ACTORS. ALCESTES, in Love with Celimene. ACASTES, CLITARDER, Marquifes. BASQUE, Servant to Celimene. A GUARD of the Court of the Marefchals of France. Du Bois, Servant to Alceftes. SCENE, PARIS in Gelimene's Houfe. A 5 [to] LE MISANTROPE. A CTE I. SCENE I. PHILIN TE, A L C E S T E. PHILINT E. U'eft-ce donc ? Qu'avez-vous ? ALCESTE affis.] Laiffez-moi, je vous prie. PHILINTE. Mais encor, dites-moi quelle bizarrerie.... ALCESTE. Laiffez-moi là, vous dis-je, & courez vous cacher. PHILINTE. Mais on entend les gens au moins fans fe fâcher. ALCESTE. Moi, je veux me fâcher, & ne veux point entendre. PHILINTE. Dans vos brufques chagrins je ne puis vous comprendre; Et, quoiqu'amis enfin, je fuis tout des premiers. . . ALCESTE fe levant brusquement.] Moi, votre ami? Rayez cela de vos papiers. J'ai fait jufques ici profeffion de l'être; Mais, après ce qu'en vous je viens de voir paroître, Et ne veux nulle place en des cœurs corrompus. PHILINTE. Je fuis donc bien coupable, Alcefte, à votre compte? ALCESTI. THE MAN-HATE R. ACTI. SCENE L PHILINTES, ALCESTES. hide your felf. Hat's the Matter? What ails you? PHILINTES But once more tell me, what Whim ALCESTES. Leave me, I fay, and go PHILINTES. But you might hear People at least, without being angry. ALCESTES. I will be angry, and I won't hear. PHILINTES. I can't comprehend you in your hafty Humours; and in fhort, tho' a Friend, I am one of the firft felf ALCESTES rifing haftily.] I, your Friend? Strike that out o' your Books. I have hitherto profess'd my to be fo; but after what I have now discover'd in you, I flatly declare to you that I am so no longer; I'll have no place in corrupt Hearts. PHILINTES. I am guilty then, Alceftes, in your Ac Count. ALCESTES. ALCESTE. Allez, vous devriez mourir de pure honte ; Une telle action ne fçauroit s'excufer, Et tout homme d'honneur s'en doit fcandalifer. Vous chargez la fureur de vos embrassemens; Et je vous fupplierai d'avoir pour agréable, PHILINTE. Mais, férieufement, que voulez-vous qu'on faffe? ALCESTE. Je veux qu'on foit fincére, & qu'en homme d'honneur, On ne lâche aucun mot qui ne parte du cœur. PHILINTE. Lorfqu'un homme vous vient embraffer avec joie, Il faut bien le payer de la même monnoie, Qu'affectent 11 plupart de vos gens à la mode; ALCESTES. GO, you ought to die with mere Shame, there's no excufing fuch an Action, and every Man of Honour ought to be shock'd at it. I fee you ftifle a Man with Careffes, and profefs the utmoft Tenderness for him; you over-charge the Tranfport of your Embraces with Protestations, Offers, and Oaths: and when I afterwards ask you, who is this Man, you fcarce can tell me what his Name is. Your hot Fit's all over the Moment you are parted, and you treat him, to me, as a Person abfolutely indifferent. S'death! 'tis an unworthy, bafe, infamous Thing, so far to demean one's felf, as to act contrary to one's own Sentiments: And if, by Ill-luck, I had done as much, I fhould have gone that Inftant, and hang'd my self for Vexation. PHILINTES. I don't fee, for my part, that this is a hanging Matter, and I fhall petition you, that you wou'd graciously think fit, that I mitigate a little the Severity of your Sentence, and with your leave, not hang my felf for this Fact. ALCESTES. How aukwardly this Raillery fits upon you! PHILINTES. But seriously, what wou'd you have one do ? ALCESTES. I wou'd have you be fincere, and like a Man of Honour, let no Word flip, which comes not from the Heart. PHILINTES. When a Man comes and embraces you with Joy; you should in reafon pay him in the fame Coin, answer his Eagerness as one can, return him Offer for Offer, and Oaths for Oaths. ALCESTES. NO, I can't endure that bafe Method, which the Generality of your People of Mode affect; and I hate nothing fo much, as the Contorfions of all thofe great Proteftation-mongers, thofe affable Dealers in frivolous Embraces, thofe obliging Utterers of empty Words, who attack every Body with Civilities, and treat |