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?