HEN. Your frank confession has rather taken her aback.

CLI. She deserves such freedom of speech, and all the haughtiness of
her proud folly merits my outspokenness! But since you give me leave,
I will go to your father, to....

HEN. The safest thing to do would be to gain my mother over. My father
easily consents to everything, but he places little weight on what he
himself resolves. He has received from Heaven a certain gentleness
which makes him readily submit to the will of his wife. It is she who
governs, and who in a dictatorial tone lays down the law whenever she
has made up her mind to anything. I wish I could see in you a more
pliant spirit towards her and towards my aunt. If you would but fall
in with their views, you would secure their favour and their esteem.

CLI. I am so sincere that I can never bring myself to praise, even in
your sister, that side of her character which resembles theirs. Female
doctors are not to my taste. I like a woman to have some knowledge of
everything; but I cannot admire in her the revolting passion of
wishing to be clever for the mere sake of being clever. I prefer that
she should, at times, affect ignorance of what she really knows. In
short, I like her to hide her knowledge, and to be learned without
publishing her learning abroad, quoting the authors, making use of
pompous words, and being witty under the least provocation. I greatly
respect your mother, but I cannot approve her wild fancies, nor make
myself an echo of what she says. I cannot support the praises she
bestows upon that literary hero of hers, Mr. Trissotin, who vexes and
wearies me to death. I cannot bear to see her have any esteem for such
a man, and to see her reckon among men of genius a fool whose writings
are everywhere hissed; a pedant whose liberal pen furnishes all the