ARI. That's right; you are doing wonders!
CLI. What transport! what joy! Ah! how kind fortune is to me!
CHRY. (_to_ CLITANDRE). Come, take her hand and pass before us;
take her to her room. Ah! what sweet caresses. (_to_ ARISTE) How
moved my heart is before this tenderness; it cheers up one's old age,
and I can still remember my youthful loving days.
ACT IV.
SCENE I.--PHILAMINTE, ARMANDE.
ARM. Yes, there was no hesitation in her; she made a display of her
obedience, and her heart scarcely took time to hear the order. She
seemed less to obey the will of her father than affect to set at
defiance the will of her mother.
PHI. I will soon show her to which of us two the laws of reason
subject her wishes, and who ought to govern, mother or father, mind or
body, form or matter.
ARM. At least, they owed you the compliment of consulting you; and
that little gentleman who resolves to become your son-in-law, in spite
of yourself, behaves himself strangely.
PHI. He has not yet reached the goal of his desires. I thought him
well made, and approved of your love; but his manners were always
unpleasant to me. He knows that I write a little, thank heaven, and
yet he has never desired me to read anything to him.
SCENE II--ARMANDE, PHILAMINTE, CLITANDRE (_entering softly and
listening unseen_).
ARM. If I were you, I would not allow him to become Henriette's
husband. It would be wrong to impute to me the least thought of
speaking like an interested person in this matter, and false to think
that the base trick he is playing me secretly vexes me. By the help of
philosophy, my soul is fortified against such trials; by it we can
rise above everything. But to see him treat you so, provokes me beyond
all endurance. Honour requires you to resist his wishes, and he is not
a man in whom you could find pleasure. In our talks together I never
could see that he had in his heart any respect for you.
PHI. Poor idiot!
ARM. In spite of all the reports of your glory, he was always cold in
praising you.
PHI. The churl!
ARM. And twenty times have I read to him some of your new productions,
without his ever thinking them fine.
PHI. The impertinent fellow!
ARM. We were often at variance about it, and you could hardly believe
what foolish things....
CLI (_to_ ARMANDE). Ah! gently, pray. A little charity, or at
least a little truthfulness. What harm have I done to you? and of what
am I guilty that you should thus arm all your eloquence against me to
destroy me, and that you should take so much trouble to render me
odious to those whose assistance I need? Tell me why this great
indignation? (_To_ PHILAMINTE) I am willing to make you, Madam,
an impartial judge between us.
ARM. If I felt this great wrath with which you accuse me, I could find
enough to authorise it. You deserve it but too well. A first love has
such sacred claims over our hearts, that it would be better to lose
fortune and renounce life than to love a second time. Nothing can be
compared to the crime of changing one's vows, and every faithless
heart is a monster of immorality.
CLI. Do you call that infidelity, Madam, which the haughtiness of your
mind has forced upon me? I have done nothing but obey the commands it
imposed upon me; and if I offend you, you are the primary cause of the
offence. At first your charms took entire possession of my heart. For
two years I loved you with devoted love; there was no assiduous care,
duty, respect, service, which I did not offer you. But all my
attentions, all my cares, had no power over you. I found you opposed
to my dearest wishes; and what you refused I offered to another.
Consider then, if the fault is mine or yours. Does my heart run after
change, or do you force me to it? Do I leave you, or do you not rather
turn me away?
ARM. Do you call it being opposed to your love, Sir, if I deprive it
of what there is vulgar in it, and if I wish to reduce it to the
purity in which the beauty of perfect love consists? You cannot for me
keep your thoughts clear and disentangled from the commerce of sense;
and you do not enter into the charms of that union of two hearts in
which the body is ignored. You can only love with a gross and material
passion; and in order to maintain in you the love I have created, you
must have marriage, and all that follows. Ah! what strange love! How
far great souls are from burning with these terrestrial flames! The
senses have no share in all their ardour; their noble passion unites
the hearts only, and treats all else as unworthy. Theirs is a flame
pure and clear like a celestial fire. With this they breathe only
sinless sighs, and never yield to base desires. Nothing impure is
mixed in what they propose to themselves. They love for the sake of
loving, and for nothing else. It is only to the soul that all their
transports are directed, and the body they altogether forget.
CLI. Unfortunately, Madam, I feel, if you will forgive my saying so,
that I have a body as well as a soul; and that I am too much attached
to that body for me totally to forget it. I do not understand this
separation. Heaven has denied me such philosophy, and my body and soul
go together. There is nothing so beautiful, as you well say, as that
purified love which is directed only to the heart, those unions of the
soul and those tender thoughts so free from the commerce of sense. But
such love is too refined for me. I am, as you observe, a little gross
and material. I love with all my being; and, in the love that is given
to me, I wish to include the whole person. This is not a subject for
lofty self-denial; and, without wishing to wrong your noble
sentiments, I see that in the world my method has a certain vogue;
that marriage is somewhat the fashion, and passes for a tie honourable
and tender enough to have made me wish to become your husband, without
giving you cause to be offended at such a thought.
ARM. Well, well! Sir, since without being convinced by what I say,
your grosser feelings will be satisfied; since to reduce you to a
faithful love, you must have carnal ties and material chains, I will,
if I have my mother's permission, bring my mind to consent to all you
wish.
CLI. It is too late; another has accepted before you and if I were to
return to you, I should basely abuse the place of rest in which I
sought refuge, and should wound the goodness of her to whom I fled
when you disdained me.
PHI. But, Sir, when you thus look forward, do you believe in my
consent to this other marriage? In the midst of your dreams, let it
enter your mind that I have another husband ready for her.
CLI. Ah! Madam, reconsider your choice, I beseech you; and do not
expose me to such a disgrace. Do not doom me to the unworthy destiny
of seeing myself the rival of Mr. Trissotin. The love of _beaux
esprits_ [Footnote: No single word has given me so much trouble to
translate as this word _esprit_. This time I acknowledge myself
beaten.], which goes against me in your mind, could not have opposed
to me a less noble adversary. There are people whom the bad taste of
the age has reckoned among men of genius; but Mr. Trissotin deceives
nobody, and everyone does justice to the writings he gives us.
Everywhere but here he is esteemed at his just value; and what has
made me wonder above all things is to see you exalt to the sky, stupid
verses which you would have disowned had you yourself written them.
PHI. If you judge of him differently from us, it is that we see him
with other eyes than you do.
SCENE III.--TRISSOTIN, PHILAMINTE, ARMANDE, CLITANDRE.
TRI. (_to_ PHILAMINTE). I come to announce you great news. We
have had a narrow escape while we slept. A world passed all along us,
and fell right across our vortex. [Footnote: _Tourbillon_.
Compare act iii scene ii. Another reference to Cotin.] If in its way
it had met with our earth, it would have dashed us to pieces like so
much glass.
PHI. Let us put off this subject till another season. This gentleman
would understand nothing of it; he professes to cherish ignorance, and
above all to hate intellect and knowledge.
CLI. This is not altogether the fact; allow me, Madam, to explain
myself. I only hate that kind of intellect and learning which spoils
people. These are good and beautiful in themselves; but I had rather
be numbered among the ignorant than to see myself learned like certain
people.
TRI. For my part I do not believe, whatever opinion may be held to the
contrary, that knowledge can ever spoil anything.
CLI. And I hold that knowledge can make great fools both in words and
in deeds.
TRI. The paradox is rather strong.
CLI. It would be easy to find proofs; and I believe without being very
clever, that if reasons should fail, notable examples would not be
wanting.
TRI. You might cite some without proving your point.
CLI. I should not have far to go to find what I want.
TRI. As far as I am concerned, I fail to see those notable examples.
CLI. I see them so well that they almost blind me.
TRI. I believed hitherto that it was ignorance which made fools, and
not knowledge.
CLI. You made a great mistake; and I assure you that a learned fool is
more of a fool than an ignorant one.
TRI. Common sense is against your maxims, since an ignorant man and a
fool are synonymous.
CLI. If you cling to the strict uses of words, there is a greater
connection between pedant and fool.
TRI. Folly in the one shows itself openly.
CLI. And study adds to nature in the other.
TRI. Knowledge has always its intrinsic value.
CLI. Knowledge in a pedant becomes impertinence.
TRI. Ignorance must have great charms for you, since you so eagerly
take up arms in its defence.
CLI. If ignorance has such charms for me, it is since I have met with
learned people of a certain kind.
TRI. These learned people of a certain kind may, when we know them
well, be as good as other people of a certain other kind.
CLI. Yes, if we believe certain learned men; but that remains a
question with certain people.
PHI. (_to CLITANDRE_.) It seems to me, Sir....
CLI. Ah! Madam, I beg of you; this gentleman is surely strong enough
without assistance. I have enough to do already with so strong an
adversary, and as I fight I retreat.
ARM. But the offensive eagerness with which your answers....
CLI. Another ally! I quit the field.
PHI. Such combats are allowed in conversation, provided you attack no
one in particular.
CLI. Ah! Madam, there is nothing in all this to offend him. He can
bear raillery as well as any man in France; and he has supported many
other blows without finding his glory tarnished by it.
TRI. I am not surprised to see this gentleman take such a part in this
contest. He belongs to the court; that is saying everything. The
court, as every one well knows, does not care for learning; it has a
certain interest in supporting ignorance. And it is as a courtier he
takes up its defence.
CLI. Your are very angry with this poor court. The misfortune is great
indeed to see you men of learning day after day declaiming against it;
making it responsible for all your troubles; calling it to account for
its bad taste, and seeing in it the scapegoat of your ill-success.
Allow me, Mr. Trissotin, to tell you, with all the respect with which
your name inspires me, that you would do well, your brethren and you,
to speak of the court in a more moderate tone; that, after all, it is
not so very stupid as all you gentlemen make it out to be; that it has
good sense enough to appreciate everything; that some good taste can
be acquired there; and that the common sense found there is, without
flattery, well worth all the learning of pedantry.
TRI. We See some effects of its good taste, Sir.
CLI. Where do you see, Sir, that its taste is so bad?
TRI. Where, Sir! Do not Rasius and Balbus by their learning do honour
to France? and yet their merit, so very patent to all, attracts no
notice from the court.
CLI. I see whence your sorrow comes, and that, through modesty, you
forbear, Sir, to rank yourself with these. Not to drag you in, tell me
what your able heroes do for their country? What service do their
writings render it that they should accuse the court of horrible
injustice, and complain everywhere that it fails to pour down favours
on their learned names? Their knowledge is of great moment to France!
and the court stands in great need of the books they write! These
wretched scribblers get it into their little heads that to be printed
and bound in calf makes them at once important personages in the
state; that with their pens they regulate the destiny of crowns; that
at the least mention of their productions, pensions ought to be poured
down upon them; that the eyes of the whole universe are fixed upon
them, and the glory of their name spread everywhere! They think
themselves prodigies of learning because they know what others have
said before them; because for thirty years they have had eyes and
ears, and have employed nine or ten thousand nights or so in cramming
themselves with Greek and Latin, and in filling their heads with the
indiscriminate plunder of all the old rubbish which lies scattered in
books. They always seem intoxicated with their own knowledge, and for
all merit are rich in importunate babble. Unskilful in everything,
void of common sense, and full of absurdity and impertinence, they
decry everywhere true learning and knowledge.
PHI. You speak very warmly on the subject, and this transport shows
the working of ill-nature in you. It is the name of rival which
excites in your breast....
SCENE IV.--TRISSOTIN, PHILAMINTE, CLITANDRE, ARMANDE, JULIAN.
JUL. The learned gentleman who paid you a visit just now, Madam, and
whose humble servant I have the honour to be, exhorts you to read this
letter.
PHI. However important this letter may be, learn, friend, that it is a
piece of rudeness to come and interrupt a conversation, and that a
servant who knows his place should apply first to the people of the
household to be introduced.
JUL. I will note that down, Madam, in my book.
PHI. (_reads_). "_Trissotin boasts, Madam, that he is to marry
your daughter. I give you notice that his philosophy aims only at your
wealth, and that you would do well not to conclude this marriage
before you have seen the poem which I am composing against him. While
you are waiting for this portrait, in which I intend to paint him in
all his colours, I send you Horace, Virgil, Terence, and Catullus,
where you will find marked in the margin all the passages he has
pilfered._"
We see there merit attacked by many enemies because of the marriage I
have decided upon. But this general ill-feeling only prompts me to an
action which will confound envy, and make it feel that whatever it
does only hastens the end. (_To_ JULIAN) Tell all this to your
master; tell him also that in order to let him know how much value I
set on his disinterested advice, and how worthy of being followed I
esteem it, this very evening I shall marry my daughter to this
gentleman (_showing_ TRISSOTIN).
SCENE V.--PHILAMINTE, ARMANDE, CLITANDRE.
PHI. (_to_ CLITANDRE). You, Sir, as a friend of the family, may
assist at the signing of the contract, for I am willing to invite you
to it. Armande, be sure you send for the notary, and tell your sister
of my decision.
ARM. There is no need of saying anything to my sister; this gentleman
will be pretty sure to take the news to her, and try and dispose her
heart to rebellion.
PHI. We shall see who has most power over her, and whether I can bring
her to a sense of her duty.
SCENE VI.--ARMANDE, CLITANDRE.
ARM. I am very sorry to see, Sir, that things are not going quite
according to your views.
CLI. I shall go and do all I can not to leave this serious anxiety
upon your mind.
ARM. I am afraid that your efforts will not be very successful.
CLI. You may perhaps see that your fears are without foundation.
ARM. I hope it may be so.
CLI. I am persuaded that I shall have all your help.
ARM. Yes, I will second you with all my power.
CLI. And I shall be sure to be most grateful.
SCENE VII.--CHRYSALE, ARISTE, HENRIETTE, CLITANDRE.
CLI. I should be most unfortunate without your assistance, Sir, for
your wife has rejected my offer, and, her mind being prepossessed in
favour of Trissotin, she insists upon having him for a son-in-law.
CHRY. But what fancy is this that she has got into her head? Why in
the world will she have this Mr. Trissotin?
ARI. It is because he has the honour of rhyming with Latin that he is
carrying it off over the head of his rival.
CLI. She wants to conclude this marriage to-night.
CHRY. To-night?
CLI. Yes, to-night.
CHRY. Well! and this very night I will, in order to thwart her, have
you both married.
CLI. She has sent for the notary to draw up the contract.
CHRY. And I will go and fetch him for the one he must draw up.
CLI. And Henriette is to be told by her sister of the marriage to
which she must look forward.
CHRY. And I command her with full authority to prepare herself for
this other alliance. Ah! I will show them if there is any other master
but myself to give orders in the house. (_To_ HENRIETTE) We will
return soon. Now, come along with me, brother; and you also, my
son-in-law.
HEN. (_to_ ARISTE). Alas! try to keep him in this disposition.
ARI. I will do everything to serve your love.
SCENE VIII.--HENRIETTE, CLITANDRE.
CLI. However great may be the help that is promised to my love, my
greatest hope is in your constancy.
HEN. You know that you may be sure of my love.
CLI. I see nothing to fear as long as I have that.
HEN. You see to what a union they mean to force me.
CLI. As long as your heart belongs entirely to me, I see nothing to
fear.
HEN. I will try everything for the furtherance of our dearest wishes,
and if after all I cannot be yours, there is a sure retreat I have
resolved upon, which will save me from belonging to any one else.
CLI. May Heaven spare me from ever receiving from you that proof of
your love.
ACT V.
SCENE I.--HENRIETTE, TRISSOTIN.
HEN. It is about the marriage which my mother has set her heart upon
that I wish, Sir, to speak privately to you; and I thought that,
seeing how our home is disturbed by it, I should be able to make you
listen to reason. You are aware that with me you will receive a
considerable dowry; but money, which we see so many people esteem, has
no charms worthy of a philosopher; and contempt for wealth and earthly
grandeur should not show itself in your words only.
TRI. Therefore it is not that which charms me in you; but your
dazzling beauty, your sweet and piercing eyes, your grace, your noble
air--these are the wealth, the riches, which have won for you my vows
and love; it is of those treasures only that I am enamoured.
HEN. I thank you for your generous love; I ought to feel grateful and
to respond to it; I regret that I cannot; I esteem you as much as one
can esteem another; but in me I find an obstacle to loving you. You
know that a heart cannot be given to two people, and I feel that
Clitandre has taken entire possession of mine. I know that he has much
less merit than you, that I have not fit discrimination for the choice
of a husband, and that with your many talents you ought to please me.
I see that I am wrong, but I cannot help it; and all the power that
reason has over me is to make me angry with myself for such blindness.
TRI. The gift of your hand, to which I am allowed to aspire, will give
me the heart possessed by Clitandre; for by a thousand tender cares I
have reason to hope that I shall succeed in making myself loved.
HEN. No; my heart is bound to its first love, and cannot be touched by
your cares and attention. I explain myself plainly with you, and my
confession ought in no way to hurt your feelings. The love which
springs up in the heart is not, as you know, the effect of merit, but
is partly decided by caprice; and oftentimes, when some one pleases
us, we can barely find the reason. If choice and wisdom guided love,
all the tenderness of my heart would be for you; but love is not thus
guided. Leave me, I pray, to my blindness; and do not profit by the
violence which, for your sake, is imposed on my obedience. A man of
honour will owe nothing to the power which parents have over us; he
feels a repugnance to exact a self-sacrifice from her he loves, and
will not obtain a heart by force. Do not encourage my mother to
exercise, for your sake, the absolute power she has over me. Give up
your love for me, and carry to another the homage of a heart so
precious as yours.
TRI. For this heart to satisfy you, you must impose upon it laws it
can obey. Could it cease to love you, Madam, unless you ceased to be
loveable, and could cease to display those celestial charms....
HEN. Ah! Sir, leave aside all this trash; you are encumbered with so
many Irises, Phyllises, Amaranthas, which everywhere in your verses
you paint as charming, and to whom you swear such love, that....
TRI. It is the mind that speaks, and not the heart. With them it is
only the poet that is in love; but it is in earnest that I love the
adorable Henriette.
HEN. Ah, Sir, I beg of you....
TRI. If I offend you, my offence is not likely to cease. This love,
ignored by you to this day, will be of eternal duration. Nothing can
put a stop to its delightful transports; and although your beauty
condemns my endeavours, I cannot refuse the help of a mother who
wishes to crown such a precious flame. Provided I succeed in obtaining
such great happiness, provided I obtain your hand, it matters little
to me how it comes to pass.
HEN. But are you aware, Sir, that you risk more than you think by
using violence; and to be plain with you, that it is not safe to marry
a girl against her wish, for she might well have recourse to a certain
revenge that a husband should fear.
TRI. Such a speech has nothing that can make me alter my purpose. A
philosopher is prepared against every event. Cured by reason of all
vulgar weaknesses, he rises above these things, and is far from
minding what does not depend on him. [Footnote: Compare 'School for
Wives,' act iv. scene vi.]
HEN. Truly, Sir, I am delighted to hear you; and I had no idea that
philosophy was so capable of teaching men to bear such accidents with
constancy. This wonderful strength of mind deserves to have a fit
subject to illustrate it, and to find one who may take pleasure in
giving it an occasion for its full display. As, however, to say the
truth, I do not feel equal to the task, I will leave it to another;
and, between ourselves, I assure you that I renounce altogether the
happiness of seeing you my husband.
TRI. (_going_). We shall see by-and-by how the affair will end.
In the next room, close at hand, is the notary waiting.
SCENE II.--CHRYSALE, CLITANDRE, HENRIETTE.
CHRY. I am glad, my daughter, to see you; come here and fulfil your
duty, by showing obedience to the will of your father. I will teach
your mother how to behave, and, to defy her more fully, here is
Martine, whom I have brought back to take her old place in the house
again.
HEN. Your resolution deserves praise. I beg of you, father, never to
change the disposition you are in. Be firm in what you have resolved,
and do not suffer yourself to be the dupe of your own good-nature. Do
not yield; and I pray you to act so as to hinder my mother from having
her own way.
CHRY. How! Do you take me for a booby?
HEN. Heaven forbid!
CHRY. Am I a fool, pray?
HEN. I do not say that.
CHRY. Am I thought unfit to have the decision of a man of sense?
HEN. No, father.
CHRY. Ought I not at my age to know how to be master at home?
HEN. Of course.
CHRY. Do you think me weak enough to allow my wife to lead me by the
nose?
HEN. Oh dear, no, father.
CHRY. Well, then, what do you mean? You are a nice girl to speak to me
as you do!
HEN. If I have displeased you, father, I have done so unintentionally.
CHRY. My will is law in this place.
HEN. Certainly, father.
CHRY. No one but myself has in this house a right to command.
HEN. Yes, you are right, father.
CHRY. It is I who hold the place of chief of the family.
HEN. Agreed.
CHRY. It is I who ought to dispose of my daughter's hand.
HEN. Yes, indeed, father.
CHRY. Heaven has given me full power over you.
HEN. No one, father, says anything to the contrary.
CHRY. And as to choosing a husband, I will show you that it is your
father, and not your mother, whom you have to obey.
HEN. Alas! in that you respond to my dearest wish. Exact obedience to
you is my earnest wish.
CHRY. We shall see if my wife will prove rebellious to my will.
CLI. Here she is, and she brings the notary with her.
CHRY. Back me up, all of you.
MAR. Leave that to me; I will take care to encourage you, if need be.
SCENE III.--PHILAMINTE, BÉLISE, ARMANDE, TRISSOTIN, A NOTARY,
CHRYSALE, CLITANDRE, HENRIETTE, MARTINE.
PHI. (_to the_ NOTARY). Can you not alter your barbarous style,
and give us a contract couched in noble language?
NOT. Our style is very good, and I should be a blockhead, Madam, to
try and change a single word.
BEL. Ah! what barbarism in the very midst of France! But yet, Sir, for
learning's sake, allow us, instead of crowns, livres, and francs, to
have the dowry expressed in minae and talents, and to express the date
in Ides and Kalends.
NOT. I, Madam? If I were to do such a thing, all my colleagues would
hiss me.
PHI. It is useless to complain of all this barbarism. Come, Sir, sit
down and write. (_Seeing_ MARTINE) Ah! this impudent hussy dares
to show herself here again! Why was she brought back, I should like to
know?
CHRY. We will tell you by-and-by; we have now something else to do.
NOT. Let us proceed with the contract. Where is the future bride?
PHI. It is the younger daughter I give in marriage.
NOT. Good.
CHRY. (_showing_ HENRIETTE). Yes, Sir, here she is; her name is
Henriette.
NOT. Very well; and the future bridegroom?
PHI. (_showing_ TRISSOTIN). This gentleman is the husband I give
her.
CHRY. (_showing_ CLITANDRE). And the husband I wish her to marry
is this gentleman.
NOT. Two husbands! Custom does not allow of more than one.
PHI. (_to the_ NOTARY). What is it that is stopping you? Put down
Mr. Trissotin as my son-in-law.
CHRY. For my son-in-law put down Mr. Clitandre.
NOT. Try and agree together, and come to a quiet decision as to who is
to be the future husband.
PHI. Abide, Sir, abide by my own choice.
CHRY. Do, Sir, do according to my will.
NOT. Tell me which of the two I must obey.
PHI. (_to_ CHRYSALE). What! you will go against my wishes.
CHRY. I cannot allow my daughter to be sought after only because of
the wealth which is in my family.
PHI. Really! as if anyone here thought of your wealth, and as if it
were a subject worthy the anxiety of a wise man.
CHRY. In short, I have fixed on Clitandre.
PHI. (_showing_ TRISSOTIN). And I am decided that for a husband
she shall have this gentleman. My choice shall be followed; the thing
is settled.
CHRY. Heyday! you assume here a very high tone.
MAR. 'Tisn't for the wife to lay down the law, and I be one to give up
the lead to the men in everything.
CHRY. That is well said.
MAR. If my discharge was as sure as a gun, what I says is, that the
hen hadn't ought to be heard when the cock's there.
CHRY. Just so.
MAR. And we all know that a man is always chaffed, when at home his
wife wears the breeches.
CHRY. It is perfectly true.
MAR. I says that, if I had a husband, I would have him be the master
of the house. I should not care a bit for him if he played the
henpecked husband; and if I resisted him out of caprice, or if I spoke
too loud, I should think it quite right if, with a couple of boxes on
the ear, he made me pitch it lower.
CHRY. You speak as you ought.
MAR. Master is quite right to want a proper husband for his daughter.
CHRY. Certainly.
MAR. Why should he refuse her Clitandre, who is young and handsome, in
order to give her a scholar, who is always splitting hairs about
something? She wants a husband and not a pedagogue, and as she cares
neither for Greek nor Latin, she has no need of Mr. Trissotin.
CHRY. Excellent.
PHI. We must suffer her to chatter on at her ease.
MAR. Learned people are only good to preach in a pulpit, and I have
said a thousand times that I wouldn't have a learned man for my
husband. Learning is not at all what is wanted in a household. Books
agree badly with marriage, and if ever I consent to engage myself to
anybody, it will be to a husband who has no other book but me, who
doesn't know _a_ from _b_--no offence to you, Madam--and, in
short, who would be clever only for his wife. [Footnote: In this
scene, as in act ii. scenes v. and vi., Martine speaks very correctly
at times.]
PHI. (_to_ CHRYSALE). Is it finished? and have I listened
patiently enough to your worthy interpreter?
CHRY. She has only said the truth.
PHI. And I, to put an end to this dispute, will have my wish obeyed.
(_Showing_ TRISSOTIN) Henriette _and_ this gentleman shall be
united at once. I have said it, and I will have it so. Make no reply;
and if you have given your word to Clitandre, offer him her elder sister.
CHRY. Ah! this is a way out of the difficulty. (_To_ HENRIETTE
and CLITANDRE) Come, do you consent?
HEN. How! father...!
CLI. (_to_ CHRYSALE). What! Sir...!
BEL. Propositions more to his taste might be made. But we are
establishing a kind of love which must be as pure as the morning-star;
the thinking substance is admitted, but not the material substance.
SCENE IV.--ARISTE, CHRYSALE, PHILAMINTE, BÉLISE, HENRIETTE, ARMANDE,
TRISSOTIN, A NOTARY, CLITANDRE, MARTINE.
ARI. I am sorry to have to trouble this happy ceremony by the sad
tidings of which I am obliged to be bearer. These two letters make me
bring news which have made me feel grievously for you. (_To_
PHILAMINTE) One letter is for you, and comes from your attorney.
(_To_ CHRYSALE) The other comes from Lyons.
PHI. What misfortune can be sent us worthy of troubling us?
ARI. You can read it in this letter.
PHI. _"Madam, I have asked your brother to give you this letter; it
will tell you news which I did not dare to come and tell you myself.
The great negligence you have shown in your affairs has been the cause
that the clerk of your attorney has not forewarned me, and you have
altogether lost the lawsuit which you ought to have gained."_
CHRY. (_to_ PHILAMINTE). Your lawsuit lost!
PHI. (_to_ CHRYSALE). You seem very much upset; my heart is in no
way troubled by such a blow. Show, show like me, a less vulgar mind
wherewith to brave the ills of fortune. "Your want of care will cost
you forty thousand crowns, and you are condemned to pay this sum with
all costs." Condemned? Ah! this is a shocking word, and only fit for
criminals.
ARI. It is the wrong word, no doubt, and you, with reason, protest
against it. It should have been, "You are desired by an order of the
court to pay immediately forty thousand crowns and costs."
PHI. Let us see the other.
CHRY. _"Sir, the friendship which binds me to your brother prompts
me to take a lively interest in all that concerns you. I know that you
had placed your fortune entirely in the hands of Argante and Damon,
and I acquaint you with the news that they have both failed."_ O
Heaven! to lose everything thus in a moment!
PHI. (_to CHRYSALE_.) Ah! what a shameful outburst Fie! For the
truly wise there is no fatal change of fortune, and, losing all, he
still remains himself. Let us finish the business we have in hand; and
please cast aside your sorrow. (_Showing_ TRISSOTIN) His wealth
will be sufficient for us and for him.
TRI. No, Madam; cease, I pray you, from pressing this affair further.
I see that everybody is opposed to this marriage, and I have no
intention of forcing the wills of others.
PHI. This reflection, Sir, comes very quickly after our reverse of
fortune.
TRI. I am tired at last of so much resistance, and prefer to
relinquish all attempts at removing these obstacles. I do not wish for
a heart that will not surrender itself.
PHI. I see in you, and that not to your honour, what I have hitherto
refused to believe.
TRI. You may see whatever you please, and it matters little to me how
you take what you see. I am not a man to put up with the disgrace of
the refusals with which I have been insulted here. I am well worthy of
more consideration, and whoever thinks otherwise, I am her humble
servant. (_Exit_.)
SCENE V.--ARISTE, CHRYSALE, PHILAMINTE, BÉLISE, ARMANDE, HENRIETTE,
CLITANDRE, A NOTARY, MARTINE.
PHI. How plainly he has disclosed his mercenary soul, and how little
like a philosopher he has acted.
CLI. I have no pretension to being one; but, Madam, I will link my
destiny to yours, and I offer you, with myself, all that I possess.
PHI. Yon delight me, Sir, by this generous action, and I will reward
your love. Yes, I grant Henriette to the eager affection....
HEN. No, mother. I have altered my mind; forgive me if now I resist
your will.
CLI. What! do you refuse me happiness, and now that I see everybody
for me....
HEN. I know how little you possess, Clitandre; and I always desired
you for a husband when, by satisfying my most ardent wishes, I saw
that our marriage would improve your fortune. But in the face of such
reverses, I love you enough not to burden you with our adversity.
CLI. With you any destiny would be happiness, without you misery.
HEN. Love in its ardour generally speaks thus. Let us avoid the
torture of vexatious recriminations. Nothing irritates such a tie more
than the wretched wants of life. After a time we accuse each other of
all the sorrows that follow such an engagement.
ARI. (_to_ HENRIETTE). Is what you have just said the only reason
which makes you refuse to marry Clitandre?
HEN. Yes; otherwise you would see me ready to fly to this union with
all my heart.
ARI. Suffer yourself, then, to be bound by such gentle ties. The news
I brought you was false. It was a stratagem, a happy thought I had to
serve your love by deceiving my sister, and by showing her what her
philosopher would prove when put to the test.
CHRY. Heaven be praised!
PHI. I am delighted at heart for the vexation which this cowardly
deserter will feel. The punishment of his sordid avarice will be to
see in what a splendid manner this match will be concluded.
CHRY. (_to_ CLITANDRE). I told you that you would marry her.
ARM. (_to_ PHILAMINTE). So, then, you sacrifice me to their love?
PHI. It will not be to sacrifice you; you have the support of your
philosophy, and you can with a contented mind see their love crowned.
BEL. Let him take care, for I still retain my place in his heart.
Despair often leads people to conclude a hasty marriage, of which they
repent ever after.
CHRY. (_to the_ NOTARY). Now, Sir, execute my orders, and draw up
the contract in accordance with what I said.