DIEGO: The old law, yes. But these new laws are no concern of yours.
JUDGE CASADO: I do not serve the law because of what it says but because it is the law.
DIEGO: And suppose the law’s identical with crime?
JUDGE CASADO: If crime becomes the law, it ceases being crime.
DIEGO: And then it’s virtue you must punish!
JUDGE CASADO: As you say, virtue must be punished if it is so presumptuous as to break the law.
VICTORIA: Casado, it’s not the law that’s making you behave like this; it’s fear.
JUDGE CASADO: Isn’t that man, too, afraid?
VICTORIA: But he has not yet played the traitor.
JUDGE CASADO: He will. Fear always leads to betrayal, and everyone feels fear because nobody is pure.
VICTORIA: Father, I belong to this man; you have given your consent to it. You cannot rob me of him today after having given him to me yesterday.
JUDGE CASADO: I never consented to your marriage. I consented to your leaving us.
VICTORIA: Yes, I always knew you didn’t love me.
JUDGE CASADO [looking intently at her]: All women disgust me. [Loud knocks at the door.] What is it?
A GUARD [outside]: This house is put in quarantine, as harboring a suspect, and all its occupants are under close surveillance.
DIEGO [laughing loudly]: And the law’s infallible, as you pointed out just now. Only, as this one is a trifle new, you weren’t quite at home in it. Well, now you know, and so here we are, all in the same boat—judge, accused, and witnesses. Brothers all! [The JUDGE’S WIFE enters, with her little son and younger daughter.]
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: They’ve boarded up the door.
VICTORIA: Yes, we’re in quarantine.
JUDGE CASADO: That’s his fault. Anyhow I shall report him to the authorities. Then they will open the house.
VICTORIA: Father, you can’t do that. Your honor forbids you.
JUDGE CASADO: Honor is practiced between men, and there are no men left in this city.
[Whistles outside, and sounds of running feet nearing the house. DIEGO listens, gazes frantically around him, then suddenly picks up the little boy.]
DIEGO: Look, servant of the law! If you stir a finger or utter a sound I shall press your son’s lips to the plague mark.
VICTORIA: Diego, that’s cowardly.
DIEGO: Nothing is cowardly in this city of cowards.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE [rushing toward her husband]: Promise, Casado! Promise this madman that you’ll do what he wants.
THE JUDGE’S DAUGHTER: No, father, don’t do anything of the sort. It’s no concern of ours.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: Don’t listen to her. You know quite well she hates her brother.
JUDGE CASADO: She is right; it’s no concern of ours.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: And you, too, hate my son.
JUDGE CASADO: Your son, as you rightly say.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: Oh, how vile of you to rake up something that was forgiven years ago!
JUDGE CASADO: I did not forgive. I complied with the law and in the eyes of the law that boy is my son.
VICTORIA: Is this true, mother?
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: So you, too, despise me?
VICTORIA: No, only it’s as if the bottom had dropped out of the world I knew, and everything were falling in ruins. My mind is reeling.
[The JUDGE takes a step toward the door.]
DIEGO: The mind may reel, but the law keeps us on our feet—isn’t that so, Judge? As we all are brothers [holding the little boy in front of him], I’m going to give you a nice brotherly kiss, my little man!
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: Oh, please, Diego, don’t act hastily! Don’t behave like one whose heart has turned to stone! Only wait, and it will soften. Wait, I beg you! [Runs to the door and bars the way to the JUDGE.] You’ll do as Diego wishes, won’t you?
THE JUDGE’S DAUGHTER: Why should my father truckle to Diego? What interest has he in this bastard, this interloper in our family?
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: Keep silent! It is your envy speaking, from the black pit of your heart. [To the JUDGE] But you at least—you whose life is drawing to a close—surely you have learned that nothing on this sad earth is enviable but tranquillity and sleep. And you will sleep badly in your solitary bed if you let this monstrous thing be done.
JUDGE CASADO: I have the law on my side. And the law will ensure my rest.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: I spit on your law! I have on my side the right of lovers not to be parted, the right of the criminal to be forgiven, the right of every penitent to recover his good name. Yes, I spit on your law and all its works! Had you the law on your side when you made those cowardly excuses to the captain who challenged you to a duel, after you’d made a false declaration so as to escape your military service? Was the law on your side when you asked that girl who was suing a dishonest employer to sleep with you?
JUDGE CASADO: Keep silent, woman!
VICTORIA: Yes, mother, please, please stop.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: No, Victoria, I must have my say. I have kept silence all these years—for the sake of my honor and for the love of God. But honor has left the world. And a single hair of that child’s head is dearer to me than heaven itself. I shall not hold my peace. And I will say to this man, my husband, that he has never had justice on his side; for justice—do you hear, Casado?—is on the side of the sufferers, the afflicted, those who live by hope alone. It is not and can never be with those who count their pennies and cling to their miserable hoard.
[DIEGO has put the child down.]
THE JUDGE’S DAUGHTER: The right you champion is the right to adultery.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE [her voice rising to a scream]: I have no wish to hide my sin. No, no, I’ll cry it on the housetops. But, abject as I am, this much I know: that, if the flesh has its lapses, the heart has its crimes. And what is done in the heat of passion should meet with pity.
THE JUDGE’S DAUGHTER: Pity for the bitches!
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: Why not? Bitches, too, have a belly for their pleasure and their parturition.
JUDGE CASADO: Woman, your arguments are worthless. I shall denounce the young man who has brought all this trouble upon us. And I shall do it with the greater satisfaction since I shall be not only carrying out the law, but also giving vent to my hatred.
VICTORIA: Ah, so at last the truth is out, more shame to you! Always you have judged in terms of hatred, though you masked it with the name of law. Thus even the best laws took on a bad taste in your mouth—the sour mouth of those who have never loved anything in their lives. Oh, I’m suffocating with disgust. Come, Diego, take me in your arms and let’s rot together. But let that man live; life is punishment enough for him.
DIEGO: Let me be! Oh, I’m sick with shame when I see what we have come to!
VICTORIA: I feel as you do. I could die of shame. [DIEGO makes a dash to the window and jumps out. The JUDGE runs also. VICTORIA slips out by a concealed door.]
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: The time has come when the buboes have got to burst, and we are not the only ones. The whole city is in the grip of the same fever.
JUDGE CASADO: You bitch!
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: You—judge!
[The light leaves the Judge’s house, then settles on the food office, where NADA and the ALCALDE are preparing to leave.]
NADA: Orders have been given to the district wardens to see to it that all the citizens under their charge vote for the new government.
FIRST ALCALDE: That won’t be too easy. Quite likely some will vote against it.
NADA: No, not if we use the right method.
FIRST ALCALDE: The right method?
NADA: The right method is to declare that the voting’s free. Which means that votes cast in favor of the government are freely given. As for the others, account must be taken of the pressure brought to bear on voters to prevent their voting of their own free will. Thus votes of this kind will be counted in accordance with the preferential method; that is to say, votes on the same ticket for candidates belonging to different parties will be assimilated to the quota of the uncast votes in the ratio of one third of the votes eliminated. Is that quite clear?
FIRST ALCALDE: Quite clear? Well.… Still I think I have an inkling of what you mean.
NADA: In that case I congratulate you, Alcalde. Anyhow, whether you understand or not, don’t forget that the practical effect of this admirable use of applied mathematics is to cancel out all votes unfavorable to the government.
FIRST ALCALDE: But didn’t you say the voting was free?
NADA: And so it is. Only we base our system on the principle that a vote against us isn’t a free vote. It’s a mere romantic gesture, conditioned by prejudice and passion.
FIRST ALCALDE: Well, well! I’d never have thought of that!
NADA: That’s because you’ve never really grasped what freedom means.
[Light on the center. DIEGO and VICTORIA enter, running, and halt in the front of the stage.]
DIEGO: Victoria, I’d like to run away from all this. I’ve lost my bearings and I no longer know where my duty lies.
VICTORIA: Do not leave me. A man’s duty is to stand by those he loves. We will see this through together.
DIEGO: But I’m too proud to love you if I can
