the house of bernarda alba editted

The house of Bernarda Alba

ACT ONE

SCENE 1

MAID: My head is bursting with these tolling bells.

PONCIA: They have been mumbling away for more than two hours now.
Oh, thank God we’re alone for a moment! Scrub everything clean. If Bernarda doesn’t see things shine, she’ll pull out of the few hairs I have left.

MAID: What a woman! My hands are bleeding from all this scouring.

PONCIA: She – the most immaculate – the most decent. She – the most superior! Her poor husband has earned a good rest. Damn her!

MAID: She’s been good to you.

PONCIA: Thirty years, washing her sheets, eating her leftovers. Nights watching over her when she coughs. Entire days peering through the cracks, to spy on the neighbours and bring her gossip. A life with no secrets from each other. And yet – damn her!

MAID: Poncia!

[ the bells ring]

PONCIA: The last prayer – I’m going over to listen. i love the way the priest sings!

MAID: Yes, yes, toll away! Bring in the coffin with its gold trims and the silk towels to carry it with. In the end you’ll be the same as me. Rot away, Antonio Maria Benavides, stiff in your woven suit and your high boots! Rot away! Never again will you lift up my skirts behind the back corral!

SCENE 2

BERNARDA: Magdalena, don’t cry! If you want to cry, crawl under the bed. Did you hear me?
Adela, give me a fan.

ADELA: Here you are.

BERNARDA: Is this the fan you give to a widow? Give me a black one, and learn to respect your father’s memory!

MARTIRIO: Take mine.

BERNARDA: What about you?

MARTIRIO: I don’t feel warm.

BERNARDA: Well look for another – you’re going to need one. During our eight years of mourning, no wind from streets will enter this house! Pretend we have sealed up the doors and windows with bricks.

Where is Angustias?

ADELA: I saw her peering through the cracks in the front door. The men had just left.

BERNARDA: And you? Why did you go to the door, too?

ADELA: I went to see it the hens had laid.

BERNARDA: Angustias! Angustias!

ANGUSTIAS: What do you want?
BERNARDA: Is it proper for a woman of your class to go chasing after a man on the day of her father’s funeral mass? Answer me! Who were you looking at?

ANGUSTIAS: Me!

BERNARDA: You!

ANGUSTIAS: You weakling! You’re sickening!

PONCIA: Bernarda, calm down.

BERNARDA: Get out of here! All of you!

MARTIRIO: Where’s Adela?

MAGDALENA: Ah! She put on the green dress she made to wear on her birthday, she went out to the corral and began to shout, ‘Chickens! Chickens, look at me!’ I had to laugh.

AMELIA: If mother had seen her!

MAGDALENA: Poor little thing! She’s the youngest of us, and she has dreams. I would give anything to see her happy.

ANGUSTIAS: What time is it?

MAGDALENA: It must be twelve by now.

ANGUSTIAS: So late?

AMELIA: It’s just about to strike.

MAGDALENA: Do you know about it yet?

AMELIA: No.

MAGDALENA: Come on!

MARTIRIO: I don’t know what you are referring to.

MAGDALENA: You two know more about it than I do. About Pepe el Romano.

MARTIRIO: Ah!

MAGDALENA [mimicking]: They are already talking about it in town. Pepe el Romano wants to marry Angustias.

MARTIRIO: I’m glad. He’s good-looking.

AMELIA: Me too. Angustias has good qualities.

MARTIRIO: Magdalena! Really!

MAGDALENA: If he wanted Angustias for herself, Angustias as a woman, I would be glad. But he wants her money.

MARTIRIO: Don’t talk that way. Luck comes to those who least expect it.

AMELIA: After all, she is telling the truth! Angustias has all her father’s money. She is the only rich one in the house. That’s why now that our father is dead and the estate is being settled, they’re coming after her.

MAGDALENA: Pepe el Romano is twenty-five years old. It would be natural for him to be interested in you Amelia, or in our Adela, but not to come looking for the gloomiest person in this house – a woman who talks through her nose, like her father did!

MARTIRIO: May be he likes that!

MAGDALENA: I never could stand your hypocrisy!

MARTIRIO: God help us!

[Adela enters]

MAGDALENA: Have the chickens seen you yet?

ADELA: And what would you like me to do?

AMELIA: If mother sees you, she’ll drag you out by the hair.

ADELA: I had such dreams about this dress. I planned to wear it the day we were going out to eat water melons down by the water wheel. There wouldn’t have been another like it!

MARTIRIO: It’s a lovely dress.

ADLEA: And it suits me very well. It’s the best one Magdalena has ever made.

MARTIRIO: What you could do is dye it black.

MAGDALENA: The best thing she could do is present it to Angustias to wear when she marries Pepe el Romano.

ADELA [: But Pepe el Romano….!

AMELIA: Haven’t you heard?

ADELA: No.

MAGDALENA: Well, now you know!

ADELA: But that’s not possible!

MAGDALENA: Money makes everything possible!

MARTIRIO: What are you thinking, Adela?

ADELA: I’m thinking that this period of mourning has caught me at the worst possible time.

MAGDALENA: you’ll soon get used to it.

ADELA [bursting into angry tears]: I will not get used to it! I can’t be locked up! I don’t want my body to dry up like yours! I don’t want to waste away and grow old in these rooms. Tomorrow I’ll put on my green dress. I want to get out!

[ Angustias enters. Her face heavily powdered.]

BERNARDA: Angustias!

ANGUSTIAS: Mother!

BERNARDA: Have you dared to powder your face? Have you dared even to wash your face, on the day of your father’s death?

ANGUSTIAS: He was not my father. Mine died some time ago. Don’t you remember him anymore?

BERNARDA: You owe more to that man, your future is assured.

ANGUSTIAS: We’ll see about that!

BERNARDA: It’s only out of decency. Out of respect!

ANGUSTIAS: Mother let me go!

BERNARDA: Go? After you’ve taken that powder off your face!
Weakling! Hussy! You’re the image of your aunts.
[furiously removes the powder from Angustias face]

PONCIA: Bernarda. Don’t be so hard on her!
[There are voices off stage and Maria Josepha enters]

MARIA JOSEPHA: Bernarda, where is my mantilla? I don’t want any of you to have anything of mine. Because none of you is going to get married. Not one! Bernarda, give me my pearl necklace!

BERNARDA: Why did you let her in?

MAID: She got away from me!

MARIA JOSEPHA: I escaped because I want to get married, because I want to get married to a beautiful man from the edge of the sea. Since the men here run away from women.

BERNARDA: Lock her up!
Help her! All of you!

ACT TWO

PONCIA: Tell me Angustias – what did he say to you, the first time he came to your window?

ANGUSTIAS: Nothing. What would he say to me? It was just talk.

MARTIRIO: It really is strange how two people who have met suddenly see each other through a window grating and – just like that – they’re engaged!

ANGUSTIAS: Well, it didn’t bother me.

AMELIA: I’d feel – I don’t know what.

ANGUSTIAS: Not me, because when a man approaches a window grating, he already knows – from people who come and go, who fetch and carry – that the answer will be yes.

MARTIRIO: Yes, but he must have asked!

ANGUSTIAS: Of course!

AMELIA [with curiosity]: And how did he ask you?

ANGUSTIAS: No special way – ‘You already know why I’m here. I need a good woman, well behaved, and that’s you, if you agree’

AMELIA: These things embarrass me!

ANGUSTIAS: And me, but you have to get through them.

PONCIA: Did he say any more?

ANGUSTIAS: Yes, he did all the talking.

MARTIRIO: What about you?

ANGUSTIAS: I couldn’t. My heart almost jumped out of my mouth. It was the first time I was ever alone with a man at night.

MAGDALENA: And such a good – looking man!

ANGUSTIAS: He’s not bad.

PONCIA: Such things are easy for people with a little experience, who talk and say things and wave their hands around. The first time my husband, Evaristo the Birdman, came to my window….

AMELIA: What happened?

PONCIA: It was very dark, I saw him coming closer, and when he arrived, he said to me, ‘Good evening.’ ‘Good evening.’ I said to him, and we didn’t talk for more than half an hour. The sweat was running down my whole body. Then Evaristo came closer and closer, as if he wanted to squeeze through the bars, and he said in a very low voice: ‘Come here, so I can feel you!’ [They all laugh. Amelia jumps up and peers out the door.]

AMELIA: Oh! I thought mother was coming.

MAGDALENA: She would have set us straight! [They go on laughing]

AMELIA: Sh-h-h-h….! She’ll hear us!

PONCIA: Afterwards he behaved himself.

MAGDALENA: Adela, you shouldn’t miss this!

AMELIA: Adela! [a pause]

MAGDALENA: I’ll go and see. [She exits]

PONCIA: That child is ill.

MARTIRIO: Of course. She hardly sleeps!

PONCIA: What does she do?

MARTIRIO: How do I know what she does!

PONCIA: You would know better than me, since you sleep with only a wall between you.

ANGUSTIAS: Envy is eating her up. I see it in her eyes. She is beginning to look a little mad.
[ Magdalena enters with Adela]

MAGDALENA: Well – weren’t you asleep?

ADELA: I don’t feel well.

MARTIRIO: Well, then?

ADELA [loudly]: Leave me alone! Asleep or awake, it’s none of your business. I’ll do what I want with my body.

MARTIRIO: It’s only my concern for you.

Adela: Concern or curiosity?
[ Maid enters]

MAID: Bernarda is calling you. The man who sells lace is here.

ADELA: Don’t look at me anymore! If you want I’ll give you my eyes – they are brighter – and my back, to fix that crooked one of yours.

PONCIA: Adela, she is your sister. Besides she’s the only one who loves you the most.

ADELA: She won’t let me breathe! And it’s always “ What a shame about that face, what a shame about that body, which wont belong to anyone!” No! My body will be for anyone I please.

PONCIA: For Pepe el Romano isn’t it?

ADELA: What are you saying?

PONCIA: Do you think I haven’t noticed?

ADELA: I wish you were blind.

PONCIA: Don’t be childish. Leave your sister alone; and if you want Pepe el Romano, control yourself! Besides, who says you can’t marry him? Your sister Angustias is suckly. She won’t even survive her first childbirth. Then Pepe will do what all widowers do in this country: he’ll marry the youngest, the most beautiful, and that will be you. Live on that hope or forget him, whatever you want – just don’t go against the law of God!

ADELA: Be quiet! Instead of cleaning the house and going to bed to pray for your dead, you go sticking your nose into the affairs of men and women like an old sow, so you can slobber over them.

PONCIA: I keep watch! So people won’t spit.

ADELA: What great affection for my sister has suddenly come over you!

PONCIA: I have no affection for any of you, but I want to live in a decent house. I don’t want to be disgraced in my old age.

ADELA: Your advice is useless – it’s already too late! I wouldn’t fight you – you’re just a servant. See if you can catch this wild rabbit with your hands!

PONCIA: Don’t defy me, Adela, don’t defy me! Because I can raise my voice.

ADELA: Bring out four thousand yellow flares and set them on the walls of the corral. No one can keep what has to happen from happening!

PONCIA: You care about him that much!

ADELA: That much! When I look into his eyes, I feel as if I am slowly drinking in his blood!

PONCIA: I can’t listen to you.

ADELA: Well, you will listen to me! I was afraid of you. But now I’m stronger than you are.
SCENE 3

ANGUSTIAS: Where is the picture of Pepe I had under my pillow? Which of you has it?

MARTIRIO: Neither one of us.

ADELA: What picture?

ANGUSTIAS: One of you has hidden it from me.

MAGDALENA: You have the effrontery to say that?

ANGUSTIAS: It was in my room, and now it’s not!

BERNARDA: What is all this commotion in my house, and in the silence of this heavy heat?
ANGUSTIAS: They have stolen my fiancé’s picture!

BERNARDA: Which of you?
Answer me!
Search the rooms, look in the beds!

[ Poncia exits]

This comes from not keeping you on a shorter leash! But I will haunt your dreams! Are you sure?

ANGUSTIAS: Yes.

BERNARDA: Have you looked for it carefully?

ANGUSTIAS: Yes, mother.
BERNARDA: Can’t you find it?

PONCIA: Here it is.

BERNARDA: Where did you find it?

PONCIA: It was…

BERNARDA: Don’t be afraid to tell me.

PONCIA: Between the sheets of Martirio’s bed!

BERNARDA: Is that true?

MARTIRIO: It’s true.

BERNARDA: May God strike! You two-faced scorpion! Why did you take the picture?

MARTIRIO: Can’t I play a joke on my own sister? Why would I take it?

ADELA: It was not a joke – you’ve never liked games, never! It was something else, exploding in your heart. Admit it openly, once and for all!

MARTIRIO: Be quiet, don’t make me talk! Because if I talk, the walls will collapse in shame!

ANGUSTIAS: It’s not my fault that Pepe el Romano has chosen me!

ADELA: For your money!

ANGUSTIAS: Mother!

BERNARDA: Silence!
[they all exit, except for Poncia]

PONCIA: May I speak?

BERNARDA: Speak.

PONCIA: I’m not making accusations Bernarda, I’m only telling you. Open your eyes wide and you’ll see.

BERNARDA: See what?

PONCIA: You’ve always been clever. You are evil in people from hundred miles away. But your children are your children. And about them you are blind. BERNARDA: Are you referring to Martirio?

PONCIA: Well, when it comes to Martirio, why would she hide the picture?

BERNARDA: After all she says it was a joke. What else could it be?

PONCIA: Do you believe it?
BERNARDA: I don’t believe it, it is so!
PONCIA: But if it were the neighbours across the street what would you think? Bernarda something monstrous is happening here. I don’t want to blame yopu,but you haven’t allowed your daughters any freedom.
BERNARDA: I don’t think that there is something monstrous happening here.a nd if something does happen some day, rest assured it will not go beyond these walla!
PONCIA: Yesterday, my oldest son told me that at half past four in the morning,they were still talking.
ANGUSTIAS: That’s a lie!
PONCIA: That’s what I was told.
BERNARDA: Go on!
And about them, you are blind.

ANGUSTIAS: For more than a week. Pepe has been leaving here at one o’ clock. May God strike me dead if I’m lying.

MARTIRIO: I heard him leave at four, too.

BERNARDA: What’s going on here?

PONCIA: Careful, you’ll find out. But it’s clear that Pepe was at one of the windows of your house at four in the morning.

ADELA: Mother, don’t listen to someone who wants to destroy us all!

MARTIRIO: I don’t like to lie.

PONCIA: Then something is going on.

BERNARDA: Nothing is going on.

ANGUSTIAS: I have the right to know.

BERNARDA: You have no right except to obey! No one is going to push me or pull me.

MAID: There’s a big crowd up the street! And all the neighbours are at their doors!

BERNARDA: Run and find out what’s happening. Where are you going?

MARTRIO: Be grateful I didnthappen to openmy mouth.

ADELA: I could haver said things too.

BERNARDA: What’s going on?

PONCIA: Librada’s daughter, the one who is not married yet, just had a baby, and no oneknows who the father is.

ADELA: A baby?

PONCIA: And to hide her in her shame, she killed it and put it under some rocks. Now they want to kill her.

BERNARDA: Yes! Let them all come to kill her.

ADELA: No! no! Not to kill her!

BERNARDA: Any woman who tramples on decency should pay for it.

ADELA: She who takes the first step….. You wanted to , but you couldn’t.

MARTIRIO: I’ll tear you out of his arms!

ADELA: He wants me in his house!

BERNARDA: Any woman who tramples on decency should pay for it!

MARTIRIO [looking at Adela]: She should pay for what she did.

BERNARDA: Finish her off before the police get here! Burning coals in the place where she sinned!

ADELA: No! No!

BERNARDA: Kill her! Kill her!

ACT THREE

PRUDENCIA: Has the last call for the rosary sounded?

PONCIA: Not yet.

BERNARDA: How is your husband getting on?

PRUDENCIA: The same.

BERNARDA: We don’t see him, either.

PRUDENCIA: You know how he is. Ever since he fought with his brothers over the inheritance, he hasn’t used the front door. He puts up a ladder and climbs over the wall and the corral.

BERNARDA: He’s a real man! And with your daughter?

PRUDENCIA: He has not forgiven her.

BERNARDA: He’s right.

PRUDENCIA: I don’t know what to tell you. I suffer because of it.

BERNARDA: A daughter who disobeys stops being a daughter and becomes an enemy.

PRUDENCIA: I just let the water flow. The only comfort I have left is to take refuge in the church, but since my eyes are failing, I’ll have to stop coming, because the children tease me.

BERNARDA: Where are you going?

ADELA: For a drink of water.

BERNARDA: Bring a pitcher of cool water! [To Adela] You may sit down.

PRUDENCIA: What about Angustias, when will she get married?

BERNARDA: They are coming to ask for her hand in three days.

PRUDENCIA: You must be pleased!

ANGUSTIAS: Of course!

ADELA: Now you’ve spilled the salt!

MARTIRIO: Your luck can’t get any worse than it is now.

ANGUSTIAS: It’s always a bad sign.

BERNARDA: That’s enough!

PRUDENCIA: Has he given you the ring yet?

ANGUSTIAS: Do look at it.

PRUDENCIA: It’s lovely. Three pearls! In my day, pearls meant tears.

ANGUSTIAS: But things have changed now.

ADELA: I don’t think so. Things always mean the same. Engagement rings are supposed to be diamonds.

PRUDENCIA: It’s more appropriate.

BERNARDA: With pearls or without them, things are what you make of them.

MARTIRIO: Or what God makes of them.

PRUDENCIA: Your furniture, they tell me, is lovely.

BERNARDA: I spent sixteen thousand reales.

PRUDENCIA: The last call. I’ll come home back soon so you can show me the clothes.

ANGUSTIAS: Whenever you like.

PRUDENCIA: Good night. God be with you.

BERNARDA: Goodbye, Prudencia.

DAUGHTERS: God go with you.

BERNARDA: We are through eating now.

ADELA: I’m going to the front door to stretch my legs and get a little fresh air.

AMELIA: I’ll go with you.

MARTIRIO: Me, too.

ADELA [with repressed hatred]: I’m not going to get lost.

AMELIA: You should have company at night.

BERNARDA: I’ve already told you I want you to speak to your sister Martirio. What happenned with the picture was just a joke, and you should forget it.

ANGUSTIAS: You know she doesn’t love me.

BERNARDA: I don’t want to pry into people’s feelings, but I do want to keep up appearances and have harmony in the family. Do you understand 4that?

ANGUSTIAS: Yes.

BERNARDA: That’s settled, then.

MAGDALENA [half asleep]: Anyway, you’re going to be leaving very soon!

ANGUSTIAS: Not soon enough, I feel!

BERNARDA: What time did you finish talking last night?

ANGUSTIAS: At half past twelve.

BERNARDA: What does Pepe have to say?

ANGUSTIAS: I find him distracted. He always talks to me as if he’s thinking of something else. If I ask him what’s wrong, he answers, ‘We men have our own worries.’

BERNARDA: You shouldn’t ask him. Especially after you’re married. Speak if he speaks, and look at him when he looks at you. That way you want quarrel.

ANGUSTIAS: Mother, I think he hides many things from me.

BERNARDA: Don’t try to find about them. Don’t ask him. And above all, don’t ever let him see you cry.

ANGUSTIAS: I should be happy, and I’m not.

BERNARDA: It’s all the same.

ANGUSTIAS: I often stare very hard at Pepe, until he grows blurred behind the bars of the window, as if he were being covered by a cloud of dust like the ones the sheep stir up.

BERNARDA: It’s only because you’re frail.

ANGUSTIAS: I hope so.

BERNARDA: Is he coming tonight?

ANGUSTIAS: No. he went To the city with his mother.

BERNARDA: Then we’ll go to bed earlier. Magdalena!

ANGUSTIAS: She’s asleep.

ACT THREE

SCENE ONE

AMELIA: What a dark knight!

ADELA: You can’t see two steps ahead from you.

MARTIRIO: A good night for thieves, for someone wholeaves a hiding place.

ADELA: There are stars in the sky as big as fists!

MARTIRIO: Our sister was staring so hard at them, she broke her neck.

ADELA: Don’t you like them?

MARTIRIO: I don’t care what goes on above the rooftops. I have enough with what goes on inside these rooms!

ADELA: That’s how you are.

BERNARDA: She has her way and you have yours.

ANGUSTIAS: Goodnight!

ADELA: Are you going to bed now?

ANGUSTIAS: Pepe is not coming tonight.

ADELA: What a beautifulnight! I’d like to stay up very late so I could enjoy the cool air from the fields.

BERNARDA: But we have to go to bed. Magdalena!

AMELIA: She dozed off.

BERNARDA: Magdalena!

MAGDALENA: Leave me in peace.

BERNARDA: Go to bed!

MAGDALENA: You don’t leave a person alone.

AMELIA: Goodnight!

MARTIRIO: Why isn’t Angustias’ fiancé coming tonight?

BERNARDA: He went on a trip.

MARTIRIO: Ah!

ADELA: See you in the morning.

PONCIA: Are you still here?

MAID: I have finished washing the dishes now. Is there anything else you want Bernarda?

BERNARDA: Nothing. I’m boing to bed.

[ she exits]

PONCIA: When you cant fight the tide, it’s easier to turn your back, so you don’t see it.
MAID: She’s so proud she puts a blind fold on herself. She doesn’t realize the power a man can have over a lonely woman. They say he spoke to Adela many times.
PONCIA: It’s true/and the other things. Things have already gone too far.

MAID: They are wicked.

PONCIA: Shhhhhh!

MAID: What is it?

PONCIA: The dogs are barking. Let’s go

[Adela enters, goes to the back corrl]

MARIA JOSEFA: Ovejita, child of mine,
Come with me to the edge of the sea,
The little ant is at his door,
I’ll give you my breast, and bread.

Bernarda –
Face of a leopard.
Magdalena –
Face of a hyena.
Ovejita –
Baa-baa-baa, baa-baa-baa.

MARTIRIO: Grandmother, where are you going?

MARIA JOSEFA: Are you going to open the door for me? Who are you?

MARTIRIO: How did you get here?

MARIA JOSEFA: I escaped. Who are you?

MARTIRIO: Go to bed.

MARIA JOSEFA: You’re Martirio, now I see you. Martirio, the face of a martyr. And when are you going to have a child? I’ve had this one.
It’s better to have a lamb, than to have nothing.
MARTIRIO: Adela! Adela!
ADELA: Why are you looking for me?

MARTIRIO: Stay away from that man!
ADELA: Who are you to tell me that?

MARTIRIO: That heartless man came here for someone else. You have come between them!

ADELA: He came for the money, but his eyes were always for me.

MARTIRIO: I won’t allow you to snatch him away! He is going to marry Angustias.

ADELA: You know better than I, that he doesn’t love her.

MARTIRIO: I know.

ADELA: You know, because you’ve seen that he loves me!

MARTIRIO: Yes.

ADELA: He loves me! He loves me!

MARTIRIO: Stick a knife in me If you like, but don’t say that to me again.

ADELA: Because, you love him, too! You love him!

MARTIRIO: Yes! Let me say it openly. I love him!

ADELA: Martirio, Martirio, it’s not my fault!

MARTIRIO: Don’t embrace me! Don’t try to soften my eyes. My blood is no longer your blood! I try to think of you as a sister, but I see you only as a woman!

ADELA: There’s no solution here. Let him marry Angustias. I don’t care anymore. But I will go to a little house, alone, where he’ll see me whenever he wants, whenever he feels the need.
Get away from the door!

MARTIRIO: Get past if you can.

ADELA: Get away!

MARTIRIO: Mother! Mother!

BERNARDA: Stop it! Stop it!

MARTIRIO: She was with him, look at her petticoats, covered with straw.

BERNARDA: That is the bed of a sinful woman.

ADELA: The shouting is over. Don’t take one step more.

BERNARDA: The gun! Where is the gun?

ADELA: No one is going to stop me!

ANGUSTIAS: You’re not leaving here – you and your triumphant body!
Thief!

BERNARDA: I dare you find him now.

MARTIRIO: That is the end of Pepe el Romano.

ADELA: Pepe! My god! Pepe!

PONCIA: Did u kill him?

MARTIRIO: No, he ran off his horse.

MAGDALENA: Then why did you say that?

MARTIRIO: Because of her!

PONCIA: Damn you!

BERNARDA: Though it’s better this way.

PONCIA: God keep us fromcoming to that end!

BERNARDA: Cut her down. My daughter died a virgin. Carry her to her room and dress her in white. I want no weeping. Be quiet! The youngest daughter of Bernarda Alba has died a virgin. Did you hear me?