APPENDICES

source des maisons nobles. Les hommes humbles, dont les actions furent grandes, ont illustré l’avenir. . . . Mais vous, mon

fils si vos actions vous déshonorent, vous n’êtes plus noble. Ecussons paternels, antiques aïeux, qu’importe! Vous, noble! Yous n’êtes rien. Vous qui mentez sans cesse, vous n’êtes rien ! Noble ou plébéien, qui peut mentir sans être la fable du peuple ? C’est-ce que tous disent de toi. As-tu donc l’épée assez large et la poitrine assez dure pour faire face à tous ceux qui t’accusent P Oh ! le triste vice, le stérile et misérable vice ! Les voluptés apportent des jouissances, l’argent donne le pouvoir et le plaisir. . . . Mais le mensonge ! le mensonge ! — Qui dit que je mens a menti. — Tu mens encore ; *. tu ne sais démentir qu’en mentant. . . .

Pense donc, malheureux, que Dieu t’a fait homme, que ton visage est visage d’homme, que tu as barbe virile, que ton flanc est ceint de l’épée, que tu es noble et que je suis ton père ! ” Il est difficile en comparant à ce morceau la scène de Corneille, de décider qui l’emporte, et le poète espagnol a pour lui l’originalité de l’invention. Et comme ces remontrances produisent un bon effet sur Garcia ! Son père lui propose de le marier et, pour rester fidèle à sa chère Lucrèce, il invente aussitôt ce mariage, si prodigieux auquel il aurait été forcé de souscrire. ‘ e A moi toutes mes ressources, s’écrie-t-il ; c’est le moment de montrer toute la finesse de mon génie.” — M. Yignier.

Imitations of Corneille’s “Le Menteur.”

Le Menteur , by Goldoni, a comedy in three acts, in prose, (1750). — The scene is at Yenice. Dr. Balanzoni has two marriageable daughters, Beatrix and Bosaure, courted each by a timid lover ; Beatrix by Octavio, a Paduan nobleman, and Bosaure by Florindo, a Bolognese student. The latter spares nothing to obtain the favour of Bosaure : serenades, présents, sonnets, love epistles, he avails himself of every possible means ; but ail this only helps the chances of Lelio, the liar, who, though the son of a simple merchant, prétends to be a Neapolitan nobleman, and appropriâtes to himself and of course reaps ail the benefits of the anonymous gallantries of his shy rival. Cleverly seconded by his valet, Arlequin, Lelio succeeds at first in imposing upon the fair Bosaure, when Pantalon, Lelio’s father, unexpectedly cornes, anxious to get him married. Hoping to win the heart of Bosaure, Lelio tries to check his father’s plan of marriage by saying that he is already married, and fortifies this new lie by a thousand ingenious falsehoods, in which he displays a great fertility of imagination. But, hearing that the lady whom his father wanted him to marry was the very Bosaure whom he loved, Lelio déniés as energetically his being married as he had denied

a few moments before bis celibacy. But be returns too late to trutb. Florindo bas taken upon himself to propose openly and to demand Rosaure’s band from ber fatber, and tbe fables of Lelio baving been made out, tbe lady rewards tbe faitbful lover, and tbe play ends by Lelio ’s complété confusion.

ïïere is also an extract of tbe Englisb adaptation of le Menteur 9 by Samuel Foote (1762) : —

* Young W. : One fatal evening, the twentietb of September, if I mistake not, we were in a retired room, innocently excbanging mutual vows, wben ber fatber, wbom we expected to sup abroad, came suddenly upon us. I bad just time to conceal myself in a closet

Old W. : What, unobserved by bim ?

Young TF. : Entirely. But, as my ill stars would bave it, a cat, of wbom my wife is vastly fond, bad a few days before lodged a litter of kittens in tbe same place ; I unbappily trod upon one of tbe brood, wbicb so provoked tbe implacable motber, tbat sbe flew at me witb tbe fury of a tiger.

Old W . : I bave observed tbose créatures very tierce in defence of tbeir young.

Pap. : I sball bâte a cat as long as I live.

Young TF . : Tbe noise roused tbe old gentleman’ s attention ; be opened tbe door, and tbere discovered your son.

Pap. : Unlucky !

Young TF. : I rusbed to tbe door ; but fatally my foot slipt at tbe top of the stairs, and down I came tumbling to the bottom. Tbe pistol in my band went off by accident ; tbis alarmed ber tbree brotbers in tbe parlour, wbo, witb ail tbeir servants, rusbed witb united force upon me.

Old TV. : And so surprised you !

Young TV. : No, sir ; witb my sword I for some time made a gallant defence, and sbould bave inevitably escaped ; but a rawboned, overgrown, clumsy cook-wencb struck at my sword witb a kitchen poker, broke it in two, and compelled me to surrender at discrétion ; tbe conséquence of wbicb is obvious enougb.