Et je vis, par les vers qu'à la tête il nous jette, Et j'en avais si bien deviné tous les traits, Que, rencontrant un homme un jour dans le Palais, Et je vis qu'en effet la gageure était bonne. 265 Quel conte ! HENRIETTE. CLITANDRE. Non; je dis la chose comme elle est : SCÈNE IV. BÉLISE, CLITANDRE. CLITANDRE. Souffrez, pour vous parler, madame, qu'un amant Prenne l'occasion de cet heureux moment, Et se découvre à vous de la sincère flamme. BÉLISE. 270 275 Ah! tout beau: gardez-vous de m'ouvrir trop votre âme. 280 Je puis fermer les yeux sur vos flammes secrètes, CLITANDRE. Des projets de mon cœur ne prenez point d'alarme ; BÉLISE. Ah! certes, le détour est d'esprit, je l'avoue : CLITANDRE. Ceci n'est point du tout un trait d'esprit, madame, BÉLISE. Je vois où doucement veut aller la demande, Et que, sans rien prétendre, il faut brûler pour elle. 285 290 295 300 305. CLITANDRE. Eh! madame, à quoi bon un pareil embarras ? BÉLISE. Mon Dieu! point de façons. Cessez de vous défendre Mais CLITANDRE. BÉLISE. Adieu. Pour ce coup, ceci doit vous suffire, Et je vous ai plus dit que je ne voulais dire. 310 315 320 Je veux être pendu, si je vous aime; et sage BÉLISE. Non, non, je ne veux rien entendre davantage. SCÈNE V. CLITANDRE, seul. Diantre soit de la folle avec ses visions ! 325 Allons commettre un autre aux soins que l'on me donne, Et prenons le secours d'une sage personne. ACTE II. ARGUMENT. ARISTE, the kind-hearted uncle and safe adviser who has espoused Clitandre's cause, is just broaching the subject to Chrysale, when Bélise, entering unobserved and hearing what the talk is about, enters her solemn protest against the proposed match, she herself being the true, though unavowed, ladylove, of Clitandre, aye, and of many other suitors too. Despairing, however, of convincing her incredulous brothers, she indignantly retires. Ariste obtains Chrysale's hearty consent to the match, but knowing, also, his infirmity of purpose, and having, therefore, suggested that the sooner Philaminte's consent is obtained, the better for all parties concerned, Chrysale vaingloriously undertakes "to make it all right." Hereupon enters Martine, his trusty maid-servant, who informs him that she has just been dismissed by his wife; Chrysale declares he will not consent to part with her, when in come Philaminte and Bélise, by whom he is apprised of the nature of Martine's crimenothing less than her ineradicable habit of transgressing the laws of grammar, an offence which, in the ensuing discussion, she has the hardihood to reiterate with aggravating perverseness. As was to be expected, the quarrel ends in Chrysale's ignominiously giving in and dismissing Martine, not, however, without giving vent to his indignation at the loss of their only faithful servant in a long tirade against learned ladies who are more at home in the moon than in the kitchen. Philaminte, who has been quietly listening to his outburst, directed ostensibly against Bélise, but really against herself, whom he has not nerve enough to address, now intimates to him her determination to give Henriette in marriage to Trissotin, and withdraws without asking for his opinion. Ariste, who had been pursuing his suit on behalf of Clitandre, now reappears, and, hearing how his brother "has made it all right," succeeds in rousing him at last to a sense of his duty as a husband and father. C |