Socrates | Page 7

I don't have the strength, and in that respect I am unworthy of
her. But if she could be content with my conditions, if she could lower
herself to me! No, I don't dare ask it; I don't dare wish it and I won't
succumb to a misfortune that she suffers.
SOCRATES: My children, Xantippe was really indiscreet to have
shown you that will. But believe me, beautiful Aglaea, that she
deceived you.
AGLAEA: She didn't deceive me. I saw my misery with my own eyes.
My father's handwriting is well known to me. Be sure, Socrates, that I
know how to bear poverty; I know how to work with my hands. It's
enough to live. That's all I need. But it's not enough for Sophronine.
SOPHRONINE: It's a thousand times too much for me, tender, sublime
soul, worthy of having been raised by Socrates. A noble and laborious
poverty is the natural state of man. I would have wanted to offer you a
throne. But if you deign to live with me, our respectable poverty is
higher than the throne of Croesus,
SOCRATES: Your feelings please me more than they soften me. With
ecstacy, I see blooming in your hearts the virtue that I sowed there.
Never have my cares been better rewarded; never have my hopes been
better fulfilled. But, yet once more, Aglaea, believe me, my wife has ill
informed you. You are richer than you can imagine. It was not in her
but in me that your father confided. Can you not have wealth that
Xantippe is ignorant of?
AGLAEA: No, Socrates. It says exactly in his will that he is leaving me
poor.

SOCRATES: And as for me, I tell you that you are mistaken; that he
left you wherewithal to live happily with the virtuous Sophronine, and
that it is necessary that you both come to sign the contract now.
XANTIPPE (entering) Come on, come on, my daughter. Don't amuse
yourself with the dreams of my husband. Philosophy is all very fine
when one is in easy circumstances, but you have nothing. One has to
live. You will philosophize later. I have concluded your marriage with
Anitus, a worthy priest, a man of credit, a powerful man. Come follow
me. There must be neither delay nor contradiction; I like to be obeyed.
And quickly, it's for your good. Don't argue and follow me.
SOPHRONINE: Ah, heaven, ha! dearest Aglaea!
SOCRATES: Let her talk and trust in me for your happiness.
XANTIPPE: What do you mean, let me talk? Really, I mean to do so,
and they'd better let me do it. It's really for you, with your wisdom, and
your familiar demon, and your irony, and all your nonsense which is
good for nothing, for you to meddle in the marriage of young girls!
You are a good sort, but you don't understand anything about worldly
affairs. And you are very lucky that I govern you. Come on, Aglaea,
come so I can establish you. And you, who remain bewildered, I've got
just the thing for you, too. Drixa is your thing. You will thank me, both
of you. Everything will be concluded in no time; I am expeditious. Let's
not waste time. All this should have been concluded already.
SOCRATES: Don't offend her, my children. Show her all sorts of
deference. It's necessary to humor her since one cannot correct her, It's
the triumph of superior reason to live with folks who don't have any.
CURTAIN

ACT II
SOPHRONINE: Divine Socrates, I cannot believe my luck: how can it
be that Aglaea whose father died in extreme poverty has such a

considerable dowry?
SOCRATES: I already told you; she had more than she knew. I knew
her father's resources better than she. May it suffice you both to enjoy a
fortune you deserve; as for myself, I owe the dead a secret as well as
the living.
SOPHRONINE: I have only one fear; it's that that priest of Ceres, over
whom you've preferred me will avenge Aglaea's refusals on you. He's a
man really to be feared.
SOCRATES: Eh! What can be feared when one is doing one's duty? I
know the rage of my enemies. I know all their slanders; but when one
only tries to do good to men and when one does not offend heaven, one
can fear nothing, neither during life, nor after death.
SOPHRONINE: Nothing is more true; but I would die of sorrow if the
happiness I owe you allowed your enemies to force you to put your
heroic constancy to use.
AGLAEA: (entering) My benefactor, my father, man above all men, I
embrace your knees. Second me, Sophronine, it's he, it's Socrates who
is marrying us at the expense of his fortune, who is paying my dowry,