Colline

“ His cold and reserved attitude, his limited conversation, his discreet smile, and especially his watch chain with charms on it, all led Colline to suppose that Barbemuche was a clerk in some embassy, and that he feared to compromise himself by going into some wine shop.
"There is no danger of anyone seeing us," said he. "All the diplomatic body is in bed by this time." ”

“ Whilst they were thus engaged, Colline, the "great" philosopher, entered the room, bearing under his arms a bundle of books, with which he had been vainly endeavouring to raise funds for the general use ”

“ The following day at the hour named, Marcel, Gustave Colline, and Alexander Schaunard, keen set as on the last day of Lent, went to Rodolphe's, whom they found playing with a sandy haired cat, whilst a young woman was laying the table.
"Gentlemen," said Rodolphe, shaking his friends' hands and indicating the young lady, "allow me to introduce you to the mistress of the household."
"You are the household, are you not?" said Colline, who had a mania for this kind of joke.
"Mimi," replied Rodolphe, "I present my best friends; now go and get the soup ready." ”

“ It is almost impossible, you see, for us to enter this gorgeous roof in frock-coats and colored trousers."
"But," said Carolus, "I have not black clothes for all of you."
"We will make do with what you have," said Colline.
"Suit yourselves then," said Carolus, opening a well-furnished wardrobe.
"What an arsenal of elegancies!" said Marcel.
"Three hats!" exclaimed Schaunard, in ecstasy. "Can a man want three hats when he had but one head?"
"And the boots!" said Rodolphe, "only look!"
"What a number of boots!" howled Colline. ”

“ It was the hour of breakfast, and for a wonder, breakfast had come with the hour. The three couples were at table, feasting on artichokes and pepper sauce.
"The deuce!" exclaimed the philosopher. "This can't last, or the world would come to an end. I arrive," he continued, "as the ambassador of the generous mortal whom we met last night."
"Can he be sending already to ask for his money again?" said Marcel.
"It has nothing to do with that," replied Colline. "This young man wishes to be one of us; to have stock in our society, and share the profits, of course." ”

“ O God, my brother!" exclaimed Louise, clasping her hands. "Tell me, I entreat you, if Françoise de Colline was really my mother!"
Sir Henry appeared confused—distressed: but at last said—"Seek not, my dear girl, the knowledge which cannot add to your happiness, but would plunge me still deeper in the gulf of misery. Your mother lives: and you shall one day know her. ”

“ Of all our hearts the conqueror!
(MUSETTA being without her shoe, cannot walk, so MARCEL and COLLINE carry her through the crowd, as they endeavor to follow the patrol. The mob, seeing her borne along in this triumphal fashion, give her a regular ovation. MARCEL and COLLINE with MUSETTA follow the patrol; RUDOLPH and MIMI follow arm in arm; SCHAUNARD goes next, blowing his horn; while the students, work-girls, street-lads, women and towns-folk merrily bring up the rear.) ”

“ For one, I vote against his reception."
"I demand the floor," said Rodolphe, "only for a correction. In his remarkable extemporary speech, Marcel has said that this Carolus, with the view of dishonoring us, wished to introduce himself under the cloak of literature."
"A Parliamentary figure."
"A very bad figure; literature has no cloak!"
"Having made a report, as chairman of committee," resumed Colline, rising, "I maintain the conclusions therein embodied. The jealousy which consumes him disturbs the reason of our friend Marcel; the great artist is beside himself." ”

“ In the group amongst whom Rodolphe lived, they affected, after a fashion common enough amongst some young fellows, to treat love as a thing of luxury, a pretext for jesting. Gustave Colline, who had for a long time past been in intimate relations with a waistcoat maker, whom he was rendering deformed in mind and body by obliging her to sit day and night copying the manuscripts of his philosophical works, asserted that love was a kind of purgative, good to take at the beginning of each season in order to get rid of humors. ”

“ The acquaintance, begun the evening before between Colline and Schaunard and later on with Marcel, became more intimate; each of the young fellows hoisted the flag of his artistic opinions, and all four recognized that they had like courage and similar hopes. Talking and arguing they perceived that their sympathies were akin, that they had all the same knack in that chaff which amuses without hurting, and that the virtues of youth had not left a vacant spot in their heart, easily stirred by the sight of the narration of anything noble. ”

“ You will find Rodolphe, Colline and Schaunard. You shall sing to us at dessert, for dessert will not be wanting. While we are there we shall probably remain at table for a week. So do not be afraid of being too late. It is so long since I heard you laugh. Rodolphe will compose madrigals to you, and we will drink all manner of things to our dead and gone loves, with liberty to resuscitate them. Between people like ourselves—the last kiss is never the last. ”

“ On the morrow of this sale, which had been followed by a luxurious dinner stood by the Jew to the Bohemians as a clincher to the bargain, Marcel, Schaunard, Colline, and Rodolphe woke up very late. Still bewildered by the fumes of their intoxication of the day before, at first they no longer remembered what had taken place, and as noon rung out from a neighboring steeple, they all looked at one another with a melancholy smile.
"There goes the bell that piously summons humanity to refresh itself," said Marcel. ”

“ Love lies on devotion; wine is the essence of pleasure, pleasure the duty of youth; women are flowers and must be moistened. Moisten away! Waiter, waiter!" and Colline hung upon the bell rope with feverish excitement.
Swift as the wind, the waiter came. When he heard talk of Champagne, Burgundy, and various liqueurs, his physiognomy ran through a whole gamut of astonishment. But there was more to come.
"I have a hole in my inside," said Mimi. "I should like some ham."
"And I some sardines, and bread and butter," struck in Musette.
"And I, radishes," quoth Phemie, "and a little meat with them." ”

“ Somewhat aloof from this are Rudolph and Mimi. Colline stands near the shop of a clothes dealer. Schaunard is haggling with a tinsmith over the price of a horn. Marcel is chaffing the girls who jostle against him in the crowd.
There are street venders crying their wares; citizens, students, and work girls, passing to and fro and calling to each other; people at the café giving orders—a merry whirl, depicted in the music by snatches of chorus, bits of recitative, and an instrumental accompaniment that runs through the scene like a many-coloured thread, and holds the pattern together. ”

“ From ten to twelve the waiter did nothing but run up and downstairs. Every moment he was asked for something more. Musette would eat English fashion, and change her fork at every mouthful. Mimi drank all sorts of wine, in all sorts of glasses. Schaunard had a quenchless Sahara in his throat. Colline played a crossfire with his eyes, and while munching his napkin, as his habit was, kept pinching the leg of the table, which he took for Phemie's knee. Marcel and Rodolphe maintained the stirrups of self-possession, expecting the catastrophe, not without anxiety. ”

“ You know very well I have never had a frock coat."
"Well, then, it can be settled in another way. If needs be, you need not come to my party, and can lend me your swallow-tail."
"That would be unpleasant. I am on the program, and must not be lacking."
"There are plenty of other things that will be lacking," said Rodolphe. "Lend me your black swallow-tail, and if you will come, come as you like; in your shirt sleeves, you will pass for a faithful servant."
"Oh no!" said Colline, blushing. "I will wear my great coat. But all the same, it is very unpleasant." ”

“ Every man is my prize!
And thus their hearts, their hearts I capture,
As if by magic all my own, ah! rapture!
Tis mine alone!
Now you that once your love for me betrayed,
Why should you be dismayed?
Yet though deep in your heart
Rankles the smart.
You'd ne'er confess—but rather die!
(SCHAUNARD and COLLINE rise and stand aside, watching the scene with interest, while RUDOLPH and MIMI remain seated and continue their talk. MARCEL nervously quits his seat, and is about to go, but is spell-bound by MUSETTA'S voice.) ”

“ I know more of sister Françoise than she thinks.'
"The curiosity of Marie thus raised, induced her to press Brigide to an explanation; whilst I scarcely respired lest a syllable of the important intelligence should escape me.
"'It is now about fifteen years,' said Brigide, 'since sister Françoise, then Mademoiselle de Colline, was a reigning belle; though, for my part, I never could discover the surprising beauty they say she possessed: being, however, the youngest daughter, she was designed for a monastic life; but was by nature more inclined to vows of love than religion. ”

“ MAR. And light it.
(RUDOLPH strikes a flint on steel, lights a candle, and goes to the stove with MARCEL; together they set fire to a part of the MS. thrown into the fireplace; then both draw up their chairs and sit down, delightedly warming themselves.)
RUD. How joyous the rays!
MAR. How cheerful the blaze!
(The door at the back opens violently, and COLLINE enters frozen and nipped up, stamping his feet, and throwing angrily on the table a bundle of books tied up in a handkerchief.)
COL. Surely miracles apocalyptic are dawning!
For Christmas eve they honor by allowing no pawning! ”

“ MUS. Now, don't be Blue Beard, pray!
(_A waiter approaches briskly, to prepare the table and begins to serve. SCHAUNARD and COLLINE furtively watch MUSETTA. MARCEL feigns the greatest indifference. RUDOLPH devotes all his attention to MIMI._)
SCH. (at the sight of the old gentleman with his decorations)
He's had a pretty good dose, I reckon.
COL. (_scrutinizing _ALCINDORO) The naughty, naughty elder!
MAR. (contemptuously) With his good young Susanna.
MIMI. (_to _RUDOLPH) And her clothes are smart, too!
RUD. The angels can't afford them. ”

“ By an ironical contrast, while the four friends were putting to one another the terrible daily problem of how to get their breakfast, the waiters of a restaurant on the lower floor of the house kept shouting out the customers' orders.
"Will those scoundrels never be quiet?" said Marcel. "Every word is like the stroke of a pick, hollowing out my stomach."
"The wind is in the north," said Colline, gravely, pointing to a weathercock on a neighboring roof. "We shall not breakfast today, the elements are opposed to it." ”

“ Mimi was dressed with fanciful elegance; Musette got up with seductive taste; Phemie looked like a stained glass window, and hardly dared sit down.
The dinner lasted two hours and a half, and was delightfully lively. The young viscount, who sat next to Mimi, kept treading on her foot. Phemie took twice of every dish. Schaunard was in clover. Rodolphe improvised sonnets and broke glasses in marking the rhyme. Colline talked to Marcel, who remained sulky.
"What is the matter with you?" asked the philosopher.
"My feet are in torture; this Carolus has boots like a woman's." ”

“ They are seemingly working, but their thoughts wander towards the women they love. Schaunard and Colline enter with rolls and a herring for their meal. They have a wild time and are dancing and singing when Musetta enters and tells them that Mimi is outside so weak and ill that she can go no further. They make up a bed on the couch for her and bring her in. She clings to Rudolph and implores him not to leave her. Mimi reconciles Marcel and Musetta. Musetta tells her old friends that Mimi is dying and gives them her earrings to sell, asking them to get a doctor for Mimi. ”

“ MAR. He's gone to buy a bonnet.
(MARCEL, SCHAUNARD and COLLINE try to find an empty table outside the café, but there is only one, which is occupied by townsfolk. At these latter the three friends glare furiously, and then enter the café. The crowd disperses among the adjacent streets. The shops are crowded and the square becomes densely thronged with buyers who come and go. In the café there is much animation. RUDOLPH and MIMI come out of the shop.) ”

“ In a few words, Louise. St. Ledger, the man she was privately united to, was in his youth the bosom-friend of my father: on his travels, he saw and became enamoured of the amiable Françoise; and on her father's refusing him her hand, prevailed on her to consent to a private marriage. Their intercourse had continued some time, when he was discovered by Monsieur de Colline, and the consequences which followed were as you recited them, from the words of Sister Brigide. Françoise was delivered of a son, who was doomed by the grandfather to an early grave ”

“ TIME ABOUT 1830—IN PARIS SYNOPSIS The opera is founded on Henri Murger's book "La Vie de Bohème."
ACT I Rudolph and Marcel are sitting in the latter's attic-studio in the Quartier Latin, in Paris. Marcel is absorbed in his painting. The day is cold. They have no money to buy coal. Marcel takes a chair to burn it, when Rudolph remembers that he has a manuscript which has been rejected by the publishers and lights a fire with that instead. Colline enters, looking abject and miserable. He had gone out to pawn his books, but nobody wanted them. Their friend, Schaunard, however, had better luck. ”