A MAGISTRATE.
[Footnote: The original has _un Commissaire_, who in Moli?re's
time, appears to have been a kind of inferior magistrate under the
authority of the _Lieutenant-g?n?ral de la Police_.
The _Commissaires de Police_ were not established till 1699;
and _The School for Husbands_ was played for the first time in 1661.]
A NOTARY.
ISABELLA, )
) _sisters_.
L?ONOR, }
LISETTE, _maid to Isabella_.
_Scene_.--A PUBLIC PLACE IN PARIS.
THE SCHOOL FOR HUSBANDS.
(_L'ECOLE DES MARIS_).
* * * * *
ACT I.
SCENE I.--SGANARELLE, ARISTE.
SGAN. Pray, brother, let us talk less, and let each of us live as he
likes. Though you have the advantage of me in years, and are old enough
to be wise, yet I tell you that I mean to receive none of your reproofs;
that my fancy is the only counsellor I shall follow, and that I am quite
satisfied with my way of living.
AR. But every one condemns it.
SGAN. Yes, fools like yourself, brother.
AR. Thank you very much. It is a pleasant compliment.
SGAN. I should like to know, since one ought to hear everything, what
these fine critics blame in me.
AR. That surly and austere temper which shuns all the charms of society,
gives a whimsical appearance to all your actions, and makes everything
peculiar in you, even your dress.
SGAN. I ought then to make myself a slave in fashion, and not to put on
clothes for my own sake? Would you not, my dear elder brother--for,
Heaven be thanked, so you are, to tell you plainly, by a matter of
twenty years; and that is not worth the trouble of mentioning--would you
not, I say, by your precious nonsense, persuade me to adopt the fashions
of those young sparks of yours?
[Footnote: The original has _vos jeunes muguets_, literally "your
young lilies of the valley," because in former times, according to some
annotators, the courtiers wore natural or artificial lilies of the
valley in their buttonholes, and perfumed themselves with the essence of
that flower.
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