really! The French should murder in that way? I have never, while I have been in France, seen anything like that, and I certainly know everybody in Paris.
THE POET
(aside)
He is a fool! Is it really true that a man like me shall reduce himself to writing verses against such a man? (Loudly) But to return to our unit…
THE CAPTAIN
Come now, monsieur licentiate, what is it you do, regarding a unit that we do not know about? But you are always so critical of others.
THE POET
All that I know about that is in the interest of art. Which could be a wish that we imitate our neighbours, the French…
THE CAPTAIN
No, No! none of that! Except in the charge of the gun which they do quicker than we.
THE GRANDE
And their respect of nobility! In France, it’s always to a grand seigneur that you give the ministries; while with us at the moment…
CLARA
Without any doubt, and which cries to Heaven….This damned Constitution!….A minister you shall become!
THE GRANDE
Why not? Do I not have the birth and the political talent? – You just ask the seigneur licentiate…he knows about it.
THE POET
We do not have the more ancient family that Votre Excellence has.
THE CAPTAIN
You don’t say! Vive l’égalité! I have been a captain long enough, so why not lift me up to the colonel galloons that I have missed for so long?
THE GRANDE
Captain, captain!….You must realize that this is not a guerilla soldier.
CLARA
Please do not quarrel, gentlemen, or I must send you away. – But let us now all hear the new play which, I hope, will satisfy all of you. You, Excellentisseme Seigneur, you are interested in a noble Marquis. – You, Captain, your hero must be the aide-de-camp of La Romana who has a cherished name among all Spaniards.
THE CAPTAIN
And which name? I have known an aide-de-camp of La Romana who had earned his galloons in the ante-chambers of Godoy.
CLARA
The name of your hero, Captain, is don Juan Diaz…
THE CAPTAIN
Don Juan Diaz Porlier! Good God! The Marquesito?
CLARA
I did not say that, but his name is Juan Diaz….You, seigneur licentiate, who love everything French, I think you will be thrilled when you learn that the heroine is a French lady.
THE POET
What, a French lady in Denmark! How can that happen?
THE GRANDE
La Romana was, of all people, the most unjust: the comedy must be bad.
THE CAPTAIN
Let the play and the author be damned if the lady is French!
CLARA
Really, not one of you is satisfied? Certainly I am out of luck. Why, Captain, do you not applaud your general?
THE CAPTAIN
Yes, if you enough bad things about the French.
CLARA
And you, seigneur Escolastico?…because there are French in this play?
THE POET
That’s right, if it were dead people at least four hundred years ago.
CLARA
And if they weren’t dead more than three hundred and fifty years, the comedy couldn’t be good?
THE POET
That’s difficult.
CLARA
Then it will improve with time. Oh, how I would like to come back in four hundred years to see it being applauded! – And you, Excellency, please applaud a Spanish Marquis.
THE GRANDE
A family which has robbed me of seven of my names!
CLARA
Let the Devil take all of you! (To the audience) You, Messieurs, you are reasonable people, enjoy the new play; the author will let you judge.
END OF PROLOGUE