Queen Christina1933

Don Antonio:
[mistaking her for a man] Have you ever traveled? Have you ever been far from home? Have you ever been homesick?

Christina:
I've never been out of Sweden.

Don Antonio:
Then you don't know what it is to be homesick. You don't know what it means to feel that sense of loss, the pain of nostalgia.

Christina:
One can feel nostalgia for places one has never seen.

Don Antonio:
Yes, that's quite true. Young man, that's the second time I've underestimated you...Imagine in this ice-cap finding someone who knows Spain. You understand I admire your country. It's rugged and strong and impressive. It has all the virile qualities...At home, our people are less hearty. They're a bit more graceful. It's all a question of climate. You can't serenade a woman in a snowstorm. All the graces and the arts of love - the elaborate approaches that go to make the game of love amusing - can only be practiced in those countries that quiver in the heat of the sun, in the still languorous nights where every breeze caresses with amour. Love, as we understand it, is a technique that must be developed in hot countries.

Christina:
Sounds glamorous and yet...somewhat mechanical. Evidently, you Spaniards make too much fuss about a simple, elemental thing like love. We Swedes are more direct.

Don Antonio:
Well, that's civilization. To disguise the elemental with the glamorous. A great love has to be nourished, has to be...

Christina:
[sighing] A great love...

Don Antonio:
Don't you believe in its possibility?

Christina:
In its possibility, yes, but not in its existence. A great love, a perfect love is an illusion. It is the golden fable of which we all dream. In an ordinary life, it doesn't happen. In ordinary life, one must be content with less.

Don Antonio:
So young, and yet so disillusioned. Young man, you're cynical.

Christina:
Not at all, merely realistic.