out listening to SGANARELLE). Speech was given to man to express his thoughts, and just as thoughts are the representatives of things, even so are our words representatives of our thoughts (SGANARELLE, out of patience, stops the Doctor's mouth with his hand several times. The Doctor goes on speaking each time that SGANARELLE with draws his hand); but these representatives are different from other representatives, forasmuch as the other representatives are distinguished everywhere by their originals; while speech includes its original in itself, since it is nothing else than the thought expressed by an external sign. Whence it follows that those who think well are likewise those who speak the best. Therefore, explain your thoughts to me by speech, which is the most intelligible of all signs.

SGAN. (pushing the Doctor into his house, and pulling the door to prevent his coming out). Plague take the man!

PANC. (within the house). Yes, speech is animi index, et speculum. It is the interpreter of the heart. It is the image of the soul. (He gets up to the window and goes on:) It is a mirror which reproduces plainly the innermost secrets of our individuality. Since, then, you have the faculty of reasoning, and also of speaking, what can prevent you from making use of speech to make me understand your thoughts?

SGAN. That is what I want to do, but you won't listen to me.

PANC. I am listening; speak.
SGAN. I say, then, Doctor...
PANC. But, above all things, be brief.
SGAN. Certainly.

PANC. Avoid prolixity.
SGAN. I say, sir
PANC.

Cut your discourse short with a laconic apophthegm. SGAN. I.

PANC. No ambages, no circumlocution. (SGANARELLE, enraged at being unable to speak, picks up stones to throw at the Doctor's head.) What! you fly into a passion instead of explaining yourself? Get along, you are more impertinent than the fellow who maintained that we ought to say the form of a hat; and I will prove to you at any time, by the help of demonstrative and convincing reasons, and by arguments in Barbara, that you are and never will be anything but a simpleton, and that I am and ever shall be, in utroque jure, the Doctor Pancrace. (Exit.)

SGAN. What an eternal jabberer!

PANC. A man of sufficiency, a man of capacity (going away). A man finished in all the sciences, natural, moral, and politi cal. (coming back). A savant, savantissime, per omnes modos et casus. (going away). A man who has a knowledge superlative of fables, mythologies, and histories; (coming back) grammar, poetry, rhetoric, dialectics, and sophistry; (going away) mathematics, arithmetic, optics, oneirocritics, physics, and metaphysics; (coming back) cosmometry, geometry, architecture, speculary and speculatory sciences; going away) medicine, astronomy, astrology, physiognomy, metoposcopy, chiromancy,

SCENE VIII.-MARPHURIUS, SGanarelle. MAR. What do you want with me, Mr. Sganarelle?

SGAN. Doctor, I have need of your ad. vice upon a little affair which touches me closely, and I came here for that purpose. (aside) Come, it's all right in that quarter; this one listens to what people say.

MAR. Mr. Sganarelle, please to alter your way of expressing yourself. Our philosophy commands us not to enunciate any positive proposition, but always to speak of everything with uncertainty, and always to suspend our judgment. There fore, you should not say, "I am come," but "it seems to me that I am come." SGAN. Seems ? MAR. Yes.

SGAN. Upon my word, it must needs seem, when it is so.

MAR. The deduction is weak; it may seem so, without the thing being really so. SGAN. What! It is not true that I am come?

MAR. It is questionable, and we shoule doubt everything.

SGAN. What! Am I not here, and are you not speaking to me?

ŠGAN. Ah! now, come! Deuce take it! you are laughing at me. Here am I, and there you are, very plainly to be seen, and there is no seem in the matter. Pray let us drop all these subtleties, and let us talk of my business. I am come to tell

you that I intend to marry.

MAR. I know nothing of the matter.
SGAN. But I tell you so.

MAR. It may happen.

SGAN. The girl I want to marry is very

young and beautiful.

MAR. It's not impossible. SGAN. Shall I do right or wrong to marry her?

MAR. Either the one or the other.

SGAN. (aside). Hey-day! This is another tune. (to MARPHURIUS) I ask you whether I shall do well to marry the girl I tell you of?

MAR. That depends.
SGAN. Shall I do wrong?
MAR. Perhaps.

SGAN. Pray answer

fashion.

me in a proper

I shall go and complain to the com

MAR.
missary.
SGAN. I wash my hands of it.
MAR. I have the marks on my body.
SGAN. It may be so.

MAR.

It is you who treated me thus. SGAN. It is not possible.

MAR.

MAR. I shall get a warrant against you.
SGAN. I know nothing of the matter.
And you will be condemned.
Whatever is to be, may be.
You shall see.

SGAN.

MAR.

SCENE IX.-SGANARELLE (alone).

Did you ever see the like! I can't force one word from that cur, and I am as wise at the end of his talk as at the beginning. What ought I to do in this uncertainty about the consequences of my marriage? Never was a man more perplexed than I am.-Hallo! here are some gipsies; I must ask them to tell me my fortune.

SCENE X.-TWO GIPSIES, SGANarelle.

(Enter the two Gipsies with their tabors, singing and dancing.)

SGAN.

They look jolly! I say, you there, can you tell me my fortune?

1ST GIP. Ay, ay, my good gentleman, we two here will tell it you.

2ND GIP. You have only to give us your hand and a cross inside, and we will tell you something which will be of service to you.

SGAN. There, you have both my hands with what you want.

1ST GIP. You have a good face, my good gentleman; a good face.

2ND GIP. Yes, a good face. The face of a man who will be something some day.

1ST GIP. You will be married soon, my good gentleman; you will be married soon. 2ND GIP. You will marry a pretty wife, a pretty wife.

1ST GIP. Yes, a wife who will be admired and loved by everybody.

2ND GIP. A wife who will bring you many friends, my good gentleman; who will bring you many friends.

A wife who will get you a great

1ST GIP. Through her you will enjoy great consideration, my good gentleman; great consideration.

SGAN. All this is very well; but tell me, is there any chance of my being deceived by her?

2ND GIP. Deceived? SGAN. Yes.

1ST GIP. Deceived?

SGAN. Yes. Is there any chance of my being deceived by her?

(The two Gipsies go off singing and dancing.)

SGAN. But this is not the way to answer people. Come, come; I ask you both whether I shall be deceived.

2ND GIP. Deceived? You? SGAN. Yes, yes!

1ST GIP. You deceived?

SGAN. Yes, yes! Tell me, yes or no? (The two Gipsies go off singing and dancing.)

SCENE XI.-SGANARELLE (alone).

Plague the two baggages for leaving me in this state of doubt! But I must absolutely know what my marriage will bring me; and I shall, therefore, go and see that famous magician of whom everybody talks so much, and who, by his wonderful art, can show us everything we want to see. Heyday! I think, after all, I shall have no need of the magician, for here is something which will tell me all I wish to know.

(Hides.)

marriage. I don't marry the man out of love, but simply because of his wealth. I have no fortune, neither have you; and you know that without money life is dull enough. In order to get some at any cost, I seized this opportunity of improving my position; and I have done it in the hope of soon being rid of the old dotard. He will soon die ; -he has scarcely six months in him. Í will warrant him dead within the time I tell

you; and I shall not have long to pray Heaven for the happy state of widowhood. (She sees SGANARELLE.) Ah, we were speak. ing about you, and were saying the most pleasant things imaginable about you. LYC. Is this the gentleman

DOR. Yes, this is the gentleman who takes me for his wife.

Lyc. Pray, sir, accept my most sincere congratulations on your marriage, and believe me to be your most humble servant. You are about to marry a most honourable lady, I assure you. I also congratulate you, madam, on the happy choice you have made. You could not do better, for the gentleman has all the appearance of making an excellent husband. Yes, sir, I hope you will reckon me among your friends, and allow me sometimes to come and visit you.

But come along, I am in a hurry now, shall have many opportunities of talking with him by and by.

DOR. You do us both too much honour. and we

(Exeunt DORIMENE and LYCASTE.)

SCENE XIII.-SGANARELLE.

thing worse. I must try to get out of this business skilfully. Hallo!

(Knocks at ALCANTOR's door.)

SCENE XIV.-ALCANTOR, SGANARelle.

ALC. I have given all necessary orders for the fête.

SGAN. That isn't what I came for. ALC. The musicians are engaged, the dinner is ordered, and my daughter is quite ready dressed to receive you.

SGAN. It isn't that which brings me here. ALC. In short, everything has been arranged to your full satisfaction; nothing can delay your happiness.

SGAN. It is another thing. I tell you that I have come upon other business.

ALC. Come in, son-in-law.

SGAN. I have a word or two to say. ALC. Ah! I beg of you, don't let us stand ■pon ceremony. Come in, I entreat.

SGAN. No, no, I tell you; I want to speak to you first.

ALC. You have something to tell me? SGAN. Yes.

ALC. What is it?

SGAN. It is true, sir, that I have asked your daughter in marriage, and that you have agreed to give her to me, but I think myself a little too old for her, and I consider

that I am not at all the kind of husband she ought to have.

ALC. Excuse me. My daughter is perfectly satisfied with you, and I am certain that she will live very happily with you.

SGAN. Oh dear, no. I have sometimes terrible whims, and she would have to suffer greatly from my bad temper.

ALC. My daughter is of a sweet and yielding disposition, and you will see that she will get on beautifully with you.

SGAN. I have some bodily infirmities which might disgust her.

ALC. That is of no consequence; a virtuous woman is never disgusted with her husband.

SGAN. In short, shall I tell you what? I do not advise you to give her to me. ALC. Are you joking? I had rather die than break my word.

SGAN. On my conscience, I free you from your promise.

ALC. Certainly not. I have promised her to you, and you shall have her in spite of all the offers I receive from other quarters. SGAN. (aside). The devil I shall!

ALC. I assure you I hold you in such great esteem, and have such real friendship for you, that I would refuse my daughter to a prince in order to give her to you.

SGAN. Sir, I am deeply indebted to you for the honour you do me; but I must tell you plainly that I will not marry.

ALC. Not marry, you say?
SGAN. Yes.
ALC. And why?

SGAN. The reason is that I find myself unfit for marriage, and that I wish to do like my father and all the rest of the Sganarelles, who never would marry.

ALC. Very well. Will is free; and I am not the man to force anybody. You were engaged to marry my daughter, and everything is ready for the wedding; but since you wish to withdraw, I will see what can be done. You shall soon hear from me.

ALC. If you please.

SGAN. What's the object of doing that?

ALC. As you refuse, sir, to marry my sister after having given your word, you will not, I believe, take amiss the compli ment I have come to pay you?

SGAN. What do you mean?

ALC. There are some people who would make a great ado, and would get in a passion with you; but we prefer doing things in a more quiet way, and I have come to tell you very politely that we must, with your permission, cut each other's throat.

SGAN. A very ill-turned compliment this.

SGAN. Oh! sir, a truce to these complinents, I beseech you.

ALC. Let us be quick, sir, I have some little business awaiting me.

SGAN. I will have nothing to do with this, I tell you.

ALC. You will not fight?

SGAN. No, upon my soul, I will not.
ALC. Do you mean it?
SGAN. Yes, I mean it.

ALC. (after beating him with his stick). At least, sir, you have no reason to complain; you see that I do things in the proper way. You break your word, and I wish to fight you; you refuse to fight, and I thrash you. All this is according to rule, and you are too much of a gentleman to disapprove of my behaviour.

SGAN. (aside). What a devil of a man! ALC. (presenting him the swords again) Come, sir, do the thing properly, and with a good grace.

SGAN. What! again?

ALC. Sir, I do not force anybody, but either you will marry my sister or you will fight.

SGAN. Sir, I assure you that I can do neither the one nor the other.

ALC. Sir, I am exceedingly sorry to be obliged to treat you in this manner; but I shall not leave off until you promise me, if you please, either to fight me or to marry my sister (raises his stick).

SGAN. I'll marry, I'll marry.

ALC. Ah, sir, I rejoice to see you restored to reason, and that it is all settled quietly; for, in short, sir, I assure you that you are the man I esteem the most in the world,, and that I should have been in despair if you had compelled me to ill-use you. Now, I will call my father and tell him that it is all right.

SCENE XVII.-ALCANTOR, DORIMENE, ALCIDAS, SGANARELLE. ALCI. Father, the gentleman is now quite reasonable, and most willing to do