Fuente Ovejuna Quotes

COMMANDER: Respect’s the key
To men’s good will; discourtesy merely
Makes enemies.

ORTUÑO: If such men knew
How everyone detests them and longs
To see them grovel, they’d sooner die.

FLORES: Such people are so hard to take!
Such surliness and lack of manners.
Amongst equals it’s pure folly;
Towards inferiors sheer tyranny.

Take your sword, so far unstained
By blood, and turn it red as the Cross
Upon your breast. How else can I
Address you as Master of the Cross
If the one is red and not the other?
Let both of them be crimson, and you,
Worthy Girón, crown the immortal temple of
Your famous ancestors.

I’d rather see beef and cabbage
Dancing to a merry, bubbling tune,
And when I’m tired from travelling,
A slice of bacon wedded to
An aubergine. Then later on,
While supper’s cooking, a bunch of grapes
(God protect the vines from hailstones!),
And, when it’s ready, a tasty fry
Of chopped-up meat with oil and peppers.
And so at last happily to bed,
To say my prayers, including “lead
Me not into temptation!” I much
Prefer all this to the tricks and lies
Of rogues with all their talk and promises
Of love. Their only aim’s to leave
Us in the lurch. They take us to bed
For their pleasure; when morning comes,
It’s “Goodbye, treasure!”

Be constant and they call you boring,
Polite and you’re a flatterer;
Be kind and you’re a hypocrite,
A Christian’s someone seeking favour.
If you’ve got talent, that’s just lucky,
You tell the truth, that’s impudence;
Put up with things and you’re a coward,
When things go wrong, it’s your come-uppance.
A modest woman is a fool,
Pretty but chaste, she’s into seduction;
If she’s virtuous, she’s…no, no,
That’s it, end of demonstration!

COMMANDER: I’m talking to you, my pretty creature,
And to your friend. You belong to me,
Do you not?

PASCUALA: We do, my lord, but not
In the way you mean.

COMMANDER: Step inside. My men are there. Don’t be afraid.

LAURENCIA: I shall if the magistrates come too. One of them’s my father, but otherwise…

COMMANDER: Flores!

FLORES. Yes, sir?

COMMANDER: Why aren’t they doing what
I say?

FLORES: Get in there!

LAURENCIA: Get your hands
Off us!

FLORES: Come on, you stupid girls!

PASCUALA: Whoa now! For you to lock the stable-door?

FLORES: Inside! He wants to show you all
The spoils of war.

LAURENCIA: So God go with you
In the hunt, sir... I mean for deer.
If it weren’t for that cross upon
Your chest, I’d take you for the devil, such
Is your pursuit of me!

COMMANDER: Such language is
Offensive! I’ll put my bow aside
And let my hands overcome those airs
And graces!

COMMANDER: Am I, a man of worth, to turn
My back upon a peasant? I shall not break
The rules of chivalry!

FRONDOSO. I don’t
Intend to kill you. I know my place.
But since I need to stay alive,
I’ll keep the crossbow.

I cannot stand these forecasters
Who, knowing nothing, claim that they
Can tell the future, making us
Believe that they alone have access to
God’s secrets. They carry on like theologians,
Debating what has and will occur,
But, as for the present, which is
What matters most to us, the one who seems
The wisest is the greatest fool.

BARRILDO: There’s such
A lot of books these days, everyone thinks
He’s an expert.

LEONELO, Which is why I think
They know far less. It’s not condensed
Enough, you see. Instead of summaries,
It’s all long-winded stuff, all froth
That only leads to more confusion.
[…]
As well as this,
There are those so-called experts who
Have published pure rubbish in
The guise of wisdom, and those who,
Driven by envy, publish in the name
Of someone else they hate, merely to harm
His reputation.

ALDERMAN: You speak
Unjustly. To speak of us like that
Is to deny us honour.

COMMANDER: You believe
You have honour? You’ll be claiming next
You are knights of Calatrava!

ALDERMAN. There are doubtless some who wear the Cross
You place upon their breast whose blood
Is far less pure than ours.

COMMANDER: You think
My blood makes yours more impure?

ALDERMAN: Bad deeds have never cleansed, my lord.
They merely stain.

FLORES: These village scum defy us!
You’d do well to raze their village to
The ground. They are nothing but trouble.

MENGO: My lord, I beg you. Punish these men
For what they try to do to us.
In your name they would take this girl
Away with them, despite the fact
She’s married and has honourable parents.
I ask for leave to take her home.

COMMANDER: I give them leave to take revenge
On you. Hand over the sling at once!

COMMANDER: Why run away? Would you prefer
A yokel to a man of my
Great rank?

JACINTA: They offended my honour.
To take me for yourself is not
The way to give it back to me.

COMMANDER: To take you for myself?

JACINTA: My father is
An honourable man. Not of
Such noble birth as you, my lord,
But nobler in his deeds and actions.

COMMANDER: You think these peasant insults will
Dispel my anger? Come!

FRONDOSO: Laurencia, I want
To know if you care for me at all;
If the loyalty I’ve shown has made
Me in the least deserving. The town
Already sees the two of us as one
And cannot understand why we
Are not. Why not forget all past
Disdain? I’m asking you to marry me?

LAURENCIA: Then you and all the village too
Had better know…that I agree.

FRONDOSO: I kiss your feet for such a favour.
I promise you it gives my life
New meaning.

You must
Have seen a fellow making fritters.
He throws great lumps of dough into
A pan of boiling oil until it’s full.
Some come out swollen, some deformed,
Some totally misshapen, some
Are fine, others not, some burnt to death,
Some soggy. And that’s your poetry too.
The subject matter is the poet’s dough.
He throws it in the pan, which is
His paper, and after it spoonfuls
Of honey to cover up the taste
And make it sweeter.

The village-girl came down the path
From Fuente Ovejuna,
She was soon followed, by the knight
Who came from Calatrava.
She hid, amongst the branches there,
She felt such shame and fear;
Pretending she had not seen him,
She drew the leaves around her.
“Why try to hide yourself away?
You really are quite pretty.
My eyes can see through walls of stone
When someone takes my fancy.”

There are new rulers in
Castile who’ll introduce such laws
And orders as will put an end
To all disorder. When they have ceased
To be engaged in war, they would
Do well to rid their villages
And towns of men whose power comes
From wearing crosses. The King alone
Should be allowed to wear the cross.

What honourable rites indeed,
If there is not a single one
Of us whose life that criminal
Has not dishonoured? Tell me now if there
Is someone here whose honour is
Unscathed. You are as one, I think,
In your complaints. And so I say
To you: if you have common cause,
What are you waiting for?

JUAN ROJO: So what do you think
The town should do?

ALDERMAN. The town should die,
Or kill these tyrants. We are many, they
Are few.

BARRILDO: Take arms against our overlord?

ESTEBAN. In the eyes of God the King alone
Is our lord, not men like these,
No better than wild animals.
If God is on our side, why should we be
Afraid?

When Fernán Gómez took
Me off, you let him do it, just
As shepherds stand and watch the wolf
Which steals their sheep! They threatened me
With knives, abused me with their words,
Did everything they could to force
My chastity to their foul desires!
You see my hair? You see these marks,
These cuts and bruises? These stains of blood?
Do you believe thot you are men
Of honour? Do you believe you are
True fathers? How can you see me here
And not feel all the pain I feel pierce
Your very souls?

VILLAGERS: Injustice does
Not wait!

COMMANDER: You have to tell me what
Injustices they are. I’ll put them right,
I swear.

VILLAGERS: Fuente Ovejuna! Long
Live King Fernando! Death to all
False Christians and foul traitors!

COMMANDER: Listen!
I am your lord and master.

VILLAGERS: The Catholic Kings
Are our lords and masters!

The people there
Have mercilessly killed their lord
And master: Fernán Gómez murdered by
His faithless subjects, vassals who,
Believing they’d been wronged, rose up
Without good cause. These people called
Him tyrant, and on the strength of that
Committed this foul deed. They broke into
His house, and though he offered, as
An honourable man, to see
To their complaints, not only did
They fail to heed his words but rained
Upon the Cross upon his breast
A thousand cruel blows.

Long life to lovely Isabel
And our King Fernando,
They suit each other very well,
Their love is strong, their love is true;
One day Saint Michael at the gates,
Will welcome them and let then in;
Till then long life to both of them,
And punish tyrants for their sins!

MENGO: No more, no more! I’ll tell you.

JUDGE: Who killed the Commander?

MENGO: Fuente Ovejuna! Our little town!

JUDGE: Who ever saw such scoundrels! They mock
Their pain. The very one I thought
Would crack is most defiant. Release them!
This has become most tiresome.

I come to seek
Forgiveness, knowing that I was
Deceived and ill-advised in causing you
Displeasure. I was misled both by
Fernán Gómez and my self-interest.
I humbly beg that you forgive me.
If I am worthy of such favour,
I swear that from this moment on
I am your loyal and obedient servant.
The great campaign you plan against
Granada…I promise you you’ll see
The valour of my sword.

ESTEBAN: Your Majesty, we wish
To be your loyal vassals. You are
Our rightful King, and so we have displayed
Your coat of arms in our town,
We pray you will be merciful,
Accepting our innocence as our defence.

KING: There is no written evidence
As proof of your guilt, and so,
Although this was a serious crime,
You must be pardoned.