Complete darkness.
Lights come on in the church and in the Judge’s house, while a spotlight plays on the Governor’s palace. The action shifts from one place to another, beginning at the palace.]
AT THE PALACE
FIRST ALCALDE: Your Honor, the epidemic is developing so rapidly that we have no hope of fighting it. The contamination is far more widespread than people realize; but I venture to suggest it would be wiser to keep them in ignorance. In any case, it is the outlying districts that are most affected; these are congested areas and inhabited by the poorer classes. Tragic as is the present state of things, this is something to be thankful for.
[Murmurs of approval.]
AT THE CHURCH
THE PRIEST: Approach, and let each one confess in public the worst thing he has done. Open your hearts, you who are damned! Tell each other the evil you have done and thought of doing, or else the poison of sin will stifle you and will lead you into hell as surely as the tentacles of the plague.… I accuse myself, for my part, of having often lacked in charity.
AT THE PALACE
[Three pantomimed confessions occur during the following dialogue.]
THE GOVERNOR: All will be well. The annoying thing is that I was to go hunting. These things always happen when one has important business. What shall I do?
FIRST ALCALDE: Do not by any means miss the hunt—if only to set an example. The city must see what a serene brow you can show in adversity.
AT THE CHURCH
THE CONGREGATION: We have left undone those things which we ought to have done and done those things which we ought not to have done. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
IN THE JUDGE’S HOUSE
THE JUDGE [surrounded by his family, reading from the Psalms]: “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.”
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: Casado, cannot we go out?
THE JUDGE: No, woman. You have gone out far too much in your life. And that has not brought us happiness.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: Victoria has not come home, and I can’t help fearing that some evil thing has happened to her.
THE JUDGE: You showed no fear of evil where you yourself were concerned. And thus you betrayed your honor. No, you must stay here; this house will be an oasis of calm while the storm rages all around. We shall remain behind locked doors so long as the plague lasts, and if God is willing, we shall escape the worst.
THE JUDGE’S WIFE: You are right, Casado. But we are not alone in the world, others are out in the storm. Victoria may be in danger.
THE JUDGE: Let them be, and think of the household. Of your son, for instance. Get in all the stores you can lay hands on, and never mind the price. The time has come for hoarding. Make your hoard! [Continues reading] “He is my refuge and my fortress …”
AT THE CHURCH
THE CHOIR [intoning]: “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”
A VOICE: O great and terrible God!
[The market place is illuminated. People are moving, swaying, to the rhythm of a copla.]
THE CHOIR:
Thou hast signed in the sand,
Thou hast written in the sea:
Nothing endures but misery.
[Enter VICTORIA. A spotlight plays on the scene that follows.]
VICTORIA: Diego! Where’s Diego?
A WOMAN: Busy with the sick. He’s doctoring all who ask his aid.
[Moving across the stage, VICTORIA runs into DIEGO, who is wearing the plague-doctors’ mask. She swerves aside with a little cry of fear.]
DIEGO: Do I scare you so much Victoria?
VICTORIA [joyfully]: Oh, it’s you Diego! At last I’ve found you! Take off that ugly mask and clasp me in your arms. Hold me tightly, as tightly as you can, and then I shall feel safe from everything. [He does not move.] What is it, darling? Has something changed between us? For hours and hours I’ve been hunting for you everywhere; I was so horribly afraid you might have caught it. And now I’ve found you, you are wearing that mask, that ghastly reminder of the disease. Do please take it off and hold me in your arms. [He takes off the mask.] When I see your hands, my mouth is parched—kiss me! [He does not move. She continues in a lower voice.] Oh, kiss me, Diego; I’m dying of thirst. Have you forgotten that only yesterday we pledged our vows? All night I lay awake, waiting for this day to come, the day when you were going to kiss me with all your might. Please, Diego …
DIEGO: I am torn with pity for these poor people, Victoria.
VICTORIA: So am I. But I have pity for us, too. That’s why I’ve been searching for you, calling out your name in all the streets, and stretching my arms out, longing for your embrace. [Moves closer to him.]
DIEGO: No, don’t touch me!
VICTORIA: Why not?
DIEGO: I feel like another man, a stranger to myself. Never have I been afraid of any human being—but what’s happening now is too big for me. Even honor is no help; I’m losing grip of everything I clung to. [She comes toward him again.] No, please keep away. For all I know I have the infection already and might pass it on to you. Wait a little, give me time to get my breath; all this horror is stifling me. Why, I’ve even lost the knack of laying hold of men so as to turn them over on their beds. My hands shake too much and I’m half blinded by my pity. [Groans and cries in the distance.] You hear? They’re calling for me. I must go to help them.… All I ask, Victoria, is that you take great care of yourself—for the sake of both of us. We shall see it through, I’m certain.
VICTORIA: Do not leave me.
DIEGO: All this will end, like a bad dream. It must! I am too young, and I love you too much. I loathe the very thought of death.
VICTORIA [with a quick, impulsive movement toward him]: But I, Diego—I am living.
DIEGO [shrinking from her]: How shameful, Victoria! The disgrace of it!
VICTORIA: What do you mean? What’s there to be ashamed of?
DIEGO: I believe that I’m afraid.
[Again a sound of groans. He hurries away in their direction. The townsfolk are seen again, moving to the rhythm of a copla.]
CHORUS:
Who is wrong and who is right?
Truth is but surmise.
Death and death alone is sure,
All the rest is lies!
[Spotlights on the church and the Governor’s palace. Psalms and prayers in the church. From the Palace the FIRST ALCALDE harangues the populace.]
FIRST ALCALDE: These are the Governor’s orders. As a sign of penitence regarding the calamity that has befallen us and for the prevention of contagion, all public gatherings and entertainments are forbidden from now on. Also …
[A WOMAN in the crowd starts screaming.]
THE WOMAN: There! Look there! Those people are hiding a corpse. It shouldn’t be allowed. We’ll all catch the infection. Why don’t they go and bury it?
[General confusion. Two men step forward and lead away the WOMAN.]
THE ALCALDE: I am instructed also to let you know that the Governor has taken the best medical advice and is now in a position to reassure our townsfolk as to the probable course of this epidemic that has broken out so unexpectedly. The doctors agree that all that is needed is for a sea wind to rise, and it will sweep away the plague. So, with God’s help …
[Two tremendous thuds cut him short, followed a moment later by two more; meanwhile the death knell tolls incessantly and a sound of prayers issues from the church. Then all sounds cease abruptly, and in a startled hush, all eyes turn toward two approaching figures, strangers to the town, a man and a woman. The MAN is fat, bare-headed, and wears a sort of uniform on which hangs a medal. The WOMAN, too, is in uniform, with white cuffs and collar. She is carrying a notebook. They walk forward to the palace and salute the GOVERNOR.]
GOVERNOR: What do you want of me, strangers?
THE MAN [in a courteous tone]: Your post.
VOICES: What’s that? What did he say?
GOVERNOR: This pleasantry is ill-timed, my man, and your impertinence may cost you dear.… But probably we misunderstood your words. Who are you?
THE MAN: Ah, that you’d never guess!
FIRST ALCALDE: I don’t know who you are, stranger, but I do know where you will end up.
THE MAN [quite calmly]: You fill me with alarm.… [Turns to his companion.] What do you think, my dear? Must we really tell them who I am?
THE SECRETARY: Well, as a rule we break it to them more gradually, of course.
THE MAN: Still these gentlemen seem in a great hurry to know.
THE SECRETARY: No doubt they have their
