The Middle-Class Gentleman Part 13

COVIELLE: As to her wit...

CLEONTE: Ah! She has that, Covielle, the finest, the most delicate!

COVIELLE: Her conversation...

CLEONTE: Her conversation is charming.

COVIELLE: She is always serious...

CLEONTE; Would you have grinning playfulness, constant open merriment? And do you see anything more impertinent than those women who laugh all the time?

COVIELLE: But finally she is as capricious as any woman in the world.

CLEONTE: Yes, she is capricious, I concede; but everything becomes beautiful ladies well, one suffers everything for beauty.

COVIELLE: I see clearly how it goes, you want to go on loving her.

CLEONTE: Me, I'd like better to die; and I am going to hate her as much as I loved her.

COVIELLE: How, if you find her so perfect?

CLEONTE: That's how my vengeance will be more striking, in that way I'll show better the strength of my heart, by hating her, by quitting her, with all her beauty, all her charms, and as lovable as I find her. Here she is.

ACT THREE

SCENE X (Cleonte, Lucile, Covielle, Nicole)

NICOLE: For my part, I was completely shocked at it.

LUCILE: It can only be, Nicole, what I told you. But there he is.

CLEONTE: I don't even want to speak to her.

COVIELLE: I'll imitate you.

LUCILE: What's the matter Cleonte? What's wrong with you?

NICOLE: What's the matter with you, Covielle?

LUCILE: What grief possesses you?

NICOLE: What bad humor holds you?

LUCILE: Are you mute, Cleonte?

NICOLE: Have you lost your voice, Covielle?

CLEONTE: Is this not villainous!

COVIELLE: It's a Judas!

LUCILE: I clearly see that our recent meeting has troubled you.

CLEONTE: Ah! Ah! She sees what she's done.

NICOLE: Our greeting this morning has annoyed you. COVIELLE: She has guessed the problem.

LUCILE: Isn't it true, Cleonte, that this is the cause of your resentment?

CLEONTE: Yes, perfidious one, it is, since I must speak; and I must tell that you shall not triumph in your faithlessness as you think, I want to be the first to break with you, and you won't have the advantage of driving me away. I will have difficulty in conquering the love I have for you; it will cause me pain; I will suffer for a while. But I'll come through it, and I would rather stab myself through the heart than have the weakness to return to you.

COVIELLE: Me too.

LUCILE: What an uproar over nothing. I want to tell you, Cleonte, what made me avoid joining you this morning.

CLEONTE: No, I don't want to listen to anything...

NICOLE: I want to tell you what made us pa.s.s so quickly.

COVIELLE: I don't want to hear anything.

LUCILE: (Following Cleonte) Know that this morning...

CLEONTE: No, I tell you.

NICOLE: (Following Covielle) Learn that...

COVIELLE: No, traitor.

LUCILE: Listen.

CLEONTE: I won't listen.

NICOLE: Let me speak.

COVIELLE: I'm deaf.

LUCILE: Cleonte! CLEONTE: No.

NICOLE: Covielle!

COVIELLE: I won't listen.

LUCILE: Stop.

CLEONTE: Gibberis.h.!.+