LA VILLANA DE LA SAGRA

VilSag

Escena:  Santiago, Toledo, y un pueblo de la Sagra.

REPARTO

I

Carrasco and Cachopo are playing cards outside a gambling house, while their masters are playing within.  As the servants quarrel, sounds of arguments come from inside, where Don Luis and Don Juan are fighting over a card game.  Luis has lost the game, but Juan is killed in the ensuing struggle.

That night Doña Inés, Luis's sister, is visited by Juan's brother, Diego, who wants to marry her.  She, however, spurns his attentions.  While they are talking, Fabricio brings the news of Juan's death at Luis's hands, and Diego swears to avenge his brother's murder.  Luis and Carrasco, meanwhile, disguise themselves as pilgrims and set out for Toledo, where Luis's uncle is a canon.

In Toledo Don Pedro has fallen in love with Angélica, a village girl who is in Toledo to adore the Virgin and to take part in a religious celebration.  Since Pedro is noble and she is the daughter of a farmer, Angélica refuses his advances, telling him that she cannot believe that his intentions toward her are honorable; therefore Linaro, Pedro's servant, tells Pedro that he will help him carry her off.

Knowing that Luis has gone to Toledo, Inés too, decides to go there.  Luis and Carrasco, on their way to Toledo, pass through la Sagra, where the villagers are celebrating the eve of San Roque's day with a fiesta.  Luis sees Angélica and falls in love with her.  At this point Don Pedro and Linardo come to take Angélica and falls in love with her.  At this point Don Pedro and Linardo come to take Angélica by force, but Luis protects her and she escapes.  She is grateful to Luis, of course, and very much attracted to him.  Her cousin Feliciano tries to give Luis a gold chain, but the latter refuses it.  Unfortunately, Luis must go on to Toledo, although it is against his wishes as well as Angélica's.  Luis tells Carrasco that they will go to Toledo to see his uncle and that he will then return to Angélica.  After their departure, Angélica and Feliciano wonder if it was actually San Roque who came to save her.

II

Dressed as a man, Inés is on her way to Toledo when she sees Luis and Carrasco.  She overhears their conversation, learning that their uncle is dead and his money left to the Church, and that Luis loves a village girl and plans to stay there to be near her.  Meanwhile Pedro and Linardo are still in the area.  Pedro has asked Fulgencio, Angélica's father, for her hand and has been granted permission to marry her.  When he and Linardo meet Inés, she (posing as a man) asks to become Pedro's page, to which Pedro agrees.  In this way Inés can be near Luis and see what is going on.  By now Angélica has been informed by her father of her forthcoming marriage to Pedro.  In spite of her refusal, Fulgencio insists that she must marry Pedro and gives her three days to make up her mind.  Her thoughts, however, are still of "San Roque".

Now Luis and Carrasco appear, disguised as villagers.  They talk to Angélica, Luis telling her of having met a pilgrim the previous night who spoke of saving her.  She promises to try to help them find jobs.  Inés (as a page) comes to talk to Angélica and goes unrecognized by her brother.  Luis gives Angélica a note from the pilgrim, which she pretends not to want.  Finally she takes it, saying that she will burn it.  When Carrasco chats with the page (Inés), he notices a remarkable resemblance between the "page" and Inés.  As Luis and Carrasco leave, Luis kisses Angélica's hand.  After their departure Inés informs Angélica that she is really Doña Juana, who has been wronged by Pedro and is trying to avenge her honor.  She asks Angélica to pretend that she is going to marry Pedro, but to postpone the wedding for a while.  In this way "Juana" will have a chance for revenge and Angélica can appease her father without having to marry Pedro.  Feliciano overhears part of this conversation, falls for Inés and follows her.  Angélica then reads her letter, which is from Luis, in which he professes his love for her and asks her to send him a message with Tomé, who in reality is Luis, posing as his own servant, and then to help Tomé find employment in the village.

Angélica informs her father of her decision to marry Pedro, but asks that the wedding be delayed.  Happy, Fulgencio goes off to tell Pedro, who also is overjoyed upon hearing the news.  Feliciano has followed Inés, meanwhile, and she has convinced him that she is really a man, a servant of Juana.  Then Inés (as the page) gives Pedro a glove she got from Angélica (by saying she wanted it for a poor person) and tells him that Angélica wants to talk to him that afternoon in the garden.  Luis (as Tomé) returns to Angélica, who has gotten him a job as a beekeeper.  Carrasco is to be employed as a wine steward.  Tomé tells Angélica that Luis is just like him, as Angélica admits to being in love with Luis without even knowing him.  Tomé also explains how Luis previously had to flee from Galicia because he had killed a man there.

III

At the beehive Angélica and Luis (Tomé) talk.  When he wants to kiss her hand again she complains that he is too friendly and that Luis should not trust him so much.  He arranges for Luis to meet her at eleven that night.  Pedro comes along then and tries to woo Angélica, but Luis (Tomé) keeps interjecting himself between them.  Finally Angélica leaves with "Tomé," while Pedro, irritated, expresses his displeasure at her being so nice to "Tomé."  Inés (as the page) now informs Pedro that he is to meet Angélica at twelve that night.  This bit of information is overheard by Feliciano, who plans to go meet her also.  Luis does meet Angélica at eleven at her window (where he has to stand on Carrasco's back to reach up to where she is) and she gives him her hand as his intended.  Feliciano arrives next, looking for Pedro.  He finds Inés, now dressed as a woman, and pretending to be Angélica, at the window.  Inés mistakes Feliciano for Pedro, whom she loves and hopes to marry by means of this ruse of pretending to be Angélica.  Pedro, however, recognizes Inés.  She gives him her hand as his betrothed, still believing that he is Pedro (although she does remark that his voice sounds a little different.)  Pedro himself soon arrives, and Luis and Carrasco return.  Feliciano then decides to test Pedro's valor by drawing him into a sword fight.

Having heard that Pedro's father plans to marry him off in Madrid, Fulgencio tells Angélica that she and Pedro must marry the next day.  Luis and Inés talk, partially overheard by Angélica.  Inés calls him by name and he recognizes her.  Angélica sees them embrace and hears them say they are to marry, and she naturally assumes that they plan to marry each other.  After Inés leaves Luis alone Angélica bursts forth and calls Luis a false, fickle, untrustworthy tyrant, much to his surprise and consternation.  After she departs he is stunned and crazed by her rejection and acts quite mad.  Angélica tells Pedro that they will marry right away.

Angélica, Fulgencio, Pedro, Inés, and Feliciano are gathered together when Inés reveals her true identity and says she is promised to Pedro.  Pedro reacts to this announcement with surprise and confusion.  At this moment a scribe brings the news that Pedro has been married by his father to a woman in Madrid and therefore cannot marry Inés, or anyone else.  Luis and Angélica ask Fulgencio's permission to marry and are granted it.  Feliciano explains that he is the person Inés is promised to, so they also are to marry.  Fulgencio appoints Carrasco to continue as the wine steward for life, a life better than a king's, according to Carrasco.