Beware of Still Water

(Guárdate del agua mansa)

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Comedia de capa y espada - wr.1649

This is the story of two sisters, Clara and Eugenia, the one serious and silent, the other worldly and talkative. Their widowed father Alonso wishes to marry one of them to the head of the family, a simple rustic member of the lower nobility.

The latter eventually decides on the flighty Eugenia, but she tries desperately to palm him off on Clara, who is the elder of the two. Meanwhile, Eugenia has been encouraging Don Juan and Don Pedro to rival each other for her hand. Their friend Don Félix mistakes Clara for Eugenia and gives her a letter asking that she choose between them in order to avoid disharmony. As an excuse for seeing Félix, Clara pretends to believe that the letter was addressed to Eugenia only as a cover that would allow Félix to approach her.

When Eugenia dismisses both Juan and Pedro, the latter learn of the exchange between "Eugenia" " and Félix, and they become jealous. Still pretending to be Eugenia, Clara appoints a rendezvous with Félix. Juan and Pedro break in, and a brawl ensues in which Alonso and the hidalgo join. Clara then explains her stratagem, and the plan ends with the marriage of Clara to Félix and of Eugenia to Juan. The character of the head of the family is close to the caricature types found in the comedias de figurón.