TODO ES DAR EN UNA COSA

TodoEs

REPARTO

I

Doña Margarita and Doña Beatriz are the daughters of Don Francisco Cabezas.  Margarita loves Don Alvaro Durán; Beatriz loves Gonzalo Pizarro.  Each of the young women has received a note from her lover.  Overhearing Beatriz reading her letter aloud, Margarita takes it from her on the pretext of protecting her younger sister.  Beatriz, in turn, seizes Margarita's note, thinking it is hers.  They agree to be friends in their love affairs and to help each other, although neither knows the name of the other's beloved.  Margarita reads Beatriz's note, which speaks of "possession." After Beatriz leaves, Alvaro sees Margarita reading her sister's letter and thinks that it is hers and that she has another love.  Angry, he vows to find his rival.  In the meantime, Gonzalo has paid a visit to Don Francisco and is looking for Beatriz when Alvaro meets him and, assuming that he is Margarita's lover, challenges him with his sword.  Alvaro is wounded in the ensuing fight.

Francisco and his daughters take the wounded Alvaro to their country estate.  Francisco believes that Alvaro has dishonored Margarita because he sees in her eyes her love for him and because of the suspicious circumstances of the wound.  Not recognizing her father at first, Beatriz, veiled, comes to him to ask for help.  Even after she realizes that she is talking to her father, she must continue, telling him to look in a hole in the oldest oak tree by the stream, where he will find a stolen item that he is to keep until it is reclaimed.  He does not recognize Beatriz, assuming her to be a local young woman from Zarza.  Following her instructions, Francisco finds a newborn baby in the tree that she described.  He entrusts the infant to Carrizo, whose wife has just given birth to a baby who died, so that she can nurse it.

Don Rodrigo, Alvaro's father, having heard about his son's wound, and guessing about Francisco's suspicions regarding the relationship between Alvaro and Margarita, calls on Francisco to assure him that Alvaro truly loves Margarita and has not dishonored her.  Indeed, he wants to marry her.  Relieved, Francisco gives his consent to the marriage, and decides to give the baby to Beatriz to care for.  Beatriz confides to Margarita that it is really her baby.

II

Twelve years have passed.  Beatriz planned to wait fourteen years for her lover to return, but her father and others urge her to marry Don Martín who has been waiting all these years.  Although she does not want to marry him or to leave her son, Francisquito, she finally agrees.  Margarita promises to look out for Francisquito, to be both mother and aunt to him.  At this point Gonzalo returns.  After wounding Alvaro he went to fight in Italy, jealous in the belief that Alvaro was Beatriz's lover.  He has finally learned the truth, however, and has returned to find that Beatriz has married another.  Beatriz tells him that it is too late for them, but she sends Francisquito to talk to Gonzalo.  Because of remarks made by Beatriz upon sending him to Gonzalo and by Gonzalo during their conversation, Francisquito begins to suspect that Gonzalo is his father.

Francisquito, who is mischievous and a poor student, is reprimanded by Francisco.  Later, the schoolmaster threatens to whip Francisquito, refers to his unknown parentage, and starts to call him a bastard, when Francisquito takes out a dagger and stabs him and escapes to Zarza.  Furious and threatening to kill him, Francisco goes to look for Francisquito before Beatriz can explain to him that he is her son.  Elsewhere, Gonzalo still trying to find out more about his son, meets his friend, Hernando Cortés.  After they part, Cortés encounters Francisquito, who is being pursued by some shepherds who are angry because of his attack on the schoolmaster.  Francisquito shows himself to be very brave, but Cortés rebukes him for having stabbed his teacher.  Cortés and Francisquito struggle over a ball for ninepins and it splits, leaving each with half a ball.  Cortés, who respects Francisquito for his bravery, leaves to continue his journey, following Fernando and Isabel to Portugal, but tells Francisquito that they will meet again and become good friends.

Beatriz appears and tells Francisquito that he is her son and that Gonzalo is his father.  Now he is on his own; he must make his own name.  The half of the ball that he has represents half of the world to him, and he is determined to see the other half and earn fame, success and a name for himself, since he has no name or parents who claim him.

III

Francisquito is now fifteen and an officer in Isabel's army.  A paymaster and a captain are talking of the peace recently established with Portugal and of how they now want to concentrate on defeating the Moors.  The paymaster also wants to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of Gonzalo.  He learns that Gonzalo is in Trujillo, and plans with the captain to ambush him, summoning him by means of a note.  Gonzalo, meanwhile, is to marry Beatriz de Mendoza.

Quirós, a soldier, comes to Zarza and demands that Carrizo and Pulida give him quarters.  He tries to force himself on Pulida, but she resists and he calls upon two other soldiers to help him.  Francisquito arrives just in time to protect Pulida and Carrizo, and condemns Quirós and the two soldiers to be punished -- Quirós by being hanged but not killed, and the soldiers by being whipped.

The paymaster, the captain, and Robledo are ready to ambush Gonzalo when Francisquito comes along.  Francisquito claims to be Gonzalo, and the captain tries to shoot him, but the gun does not fire.  Gonzalo and Francisquito join forces and kill the paymaster and the captain and drive Robledo away.  Francisquito identifies himself to Gonzalo and says that he is angry because his father is marrying someone other that his mother.  Gonzalo explains that Beatriz refused him, saying that he was too late.  Francisquito says that Gonzalo will have other sons now, and that he (Francisquito) is going to make new discoveries to follow what Columbus will do in the New World.

Francisquito and Gonzalo are forced to flee when they hear others in pursuit of them for having killed the paymaster.  Meanwhile, Pulida explains to the Queen about Quirós and how Francisquito saved her.  The Queen agrees that the young Pizarro did the right thing and that the men deserved chastisement.  Robledo now reports to the Queen that Gonzalo treacherously killed the paymaster and that Francisquito likewise killed the captain.  The Queen decrees that they must be punished; however, when Gonzalo and his son arrive and Francisquito explains the whole situation, the Queen forgives them.  They are to accompany her to Granada to help Fernando expel the Moors.  Francisquito promises the Queen riches from the New World and affirms that Cortés will fulfill the great predictions that the heavens have made for him.