The Miser (L'Avare) Part 15

HAR. Did she kindly receive your proposal for her daughter?

CLE. Yes, very kindly.

HAR. And does the daughter return your love?

CLE. If I can believe appearances, she is certainly well disposed towards me.

HAR. (_aside_). Well! I am very glad to have found out this secret; it is the very thing I wanted to know. (_To his son_) Now, look here, my son, I tell you what. You will have, if you please, to get rid of your love for Marianne, to cease to pay your attentions to a person I intend for myself, and to marry very soon the wife I have chosen for you.

CLE. So, father, it is thus you deceive me! Very well, since things are come to such a pa.s.s, I openly declare to you that I shall not give up my love for Marianne. No! understand that henceforth there is nothing from which I shall shrink in order to dispute her with you; and if you have on your side the consent of the mother, perhaps I shall have some other resources left to aid me.

HAR. What, rascal! You dare to trespa.s.s on my grounds?

CLE. It is you who trespa.s.s on mine. I was the first.

HAR. Am I not your father, and do you not owe me respect?

CLE. There are things in which children are not called upon to pay deference to their fathers; and love is no respector of persons.

HAR. My stick will make you know me better.

CLE. All your threatenings are nothing to me.

HAR. You will give up Marianne?

CLE. Never!

HAR. Bring me my stick. Quick, I say! my stick!

SCENE IV.--HARPAGON, CLeANTE, MASTER JACQUES.

JAC. Hold! hold! Gentlemen, what does this mean? What are you thinking of?

CLE. I don't care a bit for it.

JAC. (_to_ CLeANTE). Ah! Sir, gently.

HAR. He dares to speak to me with such impudence as that!

JAC. (_to_ HARPAGON). Ah! Sir, I beg of you.

CLE. I shall keep to it.

JAC. (_to_ CLeANTE). What! to your father?

HAR. Let me do it.

JAC. (_to_ HARPAGON). What! to your son? To me it's different.

HAR. I will make you judge between us, Master Jacques, so that you may see that I have right on my side.

JAC. Willingly. (_To_ CLeANTE) Go a little farther back.

HAR. There is a young girl I love and want to marry, and the scoundrel has the impudence to love her also, and wants to marry her in spite of me.

JAC. Oh! he is wrong.

HAR. Is it not an abominable thing to see a son who does not shrink from becoming the rival of his father? And is it not his bounden duty to refrain from interfering with my love?

JAC. You are quite right; stop here, and let me go and speak to him.

CLE. (_to_ MASTER JACQUES, _who comes near him_). Very well; if he wants to make you a judge between us, I have no objection. I care little who it is, and I don't mind referring our quarrel to you.

JAC. You do me great honour.

CLE. I am in love with a young girl who returns my affection, and who receives kindly the offer of my heart; but my father takes it into his head to disturb our love by asking her in marriage.

JAC. He certainly is wrong.

CLE. Is it not shameful for a man of his age to think of marrying? I ask you if it is right for him to fall in love? and ought he not now to leave that to younger men?

JAC. You are quite right; he is not serious; let me speak a word or two to him. (_To_ HARPAGON) Really, your son is not so extravagant as you think, and is amenable to reason. He says that he is conscious of the respect he owes you, and that he only got angry in the heat of the moment. He will willingly submit to all you wish if you will only promise to treat him more kindly than you do, and will give him in marriage a person to his taste.

HAR. Ah! tell him, Master Jacques, that he will obtain everything from me on those terms, and that, except Marianne, I leave him free to choose for his wife whomsoever he pleases.

JAC. Leave that to me. (_To_ CLeANTE) Really, your father is not so unreasonable as you make him out to me; and he tells me that it is your violence which irritated him. He only objects to your way of doing things, and is quite ready to grant you all you want, provided you will use gentle means and will give him the deference, respect, and submission that a son owes to his father.

CLE. Ah! Master Jacques, you can a.s.sure him that if he grants me Marianne, he will always find me the most submissive of men, and that I shall never do anything contrary to his pleasure.

JAC. (_to_ HARPAGON). It's all right; he consents to what you say.

HAR. Nothing could be better.

JAC. (_to_ CLeANTE). It's all settled; he is satisfied with your promises.

CLE. Heaven be praised!

JAC. Gentlemen, you have nothing to do but to talk quietly over the matter together; you are agreed now, and yet you were on the point of quarrelling through want of understanding each other.

CLE. My poor Jacques, I shall be obliged to you all my life.

JAC. Don't mention it, Sir.

HAR. You have given me great pleasure, Master Jacques, and deserve a reward. (HARPAGON _feels in his pocket_, JACQUES _holds out his hand, but_ HARPAGON _only pulls out his handkerchief, and says_,) Go; I will remember it, I promise you.

JAC. I thank you kindly, Sir.