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The Learned Women
The Learned Women
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.
ACT I
SCENE I. – ARMANDE, HENRIETTE
ARM. What! Sister, you will give up the sweet and enchanting title of maiden? You can entertain thoughts of marrying! This vulgar wish can enter your head!
HEN. Yes, sister.
ARM. Ah! Who can bear that "yes"? Can anyone hear it without feelings of 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 very mention of such a word presents to the imagination, and what a repulsive image it offers to the thoughts? Do you not shudder before it? And can you bring yourself to accept all the consequences which this word implies?
HEN. When I consider all the consequences which this word implies, I only have offered to my thoughts a husband, children, and a home; and I see nothing in all this to defile the imagination, or to make one shudder.
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 loves me, and whom I love, and through such a tender union secure the delights of an innocent life? If there be conformity of tastes, do you see no attraction in such a bond?