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ACT I: SCENE II
SCENE. A street in Madrid. Enter CHISPA, followed by
musicians, with a bagpipe, guitars, and other instruments.
CHISPA. Abernuncio Satanas! and a plague on all lovers who
ramble about at night, drinking the elements, instead of
sleeping quietly in their beds. Every dead man to his cemetery,
say I; and every friar to his monastery. Now, here's my master,
Victorian, yesterday a cow-keeper, and to-day a gentleman;
yesterday a student, and to-day a lover; and I must be up later
than the nightingale, for as the abbot sings so must the
sacristan respond. God grant he may soon be married, for then
shall all this serenading cease. Ay, marry! marry! marry!
Mother, what does marry mean? It means to spin, to bear
children, and to weep, my daughter! And, of a truth, there is
something more in matrimony than the wedding-ring. (To the
musicians.) And now, gentlemen, Pax vobiscum! as the ass said to
the cabbages. Pray, walk this way; and don't hang down your
heads. It is no disgrace to have an old father and a ragged
shirt. Now, look you, you are gentlemen who lead the life of
crickets; you enjoy hunger by day and noise by night. Yet, I
beseech you, for this once be not loud, but pathetic; for it is a
serenade to a damsel in bed, and not to the Man in the Moon.
Your object is not to arouse and terrify, but to soothe and bring
lulling dreams. Therefore, each shall not play upon his
instrument as if it were the only one in the universe, but
gently, and with a certain modesty, according with the others.
Pray, how may I call thy name, friend?
FIRST MUSICIAN. Geronimo Gil, at your service.
CHISPA. Every tub smells of the wine that is in it. Pray,
Geronimo, is not Saturday an unpleasant day with thee?
FIRST MUSICIAN. Why so?
CHISPA. Because I have heard it said that Saturday is an
unpleasant day with those who have but one shirt. Moreover, I
have seen thee at the tavern, and if thou canst run as fast as
thou canst drink, I should like to hunt hares with thee. What
instrument is that?
FIRST MUSICIAN. An Aragonese bagpipe.
CHISPA. Pray, art thou related to the bagpiper of Bujalance,
who asked a maravedi for playing, and ten for leaving off?
FIRST MUSICIAN. No, your honor.
CHISPA. I am glad of it. What other instruments have we?
SECOND AND THIRD MUSICIANS. We play the bandurria.
CHISPA. A pleasing instrument. And thou?
FOURTH MUSICIAN. The fife.
CHISPA. I like it; it has a cheerful, soul-stirring sound,
that soars up to my lady's window like the song of a swallow.
And you others?
OTHER MUSICIAN. We are the singers, please your honor.
CHISPA. You are too many. Do you think we are going to sing
mass in the cathedral of Cordova? Four men can make but little
use of one shoe, and I see not how you can all sing in one song.
But follow me along the garden wall. That is the way my master
climbs to the lady's window, it is by the Vicar's skirts that the
Devil climbs into the belfry. Come, follow me, and make no noise.
[Exeunt.]
Content of ACT I: SCENE II [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's play/drama: The Spanish Student]
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