TRI. Very well, we shall meet each other alone at Barbin's. [Footnote:
Barbin, a famous bookseller. The arms chosen for the duel would no
doubt be books. See "The Lutrin," by Boileau.]




SCENE VI.--TRISSOTIN, PHILAMINTE, ARMANDE, BELISE, HENRIETTE.

TRI. Do not blame my anger. It is your judgment I defend, Madam, in
the sonnet he dares to attack.

PHI. I will do all I can to reconcile you. But let us speak of
something else. Come here, Henriette. I have for some time now been
tormented at finding in you a want of intellectuality, but I have
thought of a means of remedying this defect.

HEN. You take unnecessary trouble for my sake. I have no love for
learned discourses. I like to take life easy, and it is too much
trouble to be intellectual. Such ambition does not trouble my head,
and I am perfectly satisfied, mother, with being stupid. I prefer to
have only a common way of talking, and not to torment myself to
produce fine words.

PHI. That may be; but this stupidity wounds me, and it is not my
intention to suffer such a stain on my family. The beauty of the face
is a fragile ornament, a passing flower, a moment's brightness which
only belongs to the epidermis; whereas that of the mind is lasting and
solid. I have therefore been feeling about for the means of giving you
the beauty which time cannot remove--of creating in you the love of