Latest / Fiction Library / The Misanthrope - Moliere
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Act one seen one feline, Alceste.
- 0:06Speaker 2: What is the matter? What ails you?
- 0:09Speaker 1: Alceste? Seated?
- 0:12Speaker 2: Leave me, I pray, but once more, tell me what
- 0:18Speaker 2: strange whim?
- 0:19Speaker 3: Leave me, I tell you, and get out of my sight.
- 0:24Speaker 2: But you might at least listen to people without getting angry.
- 0:28Speaker 3: I choose to get angry, and I do not choose
- 0:32Speaker 3: to listen.
- 0:33Speaker 2: I do not understand you in these abrupt moods. And
- 0:37Speaker 2: although we are friends, I am the first.
- 0:40Speaker 1: Alceste rising quickly.
- 0:42Speaker 3: I your friend, lay not that flattering unction to your soul.
- 0:48Speaker 3: I have until now professed to be so. But after
- 0:52Speaker 3: what I've just seen of you, I tell you candidly
- 0:55Speaker 3: that I am such no longer. I've no wish to
- 1:00Speaker 3: occupy a place and a corrupt heart.
- 1:03Speaker 2: I am then very much to be blamed from your
- 1:06Speaker 2: point of view, al sayst to.
- 1:08Speaker 3: Be blamed, you ought to die from very shame. There's
- 1:13Speaker 3: no excuse for such behavior, and every man of honor
- 1:18Speaker 3: must be disgusted at it. I see you almost stifle
- 1:22Speaker 3: a man with caresses, show him the most ardent affection,
- 1:27Speaker 3: and overwhelm him with protestations, offers and vows of friendship.
- 1:33Speaker 3: Your ebulations of tenderness, No, no bounds.
- 1:38Speaker 4: No.
- 1:38Speaker 3: When I ask you who that man is, you can
- 1:40Speaker 3: scarcely tell me his name, your feelings for him. The
- 1:44Speaker 3: moment you've turned your back suddenly cool, you speak of
- 1:48Speaker 3: him most indifferently to me. Zounds. I call it unworthy,
- 1:54Speaker 3: base and infamous, so far to demean one's self as
- 1:58Speaker 3: to act contrary to one's own feelings. And if unfortunately
- 2:03Speaker 3: I had done such a thing, I should go that
- 2:06Speaker 3: very instant and hang myself out of sheer vexation.
- 2:11Speaker 2: I do not see that it is a hanging matter
- 2:14Speaker 2: at all, and I beg of you not to think
- 2:17Speaker 2: it amiss if I ask you to show me some mercy,
- 2:21Speaker 2: for I shall not hang myself if it be all
- 2:23Speaker 2: the same to you.
- 2:26Speaker 3: That is a sorry joke.
- 2:28Speaker 2: But seriously, what would you have people do?
- 2:33Speaker 3: I would have people be sincere, and that like men
- 2:37Speaker 3: of honor, no word be spoken that comes not from
- 2:42Speaker 3: the heart.
- 2:43Speaker 2: When a man comes and embraces you warmly, you must
- 2:47Speaker 2: pay him back in his own coin, respond as best
- 2:50Speaker 2: you can to his show of feeling, and return offer
- 2:53Speaker 2: for offer and vow for vow.
- 2:57Speaker 3: Not so I cannot be so base a method which
- 3:02Speaker 3: your fashionable people generally affect. There's nothing I detest so
- 3:08Speaker 3: much as the contortions of these great time and lip servers,
- 3:12Speaker 3: these affable spensers of meaningless embraces, these obliging utterers of
- 3:19Speaker 3: empty words, who vie with everyone in civilities and treat
- 3:24Speaker 3: the man of worth and the fop alike. What good
- 3:29Speaker 3: does it do if a man heaps endearments on you,
- 3:33Speaker 3: vows that he is your friend, that he believes in you,
- 3:37Speaker 3: is full of zeal for you, the steams and loves
- 3:41Speaker 3: you and lodge you to the skies. When he rushes
- 3:45Speaker 3: to do the same to the first rap skilling, and
- 3:48Speaker 3: he meets no. No, No heart with the least self
- 3:53Speaker 3: respect cares for esteem so prostituted he will hardly relish it,
- 3:58Speaker 3: even when openly expressed, when he finds that he shares
- 4:02Speaker 3: it with the whole universe. Preference must be based on esteem,
- 4:08Speaker 3: and to esteem everyone is to esteem no one. As
- 4:13Speaker 3: you abandon yourself to the vices of the times, zounds
- 4:18Speaker 3: you are not the man for me. I decline this
- 4:22Speaker 3: over complacent kindness, which uses no discrimination. I like to
- 4:28Speaker 3: be distinguished, and to cut the matter short, the friend
- 4:33Speaker 3: of all mankind is no friend of mine.
- 4:37Speaker 2: But when we are of the world, we must conform
- 4:40Speaker 2: to the outward civilities which custom demands.
- 4:45Speaker 3: I deny it. We ought to punish piteously that shameful
- 4:49Speaker 3: pretense of friendly intercourse. I like a man to be
- 4:52Speaker 3: a man and to show, on all occasions the bottom
- 4:56Speaker 3: of his heart in his discourse. Let that be the
- 5:00Speaker 3: thing to speak, and never let our feelings be hidden
- 5:04Speaker 3: beneath vain compliments.
- 5:07Speaker 2: There are many cases in which plain speaking would become
- 5:10Speaker 2: ridiculous and could hardly be tolerated. And with all due
- 5:15Speaker 2: allowances for your unbending honesty, it is as well to
- 5:19Speaker 2: conceal your feelings. Sometimes, would it be right or decent
- 5:24Speaker 2: to tell thousands of people what we think of them?
- 5:27Speaker 2: And when we meet with someone who we hate or
- 5:30Speaker 2: who displeases us, must we tell him so openly?
- 5:34Speaker 3: Yes?
- 5:36Speaker 2: What would you tell old Ameilia that it ill becomes
- 5:41Speaker 2: her to set up for a beauty at her age,
- 5:43Speaker 2: and that the paint she uses discuss everyone? Undoubtedly Ordrillas
- 5:49Speaker 2: that he is a bore, and that there is no
- 5:52Speaker 2: one at court who was not sick of hearing him
- 5:54Speaker 2: boast of his courage and the luster of his house.
- 5:58Speaker 2: Decidedly so you are jesting.
- 6:03Speaker 3: I am not jesting at all, and I would not
- 6:05Speaker 3: spare anyone in that respect. It offends my eyes too much.
- 6:10Speaker 3: And whether a court or in town, I behold nothing
- 6:13Speaker 3: but what provokes my spleen. I become quite melancholy and
- 6:18Speaker 3: deeply grieved to see men behave to each other as
- 6:21Speaker 3: they do everywhere. I find nothing but base flattery, injestice,
- 6:28Speaker 3: self interests, deceit, rugery. I cannot bear it any longer.
- 6:35Speaker 3: I am furious, and my intention is to break with
- 6:39Speaker 3: all mankind.
- 6:41Speaker 2: This philosophical spleen is somewhat too savage. I cannot but
- 6:46Speaker 2: laugh to see you in these gloomy fits, and fancy
- 6:49Speaker 2: that I perceive in us two brought up together, the
- 6:53Speaker 2: two brothers described in the School for Husbands.
- 6:56Speaker 3: Who good Heavens drap your insipid compara.
- 7:01Speaker 2: Nay, seriously, leave off these vagaries. The world will not
- 7:06Speaker 2: alter for all your meddling, and as plain speaking has
- 7:10Speaker 2: such charms for you. I shall tell you frankly that
- 7:13Speaker 2: this complaint of yours is as good as a play
- 7:16Speaker 2: wherever you go, and that all those invectives against the
- 7:20Speaker 2: manners of the age make you a laughing stock to
- 7:23Speaker 2: many people.
- 7:25Speaker 3: So much the better, zounds, so much the better. That
- 7:30Speaker 3: is just what I want. It is a very good sign,
- 7:33Speaker 3: and I rejoice at it. All manners so odious to
- 7:38Speaker 3: me that I should be sorry to appear rational in
- 7:41Speaker 3: their eyes.
- 7:43Speaker 2: But do you wish harm to all mankind?
- 7:46Speaker 3: Yes, I have conceived a terrible hatred for them.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Shall all poor mortals, without exception be included in this aversion?
- 7:57Speaker 2: There are some even in the age which we live.
- 8:01Speaker 3: No, they are all alike, And I hate all men,
- 8:06Speaker 3: some because they're wicked and mischievous, others because they lend
- 8:10Speaker 3: themselves to the wicked, and have not that healthy contempt
- 8:14Speaker 3: with which vice ought to inspire all virtuous minds. You
- 8:19Speaker 3: can see how unjustly and excessively complacent people are to
- 8:24Speaker 3: that bare faced scoundrel with whom I am at law.
- 8:29Speaker 3: You may plainly perceive the trader through his mask. He's
- 8:33Speaker 3: well known everywhere in his true colors. His rolling eyes
- 8:37Speaker 3: and his honey tones impose only on those who do
- 8:42Speaker 3: not know him. People are aware that this low bred
- 8:46Speaker 3: fellow who deserves to be pilloried, has by the dirtiest
- 8:50Speaker 3: jobs made his way in the world, and that the
- 8:54Speaker 3: splendid position he is acquired makes merit repine and virtue blush.
- 9:00Speaker 3: Wh Yeah, whatever dishonorable epithets may be launched against him everywhere,
- 9:06Speaker 3: nobody defends his wretched honor. Call him a rogue, an
- 9:11Speaker 3: infamous wretch, a confounded scoundrel. If you like, in all
- 9:16Speaker 3: the world will say yay, and no one contradict you.
- 9:21Speaker 3: But for all that his bowing and scraping are welcome everywhere.
- 9:27Speaker 3: He's received, smiled upon, and wriggles himself into all kinds
- 9:33Speaker 3: of society. And if any appointment is to be secured
- 9:37Speaker 3: by intriguing, he will carry the day over a man
- 9:41Speaker 3: of the greatest worth zounds. These are mortal stabs to
- 9:46Speaker 3: me to see vice parleyed with, And sometimes I feel
- 9:50Speaker 3: suddenly inclined to fly into a wilderness far from the
- 9:55Speaker 3: approach of men great heaven.
- 9:59Speaker 2: Let us dorment ourselves a little less about the vices
- 10:02Speaker 2: of our age, and be a little more lenient to
- 10:05Speaker 2: human nature. Let us not scrutinize it with the utmost severity,
- 10:10Speaker 2: but look with some indulgence at its failings in society.
- 10:14Speaker 2: We need virtue to be more pliable if we are
- 10:18Speaker 2: too wise, We may be equally to blame. Good sense
- 10:22Speaker 2: avoids all extremes and requires us to be soberly rational.
- 10:27Speaker 2: This unbending and virtuous stiffness of ancient times shocks too
- 10:32Speaker 2: much the ordinary customs of our own. It requires too
- 10:35Speaker 2: great perfection from us mortals. We must yield to the
- 10:39Speaker 2: times without being too stubborn. It is the height of
- 10:42Speaker 2: folly to busy ourselves in correcting the world. I, as
- 10:46Speaker 2: well as yourself, notice a hundred things every day which
- 10:50Speaker 2: might be better managed, differently enacted. But whatever I may
- 10:54Speaker 2: discover at any moment, people do not see me in
- 10:57Speaker 2: a rage like you. I take men quietly just as
- 11:01Speaker 2: they are. I accustom my mind to bear with what
- 11:05Speaker 2: they do, And I believe that at court as well
- 11:08Speaker 2: as in the city, my phlegm is as philosophical as
- 11:12Speaker 2: your bile.
- 11:14Speaker 3: But this phleme good, sir, you, who reasons so well,
- 11:20Speaker 3: could it not be disturbed by anything? And if perchance
- 11:25Speaker 3: a friend should betray you, if he forms a subtle
- 11:28Speaker 3: plot to get a hold of what is yours, if
- 11:31Speaker 3: people should try to spread evil reports about you, would
- 11:35Speaker 3: you tamely submit to all this without flying into a rage?
- 11:41Speaker 2: I I look upon all these faults of which you
- 11:44Speaker 2: complained as vices inseparably connected with human nature. In short,
- 11:49Speaker 2: my mind is no more shocked at seeing a man
- 11:52Speaker 2: a rogue, unjust or selfish, than at seeing vultures eager
- 11:56Speaker 2: for prey, mischievous apes, or fury wolves.
- 12:01Speaker 3: What I should see myself deceived, torn to pieces, robbed
- 12:07Speaker 3: without being zounds? I shall say no more about it.
- 12:13Speaker 3: All this reasoning is full of impertinence.
- 12:17Speaker 2: Upon my word, you would do well to keep silence,
- 12:20Speaker 2: rail a little less at your opponent, and attend a
- 12:23Speaker 2: little more to your suit.
- 12:25Speaker 3: That I shall not do. That is settled long ago.
- 12:30Speaker 2: But whom, then, do you expect to solicit for you?
- 12:33Speaker 3: Whom reason my just right equity?
- 12:39Speaker 2: Shall you not pay a visit to any of the judges?
- 12:42Speaker 5: No?
- 12:44Speaker 3: Is my cause unjust or dubious?
- 12:47Speaker 2: I am agreed on that, But you know what harm
- 12:51Speaker 2: intrigues do.
- 12:52Speaker 3: And no, I'm resolved not to stir a step. I
- 12:57Speaker 3: am either right or wrong.
- 12:59Speaker 2: Do not trust in that.
- 13:02Speaker 3: Shall not budge an inch.
- 13:05Speaker 2: Your opponent is powerful, and by his underhand work meyanduce
- 13:10Speaker 2: it does not matter. You will make a mistake.
- 13:14Speaker 3: Be it so I wish to see the end of it.
- 13:17Speaker 3: But I shall have the satisfaction losing my suit. But
- 13:23Speaker 3: after all I shall see by this trial whether men
- 13:27Speaker 3: have sufficient impudence, are wicked, villainous and perverse enough to
- 13:32Speaker 3: do me this injustice in the face of the whole world.
- 13:37Speaker 2: What a strange fellow I.
- 13:40Speaker 3: Could wish were it to cost me ever so much
- 13:43Speaker 3: that for the fun of the thing I lost my case.
- 13:48Speaker 2: But people will really laugh at you, al sayst if
- 13:51Speaker 2: they hear you go on in this fashion.
- 13:54Speaker 3: So much the worse for those who will.
- 13:58Speaker 2: But this rectitude which you act so carefully in every case,
- 14:02Speaker 2: this absolute integrity in which you intrench yourself, do you
- 14:06Speaker 2: perceive it in the lady you love? As for me,
- 14:09Speaker 2: I am astonished that, appearing to be at war with
- 14:12Speaker 2: a whole human race, you yet, notwithstanding everything that can
- 14:16Speaker 2: render it odious to you, have found aught to charm
- 14:19Speaker 2: your eyes. And what surprises me still more is a
- 14:23Speaker 2: strange choice your heart has made. The sincere Eliant has
- 14:27Speaker 2: a liking for you, The prude Arsenel looks with favor
- 14:31Speaker 2: upon you, Yet your heart does not respond to their passion.
- 14:35Speaker 2: Whilst you were the chains of Silliman, who sports with
- 14:38Speaker 2: you and his coquettish humor and malicious wit seems to
- 14:41Speaker 2: accord so well with the manner of the times. How
- 14:45Speaker 2: comes it that, hating these things as mortally as you do,
- 14:49Speaker 2: you endure so much of them? In that lady? Are
- 14:52Speaker 2: they no longer faults in so sweet a charmer? Do
- 14:56Speaker 2: not you perceive them? Or if you do, do you
- 14:58Speaker 2: excuse them?
- 15:00Speaker 3: Not? So? The love I feel for this young widow
- 15:05Speaker 3: does not make me blind to her faults. And notwithstanding
- 15:10Speaker 3: the great passion with which she has inspired me, I
- 15:15Speaker 3: am the first to see as well as to condemn them.
- 15:19Speaker 3: But for all this do what I will. I confess
- 15:24Speaker 3: my weakness. She has the art of pleasing me in
- 15:29Speaker 3: vain I see her faults, I may even blame them.
- 15:33Speaker 3: In spite of all, she makes me love her. Her
- 15:37Speaker 3: charms conquer everything, and no doubt my sincere love will
- 15:44Speaker 3: purify our heart from the vices of our times.
- 15:49Speaker 2: If you accomplish this, it will be no small task.
- 15:54Speaker 2: Do you believe yourself beloved by her?
- 15:57Speaker 3: Yes? Certainly I should not love her at all? Did
- 16:01Speaker 3: I not think so?
- 16:03Speaker 2: But if her love for you is so apparent, how
- 16:06Speaker 2: comes it that your rivals called you so much uneasiness.
- 16:10Speaker 3: It is because a heart deeply smitten claims all to itself.
- 16:17Speaker 3: I come here only with the intention of telling her
- 16:20Speaker 3: what on this subject my feelings dictate.
- 16:24Speaker 2: Had I but to choose her cousin Elliott, would have
- 16:27Speaker 2: all my love. Her heart, which values yours, is stable
- 16:32Speaker 2: and sincere, and this more compatible choice would have suited
- 16:36Speaker 2: you better.
- 16:37Speaker 3: It is true, my good sense tells me so every day.
- 16:43Speaker 3: But good sense does not always rule love well.
- 16:48Speaker 2: I fear much for your affections, and the hope which
- 16:51Speaker 2: you cherish may perhaps.
- 16:54Speaker 1: Scene to Orante. I'll cyste feline oran to al saste.
- 17:03Speaker 4: I have been informed yonder that Eleant and Celemaine have
- 17:09Speaker 4: gone out to make some purchases. But as I heard
- 17:15Speaker 4: that you were here, I came to tell you most
- 17:21Speaker 4: sincerely that I have conceived the greatest regard for you,
- 17:27Speaker 4: and that for a long time this regard has inspired
- 17:32Speaker 4: me with the most ardent wish to be reckoned among
- 17:37Speaker 4: your friends. Yes, I like to do homage to merit,
- 17:45Speaker 4: and I am most anxious that a bond of friendship
- 17:50Speaker 4: should unite us. I suppose that a zealous friend and
- 17:56Speaker 4: of my standing is not all together to be rejected.
- 18:02Speaker 1: All this time, Alceste has been musing and seems not
- 18:06Speaker 1: to be aware that Arante is addressing him. He looks
- 18:09Speaker 1: up only when Urante says to him.
- 18:12Speaker 4: It is to you, if you please, that this speech
- 18:16Speaker 4: is addressed to me, sir, to you, is it in
- 18:22Speaker 4: any way offensive to you?
- 18:25Speaker 3: Not in the least. Oh, My surprise is very great,
- 18:29Speaker 3: and I did not expect that honor.
- 18:33Speaker 4: The regard in which I hold you ought not to
- 18:36Speaker 4: astonish you, and you can claim it from the whole world, sir.
- 18:43Speaker 4: Our whole kingdom contains nothing above the dazzling merit which
- 18:48Speaker 4: people discover in you, sir. Yes, for my part, I
- 18:55Speaker 4: prefer you to the most important in it.
- 18:59Speaker 2: Sir.
- 19:01Speaker 4: May Heaven strike me dead if I lie, And to
- 19:06Speaker 4: convince you on this very spot of my feelings, allow me, sir,
- 19:14Speaker 4: to embrace you with all my heart, and to solicit
- 19:18Speaker 4: a place in your friendship your hand, if you please,
- 19:25Speaker 4: will you promise me your friendship?
- 19:28Speaker 3: Sir? What you refuse me, sir, you do me too
- 19:36Speaker 3: much honor. But friendship is a sacred thing, and to
- 19:40Speaker 3: lavish it on every occasion is surely to profane it.
- 19:45Speaker 3: Judgment and choice should preside at such a compact. We
- 19:50Speaker 3: ought to know more of each other before engaging ourselves,
- 19:54Speaker 3: and it may happen that our dispositions are such, though
- 19:58Speaker 3: we may both of us pent of our bargain.
- 20:02Speaker 4: Upon my word, that is wisely said, and I esteem
- 20:08Speaker 4: you all the more for it. Let us therefore leave
- 20:13Speaker 4: it to time to form such a pleasing bond. But meanwhile,
- 20:20Speaker 4: I am entirely at your disposal if you have any
- 20:25Speaker 4: business at court. Everyone knows how well I stand with
- 20:29Speaker 4: the King. I have his private ear, and upon my word,
- 20:36Speaker 4: he treats me in everything with the utmost intimacy. In short,
- 20:44Speaker 4: I am yours in every emergency, and as you are
- 20:49Speaker 4: a man of brilliant parts, and to inaugurate our charming amity,
- 20:55Speaker 4: I come to read you a sonnet which I made
- 20:59Speaker 4: a little while ago, and to know whether it be
- 21:03Speaker 4: good enough for publicity.
- 21:07Speaker 3: I'm not fit, sir, to decide such a matter. You
- 21:11Speaker 3: will therefore excuse me.
- 21:13Speaker 4: Why so.
- 21:16Speaker 3: I have the failing of being a little more sincere
- 21:19Speaker 3: in those things that is necessary.
- 21:23Speaker 4: The very thing I ask, and I should have reason
- 21:27Speaker 4: to complain if, in laying myself open to you, that
- 21:32Speaker 4: you might give me your frank opinion, you should deceive
- 21:36Speaker 4: me and disguise anything from me.
- 21:40Speaker 3: If that be the case, Sir, I'm perfectly willing.
- 21:44Speaker 4: Sonnet. It is a sonnet, hope. It is to a
- 21:54Speaker 4: lady who flattered my passion with some hope hope. And
- 22:01Speaker 4: they are not long pompous versus, but mild, tender, and
- 22:06Speaker 4: melting declines.
- 22:08Speaker 1: At every one of these interruptions, he looks at Alceste.
- 22:12Speaker 3: We shall see, hope.
- 22:16Speaker 4: I do not know whether the style will strike you
- 22:18Speaker 4: as sufficiently clear and easy, and whether you will approve
- 22:23Speaker 4: my choice of words.
- 22:25Speaker 3: We shall soon see, sir.
- 22:28Speaker 4: Besides, you must know that I was only a quarter
- 22:31Speaker 4: of an hour in composing it.
- 22:34Speaker 3: Let us hear, sir, the time signifies nothing.
- 22:38Speaker 1: Orante reads hope.
- 22:41Speaker 4: It is true oft gives relief. Rocks for a while
- 22:46Speaker 4: are tedious pain. But what a poor advantage phyllis when
- 22:54Speaker 4: naught remains and all is gone.
- 22:58Speaker 2: Hi am already charmed with this little bit.
- 23:01Speaker 1: I'll syte softly to filinte.
- 23:05Speaker 3: What do you mean to tell me that you like
- 23:08Speaker 3: this stuff?
- 23:10Speaker 4: You once had some complacency, but less would have sufficed.
- 23:17Speaker 4: You should not take that trouble to give me naught but.
- 23:23Speaker 2: Hope in what pretty terms these thoughts are put?
- 23:28Speaker 3: How now you file flatterer, you praise this rubbish.
- 23:33Speaker 4: If I must wait eternally, my passion, driven to extremes,
- 23:41Speaker 4: will fly to death. Your tender cares cannot prevent this
- 23:48Speaker 4: fair phyllis. I were in despair when we must hope forever.
- 23:56Speaker 2: The conclusion is pretty amorous, able.
- 24:01Speaker 3: A plague on that conclusion. I wish you'd had concluded
- 24:05Speaker 3: to break your nose, you poison her to the devil.
- 24:09Speaker 2: I never heard verses more skillfully turned.
- 24:13Speaker 1: Zounds orante to flinte.
- 24:16Speaker 4: You flatter me, you are under the impression.
- 24:20Speaker 2: Perhaps no, I am not flattering at all.
- 24:24Speaker 3: What else are you doing, you.
- 24:26Speaker 1: Wretch orante to alceste.
- 24:30Speaker 4: But for you you know our agreement. Speak to me,
- 24:35Speaker 4: I pray with all sincerity.
- 24:39Speaker 3: These matters, sir, are always more or less delicate, and
- 24:44Speaker 3: everyone is fond of being praised for his wit. But
- 24:47Speaker 3: I was saying one day to a certain person who
- 24:50Speaker 3: shall be nameless, when he showed me some of his verses,
- 24:54Speaker 3: that a gentleman ought at all times to exercise a
- 24:58Speaker 3: great control, or that pitch for writing which sometimes attacks us,
- 25:04Speaker 3: and should keep a tight rain over the strong propensity
- 25:08Speaker 3: which one has to display such amusements, and that in
- 25:14Speaker 3: the frequent anxiety to show their productions, people are frequently
- 25:19Speaker 3: exposed to act a very foolish part.
- 25:23Speaker 4: Do you wish to convey to me by this that
- 25:26Speaker 4: I am wrong in desiring?
- 25:29Speaker 3: I do not say that exactly. But I told him
- 25:34Speaker 3: that writing without warmth becomes a bore, that there needs
- 25:38Speaker 3: no other weakness to disgrace a man. That even if people,
- 25:42Speaker 3: on the other hand, had a hundred good qualities, we
- 25:46Speaker 3: view them from their worst sides.
- 25:49Speaker 4: Do you find anything to object to in my sonnet?
- 25:53Speaker 3: I do not say that, but to keep him from writing,
- 25:58Speaker 3: I set before his eyes how in our days that
- 26:01Speaker 3: desire has spoilt a great many very worthy people.
- 26:06Speaker 4: Do I write badly? Am I like them? In any way?
- 26:10Speaker 3: I do not say that, But in short I said
- 26:14Speaker 3: to him, what pressing need is there for you to rhyme?
- 26:19Speaker 3: And what the deuce drives you into print? If we
- 26:22Speaker 3: can pardon the sending into the world of a badly
- 26:25Speaker 3: written book, it will only be in those unfortunate men
- 26:28Speaker 3: who write for their livelihood. Believe me, resist your temptations,
- 26:34Speaker 3: keep these effusions from the public, and do not, how
- 26:38Speaker 3: muchsoever you may be asked forfeit the reputation which you
- 26:43Speaker 3: enjoy at court of being a man of sense and
- 26:47Speaker 3: a gentleman, to take from the hands of a greedy
- 26:51Speaker 3: printer that of a ridiculous and wretched author. That is
- 26:56Speaker 3: what I try to make him understand.
- 27:00Speaker 4: Well and good. And I seem to understand you. But
- 27:03Speaker 4: I should like to know what there is in my
- 27:06Speaker 4: sonnet too candidly.
- 27:09Speaker 3: You had better put it in your closet. You've been
- 27:13Speaker 3: following bad models, and your expressions are not at all natural. Pray,
- 27:20Speaker 3: what is Rocks for a while are tedious pain? And
- 27:26Speaker 3: what when not remains and all is gone? What you
- 27:33Speaker 3: should not take that trouble to give me naught but hope?
- 27:38Speaker 3: And what phyllis I were in despair when we must
- 27:45Speaker 3: hope forever. This figurative style that people are so vain
- 27:50Speaker 3: of is beside all good taste and truth. It is
- 27:54Speaker 3: only a play upon words, sheer affectation, and it is
- 27:59Speaker 3: not the that nature speaks. The wretched taste of the
- 28:03Speaker 3: age is what I dislike in this. Our forefathers, unpolished
- 28:08Speaker 3: as they were, had a much better one. And I
- 28:11Speaker 3: value all that is admired nowadays, far less than an
- 28:15Speaker 3: old song which I am going to repeat to you.
- 28:20Speaker 3: Had our great monarch granted me his paris large and fair,
- 28:27Speaker 3: and I straightway must quit for I the love of
- 28:31Speaker 3: my true dear, than would I say, King Hall, I
- 28:38Speaker 3: pray take back your paris fair. I love much more,
- 28:45Speaker 3: my dear, I trow, I love much more, my dear.
- 28:52Speaker 3: This versification is not rich, and the style is antiquated,
- 28:57Speaker 3: But do you not see that it is far better
- 29:00Speaker 3: than all those trumpery trifles against which good sense revolts,
- 29:06Speaker 3: and that in this passion speaks from the heart. Had
- 29:12Speaker 3: our great monarch granted me his paris large and fair,
- 29:19Speaker 3: and I straightway must quit for I the love of
- 29:24Speaker 3: my true dear, then would I say, King Hall, I
- 29:30Speaker 3: pray take back your paris fair. I love much more,
- 29:37Speaker 3: my dear, I trow I love much more, my dear.
- 29:44Speaker 3: This is what a really loving heart would say.
- 29:48Speaker 1: To Flinte who is laughing.
- 29:51Speaker 3: Yes, Master Wegg, in spite of all your wit, I
- 29:55Speaker 3: care more for this than for all the florid pomp
- 29:58Speaker 3: and the tinsel which everybody is admiring nowadays.
- 30:03Speaker 4: And I I maintain that my verses are very good.
- 30:09Speaker 3: Doubtless you have your reason for thinking them so. But
- 30:13Speaker 3: you will allow me to have mine, which, with your permission,
- 30:18Speaker 3: will remain independent.
- 30:21Speaker 4: It is enough for me that others prize them.
- 30:25Speaker 3: That is because they know how to dissemble, which I
- 30:29Speaker 3: do not.
- 30:30Speaker 4: Do you really believe that you have such a great
- 30:33Speaker 4: share of wit?
- 30:35Speaker 3: If I praised your verses, I should have more.
- 30:40Speaker 4: I shall do very well without your approbation.
- 30:45Speaker 3: You will have to do without it, if it be
- 30:47Speaker 3: all the same.
- 30:49Speaker 4: I should like much to see you compose some on
- 30:52Speaker 4: the same subject, just to have a sample of your style.
- 30:57Speaker 3: I might perchance make some as bad, but I should
- 31:01Speaker 3: take good care not to show them to anyone.
- 31:06Speaker 4: You are mightily positive and this great sufficiency.
- 31:12Speaker 3: Pray seek someone else to flatter you, not.
- 31:14Speaker 4: Me, but my little sir. Drop this haughty tone.
- 31:21Speaker 3: In truth, my big sir, I shall do as I like.
- 31:26Speaker 1: Flinte coming between them.
- 31:28Speaker 2: Stop, gentlemen, that is carrying the matter too far cease,
- 31:33Speaker 2: I pray.
- 31:34Speaker 4: Ah, I am wrong, I confess, and I leave the
- 31:39Speaker 4: field to you. I am your servant, sir, most heartily.
- 31:46Speaker 3: And I, sir, am your most humble servant.
- 31:52Speaker 1: Scene three flinte, I'll saste.
- 31:56Speaker 2: Well, you see by being too since you have got
- 32:01Speaker 2: a nice affair on your hands. I saw that, or
- 32:04Speaker 2: aunt in order to be flattered.
- 32:06Speaker 3: Do not talk to me? But no more society for me?
- 32:11Speaker 2: Is it too much?
- 32:12Speaker 3: Leave me alone? If I not another word? But what
- 32:17Speaker 3: I will hear? No more?
- 32:19Speaker 2: But again people insult zounds.
- 32:24Speaker 3: This is too much. Do not dog my steps.
- 32:28Speaker 2: You are making fun of me. I shall not leave you.
- 32:33Speaker 1: End of Act one, Act too Scene one. I'll ceste solemonae.
- 32:41Speaker 3: Will you have me speak candidly to you, madam? Well, then,
- 32:46Speaker 3: I'm very much dissatisfied with your behavior, very angry when
- 32:51Speaker 3: I think of it, and I perceive that we shall
- 32:54Speaker 3: have to break with each other. Yes, I should only
- 32:58Speaker 3: deceive you. Were I to speak otherwise, sooner or later,
- 33:03Speaker 3: our rupture is unavoidable. And if I were to promise
- 33:07Speaker 3: the contrary a thousand times, I should not be able
- 33:11Speaker 3: to bear this any longer.
- 33:14Speaker 6: Oh, I see. It is to quarrel with me that
- 33:17Speaker 6: you wish to conduct me home.
- 33:20Speaker 3: I do not quarrel, but your disposition, madam, is too
- 33:25Speaker 3: ready to give any first comer an entrance into your heart.
- 33:31Speaker 3: Too many admirers beset you, and my temper cannot put
- 33:35Speaker 3: up with that.
- 33:36Speaker 6: Am I to blame for having too many admirers? Can
- 33:40Speaker 6: I prevent people from thinking me amiable?
- 33:43Speaker 5: And?
- 33:43Speaker 6: Am I to take a stick to drive them away
- 33:46Speaker 6: when they endeavor by tender means to visit me?
- 33:50Speaker 3: No, madam, there is no need for a stick, but
- 33:54Speaker 3: only a heart, less yielding and less melting at their
- 33:59Speaker 3: love tails. I am aware that your good looks accompany
- 34:03Speaker 3: you go where you will, But your reception retains those
- 34:07Speaker 3: whom your eyes attract, and that gentleness accorded to those
- 34:12Speaker 3: who surrender their arms finishes on their hearts. The sway
- 34:17Speaker 3: which your charms began, the too agreeable expectation which you
- 34:22Speaker 3: offer them, increases their assiduities towards you and your complacency
- 34:29Speaker 3: a little less extended would drive away the great crowd
- 34:33Speaker 3: of so many admirers. But tell me, at least, madam,
- 34:38Speaker 3: by what good fortune Cluton has the happiness of pleasing
- 34:42Speaker 3: you so mightily? Upon what basis of merit and sublime
- 34:47Speaker 3: virtue do you ground the honor of your regard for him?
- 34:52Speaker 3: Is it by the long nail of his little finger
- 34:56Speaker 3: that he has acquired the esteem which you display for him.
- 35:00Speaker 3: Are you, like all the rest of the fashionable world,
- 35:04Speaker 3: fascinated by the dazzling merit of his fair wig? Do
- 35:09Speaker 3: his great roles make you love him? Do as many
- 35:13Speaker 3: ribbons charm you? Is it by the attraction of his
- 35:18Speaker 3: large rhingrave that he has conquered your heart? Whilst at
- 35:23Speaker 3: the same time he pretended to be your slave, or
- 35:28Speaker 3: have his manner of smiling and his falsetto voice found
- 35:34Speaker 3: out the secret of moving your feelings.
- 35:37Speaker 6: How unjustly you take umbrage at him? Do not you
- 35:41Speaker 6: know why I countenance him, and that he has promised
- 35:44Speaker 6: to interest all his friends in my lawsuits.
- 35:47Speaker 3: Lose your law suit, madam, with patience, and do not
- 35:51Speaker 3: countenance a rival whom I detest.
- 35:55Speaker 6: But you are getting jealous of the whole world.
- 35:58Speaker 3: It is because the whole world is so kindly received
- 36:02Speaker 3: by you that is.
- 36:04Speaker 6: The very thing to calm your frightened mind. Because my
- 36:07Speaker 6: goodwill is diffused over all, you would have more reason
- 36:11Speaker 6: to be offended if you saw me entirely occupied with one.
- 36:15Speaker 3: But as for me, whom you accuse of too much jealousy,
- 36:20Speaker 3: what have I more than any of them? Madam?
- 36:23Speaker 6: Pray the happiness of knowing that you are beloved?
- 36:28Speaker 3: And what grounds has my love sick heart for believing it?
- 36:33Speaker 6: I think that as I've taken the trouble to tell
- 36:35Speaker 6: you so, such an avowal ought to satisfy you.
- 36:39Speaker 3: But who will assure me that you may not, at
- 36:43Speaker 3: the same time say as much to everybody else?
- 36:47Speaker 6: Perhaps certainly for a lover. This is a pretty amorous speech,
- 36:52Speaker 6: and you make me out a very nice lady. Well
- 36:56Speaker 6: to remove such a suspicion, I retract this moment everything
- 37:00Speaker 6: I have said, and no one but yourself shall, for
- 37:03Speaker 6: the future impose upon you will that satisfy you.
- 37:08Speaker 3: Zounds, Why do I love you so? Ah? If ever
- 37:15Speaker 3: I get heart whole out of your hands, I shall
- 37:19Speaker 3: bless Heaven for this rare good fortune. I make no
- 37:24Speaker 3: secret of it. I do all that is possible to
- 37:27Speaker 3: tear this unfortunate attachment from my heart. But hither orto.
- 37:33Speaker 3: My greatest efforts have been of no avail, And it
- 37:36Speaker 3: is for my sins that I love you.
- 37:39Speaker 6: Thus, it is very true that your affection for me
- 37:43Speaker 6: is unequaled.
- 37:44Speaker 3: As for that I can challenge the whole world. My
- 37:48Speaker 3: love for you cannot be conceived, And never, Madam, has
- 37:54Speaker 3: any man loved as I do.
- 37:57Speaker 6: Your method, however, is entirely new. For you love people
- 38:02Speaker 6: only to quarrel with them. It isnt peevish expressions alone
- 38:05Speaker 6: that your feelings vent themselves. No one ever saw such
- 38:09Speaker 6: a grumbling swain.
- 38:12Speaker 3: But it lies with you alone to dissipate this ill humor.
- 38:16Speaker 3: For mercy's sake, let us make an end of all
- 38:19Speaker 3: these bickerings, deal openly with each other, and try to
- 38:24Speaker 3: put a stop.
- 38:27Speaker 1: Scene two, solemonae alceste basque.
- 38:32Speaker 6: What is the matter?
- 38:33Speaker 7: A cast is below?
- 38:36Speaker 6: Very well? Bid him come up?
- 38:39Speaker 1: Scene three, solemonae alceste?
- 38:44Speaker 3: What can one never have a little private conversation with you?
- 38:49Speaker 3: You're always ready to receive company, and you cannot, for
- 38:53Speaker 3: a single instant make up your mind to be not
- 38:57Speaker 3: at home?
- 38:58Speaker 6: Do you wish me to quarrel with a cast?
- 39:01Speaker 3: You have such regard for people, which I by no
- 39:05Speaker 3: means like he.
- 39:07Speaker 6: Is a man never to forgive me if he knew
- 39:10Speaker 6: that his presence can annoy me?
- 39:12Speaker 3: And what is that to you? To inconvenience yourself?
- 39:16Speaker 6: So what good heaven the amity of such as he
- 39:20Speaker 6: is of importance? They are a kind of people who, oh,
- 39:24Speaker 6: do not know how have acquired the right to be
- 39:27Speaker 6: heard at court. They take their part in every conversation.
- 39:31Speaker 6: They can do you no good, but they may do
- 39:34Speaker 6: you harm. And whatever support one may find elsewhere, it
- 39:38Speaker 6: will never do to be on bad terms or those
- 39:40Speaker 6: very noisy gentry.
- 39:43Speaker 3: In short, whatever people may say or do, you always
- 39:48Speaker 3: find reasons to bear with everyone, and your very careful judgment.
- 39:56Speaker 1: Seem for Alceste solemonae basque.
- 40:00Speaker 7: Catandra is here too, Madame exactly.
- 40:05Speaker 1: So wishes to go?
- 40:07Speaker 6: Where are you wanting to?
- 40:09Speaker 3: I am going stay?
- 40:11Speaker 8: For what?
- 40:13Speaker 6: Stay?
- 40:14Speaker 3: I cannot? I wish it, I will not. These conversations
- 40:21Speaker 3: only worry me, and it is too bad of you
- 40:24Speaker 3: to wish me to endure them.
- 40:26Speaker 6: Oh, I wish it, I wish it.
- 40:29Speaker 3: No, it is impossible.
- 40:33Speaker 6: Very well, then go be gone. You can do as
- 40:36Speaker 6: you like.
- 40:39Speaker 1: Scene five Eliante feline a castey clitandre, Alceste solemonae basque
- 40:50Speaker 1: eleante two solemonae, he.
- 40:53Speaker 9: Added two marquis coming up with us. Has anyone told.
- 40:57Speaker 6: You yes to basque plays chairs for everyone?
- 41:03Speaker 1: Basque places chairs and exit to Alceste.
- 41:08Speaker 6: You are not.
- 41:09Speaker 3: Gone, No, but I am determined, madam, to have you
- 41:14Speaker 3: make up your mind, either for them or for me.
- 41:18Speaker 6: Hold your tongue.
- 41:20Speaker 3: This very day you shall explain yourself.
- 41:24Speaker 6: You are losing your senses.
- 41:26Speaker 3: Not at all, you shall declare yourself. Indeed, you must
- 41:32Speaker 3: take your stand.
- 41:34Speaker 6: You're jesting.
- 41:35Speaker 3: I believe not so, But you must choose. I have
- 41:40Speaker 3: been too patient, he get I've.
- 41:45Speaker 10: Just come from the loof where Clays at the levy
- 41:47Speaker 10: made himself very ridiculous? Has he not some friend who
- 41:52Speaker 10: could charitably enlighten him upon his manners?
- 41:56Speaker 6: Truth to say, he compromises himself very much in society.
- 42:00Speaker 6: Everywhere he carries himself with an air that is noticed
- 42:02Speaker 6: at first sight, And when after a short absence you
- 42:06Speaker 6: meet him again, he is still more absurd than ever.
- 42:11Speaker 5: A god tok have absurd people. Just now, one of
- 42:15Speaker 5: the most tedious ones has annoyed me. That reason now
- 42:19Speaker 5: demon kept me, if you please, for a full hour
- 42:23Speaker 5: in the broiling sun, away from my sedan chair.
- 42:28Speaker 3: He is a.
- 42:28Speaker 6: Strange talker, and a one who always finds the means
- 42:31Speaker 6: of telling you nothing with a great flow of words.
- 42:35Speaker 6: There is no sense at all in his tittle tattle,
- 42:37Speaker 6: and all that we.
- 42:38Speaker 1: Hear is but noise eliante to feline.
- 42:43Speaker 9: This beginning is not bad, and the conversation takes a
- 42:47Speaker 9: sufficiently agreeable turn against our neighbors.
- 42:52Speaker 10: Tim Ont, too, Madam, is another original.
- 42:55Speaker 6: He is a complete mystery from top to toe. He
- 42:58Speaker 6: throws upon you in passing a bewildered glance, and who
- 43:03Speaker 6: without having anything to do, is always busy. Whatever he
- 43:07Speaker 6: utters is accompanied with grimaces. He quite oppresses people by
- 43:11Speaker 6: his ceremonies to interrupt a conversation. He has always a
- 43:15Speaker 6: secret to whisper to you, and that secret turns out
- 43:19Speaker 6: to be nothing of the merest molehill. He makes a
- 43:22Speaker 6: mountain and whispers everything in your ear, even to a
- 43:27Speaker 6: good day.
- 43:28Speaker 11: And Gerald Madam.
- 43:31Speaker 6: That tiresome story teller. He never comes down from his
- 43:35Speaker 6: nobleman's pedestal. He continually mixes with the best society, and
- 43:39Speaker 6: never quotes anyone of minor rank than a duke, prince
- 43:43Speaker 6: or princess. Rank is his hobby, and his conversation is
- 43:47Speaker 6: of nothing but horses, carriages and dogs. He these and
- 43:52Speaker 6: thous passes of the highest standing, and the word sir
- 43:56Speaker 6: is quite obsolete with him.
- 43:59Speaker 10: It is said that he is on the best of
- 44:01Speaker 10: terms with bellize.
- 44:03Speaker 6: Oh, poor silly women, and the drearriest company. When she
- 44:07Speaker 6: comes to visit me, I suffer from martyrdom. One has
- 44:11Speaker 6: to rack one's brains perpetually to find out what to
- 44:14Speaker 6: say to her, and the impossibility of her expressing her
- 44:17Speaker 6: thoughts allows the conversation to drop every minute in vain.
- 44:22Speaker 6: You try to overcome her stupid silence by the assistance
- 44:25Speaker 6: of the most commonplace topics, even the fine, whether the rain,
- 44:29Speaker 6: the heat, and the cordor subjects which with her are
- 44:33Speaker 6: soon exhausted. Yes, for all that her cause unbearable enough,
- 44:39Speaker 6: are prolonged to an insufferable length, and you may consult
- 44:42Speaker 6: the clock or yawn twenty times, but she stirs no
- 44:46Speaker 6: more than a log of wood.
- 44:49Speaker 11: What think you have at last?
- 44:51Speaker 6: Oh, what excessive pride? He is a man positively puffed
- 44:56Speaker 6: out with conceit. His self importance is never sat with
- 45:00Speaker 6: the court against which he invades daily, And whenever an office,
- 45:05Speaker 6: a place, or a living is bestowed on another, he
- 45:08Speaker 6: is sure to think himself unjustly treat it.
- 45:11Speaker 10: But young plon whom the most respectable people go to see,
- 45:15Speaker 10: what say you of him?
- 45:17Speaker 6: That's just to his cook. He owes his distinction and
- 45:20Speaker 6: to his table that people pay visits.
- 45:23Speaker 9: He takes pains to provide the most dainty dishes.
- 45:27Speaker 6: True, but I should be glad if he would not
- 45:29Speaker 6: dish up himself. His foolish person is a very bad dish,
- 45:34Speaker 6: which to my thinking, spoils every entertainment which he gives.
- 45:38Speaker 2: His uncle Damis is very much esteemed. What say you
- 45:42Speaker 2: to him? Madam?
- 45:43Speaker 6: He is one of my friends.
- 45:46Speaker 2: I think him a perfect gentleman and sensible enough.
- 45:50Speaker 6: True, but he pretends to too much wit, which annoys me.
- 45:54Speaker 6: He is always upon stilts, and in all his conversations
- 45:58Speaker 6: one sees in labry to say smart things. Since he
- 46:01Speaker 6: took it into his head to be clever, he is
- 46:04Speaker 6: so difficult to please that nothing suits his taste. He
- 46:08Speaker 6: must needs fine mistakes and everything that one writes and
- 46:11Speaker 6: thinks that to bestow praise does not become a wit,
- 46:15Speaker 6: that to find faults shows learning that only fools admire
- 46:18Speaker 6: and laugh, and that by not approving of anything in
- 46:22Speaker 6: the works of our time, he is superior to all
- 46:25Speaker 6: other people. Even in conversations he finds something to cavil at.
- 46:30Speaker 6: The subjects are too trivial for his condescension, and with
- 46:34Speaker 6: arms crossed on his breast, he looks down from the
- 46:36Speaker 6: height of his intellect with pity on what everyone says, dragged.
- 46:42Speaker 5: He is very picture.
- 46:44Speaker 10: You have an admirable knack of portraying people to the
- 46:47Speaker 10: life capital.
- 46:49Speaker 3: Go on, my fine courtly friends. You spare no one,
- 46:54Speaker 3: and everyone will have his turn. Nevertheless, let but any
- 47:00Speaker 3: one of those persons appear, and we shall see you
- 47:03Speaker 3: rush to meet him, offer him your hand, and with
- 47:07Speaker 3: a flattering kiss, give weight to your protestations of being
- 47:12Speaker 3: his servant.
- 47:14Speaker 10: Why this to us? If what is said offends you,
- 47:17Speaker 10: your approach must be addressed to this lady.
- 47:21Speaker 3: No, God, zooks, it concerns you, for your assenting smiles
- 47:27Speaker 3: draw from her wit all these slanderous remarks. Her satirical
- 47:33Speaker 3: vein is incessantly recruited by the culpable incense of your flattery,
- 47:39Speaker 3: And her mind would find fewer charms in raillery if
- 47:43Speaker 3: she discovered that no one applauded her. Thus it is
- 47:47Speaker 3: that to flatterers, we ought everywhere to impute the vices
- 47:52Speaker 3: which are sown among mankind.
- 47:55Speaker 2: But why do you take so great an interest in
- 47:57Speaker 2: those people? For you would condemn the very things that
- 48:00Speaker 2: are blamed in them.
- 48:02Speaker 6: And is not this gentleman bound to contradict which you
- 48:05Speaker 6: have him subscribe to the general opinion? And must he
- 48:08Speaker 6: not everywhere display the spirit of contradiction with which Heaven
- 48:12Speaker 6: has endoubed him. Other people's sentiments can never please him.
- 48:17Speaker 6: He always supports a contrary idea, and he would think
- 48:20Speaker 6: himself too much of the common herd, were he observed
- 48:23Speaker 6: to be of anyone's opinion, but his own. The honor
- 48:26Speaker 6: of gainsaying has so many charms for him that he
- 48:29Speaker 6: very often takes up the cudgels against himself. He combats
- 48:33Speaker 6: his own sentiments as soon as he hears them from
- 48:35Speaker 6: other folk's lips.
- 48:37Speaker 3: In short, madam, the laughers are on your side, and
- 48:42Speaker 3: you may launch your satire against me.
- 48:46Speaker 2: But it is very true too that you always take
- 48:49Speaker 2: up arms against everything that is said, and that your
- 48:52Speaker 2: avowed splean cannot bear people to be praised or blamed.
- 48:57Speaker 3: Sedeth spleen against mankind is always seasonable, because they are
- 49:03Speaker 3: never in the right. And I see that in all
- 49:07Speaker 3: their dealings they either praise impertinently or censure rashly.
- 49:13Speaker 6: Faults.
- 49:14Speaker 3: No, madam, No, though I were to die for it.
- 49:18Speaker 3: You have pastimes which I cannot tolerate, and people are
- 49:23Speaker 3: very wrong to nourish in your heart this great attachment
- 49:28Speaker 3: to the very faults which they blame in you.
- 49:32Speaker 10: As for myself, I do not know, but I openly
- 49:35Speaker 10: acknowledge that hitherto I have thought this lady hopeless.
- 49:39Speaker 5: I see that she is endowed with charms and attractions.
- 49:43Speaker 11: But the faults which she has have not struck me.
- 49:47Speaker 3: So much the more have they struck me. And far
- 49:51Speaker 3: from appearing blind, she knows that I take care to
- 49:55Speaker 3: reproach her with them. The more we love anyone, the
- 49:59Speaker 3: less we are a flatterer. True love shows itself by
- 50:04Speaker 3: overlooking nothing. And were I a lady, I would banish
- 50:09Speaker 3: all those mean spirited lovers who submit to all my sentiments,
- 50:14Speaker 3: in whose mild complacencies every moment offer up incense to
- 50:19Speaker 3: my vagaries.
- 50:21Speaker 6: In short, if hearts were ruled by you, we ought
- 50:24Speaker 6: to love well, to relinquish all tenderness, and make it
- 50:28Speaker 6: the highest aim of perfect detachment, to rail heartily at
- 50:31Speaker 6: the persons we love.
- 50:34Speaker 9: Love, generally speaking, is little apt to put up with
- 50:38Speaker 9: these decrees, and lovers are always observed to extol their choice.
- 50:43Speaker 9: Their passion never cease aught to blame. In it, and
- 50:46Speaker 9: in the beloved, all things become lovable. They think their
- 50:50Speaker 9: faults perfections, and invent sweet terms to call them by.
- 50:55Speaker 9: The pale one vice with the jessamine in fairness, another
- 51:00Speaker 9: dark enough to frighten people, becomes an adorable brunette. The
- 51:05Speaker 9: lean one has a good shape and is life. The
- 51:08Speaker 9: stout one has a portly and majestic bearing. The slattern,
- 51:12Speaker 9: who has few charms, passes under the name of a
- 51:16Speaker 9: careless beauty. The giantess seems a very goddess in their sight.
- 51:20Speaker 10: The dwarf is.
- 51:21Speaker 9: An epitome of all the wonders of heaven. The proud
- 51:25Speaker 9: one has the soul worthy of a diadem. The artful
- 51:29Speaker 9: brims with wit. The silly one is very good natured,
- 51:32Speaker 9: the chatterbox is good tempered, and the silent one modest
- 51:36Speaker 9: and reticent. Thus a passionate swain loves even the very
- 51:41Speaker 9: faults of those of whom he is enamored.
- 51:45Speaker 3: And I maintain.
- 51:47Speaker 6: That let us drop the subject and take a turn.
- 51:50Speaker 6: Or to you in the gallery. What are you going, gentlemen, No, no, no, madam.
- 51:56Speaker 3: The fear of their departure troubles you very much. Sh
- 52:01Speaker 3: go when you like, gentlemen, But I tell you beforehand
- 52:05Speaker 3: that I shall not leave until.
- 52:07Speaker 5: You leave unless it inconvenience. Is this lady, I have
- 52:12Speaker 5: nothing to call me else with the whole day I probode.
- 52:15Speaker 10: I'm present when the king retires. I have no other
- 52:18Speaker 10: matter to call me away.
- 52:20Speaker 1: Solemonae to Alceste.
- 52:23Speaker 6: You only joke.
- 52:24Speaker 3: I fancy not at all. We shall soon see whether
- 52:30Speaker 3: it is me of whom you wish to get rid.
- 52:34Speaker 1: Scene six Alceste Solemonae eleiante a caste feline clitandre basque
- 52:45Speaker 1: basque to Alceste.
- 52:48Speaker 7: There is a man downstairs, Sir, who wish to speak
- 52:51Speaker 7: to you on business which cannot be postponed.
- 52:54Speaker 3: Tell him that I have no such urgent business.
- 52:59Speaker 7: He wears a jackie with large plated skirts embroidered with gold.
- 53:04Speaker 1: Solemonae to Alceste, guarant see who it is, Rolse let
- 53:08Speaker 1: him come in. Seam seven Alceste Solemonae eleante accoste feline
- 53:18Speaker 1: cretandre a guard of the mare Chaise. Alceste going to
- 53:24Speaker 1: meet to the guard.
- 53:26Speaker 3: What may be your pleasure?
- 53:27Speaker 12: Come in, sir, I would have a few words privately
- 53:31Speaker 12: with you, sir.
- 53:33Speaker 3: You may speak aloud, sir, so as to let me know.
- 53:37Speaker 12: The Marshals of France, whose commands I bear hereby, summon
- 53:41Speaker 12: you to appear before them immediately, sir, whom me sir yourself?
- 53:48Speaker 2: And for what it is this ridiculous affair between you
- 53:53Speaker 2: and ourante?
- 53:54Speaker 6: What do you mean?
- 53:56Speaker 2: Ron and he have been insulting each other just now
- 53:59Speaker 2: about some trifling verses which he did not like, and
- 54:03Speaker 2: the marshals wish to nip the affair in the bud.
- 54:06Speaker 3: But I shall never show any base complacency.
- 54:10Speaker 2: But you must obey the summons. Come get ready?
- 54:14Speaker 3: How will they settle this between us? Will the edict
- 54:18Speaker 3: of these gentlemen oblige me to approve of the verses
- 54:23Speaker 3: which are the cause of our quarrel. I will not
- 54:26Speaker 3: retract what I have said. I think them abominable.
- 54:31Speaker 2: But with a little milder tone.
- 54:34Speaker 3: I will not abate one jot. The verses are execrable.
- 54:39Speaker 2: You ought to show some more accommodating spirit.
- 54:43Speaker 3: Come along, I shall go, But nothing shall induce me
- 54:48Speaker 3: to retract.
- 54:50Speaker 2: Go and show yourself.
- 54:53Speaker 3: Unless an express order from the King himself commands me
- 54:57Speaker 3: to approve of the verses which cause all this trouble.
- 55:01Speaker 3: I shall ever maintain, egad that they are bad, that
- 55:06Speaker 3: a fellow deserves hanging for making them.
- 55:10Speaker 1: To Clitandre and a Caste, who are laughing.
- 55:14Speaker 3: Hang it, gentlemen. I did not think I was so
- 55:17Speaker 3: amusing that quickly. Whether you're wanted, I am going madam,
- 55:22Speaker 3: but shall come back here to finish our discussion.
- 55:29Speaker 1: End of Act two, Act three, Scene one, Clitandre a Caste, My.
- 55:37Speaker 10: Dear marquis, you appear mightily pleased with yourself. Everything amuses you,
- 55:43Speaker 10: and nothing discomposes you. But really and truly thank you,
- 55:47Speaker 10: without flattering yourself, that you have good reasons for appearing
- 55:51Speaker 10: so joyful.
- 55:52Speaker 5: Big guy, I do not find on looking at myself,
- 55:56Speaker 5: and it matter to be sorrowful about. I am wealthy,
- 56:00Speaker 5: be young, and then descending from a family which, with
- 56:03Speaker 5: some appearance of truth, may be cold noble.
- 56:06Speaker 11: And I think that by the rank which my lineage conders.
- 56:10Speaker 5: About me, there are very few offices to which I
- 56:12Speaker 5: might not aspire, Oh for courage, which we ought especially
- 56:17Speaker 5: to value.
- 56:18Speaker 11: It's well known this without identity.
- 56:21Speaker 5: That I do not like it, and people have seen
- 56:24Speaker 5: me carry on affair of honor in a manner sufficient
- 56:27Speaker 5: daily growth and brisk, as for which I have some
- 56:31Speaker 5: no doubt, And as for good taste, to judge and
- 56:35Speaker 5: reason upon everything without the study at first night, of
- 56:39Speaker 5: which I am very fond to take my place as
- 56:42Speaker 5: a critic upon the stage, to give my opinion, as
- 56:45Speaker 5: a judge, to applaud and point have the best passages
- 56:49Speaker 5: by repeated bravos. I am sufficiently androit. I carry myself well,
- 56:54Speaker 5: and am good looking, have particularly fine teeth.
- 56:59Speaker 11: And a good figure.
- 57:00Speaker 5: I believe, without flattering myself, that as for dressing and
- 57:04Speaker 5: good taste, very few will dispute the palm with me.
- 57:09Speaker 5: I find myself treated with very possible consideration, very much
- 57:13Speaker 5: beloved by the fair sex, and I sound very well
- 57:16Speaker 5: with the King. With all that, I think, dear Marquis,
- 57:20Speaker 5: that one might be satisfied with oneself anywhere.
- 57:23Speaker 10: True, but finding so many easy conquests elsewhere, why come
- 57:28Speaker 10: you here to utter fruitless size.
- 57:31Speaker 5: I Zams, I have neither the wish nor the disposition
- 57:36Speaker 5: to put up with indifference of any woman. I leave
- 57:39Speaker 5: it too awkward, and ordinary people to burn constantly for cruel,
- 57:44Speaker 5: their maidens to languish their feet, and to bear with
- 57:48Speaker 5: their severities, to invoke.
- 57:50Speaker 11: The aid of sighs and tears, and to.
- 57:53Speaker 5: Endeavor by long and persistent asiduities to obtain what is
- 57:58Speaker 5: denied to their little merit. But men of my stamp marquis,
- 58:03Speaker 5: are not made to love on trust and be at
- 58:06Speaker 5: all the expenses themselves be the merit are.
- 58:10Speaker 11: The they're ever so great. I think, thank.
- 58:13Speaker 5: Kevin, that we have our value as well as they,
- 58:17Speaker 5: that it is not reasonable to enthrall our heart lag
- 58:20Speaker 5: of mine without it's costing them anything, and that to
- 58:24Speaker 5: weigh everything and a just skill, the advances should be
- 58:28Speaker 5: at least reciprocal.
- 58:31Speaker 10: Then you think that you are right enough here, Marquis.
- 58:34Speaker 11: I have some reason, Marquis, to think, so.
- 58:37Speaker 10: Believe me to invest yourself off this great mistake. You
- 58:41Speaker 10: flatter yourself, dear friend, and are all together self deceived.
- 58:45Speaker 5: It is true I flatter myself and am in fact
- 58:50Speaker 5: altogether I'm self deceived.
- 58:52Speaker 10: But what causes you to judge your happiness to be complete?
- 58:56Speaker 10: I flatter myself upon what do you grount your belief
- 59:00Speaker 10: I am altogether self deceived? Have you any show proofs.
- 59:05Speaker 11: I am mistaken?
- 59:06Speaker 10: I tell you has Solomon made you any secret avowal
- 59:09Speaker 10: of her inclinations?
- 59:11Speaker 11: No, I am very badly treated by her.
- 59:15Speaker 10: Answer me, I pray.
- 59:17Speaker 11: I meet with nothing buttery buffs.
- 59:19Speaker 10: A truce to your raillery, and tell me what hope
- 59:22Speaker 10: she has held out to you.
- 59:24Speaker 5: I am the rejected and you are the lucky one.
- 59:28Speaker 5: She is a great version to me, And one of
- 59:30Speaker 5: these days I shall have to hang myself.
- 59:34Speaker 10: Nonsense, Shall we, too, Marquis, to adjust our love affairs,
- 59:38Speaker 10: make a compact together? Whenever one of us shall be
- 59:41Speaker 10: able to show a certain proof of having the greater
- 59:43Speaker 10: share in Celoman's heart, the others shall leave the field
- 59:46Speaker 10: free to the supposed conqueror, and by that means rid
- 59:50Speaker 10: him of an obstinate rival.
- 59:52Speaker 11: Here God who pleased me with these words, and I
- 59:55Speaker 11: agree to that from the bottom of my heart.
- 59:57Speaker 3: But hush.
- 1:00:00Speaker 1: Scene two Solemonae a castday Cletandre, What hare so love?
- 1:00:09Speaker 10: Madam detains us?
- 1:00:11Speaker 6: I hear a carriage below? Do you know whose it is?
- 1:00:15Speaker 10: No?
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: Scene three Solemonae a castday Cletandre basque.
- 1:00:23Speaker 7: Arcene a Ah. Madame is coming up to see you.
- 1:00:26Speaker 6: What does the women want with me?
- 1:00:29Speaker 7: Leant is downstairs talking to her, what.
- 1:00:32Speaker 6: Is she thinking about? And what brings her hair?
- 1:00:35Speaker 5: She is everywhere the reputation of being a consummate prude
- 1:00:39Speaker 5: and her erven.
- 1:00:40Speaker 6: Zeal psure down white humbug in her. Inmost soul, she
- 1:00:45Speaker 6: is as wildly as any, and her every nerve is
- 1:00:49Speaker 6: strained to hurt someone without being successful. However, she can
- 1:00:53Speaker 6: only look with envious eyes only accepted lovers of others,
- 1:00:57Speaker 6: and in her wretched condition, forsaken by all, she is
- 1:01:01Speaker 6: forever railing against the blindness of the age. She endeavors
- 1:01:05Speaker 6: to hide the dreadful isolation of her home under a
- 1:01:08Speaker 6: fourth clerk of prudishness, and to save the credit of
- 1:01:11Speaker 6: her feeble charms. She brands as criminal the power which
- 1:01:15Speaker 6: they lack. Yet a sway would not come at all
- 1:01:18Speaker 6: amiss to the lady, and she has even a tender
- 1:01:21Speaker 6: hankering after assest every attention that he pays me. She
- 1:01:26Speaker 6: looks upon as a theft committed by me, and as
- 1:01:29Speaker 6: an insult to her attractions, and her jealous spite, which
- 1:01:33Speaker 6: she can hardly hide, breaks out against me at every opportunity,
- 1:01:37Speaker 6: and in an underhand manner. In short, I never saw
- 1:01:42Speaker 6: anything to my fancy, so stupid. She is impertinent to
- 1:01:47Speaker 6: the last degree.
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: Scene for arsinoway solemonae, clitandre a castey Ah.
- 1:01:56Speaker 6: What happy chance brings you here? Madam? I was really
- 1:02:00Speaker 6: getting a easy about you.
- 1:02:02Speaker 13: I have come to give you some advice as a
- 1:02:05Speaker 13: matter of duty.
- 1:02:07Speaker 6: How very glad I am to see.
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: You exceun Clitandre and accoste laughing. Scene five are sinaway solemonae.
- 1:02:19Speaker 13: They could not have left at a more convenient opportunity.
- 1:02:23Speaker 6: Shall we sit down?
- 1:02:24Speaker 13: It is not necessary. Friendship, Madam, must especially show itself
- 1:02:30Speaker 13: in matters which may be of consequence to us. And
- 1:02:34Speaker 13: as there are none of greater importance than honor and decorum,
- 1:02:39Speaker 13: I come to prove to you by an advice which
- 1:02:42Speaker 13: closely touches your reputation, the friendship which I feel for you.
- 1:02:48Speaker 13: Yesterday I was with some people of rare virtue, where
- 1:02:52Speaker 13: the conversation turned upon you, and there your conduct, which
- 1:02:58Speaker 13: is causing some stir was, unfortunately, Madam, far from being commended.
- 1:03:04Speaker 13: That crowd of people whose visits you permit, Your gallantry
- 1:03:10Speaker 13: and the noise it makes were criticized, rather more freely
- 1:03:14Speaker 13: and more severely than I could have wished. You can
- 1:03:17Speaker 13: easily imagine whose part I took. I did all I
- 1:03:20Speaker 13: could to defend you. I exonerated you and vouched for
- 1:03:25Speaker 13: the purity of your heart and the honesty of your intentions.
- 1:03:30Speaker 13: But you know there are things in life which one
- 1:03:34Speaker 13: cannot well defend, although one may have the greatest wish
- 1:03:38Speaker 13: to do so. And I was at last obliged to
- 1:03:41Speaker 13: confess that the way in which you lived did you
- 1:03:44Speaker 13: some harm, that in the eyes of the world it
- 1:03:48Speaker 13: had a doubtful look, that there was no story so
- 1:03:53Speaker 13: ill natured as not to be everywhere told about it,
- 1:03:56Speaker 13: and that if you liked, your behavior might give less
- 1:04:01Speaker 13: cause for censure. Not that I believe that decency is
- 1:04:06Speaker 13: in any way outraged. Heaven forbid that I should harbor
- 1:04:09Speaker 13: such a thought. But the world is so ready to
- 1:04:13Speaker 13: give credit to the faintest shadow of a crime, and
- 1:04:18Speaker 13: it is not enough to live blameless oneself. Madam, I
- 1:04:23Speaker 13: believe you to be too sensible not to take in
- 1:04:26Speaker 13: a good part this useful counsel, and not to ascribe
- 1:04:30Speaker 13: it only to the inner promptings of an affection that
- 1:04:33Speaker 13: feels an interest in your welfare.
- 1:04:37Speaker 6: Madam, I have a great many thanks to return you
- 1:04:40Speaker 6: such counsel lays me under an obligation, and far from
- 1:04:44Speaker 6: taking it to mess, I intend this very moment to
- 1:04:47Speaker 6: repay the favor by giving you an advice which also
- 1:04:50Speaker 6: touches your reputation closely. And as I see you prove
- 1:04:54Speaker 6: yourself my friend by creating me with the stories that
- 1:04:56Speaker 6: are current of me, I shall follow so noise and
- 1:04:59Speaker 6: exam by informing you what is said of you. In
- 1:05:03Speaker 6: a house the other day, where I paid a visit,
- 1:05:06Speaker 6: I met some people of exemplary merit, who, while talking
- 1:05:09Speaker 6: of the proper duties of a well spent life, turned
- 1:05:12Speaker 6: the topic of the conversation upon you, madam, that your
- 1:05:16Speaker 6: prudishness and your too fervent zeal were not at all
- 1:05:20Speaker 6: cited as a good example. This affectation of a grave demeanor.
- 1:05:25Speaker 6: Your eternal conversations on wisdom and honor, your mincings and moothings,
- 1:05:29Speaker 6: are the slightest shadows of indecency which an innocent though
- 1:05:32Speaker 6: ambiguous word may convey. That lofty esteem in which you
- 1:05:36Speaker 6: hold yourself, and those pitying glances which you cast upon
- 1:05:40Speaker 6: all your frequent lectures and your acred censures on things
- 1:05:44Speaker 6: which are pure and harmless, All this, if I may
- 1:05:48Speaker 6: speak frankly to you, Madam was blamed unanimously. What is
- 1:05:53Speaker 6: the good?
- 1:05:53Speaker 5: Said they?
- 1:05:54Speaker 6: Of this modest mean and this prudent exterior, which is
- 1:05:58Speaker 6: belied by all the rest. She says, her prayers were
- 1:06:01Speaker 6: the utmost exactness. But she beats her servants and pays
- 1:06:05Speaker 6: them no wages. She displays great fervor in every place devotion,
- 1:06:10Speaker 6: but she paints and wishes to appear handsome. She covers
- 1:06:13Speaker 6: the nudities in her pictures, but loves the reality. As
- 1:06:18Speaker 6: for me, I undertook your defense against everyone and positively
- 1:06:22Speaker 6: assure them it was nothing but scandal. But the general
- 1:06:25Speaker 6: opinion went against me, and they came to the conclusion
- 1:06:28Speaker 6: that you would do well to concern yourself less about
- 1:06:30Speaker 6: the actions of others and take a little more pains
- 1:06:34Speaker 6: with your own. That one ought to look a long
- 1:06:36Speaker 6: time at one's self before thinking of condemning other people.
- 1:06:40Speaker 6: That when we wish to correct others, we ought to
- 1:06:42Speaker 6: add the weight of a blameless life, And that even them,
- 1:06:46Speaker 6: it would be better to leave it to those whom
- 1:06:48Speaker 6: Heaven has ordained for the task. Madam, I also believe
- 1:06:52Speaker 6: you to be too sensible not to take in good
- 1:06:55Speaker 6: part this useful counsel, and not to ascribe it only
- 1:06:58Speaker 6: to the inner promptings of any faction that feels an
- 1:07:01Speaker 6: interest in your welfare.
- 1:07:04Speaker 13: To whatever we may be exposed when we reprove. I
- 1:07:08Speaker 13: did not expect this retort, Madam. And by its very sting,
- 1:07:14Speaker 13: I see how my sincere advice has hurt your feelings.
- 1:07:18Speaker 6: On the contrary, Madam, And if we are reasonable, those
- 1:07:23Speaker 6: mutual counsels would become customary if honestly made usef it
- 1:07:28Speaker 6: were to a great extent destroy the excellent opinion people
- 1:07:31Speaker 6: have of themselves. It depends entirely on you whether we
- 1:07:35Speaker 6: shall continue this trustworthy practice with equal zeal, and whether
- 1:07:39Speaker 6: we shall take great care to tell each other between
- 1:07:42Speaker 6: ourselves what we hear.
- 1:07:44Speaker 4: You of me?
- 1:07:45Speaker 13: I of you, ah, Madam, I can hear nothing said
- 1:07:50Speaker 13: of you. It is in me that people find so
- 1:07:53Speaker 13: much to reprove.
- 1:07:55Speaker 6: Madam. It is easy, I believe, to blame or praise everything,
- 1:08:01Speaker 6: and everyone may be right according to their age and taste.
- 1:08:05Speaker 6: There is a time for gallantry. There is one also
- 1:08:08Speaker 6: for prutishness. One may, out of policy, take to it
- 1:08:12Speaker 6: when youthful attractions have faded away. It's sometimes, sir, to
- 1:08:16Speaker 6: hard vexatious ravages of time. I do not say that
- 1:08:20Speaker 6: I shall not follow your example one of these days.
- 1:08:23Speaker 6: Those things come with old age. But twenty, as everyone
- 1:08:27Speaker 6: well knows, is not an age to play the prude.
- 1:08:32Speaker 13: You certainly pride yourself upon a very small advantage, and
- 1:08:37Speaker 13: you boast terribly of your age. Whatever difference there may
- 1:08:41Speaker 13: be between your years and mind, there is no occasion
- 1:08:44Speaker 13: to make such a tremendous fuss about it. And I
- 1:08:48Speaker 13: am at a loss to know, madam, why you should
- 1:08:51Speaker 13: get so angry and what makes you goad me in
- 1:08:54Speaker 13: this manner?
- 1:08:56Speaker 6: And I, madam am, at an equal loss to know
- 1:08:59Speaker 6: why one here and they so bitterly against me everywhere?
- 1:09:03Speaker 9: Oh?
- 1:09:03Speaker 6: Must I always suffer for your vexations? Can I help
- 1:09:07Speaker 6: it if people refuse to pay you any attentions? If
- 1:09:10Speaker 6: men will fall in love with me, and I will
- 1:09:13Speaker 6: persist in offering me each day, there's attentions of which
- 1:09:15Speaker 6: your heart would wish to see me deprived, I cannot
- 1:09:18Speaker 6: water it, and it is not my fault. I leave
- 1:09:22Speaker 6: you the field free, and do not prevent you from
- 1:09:25Speaker 6: having charms to attract people.
- 1:09:27Speaker 13: Alas, and do you think that I would trouble myself
- 1:09:32Speaker 13: about this crowd of lovers of which you are so vain,
- 1:09:36Speaker 13: and that it is not very easy to judge at
- 1:09:39Speaker 13: what price they may be attracted nowadays, do you wish
- 1:09:43Speaker 13: to make it be believed that, judging by what is
- 1:09:46Speaker 13: going on, your merit alone attracts this crowd, that their
- 1:09:50Speaker 13: affection for you is strictly honest, and that it is
- 1:09:54Speaker 13: for nothing but your virtue that they all pay you
- 1:09:56Speaker 13: their court. People are not blinded by these ends deep pretenses.
- 1:10:01Speaker 13: The world is not duped in that way. And I
- 1:10:04Speaker 13: see many ladies who are capable of inspiring a tender feeling,
- 1:10:09Speaker 13: yet who do not succeed in attracting a crowd of bows.
- 1:10:14Speaker 13: And from that fact we may draw our conclusion that
- 1:10:18Speaker 13: these conquests are not altogether made without some great advances,
- 1:10:24Speaker 13: That no one cares to sigh for us for our
- 1:10:27Speaker 13: handsome looks only, and that the attentions bestowed on us
- 1:10:32Speaker 13: are generally dearly bought. Do not therefore, puff yourself up
- 1:10:36Speaker 13: with vain glory about the trifling advantages of a poor victory,
- 1:10:41Speaker 13: and moderate slightly the pride on your good looks, instead
- 1:10:45Speaker 13: of looking down upon people on account of them. If
- 1:10:49Speaker 13: I were at all envious about your conquests, I dare
- 1:10:52Speaker 13: say that I might manage like other people, be under
- 1:10:55Speaker 13: no restraint, and must show plainly that one may have
- 1:10:59Speaker 13: lovers one wishes for them.
- 1:11:01Speaker 6: Do have some, then, madam, and let us see you
- 1:11:04Speaker 6: try it. Endeavor to please by the extraordinary secret and
- 1:11:08Speaker 6: without let us break.
- 1:11:10Speaker 13: Off this conversation.
- 1:11:11Speaker 3: Madam.
- 1:11:12Speaker 13: It might excite too much both your temper and mine,
- 1:11:15Speaker 13: and I would have already taken my leave had I
- 1:11:19Speaker 13: not been obliged to wait for my carriage.
- 1:11:22Speaker 6: Please stay as long as you like, and do not
- 1:11:25Speaker 6: hurry yourself on that to count madam. But instead of
- 1:11:28Speaker 6: worrying you any longer with my presence, I am going
- 1:11:31Speaker 6: to give you some more pleasant company. This gentleman, who
- 1:11:35Speaker 6: comes very opportunely, will better supply my place in entertaining you.
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: Scene six Alceste Solemonae Arsinoway Assessed.
- 1:11:47Speaker 6: I have to write a few lines which I cannot
- 1:11:49Speaker 6: well delay. Please to stay with this lady. She will
- 1:11:53Speaker 6: all the more easily excuse my rudeness.
- 1:11:57Speaker 1: Scene seven Alceste Arsinoway.
- 1:12:01Speaker 13: You see, I am left here to entertain you until
- 1:12:05Speaker 13: my coach comes round as she could have devised no
- 1:12:08Speaker 13: more charming dreed for me than such a conversation. Indeed,
- 1:12:13Speaker 13: people of exceptional merit attract the esteem and love of everyone,
- 1:12:19Speaker 13: and yours has undoubtedly some secret charm that makes me
- 1:12:23Speaker 13: feel interested in all your doings. I could wish that
- 1:12:27Speaker 13: the court, with a real regard to your merits, would
- 1:12:30Speaker 13: do more justice to your deserts. You have reason to complain,
- 1:12:35Speaker 13: and it vexes me to see that day by day
- 1:12:38Speaker 13: nothing is done for you.
- 1:12:40Speaker 3: For me, madam, And by what right could I pretend
- 1:12:44Speaker 3: to anything? What service have I rendered to the state? Pray?
- 1:12:49Speaker 3: What have I done so brilliant in itself to complain
- 1:12:53Speaker 3: of the court doing nothing for me?
- 1:12:56Speaker 13: Not everyone whom the state delights to honor has und
- 1:13:00Speaker 13: signal services. There must be an opportunity as well as
- 1:13:04Speaker 13: the power and the abilities which you allow us to perceivet.
- 1:13:09Speaker 3: For Heaven's sake, let us have no more of my abilities,
- 1:13:12Speaker 3: I pray, what would you have the court to do?
- 1:13:17Speaker 3: It would have enough to do, and have its hands
- 1:13:19Speaker 3: full to discover the merits of people.
- 1:13:22Speaker 13: Sterling merit discovers itself. A great deal is made of
- 1:13:27Speaker 13: yours in certain places, And let me tell you that
- 1:13:31Speaker 13: not later than yesterday you were highly spoken of in
- 1:13:35Speaker 13: two distinguished circles by people are very great standing.
- 1:13:40Speaker 3: As for that, Madam, everyone is praise nowadays, and very
- 1:13:46Speaker 3: little discrimination is shown in our times. Everything is equally
- 1:13:51Speaker 3: endowed with great merit, so that it is no longer
- 1:13:55Speaker 3: an honor to be lauded. Praises abound, faith throw them
- 1:14:00Speaker 3: at one's head. Even my valet is put in the gazette.
- 1:14:05Speaker 13: As for me, I could wish that to bring yourself
- 1:14:09Speaker 13: into greater notice, someplace at court might tempt you. If
- 1:14:13Speaker 13: you will only give me a hint that you seriously
- 1:14:16Speaker 13: think about it. A great many engines might be set
- 1:14:20Speaker 13: in motion to serve you. And I know some people
- 1:14:23Speaker 13: whom I could employ for you, and who wouldn't manage
- 1:14:26Speaker 13: the matter smoothly enough?
- 1:14:28Speaker 3: Hm. And what should I do when I got there, Madam?
- 1:14:32Speaker 3: My disposition rather prompts me to keep away from it. Heaven,
- 1:14:38Speaker 3: when ushering me into the world, did not give me
- 1:14:41Speaker 3: a mind suited for the atmosphere of a court. I
- 1:14:45Speaker 3: have not the qualifications necessary for success nor for making
- 1:14:50Speaker 3: my fortune there. To be open and candid is my
- 1:14:54Speaker 3: chief talent I possess not the art of deceiving people
- 1:14:58Speaker 3: in conversation. And he who has not the gift of
- 1:15:02Speaker 3: concealing his thoughts ought not to stay long in those places.
- 1:15:07Speaker 3: When not at court, one has not doubtless that standing
- 1:15:12Speaker 3: and the advantage of those honorable titles which it bestows nowadays.
- 1:15:18Speaker 3: But on the other hand, one has not the vexation
- 1:15:21Speaker 3: of playing the silly fool. One is not to bear
- 1:15:25Speaker 3: a thousand galling or buffs. One is not, as it were,
- 1:15:30Speaker 3: forced to praise the verses of mister so and so,
- 1:15:34Speaker 3: to laud Madam such and such, and to put up
- 1:15:37Speaker 3: with a whims of some ingenuous marquis.
- 1:15:41Speaker 13: Since you wish it, let us drop the subject of
- 1:15:45Speaker 13: the court, But I cannot help grieving for your mores,
- 1:15:50Speaker 13: and to tell you my opinions candidly on that head,
- 1:15:53Speaker 13: I could heartily wish your affections better bestowed. You certainly
- 1:15:58Speaker 13: deserve a much high your fate, and she who has
- 1:16:02Speaker 13: fascinated you is unworthy of you.
- 1:16:06Speaker 3: Button saying so, madam, Remember I pray that this lady
- 1:16:10Speaker 3: is your friend.
- 1:16:12Speaker 13: True, But really my conscience revolts at the thought of
- 1:16:17Speaker 13: suffering any longer the wrong that is done to you.
- 1:16:21Speaker 13: The position in which I see you afflicts my very soul,
- 1:16:25Speaker 13: and I caution you that your affections are betrayed.
- 1:16:29Speaker 3: This is certainly showing me a deal of good feeling, madam,
- 1:16:35Speaker 3: And such information is very welcome to a lover.
- 1:16:39Speaker 13: Yes, for all, Suliman is my friend. I do not
- 1:16:43Speaker 13: hesitate to call her unworthy of possessing the heart of
- 1:16:47Speaker 13: a man of honor, and hers only pretends to respond
- 1:16:50Speaker 13: to yours.
- 1:16:52Speaker 3: Ah, that is very possible, Madam. One cannot look into
- 1:16:57Speaker 3: the heart, but your church feelings might well have refrained
- 1:17:03Speaker 3: from awakening such a suspicion as mine.
- 1:17:07Speaker 13: Nothing is easier than to say no more about it
- 1:17:10Speaker 13: if you do not wish to be undeceived.
- 1:17:13Speaker 3: Just so, But whatever may be openly said on this
- 1:17:17Speaker 3: subject is not half so annoying as hints thrown out,
- 1:17:22Speaker 3: And I, for one, would prefer to be plainly told
- 1:17:26Speaker 3: that only which could be clearly.
- 1:17:28Speaker 13: Proved very well, and that is sufficient. I can fully
- 1:17:34Speaker 13: enlighten you upon the subject. I will have you believe
- 1:17:37Speaker 13: nothing but what your own I see. Only have the
- 1:17:41Speaker 13: kindness to escort me as far as my house, and
- 1:17:45Speaker 13: I will give you undeniable proof of the faithlessness of
- 1:17:49Speaker 13: your fair one's heart. And if after that you can
- 1:17:54Speaker 13: find some charms in anyone else, we will perhaps find
- 1:17:59Speaker 13: you some.
- 1:18:02Speaker 1: End of fact Three acts, four seene one eleante feline.
- 1:18:10Speaker 2: No, never have I seen so obstinate a mind nor
- 1:18:14Speaker 2: a reconciliation more difficult to effect in vain. Was al
- 1:18:19Speaker 2: Sace tried on all sides, he would still maintain his opinion.
- 1:18:23Speaker 2: And never, I believe has a more curious dispute engaged
- 1:18:27Speaker 2: the attention of those gentlemen. No gentlemen, exclaimed he, I
- 1:18:33Speaker 2: will not retract, and I shall agree with you on
- 1:18:36Speaker 2: every point, except on this one. At what is urrant offended?
- 1:18:41Speaker 2: And with what does he reproach me? Does it reflect
- 1:18:44Speaker 2: upon his honor that he cannot write well? What is
- 1:18:48Speaker 2: my opinion to him which he has altogether wrongly construed?
- 1:18:52Speaker 2: One may be a perfect gentleman and write bad verses.
- 1:18:56Speaker 2: Those things have nothing to do with honor. I take
- 1:18:59Speaker 2: him to be a gallant man in every way, a
- 1:19:02Speaker 2: man of standing, of merit and courage anything you like.
- 1:19:07Speaker 2: But he is a wretched author. I shall praise, if
- 1:19:11Speaker 2: you wish, his mode of living, his lavishness, his skill
- 1:19:15Speaker 2: in writing, in fencing, and dancing. But as to praising
- 1:19:19Speaker 2: his verses, I am his humble servant. And if one
- 1:19:23Speaker 2: has not the gift of composing better, one ought to
- 1:19:27Speaker 2: leave off rhyming altogether, unless condemned to do it on
- 1:19:30Speaker 2: forfeit of one's life. In short, all the modification they could,
- 1:19:36Speaker 2: with difficulty obtained from him was to say, in what
- 1:19:40Speaker 2: he thought a much gentler tone, I am sorry, sir,
- 1:19:44Speaker 2: to be so difficult to please, and out of regard
- 1:19:47Speaker 2: for you, I would wish with all my heart to
- 1:19:51Speaker 2: have found your sonnet a little better. And they compelled
- 1:19:55Speaker 2: them to settle this dispute quickly with an embrace.
- 1:19:59Speaker 9: He is very eccentric in his doings, but I must
- 1:20:03Speaker 9: confess that I think a great deal of him, and
- 1:20:06Speaker 9: the candor upon which he prides himself has something noble
- 1:20:10Speaker 9: and heroic in it. It is a rare virtue nowadays,
- 1:20:14Speaker 9: and I, for one, should not be sorry to meet
- 1:20:17Speaker 9: with it everywhere.
- 1:20:19Speaker 2: As for me, the more I see of him, the
- 1:20:21Speaker 2: more I am amazed at that passion to which his
- 1:20:24Speaker 2: whole heart is given up. I cannot conceive how with
- 1:20:28Speaker 2: a disposition like his he has taken it into his
- 1:20:31Speaker 2: head to love at all and still less, can I
- 1:20:35Speaker 2: understand how your cousin happens to be the person to
- 1:20:38Speaker 2: whom his feelings are inclined.
- 1:20:41Speaker 9: That shows that love is not always produced by compatibility
- 1:20:44Speaker 9: of temper, And in this case all the pretty theories
- 1:20:48Speaker 9: of gentle sympathies are belied.
- 1:20:51Speaker 2: But do you think him beloved in return? To judge
- 1:20:54Speaker 2: from what we see?
- 1:20:57Speaker 9: That is a point not easily decided. How can we
- 1:21:00Speaker 9: judge whether it be true she loves? Her own heart
- 1:21:04Speaker 9: is not so very sure for what it feels. It
- 1:21:07Speaker 9: sometimes loves without being quite aware of it, and at
- 1:21:10Speaker 9: other times thinks it does without the least grounds.
- 1:21:15Speaker 2: I think that our friend will have more trouble with
- 1:21:18Speaker 2: this cousin of yours than he imagines. And to tell
- 1:21:21Speaker 2: you the truth, if he were of my mind, he
- 1:21:24Speaker 2: would bestow his affections elsewhere, and by a better choice.
- 1:21:28Speaker 2: We should see him, Madam, profit by the kind feelings
- 1:21:31Speaker 2: which your heart evinces for him.
- 1:21:34Speaker 9: As for me, I do not mince matters, and I
- 1:21:37Speaker 9: think that in such cases we ought to act with sincerity.
- 1:21:41Speaker 9: I do not run counter to his tender feelings. On
- 1:21:44Speaker 9: the contrary, I feel interested in them, and if it
- 1:21:48Speaker 9: depended only on me, I would unite him to the
- 1:21:51Speaker 9: object of his love. But if, as it may happen,
- 1:21:55Speaker 9: in love of his his affections should receive a check.
- 1:21:58Speaker 9: And if silly men should respond to the love of
- 1:22:01Speaker 9: any one else, I could easily be prevailed upon to
- 1:22:04Speaker 9: listen to his addresses, and I should have no repugnance
- 1:22:08Speaker 9: whatever to them on account of thery buff elsewhere.
- 1:22:12Speaker 2: Nor do I from my side oppose myself, Madam, to
- 1:22:17Speaker 2: the tender feelings which you entertained for him, And he himself,
- 1:22:21Speaker 2: if he wished, could inform you what I have taken
- 1:22:23Speaker 2: care to say to him on that score. But if
- 1:22:27Speaker 2: by the union of those two you should be prevented
- 1:22:30Speaker 2: from accepting his attentions, all mine would endeavor to gain
- 1:22:34Speaker 2: that great favor which your kind feelings offer to him.
- 1:22:38Speaker 2: Only too happy, Madam, to have them transferred to myself
- 1:22:42Speaker 2: if his heart could not respond to yours.
- 1:22:47Speaker 9: You are in the humor suggest Pheland.
- 1:22:50Speaker 2: Not so, Madam. I am speaking my inmost feelings. I
- 1:22:55Speaker 2: only wait the opportune moment offer myself openly, and am
- 1:22:59Speaker 2: wishing most anxiously to hurry it's advent.
- 1:23:04Speaker 1: Scene to Alceste Eleante Felline te.
- 1:23:09Speaker 3: Ah madam, obtain me justice for an offense which triumphs
- 1:23:14Speaker 3: over all my constancy?
- 1:23:17Speaker 1: What dats Hugh?
- 1:23:19Speaker 9: What disturbs you?
- 1:23:21Speaker 3: This much ails me? That it is death to me
- 1:23:25Speaker 3: to think of it, And the upheaving of all creation
- 1:23:29Speaker 3: would less overwhelm me than this accident. It is all
- 1:23:32Speaker 3: over with me, my love.
- 1:23:35Speaker 8: I cannot speak just endeavor to be composed?
- 1:23:40Speaker 3: Oh, just heaven, must so many charms be allied to
- 1:23:45Speaker 3: most odious vices of the most perfidious hearts?
- 1:23:50Speaker 10: What?
- 1:23:50Speaker 1: Once more?
- 1:23:51Speaker 3: What can have alas all is ruined? I am, I
- 1:23:57Speaker 3: am betrayed. I am stricken to death. Seliment? Would you
- 1:24:02Speaker 3: credit it? Selimon deceives me and is faithless?
- 1:24:07Speaker 9: Have you just grounds for believing?
- 1:24:09Speaker 2: Su Perhaps it is a suspicion rashly conceived, and your
- 1:24:14Speaker 2: jealous temper often harbors fancies.
- 1:24:17Speaker 3: Ah said death. Please to mind your own business, sir.
- 1:24:21Speaker 8: Too eliante her treacherous, but too certain, For I have
- 1:24:27Speaker 8: my pocket a letter in her own handwriting Yes, Madam,
- 1:24:32Speaker 8: a letter intended for a rant has placed before my
- 1:24:37Speaker 8: eyes my disgrace in her shame, a rot.
- 1:24:42Speaker 3: Whose addresses I believe she avoided, in whom of all
- 1:24:46Speaker 3: my rivals. I feared the least.
- 1:24:50Speaker 2: A letter may deceive by appearances, and is sometimes not
- 1:24:54Speaker 2: so culpable as maybe thought.
- 1:24:57Speaker 3: Once more, sir, leave me alone if you you please,
- 1:25:01Speaker 3: and trouble yourself only about your own concerns.
- 1:25:05Speaker 9: You should modervate your passion and the insult.
- 1:25:09Speaker 3: You must be left to do that. Madame, it is
- 1:25:11Speaker 3: to you that my heart has recourse today to free
- 1:25:15Speaker 3: itself from this goating pain. Avenge me on an ungrateful
- 1:25:21Speaker 3: and perfidious relative who basely deceives such constant tenderness. Avenge
- 1:25:28Speaker 3: me for an act that ought to fill you with horror.
- 1:25:32Speaker 3: I avenge you, how by accepting my heart, take it, madam,
- 1:25:40Speaker 3: instead of the false one. It is in this way
- 1:25:43Speaker 3: that I can avenge myself upon her, and I shall
- 1:25:47Speaker 3: punish her by this sincere attachment and the profound love,
- 1:25:53Speaker 3: the respectful cares, the eager devotions, the ceaseless attentions, which
- 1:25:59Speaker 3: this heart will henceforth offer up at your shrine.
- 1:26:05Speaker 9: I certainly sympathize with you in your sufferings, and I
- 1:26:09Speaker 9: do not despise your profit heart. But the wrong done
- 1:26:12Speaker 9: may not be so great as you think, and you
- 1:26:15Speaker 9: might wish to forego this desire for revenge. When the
- 1:26:19Speaker 9: injury proceeds from a beloved object, we form many designs
- 1:26:23Speaker 9: which we never execute. We may find as powerful a
- 1:26:26Speaker 9: reason as we like to break off the connection. The
- 1:26:29Speaker 9: guilty charmor is soon again innocent. All the harm we
- 1:26:33Speaker 9: wish her quickly vanishes, and we know what the lover's
- 1:26:37Speaker 9: anger means.
- 1:26:38Speaker 3: No, no, madam, No, the offense is too cruel. There
- 1:26:45Speaker 3: will be no relenting, and I have done with her.
- 1:26:49Speaker 3: Nothing shall change the resolution I have taken, and I
- 1:26:53Speaker 3: should hate myself forever loving her again. Here she comes.
- 1:27:01Speaker 3: My anger increases at her approach. I shall taunt her
- 1:27:06Speaker 3: with her black guilt, completely, put her to the blush,
- 1:27:10Speaker 3: and after that bring you a heart holy freed from
- 1:27:17Speaker 3: her deceitful attractions.
- 1:27:22Speaker 1: Scene three, Solemonae Alceste, Alceste aside.
- 1:27:29Speaker 3: Grant Heaven that I may control my temper.
- 1:27:34Speaker 1: Solemonae aside, Oh to Alceste.
- 1:27:40Speaker 6: What is all this trouble that I see you in?
- 1:27:42Speaker 2: And what mean?
- 1:27:43Speaker 6: There's long drawn size and those black looks which she cost.
- 1:27:47Speaker 3: It me that all the wickedness of which a heart
- 1:27:51Speaker 3: is capable as not to be compared to your per fidy.
- 1:27:55Speaker 3: That neither fate, Hell nor Heaven in its wrath, ever
- 1:28:00Speaker 3: produced anything so wicked as you are.
- 1:28:05Speaker 6: These are certainly pretty compliments, which I admire very much.
- 1:28:09Speaker 3: Do not jest. This is no time for laughing blush. Rather,
- 1:28:17Speaker 3: you have cause to do so, and I have undeniable
- 1:28:21Speaker 3: proofs of your treachery. This is what the agitations of
- 1:28:26Speaker 3: my mind prognosticated. It was not without cause that my
- 1:28:31Speaker 3: love took alarm by these frequent suspicions, which were hateful
- 1:28:35Speaker 3: to you. I was trying to discover the misfortune which
- 1:28:39Speaker 3: my eyes have beheld. And in spite of all your
- 1:28:44Speaker 3: care and your skill and dissembling, my star fore told
- 1:28:49Speaker 3: me what I had to fear. But do not imagine
- 1:28:52Speaker 3: that I will bear unavenged the slipe of being insulted.
- 1:28:58Speaker 3: I know that we have command over our inclinations, that
- 1:29:03Speaker 3: love will everywhere spring up spontaneously, that there is no
- 1:29:07Speaker 3: entering a heart by force, and that every soul is
- 1:29:11Speaker 3: free to name its conqueror. I should thus have no
- 1:29:16Speaker 3: reason to complain. If you had spoken to me without
- 1:29:20Speaker 3: dissembling and rejected my advances from the very beginning, my
- 1:29:26Speaker 3: heart would then have been justified in blaming fortune alone.
- 1:29:31Speaker 3: But to see my love encouraged by deceitful avowel on
- 1:29:35Speaker 3: your part is an action so treacherous and perfidious that
- 1:29:41Speaker 3: it cannot meet with too great a punishment. And I
- 1:29:45Speaker 3: can allow my resentment to do anything. Yes, Yes, after
- 1:29:50Speaker 3: such an outrage, fear everything, I am no longer myself.
- 1:29:55Speaker 3: I am mad with rage. My senses, struck by the
- 1:30:00Speaker 3: deadly blow with which you kill me, are no longer
- 1:30:03Speaker 3: governed by reason. I give way to the outburst of
- 1:30:07Speaker 3: a just wrath, and am no longer responsible for what
- 1:30:12Speaker 3: I may do.
- 1:30:15Speaker 6: Whence comes, I pray such a passion. Speak, Have you
- 1:30:18Speaker 6: lost your senses?
- 1:30:21Speaker 3: Yes? Yes, I lost them when to my misfortune, I
- 1:30:25Speaker 3: beheld you, and thus took the poison which kills me.
- 1:30:30Speaker 3: And when I thought to meet with some sincerity in
- 1:30:34Speaker 3: those treacherous charms that bewitched me.
- 1:30:38Speaker 6: Of what treachery have you to complain?
- 1:30:41Speaker 3: Ah? How double face she is, how well she knows
- 1:30:47Speaker 3: how to dissemble. But I am fully prepared with a
- 1:30:51Speaker 3: means of driving her to extremities. Cast your eyes here
- 1:30:56Speaker 3: and recognize your writing. This pic to upnote is sufficient
- 1:31:02Speaker 3: to confound you. And such proof cannot easily be refuted,
- 1:31:08Speaker 3: and this is.
- 1:31:09Speaker 6: The cause of your perturbation of spirits.
- 1:31:12Speaker 3: You do not blush on beholding this writing?
- 1:31:18Speaker 6: And why should I blush?
- 1:31:20Speaker 3: What you add boldness to craft? Will you disown this
- 1:31:25Speaker 3: note because it bears no name?
- 1:31:27Speaker 6: Why should I disown it? Since I wrote it and.
- 1:31:31Speaker 3: You can look at it without becoming confused at the
- 1:31:34Speaker 3: crime of which its style accuses you.
- 1:31:38Speaker 6: You are, in truth a very eccentric man.
- 1:31:42Speaker 3: What you thus? I'll brave this convincing proof, and the
- 1:31:48Speaker 3: contents so full of tenderness for our wrant need have
- 1:31:53Speaker 3: nothing in them to outrage me or to shame you.
- 1:31:57Speaker 6: Oh want who told you that this letter is for him?
- 1:32:02Speaker 3: The people who put it into my hands this day?
- 1:32:07Speaker 3: But I will even suppose that it is for someone else.
- 1:32:10Speaker 3: Has my heart any less cause to complain of yours?
- 1:32:14Speaker 3: Will you, in fact be less guilty toward me?
- 1:32:18Speaker 6: But if it is a woman to whom this lester
- 1:32:20Speaker 6: is addressed, how can it hurt you?
- 1:32:23Speaker 2: Well?
- 1:32:23Speaker 6: What is that culpable in it?
- 1:32:26Speaker 3: Hum? The prevarication is ingenious and the excuse excellent. I
- 1:32:33Speaker 3: must own that I did not expect this turn, and
- 1:32:36Speaker 3: nothing but that was wanting to convince me do you
- 1:32:41Speaker 3: dare to have recourse to such palpable tricks? Do you
- 1:32:46Speaker 3: think people entirely destitute of common sense? Come? Let us
- 1:32:53Speaker 3: see a little by what's subterfuge? With what air you
- 1:32:57Speaker 3: will support so palpable a falsehood? And how you can
- 1:33:01Speaker 3: apply to a woman every word of this note which
- 1:33:05Speaker 3: convinces so much tenderness. Reconcile if you can behide your
- 1:33:10Speaker 3: deceit what I'm about to read, it does not.
- 1:33:14Speaker 6: Suit me to do so. I think it ridiculous that
- 1:33:17Speaker 6: you should take so much upon yourself and tell me
- 1:33:20Speaker 6: to my face. What do you have the daring to
- 1:33:22Speaker 6: say to me?
- 1:33:24Speaker 3: No, No, without flying into a rage, take a little
- 1:33:28Speaker 3: trouble to explain these terms.
- 1:33:31Speaker 6: No, I shall do nothing of the kind. And it
- 1:33:34Speaker 6: matters very little to me what you think upon the subjects.
- 1:33:38Speaker 3: I pray you show me and I shall be satisfied
- 1:33:42Speaker 3: if this letter can be explained as meant for a woman,
- 1:33:45Speaker 3: not at all.
- 1:33:47Speaker 6: It is for hunt, and I will have you believe it.
- 1:33:50Speaker 6: I accept all his attentions gladly. I admire what he says.
- 1:33:54Speaker 6: I like him, and I shall agree to whatever you please.
- 1:33:58Speaker 6: Do as you like and act. Did you think propa,
- 1:34:02Speaker 6: that's nothing. Hinder you, and do not harass me any longer.
- 1:34:07Speaker 14: How ceste aside heavens, can anything more cruel be conceived?
- 1:34:14Speaker 14: And was ever heart treated like mine?
- 1:34:18Speaker 2: What?
- 1:34:19Speaker 3: I am justly angry with her? I come to complain,
- 1:34:23Speaker 3: and I am quarreled with instead. My grief and my
- 1:34:27Speaker 3: suspicions are excited to the utmost. I am allowed to
- 1:34:31Speaker 3: believe everything she boasts of everything. And yet my heart
- 1:34:36Speaker 3: is still sufficiently mean not to be able to break
- 1:34:39Speaker 3: the bonds that hold it fast, and not to arm
- 1:34:43Speaker 3: itself with a generous contempt for the ungrateful object of
- 1:34:47Speaker 3: which it is too much enamored.
- 1:34:50Speaker 1: Two solemonae.
- 1:34:51Speaker 3: Perfidious woman, you know well how to take advantage against
- 1:34:56Speaker 3: myself of my great weakness, and to employ for your
- 1:35:00Speaker 3: own purpose that excessive, astonishing, and fatal love which your
- 1:35:06Speaker 3: treacherous looks have inspired. Defend yourself at least from a
- 1:35:11Speaker 3: crime that overwhelms even me, and cease that affectation of
- 1:35:16Speaker 3: being culpable against me. Show me, if you can the
- 1:35:21Speaker 3: innocence of this note. My affection will even consent to
- 1:35:26Speaker 3: assist you at any rate. Endeavor to appear faithful, and
- 1:35:32Speaker 3: I shall strive to believe you such.
- 1:35:37Speaker 6: You are mad with your jealous frenzies, and do not
- 1:35:40Speaker 6: deserve the love which I have for you. I should
- 1:35:43Speaker 6: much like to know what could compel me to stoop
- 1:35:45Speaker 6: for you to the baseness of dissembling, And why if
- 1:35:48Speaker 6: my heart were disposed toward another I should not say
- 1:35:51Speaker 6: so candidly? What does the kind assurance of my sentiments
- 1:35:56Speaker 6: towards you not defend me sufficiently against all your suspicions?
- 1:36:00Speaker 6: Ought they to possess any weight at all? With such
- 1:36:03Speaker 6: a guarantee? Is he not insulting me even to listen
- 1:36:06Speaker 6: to them? And since it is with the utmost difficulty
- 1:36:11Speaker 6: that we can resolve to confess our love, since the
- 1:36:14Speaker 6: strict honor of our sex, hostile to our passion, strongly
- 1:36:18Speaker 6: opposes such a confession. Ought a lover who sees such
- 1:36:21Speaker 6: an obstacle overcome for his sake doubt with impunity our avowal.
- 1:36:26Speaker 6: And is he not greatly to blame in not assuring
- 1:36:29Speaker 6: himself if the truth of that which is never said,
- 1:36:32Speaker 6: but after a severe struggle with oneself be gone. Such
- 1:36:36Speaker 6: suspicions deserve my anger, and you are not worthy of
- 1:36:40Speaker 6: being cared for. I am silly and am vexed at
- 1:36:43Speaker 6: my own simplicity in still preserving the least kindness for you.
- 1:36:47Speaker 6: I ought to place my affections elsewhere and give you
- 1:36:50Speaker 6: a just cause for complaint.
- 1:36:53Speaker 3: Ah, you traitorous. Mine is a strange infatuation for you.
- 1:37:01Speaker 3: Those tender expressions are, no doubt meant only to deceive me.
- 1:37:08Speaker 3: But it matters little. I must submit to my fate.
- 1:37:12Speaker 3: My very soul is wrapped up in you. I will
- 1:37:16Speaker 3: see to the bitter end how your heart will act
- 1:37:20Speaker 3: towards me, and whether it will be black enough to
- 1:37:24Speaker 3: deceive me.
- 1:37:25Speaker 6: No, you do not love me as you ought to love.
- 1:37:30Speaker 3: Indeed, nothing is to be compared to my exceeding love,
- 1:37:36Speaker 3: And in its eagerness to show itself to the whole world,
- 1:37:40Speaker 3: it goes even so far as to form wishes against you. Yes,
- 1:37:45Speaker 3: I could wish that no one thought you handsome, that
- 1:37:49Speaker 3: you were reduced to a miserable existence, that Heaven that
- 1:37:53Speaker 3: your birth had bestowed upon you nothing, that you had
- 1:37:57Speaker 3: no rank, no nobility, no wealth, so that I might
- 1:38:01Speaker 3: openly proffer my heart and thus make amends to you
- 1:38:05Speaker 3: for the injustice of such a lot. And that this
- 1:38:09Speaker 3: very day I might have the joy and the glory
- 1:38:14Speaker 3: of seeing you owe everything to my love.
- 1:38:18Speaker 6: This is wishing me well in a strange way. Haven't
- 1:38:21Speaker 6: growned that you may never have occasion? But here comes
- 1:38:24Speaker 6: monsieur dubois, curiously ducked out.
- 1:38:28Speaker 1: Seem for solemonae alceste du bois.
- 1:38:33Speaker 3: What means this strange attire and that frightened look? What
- 1:38:37Speaker 3: ails you, sir? Well?
- 1:38:41Speaker 15: The most mysterious event?
- 1:38:43Speaker 3: What is it?
- 1:38:45Speaker 15: Oh? There's a turning off? Badly sir? What shall this begult?
- 1:38:50Speaker 3: Yes? Do end quickly?
- 1:38:53Speaker 15: Is there no one there?
- 1:38:54Speaker 3: Curse? You're trifling? Will you speak, sir?
- 1:38:58Speaker 15: We must be the retreat.
- 1:39:00Speaker 3: What do you mean?
- 1:39:01Speaker 15: We must steal away from this quietly?
- 1:39:04Speaker 3: And why I tell you.
- 1:39:06Speaker 15: That we must leave this place? The reason you must go, sir,
- 1:39:10Speaker 15: without staying to take leave?
- 1:39:13Speaker 3: But what is the meaning of this strain?
- 1:39:16Speaker 15: The meaning is, sir, that you must make yourself scarce.
- 1:39:20Speaker 3: I shall knock you on the head to a certainty
- 1:39:24Speaker 3: booby if you do not explain yourself more clearly.
- 1:39:28Speaker 15: A fellow sir, with a black dress and as back
- 1:39:31Speaker 15: a look, got as far as the kitchen to leave
- 1:39:33Speaker 15: a paper with us scribbled over in such a fashion
- 1:39:36Speaker 15: that old Nick himself could not have read it. It
- 1:39:39Speaker 15: is about your lawsuit, I make no doubt, but the
- 1:39:41Speaker 15: very devil I believe, could not make head nor tail
- 1:39:44Speaker 15: of it.
- 1:39:46Speaker 3: Well, what then, what has the paper to do with
- 1:39:49Speaker 3: the going away of which you speak, you scoundrel?
- 1:39:53Speaker 15: I must tell you, sir, that about an hour afterwards,
- 1:39:56Speaker 15: a gentleman who often calls, came to ask for you,
- 1:39:58Speaker 15: quite eagerly, and not f you at home, quietly told me,
- 1:40:02Speaker 15: knowing how attached I am to you, to let you know,
- 1:40:05Speaker 15: stop a moment what the deuce is his name?
- 1:40:09Speaker 3: Never mind his name, you scoundrel, and tell me what
- 1:40:12Speaker 3: he told you.
- 1:40:13Speaker 15: He is one of your friends. In short, that is sufficient.
- 1:40:17Speaker 15: He told me that for your very life you must
- 1:40:19Speaker 15: get away from this, and that you are threatened with arrest.
- 1:40:23Speaker 3: But how has he not specified anything?
- 1:40:28Speaker 15: No, he has asked me for ink and paper, and
- 1:40:30Speaker 15: has sent you a line for which you can I
- 1:40:32Speaker 15: think further than the mystery.
- 1:40:34Speaker 3: Hand it over?
- 1:40:35Speaker 6: Then what can all this mean?
- 1:40:37Speaker 3: I do not know, but I am anxious to be informed.
- 1:40:42Speaker 3: Have you almost done? Devil?
- 1:40:44Speaker 14: Take you du bois?
- 1:40:47Speaker 1: After having fumbled for some time for the note.
- 1:40:50Speaker 15: Oh uh, let's see oh where oh ye h oh
- 1:40:56Speaker 15: uh you after all, sir, I have left on your table.
- 1:41:02Speaker 3: I do not know what keeps me from.
- 1:41:05Speaker 6: Do not put yourself in a passion, but go and
- 1:41:08Speaker 6: unravel this perplexing business.
- 1:41:11Speaker 3: Seems that Fate, whatever I may do, has sworn to
- 1:41:16Speaker 3: prevent my having a conversation with you. But to get
- 1:41:21Speaker 3: the better of her, allow me to see you again, madame,
- 1:41:25Speaker 3: before the end of the day.
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: End of Act four, Act five, Scene one, Alceste follinte.
- 1:41:36Speaker 3: I tell you my mind is made up about it.
- 1:41:39Speaker 2: But whatever this blow may be, does it compel you?
- 1:41:43Speaker 3: You may talk and argue till doomsday if you like.
- 1:41:47Speaker 3: Nothing can divert me from what I have said. The
- 1:41:50Speaker 3: age we live in is too perverse, and I am
- 1:41:54Speaker 3: determined to withdraw altogether from intercourse with the world. What
- 1:42:00Speaker 3: when honor, probity, decency, and the laws are all against
- 1:42:05Speaker 3: my adversary, When the equity of my claim is everywhere
- 1:42:10Speaker 3: cried up, when my mind is at rest as to
- 1:42:13Speaker 3: the justice of my cause, I meanwhile see myself betrayed
- 1:42:17Speaker 3: by its issue. What I've got justice on my side,
- 1:42:21Speaker 3: and I lose my case. A wretch whose scandalous history
- 1:42:26Speaker 3: is well known, comes off triumphant by the blackest falsehood.
- 1:42:31Speaker 3: All good faith yields to his treachery. He finds the
- 1:42:35Speaker 3: means of being in the right whilst cutting my throat.
- 1:42:40Speaker 3: The weight of his dissimulation, so full of cunning, overthrows
- 1:42:45Speaker 3: the right and turns the scales of justice. He obtains
- 1:42:50Speaker 3: even a decree of court to crown his villainy. And
- 1:42:55Speaker 3: not content with the wrong he's doing me, there is
- 1:42:58Speaker 3: a broad society abominable book of which the very reading
- 1:43:03Speaker 3: is to be condemned, a book that deserves the utmost severity,
- 1:43:08Speaker 3: and of which the scoundrel has the impudence to proclaim
- 1:43:12Speaker 3: me the author. Upon this arrant is observed to mutter
- 1:43:18Speaker 3: and tries wickedly to support the imposture. He who holds
- 1:43:23Speaker 3: in an honorable position at court, to whom I've done
- 1:43:27Speaker 3: nothing except having been sincere and candid, who came to
- 1:43:32Speaker 3: ask me, in spite of myself, of my opinion of
- 1:43:36Speaker 3: some of his verses, And because I treat him honestly,
- 1:43:40Speaker 3: it will not betray either him or truth. He assists
- 1:43:45Speaker 3: in overwhelming me with a trumped upcrime. Behold him now
- 1:43:50Speaker 3: my greatest enemy, and I shall never obtain his sincere forgiveness,
- 1:43:56Speaker 3: because I did not think that his sonnet was good
- 1:44:00Speaker 3: Sai death to think that mankind is made thus the
- 1:44:04Speaker 3: thirst for fame induces them to do such things. This
- 1:44:09Speaker 3: is the good faith, the virtuous zeal, the justice, and
- 1:44:14Speaker 3: the honor to be found amongst them. Let us be gone.
- 1:44:20Speaker 3: It is too much to endure the vexations they are devising.
- 1:44:24Speaker 3: Let us get out of this wood, this cutthroat whole.
- 1:44:29Speaker 3: And since men behaved towards each other like real wolves wretches,
- 1:44:34Speaker 3: you shall never see me again as long as I live.
- 1:44:39Speaker 2: I think you are acting somewhat hastily, and the harm
- 1:44:43Speaker 2: done is not so great as you would make it out.
- 1:44:46Speaker 2: Whatever your adversary dare to impute to you has not
- 1:44:50Speaker 2: had the effect of causing you to be arrested. We
- 1:44:53Speaker 2: see his false reports defeating themselves, and this action is
- 1:44:57Speaker 2: likely to hurt him much more than you.
- 1:45:01Speaker 3: Him. He does not mind the scandal of such tricks
- 1:45:05Speaker 3: as these. He has a license to be an arrant
- 1:45:08Speaker 3: knave in this event, far from damaging his position, will
- 1:45:13Speaker 3: obtain him a still better standing tomorrow.
- 1:45:17Speaker 2: In short, it is certain that little notice has been
- 1:45:21Speaker 2: taken of the report, which is malice spread against you
- 1:45:24Speaker 2: from that side. You have already nothing to fear. And
- 1:45:27Speaker 2: as for your lawsuit, of which you certainly have reason
- 1:45:30Speaker 2: to complain, it is easy for you to bring the
- 1:45:33Speaker 2: trial on afresh and against this decision.
- 1:45:36Speaker 3: No, I shall leave it as it is. Whatever cruel
- 1:45:41Speaker 3: wrong this verdict may inflict, I shall take particular care
- 1:45:45Speaker 3: not to have it set aside. We see too plainly
- 1:45:49Speaker 3: how right is maltreated in it. I wish it to
- 1:45:52Speaker 3: go down to posterity as a signal proof, as a
- 1:45:56Speaker 3: notorious testimony of the wickedness of the men of our age.
- 1:46:02Speaker 3: It may indeed cost me twenty thousand francs. But at
- 1:46:05Speaker 3: the cost of twenty thousand francs, I shall have the
- 1:46:09Speaker 3: right of railing against the iniquity of human nature, and
- 1:46:13Speaker 3: of nourishing an undying hatred of it.
- 1:46:18Speaker 2: But after all, but after all.
- 1:46:21Speaker 3: Your pains are thrown away, what can you, sir, say,
- 1:46:25Speaker 3: upon this head, would you have the assurance to wish
- 1:46:29Speaker 3: to my face to excuse the villainy of all that
- 1:46:33Speaker 3: is happening?
- 1:46:35Speaker 1: No?
- 1:46:36Speaker 2: I agree with you in all that you say. Everything
- 1:46:39Speaker 2: goes by intrigue and by pure influence. It is only
- 1:46:43Speaker 2: trickery which carries the day in our time, and men
- 1:46:46Speaker 2: ought to act differently. But is there want of equity
- 1:46:50Speaker 2: a reason for wishing to withdraw from their society? All
- 1:46:53Speaker 2: human failings give us in life the means of exercising
- 1:46:57Speaker 2: our philosophy. It is the best employed. I'm it for virtue.
- 1:47:01Speaker 2: And if probody reigned everywhere, if all hearts were candid,
- 1:47:06Speaker 2: just and tractable, most of our virtues would be useless
- 1:47:09Speaker 2: to us, inasmuch as their functions are to bear without
- 1:47:12Speaker 2: annoyance the injustice of others in our good cause, and
- 1:47:17Speaker 2: just in the same way as a heart full of virtue.
- 1:47:20Speaker 3: I know that you are a most fluent speaker, sir,
- 1:47:24Speaker 3: that you always abound in fine arguments. But you're wasting
- 1:47:28Speaker 3: your time and all your fine speeches. Reason tells me
- 1:47:33Speaker 3: to retire for my own good. I cannot command my
- 1:47:36Speaker 3: tongue sufficiently, I cannot answer for what I might say,
- 1:47:40Speaker 3: and should very probably get myself into a hundred scrapes.
- 1:47:47Speaker 3: Allow me, without any more words, to wait for Solomon.
- 1:47:53Speaker 3: She must consent to the plan that brings me here.
- 1:47:57Speaker 3: I shall see whether her heart is any life for me.
- 1:48:01Speaker 3: In this very hour will prove it to me.
- 1:48:04Speaker 2: Let us go upstairs to Alliant and wait her coming.
- 1:48:08Speaker 3: Now my mind is too harassed. You go and see
- 1:48:12Speaker 3: her and leave me in this little dark corner with
- 1:48:16Speaker 3: my black care.
- 1:48:19Speaker 2: That is strange company to leave you in. I will
- 1:48:22Speaker 2: induce Elliot to come down.
- 1:48:25Speaker 1: Scene two solemonae orante a'l sa ste.
- 1:48:31Speaker 4: Yes, madam, it remains for you to consider weather by ties.
- 1:48:39Speaker 4: So dear, you will make me wholly yours. I must
- 1:48:46Speaker 4: be absolutely certain of your affection. A lover dislikes to
- 1:48:53Speaker 4: be held in suspense upon such a subject. If the
- 1:48:58Speaker 4: ardor of my affection has been able to move your feelings,
- 1:49:03Speaker 4: you ought not to hesitate to let me see it.
- 1:49:09Speaker 4: And the proof, after all, which I ask of you,
- 1:49:13Speaker 4: is not to allow Alceste to wait upon you any longer,
- 1:49:19Speaker 4: to sacrifice him to my love, and in short, to
- 1:49:25Speaker 4: banish him from your house this very day.
- 1:49:30Speaker 6: But why are you so incensed against him, you whom
- 1:49:33Speaker 6: I've so often heard speak of his merits.
- 1:49:36Speaker 4: There is no need, madam, of these explanations. The question
- 1:49:42Speaker 4: is what are your feelings? Please to choose between the
- 1:49:48Speaker 4: one or the other. My resolution depends entirely upon.
- 1:49:54Speaker 1: Yours, Alceste coming out of his corner.
- 1:50:00Speaker 3: Yes, this gentleman is right, Madam. You must make a choice,
- 1:50:04Speaker 3: and his request agrees perfectly with mine. I am equally eager,
- 1:50:09Speaker 3: and the same anxiety brings me here. My love requires
- 1:50:14Speaker 3: a sure proof. Things cannot go on any longer in
- 1:50:17Speaker 3: this way, and the moment has a right for explaining
- 1:50:20Speaker 3: your feelings.
- 1:50:22Speaker 4: I have no wish, sir, in any way, to disturb
- 1:50:27Speaker 4: by an untimely affection, your good fortune.
- 1:50:32Speaker 3: And I have no wish, sir, jealous or not jealous,
- 1:50:37Speaker 3: to share aught in her heart with you, if.
- 1:50:41Speaker 4: She prefers your affection to mine, if she has.
- 1:50:45Speaker 3: The slightest inclination towards you.
- 1:50:48Speaker 4: I swear henceforth not to pretend to it's a game.
- 1:50:55Speaker 3: I peremptorily swear never to see her again.
- 1:51:00Speaker 4: Again, Madam. It remains with you now to speak openly.
- 1:51:08Speaker 3: Madam, You can explain yourself fearlessly.
- 1:51:12Speaker 4: You have simply to tell us where your feelings are engaged.
- 1:51:18Speaker 3: You may simply finish the matter by choosing between us.
- 1:51:22Speaker 10: To what.
- 1:51:26Speaker 4: You seem to be at a loss to make such
- 1:51:30Speaker 4: a choice.
- 1:51:32Speaker 3: What your heart still wavers and appears uncertain.
- 1:51:38Speaker 6: It happens. How out of place is this persistence, and
- 1:51:42Speaker 6: how very unreasonable you both show yourselves. It is not
- 1:51:46Speaker 6: that I do not know whom to prefer, nor is
- 1:51:48Speaker 6: it to my heart that wavers. It is not at
- 1:51:51Speaker 6: all in doubt between you two, and nothing can be
- 1:51:54Speaker 6: more quickly accomplished than the choice of my factions. But
- 1:51:57Speaker 6: to tell the truth, I feel too confused to pronounce
- 1:52:01Speaker 6: such inn a vow before you. I think that is obliging.
- 1:52:04Speaker 6: Words ought not to be spoken in people's presence, that
- 1:52:07Speaker 6: a heart can give sufficient proof of its attachment without
- 1:52:10Speaker 6: going so far as to break with everyone, and gentler
- 1:52:13Speaker 6: intimation suffice to inform a lover of the ill success
- 1:52:17Speaker 6: of his suit.
- 1:52:19Speaker 4: No, no, I do not fear a frank a vowel
- 1:52:24Speaker 4: for my part. I consent to.
- 1:52:28Speaker 3: It, and I demand it. It is just it's very
- 1:52:33Speaker 3: publicity that I claim, and I do not wish you
- 1:52:36Speaker 3: to spare my feelings in the least. Your great study
- 1:52:40Speaker 3: has always been to keep friends with everyone. But no
- 1:52:43Speaker 3: more trifling, no more uncertainty. You must explain yourself clearly,
- 1:52:49Speaker 3: or I shall take your refusal as a verdict. I
- 1:52:54Speaker 3: shall know, for my part how to interpret your silence,
- 1:52:58Speaker 3: and shall consider it as a kind information of the worst.
- 1:53:02Speaker 4: I owe you many thanks, sir, for this wrath, and
- 1:53:06Speaker 4: I say in every respect, as you do, how.
- 1:53:11Speaker 6: You weary me with such a whim? Is there any
- 1:53:15Speaker 6: justice in what you ask? And have I not told
- 1:53:17Speaker 6: you what motive prevents me? I will be judged by
- 1:53:20Speaker 6: eliant who is just coming.
- 1:53:23Speaker 1: Scene three alliante feline te solemonae orante oltsair.
- 1:53:30Speaker 6: Ste good cousin. I am being persecuted here by people
- 1:53:34Speaker 6: who have concerted to do so. They both demand with
- 1:53:37Speaker 6: the same warmth, that I declare whom my heart is chosen,
- 1:53:41Speaker 6: and that by a decision which I must give before
- 1:53:44Speaker 6: their very faces, I should forbid one of them to
- 1:53:46Speaker 6: tease me anymore with his attentions. Say, has ever such
- 1:53:51Speaker 6: a thing been done?
- 1:53:53Speaker 9: Pray, do not consult me upon such a matter. You
- 1:53:56Speaker 9: may perhaps address yourself to a wrong person, For I
- 1:54:00Speaker 9: am decided for people who speak their mind.
- 1:54:04Speaker 4: Madam, it is useless for you to decline.
- 1:54:08Speaker 3: All your evasions here will be badly supported.
- 1:54:13Speaker 4: You must speak, you must, and no longer weaver.
- 1:54:18Speaker 3: You need do no more than remain silent.
- 1:54:21Speaker 4: I desire but one word to end our discussions to me.
- 1:54:27Speaker 3: Your silence will convey as much as speech.
- 1:54:32Speaker 1: Scene four arsinaway Solemonae, Eleante, Alceste, Feline Acaste, Cletandre Orante
- 1:54:44Speaker 1: a Caste to Solemonae.
- 1:54:47Speaker 5: We have both come by your leave, Madam, to clear
- 1:54:51Speaker 5: up a certain little matter with you.
- 1:54:53Speaker 1: Cletandre to Orante and Alceste.
- 1:54:58Speaker 10: Your presence happens. Fortunately for this affair concerns you also are.
- 1:55:03Speaker 1: Sent away to Solemonae.
- 1:55:06Speaker 13: No doubt you are surprised at seeing me here, Madam,
- 1:55:10Speaker 13: But these gentlemen are the cause of my intrusion. They
- 1:55:14Speaker 13: both came to see me and complained of a proceeding
- 1:55:18Speaker 13: which I could not have credited. I have too high
- 1:55:22Speaker 13: an opinion of your kindness of heart, ever to believe
- 1:55:26Speaker 13: you capable of such a crime. My eyes even have
- 1:55:29Speaker 13: refused to give credence to their strongest proofs, and in
- 1:55:34Speaker 13: my friendship forgetting trivial disagreements, I have been induced to
- 1:55:38Speaker 13: accompany them here to hear you refute the slander.
- 1:55:44Speaker 5: Yes, Madam, let us see with composure how you have
- 1:55:48Speaker 5: managed to bear this out. This letter has been written
- 1:55:51Speaker 5: by you to Clitandre.
- 1:55:53Speaker 10: And this tender epistle you have addressed to a cast.
- 1:55:58Speaker 1: A castay to a.
- 1:56:00Speaker 5: And i'l sayste this writing is not altogether unknown to you, gentlemen,
- 1:56:06Speaker 5: and I have no doubt that our kindness has before
- 1:56:08Speaker 5: now made you familiar with her hand. But this is
- 1:56:12Speaker 5: well with the.
- 1:56:13Speaker 11: Trouble of reading hit him.
- 1:56:17Speaker 5: You are a strange man to condemn my liveliness of spirits,
- 1:56:21Speaker 5: and to reproach me that I am never so merry
- 1:56:24Speaker 5: as when I am not with you. Nothing could be
- 1:56:27Speaker 5: more unjust. And if you do not come very soon
- 1:56:30Speaker 5: to ask my pardon for this offense, I shall never
- 1:56:33Speaker 5: forgive you as long as I live. Our great hulking
- 1:56:37Speaker 5: Booby of a viscount he ought to have been here,
- 1:56:42Speaker 5: Our great hulking booby of a viscount, with whom you
- 1:56:46Speaker 5: begin your complaints, is a man who will not at
- 1:56:49Speaker 5: all suit me. And ever since I watched him for
- 1:56:52Speaker 5: full three quarters of an hour spitting in a will
- 1:56:55Speaker 5: to make circles in the water, I never could have
- 1:56:58Speaker 5: a good opinion of him. As for the little marquis,
- 1:57:03Speaker 5: that is myself, ladies and gentlemen, be it said without
- 1:57:06Speaker 5: the slightest vanity. As for the little marquis who held
- 1:57:11Speaker 5: my hand yesterday for a long while I think that
- 1:57:14Speaker 5: there is nothing so diminutive as his whole person, and
- 1:57:18Speaker 5: his whole merit consists in his cloak and sword. As
- 1:57:22Speaker 5: to the man with the green shouldernot to Alceste, it
- 1:57:27Speaker 5: is your turn, now, sir, As to the man of
- 1:57:31Speaker 5: the green shoulder not he amuses me sometimes with his
- 1:57:35Speaker 5: bluntness and his splenetic behavior, but there are hundreds of
- 1:57:39Speaker 5: times when I think him the greatest boy in the world.
- 1:57:43Speaker 5: Respecting the man of the big waistcoat. To Orante, this
- 1:57:49Speaker 5: is your share, respecting the man with the big waistcoat,
- 1:57:54Speaker 5: who has stopped fit to set up as a wit
- 1:57:57Speaker 5: and wishes to be an author in spite of everyone.
- 1:58:00Speaker 5: I cannot even take the trouble to listen to what
- 1:58:03Speaker 5: he says, and his prose bores me just as much
- 1:58:06Speaker 5: as his poetry. Take it, then, for granted, that I
- 1:58:10Speaker 5: do not always enjoy myself so much as you think,
- 1:58:14Speaker 5: and that I wish for you more than I care
- 1:58:16Speaker 5: to say, amongst all the entertainments to which I am dragged,
- 1:58:21Speaker 5: and that the presence of those we love is an
- 1:58:23Speaker 5: excellent relish to our pleasures.
- 1:58:27Speaker 10: Now for myself, your clitander, whom you mentioned, to me,
- 1:58:32Speaker 10: and who has always such a quantity of soft expressions
- 1:58:35Speaker 10: at his command, is the last man for whom I
- 1:58:38Speaker 10: could feel any affection. He must be crazed in persuading
- 1:58:42Speaker 10: himself I love him, and you are so too, in
- 1:58:44Speaker 10: believing that I do not love you. You had better change
- 1:58:48Speaker 10: your fancies for his and come see me as often
- 1:58:51Speaker 10: as you can to help me in bearing the annoyance
- 1:58:53Speaker 10: of being pestered by him. This shows the model of
- 1:58:57Speaker 10: a lovely character, madam, and I need not tell you
- 1:59:00Speaker 10: what to call it. It is enough we shall both
- 1:59:03Speaker 10: of us show this admirable sketch of your heart everywhere
- 1:59:07Speaker 10: and to everybody.
- 1:59:10Speaker 5: I might also say something, and the subject is tempting,
- 1:59:14Speaker 5: But I deem you beneath my anger, and I will
- 1:59:17Speaker 5: show you that little marquis can find worthy our hats
- 1:59:22Speaker 5: and yours to console themselves.
- 1:59:27Speaker 1: Scene five solemonae eleiante arsinaway alceste orante feline.
- 1:59:36Speaker 4: What am I to be pulled to pieces in this fashion?
- 1:59:43Speaker 4: After all that you have written to me, and does
- 1:59:49Speaker 4: your heart, with all its semblance of love, ploit its
- 1:59:54Speaker 4: faith to all mankind by turns? Humm, I have been
- 2:00:01Speaker 4: too great a dupe but I shall be no longer.
- 2:00:07Speaker 4: You have done me a service in showing yourself in
- 2:00:11Speaker 4: your true colors to me. I am the richer by
- 2:00:16Speaker 4: a heart which you thus restore to me, and find
- 2:00:20Speaker 4: my revenge in your loss to Alceste, Sir, I shall
- 2:00:28Speaker 4: no longer be an obstacle to your flame, and you
- 2:00:33Speaker 4: may settle matters with this lady as soon as you please.
- 2:00:40Speaker 1: Seene six Solemonae, Aliante arsinoway Alceste Fillente arsinaway to Solemonae.
- 2:00:53Speaker 13: This is certainly one of the basest actions which I
- 2:00:57Speaker 13: have ever seen. I can no longer be silent and
- 2:01:01Speaker 13: feel quite upset. Has anyone ever seen the like of it?
- 2:01:05Speaker 13: I do not concern myself much in the affairs of
- 2:01:08Speaker 13: other people.
- 2:01:10Speaker 1: But this gentleman, pointing to Alceste, who.
- 2:01:14Speaker 13: Has staked the whole of his happiness on you, an
- 2:01:18Speaker 13: honorable and deserving that like this, and who worshiped you
- 2:01:21Speaker 13: to madness, ought he to have been leave me.
- 2:01:25Speaker 3: I pray you, madam, to manage my own affairs, and
- 2:01:28Speaker 3: do not trouble yourself unnecessarily in vain do I see
- 2:01:33Speaker 3: you espouse my quarrel. I am unable to repay you
- 2:01:37Speaker 3: for this great zeal and if ever I intended to
- 2:01:41Speaker 3: avenge myself by choosing someone else, it would not be
- 2:01:46Speaker 3: you whom I would select.
- 2:01:49Speaker 13: And do you imagine, sir, that I ever harbored such
- 2:01:53Speaker 13: a thought, and that I am so very anxious to
- 2:01:57Speaker 13: secure you? You must be very vain. Indeed, to flatter
- 2:02:01Speaker 13: yourself with such an idea. Selement's leavings are commodity of
- 2:02:06Speaker 13: which no one needs to be so very much enamored.
- 2:02:09Speaker 13: Pray undeceive yourself, then, do not carry matters with so
- 2:02:13Speaker 13: high a hand. People like me are not for such
- 2:02:17Speaker 13: as you. You will do much better to remain dangling
- 2:02:20Speaker 13: after her skirts. And I long to see so beautiful
- 2:02:24Speaker 13: a match.
- 2:02:26Speaker 1: Scene seven Solemonae eleante Alceste feline Alceste to Solemonae.
- 2:02:36Speaker 3: Well, I have held my tongue notwithstanding all I've seen,
- 2:02:42Speaker 3: and I have let everyone have his say before me.
- 2:02:45Speaker 3: Have I controlled myself long enough? And will you now
- 2:02:50Speaker 3: allow me?
- 2:02:51Speaker 6: Yes? You may say what you like, you will justify
- 2:02:54Speaker 6: it when you complain, and you may reproach me with
- 2:02:56Speaker 6: anything you please. I confess that I am in the
- 2:02:59Speaker 6: wrong and overwhelmed by confusion. I do not seek away
- 2:03:03Speaker 6: any idol excuse to palliate my fault the anger of
- 2:03:06Speaker 6: the others I have despised. But I admit to my
- 2:03:09Speaker 6: guilt towards you. No doubt your resentment is just, I
- 2:03:14Speaker 6: know how culpable. I must appear to you that everything
- 2:03:17Speaker 6: speaks of my treachery to you, and that in short,
- 2:03:21Speaker 6: you have cause to hate me. Do so, I consent
- 2:03:24Speaker 6: to it?
- 2:03:26Speaker 3: But can I do so, you traitorous? Can I thus
- 2:03:29Speaker 3: get the better of all my tenderness for you? And
- 2:03:32Speaker 3: although I wish to hate you with all my soul,
- 2:03:36Speaker 3: shall I find a heart quite ready to obey me?
- 2:03:40Speaker 1: To eliante and follinete.
- 2:03:43Speaker 3: You see what an unworthy passion can do. Then I
- 2:03:47Speaker 3: call you both as witnesses of my infatuation nor truth,
- 2:03:52Speaker 3: to say, is this all? And you will see me
- 2:03:55Speaker 3: carry it out to the bitter end, to show you
- 2:03:59Speaker 3: that it is wrong to call us wise, and that
- 2:04:03Speaker 3: in all hearts there remains still something.
- 2:04:06Speaker 1: Of the man to Solemonae.
- 2:04:10Speaker 3: Yes, perfidious creature, I am willing to forget your crimes.
- 2:04:16Speaker 3: I can find in my own heart an excuse for
- 2:04:19Speaker 3: all your doings and hide them under the name of
- 2:04:22Speaker 3: a weakness, into which the vices of the age betrayed
- 2:04:25Speaker 3: your youth, provided your heart will second the design which
- 2:04:30Speaker 3: I have formed of avoiding all human creatures, that you
- 2:04:34Speaker 3: are determined to follow me without delay into the solitude,
- 2:04:38Speaker 3: and which I've made a vow to pass my days.
- 2:04:42Speaker 3: It is by that only that, in everyone's opinion, you
- 2:04:47Speaker 3: can repair the harm done by your letters, and that,
- 2:04:51Speaker 3: after the scandal which every noble heart must abhor, it
- 2:04:56Speaker 3: may still be possible for me to love.
- 2:04:59Speaker 6: You what I renounce the world, before I grow old
- 2:05:04Speaker 6: and bury myself in your wilderness.
- 2:05:07Speaker 3: If your affection response to mine, what need the rest
- 2:05:10Speaker 3: of the world signify to you? Am I not sufficient
- 2:05:14Speaker 3: for you?
- 2:05:15Speaker 6: Solitude is frightful to a widow of twenty. I do
- 2:05:19Speaker 6: not feel my mind sufficiently grand and strong to resolve
- 2:05:22Speaker 6: to atop such a plan. If the gift of my
- 2:05:24Speaker 6: hand can satisfy your wishes, I might be induced to
- 2:05:28Speaker 6: tie such bonds and marriage.
- 2:05:31Speaker 3: No, my heart loathes you now in this refusal alone
- 2:05:37Speaker 3: affects more than all the rest, as you are not
- 2:05:40Speaker 3: disposed in those sweet ties to find all in all
- 2:05:45Speaker 3: in me, as I would find all in all in
- 2:05:48Speaker 3: you be gone, I refuse your offer in this much
- 2:05:53Speaker 3: felt outrage frees me forever from your unworthy toils.
- 2:05:59Speaker 1: Scene a eliante alceste, filline alceste to eliante.
- 2:06:07Speaker 3: Madam, your beauty is adorned by a hundred virtues, and
- 2:06:13Speaker 3: I never saw anything in you but what was sincere.
- 2:06:17Speaker 3: For a long while I thought very highly of you.
- 2:06:21Speaker 3: But allow me to steam you thus forever, and suffer
- 2:06:25Speaker 3: my heart, in its various troubles, not to offer itself
- 2:06:29Speaker 3: for the honor of your acceptance. I feel too unworthy
- 2:06:35Speaker 3: and begin to perceive that Heaven did not intend me
- 2:06:38Speaker 3: for the marriage bond, that the homage of only the
- 2:06:42Speaker 3: remainder of a heart unworthy of you would be below
- 2:06:46Speaker 3: your merit, and that in short.
- 2:06:49Speaker 9: You may pursue this thought. I am not at all
- 2:06:53Speaker 9: embarrassed with my hand, and here is your friend, who,
- 2:06:56Speaker 9: without giving me much trouble, might possibly accept it if
- 2:07:01Speaker 9: I asked him.
- 2:07:02Speaker 2: Ah Madam, I ask for nothing better than that honor,
- 2:07:07Speaker 2: and I could sacrifice my life and soul for it.
- 2:07:11Speaker 3: May you to taste true contentment, preserve forever these feelings
- 2:07:16Speaker 3: towards each other. Deceived on all sides, overwhelmed with injustice,
- 2:07:23Speaker 3: I will fly from an abyss where vice is triumphant,
- 2:07:28Speaker 3: and seek out some small, secluded nook on earth where
- 2:07:33Speaker 3: one may enjoy the freedom of being an honest man.
- 2:07:38Speaker 2: Come, Madam, let us leave nothing untried to deter him
- 2:07:42Speaker 2: from the design on which his heart is set.
- 2:07:47Speaker 1: End of Act five and of the Misanthrope by Moliere,
- 2:07:52Speaker 1: translated by Henri von Luin,