- Camilla: At the end of the second act, when Colombine goes, driven away by her masters, there is a tradition you seem not to know. The comedians bow to her.
- Camilla: I must understand. I'm absolutely sincere in life and on the stage. Then why do I succeed on the stage and destroy everything in my life? Where is truth? Where does the theater end and life begin?
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: What do you want Martinez?
- Martinez: Your Highness, the coach is just crossing the palace square.
- Marquise Irene Altamirano: The coach?
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: My new coach.
- Martinez: The Saint Anna docked early this morning. The coach has been carefully loaded onto an ox cart, and remains only to have the horses harnessed, the wheels mounted...
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: And the bill paid.
- Marquise Irene Altamirano: Your Highness should come and look.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: Oh, is it really as splendid as all that, this coach?
- Marquise Irene Altamirano: Beautiful! Exquisite! Breathtaking! It glitters so I can hardly look at it.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: That's what I enjoyed about these Italians. I couldn't understand a word they say, so, I just presume the dialog was excellent.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: Mademoiselle, what is your name?
- Camilla: Colombine on the stage, Your Highness. In life, Camilla.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: Thank you. It's a rare occasion when I'm able to laugh like this.
- Camilla: Why? You should all be so happy - you're laden with gold.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: That's it. That's the point. We're here only for this treacherous gold. No one dreams of anything else. And where gold commands, laughter vanishes. If you had a gold mine here, you too would stop laughing.
- Camilla: No, no. Never!
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: If you did find one, what would you do?
- Camilla: Buy a beautiful golden coach - just as you did.
- Le Procureur: I am certain that tomorrow, His Excellency, our Bishop, will be informed of this orgy. Entertaining actresses!
- Camilla: [from the stage] Money. Always money. There must be more to life. Grieving in my heart, love struggles to awake.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: We highly civilized people, so called, no longer have the energy to feel such a simple emotion, I'm afraid. An ordinary man becomes sentimental when his sweetheart betrays him. He beats her. Cries. Tears his hair out. Does a bit of knifing. All this is so noisy and untidy. Far too tiring.
- Camilla: Can they be learned?
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: What?
- Camilla: All those nice little tricks. Your ease. The way you dismiss everything feel is so important.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: The weaker sex have that extraordinary talent of completely adapting themselves. Give her a good manicure and, perhaps, a dancing master that knows his business, and, of course, a lover of suitable rank, with these, and a gifted woman, one can create the most arrogant of duchesses.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: Never forget, my dear, that every woman is an Empress. Any man, no matter how high is rank is, is always her servant.
- Felipe: I was a prisoner of the Indians for many months. At first, it was miserable. Then, I began to learn their language and to understand their way of life. Now, I know them. They're not savages. They helped me discover a truth and kindness and beauty.
- Camilla: Tell me.
- Felipe: They're much better than we are. That's what I've discovered.
- Felipe: I'm going back to the Indians, Camilla. I'm going to leave this civilization that's making use brutal and dishonest. And start a new life. Close to nature. Among rivers and forests. A new life.
- Ferdinand, Le Viceroy: Now, I can love you like an ordinary man.
- Camilla: You love me like a man. Can I love - like a real woman?
- Don Antonio: Camilla! Camilla, on stage!... Don't waste your time in the so-called real life. You belong to us - the actors, acrobats, mimes, clowns, mountebanks! Your only way to find happiness is on any stage, any platform, any public place, during those two little hours when you become another person - your true self.
- [last lines]
- Camilla: Felipe, Ramon, the Viceroy... disappeared, gone... Don't they exist anymore?
- Don Antonio: Disappeared - now they are a part of the audience. Do you miss them?
- Camilla: ...A little.