The School for Husbands | Page 8

of your acquaintance is so great a happiness,
so exquisite a pleasure, that I had a great desire to pay my respects to
you.
SGAN. Well.
VAL. And to come and assure you, without any deceit, that I am
wholly at your service.
SGAN. I believe it.
VAL. I have the advantage of being one of your neighbours, for which
I thank my lucky fate.
SGAN. That is all right.
VAL. But, sir. do you know the news going the round at Court, and
thought to be reliable?
SGAN. What does it matter to me?
VAL. True; but we may sometimes be anxious to hear it? Shall you go
and see the magnificent preparations for the birth of our Dauphin, sir?
[Footnote: The Dauphin, the son of Louis XIV. was born at
Fontainebleau, on the 1st of November, 1661; The School for Husbands
was first acted on the 24th of June of the same year; hence Molière
ventures to prophesy about the Dauphin's birth.]
SGAN. If I feel inclined.
VAL. Confess that Paris affords us a hundred delightful pleasures
which are not to be found elsewhere. The provinces are a desert in
comparison. How do you pass your time?
SGAN. On my own business.
VAL. The mind demands relaxation, and occasionally gives way, by
too close attention to serious occupations. What do you do in the
evening before going to bed?
SGAN. What I please.
VAL. Doubtless no one could speak better. The answer is just, and it
seems to be common sense to resolve never to do what does not please
us. If I did not think you were too much occupied, I would drop in on
you sometimes after supper.

SGAN. Your servant.

SCENE VI.--VALÈRE, ERGASTE.
VAL. What do you think of that eccentric fool?
ERG. His answers are abrupt and his reception is churlish.
VAL. Ah! I am in a rage.
ERG. What for?
VAL. Why am I in a rage? To see her I love in the power of a savage, a
watchful dragon, whose severity will not permit her to enjoy a single
moment of liberty.
ERG. That is just what is in your favour. Your love ought to expect a
great deal from these circumstances. Know, for your encouragement,
that a woman watched is half-won, and that the gloomy ill-temper of
husbands and fathers has always promoted the affairs of the gallant. I
intrigue very little; for that is not one of my accomplishments. I do not
pretend to be a gallant; but I have served a score of such sportsmen,
who often used to tell me that it was their greatest delight to meet with
churlish husbands, who never come home without scolding,--downright
brutes, who, without rhyme or reason, criticise the conduct of their
wives in everything, and, proudly assuming the authority of a husband,
quarrel with them before the eyes of their admirers. "One knows," they
would say, "how to take advantage of this. The lady's indignation at
this kind of outrage, on the one hand, and the considerate compassion
of the lover, on the other, afford an opportunity for pushing matters far
enough." In a word, the surliness of Isabella's guardian is a
circumstance sufficiently favourable for you.
VAL. But I could never find one moment to speak to her in the four
months that I have ardently loved her.
ERG. Love quickens people's wits, though it has little effect on yours.
If I had been...
VAL. Why, what could you have done? For one never sees her without
that brute; in the house there are neither maids nor men-servants whom
I might influence to assist me by the alluring temptation of some
reward.
ERG. Then she does not yet know that you love her?
VAL. It is a point on which I am not informed. Wherever the churl took
this fair one, she always saw me like a shadow behind her; my looks

daily tried to explain to her the violence of my love. My eyes have
spoken much; but who can tell whether, after all, their language could
be understood?
ERG. It is true that this language may sometimes prove obscure, if it
have not writing or speech for its interpreter.
VAL. What am I to do to rid myself of this vast difficulty, and to learn
whether the fair one has perceived that I love her? Tell me some means
or other.
ERG. That is what we have to discover. Let us go in for a while--the
better to think over it.

ACT II.
SCENE I.--ISABELLA, SGANARELLE.
SGAN. That will do; I know the house, and the person, simply from the
description you have given me.
ISA. (_Aside_). Heaven, be propitious, and favour to-day the artful
contrivance of an innocent love!
SGAN. Do you say they have told