Molière

“ Everything; the anger of my father, the reproaches of my family, the censure of the world, and, above all, Valère, a change in your heart! I fear that cruel coldness with which your sex so often repays the too warm proofs of an innocent love.
Val. Alas! do not wrong me thus; do not judge of me by others. Think me capable of everything, Élise, except of falling short of what I owe to you. I love you too much for that; and my love will be as lasting as my life!
Eli. Ah! Valère, all men say the same thing; all men are alike in their words ”

“ I have discovered, without their knowing it, that they are not in very good circumstances, and that, although they live with the greatest care, they have barely enough to cover their expenses. Can you imagine, my sister, what happiness it must be to improve the condition of those we love; skilfully to bring about some relief to the modest wants of a virtuous family? And think what grief it is for me to find myself deprived of this great joy through the avarice of a father, and for it to be impossible for me to give any proof of my love to her who is all in all to me. ”

“ You do me great honour.
Cle. I am in love with a young girl who returns my affection, and who receives kindly the offer of my heart; but my father takes it into his head to disturb our love by asking her in marriage.
Jac. He certainly is wrong.
Cle. Is it not shameful for a man of his age to think of marrying? I ask you if it is right for him to fall in love? and ought he not now to leave that to younger men?
Jac. You are quite right; he is not serious; let me speak a word or two to him. (To Harpagon) Really, your son is not so extravagant as you think, and is amenable to reason. ”

“ A young girl who has lately come to live in our neighbourhood, and who seems made to inspire love in all those who behold her. Nature, my dear sister, has made nothing more lovely; and I felt another man the moment I saw her. Her name is Marianne, and she lives with a good, kind mother, who is almost always ill, and for whom the dear girl shows the greatest affection. She waits upon her, pities and comforts her with a tenderness that would touch you to the very soul. Whatever she undertakes is done in the most charming way ”

“ SCENE VII. MARIANNE, FROSINE, MASTER JACQUES.
Fro. Do you know if your master is at home?
Jac. Yes, he is indeed; I know it but too well.
Fro. Tell him, please, that we are here.
SCENE VIII. MARIANNE, FROSINE.
Mar. Ah! Frosine, how strange I feel, and how I dread this interview!
Fro. Why should you? What can you possibly dread?
Mar. Alas! can you ask me? Can you not understand the alarms of a person about to see the instrument of torture to which she is to be tied.
Fro. I see very well that to die agreeably, Harpagon is not the torture you would embrace ”

“ SCENE IV. HARPAGON, CLÉANTE, VALÈRE, MASTER JACQUES.
Har. And you, my young dandy of a son to whom I have the kindness of forgiving what happened this morning, mind you don't receive her coldly, or show her a sour face.
Cle. Receive her coldly! And why should I?
Har. Why? why? We know pretty well the ways of children whose fathers marry again, and the looks they give to those we call stepmothers. But if you wish me to forget your last offence, I advise you, above all things, to receive her kindly, and, in short, to give her the heartiest welcome you can. ”

“ SCENE IV. HARPAGON, ÉLISE, MARIANNE, VALÈRE, FROSINE, MASTER JACQUES, THE POLICE OFFICER.
Har. Ah! guilty daughter! unworthy of a father like me! is it thus that you put into practice the lessons I have given you? You give your love to an infamous thief, and engage yourself to him without my consent! But you shall both be disappointed. (to ÉLISE) Four strong walls will answer for your conduct in the future; (to VALÈRE) and good gallows, impudent thief, shall do me justice for your audacity. ”

“ What! my heart's blood, scoundrel!
Val. Your blood, Sir, has not fallen into bad hands. My rank is high enough not to disgrace it, and there is nothing in all this for which reparation cannot be made.
Har. It is, indeed, my intention that you should restore what you have taken from me.
Val. Your honour, Sir, shall be fully satisfied.
Har. Honour is not the question in all this. But tell me what made you commit such a deed?
Val. Alas! do you ask it?
Har. Yes, I should rather think that I do.
Val. A god, Sir, who carries with him his excuses for all he makes people do: Love.
Har. Love? ”

“ SCENE V. ANSELME, HARPAGON, ÉLISE, MARIANNE, FROSINE, VALÈRE, THE POLICE OFFICER, MASTER JACQUES.
Ans. What can have happened, Mr. Harpagon? You are quite upset.
Har. Ah, Mr. Anselme, you see in me the most unfortunate of men; and you can never imagine what vexation and disorder is connected with the contract you have come to sign! I am attacked in my property; I am attacked in my honour; and you see there a scoundrel and a wretch who has violated the most sacred rights, who has introduced himself into my house as a servant in order to steal my money, and seduce my daughter. ”

“ Yes, my daughter; yes, my son; I am Don Thomas d'Alburci, whom heaven saved from the waves, with all the money he had with him, and who, after sixteen years, believing you all dead, was preparing, after long journeys, to seek the consolations of a new family in marrying a gentle and virtuous woman. The little security there was for my life in Naples has made me abandon the idea of returning there, and having found the means of selling what I had, I settled here under the name of Anselme. ”

“ Yes, I love. But, before I say more, let me tell you that I know I depend on my father, and that the name of son subjects me to his will; that it would be wrong to engage ourselves without the consent of the authors of our being; that heaven has made them the masters of our affections, and that it is our duty not to dispose of ourselves but in accordance to their wish; that their judgment is not biassed by their being in love themselves; that they are, therefore, much more likely not to be deceived by appearances, and to judge better what is good for us ”

“ I should have enough power over your father to persuade him that she is a rich woman, in possession, besides her houses, of a hundred thousand crowns in ready money; that she is deeply in love with him, and that she would marry him at any cost, were she even to give him all her money by the marriage contract. I have no doubt he would listen to the proposal. For certainly he loves you very much, my dear, but he loves money still better. When once he has consented to your marriage, it does not signify much how he finds out the true state of affairs about our marchioness. ”

“ I do not mean to say but that there are many fathers who would set a much higher value on the happiness of their daughter than on the money they may have to give for their marriage; who would not like to sacrifice them to their own interests, and who would, above all things, try to see in a marriage that sweet conformity of tastes which is a sure pledge of honour, tranquillity and joy ”

“ With their effeminate voices, their three little bits of a beard turned up like cat's whiskers, their tow wigs, their flowing breeches and open breasts!
Fro. Yes; they are famous guys compared with yourself. In you we see something like a man. There is enough to satisfy the eye. It is thus that one should be made and dressed to inspire love. ”

“ This rascally valet is a constant vexation to me; and I hate the very sight of the good-for-nothing cripple. Really, it is no small anxiety to keep by one a large sum of money; and happy is the man who has all his cash well invested, and who needs not keep by him more than he wants for his daily expenses. I am not a little puzzled to find in the whole of this house a safe hiding-place. Don't speak to me of your strong boxes, I will never trust to them. Why, they are just the very things thieves set upon!
SCENE V. HARPAGON, ÉLISE and CLÉANTE are seen talking together at the back of the stage. ”

“ You know the skilful manoeuvres I have had to use in order to introduce myself into his service; under what a mask of sympathy and conformity of tastes I disguise my own feelings to please him; and what a part I play to acquire his affection. I succeed wonderfully well, and I feel that to obtain favour with men, there are no better means than to pretend to be of their way of thinking, to fall in with their maxims, to praise their defects, and to applaud all their doings. One need not fear to overdo it, for however gross the flattery, the most cunning are easily duped ”

“ And because they have nothing to do, must they have nothing to eat? It would be much better for them, poor things, to work much and eat to correspond. It breaks my heart to see them so reduced; for, in short, I love my horses; and when I see them suffer, it seems as if it were myself. Every day I take the bread out of my own mouth to feed them; and it is being too hard-hearted, Sir, to have no compassion upon one's neighbour. ”

“ I should be deeply grieved to cause you the least sorrow, and unless I am forced to it by a power I must obey, I give you my word that, I will never consent to a marriage which is so painful to you.
Har. She is right. A foolish speech deserves a foolish answer. I beg your pardon, my love, for the impertinence of my son. He is a silly young fellow, who has not yet learnt the value of his own words. ”

“ Har. But I say, Frosine, have you spoken to the mother about the dowry she can give her daughter? Did you make her understand that under such circumstances she ought to do her utmost and to make a great sacrifice? For, after all, one does not marry a girl without her bringing something with her.
Fro. How something! She is a girl who will bring you a clear twelve thousand francs a year?
Har. Twelve thousand francs a year?
Fro. Yes! To begin with, she has been nursed and brought up with the strictest notions of frugality. ”

“ Yes, money is more precious than anything else in the world, and you should thank heaven that you have so worthy a man for a father. He knows what life is. When a man offers to marry a girl without a dowry, we ought to look no farther. Everything is comprised in that, and "without dowry" compensates for want of beauty, youth, birth, honour, wisdom, and probity. ”

“ We can go nowhere but we are sure to hear you pulled to pieces. You are the butt and jest and byword of everybody; and never does anyone mention you but under the names of miser, stingy, mean, niggardly fellow and usurer.
Har. (beating Jacques) . You are a fool, a rascal, a scoundrel, and an impertinent wretch.
Jac. There, there! Did not I know how it would be? You would not believe me. I told you I should make you angry if I spoke the truth?
Har. Learn how to speak.
SCENE VI.——VALÈRE, MASTER JACQUES.
Val. (laughing) . Well, Master Jacques, your frankness is badly rewarded, I fear. ”

“ I will demand justice, and have the whole of my house put to the torture--my maids and my valets, my son, my daughter, and myself too. What a crowd of people are assembled here! Everyone seems to be my thief. I see no one who does not rouse suspicion in me. ”

“ SCENE XV. HARPAGON, VALÈRE.
Har. Valère, look after all this; and take care, I beseech you, to save as much of it as you can, so that we may send it back to the tradesman again.
Val. I will.
Har. (alone) . Miscreant! do you mean to ruin me?
ACT IV. SCENE I. CLÉANTE, MARIANNE, ÉLISE, FROSINE.
Cle. Let us come in here; we shall be much better. There is no one about us that we need be afraid of, and we can speak openly.
Eli. Yes, Madam, my brother has told me of the love he has for you. ”

“ SCENE IX HARPAGON, ÉLISE, VALÈRE.
Har. (alone, at the farther end of the stage) . It is nothing, thank heaven!
Val. (not seeing HARPAGON) . In short, flight is the last resource we have left us to avoid all this; and if your love, dear Élise, is as strong as ... (Seeing HARPAGON) Yes, a daughter is bound to obey her father. She has no right to inquire what a husband offered to her is like, and when the most important question, "without dowry," presents itself, she should accept anybody that is given her. ”

“ You try in vain to find merit in what I have done; it is by my love alone that I trust to deserve you. As for the scruples you feel, your father himself justifies you but too much before the world; and his avarice and the distant way in which he lives with his children might authorise stranger things still. ”

“ Five thousand francs a year at play and four thousand in clothes and jewels make nine thousand; and three thousand francs which we count for food, does it not make your twelve thousand francs?
Har. Yes, that's not bad; but, after all, that calculation has nothing real in it.
Fro. Excuse me; is it nothing real to bring you in marriage a great sobriety, to inherit a great love for simplicity in dress, and the acquired property of a great hatred for gambling?
Har. It is a farce to pretend to make up a dowry with all the expenses she will not run into. ”

“ Are you not ashamed of dishonouring your station by such dealings, of sacrificing honour and reputation to the insatiable desire of heaping crown upon crown, and of outdoing the most infamous devices that have ever been invented by the most notorious usurers? ”

“ Simon talking with your father!
Cle. (aside to LA FLÈCHE) . Has he been told who I am, and would you be capable of betraying me?
Sim. (to CLÉANTE and LA FLÈCHE) . Ah! you are in good time! But who told you to come here? (To HARPAGON) It was certainly not I who told them your name and address; but I am of opinion that there is no great harm done; they are people who can be trusted, and you can come to some understanding together.
Har. What!
Sim. (showing CLÉANTE) . This is the gentleman who wants to borrow the fifteen thousand francs of which I have spoken to you. ”