“What proof is there? None. It’s a tangled tale we’ve heard, pure fable, dream, imagination, delirium, danger, for that devil’s-spawn pilgrim is in league with the other two, his twins, and one of them has planted his ass in La Señora’s bedchamber, and the third one is plotting with that crowd of rebels in the work sheds.” “Be calm, Don Guzmán, drink up. Thank you for bringing me to these cool and shady mews, and thank you, especially, for notifying me of my elevation to the rank of Comendador. It is a pleasure for me to celebrate it here with you in this place where men’s work is done rather than in some site of leisure and luxury, for this place is more fitting to our purposes, that men rise in the world by virtue of their merit — never forgetting our humble origins and hard times, isn’t that right, Chief Huntsman?” “But I, Guzmán, I was born high.” “That’s worse, much worse. If you’ve come down in the world, it’s with even greater energy you must strive to ascend.”
“There’s a new world on the other side of the sea”
nonononono, Spain is Spain, not an inch of land exists outside of Spain, it’s all here, all here contained within my palace, oh, help me, my Lord, God, and True Man, see me once again prostrate before your altar of mysteries, hear me this time, answer me this time, assure me that everything that exists in the material and the spiritual world is already contained here within my palace, my reason for living, the duplication of everything that exists enclosed here with me forever, I, the last I, with no descendants, here in this reduced space with everything within reach of my hand, everything, everything, not in a limitless, inaccessible, and multiple expanse, the world is trickling through my fingers, the brief life, eternal glory, unchanging world, here there is no room for even one additional idea, one terror, one joy, one challenge, everything is here, everything is enclosed within the walls of my mausoleum, luxury is here, mourning, the war of the soul, and here is art, Brother Julián, science, Brother Toribio, power, Guzmán, honor, my mother, perversion, game, and pleasure, my Señora, love, Inés, and your own plan of eternal well-being and human redemption, Christ Saviour, here, solid, fixed, contained, comprehensible, distilled in their final essences, here good, evil, and the final judgment of everything that exists, do I not thus, for my own reasons, advance your work? does not everything here advance your work? until the very end, until with the consummation of all things we too are consumed and my scheme complete, we shall be the only ones, the last ones, we shall have had all, and the final act will take place on this stage so that everything finally is resolved, comprehended, so ambition and war, lust, doubt, offense, and crime disappear, so it be known here, once and for all, which will be condemned and which saved, which is the face of man and which the divine face, one life, my God, one entire life dedicated to lessening the haste, fatigue, and madness of men, enclosing them all here, giving them every opportunity until there are no opportunities left, and thus hastening the last event of the world, your sovereign judgment, the clarification of all mysteries, the certainty that we have achieved your kingdom in Heaven, forever, for the earth shall have ceased to exist, and never again will there be played out upon it the mockery and tragedy of man, there will be only Heaven and Hell, without the accursed intermediary step of life on earth, and this will be so because no one can offer a gift surpassing that of the end of everything, the offering we make of everything that exists, exists for the last time, in order that it all end here with me, with us, and not in the broad and terrifying chance of a new world where everything can begin all over again … nononono …
“Anew world exists”
“Why not, Brother Julián? If all the bodies in the heavens are spheres, the earth will be no exception, and it is possible that it traces a circle from East to West, from the setting to the rising sun, always returning to the original point of departure.” “I understand you, Brother Toribio, it is other things that frighten me, not that.” “What things?” “If the new world described by that youth and the new universe you describe are real, then they are immense, and fatally diminish the stature of man and of the God who created him.” “God does not need to be rewarded, or excused, or aggrandized, Julián, for if there is a God, He is All.” “But man, Toribio, man…” “Now it is up to us to glorify man and instill pride in him through the art and philosophy and science of man; the new matter and space will not diminish us, Brother, they will not conquer us.” “The soul, Toribio…” “Pride, Julián, do not fear human pride.” “Our soul is escaping from us, dribbling away, hurry, we must stanch the flow…”
“Beyond the ocean”
“I’m losing control of things, chance is unraveling all my projects, how was I to foresee what that sailor was going to tell us? what effect will it have upon the soul of El Señor? proof, proof, I need proof…” “A feather mask?” “Bah, this youth has spoken of fabulous riches, of chambers lined with gold and silver, of rich ornaments, but I have yet to see with my own eyes the tiniest pip of gold, the darkest and most misshapen pearl, nothing, he has brought nothing with him, not the least proof, nothing but a small mirror, a pair of scissors, and a mask such as any Eastern artisan might fabricate … Nothing! I do not believe…”
“Exists”
“Gold palaces, jade temples, bronze earrings, you say, Lolilla?” “Yes, my mistress, and beaches where pearls grow, and everything the lowest scrubbing girls like ourselves or the most exalted Ladies like Your Highness could dream of.” “Oh, Lolilla, Azucena, this afternoon I dreamed how pleasure always comes to me from afar; everything that is pleasurable has come to us from the East, there was nothing here before; what pleasures these new lands must hold! You say a blond youth with a cross upon his back and six toes on each foot has been there? Oh, my splendid scrubbing maids, there are three different — although identical — men; oh, Don Juan, oh, my very own, I know where to seek you, you are not unique, I told you, you can never escape from me, I shall always find you again, oh, my true master, Mus, this is how you reward me, by revealing to me the new land and its pleasures, the new world from whence came my lover, my lovers, and the ardent cinnamon and juicy orange and soft damask, oh, my tiny man, my mandrake, this is how you manifest yourself, thus you first reveal to me the place of treasures, you are faithful to your legend, look at him, Azucena, Lolilla, look what was buried in my sand.” “Ay, a snake!” “No, its antidote: the mandrake.” “Ay, the sticky turnip, the slobbery root!” “No, the tiny man of secrets; see how the face is coming to life; the cherries are becoming eyes; the bread, hair; the radish, a mouth; he appeared, and I received the news of the new land and its treasures; everything is in accord; the walls of my prison are crumbling; the road to the Indies, the return to the Orient, is opening, oh, what a dream, oh, what mad joy, oh, let my feet touch those distant shores where all men are like you, Juan, for if the three of you are identical, then all the men of the new world must be the same, and my pleasure will know no end…”