The Impostures of Scapin | Page 3

see all that.
OCT. All who approached her burst into tears whilst she threw herself,
in her loving way, on the body of the dying woman, whom she called
her dear mother; and nobody could help being moved to the depths of
the heart to see a girl with such a loving disposition.
SCA. Yes, all that is very touching; and I understand that this loving
disposition made you love her.
OCT. Ah! Scapin, a savage would have loved her.
SCA. Certainly; how could anyone help doing so?
OCT. After a few words, with which I tried to soothe her grief, we left
her; and when I asked Léandre what he thought of her, he answered
coldly that she was rather pretty! I was wounded to find how
unfeelingly he spoke to me of her, and I would not tell him the effect

her beauty had had on my heart.
SIL. (to OCTAVE). If you do not abridge your story, we shall have to
stop here till to-morrow. Leave it to me to finish it in a few words. (To
SCAPIN) His heart takes fire from that moment. He cannot live
without going to comfort the amiable and sorrowful girl. His frequent
visits are forbidden by the servant, who has become her guardian by the
death of the mother. Our young man is in despair; he presses, begs,
beseeches--all in vain. He is told that the young girl, although without
friends and without fortune, is of an honourable family, and that, unless
he marries her, he must cease his visits. His love increases with the
difficulties. He racks his brains; debates, reasons, ponders, and makes
up his mind. And, to cut a long story short, he has been married these
three days.
SCA. I see.
SIL. Now, add to this the unforeseen return of the father, who was not
to be back before two whole months; the discovery which the uncle has
made of the marriage; and that other marriage projected between him
and a daughter which Mr. Géronte had by a second wife, whom, they
say, he married at Tarentum.
OCT. And, above all, add also the poverty of my beloved, and the
impossibility there is for me to do anything for her relief.
SCA. Is that all? You are both of you at a great loss about nothing. Is
there any reason to be alarmed? Are you not ashamed, you, Silvestre, to
fall short in such a small matter? Deuce take it all! You, big and stout
as father and mother put together, you can't find any expedient in your
noddle? you can't plan any stratagem, invent any gallant intrigue to put
matters straight? Fie! Plague on the booby! I wish I had had the two old
fellows to bamboozle in former times; I should not have thought much
of it; and I was no bigger than that, when I had given a hundred delicate
proofs of my skill.
SIL. I acknowledge that Heaven has not given me your talent, and that I
have not the brains like you to embroil myself with justice.
OCT. Here is my lovely Hyacintha!

SCENE III.--HYACINTHA, OCTAVE, SCAPIN, SILVESTRE.
HYA. Ah! Octave, is what Silvestre has just told Nérine really true? Is
your father back, and is he bent upon marrying you?

OCT. Yes, it is so, dear Hyacintha; and these tidings have given me a
cruel shock. But what do I see? You are weeping? Why those tears? Do
you suspect me of unfaithfulness, and have you no assurance of the
love I feel for you?
HYA. Yes, Octave, I am sure that you love me now; but can I be sure
that you will love me always?
OCT. Ah! could anyone love you once without loving you for ever?
HYA. I have heard say, Octave, that your sex does not love so long as
ours, and that the ardour men show is a fire which dies out as easily as
it is kindled.
OCT. Then, my dear Hyacintha, my heart is not like that of other men,
and I feel certain that I shall love you till I die.
HYA. I want to believe what you say, and I have no doubt that you are
sincere; but I fear a power which will oppose in your heart the tender
feelings you have for me. You depend on a father who would marry
you to another, and I am sure it would kill me if such a thing happened.
OCT. No, lovely Hyacintha, there is no father who can force me to
break my faith to you, and I could resolve to leave my country, and
even to die, rather than be separated from you. Without having seen her,
I have already conceived a horrible aversion to her whom they want me