Part 108 (1/2)

”No, they want to be recognized by their friends. It's for modesty sake. A lady of quality cannot be seen at a play. Except by other ladies of quality.”

”Oh.” I did not understand, but it was just another mystery about women of which I was ignorant. ”And the men's clothing. Do the women of Seville always dress as men when they attend plays?”

”Of course not. The purpose of the disguise is to permit us to publicly comment on the play,” Felicity said.

Again, I did not understand how men's disguises gave Ana and Felicity the right to critique a play, but when they stepped from the carriage, carrying bags of tomatoes, I began to suspect there was more to these guises than met the eye. Particularly, when they told me to buy tickets for the patio.

”We are to stand in the pit?” I asked. ”With the mosqueteros.”

Ay, the gleam in their eyes told me that I was in the hands of Mateo-style maniacs. Except I was soon to discover that his dementia had nothing on these two women-in-men's clothing.

The play was regarded as second only to the tale of Don Quixote as a great masterpiece of Spanish literature. But it was also controversial.

”The Holy Office vacillates about La Celestina, and it is on and off the Inquisition's banned list,” Ana said. ”And when they do ban it, their edicts are ignored, troubling them to no end. The familiars would not dare take the autor or his cast into custody. The people would not permit it. Don Quixote incited us to laughter by mocking the hidalgos and the insane chivalry that dominated their writing, but La Celestina touched our souls. The people of Spain are made of blood and fire. They are greedy and generous, foolish and brilliant. They have G.o.d in their hearts and the devil in their thoughts. The devious s.l.u.t, Celestina, and the two lovers represent the best and the worst of us.”

Referred to generally as La Celestina, the Comedia de Calisto y Melibea was not a new play. It was first presented eons ago, in 1499, seven years after the discovery of the New World and over twenty years before the fall of the Aztec Empire. The tragedy of the two lovers was set forth in an astounding twenty-one acts.

Celestina was a bawd who served as a go-between for two young lovers, Calisto and Melibea. Calisto was from the minor n.o.bility; Melibea was of higher status and wealth, making them unsuitable marriage partners. But they came together as lovers and defied convention, not just by speaking words of love, but by physically consummating their pa.s.sions.

The true star of the comedia was Celestina, who was both evil and cunning. Her coa.r.s.e humor and ironic commentary fascinated audiences everywhere. But her cunning and greed ultimately betrayed her. Paid for her role as go-between, she refused to share her gold with her conspirators. After killing her, they were themselves murdered by an angry mob.

But nothing would free the lovers of their own fate. Their uncontrolled pa.s.sions were the instrument of their doom. Calisto was killed in a fall from a ladder to Melibea's window. Melibea-her lover dead, her honor ruined by her virginity's loss-throws herself from a tower window.

”Their attempt to defy destiny was doomed,” Ana explained in the carriage ride to the theater. ”Fate and custom foreordained their end-foreordains all our ends, demonstrating the futility of opposing the G.o.ds.”

”Who was the author?” I asked.

”A converso Jew, a lawyer. He first published anonymously because of fear of the Inquisition.”

As I watched it, I could well understand the author's fear. The language of the play was often coa.r.s.e. Celestina made bawdy comments about a young man's ”scorpion tail” pene, whose sting produces nine months of swelling. A character accuses Celestina and a girl who lives with her of having ”calluses” on their stomach from all of the men who visit. There are suggestions of female b.e.s.t.i.a.lity, though not in regard to the lovely and innocent Melibea.

Those pompous inquisitors from New Spain would throw fits were they to watch twenty-one acts of La Celestina, in which l.u.s.t, vice, superst.i.tion, and evil were main characters. As a sort of heavenly justice, I imagined myself tying them up, pinning their eyes open, and forcing them to watch the play repeatedly.

The tomatoes? You wonder what they did with the tomatoes? When we entered the pit it was filled with men who chattered endlessly. All of them appeared not only to have seen the play performed before, but some appeared to have come to this particular presentation on more than one occasion. These street merchants and common laborers discussed the actors, the way they delivered their lines, their mistakes and triumphs, as if they themselves were the play's autor. The play was conducted in the middle of the afternoon in order to utilize sunlight. Why were these louts going to a play in the middle of the day instead of working?

But I, too, soon got used to expecting good performances.

”It's what we paid our money for,” Ana said. ”When I first acted, my pay was the coins tossed on the stage during my performance. I went hungry until I learned how to play a character. Bolo!” she screamed at the actress playing Areusa and threw a tomato when she did not deliver a line to her liking.

Ana and Felicity were not the only ones who knew the exact lines from the play. Some of the favorite lines, usually those which were deshonesto, were spoken by the mosqueteros at the same time the actor uttered them.

I was quickly enthralled. Soon I was throwing tomatoes myself....

After the performance we rode back to Ana's large home. On the way I noticed Felicity looking at me more and more with a small smile and seductively bold eyes.

When we arrived back at her house, Ana instructed us, ”Come, we will use my pool to refresh ourselves.”

Her ”pool” was an ancient Roman bath. The city had many Roman ruins, and Ana's was not the only house built upon a bath or other edifice.