Man of La Mancha Read Online Free PDF

can tell you from experience that knights have their own language for everything, and it’s better not to ask questions because it only gets you into trouble. ( ALDONZA
makes a contemptuous gesture for him to continue
)
    “I beg thee grant that I may kiss the nethermost hem of thy garment—”
    ALDONZA    Kiss my
which?
    SANCHO    If you keep interrupting, the whole thing will be gone out of my head!
    ALDONZA    Well, what’s he
want?
    SANCHO    I’m getting to it!
    “—And send to me a token of thy fair esteem that I may carry as my standard into battle.”
    ALDONZA    What kind of a token?
    SANCHO    He says generally it’s a silken scarf.
    ALDONZA    Your master’s a crackbrain!
    SANCHO    Oh, no!
    ALDONZA (
Mimicking
) Oh, yes!
    SANCHO    Well, they say one madman makes a hundred and love makes a thousand.
    ALDONZA    What’s that mean?
    SANCHO    I’m not sure.
    ALDONZA    You’re crazy, too! (
A pause
) Well, what are you waiting for?
    SANCHO    (
Patiently
) The token.
    ALDONZA    I’ll give him a token. Here!
    (
She flings him the filthy, tattered dishcloth she has been using
)
    SANCHO    (
Examining it in dismay
) But my lady—
    ALDONZA    Don’t you “my lady” me too or I’ll crack you like an egg! ( SANCHO
retreats
) Wait a minute. Come here. Sit.
Sit!
(
She pats the stool and
SANCHO
sits, she beside him on the floor
) Tell me—why do you follow him?
    SANCHO    Well, that’s easy to explain, I … I …
    (
The reason seems to elude him
)
    ALDONZA    Why?
    SANCHO    I’m
telling
you. It’s because … because …
    ALDONZA    
Why?
    SANCHO (
Giving up; simply, he sings
)
    I like him.
    I really like him.
    Tear out my fingernails one by one, I like him!
    I don’t have
    A very good reason.
    Since I’ve been with him cuckoonuts have been in season—
    But there’s nothing I can do,
    Chop me up for onion stew,
    Still I’ll yell to the sky,
    Though I can’t tell you why,
    That I like him!
    ALDONZA    It doesn’t make any sense!
    SANCHO    That’s because you’re not a squire.
    ALDONZA    All right, you’re a squire. How does a squire squire?
    SANCHO    Well, I ride behind him … and he fights. Then I pick him up off the ground …
    ALDONZA    But what do
you
get out of it?
    SANCHO    What do
I
get? Plenty! Why, already I’ve gotten …
    ALDONZA    You’ve gotten nothing! So why do you
do
it?
    SANCHO    (
Sings
)
    I like him.
    I really like him.
    Pluck me naked as a scalded chicken, I like him!
    Don’t ask me
    For why or wherefore,
    ’Cause I don’t have a single good “Because” or “Therefore.”
    You can barbecue my nose,
    Make a giblet of my toes,
    Make me freeze, make me fry,
    Make me sigh, make me cry,
    Still I’ll yell to the sky
    Though I can’t tell you why,
    That I … like … him!
    (
He exits, in his own kind of dignity, leaving
ALDONZA
puzzled and less sure
.
    A cross-dim in the lighting, out on the kitchen; up the well stage left where
CERVANTES
is entering with the
MULETEERS ,
prompting them in the next song they are to sing. Night lighting; the mood lyric, sentimental. Satisfied that they are singing it properly,
CERVANTES
exits, and the
MULETEERS ,
lounging about the coping of the well, swell into full harmony to the guitarist’s accompaniment
)
    MULETEERS    (
During this
, ALDONZA
picks up a bucket and crosses the courtyard to the well. Lights will fade out in the kitchen. As
ALDONZA
approaches, the lines sung by the
MULETEERS
have focused upon her with mocking, though light-hearted double-entendre. She pushes ne or two of them out of the way in order to get to the well. They sing the last lines of the song to her legs
)
    Little bird, little bird,
    In the cinnamon tree,
    Little bird, little bird,
    Do you sing for me?
    Do you bring me word
    Of one I know?
    Little bird, little bird, I love her so,
    Little bird, little bird, I have to know,
    Little bird,