Celia dies

Celia dies after realizing that Valerio’s appeals on behalf of Don Félix were sincere and that the man she loved did not return her feelings. The episode, recounted by Felismena, brings her divided loyalties to a breaking point: she has tried to aid Don Félix by pleading with Celia, even while her own attachment to him makes the task painful. Celia’s sudden death is followed by Don Félix’s disappearance, leaving Felismena to continue her search without either of them.

Background and Conflicting Loyalties

At court, Felismena served as an intermediary between Don Félix and Celia, carrying messages and asking Celia to favor her master. She was caught between two dangers. If she failed to appear to love Celia, she feared Celia might return to Don Félix; if she pretended to be wholly devoted to Celia, she feared Celia would reject Don Félix so thoroughly that grief might cost him his life. Felismena says she would have given a hundred thousand of her own lives, had she possessed them, to prevent either outcome.

The service exacted a private cost. Felismena describes shedding many tears before Celia as she begged her not to mistreat the man who loved her. She also admits that she sometimes invented messages rather than let Celia see Don Félix’s suffering. Her efforts did not mend the lovers’ relationship: as Celia’s attachment to Valerio deepened, the prospects of Don Félix and Celia grew worse. The intermediary’s kindness thus became part of the misunderstanding that would destroy her position with Celia.

The Confrontation

After carrying messages back and forth for many days, Felismena again pleaded with Celia to show compassion for Don Félix, whose distress seemed to her close to death. Celia answered in tears and with sighs. She had believed that Valerio asked favors for his master chiefly to prolong his own visits and enjoy her company; now she understood that he had been asking in earnest for Don Félix. She took that realization as proof that Valerio did not love her, and accused him of repaying her affection with ingratitude.

Celia then severed contact with both men. She told Felismena to tell Don Félix that she would not see him if he wanted her alive, and ordered Valerio not to appear before her again. When Felismena tried to follow and explain, Celia shut herself in a room and refused to open the door. From within, she repeated that she would neither see nor speak to Valerio, declared that no explanation could repair what she regarded as his lack of love, and threatened to take her own life. Felismena’s pleas and attempts at justification did not reach her.

Death and Immediate Aftermath

Felismena went back to Don Félix with the false explanation that she had been unable to speak with Celia because Celia was occupied with a visitor. The next morning, they learned that Celia had suffered a fainting spell during the night and died. News of her death spread through the city and caused alarm throughout the court. The account identifies the immediate circumstance as a fainting spell; it does not establish that Celia carried out the threat she had made behind the closed door.

Don Félix’s grief was beyond Felismena’s ability to describe. His lamentation, tears, and sighs were innumerable, and Celia’s death wounded Felismena as well. That very night, after learning of the death, Don Félix disappeared from his home. Neither his servants nor anyone else knew where he had gone. The loss therefore leaves Felismena with a double calamity: Celia is dead, and the person for whom she had tried to secure Celia’s affection is now missing.

Narrative Significance

Felismena tells this episode as part of the history of her search for Don Félix. The revelation arrives through a belated recognition: Celia had mistaken her intermediary’s repeated requests for a pretext to be near her, while Felismena had been acting for Don Félix. Once the truth is understood, it brings no reconciliation. Celia’s love turns to accusation and refusal, and the story passes from estrangement to death before Felismena can repair the breach.

The sequence also makes Felismena’s service a source of painful irony. She tries to protect Don Félix from despair and to keep Celia from returning to him, but her success at conveying his requests confirms to Celia that Valerio does not love her. The episode ends not with a settled explanation but with absence: Celia is dead, Don Félix has vanished, and Felismena’s search continues. In her account to the nymphs, the event helps explain why she has spent more than two years seeking him in disguise and why his loss remains bound to both grief and devoted service.