Fuenteovejuna

In the town square, Esteban and Alonso discuss the best way to counteract the poor weather and crop yield. Both would prefer a cautious approach. Esteban digresses to rant about “Astrologers: who, though they know less than nothing, / Claim, in long and incoherent dissertations, / To have access to secrets known only to God!” (41).

Just then Barrildo and Leonelo, a university student, enter. While Barrildo associates education with money, Leonelo’s outlook is more cynical, believing that the printed word has “shrunk the sea / Of human knowledge” (43); he believes it can be a force for good, but also that much of what ends up in print is “hot air” and “rubbish” (43), and that “Hundreds of years have passed happily without it!” (44).

The Commander, Flores, and Ortuño enter the square and ask everyone to sit. The Commander wishes primarily to speak to Esteban, as he wants him to convince Laurencia to give herself up to him, not hiding the fact that his only desire is sex. Esteban tells him that he is wrong “to speak / Of such matters with such licence!” (46), while Alonso tells him that his “behavior is unreasonable, / What [he has] said here is unjust.