Molière

“ It is really wonderful how angry lovers have become the fashion! We see nothing else anywhere. Come, come, Mr. Receiver, cast aside your anger, and come and take a seat to see the play.
Har. I sit down? s'death! not I! (Showing MR. THIBAUDIER.) Look for a fool at your feet, my lady Countess; I give you up to my lord the viscount, and it is to him that I will send the letters I have received from you. ”

“ SCENE XIX.—THE COUNTESS, JULIA, THE VISCOUNT, THE COUNT, MR. BOBINET, MR. THIBAUDIER.
Bob. Come, my Lord, show what progress you make under the good precepts that are given you. Bow to the honourable company.
Coun. (showing JULIA) . Come, Count, salute this lady; bow low to the viscount; salute the councillor.
Thi. I am delighted, Madam, that you should grant me the favour of embracing his lordship. One cannot love the trunk without loving the branches.
Coun. Goodness gracious, Mr. Thibaudier, what a comparison to use!
Ju. Really, Madam, his lordship the count has perfect manners. ”

“ Thibaudier, a councillor, and Mr. Harpin, a collector of taxes? The fall is great, I must say. For your viscount, although nothing but a country viscount, is still a viscount, and can take a journey to Paris if he has not been there already. But a councillor and a tax-gatherer are but poor lovers for a great countess like you.
Coun. They are men whom one treats kindly in the country, in order to make use of when the need arises. They serve to fill up the gaps of gallantry, and to swell the ranks of one's lovers. ”

“ Is there need for such an uproar because the viscount gives a play in my honour? Just look at Mr. Thibaudier, who loves me; he acts more respectfully than you do.
Har. Mr. Thibaudier does as he pleases; I don't know how far Mr. Thibaudier has got with you, but Mr. Thibaudier is no example for me. I don't like to pay the piper for other people to dance.
Coun. But, Mr. Receiver, you don't consider what you are saying. Women of rank are not treated thus, and those who hear you might believe that something strange had taken place between us. ”

“ THE COUNTESS OF ESCARBAGNAS.
SCENE I.—JULIA, THE VISCOUNT.
Visc. What! you are here already?
Ju. Yes, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself, Cléante; it is not right for a lover to be the last to come to the rendezvous. ”

“ They know better how to live in Paris, in those large hotels you must remember with such pleasure! That Hotel of Mouchy, Madam; that Hotel of Lyons, that Hotel of Holland, what charming places to live in!3
Coun. It is true that those places are very different from what we have here. You see there people of quality who do not hesitate to show you all the respect and consideration which you look for. One is not under the obligation of rising from one's seat, and if one wants to see a review or the great ballet of Psyche, your wishes are at once attended to. ”

“ Visc. The jealous, Madam, are like those who lose their cause; they have leave to say anything. Let us listen to the play now.
SCENE XXII.—THE COUNTESS, THE VISCOUNT, JULIA, MR. THIBAUDIER, JEANNOT.
Jean. (to the VISCOUNT) . Sir, here is a note which I have been asked to give to you immediately.
Visc. (reads) . "As you may have some measures to take, I send you notice at once that the quarrel between your family and that of Julia's has just been settled, and that the condition of this agreement is your marriage with Julia. Good night!" (To JULIA) Truly, Madam, our part is also played. ”

“ If one is to believe him, he knows the secrets of the cabinet better than those who compose it. The policy of the state is an open book to him, and no step is taken without his seeing through it. He shows you the secret machinations of all that takes place, whither the wisdom of our neighbours tends, and controls at his will and pleasure all the affairs of Europe. ”

“ Har. (to the VISCOUNT) . I have nothing to say to you, Sir; you do right to push your fortune; that is quite natural; I see nothing strange in it, and I beg your pardon for interrupting your play. But neither can you find it strange that I complain of her proceedings; and we both have a right to do what we are doing.
Visc. I have nothing to say to that, and I do not know what cause of complaint you can have against her ladyship the Countess of Escarbagnas.
Coun. When one suffers from jealousy, one does not give way to such outbursts, but one comes peaceably to complain to the person beloved. ”

“ Ah! we must tread here with the greatest circumspection. It is a dangerous thing to set up for a wit. There is inherent to it a certain touch of absurdity which is catching, and we should be warned by the example of some of our friends. ”

“ It is a good thing not to leave a lover the sole master of one's heart, lest, for want of rivals, his love go to sleep through over-confidence.
Ju. I confess, Madam, that no one can help profiting wonderfully by all you say. Your conversation is a school, to which I do not fail to come every day in order to learn something new.
SCENE XII.—THE COUNTESS, JULIA, ANDRÉE, CRIQUET.
Cri. (to the COUNTESS) . Here is Jeannot, Mr. Thibaudier's man, who wants to see you, Ma'am. ”

“ However much any one may be in love with me, I wish them to pay to our sex the homage that is due to it. I am not one of those unjust women who approve of the rudeness their lovers display towards other fair ones. ”

“ They are unbearable in the impertinent equality with which they treat people. For, in short, there ought to be a certain subordination in things; and what puts me out of all patience is that a town upstart, whether with two days' gentility to boast of or with two hundred years', should have impudence enough to say that he is as much of a gentleman as my late husband, who lived in the country, kept a pack of hounds, and took the title of Count in all the deeds that he signed. ”

“ Instead of naming the hotels (= mansions) of the great noblemen, Julia names the hotels (= inns) of the time. She thus shows where the countess had studied the aristocracy.
[4] They were pears 'de bon chrétien.' 'Choke-pears' renders rather weakly the poires d'angoisse of Mr. Thibaudier.
[5] Compare 'Tartuffe,' act ii. scene iii.
[6] The Martial who did not write verses, sold perfumery, and was valet-de-chambre to the king's brother. Martial, the Roman epigrammatist, lived in the first century after Christ. ”

“ Coun. Let us take our seats. (Showing JULIA.) Mr. Thibaudier, take this lady under your care.
CRIQUET places all the chairs on one side of the stage. The COUNTESS, JULIA, and the VISCOUNT sit down, and MR. THIBAUDIER sits down at the COUNTESS'S feet.
Visc. It is important for you to observe that this comedy was made only to unite the different pieces of music and dancing which compose the entertainment, and that ...
Coun. Ah! never mind, let us see it; we have enough good sense to understand things. ”

“ Page, a seat. (To the VISCOUNT, after he is seated) You have come just in time to accept a self-sacrifice I am willing to make to you. Look, I have here a note from Mr. Thibaudier, who sends me some pears. ”

“ Ju. He is your brother and not your son.
Coun. Be very careful of his education, Mr. Bobinet.
Bob. I shall never, Madam, neglect anything towards the cultivation of the young plant which your goodness has entrusted to my care, and I will try to inculcate in him the seeds of all the virtues.
Coun. Mr. Bobinet, just make him recite some choice piece from what you teach him.
Bob. Will your lordship repeat your lesson of yesterday morning? ”

“ Coun. What! Does Martial make verses? I thought he only made gloves.
Thi. It is not that Martial, Madam, but an author who lived thirty or forty years ago.6
Visc. Mr. Thibaudier has read the authors, as you see. But, Madam, we shall see if my comedy, with its interludes and dances, will counteract in your mind the progress which the two strophes have made.
Coun. My son the Count must be one of the spectators, for he came this morning from my country-seat, with his tutor, whom I see here.
SCENE XVII.—THE COUNTESS, JULIA, THE VISCOUNT, MR. THIBAUDIER, MR. BOBINET, CRIQUET.
Coun. Mr. ”