The Magnificent Lovers
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Moliere (Poquelin) >> The Magnificent Lovers
ERI. (_to_ CLITIDAS, _who affects to go away_). Clitidas!
CLI. I did not see, you, Madam.
ERI. Come near. Where have you been?
CLI. With the princess your mother, who was just going towards the
temple of Apollo, accompanied by a great many people.
ERI. Do you not think this one of the most charming places in the
world?
CLI. Certainly. The two princes, your lovers, were there.
ERI. The river Peneus has here the most charming windings.
CLI. Very charming. Sostratus was there also.
ERI. How is it that he was not with us to-day?
CLI. He has something on his mind which prevents him from taking any
pleasure in all those beautiful entertainments. He wanted to tell me
something; but you have so expressly forbidden me to intercede for any
one to you that I would not hear him, and I told him flatly that I had
no leisure.
ERI. You were wrong to say such a thing to him, and you ought to have
heard him.
CLI. I told him at first that I was not at leisure to hear him; but
afterwards I listened to what be had to say.
ERI. You did well.
CLI. In fact, he is a man after my own heart; a man with all the
manners and qualities I should like to see in all men. He never
assumes boisterous manners and provoking tones of voice, but is
prudent and careful in everything. He never speaks but to the point,
is never hasty in his decisions, is never annoying by his
exaggerations. However fine may be the verses our poets repeat to him,
I have never heard him say, "This is more beautiful than anything that
Homer ever wrote." In short, he is a man to my taste; and if I were a
princess, I would not see him unhappy.
ERI. He is evidently a man of great merit; but what had he to say to
you?
CLI. He asked me if you were very pleased with the royal
entertainments that are offered to you. He spoke of your person with
the greatest transports of delight, extolled you to the sky, and gave
you all the praises that could be given to the most accomplished
princess in the world, and with all this uttering many sighs which
told me more than he thought. At last, by dint of questioning him in
all kinds of ways, and pressing him to tell me the cause of his
melancholy, which is noticed by everyone at court, he was forced to
acknowledge that he is in love.
ERI. How, in love? What boldness is this? I will never see him again.
CLI. What are you offended at, Madam?
ERI. To be audacious enough to love me, and, moreover, to dare to say
it!
CLI. It is not with you he is in love, Madam.
ERI. Not with me?
CLI. No; he has too much respect for you, and he is too wise to do
such a thing.
ERI. With whom, then, Clitidas?
CLI. With one of your maids-of-honour, the young Arsinoe.
ERI. Is she so very beautiful that he can think none but her worthy of
his love?
CLI. He loves her to distraction, and entreats you to honour his love
with your protection.
ERI. Me!
CLI. No, no, Madam; I see that this offends you. Your anger forced me
to make use of this subterfuge; and, to tell you the truth, it is you
he loves to distraction.
ERI. You are an insolent knave to come thus to sound my feelings. Out
of my sight this moment! Do you pretend to read people's thoughts and
penetrate into the secrets of a princess's heart? Away with you; let
me never see your face again.... Clitidas!
CLI. Madam.
ERI. Come here. I forgive you this affair.
CLI. You are too kind, Madam.
ERI. But on condition--mind what I say--that you will never mention it
to anybody, at the peril of your life.
CLI. Enough.
ERI. Then Sostratus told you that he loved me?
CLI. No, Madam; I must now tell you the whole truth. I got from him by
surprise a secret he intended to conceal from all the world, and which
he said he would wish to die with him. He was in despair when I
wrenched it with subtlety from him; and, far from asking me to tell
you of it, he entreated me with the most earnest prayers never to
reveal anything to you; and I have committed a piece of treachery
against him by telling you what I have said.
ERI. I am glad of it. It is by his respect only that he can please me;
and if he were bold enough to tell me of his love, he would forfeit
for ever both my presence and my esteem.
CLI. Do not fear, Madam....
ERI. Here he is. Remember, if you are wise, what I have forbidden you.
CLI. Certainly, Madam; I have no wish to be an indiscreet courtier.
SCENE IV.--ERIPHYLE, SOSTRATUS.
SOS. I have an excuse, Madam, for daring to disturb your solitude. I
have received from the princess your mother a mission which authorises
the bold step I now take.
ERI. What mission is it, Sostratus?
SOS. To try, to learn from you, Madam, towards which of the two
princes your heart inclines?
ERI. The princess my mother shows a judicious spirit in choosing you
for such a message. This mission is very pleasant to you, no doubt,
Sostratus, and you must have accepted it with great joy?
SOS. I have accepted it, Madam, because my duty obliges me to obey;
and if the princess had kindly listened to my excuses, she would have
appointed another for the task.
ERI. What reason could you have had, Sostratus, for refusing it?
SOS. The fear of not acquitting myself well.
ERI. Do you think that I have not enough esteem for you to open my
heart to you, and say all you wish to know from me about the two
princes?
SOS. As far as I am concerned, Madam, I have no desire to know
anything; I only ask you what you think you can say in answer to the
commands which bring me here.
ERI. Until now I have had no wish to explain myself, and the princess
my mother has kindly allowed me to put off the choice which is to bind
me. But I should be glad to show to everyone that I am willing to do
something for your sake; and if you insist, I may give you this long
expected verdict.
SOS. I will not importune you, Madam, and urge a princess who knows
well what she has to do.
ERI. Yet it is what the princess my mother expects from you.
SOS. I told her that I was sure to acquit myself but badly of my
message.
ERI. Well, tell me, Sostratus; you have far-seeing eyes, and I believe
that there are few things that escape you. Have you not been able to
discover what everybody is anxious to know? Have you no idea of the
inclination of my heart? You see all the attentions that are bestowed
on me, all the homage that is paid to me. Which of these two princes
do you think I look upon with a most favourable eye?
SOS. The conjectures we make upon such matters generally arise from
the greater or less interest we take.
ERI. Which would you prefer of the two, Sostratus? Tell me which one
you would have me marry?
SOS. Ah! Madam! your inclination, not my wishes, must decide the
matter.
ERI. But if I wished to consult you in this choice?
SOS. If you were to consult me, I should feel very much perplexed.
ERI. You could not tell me which of the two you think most worthy of
preference?
SOS. If I were to be judge, I should find no one worthy of that
honour. All the princes of the world would be too mean to aspire to
you; the gods alone can pretend to you, and you would have from men
but incense and sacrifice.
ERI. This is very kind, and I esteem you my friend. But I must have
you tell me for which of the two you feel the greatest inclination,
and which is the one you reckon your friend?
SCENE V.--ERIPHYLE, SOSTRATUS, CHOROEBUS.
CHO. Madam, the princess is coming to fetch you to go to the wood of
Diana.
SOS. (_aside_). Alas! how seasonably you came in.
SCENE VI.--ARISTIONE, ERIPHYLE, IPHICRATES, TIMOCLES, SOSTRATUS,
ANAXARCHUS, CLITIDAS.
ARI. You are asked for, my daughter, and there are some who are much
pained by your absence.
ERI. I Should think, Madam, that they only asked after me out of
compliment, and that no one is as pained as you say.
ARI. There are so many entertainments made for your sake that all our
time is taken up, and we have not a moment to lose if we wish to see
them all. Let us enter the wood at once, and see what awaits us there.
This is the most beautiful place in the world. Let us take our seats
quickly.
THIRD INTERLUDE.
_The stage represents a forest where the_ PRINCESS _has been
invited to go. A Nymph does the honours, singing; and to amuse the_
PRINCESS, _a small musical comedy is played, the subject of which is
as follows:--A shepherd complains to two other shepherds, his friends,
of the coldness of her whom he loves; the two friends comfort him; at
that moment the beloved shepherdess appears, and all three retire to
observe her. After a plaintive love-song, she reclines on the turf,
and gives way to sweet slumber. The lover makes his two friends
approach to contemplate the beauty of his shepherdess, and invokes
everything to contribute to her rest. The shepherdess, on waking up,
sees her swain at her feet, complains of his persecution; but taking
his constancy into consideration, she grants him his wish, and
consents to be loved by him, in the presence of his two friends. The
Satyrs arrive, upbraid her with her change, and, distressed by the
disgrace into which they have fallen, look for comfort in wine._
CLIMENE, PHILINTE.
PHILINTE.
There was a time I pleased you well,
Content I lived, and loved the spell;
I had not changed for god or throne
The sway o'er you I held alone.
CLIMENE.
So, when by gentle passion swayed,
You held me dear above all maid,
The regal crown I would have spurned
If for me still your heart had burned.
PHILINTE.
Another's faith hath cured the wound
I nursed for you within my breast.
CLIMENE.
Another's love for me hath found
Revenge I sought, and kindly rest.
PHILINTE.
Chloris the fair true passion sways,
For me she pours her soul in sighs,
And I would gladly close my days
If so should bid her beauteous eyes.
CLIMENE.
Myrtil, of youthful hearts the flower,
He loves me true e'en more than light;
And I, to prove love's mighty power,
Content, would pass to endless night.
PHILINTE.
But if our passion's gentle ray
A lingering spark would kindle anew,
And from my heart expel to-day
Chloris the fair, thy love to sue?
CLIMENE.
Though Myrtil loves me true,
Though constant e'er to sigh,
Still, I confess, with you
I'd gladly live and die.
BOTH (_together_).
'Midst love then more than ever let us fleet
The lingering hours, and own a bond so sweet.
BALLET, DIVERTISSEMENT, ETC.
ACT III.
ARISTIONE, IPHICRATES, TIMOCLES, ERIPHYLE, ANAXARCHUS, SOSTRATUS,
CLITIDAS.
ARI. We must always repeat the same words. We have always to exclaim:
This is admirable! Wonderful! It is beyond all that has ever been
seen.
TIM. You bestow too much praise on these trifles, Madam.
ARI. Such trifles may agreeably engage the thoughts of the most
serious people. Indeed, my daughter, you have cause to be thankful to
these princes, and you can never repay all the trouble they take for
you.
ERI. I am deeply grateful for it, Madam.
ARI. And yet you make them languish a long time for what they expect
from you. I have promised not to constrain you; but their love claims
from you a declaration that you should not put off any longer the
reward of their attentions. I had asked Sostratus to sound your heart,
but I do not know if he has begun to acquit himself of his commission.
ERI. Yes, Madam, he has. But it seems to me that I cannot put off too
long the decision which is asked of me, and that I could not give it
without incurring some blame. I feel equally thankful for the love,
attentions, and homage of these two princes, and I think it a great
injustice to show myself ungrateful either to the one or to the other
by the refusal I must make of one in preference to his rival.
IPH. We should call this, Madam, a very pretty way of refusing us
both.
ARI. This scruple, daughter, should not stop you; and those two
princes have both long since agreed to submit to the preference you
show.
ERI. Our inclinations easily deceive us, Madam, and disinterested
hearts are more able to make a right choice.
ARI. You know that I have engaged my word to give no opinion upon this
matter, and you cannot make a bad choice when you have to choose
between these two princes.
ERI. In order not to do violence either to your promise or to my
scruples, Madam, pray agree to what I shall propose.
ARI. And what is that, my daughter?
ERI. I should like Sostratus to decide for me. You chose him to try to
discover the secret of my heart; suffer me to choose him to end the
perplexity I am in.
ARI. I have such a high regard for Sostratus that, whether you mean to
employ him to explain your feelings or to leave him entirely to decide
for you, I consent heartily to this proposition.
IPH. Which means, Madam, that we must pay our court to Sostratus.
SOS. No, my Lord, you will have no court to pay to me; and with all
the respect due to the princesses, I refuse the glory to which they
would raise me.
ARI. How is that, Sostratus?
SOS. I have reasons, Madam, which do not allow me to accept the honour
you would do me.
IPH. Are you afraid, Sostratus, of making yourself an enemy?
SOS. I should have but little fear for the enemies I might make in
obeying the will of my sovereigns.
TIM. Why, then, do you refuse to accept the power which is entrusted
to you, and to acquire to yourself the friendship of a prince who
would owe all his happiness to you?
SOS. Because it is not in my power to grant to that prince what he
would wish from me.
IPH. What reason can you have?
SOS. Why should you so insist upon this? Perhaps I may have, my Lord,
some secret interest opposed to the pretensions of your love. Perhaps
I may have a friend who burns with a respectful flame for the divine
charms with which you are in love. Perhaps that friend makes me the
daily confidant of his sufferings, that he complains to me of the
rigour of his fate, and is looking upon the marriage of the princess
as the dreadful sentence which is to send him to his grave. Supposing
it were so, my Lord, would it be right that he should receive his
death-wound from my hands?
IPH. You seem to me, Sostratus, very likely to be that friend whose
interests you have so much at heart.
SOS. I beg of you, my Lord, not to render me odious tote persons who
hear you. I know what I am, and unfortunate people like me are not
ignorant of the limits which fortune assigned to their desires.
ARI. Let us drop this subject; we will find means for overcoming my
daughter's irresolution.
ANA. Are there better means of arriving at a conclusion that would
satisfy everybody than to consult the light which heaven can give us on
that marriage? I have already begun, as I told you, to cast the
mysterious figures which our art teaches us; and I hope soon to be
able to show you what the future has in reserve regarding this longed
for union. After that, who can still hesitate? Will not the glory or
the prosperity which will be promised to one or the other be choice
sufficient to decide it, and can he who is rejected be offended when
heaven itself decides who is to be preferred?
IPH. For my part, I submit to it altogether, and I declare that this
way seems the most reasonable.
TIM. I am entirely of the same opinion, and whatever heaven may
decide, I yield to it without reluctance.
ERI. But, my Lord Anaxarchus, do you really read so clearly destiny
that you can never be deceived? And pray, who will give us security
for this prosperity, this glory which you say heaven promises us?
ARI. My daughter, you have a little incredulity which never leaves
you.
ANA. The proofs, Madam, which everybody has seen, of the infallibility
of my predictions are sufficient security for the promises I make.
But, in short, when I have shown you what heaven has in reserve for
you, you may act as you please, and choose one or the other destiny.
ERI. Heaven, you say, Anaxarchus, will show me the good or bad destiny
that is in reserve for me?
ANA. Yes, Madam; the felicity with which you will be blessed if you
marry the one, and the misery that will accompany you if you marry the
other.
ERI. But since it is impossible for me to marry them both at once, it
seems that we find written in the heavens not only what is to happen,
but also what is not to happen.
CLI. (_aside_). Here is a puzzler for our astrologer!
ANA. I should have to give you, Madam, a long dissertation on the
principles of astrology to make you understand this.
CLI. Well answered. I have no harm, Madam, to say of astrology;
astrology is a fine thing. My Lord Anaxarchus is a great man.
IPH. The truth of astrology is an incontestable fact, and no one can
dispute the certainty of its predictions.
CLI. Certainly not.
TIM. I am incredulous enough in many things, but as regards astrology,
there is nothing more sure or constant than the certainty of the
horoscopes it draws.
CLI. The things are as clear as daylight.
IPH. A hundred accidents happen every day which convince the greatest
unbelievers.
CLI. Quite true.
TIM. Who could contradict the many famous incidents which are related
to us in books?
CLI. Only people devoid of common sense can do so; how can anything in
print be doubted?
ARI. Sostratus has not said a word yet. What is your opinion about it?
SOS. Madam, all minds are not gifted with the necessary qualities
which the delicacy of those fine sciences called abstruse require.
There are some so material that they cannot conceive what others
understand most easily. There is nothing more agreeable, Madam, than
all the great promises of these sublime sciences. To transform
everything into gold; to cause people to live for ever; to cure with
words; to make ourselves loved by whomsoever we please; to know all
the secrets of futurity; to bring down from heaven, according to one's
will, on metals, impressions of happiness; to command demons, to raise
invisible armies and invulnerable soldiers--all this is delightful, no
doubt; and there are people who experience no difficulty whatever in
believing all this to be possible; it is the easiest thing for them to
conceive. But for me, I acknowledge that my coarse, gross mind can
hardly understand and refuses to believe it; that, in fact, it thinks
it all too good ever to be true. All those beautiful arguments of
sympathy, magnetic power, and occult virtue, are so subtle and
delicate that they escape my material understanding; and, without
speaking of anything else, it has never been in my power to conceive
how there is to be found in the heavens even the smallest particulars
of the fortune of the least of men. What relation, what connection,
what reciprocity, can there be between us and globes so immeasurably
distant from our earth? And how, besides, can this sublime science
have come to man? What god revealed it? or what experience can have
been formed from the observation of that immense number of stars which
have never as yet been seen twice in the same order?
ANA. It would not be hard to make you conceive it.
SOS. You would be more clever than all the others.
CLI. (_to_ SOSTRATUS). He will deliver you a long discussion
about all this whenever you please.
IPH. If you do not understand such things, you can at least believe
what is seen every day.
SOS. As my understanding is so gross that I never could understand
anything, my eyes also are unfortunate enough never to have witnessed
anything relating to it.
IPH. For my part, I have seen things altogether convincing.
TIM. So have I.
SOS. Since you have seen, you do well to believe; and your eyes must
be differently made from mine.
IPH. But, in short, the princess believes in astrology; and I think we
may well, after her example, believe in it also. Would you say that
Madam has not intelligence and sense, Sostratus?
SOS. My Lord, your question is rather unfair. The mind of the princess
is no rule for mine, and her understanding may raise her to light,
which I, in my meaner sense, cannot reach.
ARI. No, Sostratus; I shall say nothing to you about many things to
which I give no more credence than you do; but as for astrology, I
have been told and been shown things so positive that I cannot doubt
them.
SOS. Madam, I have nothing to answer to that.
ARI. We will say no more about this; leave us a moment. We will, my
daughter and myself, go towards that fine grotto where I have promised
to go. Ha! something gallant at every step.
FOURTH INTERLUDE.
_The stage represents a grotto, where the_ PRINCESSES _go to
take a walk. As they enter it, eight statues, each bearing two
torches, come down from their recesses, and execute a varied dance of
different figures and several fine attitudes in which they place
themselves at intervals._
BALLET.
ACT IV.
SCENE I.--ARISTIONE, ERIPHYLE.
ARI. Nothing can be more gallant or better contrived. My daughter, I
wished to come alone here with you, so that we may have a little quiet
talk together; and I hope that you will in nothing hide the truth from
me. Have you in your heart no secret inclination which you are
unwilling to reveal to me?
ERI. I, Madam?
ARI. Speak openly, daughter; what I have done for you well deserves
that you should be frank and open with me. To make you the sole object
of all my thoughts, to prefer you above all things, to shut my ears,
in the position I am in, to all the propositions that a hundred
princesses might decently listen to in my place--all that ought to
tell you that I am a kind mother, and that I am not likely to receive
with severity the confidences your heart may have to make.
ERI. If I had so badly followed your example as to have allowed an
inclination I had reason to conceal to enter my soul, I should have
power enough over myself to impose silence on such a love, and to do
nothing unworthy of your name.
ARI. No, no, daughter; I had rather you laid bare your feelings to me.
I have not limited your choice to the two princes; you may extend it
to whomsoever you please; merit stands so high in my estimation that I
think it equal to any rank; and if you tell me frankly how things are,
you will see me subscribe without repugnance to the choice you have
made.
ERI. You are so kind and indulgent towards me that I can never be
thankful enough for it; but I will not put your kindness to the test
on such a subject, and all I ask of you is to allow me not to hurry a
marriage about which I am not decided as yet.
ARI. Till now I have left everything to your decision; and the
impatience of the princes your lovers.... But what means this noise?
Ah! daughter, what spectacle is this? Some deity descends; it is the
goddess Venus who seems about to speak to us.
SCENE II.--VENUS (_in the air, accompanied by four_ CUPIDS),
ARISTIONE, ERIPHYLE.
VEN. (_to_ ARISTIONE). Princess, in you shines a glorious
example, which the immortals mean to recompense; and that you may have
a son-in-law both great and happy, they will guide you in the choice
you should make. They announce by my voice the great and glorious fame
which will come to your house by this choice. Therefore, put an end to
your perplexities, and give your daughter to him who shall save your
life.
SCENE III.--ARISTIONE, ERIPHYLE.
ARI. Daughter, the gods have imposed silence on all our arguments.
After this, all we have to do is to wait for what they wish to give
us; and we have distinctly heard what their will is. Let us go to the
nearest temple to assure them of our obedience, and to render thanks
to them for their goodness.
SCENE IV.--ANAXARCHUS, CLEON.
CLE. The princess is going away; do you not want to speak to her?
ANA. No; let us wait until her daughter has left her. I am afraid of
her; she will never suffer herself to be led like her mother. In
short, my son, as we have just been able to judge through this
opening, our stratagem has succeeded. Our Venus has done wonders, and
the admirable engineer, who has contrived this piece of machinery, has
so well disposed everything, so cunningly cut the floor of his grotto,
so well hid his wires and springs, so well adjusted his lights, and
dressed his personages, that but few people could have escaped being
deceived; and as the Princess Aristione is extremely superstitious,
there is no, doubt that she fully believes in this piece of deception.
I have been a long time preparing this machine, my son, and now I have
almost reached the goal of my ambition.
CLE. But for which of the two princes have you invented this trick?
ANA. Both have courted my assistance, and I have promised to both the
influence of my art. But the presents of Prince Iphicrates, and the
promises which he has made, by far exceed all that the other could do.
Therefore, it is Iphicrates who will profit by all I can invent, and
as his ambition will owe everything to me, our future is sure. I will
go and take my time to confirm the princess in her error, and, the
better to prepossess her mind, skilfully show her the agreement of the
words of Venus with the predictions of the celestial signs which I
told her I have cast. Be it your part to go and get our six men to
hide themselves carefully in their boat behind the rock, and make them
wait quietly for the time when the princess comes alone in the evening
for her usual walk. Then they must suddenly attack her like pirates,
in order to give the opportunity to Prince Iphicrates to rush to her
rescue, and lend her the help which is to put Eriphyle in his hands
according to the words of Venus. I have forewarned the prince, and,
acting on the belief in my prediction, he is to hold himself in
readiness in that little wood that skirts the shore. But let us leave
this grotto. I will tell you as we go along all that is necessary for
you carefully to observe. Here is the Princess Eriphyle; let us avoid
her.