Produced by Delphine Lettau, Charles Franks and the people at DP
THE LEARNED WOMEN
(LES FEMMES SAVANTES)
BY
MOLIÈRE
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE.
WITH SHORT INTRODUCTIONS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
BY
CHARLES HERON WALL
The comedy of 'Les Femmes Savantes' was acted on March 11, 1692 (seevol. i. p. 153).
Molière acted the part of Chrysale.
PERSONS REPRESENTED
CHRYSALE, an honest bourgeois
PHILAMINTE, wife to CHRYSALE
ARMANDE & HENRIETTE, their daughters
ARISTE, brother to CHRYSALE
BÉLISE, his sister
CLITANDRE, lover to HENRIETTE
TRISSOTIN, a wit
VADIUS, a learned man
MARTINE, a kitchen-maid
LÉPINE, servant to CHRYSALE
JULIEN, servant to VADIUS
A NOTARY.
THE LEARNED WOMEN.
ACT I.
SCENE I.—ARMANDE, HENRIETTE.
ARM. What! Sister, you will give up the sweet and enchanting title ofmaiden? You can entertain thoughts of marrying! This vulgar wish canenter your head!
HEN. Yes, sister.
ARM. Ah! Who can bear that "yes"? Can anyone hear it without feelingsof disgust?
HEN. What is there in marriage which can oblige you, sister, to….
ARM. Ah! Fie!
HEN. What?
ARM. Fie! I tell you. Can you not conceive what offence the verymention of such a word presents to the imagination, and what arepulsive image it offers to the thoughts? Do you not shudder beforeit? And can you bring yourself to accept all the consequences whichthis word implies?
HEN. When I consider all the consequences which this word implies, Ionly have offered to my thoughts a husband, children, and a home; andI see nothing in all this to defile the imagination, or to make oneshudder.
ARM. O heavens! Can such ties have charms for you?
HEN. And what at my age can I do better than take a husband who lovesme, and whom I love, and through such a tender union secure thedelights of an innocent life? If there be conformity of tastes, do yousee no attraction in such a bond?
ARM. Ah! heavens! What a grovelling disposition! What a poor part youact in the world, to confine yourself to family affairs, and to thinkof no more soul-stirring pleasures than those offered by an idol of ahusband and by brats of children! Leave these base pleasures to thelow and vulgar. Raise your thoughts to more exalted objects; endeavourto cultivate a taste for nobler pursuits; and treating sense andmatter with contempt, give yourself, as we do, wholly to thecultivation of your mind. You have for an example our mother, who iseverywhere honoured with the name of learned. Try, as we do, to proveyourself her daughter; aspire to the enlightened intellectuality whichis found in our family, and acquire a taste for the rapturouspleasures which the love of study brings to the heart and mind.Instead of being in bondage to the will of a man, marry yourself,sister, to philosophy, for it alone raises you