SCENE X.--TRUFALDIN _at his window_, LELIO.
TRUF. What is the matter? Who comes to pay me a visit?
LEL. Keep your door carefully shut to-night.
TRUF. Why?
LEL. There are certain people coming masked to give you a sorry kind of
serenade; they intend to carry off Celia.
TRUF. Good Heavens!
LEL. No doubt they will soon be here. Keep where you are, you may see
everything from your window. Hey! Did I not tell you so? Do you not see
them already? Hist! I will affront them before your face. We shall see
some fine fun, if they do not give way.
[Footnote: This is one of the passages of Moliere about which
commentators do not agree; the original is, _nous allons voir beau
jeu, si la corde ne rompt_. Some maintain that _corde_ refers to
the tight rope of a rope dancer; others that _corde_ means the
string of a bow, as in the phrase _avoir deux cordes a son arc_, to
have two strings (resources) to one's bow. Mons. Eugene Despois, in his
carefully edited edition of Moliere, (i., 187), defends the latter
reading, and I agree with him.]
SCENE XI.--LELIO, TRUFALDIN, MASCARILLE, _and his company masked_.
TRUF. Oh, the funny blades, who think to surprise me.
LEL. Maskers, whither so fast? Will you let me into the secret?
Trufaldin, pray open the door to these gentry, that they may challenge
us for a throw with the dice.
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