La Boheme | Page 8

Let's play together, let's play the game of buy and sell:
Who'll give a penny for my guileless heart?
(_Pushing through the crowd, RUDOLPH and MIMI, arm in arm,
approach a bonnet shop._)
RUD. Let's go!
MIMI. To buy the bonnet?
RUD. Hold tightly to my arm, love!
(_They enter the bonnet shop._)
(SCHAUNARD _strolls about in front of the Café Momus, waiting for
his friends, and, armed with his huge pipe and hunting horn, he watches

the crowd curiously._)
SCH. Surging onward--eager, breathless-- Moves the madding crowd,
As they frolic ever In their wild, insane endeavor.
COL. (_comes up, waving an old book in triumph_) Such a rare copy!
well-nigh unique, A grammar of Runic!
SCH. (who arrives at that moment behind COLLINE,
_compassionately_) Honest fellow!
MAR. (_arriving at the Café Momus, and finding_ SCHAUNARD and
COLLINE) To supper!
SCH. and COL. Ho! Rudolph!
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._)
RUD. (to MIMI) Come along! my friends are waiting.
MIMI. Do you think this rose-trimmed bonnet suits me?
RUD. The color suits your dark complexion.
MIMI. (_looking into the window of a bonnet shop_) O what a pretty
necklace!
RUD. I have an aunt a millionaire. If the good God wills to take her,
Then shall you have a necklace far more fine. (suddenly seeing MIMI
_look round suspiciously_) What is it?
MIMI. Are you jealous?
RUD. The man in love is always jealous, darling.
MIMI. Are you then in love?
RUD. (_squeezing her arm in his_)
Yes, so much in love! Are you?
MIMI. Yes, deeply.
(_Enter from the café,_ COLLINE, SCHAUNARD and MARCEL
_carrying a table. A waiter follows with chairs. The townsfolks seated
near seem vexed at the noise which the three friends are making, for
they soon get up and walk away._)
COL. The vulgar herd I hate, just as I did Horace.

SCH. And I, when I am eating, I can't stand being crowded.
MAR. (to the waiter) Smartly!
SCH. For many!
MAR. We want a supper of the choicest!
(MIMI and RUDOLPH joining their friends.)
RUD. (_accompanied by MIMI_) Two places.
COL. Let's have supper.
RUD. So we have come. (_introducing Mimi_) This is Mimi, The
merry flower girl; And now she's come to join us. Our party is
completed-- For I shall play the poet, While she's the muse incarnate.
Forth from my brain flow songs of passion, As, at her touch the pretty
buds blow; As in the soul awaketh beautiful love!
MAR. (_ironically_) My word, what high falutin'!
COL. _Digna est intrari._
SCH. _Ingrediat si necessit._
COL. I'll grant only an accessit!
(RUDOLPH makes MIMI _sit down. All being seated, the waiter
returns with the menu_.)
COL. (_with an air of great importance_) Some sausage!
PAR. (_faintly in the distance_) Who'll buy some pretty toys from
Parpignol?
(_Boys and girls running out from the shops and adjoining streets._)
BOYS and GIRLS. Parpignol! Parpignol!
(_Enter PARPIGNOL from the Rue Dauphin, pushing a barrow
festooned with foliage, flowers and paper lanterns._)
PAR. (_crying_) Who'll buy some pretty toys from Parpignol?
CHILDREN, (_crowding and jumping round the barrow_) Parpignol!
Parpignol! With his pretty barrow bright with flowers!
(_admiring the toys_)
I want the horn! and I the horse! Get away, they are mine! I want the
gun! and I the whip! No, the drum shall be mine!
(_At the cries of the children, the mothers try, but without success, to
lead them away from PARPIGNOL, scolding loudly_.)
MOTHERS. Ah! wait a bit, you dirty little rascals. What can it be that
sets you all a-gaping? Get home to your beds, get home, lazy rascals,
Or you shall all have a tidy beating.
(_The children refuse to go. One of them cries for Parpignol'S toys and

his mother pulls his ear. The mothers, relenting, buy some. Parpignol
moves down the street, followed by the children, pretending to play on
their toy instruments_.)
PAR. (_in the distance_) Who'll buy some pretty toys of Parpignol!
(_The waiter presents the menu, which the four friends carefully
scrutinize in turn._)
SCH. Bring some venison.
MAR. I'll have turkey.
RUD. (_in an undertone to MIMI_) Mimi, what would you like?
MIMI. Some custard!
SCH. And some Rhenish!
COL. Bring some claret, too!
SCH. And some lobster, only shell it! The best you've got--for a lady!
MAR. (_disconcerted at the sight of MUSETTA; to the waiter_)
And I'll