Life's a Dream (La Vida es Sueño): (La Vida es Sueño)

Cast of Characters

Pedro Calderón de la Barca 90 CHARACTERS ROSSAURA, Lady BUGLE, Rossaura’s servant VASILY, King of Poland SIGISMUND, Vasily’s son CLOTHOLD, elderly adviser to Vasily and Sigismund’s jailer AISTULF, Duke of Muscovy and cousin to Sigismund STELLA, Princess of Poland and cousin to Sigismund GUARDS SERVANTS and COURT ATTENDANTS MUSICIANS SOLDIERS SETTING Renaissance Poland Note: Underlined words are explained in the Glossary (pp. 155–159) and character names in the Translator’s Notes (pp. 56–60). The verse numbers following the scene headings refer to the Spanish original. HI Life’s a Dream, Act 1 91 Act 1 HI SCENE 1 (VV. 1–474). DESERTED MOUNTAINSIDE AT TWILIGHT, NEAR THE ENTRANCE TO SIGISMUND’S TOWER. Enter ROSSAURA at the top of the mountain, disguised as a man dressed for the road. As she makes her way down the mountain, she addresses the horse from which she has just been thrown. ROSSAURA. Monstrous hippogriff, peer of the wind, you’re as ill conceived as a bolt of lightning without flame, a bird without color, a fish without scales, or a beast without instinct! Where do you speed off to bucking, lurching, and bolting before the obscure labyrinth of those barren crags? Stay, then, on this mountainside and let the beasts have their Phaëthon; while I, a woman with no direction but that offered by the laws of destiny, shall descend in blindness and desperation the twisted face of this lofty cliff, whose scowling brow withers in the sun. Poorly, Poland, do you greet the foreigner, for you write his entrance to your sands in blood, and hardly is he come when he comes into hardship. My luck says it all, for where can an unlucky wretch turn for mercy? Enter BUGLE. BUGLE. Make that two unlucky wretches, and don’t pretend I’m asleep back at camp when you start lamenting. For if it was two of us who left our fatherland to seek adventures, and two of us who, amid misfortune and madness, ...