The Affront Is Also Poison

In The Affront Is Also Poison (También la afrenta es veneno) Luis Vélez tells once again the story of Inés de Castro, natural daughter of Pedro Fernández de Castro and Aldonza Soares de Valladares; with a certain kinship with the Castilian royal family.
When her mother died as a child, Inés was taken to Valladolid, to the castle of Peñafiel. There he grew up in the company of Constanza Manuel, the daughter of the infante don Juan Manuel. In 1341, Constanza married Pedro I of Portugal, known as the Justiciero, and soon after he became the lover of Inés de Castro.
The relationship endangered the crown of Alfonso IV as the sons and brothers of Inés had ambitions of power. Thus, with the approval of the court, Alfonso ordered that Inés be executed.
After the assassination, Pedro led an uprising that plunged Portugal into a long civil war that only ended shortly before he obtained the crown, after the death of Alfonso IV in 1357. Then Peter made their marriage public and Agnes was unearthed and received the royal crown, in 1360 amid general veneration.
The theme of También la afrenta es veneno appears in Reinar después de morir, also by Vélez de Guevara, among other works of the time.

Day one

The Musicians come out singing.

Musicians: To the festivities in the valley
as winter bids farewell
with the coming of April
so desired on the ground,
the unleashed streams
of the prison they had,
descend to be of the birds
musicians, of the Sun mirrors.
Giant green mountains,
already like superb cliffs,
with the summer finery
the stars fall in love.
To the laughter of the fountains
and to the applause of the echoes,
encourage stars in the meadows,
flattering courtiers.

(The King, in full dress, the Master, Don Claudio, Vasco and the Prior come out).

King: They have not opened a window.

Prior: Habranla in the open soul,
more scandalous,
lord, the owner will condemn
the one on the balconies.

King: Oh,
Prior of Ochratus, which I fear
which is the same in the soul,
that has a bronze chest!

Prior: Nothing can resist
a King, and King indeed
of Portugal; your highness
distrusts as sane
and loves as Portuguese,
that fear is a shadow of love.

King: Don Claudio of Portugal,
I love a rock of steel,
a diamond reef,
I idolize an asp; then
a mountain conquered,
an impossible desire,
and a basilisk in the soul
is my room guest;
I do not force her to be a lover,
I can’t beat her,
for vassal does not admit me
with wedding fumes
unequal to who I am;
although it is so noble, I leave it,
and we were both puzzled,
me for more and her for less.
Oh bad there are pundonores
of vassals and kingdoms,
if love equalized the souls
and it is more sovereign empire!

Fragment of the work