The Learned Women | Page 6

to my wife about it.

SCENE V.-CHRYSALE, MARTINE.
MAR. Just like my luck! Alas! they be true sayings, they be--"Give a dog a bad name and hang him," and--"One doesn't get fat in other folk's service." [Footnote: Or, more literally, "Service is no inheritance;" but this does not sound familiar enough in English.]
CHRY. What is it? What is the matter with you, Martine?
MAR. What is the matter?
CHRY. Yes.
MAR. The matter is that I am sent away, Sir.
CHRY. Sent away?
MAR. Yes; mistress has turned me out.
CHRY. I don't understand; why has she?
MAR. I am threatened with a sound beating if I don't go.
CHRY. No; you will stop here. I am quite satisfied with you. My wife is a little hasty at times, and I will not, no....

SCENE VI.--PHILAMINTE, B��LISE, CHRYSALE, MARTINE.
PHI. (seeing MARTINE). What! I see you here, you hussy! Quick, leave this place, and never let me set my eyes upon you again.
CHRY. Gently.
PHI. No; I will have it so.
CHRY. What?
PHI. I insist upon her going.
CHRY. But what has she done wrong, that you wish her in this way to...?
PHI. What! you take her part?
CHRY. Certainly not.
PHI. You side with her against me?
CHRY. Oh! dear me, no; I only ask what she is guilty of.
PHI. Am I one to send her away without just cause?
CHRY. I do not say that; but we must, with servants....
PHI. No; she must leave this place, I tell you.
CHRY. Let it be so; who says anything to the contrary?
PHI. I will have no opposition to my will.
CHRY. Agreed.
PHI. And like a reasonable husband, you should take my part against her, and share my anger.
CHRY. So I do. (Turning towards MARTINE.) Yes; my wife is right in sending you away, baggage that you are; your crime cannot be forgiven.
MAR. What is it I have done, then?
CHRY. (_aside_). Upon my word, I don't know.
PHI. She is capable even now of looking upon it as nothing.
CHRY. Has she caused your anger by breaking some looking-glass or some china?
PHI. Do you think that I would send her away for that? And do you fancy that I should get angry for so little?
CHRY. (to MARTINE). What is the meaning of this? (To PHILAMINTE) The thing is of great importance, then?
PHI. Certainly; did you ever find me unreasonable?
CHRY. Has she, through carelessness, allowed some ewer or silver dish to be stolen from us?
PHI. That would be of little moment.
CHRY. (to MARTINE). Oh! oh! I say, Miss! (To PHILAMINTE) What! has she shown herself dishonest?
PHI. It is worse than that.
CHRY. Worse than that?
PHI. Worse.
CHRY. (to MARTINE). How the deuce! you jade. (To PHILAMINTE) What! has she...?
PHI. She has with unparalleled impudence, after thirty lessons, insulted my ear by the improper use of a low and vulgar word condemned in express terms by Vaugelas. [Footnote: The French grammarian, born about 1585; died 1650.]
CHRY. Is that...?
PHI. What! In spite of our remonstrances to be always sapping the foundation of all knowledge--of grammar which rules even kings, and makes them, with a high hand, obey her laws.
CHRY. I thought her guilty of the greatest crime.
PHI. What! You do not think the crime unpardonable?
CHRY. Yes, yes.
PHI. I should like to see you excuse her.
CHRY. Heaven forbid!
BEL. It is really pitiful. All constructions are destroyed by her; yet she has a hundred times been told the laws of the language.
MAR. All that you preach there is no doubt very fine, but I don't understand your jargon, not I.
PHI. Did you ever see such impudence? To call a language founded on reason and polite custom a jargon!
MAR. Provided one is understood, one speaks well enough, and all your fine speeches don't do me no good.
PHI. You see! Is not that her way of speaking, _don't do me no good!_
BEL. O intractable brains! How is it that, in spite of the trouble we daily take, we cannot teach you to speak with congruity? In putting not with no, you have spoken redundantly, and it is, as you have been told, a negative too many.
MAR. Oh my! I ain't no scholar like you, and I speak straight out as they speaks in our place.
PHI. Ah! who can bear it?
BEL. What a horrible solecism!
PHI. It is enough to destroy a delicate ear.
BEL. You are, I must acknowledge, very dull of understanding; they is in the plural number, and speaks is in the singular. Will you thus all your life offend grammar? [Footnote: Grammaire in Moli��re's time was pronounced as _grand'm��re_ is now. Gammer seems the nearest approach to this in English.]
MAR. Who speaks of offending either gammer or gaffer?
PHI. O heavens!
BEL. The word grammar is misunderstood by you, and I have told you a hundred times where the word comes from.
MAR. Faith, let it come from Chaillot, Auteuil, or Pontoise, [Footnote: In Moli��re's time villages close to Paris.] I care precious little.
BEL. What