French Classics Part 9

_Arm._ We must yield to _prudence fast asleep_.

_Bel._ _Lodge one's very hardest-hearted foe_ is full of charms for me.

_Phil._ I like _luxuriously_ and _magnificently_: these two adverbs joined together sound admirably.

_Bel._ Let us hear the rest.

_Triss._ Your prudence sure is fast asleep, That thus luxuriously you keep And lodge magnificently so Your very hardest-hearted foe.

_Arm._ _Prudence fast asleep._

_Bel._ _To lodge one's foe._

_Phil._ _Luxuriously_ and _magnificently_.

_Triss._ Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say, From out your chamber, decked so gay, Where, ingrate vile, with murderous knife, Bold she a.s.sails your lovely life.

_Bel._ Ah! gently. Allow me to breathe, I beseech you.

_Arm._ Give us time to admire, I beg.

_Phil._ One feels, at hearing these verses, an indescribable something which goes through one's inmost soul, and makes one feel quite faint.

_Arm._ Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say, From out your chamber, decked so gay--

How prettily _chamber, decked so gay_, is said here! And with what wit the metaphor is introduced!

_Phil._ Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say.

Ah! in what an admirable taste that _whate'er men say_ is! To my mind, the pa.s.sage is invaluable.

_Arm._ My heart is also in love with _whate'er men say_.

_Bel._ I am of your opinion: _whate'er men say_ is a happy expression.

_Arm._ I wish I had written it.

_Bel._ It is worth a whole poem.

_Phil._ But do you, like me, thoroughly understand the wit of it?

_Arm. and Bel._ Oh! Oh!

_Phil._ Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say.

Although another should take the fever's part, pay no attention; laugh at the gossips.

Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say, Whate'er men say, whate'er men say.

This _whate'er men say_, says a great deal more than it seems. I do not know if every one is like me, but I discover in it a hundred meanings.

_Bel._ It is true that it says more than its size seems to imply.

_Phil._ (_to Trissotin._) But when you wrote this charming _whate'er men say_, did you yourself understand all its energy? Did you realize all it tells us? And did you then think that you were writing something so witty?

_Triss._ Ah! ah!

_Arm._ I have likewise the _ingrate_ in my head--this ungrateful, unjust, uncivil fever that ill-treats people who entertain her.

_Phil._ In short, both the stanzas are admirable. Let us come quickly to the triplets, I pray.

_Arm._ Ah! once more, _what'er men say_, I beg.

_Triss._ Drive forth that foe, whate'er men say--

_Phil., Arm., and Bel._ _Whate'er men say!_

_Triss._ From out your chamber, decked so gay--

_Phil., Arm. and Bel._ _Chamber decked so gay!_

_Triss._ Where, ingrate vile, with murderous knife--

_Phil., Arm., and Bel._ That _ingrate_ fever!

_Triss._ Bold she a.s.sails your lovely life.

_Triss._ _Your lovely life!_

_Arm. and Bel._ Ah!

_Triss._ What! reckless of your ladyhood, Still fiercely seeks to shed your blood--

_Phil., Arm. and Bel._ Ah!

_Triss._ And day and night to work you harm.

When to the baths sometime you've brought her, No more ado, with your own arm Whelm her and drown her in the water.

_Phil._ Ah! It is quite overpowering.

_Bel._ I faint.

_Arm._ I die from pleasure.

_Phil._ A thousand sweet thrills seize one.

_Arm._ _When to the baths sometime you've brought her._

_Bel._ _No more ado, with your own arm._