CELIA, _daughter of Gorgibus_. SGANARELLE'S WIFE. CELIA'S MAID. _Scene_.--A PUBLICK PLACE IN PARIS. SGANARELLE: OR THE SELF-DECEIVED HUSBAND, (_SGANARELLE: OU LE COCU IMAGINAIRE_.) SCENE I.--GORGIBUS, CELIA, CELIA'S MAID. CEL. (_Coming out in tears, her father following her_). Ah! never expect my heart to consent to that. GORG. What do you mutter, you little impertinent girl? Do you suppose you can thwart my resolution? Have I not absolute power over you? And shall your youthful brain control my fatherly discretion by foolish arguments? Which of us two has most right to command the other? Which of us two, you or I, is, in your opinion, best able to judge what is advantageous for you? Zounds, do not provoke me too much, or you may feel, and in a very short time too, what strength this arm of mine still possesses! Your shortest way, you obstinate minx, would be to accept without any more ado the husband intended for you; but you say, "I do not know what kind of temper he has, and I ought to think about it beforehand, if you will allow me." I know that he is heir to a large fortune; ought I therefore to trouble my head about anything else? Can this man, who has twenty thousand golden charms in his pocket to be beloved by you, want any accomplishments? Come, come, let him be what he will, I promise you that with such a sum he is a very worthy gentleman! CEL. Alas! GORG. Alas, indeed! What is the meaning of that? A fine alas you have uttered just now! Look ye! If once you put me in a passion you will have plenty of opportunities for shouting alas! This comes of that eagerness of yours to read novels day and night; your head is so full of all kinds of nonsense about love, that you talk of God much less than of Clelie. Throw into the fire all these mischievous books, which are every day corrupting the minds of so many young people; instead of such trumpery, read, as you ought to do, the Quatrains of Pibrac and the learned memorandum-books of Councillor Matthieu, [Footnote: Gui du Faur de Pibrac (1528-1584) was a distinguished diplomatist, magistrate, and orator, who wrote several works, of which the _Cinquante quatrains contenant preceptes et enseignements utiles pour la vie de l'homme, composes a l'imitation de Phocylides, Epicharmus, et autres poetes grecs_, and which number he afterwards increased to 126, are the best known. These quatrains, or couplets of four verses, have been translated into nearly all European and several Eastern languages. A most elegant reprint has been published of them, in 1874, by M. A. Lemetre, of Paris.] [Footnote: Pierre Matthieu (1563--1621), a French historian and poet wrote, among other works, his _Tablettes de la vie et de la mort, quatrains de la Vanite du Monde_, a collection of 274 moral quatrains, divided in three parts, each part of which was published separately in an oblong shape, like a memorandum book; hence the name _Tablettes_.]