Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Third series (IA playstranslatedf03benauoft).pdf/72

 cruel robbers, like the ogres; I have found a Princess, like the princesses of the fairy-tales. Upon this good old woman, who has saved me by her pity and undeceived me by her experience, I beg you to bestow rich guerdons and rewards, for she was my good fairy. Upon those ferocious villains, who, like the ogres, oppress the poor and carry misery and suffering everywhere in their train, hardened by their selfishness and enslaved by their greed, I invoke your justice. Upon my dear Princess, who, if she is not the youngest of the daughters of a king, as in the stories, is at least she who has merited my love and won my heart, I implore the blessing of a father's love. You see now that my journey was not so unfortunate; it could not disillusion me of my ideals. I have learned that we all have a good, protecting fairy at our sides, and that if we listen to her always, we can make happy those who surround us and we can be happy also ourselves. I have learned that it is necessary to dream beautiful things in order to do beautiful things. Glory to the fairy-tales! I shall never speak ill of one of them! Happy are they who know how to make out of life one beautiful tale!

. My dear children, the applause of your little hands is the greatest glory for a poet, for you are the future. May the days of your lives, which are the future of our beloved country, be all as a fairy-tale, in which the good may always triumph over everything that is evil. And may you all be happy like the Blue Prince in this story, my dear children.

Curtain